Like it or not, we all live in Google’s world. Of course, not every business is dependent on Google. Many are, and many more would like to be. If you could get top organic rankings on Google, you’d be living high off the hog. If that’s the case, you only have two options. Cross your… Read More »
Let’s start with a gratuitous Science Fiction reference. In Dune, the author Frank Herbert states “A beginning is a time for taking the most delicate care.” Since by all reports as many as 19 out of 20 new businesses fail in the first 5 years, that is evidently true. There are a lot of pieces… Read More »
The internet has become, in less than 30 years, a vital part of our lives. If our internet access goes down, many of us are severely hampered trying to get business done, not to speak of the really important things like catching up on the latest memes and cat videos. Most of the time it… Read More »
At the risk of offending the shade of Humphrey Bogart (“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, 1948), I thought I’d dramatize an apparently common attitude towards website maintenance: “Maintenance?! We ain’t got no maintenance! We don’t need no maintenance! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ maintenance!” Well, in most cases, you DO need… Read More »
As I said in my last blog, “unbranded organic searches” is the holy grail of marketing for many businesses. That’s people finding you through search, who have never heard of you. They are looking for what you do or sell or offer. Or the solution to the problem you solve. There are many situations where… Read More »
The line made famous by Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards, in the original Top Gun movie: “We have the need… the need for speed” very much applies to websites. Did you know that after more than 20 years of secretiveness, Google in the last year revealed what the top 3 ranking factors are? They are… Read More »
As I said in my last blog, “unbranded organic searches” is the holy grail of marketing for many businesses. That’s people finding you through search, who have never heard of you. They are looking for what you do or sell or offer. Or the solution to the problem you solve. There are many situations where… Read More »
For a large number of businesses, “unbranded organic traffic” is the holy grail of marketing. This means visitors to your website found it, not by searching for your company name, but by searching for descriptive terms such as “Tampa lawyer” or “industrial cleaners near me.” That comes from search engine rankings. If you can get… Read More »
Reviews are not a new invention. I’m sure if you translated Greek scrolls you’d find “Socrates really wows them when he speaks. Highly recommended!” There are reasons why reviews are a timeless route to more business. THIRD-PARTY ENDORSEMENTS Excuse me if I’m doing this at an idiot-simple level. The most important things are simple. Reviews… Read More »
Talking about the online store checkout process. There’s a lot to know. Last week we got as far as displaying the basket contents. Now the rubber meets the road. The last few yards, where you are going to lose 90% of those you lose. This is where there is no substitute for getting inside the… Read More »
If you have or are thinking about developing an online store, you should know just how important the checkout process is. Most orders put into shopping carts are never completed. The order is abandoned somewhere during the process before the visitor becomes a customer and actually pays. In some stores, it is so bad that… Read More »
What is called “The User Experience” is immensely important in marketing. Companies with larger marketing staffs often have someone who works on nothing else. What is it? This is the experience someone has when they use your website or another marketing item. Like any experience, it can be good or bad, boring or exciting, enlightening,… Read More »
There are a lot of very clever people trying to sell you marketing services. After all, they are marketers and marketers market. First and foremost, they market themselves. Why do people so often purchase great-sounding marketing services only to be severely disappointed? A good portion of this is hocus-pocus. They don’t really know what they… Read More »
Let’s reduce marketing to a very simple formula: Find out what people want. Let them know you’ve got it. There really isn’t much more to it than that. Of course, you have to know who “they” are, and you have to work out how to communicate so they get the message. But from this grand… Read More »
All website developers are not the same. “Sure”, you say. “Tell me something I don’t know.” How about this: You probably don’t know just how different they are – and why this matters to you. This article could also be called “How to waste money and not get what you wanted in a website.” Read… Read More »
