Don’t Forget About Your Website. Make it Work!

I circulated a survey last week to my friends, colleagues, and clients asking their uses for social media. With all the hype about social media (and well deserved hype might I add), I wanted to gauge whether people were shifting their behaviors with regards to online fact finding. While most of the responses were no surprise, one question brought the most interesting results. When asked "Where do you go online to find out more about a company?," 100% of the respondents said "their website."

Okay, so these results didn’t split the atom and certainly don’t reflect the views of more than about 100 people but I found it most interesting. I fear that companies are starting to invest disproportionate amounts of time and money diving into the social networking world and neglecting their mainstay - their website. Don’t get me wrong, social networking is here to stay and should be a part of your marketing strategy but your website is still very important and it is still the "front door" to your business. It has to be maintained, updated, studied for visitor trends, and reflective at all times of your company’s products and/or services. But most of all, it has to work!

So what does that mean? A website that "works" means it compels people enough to take some sort of action whether it be they pick up the phone and call or fill out your contact us form or request a quote or sign up for your e-newsletter and/or coupons. A website that works is not static. It is not purely informative with pleasing colors and graphics. A website does not have to sell (unless you’re selling product directly from the site). A website is dynamic. It is engaging. It answers the question "why would I do business with this company as opposed to their competitor?" It provides just enough information to the visitor to prompt the visitor to act!

Listen, you’ve invested a lot of time and money not only into your site but into driving traffic to your site via all of your marketing efforts. Make sure your website "works!" It’s still the first place a potential customer/client will go to find out about you.

Only after you’ve created a website that works should you consider using tags, social networking bookmarks and ratings, blogs, and other forms of social networking along side your website. Hire a vendor that understands how all of these forms of marketing work together and you can’t lose!

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Until next week, this is Meg Ferguson from Vision House Marketing saying have an effective and efficient day!

The fine balance between technology and people.

I had a conversation this weekend with a Navy colleague, a reservist, who owns his own business. He was asking me how to get his new website listed higher in the search engine rankings. I explained multiple ways from natural seo to pay-per-click as well as some easy, obvious things he can do. First I mentioned to pick a URL that is descriptive of the types of services he offers. He responded that his URL was his firstlastname.com. He went on to say that as an artist (he is a photographer) that he was told people resonate more with the artist than general terms like "photography," etc. This brought me to an interesting point that I feel compelled to explain.

While it is true that people (his potential clients) might respond more to the artist’s name, search engines don’t care what his name is. Not to be harsh but the lesson here is to understand the balance between people and technology. Of course you want to give your potential clients what they want and deliver it in the way they want it. But you also need to give the search engines what they need to deliver your content to your audience online.

He can have his cake and eat it too! I told him to keep his firstlastname.com URL and put it on his business cards, etc but buy another URL, for example, GreatPhotography.com and redirect it to his current website. This way, he can brand himself with the potential clients he meets and can give the search engines what they need to help his website rankings.

Keep in mind, this is one very small thing he can do and it won’t guarantee great results but its a start. Investing in PPC or natural SEO is well worth it. Marry that with social networking and pick an online marketing vendor that does it well and you can’t fail!

Would love your comments or experiences! Comment her or feel free to contact me directly at meg@vhmarketing.com.

Until next week, this is Meg Ferguson from Vision House Marketing saying have an effective and efficient day!