Impact Web Results

If you talk to enough Internet Marketing consultants and experts, eventually you will begin to develop the notion that many people are searching hard for the “killer” internet marketing technique. A technique that is so powerful that it will propel their website straight to top position of the search engines. Once there, they will receive huge traffic, hefty sales and enjoy immense profits.

Because so many people are out there looking for the big pie in the sky solution to this marketing problem, people assume that a unique solution exists. And they are looking hard for it.

First it was Search Engine Optimization which ignited a fire storm of “optimization experts”. Then came the targeted analytics with the detailed reports on every metric you can imagine that might hold some nugget of valuable information. This was followed by the Social Media Web 2.0 buzz.

This led to an explosion of social media websites and internet friends.

More recently blogging has become very popular. It seems to be the perfect adjunct to a well designed website. A blog adds credibility to your web presence and it can generate a good flow of traffic to your website.

So what will be the next big thing?

How about twitter and micro bloging? I don’t know, but I can tell you that a well planned, orchestrated online and offline marketing campaign is still very effective. The gold is still in the “list” and email marketing is seeing a resurgence in use and effectiveness.

That is what makes Internet Marketing so exciting. Every new client project I work on brings new challenges and thus new horizons. And on the other side of the equation, the major search engines are constantly changing their rules to reflect their evolving standards and expectations from web developers.

The only thing that seems constant on the internet is change. Suggesting that a final solution exists for any form of marketing is, well, short sited. Technology is changing, software is evolving and internet users expectations are keeping pace. The beauty of the Internet as a social and commercial space is its speed of transformation.

Sure, it’s a huge task just to keep pace with the dizzying array of advances week after week. And it can be discouraging at times, but the internet will continue to evolve. Human nature, now that’s more of a constant. People want a good internet experience, information on the product or service presented clearly, and value for their money. Timeless values that can be used to guide your business websites design.

Ready to Get More Results from your Business Website?

Bill Miller

Web designer and Internet Marketer

www.ImpactWebResults.com

When the Internet was opened to everyone, it became an important part of our every day lives.   Many business owners wanted to get a  presence right away.  In the late 1990s and beyond the year 2000, most small to medium-sized businesses wanted to get their own site to boost profits quickly.

Although this was a smart move for virtually every business, it frequently did not bring the desired results.  So what’s the problem?  Why do most business websites fail?

Simple.

Most business websites are created by web artists who create a beautiful visual presence that inspires their business owner clients and promises an impressive image online.  The thinking goes that this beautiful website is certain to bring in many visitors and rack up enormous sales.

Image is helpful, but unfortunately it is not everything.  Now that the Internet and the World Wide Web are playing an even greater role in the lives of the everyday customer, having a business website is incredibly important.

Your business site should look great.  Image does help.  Customers are more likely to enter a real-world store if the building looks nice and the entrance is inviting.  But what if that nice looking restaurant was very difficult to navigate once the customer is inside?  What if no one is ready and waiting to greet the customer and lead the customer to a table?  What if the menus are unavailable or poorly organized?  I suspect that business would suffer and customers may look to dine elsewhere.

As you might imagine, the same rules apply to the business web site.  An effective business site must look nice AND channel  your customers with effective and proven marketing built into the design.  And perhaps more importantly an effective business site must include lots of behind the scenes elements that encourage major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN to redirect customers to your business website.

While graphics are important they are not essential.  There are many examples of websites that are commercially successful but not so visually appealing.  How can this be?

The secret lies in understanding how the search engines really work…they can only read text!  Yep, the search engines skip right over your beautiful blue box with the shading and perfectly placed text because the artist designer created a “graphic element” that a human can read and appreciate, but not a search engine.

The internet is littered with tens of thousands of websites that artists have designed for hefty fees that receive little or no traffic.  And another secret is that the owners of these websites don’t even know that the search engines are “blind” to these beautiful websites.

So what is the answer?  The best approach is to design your website for humans AND search engines.  This means that beautiful graphics may not be the best approach for your business website.  After all your goal is to attract and convert visitors to customers, right?  Well then imbedded search engine friendly text with high keyword density is the food of the search engine.

I have reviewed many business websites and I find the most basic mistakes all too frequently.  The meta command for the website description is totally blank.  And the keyword meta tag is blank too.  The keywords are buried in a graphic and there is no alt tag loaded with a description of the graphic or photo.

The designer has not provided any food for the search engine bot.  No way for google, yahoo or msn to index the website since all of the content is graphical.  Consequently, the website receives a traffic rank of “no data”, and no traffic is redirected by the powerful search engines.

I can provide a free evaluation of your website and show you the basic design elements that have been overlooked or omitted.  We can develop a plan to convert the graphical elements into text that both humans and search engines can feast on.  Text that is keyword rich with long tail keyword phrases that surfers have frequently typed into search engines.  This approach will entice the search engines to index your website and turn on the flow of free traffic.

Ready to Get More Results from your Business website?

Bill Miller
Web designer and Internet Marketer
www.ImpactWebResults.com