Search Engines

A search engine is like an online version of the yellow pages and is a major part of your business website success (it is possible to be successful without search engines by using viral marketing and other methods but for the time, cost and effort, they usually proportionally yield more fruit). Internet users will go to one of many search engines such as www.google.com. At the time of writing, Google is the search engine of choice within the Internet community and therefore the one most business website owners concentrate on ranking well in.

Search Engine Technology

Search engines work by sending out pieces of software called spiders. These visit websites, make a copy of what they find and send it back to a central database (for those not in the know, a database is a logical method of storing large amounts of data that can be searched easily and quickly). These work 24/7 and most search engines have their own “spiders”. The spiders missions is to collect as much information about as many websites as possible and send it back. With new sites being added to the Internet every day and old ones being changed, this is a never-ending task.

Around every month or so, search engines will reorganise their database to take account of discontinued websites, new ones added and existing ones changed. This is why when you enter a search term into a search engine, the results returned can be vastly different from month to month. What was listed at the top of page 1 for a key phrase last month is now relegated to page 5 for the same phrase. With Google, this is affectionately known as the “Google shuffle” although the technical term is re-indexing.

This keeps the returned results current and accurate. Search engines spend a lot of time and money on getting this right as the more accurate a search engine is at returning the information requested the more people would use it. This is how Goggle has become the market leader in the search engine market because their results are usually very accurate and they provide many useful tools in narrowing down large searches.

Online Forms

Online forms are where the visitor fills in a form of varying length and this is converted to an email and sent to the Company. Some Companies ask all sorts of information not related to your query and to make matters worse, they won’t let the form be sent until all the fields have been filled in. If you look at your website statistics (details how many people visited the site and how they used it) and see that the contact us page was the page most visitors exited, then this is probably the reason why.

If you are going to use one of these, only make the most crucial information required. If you want to take the opportunity for a customer questionnaire then offer an incentive such as a free download, a discount voucher or something similar.

E-mail address

Your website can be your first point of contact with a new customer and using a free email address such as hotmail or Wanadoo not only goes against convention but looks unprofessional and can lead to assumption.

Questions such as “why are they using a free email address when they have their own domain?”, “emails are usually provided free with hosting, don’t they know how to use them?”, “if they don’t know how to use them, they can not be very technically competent” and “if they are not technically competent, do I want to be giving them my credit card details online?”. You can see how the questions lead to assumption! Hopefully you will never want to use your personal email address ever again on your business website after reading the last paragraph.

You may think that fred@yoursite.com is fine for your site for all email contact but consider using several emails, even if you are a one man band. Support@yoursite.com, info@yoursite.com, bookings@yoursite.com or many other variations all give the impression of a larger and professional organisation. It also assures the sender that their email will go straight to the department or person responsible and not into a general inbox that will be actioned as soon as they have got through the 100’s of other emails. It is extra work for little perceived.

Reassurance

When you walk into a shop, you can see that it is a permanent business unlike a tele-sales phone call or faxed offer.

As there is nothing tangible in a website, then you will be faced with the same issues. These can be overcome with reassurances that you are a real business by showing pictures of your premises and your staff. Listing all trade organisations you belong to, your VAT registration number and Ltd Company number will also achieve the same goal.

If you are selling on the Internet then you definitely need to mention the security measures you have taken to keep credit card details secure and detail your privacy policy regarding their personal information. See the legal section for more information.

Contacting The Business

You need to make it as easy as possible for people to contact you because the best way to alienate your audience is to provide limited and slow to response contact details such as a postal address. There are several approaches to make your immediate contact details prominent.

• The website incorporates your contact details as part of the graphic design. Every page will show your contact details. Making 0800 or 0845 numbers prominent also goes a long way to prompting people to call. The free phone call might be the only reason your organisation was chosen over others.
• Anywhere you have written content that promotes the viewer to contact you should have a link to the contact us page embedded within the copy e.g. “to find out more information about our widgets then contact us”
• Making email addresses links to open up a new email (There are concerns about email harvesting programs which are covered later, the choice is yours to make between potential spam emails or ease of use for your customers)
• Have an interactive online chat facility on your site. This enables customers to immediately pose a question to a member of your organisation.
• Call me back button. Visitors click this and enter a preferable time to be called back.

Web page readers tend to scan information at least 25% faster than if they were reading a newspaper or magazine so you need to make contact details or action buttons and statements (to purchase click here, to join our newsletter click the button etc) larger and more noticeable that its surroundings. If not then you risk that visitor leaving your website to search elsewhere.

Imagine you walk into a spare parts shop with all the goods shown behind the counter but no one is at the front desk to take your order or answer your questions. How long would you wait for someone to turn up? Unless your need was urgent for those products, seeking another option e.g. another shop would soon become a preferable option to waiting about.

In summary, make it very easy for website visitors to contact you immediately. A point to note is that it is also a requirement that all e-commerce shops clearly state their full trading address anyway.

Google Sandbox. Your Target Audience

It is worth writing about this one particular search engine phenomenon, as they seem to be the only one to have it. The “Google sandbox” is reputed to be a sort of holding area or status assigned to your website which prevents it from ranking well in the first 6-9 months of its existence for major keywords but the less competitive ones perform ok.

Gossip, rumour and a few self-professed experts all say that this phenomenon prevents webmasters from trying to manipulate the search engines by creating a site with many fake or dubious links to them and ranking well immediately for competitive key phrases. If this was the case then what a good idea! We all have a level playing field, no one can cheat and only serious website owners would be ranked well….in theory. True or not, there seems to be little to no hard evidence available to confirm it.

Your target audience

Identifying and knowing your existing or potentially new target audience will guide the design and content of the site. Our bright yellow chicken man for hire business knows that has 2 target audiences, which are private party and corporate bookings. The private audience are likely to be male or female, 18 to 45, with a large sense of humour, pay close attention to price and looking to add humour or surprise to a private gathering of people. The other audience will be corporate sector who will be time poor 25-45 year old junior to middle management or their secretaries who don’t care about price, as they are not paying for it, the Company is. So long as they turn up, that’s their job done.

Writing one set of content for such a diverse audience can be next to impossible so creating 2 unique sales pitches and styles of writing would be best suited here. Having “corporate entertainment” and “private parties” buttons in the navigation structure will help ensure the right people are looking at the right content.

The time poor executives will want short, concise content, whereas the private sector will want confirmation and guarantees that their hard earned cash will yield the desired result (a good night out) and lots of examples of previous parties to reassure them. By researching and setting objectives for each target audience, you are maximising your chances of them doing what you desire e.g. contact you, make a booking etc.

Existing businesses will already know who their customers are and can change their website accordingly. New businesses can either research or make educated guesses. These soon become less of a guess and more of a confirmation as your business grows and you collect more data about your website and business customers.

The First 30 Results

An accurate measure of keyword competition is to see how well optimised the first 30 websites are. Indications of optimisation for a keyword or key phrase are when it:

• Is used at least once in the page title
• Is used in the Meta description (found by viewing the source of the HTML page e.g. in Internet Explorer, look at the top of the page and click view, then source and look for meta name="description" The keywords and phrases will be listed after this.
• Is used in the headings of the page content
• Is used several times in the content (typically 3%-9% of the words)
• Shown in the navigation structure as a link
• Is used in the anchor text of a link pointing to that site

Goggle provides a couple of excellent search tools to gauge competition for your keywords and phrases. These are:

• Allintitle. If you start a search with allintitle: Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the page title. For instance, allintitle: Internet Consultant will return only documents that have both Internet and Consultant in the title. Using speech marks around your search keywords will provide a further focused result e.g. allintitle:”Internet Consultant” will show only websites that have the exact phrase in the page title.
• Intitle. If you use intitle: in your query, Google will restrict the results to websites containing that word in the title but consider other places in the document too. For instance, intitle:Internet Consultant will return documents that mention the word Internet in their title, and mention the word consultant anywhere else in the document. This may sound the same as the previous tool but is not. The allintitle: looks only at page titles but the Intitle: works by considering page titles and page content.
• Inanchor. The inanchor: command will tell you which websites have the keyword or phrase contained within incoming links to their website e.g. inanchor:keyword shows all websites that have a link pointing to them using your keywords. Using the three search tools together can provide an accurate figure of competing websites e.g. allintitle:keyword inanchor:keyword as this shows websites with the keywords and phrases in the page title and contained within the incoming links.

The curved glass manufacturer we mentioned earlier is an excellent example of using less competitive keywords and phrases to give the new website a kick-start. A check of Google reveals that the term glass returns nearly 5,000,000 results with big companies and organisations such as Pilkington and the British Glass website coming in the top 30 results. These are large corporate sites that are well established and have been around for a long time in Internet terms. All the websites in the top 10 were highly optimised for the same keyword so trying to drive traffic to the curved glass manufacturer website for the term glass in the short term would have been very difficult. Instead, we suggested going after less competitive terms to start with.

Checking PPC pricing

PPC (pay per click) is another good indication of competition level for your keywords and phrases. Go to http://www.google.co.uk/ads/ and sign up for the Goggle adwords program (free to sign up and use the tools). The more you have to pay to be on the first page of results the more competitive your keywords and phrases are.

A mixture of checking the first 30 results for a given keyword and phrase and PPC costs will give you an idea of what you are up against.

Competition Level For Keywords And Phrases

The competition level of a key phrase can be measured in several ways. These include:

• Checking how many websites a search engine returns containing your keywords and phrases.
• How well optimised each site or page is in the first 30 results, including the number of links pointing to it.
• Check the pricing for you keywords and phrases in pay per click advertising.

Number of websites listed

If you are going to check the number of websites containing your keywords and phrases then simply enter them into the search engine and then check how many results are returned.

This only gives you a guideline to the amount of web pages containing that term, in that search engine and does not truly reflect the competition level. It is possible and in some cases likely that the hundreds of thousands of websites returned have not deliberately optimised their site for this term e.g. only mentioned the term once in their content and not in the page title and so achieving higher rankings is easily achieved.

Keywords - Niche

So now you have established your business website objectives, you need to find your most effective keywords (a single word frequently entered into search engines) and keyphrases (a collection of keywords entered into search engines). Keyword research tools can be found at:

• http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion (free)
• https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/Login?sourceid=AWO&subid=UK-ET-ADS&hl=en_GB (may require free account to use)
• http://wordtracker.co.uk (requires payment)

These tools will tell you how many people are searching on these terms, usually for search engine traffic monitored from the previous month.

As most visitors to a website come from search engines, then it makes good business sense to make sure your website is "search engine friendly" to ensure they refer traffic, or at least the right kind of traffic, to your website. Many factors affect the type and number of visitors visiting your site but content and services are the most important. If your content or services are poor then so will your website results. Poor content can be summarised as that which offers little or no value to website visitors e.g. pure advertising and marketing "waffle" and services cover useful features such as online calculators, research tools etc.

Your new website will be more successful to start with if you concentrate on a specific area of your business with limited or no competition in search engine terms.

Search engine users typically enter 1-3 words into a search engine to find the information they are looking for e.g. cheap holiday Egypt and rarely go past the third page (30th result) of search engine results pages (SERP's) as they have usually found what they are looking for by then.

As we mentioned before, single search words are called keywords e.g. holiday and several keywords together are called keyphrases however a competitive keyword or phrase is generally accepted as one that many websites are trying to make their website "search engine friendly" for.

Using less competitive keywords and keyphrases should make it quicker and easier to be listed within the top 3 pages (10 results per page) for that particular keyword or key phrase. The closer you can get to page one, position one within the SERPS (search engine results pages), the more likely a searcher will click the link to come through to your website.

Being listed within the first 30 results in a search engine for a given keyword or key phrase means you "rank well" for those or your site is "optimised" for them.

By all means, still use the keywords and phrases that apply directly to your business that are competitive but expect these to be slower to deliver Internet traffic due to many other business websites competing for them. For example, if you are selling books then it is very unlikely you will pose a threat to www.amazon.co.uk and have your new website placed above it in the search engine results pages for people looking for the general search term books.

Having your website shown at the top of the SERP’s for such a highly sought after phrase would take an expert a lot of time and money. Instead concentrate on a specific line of books, as it would be easier to rank higher for engineering books than for just books.

Quick Overview Of A Web Page

For those unsure of some of the elements of a web page, the following explanation should help.

• Page title: Look at the top of any Internet Browser window and you will see a blue bar. In it should be a description of what the page is about.
• Headings: Look at the web page text. Headings are the descriptions or summaries of what the following text is about, e.g. “quick overview of a web page” is a heading. These are usually shown in a different font or size, in bold or italic. Headings can even be shown in the same style as the rest of the page text but listed in the source code of the web page as a heading (you don’t need to worry about that for now, just be aware that headings are relevant)
• Content: Are the actual words that you can see in a page and usually set out in paragraphs. Words shown in buttons and graphics are not considered content.
• Navigation structure: Most websites will have a series of buttons or links shown on every page that will navigate you to the rest of the website.
• Alt text: When you leave your mouse over a picture or graphic for a couple of seconds, a small yellow box appears with text in it. These are used to describe the picture for people using text only browsers and for the vision impaired.
• Meta tags: Information not visible on a web page. It is stored within a technical document which makes the web page and describes elements of the page such as a description of the contents, author and more.

Setting Objectives

You should identify what you want your website to achieve and clearly identify your expectations and objectives. These can also guide you in making later decisions about the site e.g. if increased sales is an objective and you sell a niche product then advertising on a generalised website will be of little benefit.

Website objectives can typically be:

1. Increase sales
2. Improve product or Company branding
3. Reduce time spent with customers asking similar questions
4. Reduce recruitment costs
5. Improve customer relationship management
6. Reduce administration such as invoicing and telephone answering
7. Collect information to better understand your business and customers
8. Reach new markets
9. Reduce costs by seeking new suppliers

The business owner should set and review the objectives frequently because they know current and future business requirements. The list is usually specific to each organisation and can be from one objective to many. As your business changes, so will your objectives, this is one of the main reasons why you should permanently monitor the site.
If you know what your objectives are then you have something to measure against for your success or failure. If you do not know what your objectives are, you cannot measure its success or failure so why pay money for something you don’t know is working or not?

Extra guidelines to follow

The following points may make your site more effective:

1. Collect data about your customers, even if it is only their email address as this gives you a chance to re-capture their attention at a later date.

2. Provide testimonials from previous clients as it builds trust.

3. Show membership to any credible organisations that you may belong to as this shows commitment to your business.

4. Have a customer service policy or mission statement, something that shows the level of service you are aiming to provide.

5. Easy to understand terms of business. Large amounts of legalese and “we are not responsible for anything” will create mistrust and suspicion.

6. Privacy policy, especially if you collect information of a sensitive nature such as personal details and credit card information as this reassures the visitor you will respect their privacy.

7. Consider a viral marketing strategy as these can work faster and longer than a search engine strategy. Combining the two can be very effective. Viral marketing works on the principle that your customers or website visitors communicate details of your company, products or services to others usually by forwarding an email, brochure, free product etc. Hotmail is an excellent example of viral marketing as a link to upgrade or install hotmail was sent in every email message sent.

8. Try to build a relationship with your customers by using tools such as newsletters (with a double opt in approach), membership area etc. This is beneficial because the mistrust barriers are removed once the initial contact or purchase has been made.

9. Advertise for CV’s even if you are not actively recruiting but do mention this, as it will stop the endless phone calls and desperate job seekers. You may receive an outstanding CV that you will make room in your organisation for. If not then there are plenty of networking opportunities to be found from talking to other people in a similar line of business as your own. Other useful indicators of CV’s are the Company health of your competition, market trends and many more.

10. Avoid background images unless it adds to your site. Black text on white background is the easiest to read quickly. Web users tend to speed-read text at up to 25% faster rates than paper and back ground images do not help this.

11. If you are going to use photographs then use a professional to take them or use websites selling royalty free photographs on the Internet. Obvious snap shots take away from the professional design of the website.

12. Have a 1-2 line phrase, which sums up your business which is easy to remember e.g. a scaffolding company which states “we have the biggest erections in town” or a curved glass manufacturer using “we bend like no other”. The more ways of separating yourself and being remembered from other “standard” websites, the better. Think of how many catchy marketing phrases and tunes you have remembered and why. If we mention “you do the shake and vac to put the freshness back” or “you can’t get better than a quick fit fitter”, do the tunes instantly come to mind?

8 Minimum Standards To Achieve

The following standards are recommended to achieve.

Most successful small to medium sized business websites should achieve the following:

1. Have objectives, which are predetermined before ANY work is started. These will be the foundations of the whole site. The directors/owners of the Company should set the main objectives preferably after reading this entire list. Involving key departments such as sales, customer service and even the person who answers the telephone will reveal areas of the business that can be streamlined and improved, like your sales staff may request quotes be conducted online so as to spend less time on the phone. Get every department to list their wants and needs, you may be surprised at how many can be achieved using your website.

2. Identify your target audience, write the content and structure the site for them. If you sell reading glasses then you definitely do not want to be using small blue fonts on a grey background. Other examples include time poor executives who would appreciate short and to the point content, interior designers like lots of pictures, small business owners like free useful tools, younger generation go for interactivity such as games, men go for how does it work and women go for how does it make you feel. In summary, know who you are trying to write for and write accordingly.

3. Search engine friendly and so constructed in a way that they can read every page you want them to. If the search engines are not reading your site then this is the same as paying for thousands of leaflets to be printed and then not distributed.

4. Optimise the web site for search engines so that the content you have written for your customers is appearing in the first 3 pages of search engine results, preferably showing on the first page for your keywords and phrases. This is achieved by identifying which keywords and phrases to chase after, analysing the competition for those keywords and then implementing the best and most achievable ones into your site.

5. Use a recognised sales approach. Your web site should offer benefits for its visitors, not standard advertising blurb. Remember that people do not buy drill bits because they are interested in sharpened pieces of toughened steel, they want the holes they create so talk about the end benefits of your products or services to your customers, not how great and fantastic the Company is.

6. Be quick to download for those on dial up modems.

7. Use multi media (pictures, sounds and movies) to achieve an objective, not because your web designer offered you a deal.

8. Have an Internet strategy for your website. Only you will know what works for your product or service once you have tried different methods. Research, implement and monitor what works best for you, like paid for advertising or organic search engine placement.

Case Study

One Company I have spoken to supplies specialist light bulbs such as theatre and run way lighting to over 10,000 organisations.

Around 2001 the government announced a push towards e-government. Everything from VAT to land registry was reviewed to see what could be transferred from paper to electronic medium. This eventually filtered through to local authorities, some of which then informed their suppliers that by October 2005 they would not conduct business with organisations that would not invoice electronically, scanning a paper invoice and emailing it to them was satisfactory. Unless the light bulb supplier conforms, they face the loss of 7500 clients, 75% of their client base. This demonstrates how politics can change your business almost over night.

So you are convinced that an Internet presence communicating with a potential 850 million people Worldwide as of 2005 is worthwhile and you want to know how to make your website a success.

I Don't Need A Web Site

This is usually a statement made by business people who have been trading for a while, usually before the Internet took off, and "are doing fine as we are thank you very much!" or they really do not understand what the Internet is all about.

This statement will hold water if:
• You have no competition.
• You are not likely to have any competition.
• Your existing customers will only use you and no one else.
• Provide a product or service that will never be influenced by politics, economics, geography, life style changes, technology, demographics and so on.

The variables that affect a business are infinite, this being the reason why flexibility is a major part of business success and a website goes a long way to providing more flexibility and immediate response to changing influences on your business.

While the business "Internet phobes" are turning their back to the Internet, their competition are turning to it and reaping the rewards of having a competitive advantage. Business web site owners will be responding to change in minutes like different pricing, availability and so on. The "Internet phobes" will be recalling catalogues, changing advertising and so on.