SEO & Online Marketing

Archive for the ‘business’ Category

Your First Business Website

Posted: March 8th, 2013 Author: Michael Regan Posted in business, marketing, sales, web design | No Comments »

For many new small businesses getting their first website is a confusing and often frustrating adventure. DYI or professional design? Which hosting service? How much should I pay?

For personal service businesses, DYI is a good option. Services like http://www.weebly.com/ offer a wide variety of templates and design options. You still need to pay to register your own domain name, but the fee is very reasonable.

If you are doing online marketing or selling online a professionally is your best option. There are a number of things you should do before you hire a web developer that will help reduce the cost and make the experience less onerous.

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Don’t Fail the Truth Test

Posted: August 3rd, 2012 Author: Michael Regan Posted in branding, business, commentary, marketing, SEM | No Comments »

This week my wife and I had a short get-away. There are so many great spots to visit on Vancouver Island, and most are within a two or three hour drive of where we live. For this get-away we chose to go to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. And, based largely on their website, we chose to stay at the the Glen Lyon Inn.

Unfortunately, we didn’t book ahead, and they were full by the time we got there.

We May Have Dodged A Bullet

We went back to the Glen Lyon Inn for dinner. The photo of their restaurant http://www.glenlyoninn.com/dining.html) on the website showed a relatively ‘up scale’ restaurant, with fine china and men in suites and women in dresses. We were concerned there may have been a dress code, but it was our anniversary and we wanted something a little special, so we decided to try it. We needn’t have worried!!

The restaurant was nothing like the picture

No table cloths, no high back chairs, no fine china, and nothing on the menu that came close to the meal depicted in their picture. Certainly, no dress code. In fact, the image is from Getty Images and appears on a number of websites. ( I wonder if they paid to use the image? )

Marketing Take Away

While it is OK to show your business in its best light on your website. Don’t be misleading.

In the age of Yelp, TriAdvisor and Facebook you will be found out. By trying to deceive me with there restaurant picture, they have gotten a bad review on Yelp (one of two bad reviews), Google and Trip Advisor, plus this blog post.

Show your business in its best light – but don’t cross the line and try and deceive your potential customers.
Never piss off a web designer – especially on his anniversary

BTW: A “shout out” to Tiny Eye for finding the copies of the image online.

4 Things For Better Online Marketing

Posted: April 19th, 2012 Author: Michael Regan Posted in business, marketing, web design | No Comments »

Social media marketing sites such as Groupon and Living Social are becoming very popular. Many small businesses are using these sites to drive traffic to their website. Given the high cost of using these services, mainly in ‘lost opportunity costs’, it is very important that small businesses, in particular, plan properly.

Unfortunately, social marketing services almost make it too easy. A fill in a few forms and it is done – just sit back and wait for the traffic. However, as with most things, a little planning before hand can greatly improve your selling experience.

However, the basics of all online marketing still apply. Whether you are using Pay Per Click or running social media marketing campaign you need do these four thing:
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Creating A Microsite

Posted: September 15th, 2011 Author: Michael Regan Posted in analytics, business, SEM, SEO, SERP | No Comments »

It has been a long time since I posted, but this is important, so I thought a quick post was in order.

I created my first micro site today.

Micro sites are small sites that point back to your main site. I know some supposed SEO experts that say they are a good idea. The theory being the more links to your site the better. That is pure BUNK.

The search engines are getting very good at detecting when they are being manipulated. But even if search engines didn’t detect that these sites were all owned by the same person, their value is still questionable. They are either low value sites with little content that pass no ‘link juice’ or high value sites with great content that only pass some of their ‘link juice’. Why not put all those great content on the main site and get all the ‘link juice’.

So when do you use a Micro Site?

Here is my situation.

I just signed a client, Section 8 Snowsport. They are busily getting ready for a major ski and snowboarding trade show in London. ( Who knew the UK was home to skiing trade shows? ) With very little time to generate any buzz, I am trying an ‘end run.

I registered the name www.section8atmetrosnow.com and made a ‘quick and dirty’ page from content found on the main website. There is very little competition for the shows name ‘Metro Snow’, so hopefully I can get some traction in the search engines before the show is over.

These are my rules for using a micro site.

Short duration – just until the show closes
Keyword rich URL
Low production costs

Client or Customer?

Posted: May 17th, 2011 Author: Michael Regan Posted in business, commentary, marketing | No Comments »

I have just started reading Jay Abraham’s book “Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got”. Near the beginning of the book he makes the distinction between ‘client’ and ‘customer’. In the first chapter he quotes Webster’s Dictionary:

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Marketing Tip – Be Easy to Find

Posted: May 9th, 2011 Author: Michael Regan Posted in business, marketing, SEM | No Comments »

I have been working on a directory and interactive map for local tourism related businesses. The directory is just a simple ‘no frills’ directory, the map has the name and location of the business.

For a variety of reasons I am creating the map manually. Which means I need to get the address for each business being listed. To my amazement, many businesses, particularly restaurants and pubs, don’t have there address on the Home page. Or, if they do it is below the fold, so I have to search for it.

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Tracking Page Speed in Google Analytics

Posted: May 7th, 2011 Author: Michael Regan Posted in analytics, business, Google, SEO | No Comments »

Google has confirmed that page load speed is one of the 200+ variables that contribute to the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). While there are a number of sites that will tell you how fast your site loads to your location, it would be nice to see how long it takes your site to reach your customers. In addition, once your site gets past a few pages, tracking the load speed of each page become a REAL PAIN.

Google Analytics Site Speed metric has changed that.

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Where In the World Are You

Posted: February 24th, 2011 Author: Michael Regan Posted in branding, business, Google, SEM | No Comments »

I was adding some information to a client’s. The client runs a bed and breakfast in a rural setting and I was adding the locations of restaurants and pubs near their location to their Google map. An easy job, if somewhat boring.

Adding this information requires getting the latitude and longitude of each location. An application at itouchmap.com makes this a simple operation. One option is to put in the address and it will spit out the latitude and longitude.

Problem #1 – the two most popular local pubs didn’t have their address prominently displayed on their websites. In one case the address was there, but way down on the page. In the second case the address was not on the Home page – but on a inner page.

Problem #2 – In both cases the addresses was not found in Google maps. They were using a local variant of the street address ‘Island Hyway S.’. Google shows the same road as ‘Island Hyway W.’ (Which is strange since it is to the East of the ‘Inland Island Hyway’. )

To be fair to Google Maps – it will actually find the right address if you enter the closest town. However, it displays the address as ‘Island Hyway W.’.

Should you be a slave to Google Maps? (MapQuest couldn’t find the address at all.) I guess it depends on whether you want you want only local people to find you?

Getting The Top SERP Just Got Harder

Posted: October 31st, 2010 Author: Michael Regan Posted in business, Google, search, SEO, SERP | No Comments »

On Oct 27th Google announced a major change in local search results. The changes give more prominence to the Google Places results.

Like the old map search results, the Places results are placed near the top of the page. The map overlay has been enlarged and placed in the right column, previously reserved for Adwords (PPC). Surprisingly, the map overlays the PPC, so as you scroll down the page – the top PPC listings are hidden ‘behind’ the map.
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Archive for the ‘business’ Category

We May Have Dodged A Bullet

The restaurant was nothing like the picture

Marketing Take Away

So when do you use a Micro Site?