How Search Engines Work

Business owners consistently hear about how they need to optimize their website. Well, what does actually mean? Here is an attempt at explaining the process in the least technical way I can. This will be a little over-simplified but you should have a pretty good idea of what this is all about by the time you are done reading.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of creating a website that will actually show up when someone uses a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing to find your products or services. The work required to do this is generally split into two parts. The first part consists of work that needs to be done on the actual pages of your website. Some of the things that need to be worked on are the text, page titles, page descriptions and file names of your pages. The second part is work that needs to be done off of your website. This primarily includes getting websites with similar content to link back to you.

How Do Search Engines Work?

There are a variety of factors that play into how web pages are ranked when someone types something into a search engine. Here is a simplified explanation of the process.

Step 1: Someone types the service they are looking for into a search engine.

In this example we are looking for a plumber in Boston.

Step 2: The search engine will analyze the words that were typed in.

In this case the words are “plumber”, “in” and “boston”.

Step 3: The search engine will match what was typed in with all of the web pages it has indexed that contain the words “plumber”, “in” and “boston” as well as the complete phrase “plumber in boston”.

The search engine will give priority to the phrase “plumber in boston” and then look for individual instances of the words “plumber” and “boston” appearing on the same page throughout all of the web pages it is aware of. Not only does it scan the text that appears on the website but it will also scan the text in the Meta Tags. The Meta Tags include information such as the title of the web page and a description. There could be millions of different web pages that match depending on the search term used.

Step 4: The search engine will also take into consideration how many other different web pages are linking to those pages.

Links coming from pages with similar content, phrases and words are given more weight than pages that have nothing in common with the page they are linking to.

Step 5: The names of the files the web designer used to build those pages will also be taken into consideration.

Including the names of your services and location in names of the files used to build your website can help to improve your search engine ranking.

Step 6: The search engine displays a list of results.

The search results are generally based on a combination of the search phrase used, text matches to that search phrase on websites, links to those websites from websites with similar content and the names of the files used to build those websites.

There are obviously other factors taken into consideration such as how long the website has been online, how often it is updated, if it includes a site map, how quickly it loads and so on. But for the most part, this should give you a pretty good starting point as to understanding how search engines work and why optimizing your website may be a good idea. If you have spent a good deal of money on your website and no one can find then what was the point of spending the money in the first place?

This article about how search engines work comes to us courtesy of  CheapAssWebsite.com home of the cheap website.

20 Things To Know About Using Social Media For Your Business

These are the Twenty Things that everybody needs to know about Social Media and how they can use Social Media for their business. A lot of Hype has been created around this topic and we want own clients to understand what exactly it means to them.

(1) Don’t Believe the Hype

Our professional opinions are based on our expertise, experience and education. We are not here to repeat what others have to say. We are here to give you the facts not feed you fiction.

(2) It’s Not Cheap Advertising

It is wrong to believe that Social Media is nothing but a cheap channel to spam out a sales pitch. Social Networks are not a place for an infomercial or “Guerrilla Marketing”. Social Networks are not “the new” late night television, they are a new way to communicate with people.

(3) It’s Not Just Numbers

Social Media is not about building large numbers or friends, fans or followers that do not know who you are or do not care about what you have to say. Sending out information to large numbers of people that do not care what you have to say is spam. If you annoy them enough they may even look to see who is spamming them. This is not the way to build traffic to your website, because the only thing that they will remember is to buy elsewhere.

(4) It’s Not Just About You

If you make it just about you, only you are going to want to hear it. It’s easy to spot someone that doesn’t say anything with out posting a link to their website or starts every message with “My new Blog Post”. Words “I” or “Me” from your Social Media vocabulary or else you will create a personal brand that nobody will ever want to buy.

(5) You’re Not a Movie Star

How celebrities and major corporations are using Social Media has very little to do with what is going to work for you. Do not make the mistake of comparing yourself to a super model,  celebrity or professional athlete.  Social Media has nothing to do with who they are or why people are interested in them.

(6) Have Realistic Objectives

You need to know what your objectives are before you even think of starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign and if you are going to be able to realize those objectives for the type of business that you are in.

(7) Develop A Game Plan

An effective Game Plan will create the buzz for your business. Social Media gives you the ability to keep in touch with your loyal customers and to reach out to new ones around the world.

(8) Know Your Marketplace

You need to know your marketplace and why your customers buy from you. The Internet is a global marketplace and people can buy from you from all over the world.

(9) Give It Time

You need to remember that Social Media Marketing is a long term strategy, not a way to become an “Internet Millionaire” overnight.

(10) Treat People As Friends

Talk to people like they are your friends. Abrasive tone, SHOUTING, and pushy sales pitches are not what your friends want to hear. You are not writing copy for an infomercial.

(11) Build A Community

Use your Social Network to build a community around your business and reward your customers for their loyal patronage. Building a community online is how you bring people into your business, because they want to bring their business to you.

(12) Understand the “Vibe”

Every Social Network has a different Vibe and that vibe is created by the people that use the network, not the people that operate the network. For example automatically posting messages from another network is considered to be an acceptable practice on Twitter, but would be considered spamming somewhere else.

(13) Do Something Interesting

Always offer something that people are going to want or else they are not going to be part of your online business community. When you give people the opportunity to do something fun, they are going to bring your business into their circle of friends.

(14) You Must Participate

Internet Communities are about people and you are going to have to be there to carry on a two way conversation or people are just going to blow you off. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they join as many networks as they can find and never become a part of the community. “Auto-blogging” services like Ping.fm can give people the idea that spamming out a sales pitch to as many social networks is going to build traffic to their website. What they don’t realize is that traffic is not converting to actual sales. because people are just looking at their site in contempt.

(15) Encourage Cooperation

People will remember that you helped them and they will come back when they need your services. When you let people ask questions and answer them promptly they will know that someone is listing to what they say. Community pages should always include postings from fans to encourage cooperation between the people in you community.

(16) Build Relationships

Social Networks allow you to meet people around the world and in time you will be able to make friends them. These friendships may also lead to trust based relationships in business with people that you would not have to opportunity to meet otherwise. People that are experienced in business networking understand how this works on the local level, when they join Chambers of Commerce and other networking organizations.

(17) Think Business

Don’t say things that are going to offend the people that paying you money or challenge their political views or religious beliefs. One of things that makes America great is that people have the right to have different views on everything. It’s not your business to try to change what people believe and the only thing you are going to make them believe is they need to do business else where.

(18) Protect Your Reputation

Reputation is the key component in Social Media, the way you deliver your message and the frequency that you deliver it is going to directly impact your reputation.

(19) Never SPAM Your Friends

Friends don’t what to read spam or care about the latest trends in Social Media. Computer programs that send messages over the Internet that nobody wants are spamming. There are places on Social Networks to advertise and build lists of people that want to know about your business. For example, when people join a page on FaceBook they know that they are going to receive messages from the people that run the page.

(20) You’re Not Fooling Anyone

Just be yourself and treat people like your friends and everyone is going to like you. Pretending to offer sage advice only to lure people into some get rich quick website is going to get you nowhere fast. An excellent example is the “Thank Your For Following Me” message on Twitter, that is always generated by a computer program. A tool that will only build traffic to your website from contemptible people or people with contempt for you.

SEO Explained

According to the bastion of knowledge known as Wikipedia, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks,” the more searchers will visit that site.

Now I’ll attempt to explain what SEO is for people who don’t know an algorithm from an enema.

The search engines use an algorithm to determine the placement of a website when someone types in a search phrase for content contained on that website. Here is an extremely over-simplified example. Someone types “plumber Boston” into Google’s search box. What happens then is Google displays all of the websites that have the words “plumber” and “Boston” in them. Now if one website has more instances of the words “plumber” and “Boston” in it than another then, in theory, it will rank higher. Google knows which websites have these words because is has indexed all the websites that are out there and it has given relevance to each and every one based on certain criteria. This is predominately based on two things: the text on the website and how many other websites with similar content have linked to the website. There are other things that factor in too like how long the website has been online, the names of the files used to build the website, the frequency of updates, the title and description meta tags, the domain name and the technical makeup of the website.

What it boils down to is this. If you want someone to find your business by typing in “pool company Phoenix” then you better have the words “pool company Phoenix” sprinkled throughout your website. An even better way to do this is to use proper phrases throughout your website’s content. Instead of “pool company Phoenix”, since that isn’t really proper grammar, you could use “pool company in Phoenix” such as “Are you looking for the best pool company in Phoenix?” and “If you need a pool company in Phoenix then ABC Pools is the place for you.” That will increase the chances of your website being listed higher when someone searches for “pool company in Phoenix”.

Now if two or more websites have the exact same amount of instances of the phrase “pool company in Phoenix” then the amount of incoming links will factor in. An incoming link is another website linking to your website. Google factors in how many websites link to your website when ranking pages. It doesn’t appear at the time of this writing that the other search engines place as heavy an emphasis on incoming links as Google. It helps out even more if the links are coming from websites with similar content. Links from other pool company websites, websites about pools, pool suppliers and directory listings under the category of anything pool related would help your website out more than links from flower shops.

It can take up to 3-4 months for a brand new website to show up in the search engine rankings. If your website is built properly it should start showing up in various searches during that time frame. You can test this yourself by typing in various word combinations related to your products, services and service area. Your placement will be determined by your website’s content, incoming links and how much competition there is for the keywords used for the search. If you are one of only 5 roofers with websites in your area then your website should show up within the first 1 or 2 pages or so if someone types in the word “roofers” and a city or town in your service area, for example “roofer Bay City, MI”. If it doesn’t, then you need to make sure that your website has enough mentions of the words “roofer” and “Bay City, MI” in the text because the search engines have not deemed your website relevant for that particular search phrase.

I hope this sheds a little light on the subject for you. If you want more information on how to not get screwed when hiring someone do SEO work for you then click here to read this previous post.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, FL.  He can also hook you up with a Cheap Ass Website.

Why Your Web Site Isn’t Working

Oh, why does your web site suck so?

Two of the top questions I am often asked is , “Why isn’t my web site working?” and “What’s wrong with my web site?”. Luckily, for all of you reading this,  the answer to these questions usually revolve around the same set of issues so I can go ahead and answer them for you now without even looking at your stuff or billing you for the time. Think of this as a free Viagra for the Web sample from Digi Donkey. Just a little something to get your junk working again.

Before I begin we need to lay some parameters and define what “not working” actually refers to. For most people it means, “I dropped some serious cabbage on this piece of sh!t and it hasn’t produced any results. Either the phone isn’t ringing, people aren’t buying your stuff or no one is filling out your 20 item questionnaire.

You’ll notice that I left out, “People aren’t even visiting in the first place.”  The reason why is that most people who come to me don’t even have a clue as to how many visitors their web site is getting in the first place. There are business owners that will drop thousands of dollars on a web site yet don’t track the results. This isn’t TV, radio or print where you have to guess. Web site traffic can be tracked a variety of different ways and a good start would be to have your web person sign you up for a free Google Analytics account and begin tracking your traffic. You really can’t take an educated stab at fixing something if you don’t have a clue what is wrong and studying your traffic is a good start. Are you getting visitors? If so, are you losing them within 10 seconds of landing on your page? Are they clicking around but not calling? Are they clicking around but not buying?

To keep it simple, as well as give me another topic for another day, we’ll assume you’re getting traffic but not converting it into business. Here are some of most common issues with business web sites that prevent them from turning visitors into customers.

Your web site just plain sucks.

The design just doesn’t work for what you are trying to represent. This usually due to fact that you had your brother, his friend, an engineer, yourself, a douche-bag or whatever design your site for you. With all of the competition nowadays you have to have a professional looking  presence online if you want to be taken seriously.

Your contact form is way too f*cking  long.

This happens to a lot of people. They want to know ever damn thing about the person, usually to pre-qualify them. Now why in hell would someone want to spend 20 minutes filling out your form? You need to simplify. A good rule of thumb is ask for their name, email and phone number. Don’t ask for their entire life history. Keep it simple and the chances of them filling it out will increase. Remember, they don’t know you and they have no idea what you’re actually going to do with the personal information they put in. Again, keep it simple and some thing else you can do to increase form submissions is to…

Give them something for filling out your form.

Give them a reason to fill out your form other than the knowledge that they will have you calling them to follow up. Give them 10% off if they purchase or enter everyone who fills out the form into a drawing for a gift card to a restaurant chain. Just give them something. You’ll be surprised how many people will fill out an online form if they get something out of it besides your wonderful services.

Have a call to action on every page.

Your web site needs to have a purpose and if you’re not selling products right on the site then your purpose is most likely to generate leads. To do that you need a way to find out who is interested in your stuff and they need a way to let you know. You do that with a call to action. “Call now”, “Sign Up Now” or “Enter Now” are some good ones. Tell the visitors what you want them to do and make sure the phone number, email address or contact form is easily seen on every page. If you are trying to generate business from other states get yourself a toll free number so they don’t have to pay the toll charges. Make it easy for them and the chances of them contacting you will increase.

Start a free newsletter.

Some visitors may not be ready to use your services when they visit your site the first time. They may be pre-planning, price shopping or something else. A good way to stay in touch is by having them sign up for a free newsletter. Make it simple by only asking for name and email. Hell, you actually only need the email address. Then give them something for signing up like coupons available only to subscribers or entry into a monthly drawing like I mentioned earlier. Then you can keep marketing to them on a regular basis through the newsletter.

Get rid of all the damn Flash animation.

Flash looks cool and it can give your site a visual edge if done right. It hurts though if the damn thing takes too long to load. If someone has to wait for your site to load, the chances of them bailing out increases dramatically.

Suck it up and hire a real photographer to take pictures of your products (especially food).

Now when I say hire a real photographer I mean someone you actually have to pay that makes a living taking photos. Not your sister-in-law with the expensive camera. If you are selling stuff online through your own web site a good clear photo could be the difference between them buying or bolting. This is especially true when dealing with food. For the most part, food looks like sh!t when not photographed by a professional. You may actually turn people off when you take your own poorly lit, pasty, blurry ass pictures.

Don’t give away the cow man.

Some people give away too much information on their web site. They are so thorough that consumers have no reason to contact them. They can make their decision right then and there. This is fine on an E-Commerce site but if you are trying to generate leads, only give them enough info to peak their interest. That way they have to contact you to get the rest of the info and you can work your sales magic on them. That’s the point right – to have them contact you. So scale it back a little. You’d be surprised how many people increased the effectiveness of their web sites just by cutting the information down to a minimum.

Be honest with youself about your product or service.

This is the one most people have a hard time dealing with. Does your product or service just plain suck? Is there really a demand for it or did you get sucked into some sort of scam. Now, I’m not speaking to real businesses, I’m speaking about get rich online schemes. If you have already dropped a ton of scratch I sympathize with you but no amount of web design, Flash, video, SEO or masterful online marketing is going to help if the public looks at your stuff as crap or as a scam. You need to get an objective opinion before sinking a ton of money into marketing something that possibly no one wants.

Now I didn’t cover everything that could be wrong but, like I stated before, these are the most common issues I have run into. Talk to your web designer about correcting these issues and if they won’t help hire someone who will.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey an Internet Consulting Firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida.

Beware of “SEO Experts” unless you enjoy pissing money away.

This is a warning to all business owners that don’t know anything about the Internet other than that it is were you get your email and porn from.

Self-titled Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Experts are popping up all over the place like Snake Oil Salesmen in the days of Wyatt Earp. These guys will try to sell you on the fact that you NEED to be on the first page of Google and if you’re not, you’ve wasted all your money and could be out of business within the year since you will NEVER be found without their services.

These guys and gals will use their mystic skills of OPTIMIZATION to make your website look more attractive to Google and the other search engines in order for your website to show up on top of every other person’s website when someone searches for your products or services.

Even better yet, if you sign up for a long term monthly Optimization Service Schedule, they will keep your website on top for as long you keep cutting them a check.

Some will even, for a moderate (or extremely large) monthly fee,  let YOU do your OWN website optimization with their special high-tech, mystical website optimization software.

I ‘ve even heard that with some of these magical services, little elves will come out at night while you’re sleeping and fix your shoes.

Every Self Proclaimed SEO Expert Should Be Livid By This Point

Obviously, this article is not being written for people in the biz, it is straight advice for business owners that don’t know anything about this stuff. I’ll try not  to get too technical and I will definitely try to keep it moving since explaining SEO to someone who doesn’t have a clue is about as entertaining as having to sit through The Notebook with my wife and daughters.

To start out, there are legit companies out there that will help your search engine ranking increase. There are proven practices that actually work. But, there are also a ton of a-hole, scum bags out there that talk a good game and then will proceed to screw you out of every cent you have with minimal (if you are lucky) or zero results. The problem most of you small business owners will encounter is that you have no idea how to differentiate between the pros and jerk-offs. So later on I’m going to give you a list of things to look out for when researching SEO companies.

What in the Hell is SEO and Why Do I Care?

If you’ve made is this far and still have no friggin idea what in the hell I’m writing about here is an explanation from Winkipedia and since everything on Winkipedia is true well accept  this as the truth.

‘Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks,” the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.’

There you go, very technical, nerdy and thorough. Very thorough. (Just a side note, whenever I can drop a reference from The Big Lebowski into an article I will, see if you can find them in future stuff.)

Hey Man Don’t Drink the Kool Aid

Shhhhh – I have a secret – just don’t let anyone in the SEO business hear us.  Having your website appear on the first page of a Google search isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There you go. I said it, even though I’ll probably lose my key to the executive bathroom now.

Don’t let fear based marketing convince you that you need to be on the first page of a search engine result. Would it be nice? Of course it would. Will it help with people being able to find you online. In theory it should, but there are plenty of other ways your website can be found online beyond just search engines. I know the owners of several online companies with tore-up, non-validating, piece of sh!t websites that do plenty of business. They get their traffic through pay-per-click, social networking, You Tube videos and other viral marketing techniques. They could care less about search engine placement because their particular metrics show that the money they would have to spend to “optimize” their crappy websites isn’t worth the cost to get an extra 10, 20 or whatever visitors they could possibly gain per month. Search engine placement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and if you have a limited budget I suggest looking into other options as well as SEO and then weigh the benefits-to-cost for your particular business. Proper SEO should be part of an overall Internet strategy but not the sole thing you drop all your money into.

Things About SEO For The Small Business Owner, That If You Know Them,  You’re Chances Of Getting Screwed Dramatically Decrease List

• Take responsibility: just like real life, if you get screwed it’s usually your own damn fault. You can’t blame it on being drunk or, in this case, uninformed.
• Educate yourself: If you don’t know anything about computers or the Internet then talk to someone who does. How can you go through all the bids and make an informed decision if you don’t have any idea what you’re reading.
• Don’t let the guy trying to sell you his service be your only source of information: If you don’t know anything about this stuff and you let the guy trying to sell you his SEO services educate you on SEO then you’re an idiot. Get a second, third, fourth or fifth opinion.
• Search for SEO info on the Internet: It’s free info and will maybe shine some light on the topic for you.
• Ask the person trying to sell you the SEO service to explain exactly what it is they will be doing: If they can’t answer the question in plain English (or whatever language you speak) without getting overly technical and nerdy (so you can understand it) then run for the hills.  Many of the guys  out there that aren’t legit don’t even understand the service they are trying to sell.
• Do a search for “SEO Experts” in the various search engines: Is the dude trying to sell you his services  #1 in Google, Yahoo and MSN. If not, ask them how they can make your website #1 (if that is what they are promising) if they can’t even do it for themselves. (All you people in the biz still reading this are probably cringing by this last statement but some of you will actually get the point I am making).
• If an SEO Expert  promises you a #1 ranking in Google, Yahoo or any other search engine they are full of sh!t: Search engine placement can’t be guaranteed. No questions asked. If they guarantee it, they are full of crap and don’t use them.
• If youz don’t know, youz betta ax somebody (hire a consultant): Now I am a consultant so I understand that comes across as self serving since I’m writing this. But I’m not asking you to hire me.  Again, if you don’t anything about his stuff and are about to drop some serious coin,  then hire someone who knows more about it than you. Having someone on your team that is looking out for your best interests in these manners could save you thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in decisions regarding SEO and Internet marketing.
• Make the person selling you the service show you, oh let’s say, 20 different examples of websites they have maneuvered to the first page of Google, Yahoo and MSN: Now this is sort of a “dick move” to do to someone but (especially if they are guaranteeing results) in theory, every client they have ever worked with should be on the first page of every relevant search result. The point, again, is that this stuff can’t be guaranteed.
• In some cases, proper SEO won’t do a damn thing to your placement: There is always a chance that your website is already coming up as high as it will for certain search terms. You could have the #1 SEO expert in the world personally work on your site and it may not do jack sh!t.  Because of your competition, area and other factors your site may already be performing as well as it can. In some searches showing up on page 4 may be as high as you’ll ever go. That’s why you shouldn’t put all your eggs into the SEO basket. Sometimes this SEO stuff just won’t work the way you want it to or give you the results you are hoping for no matter what anyone tells you.

There you go. Now did I cover every possible question you should ask? No, but hopefully this should at least get you to start questioning all these so called experts. Like I stated above, there are good legit people out there that can help your website perform to it’s potential. Educate yourselves. Do you really need SEO service or could you be better served with a different Internet strategy? Just make sure that you ask questions and challenge anyone that promises results that seem too good to be true.

About the Author

Jayme Ward owns Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting Firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida. You think this blog is something you should hear him speak. He can be contacted at info@digidonkey.com