Does a Micro-Business Need A Website?

Does Your Micro-Business Need a Website?

In Three Words: yes, Yes, YES!

Whether you’re an accountant in Anchorage or a zookeeper in Xenia, your business needs a website. In fact, if you don’t have a business web site you’re missing a terrific marketing and promotion opportunity no matter what you do or where you are. And your competition is going to eat your lunch.

Selling Goods and Services

Most small businesses sell goods or services. If you own a termite exterminating business, you’re marketing a service – bug killing. If you sell little miniature furniture for doll house collectors, you’re selling goods – products. Either way, a web site is going to serve as an online billboard 24/7/365. And lots of people around the world are going to see that website and want to purchase whatever it is you’re selling.

What About the Cost?

In order to have a website you’ll need access to the information highway by way of a web hosting company. These companies maintain gigantic servers (just big, old hard drives, actually) that contain the web sites of thousands of small businesses just like yours. So is it pricey?

As with all technological advances, prices continue to fall within the website hosting business thanks to improved hardware (servers, routers and other gizmos about which you need to know nothing) and the proliferation of web hosting companies. In fact, all you need is a server (about $1000 for a good-sized one), some spare closet space to store the server and, guess what, you’re a web hosting company. Not a very good one, but a web host nonetheless.

However, stay clear of the unknown quantity – the web host that may be here today, long gone tomorrow, along with your web site, database information, the whole shebang. The fact is, you can find high quality, reliable web hosting services from a company that’s been around for years. Go with a company that has a track record and a long-term presence on the W3.

Now, cost. You can get a bunch of disk space (storage space for your site) and bandwidth (accessibility to and from your customers or clients) for less than $7.00 a month! You spend more than that on a couple of latte grandes on the way to the office. Staking your claim on the world wide web is the best, least-costly investment you’ll ever make to grow your business.

Do the math. Call your local newspaper and ask how much it will cost to run a small classified for a month. For the cost of that single, 30-day newsprint classified you can maintain a professional presence on the web for an entire year. In the battle between bang and buck, the web beats traditional print and other media advertising hands down every time.

In fact, you can cut print advertising costs significantly with a website clients can visit. Let the site do the selling. Let the print materials provide the map to lead buyers to the website. (See below.)

Yeah, but what about building a website? I’ll bet that’s going to cost a bunch.

Not at all. In fact, a good web host will provide an extensive tool kit that contains everything you need to construct, manage and grow a website – and it’s all FREE.

And it’s simple. You don’t need to know jack about HTML code, cascading style sheets (CSS), SEO, SEM, XML or other alphabetic mish-mash to create a professional-looking website in just a couple of hours. The entire process employs templates so you pick and click your way to site creation. You choose the colors, the design elements, the type face, the content, the site structure – you can do it all simply by going with a web host that provides the tools you’ll need.

Okay, but if I build it will they come?

Not if you keep it a secret. Once you’ve got your site up (easy), tested for bugginess (also easy) and launched (break out the champagne), it’s time to let the world know you’re here, you’re near and you’re open for business. How?

By placing your site’s URL (universal resource locator, also known as your web address) on every piece of marketing collateral you put out there. Got a business card? Add the URL. Stationery? URL. Marketing brochures? You got it, add the URL. If it’s printed on paper, it should include your site’s URL.

Also, remember that classified ad that was going to sock you in the wallet. Well, with a website, you can keep that classified short and sweet:

Tax problems? Call 555-1234 or visit us at www.taxproblemfixerguy.com

Boom! You don’t need to sell the service in print. Simply direct prospective clients to your website where you can go into great detail about all of the wonderful services or products you offer.

I don’t want to sell my services outside my local area so isn’t a website kind of a waste of money?

Au contraire. First, most of your traffic (site visitors) will find your URL by way of your print advertising, so you’re already focusing on the local market. Second, search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask enable you to localize your search engine listings. This way, you aren’t selling carpet cleaning services to someone half way around the world.

You can keep it local by including your town’s or county’s name in your keyword list. Keywords are those words search engine users enter to conduct a search. For example:

carpet cleaners tampa florida (You don’t have to use capital letters; the search engine understands that you’re looking for a carpet cleaning service in Tampa, not in the UK.)

You can also localize the content of your website to appeal to the needs of local residents. Your air conditioning business probably won’t pull well in Yellow Knife (it’s in northern Canada) but it will generate business if you operate out of Corpus Christi where temperatures routinely hit the century mark during the summer months.

Localization allows you to target a very narrow demographic in the great scheme of online things. On the other hand, if you’re selling products, and you start getting orders from Istanbul, are you going to say ‘no’? Absolutely not. Just add a bit for the extra postage.

So, whether you want to keep it local or go global with your business, the best, least expensive way to do it is via the web, and a solid web host you can count on to be there for you next week, next year and forever.

The Prestige Factor

A professional-looking website (remember, you can build it and they will come) adds substance to your existing business. It adds that cachet of success and gives site visitors (or store visitors) the impression that your business is bigger than it actually is. You’re not just Bob’s Tuxedo Rentals down on Main Street.

You’re also www.bobstuxedorentals.com on the world wide web. This is sometimes called the prestige factor, creating (branding) an image that appears to have more substance than your simple, brick-and-mortar tuxedo rental store.

Okay, so how do I use my new website to best advantage?

Lots of ways. First, you can use your website to keep in touch with individual customers and your entire client base. For example, instead of trying to reach Ms. Jones on her cell, just drop her an email through your site. Simple, easy, effective.

You can also market to your entire client base through regular email updates or even a monthly or quarterly newsletter. The more often you put your company name in front of a potential customer’s nose, the more likely that nose will eventually buy something via the web, or by way of your store downtown.

Announce upcoming sales (exclusively for our valued customers), introduce new products or service offerings, provide advice and suggestions that drives traffic to your store – you can even send personalized birthday greetings if you can capture birthdates from existing clients. A website is a marketing bonanza.

You can also use your site to collect invaluable information on the buying practices and preferences of your client base. Provide a feedback form on your site (again, easy) to learn what visitors like and, more importantly, don’t like about your site. Collecting this marketing data will better equip you to adjust your product line, add new services, lower shipping and handling costs and identify the desires of your buyers. And you just can’t put a price on that. (Well, actually you can – less than $7 a month!)

Another good use of your website is to announce job openings – and even allow potential employees to apply online. Let’s say you own a couple of fast food franchises in Fresno. Employee turnover is always a problem. They come and go and finding new employees is costly using traditional means, i.e., the newspaper classifieds.

With a well-designed site you can announce job openings, pay rates, locations, benefits packages and more – much more than you could ever cover in a small newspaper classified.

The Keys to Online Success

So, whether you’re a start-up or a well-established business in the community or region, a website will boost sales and keep you in touch with your consumers. Just remember:

• Go with a web host that’s been around longer than last Tuesday. Go with a host with at least a five-year track record of providing hosting services. Longer is better.

• Choose a web host that provides software, tools and services FREE. This alone will save you literally thousands of dollars in start-up costs.

• Select a web host with 24/7 tech support – preferably U.S.-based tech support – for fast repairs and quick answers to any questions.

• Start small. You don’t need every bell, whistle, jim-crack and gee-gaw available to website owners. Keep it simple, start small and as you learn more about e-commerce, your site will eventually include additional features and contain more substantial information.

• Don’t worry about search engine optimization (SEO) and don’t pay an expert to optimize your site. Search engines aren’t your primary means of driving traffic to your business. Most visitors will find you through your print materials – business card, brochures, etc. – so ranking high in search engine results isn’t critical to the success of your business or your new website.

• Peg your URL to everything clients or customers see or hear about your business. If you’re running spots on local cable or radio, be sure to include your URL in all advertising. This way, you pique customer interest through the traditional media and make the sale on your site.

• Update your site. You can find plenty of sources of free content online. Give site visitors a reason to stop by again. And again. Hey, just include a daily horoscope (FREE) and you’ll start to see repeat visitors (especially Leos, for some reason).

Here it is, the bottom line: for the cost of a single, one-month insertion of a classified in the local newspaper, you can maintain a website and a web presence for an entire year. And it never closes, it never complains or calls in sick, and it never asks for a raise.

If your business doesn’t have a website, you’re missing out on one of the best, most cost-effective marketing tools available to the small business owner. So what are you waiting for?

Your competition across town already has her site up and active. And you’re sitting here reading this. Time to get moving.

Time to build your business website.

Just starting up. Give a shout before you blow a pile of cash on SEO voodoo and scam artists.

Later,

webwordslinger.com

WHEN GOOD SITES GO BAD

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR WEB SITE'S PERFORMANCE? YEAH, MOST SITES CRASH WITHIN 12 MONTHS.

ONE THING YOU CAN DO IS MAKE YOUR SITE BROWSER COMPATIBLE SO IT LOOKS GOOD ON IE, FIREFOX, CHROME, SAFARI AND OTHER BROWSERS ACROSS A VARIETY OF PLATFORMS.

Is Your Site “All-Browser” Friendly?

How Poor Design Makes a Good Site Look Bad

For most owners of an online start-up, their sites must be works of art. They spend hours and hours (or thousands and thousands of dollars) to develop a sharp-looking site that immediately catches the visitor’s eye. But is all of this really necessary?

And what about site visitors who still use dial-up connections on their 10-year old systems? They’re still out there and they still buy things. So, what can you do to make your web site picture perfect for any visitor using any operating system on any computer (except Coleco, which died in the early days of the personal computer era.)

KISS

Keep it simple, stupid. (No offense.)

Most first-time site owners want to use it just because they can, whether it’s a useless Flash demo or looped clipart stills that fade in and out every 10 seconds. If it exists and it looks cool, new owners want it because they’ve seen the feature on other “professional sites.”

But is simple better? All you have to do is go to the Google homepage for your answer. Plain white background, company logo, a few links to the back office and a search box. That’s it. No razzle-dazzle. Simplicity itself. Oh, and it’s one of the most visited sites in the world.

You may think all of that “web bling” looks hot, but it’s not. It’s so last week, it confuses first-time visitors (shock and awe online) and it slows download times by up to 300% - longer for dial-ups – and nobody wants to wait that long to see your cool/hot homepage. It may be your baby, but to visitors, it’s just another web site.

Site Usability for All Browsers

Somebody had the idea of the horizontal navigation bar across the top of the screen 20 years ago and it’s still the main means of navigating a web site. Originally, the only information you got was the actual link’s name – Our Products, About Us, Terms of Service and so on.

Today, navigation tool bars employ mouse-overs. Simply move your screen cursor over a link on the navigation bar and a flyout or dropdown menu appears, providing additional navigation options. Scroll. Click. You’re there.

The problem with many navigation bars is that they’re driven using JavaScript to connect navigation bar flyouts to specific links on the site – great if visitors have enabled JavaScript on their systems; unusable if the visitor’s browser isn’t JavaScript enabled. And not all are!

There’s a bigger point, here. Don’t assume that prospective visitors have certain features and capabilities available. Not all browsers are JavaScript ready. Not all employ 24- or 32-bit Truecolor. Not every computer system will have lots of VRAM (video RAM) to display color changes rapidly without other operations bogging down in the process. And not every visitor is going to have the really cool font you downloaded, and have used throughout the site.

When Good Sites Go Bad

What happens in these cases? First, some of your site’s features won’t function at all. What good is a Flash demo on the home page if the user hasn’t downloaded a Flash player? What good is audio if the visitor’s system doesn’t have speakers or (this is true of older systems) that the speaker batteries are dead?

Second, older browsers will make substitutions based on what it “thinks” you had in mind. It will substitute colors from the outdated 8-bit, 256-color spectrum and you don’t know what will end up on screen since your site design is based on 32-bit Truecolor. Posterized junk images with major color shifts aren’t unusual. And, if the visitor’s system doesn’t have the cool type font you use, and you fail to include the font as a separate font file, the browser may substitute something that looks just plain awful.

Looks Matter, But Not Too Much

Sure, a web site should look attractive and grab visitors’ attention – quickly. Sites should also read well, i.e. no typos. And sentences actually written in English. That’s not too much for any visitor to expect. But don’t get so hung up on the look of your new site that you forget about usability issues – how easy and comfortable is the site to use, i.e. read, navigate, access specific data and so on.

How do your programming conventions and latest tools in your web site builder kit translate to older systems, older browsers? Overall site usability, and accessibility to content, are more important considerations. And, remember, there are still web users who own computers with older CPUs, less RAM, limited color selection, terrible audio, no Flash player, no PDF reader and pokey dial-ups to the AOL portal.

Those older systems, with dial-up connections, are going the way of the rotary dial telephone and buggy whips. Even so, if you set the bar low enough to reach these borderline Luddites, you’ll expand the reach of your site. Even better, visitors with the latest systems and software will notice that you’ve simplified your site. Load times will shrink as conversion ratios expand.

Everybody wins – especially you.

Look, if you're just starting out in the world of e-commerce, call me first. You'll svae money and end up with a great looking site that converts visitors to buyers. And ain't that what it's all about?

Later,

Webwordslinger

DOWNTIME IS DEAD TIME ON THE WEB

IF YOUR HOST SERVER IS DOWN,

YOUR BUSINESS IS DEAD.

Downtime:

"Test. Test. Is This Thing On?"

Because the web has become such an important part of our daily lives, we tend to think of this digital phenomenon as stable and pretty functional day in and day out. At least that’s what we like to think.

Sure, we’ve all visited sites in the midst of server or other problems. The slow, blue download line crawls across the box and immediately you know something is wrong. (“Hope it’s not the darnedcomputer, again.”) So you click on a couple of your toolbar favorites and, sure enough, everything is running in tip-top shape. No lag time, each sites loads in a blink – except that one site you really wanted to visit. You go back, click the link again and, sure enough, the download dogs all the way.

As users, we don’t wait around for sites to get themselves back online. We have the attention span of six-year-olds juiced up on Pixie Stix. If it ain;t happening now, I’m gone. Sound familiar.

And when we bounce to another site, we quickly forget the site with the server problems. The impression we get is the web as lock-down stable when it fact the whole contraption is a collection of mish-mashed web sites, routers, cross-platform comprmoises and software that looks great on IE but terrible on Opera. Major color shift. (Fact is, a web site will look different in almost every browser based on the browser being used and the user’s preference settings.

No, if your site sees a lot of traffic 24/7 and traffic falls to zero in the matter of a few minutes, chances are your server is down. Down time is routine in a gerry-rigged compilation of data formats (Flash, HTML, XML), operating systems (Linux, Microsoft, etc.) and platforms (Mac, PC, DOS, VoIP and so on.)

The fact is, when you think about it, it’s amazing the whole W3 doesn’t disintigrate under its own weight. Thanks to the technicians who spend all of that time fixing problems and creating work-arounds, the web huffs and puffs and chuggs along. However, never believe that the W3 is stable, perminant and unassailable. It’s anything but.

Make On-Site Links Work For You

Don't let 'em leave. Use on-site links to keep visitors around longer.

Link Your Way to Site Success

No, Not Those Kind of Links, The Other Kind

You can’t swing a comatose web head without running into the stalest advice in all of SEO. Get quality, inbound links to improve site ranking with search engines. Yawn! What else ya got?

Okay, inbound links work in a lot of ways – creating credibility, trust and the chance for designation as an authority site so, yeah, inbound non-reciprocal links help, and there isn’t an SEO pro or newbie who doesn’t know it.

What you don’t hear a lot about is on-page links – links seen on every page of a web site. Links that connect visitors to other site pages.

Redirects and On-Page Links

Redirects are not held in high regard by search engines. The long-held impression that redirects are black hat tactics is still there. And, there are hackers still trying to hi-jack sites using invisible, on-page redirects. As soon as a visitor accesses the hacked site, s/he is redirected to another site page or even web site from the link provided in the SERPs. Redirects, such as a 301 (permanent redirect) or 302 (temporary), are cause for suspicion and can mean instant death for a web site.

There are plenty of legitimate uses for redirects. A blog, for instance, may send out a conformation of post receipt before redirecting the visitor to the blog and post itself. This kind of redirect is beneficial to visitors, providing useful and reassuring conformation and therefore, not all redirects are bad.

Here’s the deal: if the redirect has a valid purpose – one that an SE bot understands – redirects aren’t a problem. In fact, on-page links are nothing more than redirects and your body text should use them to help visitors navigate.

Embed Text Links Deep In The Site

It’s easy to optimize a site page for bots. The SEO industry still contends some search engine weighting factors, but there are many that enjoy almost universal acceptance by SEO pros.

That’s why some site owners optimize a page for bots and bots only. 5% keyword density, perfect title and alt tags, perfectly balanced informational content – the kind of content bots like to see. This page is then buried deep in the site with lots of links to more user-friendly pages within the site.

The deep site page, perfectly optimized for bots, won’t be attractive to humans (necessarily) with keyword dense text, no graphics (bots don’t read graphics files) and with a perfect title tag. This is a high ranking page according to metrics analysis because the content is information, as opposed to sales copy and again, it’s bot-o-mized in the page’s HTML.

Once the visitor reaches this highly optimized page, he or she is automatically redirected to a page that’s designed to appeal to humans rather than bots. These automatic redirects are usually permanent (301) and susceptible to bot interrogation and even page penalty.

Use On-Page Links to Avoid the Appearance of Impropriety

Use links to redirect visitors. Links are, in fact, redirects and they can be used to help visitors find the information, goods or services they need, and help index a site faster and with greater accuracy. If you do it right, you can get all desired pages indexed on the first pass by a Googlebot. For human visitors, it’s all about on-site links placement that strikes a chord or hits a nerve and generates a response to take action.

Example: A fire extinguisher site publishes an informational piece on home safety, providing good, quality advice. Quality, high-ranking content. This page is one of the high-ranking, deeply placed pages that draw visitors in. Now, instead of using automatic redirects, the savvy site designer will use contextual links to trigger a response from the site visitor.

Within the article, of course, is the recommendation to keep a fire extinguisher in the house. (Completely off the subject, you should have a fire extinguisher on hand. It saved my house.)

Anyway, the article provides a link in context to (1) generate a response and (2) compel action to that response. So, to move the visitor off the highly-ranked page, a short paragraph, based on the keywords entered to access the highly-ranked page, is used. For instance:

“Fire danger in the modern home is a reality, putting you and your family at risk every day. A small, properly-charged fire extinguisher can save your home and the lives of your loved ones.”

This deeply-embedded link then takes the reader directly to the products page for home fire extinguishers. The highly-ranked informational content draws attention from bots. The links draw the attention and direct the flow of visitor traffic once the site has been accessed, leading visitors to the precise page they need.

Use On-Page Links at All Site Access Points

A visitor can reach a well-connected site any number of ways – via directory,

Obviously, the more access (doorways) to a site the better. However, how a visitor got there is indicative of what the prospect is searching for. If the prospect reached the site through the Directory of Insurance Brokers, that visitor may or may not land on a home page depending on the query words used in the directory search.

“Low-cost high risk car insurance,” as the query phrase, displays a link with that exact headline. The searcher clicks on the top-ranked link, reads a short “Let us show you how to save $$$ on high-risk pool insureds, and a click takes the visitor to the car insurance zone page where additional links continue to direct the pathway taken by the visitor, i.e.

“High risk insurance will cost more depending on just how complicated your driving history is.” , (especially if you’re a local broker looking for local business).

Directions for Humans, Street Signs for Bots

These on-page links direct visitors to precisely the information they’re looking for. These links also provide pathways for search engine spiders that are trained (programmed) to follow links.

Links direct spiders to the far corners of a site, deep into the corpus. However, it’s just as important to make it clear what pages are off limits to Googlebots and other snippets of spidering programs.

Keeping Spiders Out

Spiders don’t just crawl. They follow the mathematics within the algorithm that directs their movements. They follow commands as well.

You can designate certain pages as to keep spiders out of your private business, or keep bots from indexing pages that are in beta at the moment and not quite optimized for indexing.

Or, if you want to close off large sections of a site to spiders, create a robot.txt file that identifies the pages of a site that are NOT to be indexed or accessed by spiders. The fact is, Googlebots are unleashed on any site visited by a user with a Google toolbar so there’s nothing you can do to keep bots from crashing the party.

A robot.txt file, placed in the site’s root directory, will make it clear to spiders what they can and cannot see. It’s the safest way to keep the relentless, “Terminator”-like Google bot from reforming from liquid into a dangerous cyborg once again. And believe it, bots “…will be back.”

Each page of a site should be analyzed from both the bot and the human perspective. Use embedded links instead of automatic redirects to avoid raising the suspicions of bots who think redirects are “icky.”

And place these on-page, intra-site links for maximum effect – either at the point when user need is identified, at all entrance points to the site, on the order form and the contact page.

On-site links are invaluable for helping visitors and helping bots. And together, that’s very helpful to the success of your site.

Hey, is your site optimized to keep visitors from exiting through the side door? if not, drop me a line. lead site visitors by the hand to ensure the most desired action (MDA) is executed.

Webwordslinger.com

LET GOOGLE TELL YOU WHAT IT WANTS. THEN LISTEN CAREFULLY!

YOU WANT GOOGLE TO LOVE YOUR SITE, AND THEY'RE HAPPY TO TELL YOU HOW TO BUILD A LOVING RELATIONSHIP.

YOU JUST HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE GOOLISTAS.

Google How-Tos:

Listen to the Googlistas

You want Google to love your website. This search engine alone accounts for 46% of all searches so when you consider that there are virtually thousands of search engines (granted, many topic specific), controlling a 46% share of all search engine users makes you “the cat that everybody’s rapping ‘bout.” And they are.

The webmaster community and Google don’t always get along and that’s understandable. For most webmasters, Google is a prime source of site traffic but if there are too many obstacles to Google success, of course there’s going to be feuding between search engine and those professionals who rely on search engines for their livelihoods. Every time Google tweaks an algorithm, some sites gain, some lose ground – and the reasons are rarely clear.

So, Google put together Webmaster Central, a blog for site owners to post gripes, offer suggestions, identify glitches and otherwise interact with the people behind the search engine. (We can only assume there are people behind Google. Verifiable proof is slow in coming. The entire company could be bot-run for all we know.)

The Google Webmaster Blog and You

Google knows it must keep site owners happy and who or whatever is running the company recognizes the need to interact with professional SEOs, SEMs, coders, designers, graphic artists and every new technology that takes a giant leap forward such as remote site syndication (RSS) that changed the way information was distributed over a weekend.

So, this is where you go to ask questions and get answers from other site owners. Google answers. From regular users like you – the owner of a small, once active site that has mysteriously disappeared from Google SERPs overnight. What happened? And how are you going to pay the rent if your e-store has disappeared from Google’s ever-expanding index?

Posting to the Webmaster Central Blog is a good place to go for quick answers from real people. And that usually means you’ll get an answer you can actually understand rather than an earful of techno-babble from some chip head.

This is also the place where Google introduces new features for webmasters. Just a while back. Google let loose improvements to iGoogle Gadgets for Webmaster Tools.

Here’s how the Googlistas explain it: “After our initial release, we saw clear interest in the gadgets, and plenty of suggestions for improvement. So we've spent the past several weeks working on various areas. The biggest improvements are probably for those of you with more than one site: when you add a new tab of gadgets, your gadgets will now default to the site you were viewing when you added them to your iGoogle page. Additionally, gadgets now retain settings as a group, so if you change the site for any gadget in a group, the next time you refresh that page, all the gadgets will show data for that site. And gadgets now resize dynamically, so they take up less room.”

Functionality has also been improved with the addition of Top Search Queries for your site, very helpful in refining a keyword list. “The data from the Top Search Queries allows you to quickly pinpoint what searches your site appears for and which of those searches are resulting in clicks,” according to Google.

Other new features that improve site performance analysis include a smart, geo-targeting function. This enables you to create several site skins for regions around the world if you choose. This geo-targeting gadget also produces a map overlay of where your visitors are coming from – right down to street level if you’re only seeking local business or referrals. Your site may be hot in Australia but bombing in the UK. There’s got to be a reason. This Google gadget helps isolate what’s working where, by region, with incredible specificity.

And if you’d like Google’s opinion of your numbers and your conclusions, click on Analytics Help Center for a ton of Google-centric info. All good in determining what Google likes and dislikes about your site.

Another tool from Google is the URL Remover. You log on to your administrator’s console over coffee and scan through your stats for the overnight, and you discover that your “Content by Title” section – a back office only function – has been inadvertently Googled, indexed and displayed on Google SERPs, giving anyone (including competitors) more than a quick peek at your business. They can read everything because it’s been spidered and indexed.

Using the new URL Removal Tool, you can quickly remove those private pages from Google’s index and tell spiders that this information is off limits as in DO NOT SPIDER.

Google Webmaster Help

This is one very cool tool. One that is certainly bookmark-worthy.

Google Webmaster Help provides tips and suggestions for improving your site in the eyes of what Google calls “benevolent Googlebots.” Hey Boys, those bots ain’t so benevolent if they mis-index my site because of your messed up classification taxonomy. Even so, when you have as much influence over online success as Google does, you get to call your bots “benevolent” even if they are mindless snippets of programs that chew through letter strings.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of good, useful information here from the people who make the algos. So, it’s worth a visit just to see what’s new, what’s working and what you should do about your precipitous loss of PR when you changed the home page text. Something Happened. And this is the place to find out what.

The Google Webmaster Help section also has a very robust, informed community able to answer FAQs from other site owners. You don’t have to wait for Google to get back to you. Ask an SEO or other web professional using the Webmaster blog for fast facts fast.

Today, there are 107,738 messages, questions and answers on crawling, indexing and ranking; 14,019 posts on the new Google gadgets listed above, so you see that these help pages see a lot of activity and should be a part of your daily web scan.

Go To the Source

Google sets the rules and no matter how strongly these rules are debated among site designers, SEOs and other web professionals, the rules are the rules. One way to stay current is by joining the regular online discussions that Google offers. You can check the schedule of upcoming discussions and mark them so you don’t forget. It’s a great way to meet the Googlistas and your counterparts who are trying to figure out how to perform better in the search engine sweepstakes.

Visit webmaster blogs like the one you’re reading now, especially targeted at those just venturing into ecommerce. Some webmaster blogs are highly technical (more for coders than site owners, actually) while other webmaster blogs provide information on everything from digital selling to site design tips.

But if you want the skinny – the unvarnished truth – go to the source. Go to Google and become a member of the Google webmaster community. Download the free Google analytics and join in with companion site owners to let Google know when a problem arises.

With Google controlling almost half of all searches, it’s good business practice to learn what Google wants.

We're all trying to control the machine and, employing best practice delivers the results you expect from your site. I'm here if you want to drop me a line or give me a call.

Play nice and Google will shower you with digtal star dust.

Webwordslinger.com

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Overwhelmed by Web Site Software?

Check Out osCommerce, an “Everything” Solution

If you’re just in the planning stages of building your web site, you may be overwhelmed by all of the different aspects of site design, construction, administration and marketing. Unless you’ve been occupying web space for a while, all of these different software packages are enough to discourage anyone from launching a web site. Fortunately, the processes involved in creating and running a commercial site (a site that sells a product or service) have been vastly simplified with an OSS (open source software, which means it’s free) called osCommerce.

Create Your Look With osCommerce

Because osCommerce is OSS, it’s being updated and refined constantly by knowledgeable coders and site designers, who add more and more features to simplify your on-line life. osCommerce has it all.

With this one piece of software, you can design the look and feel of your site’s presentation layer using dozens of attractive templates, color selections and your choice of type fonts to give your site the look you have a mind, from quiet and dignified to totally rad and back again. Just click on the template you like, add your text and you’ve developed the site skin in just a couple of hours. Oh, and changing the look of your site is also easy with osCommerce.

The Back Office

osCommerce is much more than an easy-to-use site builder. This powerful tool also enables you to maintain accurate inventory records and shipping records. The package also provides a shopping cart and a consumer-friendly checkout designed to instill confidence and allay fears in buyers. (Read on)

You don’t need programming skills. You don’t even need to know what HTML is. osCommerce provides top-down features to simplify your daily on-line store chores and to facilitate marketing and promotion campaigns to get your new site noticed quickly by search engines and buyers looking for what you sell. osCommerce automatically creates search engine friendly URLs to make sure spiders “get you” when they roam your site.

osCommerce Benefits

In addition to simplifying the design, launch and operation of your web site, osCommerce delivers numerous benefits to new cyber store owners and old veterans at e-commerce.

You can manage products or services with equal ease.

You can add or change content, including product images, with a few clicks of the mouse.

Security is always an issue with black hats (hackers, crackers, etc.) roaming the on-line landscape. Your site is protected automatically with a fully-encrypted, password accessed administrator’s office only you and trusted associates can access. It keeps the kids out of the office.

Contact your buyers by e-mail automatically, generating a shipping invoice that’s delivered to the buyer’s e-mail box as soon as the order is finalized – usually in a matter of minutes.

Manage customer care to ensure that your site’s customer base continues to expand. All orders are automatically added to an infinitely flexible database, enabling you to access customer and order information in seconds.

Print shipping labels directly from the computer screen. Enter the data once and it’s used over and over, saving hours of administrative time.

You can even go multi-lingual to increase the number of shoppers on your site – shoppers from around the globe 24/7. Now that’s sweet.

Want more from this OSS? Regular customers can maintain multiple shipping addresses (great for holiday shopping), complete search functions take visitors to the exact products they’re looking for, develop site analytics to determine your best sellers (then put these items on the “Bestseller’s Page” to drive more traffic to your biggest sellers).

The osCommerce Shopping Experience

The easier it is to make a sale, the more sales you’re going to make and osCommerce makes shopping fun. The osCommerce shopping cart is under the complete control of the visitor who can add and delete products, change quantities and obtain total cost of the items in the cart before arriving at the osCommerce Checkout. Convenient, easy and totally accurate.

The osCommerce Checkout

The checkout is where many sales are lost as buyers abandon their shopping carts because the checkout procedures are complicated, unclear or simply don’t create that level of trust required to enter a credit card number. The osCommerce Checkout is simplicity itself for both buyers and site owners.

The Checkout is also a wonder at keeping records, order information and even an automated, personalized thank you e-mail sent with the order shipment.

Order Fulfillment

Another time-consuming, data processing, keyboard chore cut down to size with osCommerce. You can track order status from the moment the order is placed to delivery to the final destination. Shipping and handling are figured automatically based on your criteria. Induce visitors to buy more by offering free shipping on orders over X dollars. The software even takes care of calculating taxes based on shipping address.

So What Are You Waiting For?

osCommerce is free, enabling you to register your domain name and open up shop in just hours. This powerful tool simplifies site administration so you can spend more time on marketing, promotion and, of course, customer service.

See what site pages attract visitor interest based on osCommerce’s in-depth metrics analysis. This cuts down on “tweaking” time, moving your site to profitability faster and with much less hassle.

From the look of your site, to getting chummy with search engine spiders, and from automated administration to easy order fulfillment, osCommerce will deliver the site traffic you envision – and you don’t have to hire an expensive site designer or purchase expensive site management software.

Looking for software solutions for your site? Drop me a line or give me a call. Let's design the site you envision and grow the business you have in mind - fast!

Webwordslinger.com

SAY CHEEEEEESE!

Product Shots Add Visual Appeal AND Sell Products by answering prospects' questions.

Turn Your Website Into A Photo Gallery

Camera Tips for Killer Product Shots:

Turn Your Website Into a Photo Gallery

First, let’s start with a basic, fundamental principle of advertising: products sell better when people can see them. That’s why every product in your Lands’ End catalog has a nice (really nice) product picture taken by a pro photographer using professional models. Oh, and a Nikon commercial, digital camera that costs more than $2000 before you start adding lenses.

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a pro, use professional models or own a $2K digital camera to improve the quality of your product shots. Even if you take them into Photoshop to enhance them, Photoshop can only work with what you’ve produced so take a lesson on producing product shots that sell the product.

The Only Thing Worse Than No Photo Is a Bad Photo

Pop over to eBay to see this point in action. The better, more professional sellers have nice looking product shots, often ripped from printed product information. First-timers, or sellers that just don’t get it, plop the product on the kitchen table, snap a digital picture, upload and they’re done.

You can actually go to eBay and see some of the most awful photos ever taken. A chimp could take a better snapshot. The point, here, is that if you aren’t going to do it right, don’t do it at all. No picture really is better than a bad product picture.

Staging

Staging involves laying the product out for the shoot. Consider a couple of factors here. First, if the product contains more than one item, i.e. a headset, separate ear cups, a USB adapter and a user’s guide, show the entire package and all of the components in the package.

You usually see this with the unopened pack center stage with the components laid out around the complete package. The reasons for this are obvious. It shows all of the pieces the buyer will receive and it presents an array (display) that looks pretty impressive.

Another staging tip? Use a neutral colored background. If you’re serious, go to a photography store and buy what’s called “seamless.” It’s thick, seamless, matte (no shine) paper used by professionals. It creates a neutral background that keeps the buyers’ attention on the product.

Keep it simple. Don’t dress up the “set” with distracting doo-dads. One thing you can add is a human being – all of one or just a part of one. For example, if you’re selling wet suits for scuba buffs, having your brother wear one of your products is a pretty good idea – as long as you can still shoot against a neutral background! If you plop your brother in the backyard for your product shot, guaranteed visitors will be looking at the above-ground pool behind him.

A hand, foot or face is also a good addition for some product shots because it provides scale. The buyer can see how large the handbag is or how small the MP3 player is. Just make sure that the hand is clean, well-manicured and nail-polish free. Focus on the product, not on the shade of polish she’s wearing.

When staging products, prop them up rather than lay them flat against seamless or some other neutral background. Pick up a children’s block set. You’ll find blocks of different sizes you can use to create a professional looking layout that catches the eye of the web buyer.

Lighting

For some reason, lighting is always a stumbling block to high-quality product shots. Maybe it’s because the photographer simply uses the direct flash from the camera, which is product photo death in most cases.

You usually see a bright, white reflection of the flash off the product, making the product look like it’s glowing, while the rest of the background goes dark. It’s terrible. Looks like a five-year-old took the shoot.

Never use the camera’s built in flash as your sole source of light. It’s fine for holiday snapshots but it does absolutely nothing to make a product look better.

Actually, the best light for many products is natural light, preferably on a partly cloudy day. Photographers call it “gray” or “flat” light and they love it. You will, too. It’s even, it’s just bright enough to light the product without any glare and it creates a neutral “atmosphere” invisible to the viewer. Once again, we want them focused on the product.

If you do shoot indoors, use at least two different light sources. Incandescent lights don’t work. They aren’t bright enough and they cast a yellowish hue. And stay away from florescent bulbs entirely. They give your shots a sickly green hue guaranteed to make the best product look icky.

You can rent lighting at the local photo shop or ask your friends. The best lighting setup? One general fill light on the right, a narrower spot light focused on the product from the left and the camera’s flash from the front. The side lighting mutes the harsh camera flash. The result is a well-lit, clear, professionally looking product photo.

Shooting Tips

The quality of digital cameras is measured in pixels. The more pixels, the sharper the image. Now, you don’t have to go out and buy a top-of-the-line camera. A mid-priced camera, like the Panasonic Lumix FX01, is available for less than $250. If you plan on taking lots of product pictures, a decent camera is well worth the money. And, you can use it to take pictures on the family vacation. Not bad.

Use a tripod. If you don’t have one, borrow one or buy one. You can find just what you’re looking for at less than $35. A tripod not only gives you clearer shots (less hand shaking), it gives you an extra set of hands.

While staging your products, lock down the camera so it covers the field you want – the height and length of the actual, finished picture. Now you can make adjustments to products, glance at the camera screen and readjust as necessary. You don’t have to keep reframing each shot. The camera is locked into position so all you have to do is stage the products and click.

It’s also a good idea to take a backup shot of each product. Adjust the lens aperture or speed a notch. This will give you a couple of exposures from which to choose. Another tip: identify each shot you take by product number, or at least a brief description so you can find a particular shot when you need it. Believe it – this is a real time saver when you start uploading shots to your site.

If you intend to change products often, it might make sense to set up a simple studio somewhere. You’ll need fill and spotlights, a flat surface, seamless paper and blocks to show products in their best light. If all of your photo supplies are in one place and set up to shoot, regular updates of new products on your site won’t be such a time-consuming chore.

You don’t have to be a professional. You don’t have to hire a professional photographer. But you do need some basics to take product shots that actually sell the products – the right lighting, background and a decent digital camera.

Oh, and you’ll also need to practice and experiment. So, take your time, have some fun and save some money by creating your own product shots.

Is your web site visually appealing? Got lots of pix? Product shots, work samples and other helpful visual information. No? Then you've missed a critical opportunity to make a sale. Drop me a line. Pictures sell products and services.

Webwordslinger.com

BOOST YOUR SITE'S CONVERSION RATIO: IT AIN'T BRAIN SURGERY!

IF THEY AIN'T BUYING, WHY MAKE IT HARDER?

SIX STUMBLING BLOCKS TO AVOID - LIKE NOW.

Six Stumbling Blocks to Making That Sale:

Why Make It Harder to Sell?

What if you went to your favorite clothing boutique and discovered the door was locked? A note on the door states “Please enter your access code to enter.” Access code? Never mind, I’ll just go across the street to buy a new tie.

In the real-world retail sector, merchandising is a science. Makers of your favorite breakfast cereal fight for shelf position at the supermarket. They all want the eye-level shelf because that’s where most shoppers look first. The boxes of cereal on the top and bottom shelves don’t move as fast because of shelf placement.

And how about those displays of soda and hot dog buns you see at the end of each supermarket aisle. This is prime selling floor real estate and food makers pay the store for these prized locations. Same with all the gum, candy and other “impulse” items by the checkout. Those products are there because people waiting to get checked out buy them on impulse. “Oh, I deserve a treat,” so a Mr. Goodbar gets tossed into the shopping cart along with this week’s fabulous edition of The National Enquirer. The buying activities of store shoppers are studied, critiqued, focus-grouped-to-death, analyzed, utilized and ultimately, the entire store is arranged to generate more sales.

Well, the same principles apply to website design. The design of your website can make it easier or harder for a visitor to make a purchase. Here are six stumbling blocks you can remove from your site today to see your conversion ratios improve in a matter of days. Really.

1. Eliminate the member log-in from the home page. You see this a lot and you wonder what the site designer was thinking. When most visitors see a log-in box, they know they’re giving up their email addresses to gain access to the goodies on your site. And they expect the back sell – the sell that takes place once a visitor opts in.

But it makes no sense to place the opt in log-in on the home page because visitors don’t even know what their opting for yet. Instead, use the home page to entice the visitor deeper into the site. Show visitors that by opting in they get a valuable service or good information – free. In other words, prove the worthiness of site information before making the pitch for an opt-in.

2. Provide good information free. And plenty of it. Articles, stories, pictures of products in use embedded in informational content lends credibility to you, the site and the product.

Often times, buyers don’t know what they don’t know. They’re trying to learn as they window shop and you’re going to teach them by providing good informational content about product pros and cons. You want the buyer to purchase the right product. It saves time, money and the hassles of returns so teach and sell on your site. It’s a potent combination. And it works, too.

3. Make it easy to find the right item. There are two ways to do this. Use both.

There’s a web design dictum: The fewer the number of clicks the more sales. Absolutely true. The easier it is to make a purchase the more purchases will be made so making it easy to find a specific item, or to browse items, is essential.

Most sites use a “Products” link off the navigation bar, which works fine if you only sell a few items. This drill down screen can also be used as a product category directory with links taking the visitor to a specific product ‘section’ of the site. This is especially useful for companies that market diverse inventory.

However, even this drill-down design requires some discretionary thought on the part of the site visitor, and if seems like a hassle, a lot of visitors will get tired of endless clicks and move on to a simpler site.

The second option – and frankly a must-have in this era of site interactivity – is a ‘Site Search’ feature. By far the fastest way to find a specific item by name, by make, model number or any number of other search criteria. A ‘site search’ feature contributes to the reason most web shoppers shop online – convenience.

Everything – everything – about your site should point to ease of use, accessibility, functionality and moving the visitor through the purchase cycle without so much as a blip.

4. Add shopping cart convenience. Even if you sell a limited number of items, offer visitors the opportunity to place items in their digital shopping carts – even if it’s one item.

The shopping cart should allow the visitor to:

• Review items purchased.
• Change quantities.
• Delete items.
• See the total cost of items in the cart.
• See the shipping and handling costs for the items in the cart.

Also, throughout the purchase cycle, reassure the buyer by providing prompts on each page. A perfect example: a link to the “Check-Out” on every page – prominently displayed. Easy, easy, easy. Shoppers want convenience and reassurance that “they’re doing it right.”

5. Check out your checkout. Remember that number of clicks axiom from above? This is doubly true during the checkout sequence. Simplify the process for first-time buyers by limiting the number of pages (clicks) required to “get outta here.”

Simultaneously, provide reassurances that the buyer is doing it right. If a piece of information hasn’t been entered properly, return to the form page and tell the visitor what needs changing. Don’t make them figure out what they did incorrectly. Tell them so they can fix it and get outta here.

Provide a final review page of all order information as entered by the buyer. Even the most seasoned web buyer sits at the monitor reviewing everything – name, address, credit card number, quantities and so on. It’s so much easier to get it right the first time than to hassle with returns or unfulfilled orders because of some confusion.

Finally, there needs to be some trust building going on during the checkout sequence. Knowledgeable buyers look for security logos from companies like VeriSign. They also look at the address box of their browser to make sure there’s an ‘s’ in ‘https’ indicating a secure site. Provide buyers with assurances that all is secure just before they click the ‘Submit Order’ button.

6. Deliver an immediate order confirmation. As part of the checkout sequence, buyers provided an email address. Once the buyer has made the purchase an auto-responder should be generated describing all details of the purchase, including tracking information. This assures buyers, cuts down on customer care calls and enables quick resolution of any customer complaint. (Good customer care is a basic building block of any retail business, online or in the real world.)

It’s simple, or at least it should be. The first time buyers are gently guided through the purchase cycle, reassured at every stage and in control, and regulars should have the convenience of providing all information required for a one-click checkout. Ship it here. You’ve got my credit card. I’ve got other things to do. Convenience. That’s what today’s web buyers want.

Think of it this way: a confused customer is a gone customer.

Yeah, I know, it sounds like a lot of gibberish until YOU get down to business. If you have a web biz or you're planning to launch one( who isn't), sweat the details. Call me and let's solve problems before they become problems.

Later,

webwordslinger.com

Website Features: What Do You Really Need?

What website features do visitors expect? You decide.

You just registered your domain name. You’re one step closer to that dream of your own website and finally, financial freedom. But now what? Well, if you’ve signed on with a good web host (one who values your site’s success because it ultimately means the web hosting company’s success) you’ve got a box full of goodies to play with in designing your website.

You don’t need a pricey site designer. But you do have to decide on what your website will display and which features will be left out. There are lots of options which means lots of decisions – and there are pros and cons to each one.

A Secure Checkout

Pros: If you sell a product or service, and you accept payment over the web, you don’t have a choice. You must have a secure checkout with SSL encryption to ensure that sensitive personal information isn’t snared by a bad guy. The alternative is to use PayPal or some other payment service but the more payment options you offer, the more your offerings will move out of the warehouse.

Cons: Cost, for one. If your web host doesn’t provide free checkout software, like osCommerce, it could cost you a bundle. On the other hand, people want to pay with credit cards as long as they believe the transaction is secure.

Also, opening a merchant account – one that allows you to accept credit card orders – is going to cost you – sign-up fees, per charge fees and a percentage of every sale, so if you’re operating on tightrope margins, these additional percentages may mean the difference between a viable business and one that shuts down after three weeks.

Web hosts should offer free checkout software. And, a premium service will let your site piggyback on the host’s SSL certificate, saving time and money.

A Blog

Pros: Blogs are great for keeping a site fresh with new content. A closed blog (one in which posts are limited to your control) is easiest to maintain. They’re also useful for a couple of other reasons. First, it’s easy to post new content when you have a blog module as part of your site’s infrastructure so you can update daily with a couple of clicks.

Blogs also create site communities. Once a reader begins a thread, others follow the lead and in no time, you’ll discover the same people conducting conversations and debate on your blog. These are visitors who return to your site often. A very good thing.

Finally, blog software should come free as part of your tool kit. If it doesn’t, look for another web host that does offer freebies by the pound at a reasonable price. They’re out there.

Cons: Conversely, if you allow visiting readers to leave comments to your posts, maintenance may become a problem. There’s always some foul-mouthed, trouble-maker who stirs up more interest in his online antics than the topic at hand. As the boss of the blog, you can block these distractions, but that doesn’t eliminate the need to monitor threads. You want an active blog but you also have to maintain it with regular posts and constant oversight of readers’ comments. This means part of your day will be used up in editorial duties, a real con.

Google AdWords

Pros: There are thousands of site owners who create websites for no other reason than to generate PPC (pay-per-click) revenues. They put up a little content, stuff each page with AdWords skyscrapers and wait for the money to roll in. And it does. Some of these site owners see $200 - $300 a month in click-through revenue per site, and if they maintain 10 such sites, it starts to add up to some real “walkin’ ‘round” money.

AdWords is a simple, easy-to-manage way to monetize a new site quickly. You only pay when search engine users click on your link so you’re not wasting money.

Cons: I don’t care how well designed a website is, AdWords – those cheesy little blue links on the top, bottom or side of a web page, diminish the perception of quality in the mind of the visitor. And as we’ve said many times in this blog, on the W3 perception is reality.

If your law firm maintains a website (and it should) you want to project a professional, positive image, not the Lionel Hutz “I Can’t Believe It’s A Law Firm” image.

Another con: click fraud. A competitor can just click on your AdWords link and have all of her friends do the same for five minutes a day. Your AdWords budget gets eaten up by black hat tactics and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. If you can prove click fraud, Google will give you credit, but it’s up to you to prove the fraud. Google get’s paid whether the click is licit or a scam.

Affiliate Links

Pros: A great way to make cash fast. Affiliates are companies into which you enter agreements. You agree to display the mother company’s logo and link on your site and, in return, you receive payment based on the number of visitors to your site who click on the link and perform some action. For example, put up an eBay link and collect $35 a head plus a nickel for each bid one of your referrals places.

Get a couple of hundred eBay buyers placing bids everyday and that money can add nicely to your site’s revenue stream. Also a great way to monetize a site quickly.

Cons: Same dealeo as Google AdWords. If you access a site jam packed with affiliate links, it doesn’t add much to the process of building visitor trust. The site looks cluttered and cheap.

More negative news: each one of those affiliate links takes up space that could be used to sell your products or services.

And finally, each one of those affiliate links is a ticket off your site. With a click, they’re off looking at something on an affiliate site. You may pick up a few bucks a month in affiliate revenue, but you aren’t making the real money you make selling your own goods or services.

One suggestion: As we said, affiliates do generate cash and fast, so if you’re runnin’ on empty, add affiliate links to a single page with a navigation link labeled “Our Partners,” “Our Favorites,” or “Our Picks.”

Pictures and Other Images

Pros: Pictures sell more than words. Online buyers want to see what they’re paying for and, yes, one good product picture is worth a thousand words. So you will sell more with high-quality pictures.

Carts and graphs are useful for providing a lot of information in a small space.

Cons: Unless you own a decent digital camera and unless you know how to dress a set (the place where the product will be shot) and you know that the product should be lit from at least three directions, don’t use product pictures that you take yourself.

Log on to eBay and look at the range of quality of product pictures. Some are ripped from the web so they look okay. But some are nothing more than a front-on flash that blows out the object to a hot white blur floating against a blacked out background. Awful stuff, and not a good selling point.

If you can get product pictures from your wholesaler’s marketing department you’re all set. If not, have those pictures taken by a professional using a hi-resolution camera, lit properly and attractively staged. It’ll cost you some cash but it’s a lot better than using home-grown product pictures that don’t do justice to the product.

Charts and graphs should also be professionally done, unless you know how to create images in Photoshop or some other image manipulation software.

The Choices You Make Now…

…will often determine the short- and long-term success of your site. And remember, your site will evolve. You may start out using AdWords until your site is pulling in enough traffic to make up the lost AdWords revenue. Then, you drop AdWords and…

… your site takes on a much cleaner, more professional look.

Looking for site solutions, more traffic and improved site performance? Visit Webwordslinger.com for a free site analysis. Hey, you can't beat the price and no strings attached, either. Cool.