Website-ROI-Guy.com

If they know my website name, why do they search on it?

I was asked yesterday why people search for a domain name to find somebody's web site.  "If they know the web address, why do they search on it?"

It's simple.  Many people have a search engine default page come up when they open a web browser.  Instead of typing in the URL into the address bar.

 

They type it into the search querie box.

I would include those as "direct traffic" counts.  Direct traffic is when someone types in your web address, as opposed to traffic that comes from search engines or referral sites.

-- Kurt

Fun With ROI

Here's a fun little post to end the week - something I learned while looking up other things.

A new survey by AskMen.com and a hair coloring company tries to answer the age-old question, "Blond or Brunette?"

According to their survey of 4,000 men ages 18-34, about 2/3 would rather spend their money on a date with a brunette than a blonde.  But here's what caught the Website ROI Guy's eye, 63% claimed they have a "better ROI" with a brunette!

I wonder how we can make this apply to websites?

I wonder what Mrs. Website ROI Guy will have to say about this?

There are other interesting statistics, but they don't really apply to ROI.  So I won't even be reading that stuff...probably.

-- Kurt

New Search Engine Ranking Tool

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their websites is not checking any metrics and making proper decisions.  One set of metrics you should follow is your page rank for coveted keywords across multiple search engines.  You need to know this stuff!  If the search engines don't rank you, then your prospects won't find you.  (We'll discuss how to define the best lists of keywords another time.)

One of the first keywords, however, might be your name, your organization's name or your web address.  It's a unique set of text and one you probably don't get alot of competition on, so it's a good term to search when you initially begin optimizing your site for search engines.  You can go to Google or Yahoo! and easily check your name, company name, product name or site URL.

Ultimately, you will want to be found for additional terms.  Good SEO practices dictate that you'll optimize a page for just a handful of key words and phrases, but your whole site might ultimately have dozens or even hundreds of keywords.  You could check each keyword by hand and list the rank and page it appears on in a spreadsheet, but that can be really time consuming.

A new Firefox browser plug-in will make the job much easier and it's FREE!  Search engine optimization expert Aaron Wall has come out with Rank Checker.  I've been testing it and I like it.  It's not as robust as some of the other reporting tools we use, but I dare say it's much better than what most people are doing right now.

Simply download the plug-in (you'll have to download the browser first if you're not using Firefox), add your keywords and hit the Start button.  You'll see where you rank in the top 200 for Google, Yahoo! or MSN.

You can save these reports as "presets" and run them again.  Rank Checker will add new information to older reports so you can follow trends.  Use different presets for different websites or categories within a website.  You can export your information to csv files, which also helps when creating a report for customers or your boss.  You can also set up scheduled tasks so your reports run in the background automatically - daily, weekly, monthly or even customize it.

I think you'll benefit from using this tool on a regular basis.  Use it to measure the progress of optimizing your site with search engines and tweaking your efforts.  But you can use it for competitive analysis, checking your competitor's rank for their search terms and the ones you covet the most.  A key element to any successful web site strategy is know where you rank on the biggest search engines. 

-- Kurt Scholle, the Website ROI Guy.

Blogs You Should Read

I could read blogs all day long.  I used to dismiss them until I learned at a Crain's Chicago luncheon several years ago just how valuable they are for marketing and building your personal or business brand.  I had thought of them more as people discussing their grunge rock garage band or how often their cat throws up.  And to be certain, many blogs are crap.  But, just as you gain knowledge by reading magazines or related books (see my list at the right -->) or attending seminars or enrolling in a course, blogs can provide you with timely information and also the ability to join in a conversation.

My blog - this blog - has been beneficial in building my business.  I get great feedback all the time that the website tips and tricks I've discussed are useful and successful.

So, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite blogs.  Some are great for specific tips and techniques.  Others are great for the full perspective.  They are all blogs you should read.

Matt Cutts is considered one of the biggest experts on Google (He works there) but he has other great information on search in general and many things tech.

Aaron Wall wrote one of the best books on Search Engine Optimization and continues to pump out information on his blog.

Drew McLellan's Drew's Marketing Minute was recently voted one of the top blogs by Marketing Profs.

Michelle MacPhearson is a social marketing diva.  Social marketing is becoming more and more popular for building website traffic and product buzz.  She provides pretty good information and is constantly experimenting with new techniques.

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing usually has very good content, and studying his blog is a great way to learn about blogging.  He recently posted on Google Shortcuts; ways of searching for information about websites.  These are great ways to get information about your site or a competitor's.

Finally, if you want to search for blogs of a certain subject or interest, try Zuula.  You'll be able to find a number of blogs that interest you.  Or, click on BlogCatalog over in the right margin-->

Happy blog reading!

-- Kurt

Google Share Continues to Rise

More than 2 out of every 3 online searches are done on Google - an all time high.

Hitwise sampled 10 million online users and found that 67.25% of searches are done on Google.  Yahoo! came in a distant second at 20.29%, MSN 5.25% and Ask had a 4.09% share.

Google is obviously the place to be when it comes to online marketing and visibility, but there are options with the other search engines, especially those that serve a specific market of interest.  Don't ignore the rest!  People will find you on them and help build your website ROI.

-- Kurt - The Web Site ROI Guy

Lousy Customer Service Kills Conversion & Repeat Business

My wife bagged her first deer last week.

We were driving south on Rt 61 just north of Muscatine, Iowa.  Julie was going 65mph in my Grand Cherokee when all of the sudden BLAM!

A 300-pound doe ran into the side of the car!

After the initial shock, we pulled around to a safe spot in the median and called our insurance company, Country Insurance.  Our new agent was great - she has a background in customer service.  We called the claim hotline and got the ball rolling.  We called the sheriff and he filled out an accident report quickly.

The car was drivable and we returned home after the weekend.  The adjuster responded to calls immediately, showed up within 20 minutes of when he said he would and issued a check on the spot!

He even circled the name and number of the woman to call to arrange the rental car while my Jeep was in the shop; Audrey Krug at Country Insurance.

I called her on Friday.  Her voicemail said she works Sunday-Thursday.  I asked her to call me Sunday to arrange a rental car for when I dropped off the Jeep on Monday.  I only had time Monday morning to drop off the car. 

She didn't call Sunday.

I called her Monday morning.  Her voicemail said she was on another line.  I left a message to call my cell as I was going to drop off the car in an hour or so.

Audrey didn't call.

My insurance has a provision for reimbursement, so I arranged a car at the repair shop and went on my way.  An hour later, I get a call from Enterprise saying that they had a car for me.  "Too late." I said.  "I've been calling Audrey since Thursday.  I had to drop the car off this morning."

He persisted, saying that I'll have to front the money for the car before getting reimbursed.  With them, Country Insurance would pay the bill for me.

Which just irritated me even more.  Audrey Krug is sleeping in some cubicle at Country Insurance and her failure to pick up the phone is costing me the aggravation of paying for the rental car in advance until I can be reimbursed.

I would have hoped that someone from Country Insurance would have called to follow up or apologize.

Audrey still hasn't called. 

She must be a sound sleeper.

This isolated case isn't enough for me to switch carriers, but it comes on the heels of a bad experience with our former Country Insurance agent, Liz, who seemed more intent on promoting her side business (bookkeeping) than in sending quotes we had requested.

We waited months for those.

Liz must be a sound sleeper.

Or maybe she was hybernating.

So our brand loyalty to Country Company is not particularly strong.

Our new Country agent, Kelli, got us the quotes within 24 hours.  If we stay with Country, it will be because of her efforts.  She rocks.

But the lesson here is to constantly monitor your customer service and the impressions you leave with prospects and customers.  Occasionally, test your systems.  Sign up for stuff on your website, check your links, make sure your content is fresh.  Order something from yourself.  Test your customer service, if you have it.

Little stuff can kill a sale or even a callout like newsletter subscriptions, which might ultimately lead to a sale.

It's one of the first things we do when we begin a website audit or assessment for our Web Asylum clients.  We fill out the 'request more information' links, sign up for e-zines, etc.  Hopefully, your web site callouts work flawlessly.

It's all part of your brand!

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I try not to be too salesy here, but if you'd like a complimentary website assessment or a report on search engine rankings for your chosen keywords or help with your site strategy, content, callouts or marketing, please email me or call (630) 482-9323.

You can also sign up for our free course on the "5 Biggest Mistakes Most People Make With Their Website."  We'll send you a chapter a day via email.  Do you know the common mistakes people make that reduces website traffic and kills conversion rates?  You will learn how to acheive a better web site ROI.

-- Kurt Scholle, the Website ROI Guy.
Web Asylum, Inc. founder

People Buy What They Want, Not What They Need

Here's something I learned while looking up other things. 

A guy is blogging today about Internet marketing being all about selling benefits; of creating new needs and wants.  And then goes further to say that you can reinforce those needs by selling them ideals. (EG: a Hummer is not just transportation, it's a coveted lifestyle or wearing Nike jogging shoes does not necessarily mean that you are a runner)

He quotes William Feather, "The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men - the man he is and the man he wants to be."

I assume that applies to women, as well.

I find that interesting, especially in light of something i read last week and wrote down in my journal: "People buy what they WANT, not what they NEED.  Find out what they are buying and convince them to buy from you."

That's a great perspective regardless of whether you're selling online or now.

Feathers' quote was not made with the Internet in mind.  Depending on the source, William Feathers died in either 1976 or 1981.  And while I like the quote above, I like this one just as much, "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."  Perseverance and frequency of message are important to (website) success.

Feathers is also quoted as saying, "Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious."  We'll comment on that in a future post!

-- Kurt Scholle

Multiple Domains - When to Use Them

I was recently asked about using multiple website domain names that point to the same website.  The person I spoke with said that they had been told that using a name, like MaryJones.com was not as effective with search engines as something that described their business, such as ElderLaw.com.

If you're trying to build your personal brand, the MaryJones.com URL is the way to go.  You can still optimize it for search engines and pay-per-click and be found both ways.  This may be a problem if your name is hard to spell.  (EG: FredWiesznewski.com) But, maybe you think people will remember your service better at the next trade show, chamber function or on a local billboard if you go the ElderLaw route.

We've worked with a number of public speakers and most of them use their name as their website address - they are almost always building their personal brand.  But, if they prefer to be known as the Green Industry Speaker, then GreenIndustrySpeaker.com may be the way to go.

It is possible to have several domains point to one site, but have the URL appear as what was typed in.  We built a site for Kunkel Team Realtors and you can get there by typing in KunkelTeamRealtors.com.  But the actual site URL is NapervillePlainfieldRealEstate.com, which is very keyword-rich for their market.  That URL is only found through search engines.  Tom & Kelley Kunkel use the KunkelTeamRealtors.com URL in all other marketing from yard signs and magazine ads  to business cards and email addresses.  When people type that into their browser, that is the address they see.

Al Lautenslager, who co-wrote the bestselling book "Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days," was doing a lot of radio/TV/newspaper interviews and had followup and ordering information on his Market-For-Profits.com website.  He could easily have put up a niche site to support the book, but felt that many people would mis-spell "guerrilla."  And saying "market dash for dash profits dot com" on the air was a mouthful, so he registered the domain gm30.com.

Sometimes you will want to use a different URL to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign or to credit a joint venture partner for traffic to your site.  You can use applications called "ad trackers" that document the number of times a certain URL is typed and the viewer forwarded to a landing page.  You can assign different URLs to different campaigns, such as "LowCostWidgets.com" to a print ad you're running and "CheapWidgets.com" to a joint venture partner who is promoting your products to properly give credit and pay commissions.  Then, use "Widgets4Less.com" for a direct mail campaign.  You'll get useful metrics for all your initiatives.

Savvy Internet marketers will also split-test different URLs to see which draws the most traffic.

I know a guy who has about 36 URLs registered that are related to his industry.  That's probably overkill, but he'll be ready for ad tracking, joint venturing, split testing, split personality - you name it!

-- Kurt Scholle, the Website-ROI-Guy

Test Your Marketing & Improve Conversion by Sitting on the Hotseat

I'm a fan of author and information marketer, Dan Kennedy.  Kennedy and his partner Bill Glazer have built an enviable franchise, including books, newsletters, conferences, training, etc.  And around the country, there are Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle Chapter Meetings where everyone has a chance to discuss marketing, exchange ideas and to network.  In Chicago, the northwest chapter meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month at Arrowhead Golf Course in Wheaton.

One of the highlights of the night is "Hot Seat," where someone brings in examples of their marketing for review, criticism and suggestions.  Everyone who has been thru it says they have learned alot and benefited from it.  They think they've sold more and saved on the associated costs.  I doubt that every suggestion is used, but everyone gains by hearing the opinions and suggestions, most of which are "Kennedy-esque." 
Many share their own experiences.  It's similar to a Mastermind group.

Last night, Natalia shared a brochure she was working on for her law firm, specializing in wills and trusts.  It was a fun piece that highlighted the potential pitfalls of a divorce, your son's credit card situation or the spending habits of a new wife.  The room suggested headline changes that were just terrific, layout tweaks, direct mail lists and revised calls to action.  Someone even suggested using a different domain name for her website that was more descriptive.  Natalia was just beaming when she sat down and looked like she was really stoked to start work on updating her piece.

Another hotseater, a Realtor named Mike, shared a postcard and a sales letter he uses to generate listings.   The postcard is based Craig Proctor's real estate training and the letter (actually a 4-page newsletter) was based on Dan Kennedy's training.  In general, we thought both pieces were a little wordy and could benefit from more white space and chunking.  Chunking is the idea of presenting information that can quickly be assimilated using headlines and bullet points.  It's effective on web sites, in direct mail, display advertising and even business letters.

I think both could benefit from split testing or sending out 2 versions of marketing materials and testing the results.  You then throw out the loser and test the winner against a new idea or design.  Sometimes changing a headline or even a single word can improve conversion noticeably.

Both of the presenters had invested time in developing their strategies and marketing materials.  The Realtor has had success, claiming to get 30 calls and 10 listings for every 500 cards he sends out.  And Natalia's brochure was better than most of the stuff I've seen and studied.

They both got important objective feedback and a list of ideas to consider as they tweak their campaigns.  How can you get the same kind of objective feedback?  And don't forget, this group is interested, if not passionate, about marketing - so there is some level of experience behind the opinions and recommendations.

We seek objective feedback when we design websites.  It helps us revise designs before we even share them with customers, but it also gives our customers qualified feedback from people who are outside their sphere of influence.  We ask between 10 and 20 former customers who have been thru our process, marketers, designers, astute business people and others.  We benefit and so do our customers.

So, again I ask.  Where will you get similar feedback for your projects?

-- Kurt Scholle, the Website ROI Guy
   WebAsylum.com

How Not to Get Better Website ROI Case Study #2

Here's another example of inferior website development that will cost the company revenues, profits, customers and maybe someone their job.

Not long ago, I visited a suburban Chicago company that makes films and other products for an industry that ships many little things at once.  Their fairly new website just wasn't generating any leads and it wasn't showing up in search engines.

It was easy to determine that the site had been built as a series of graphics.  The designer had built all of the pages as big graphics. 

Here's why that is not a good thing:

1. Search engines need to have HTML (real text) on the site to even know what it is, let alone how high to rank it.
2. The site content could only be edited by someone who could edit images.  Laying out content as an image is a little more problematic than updating text in a table.
3. Graphics can not have most of their meta tags set.  Meta tags are text in the source code of the page and some search engines use some of the different tags to figure out what your site is about.  (Title tags are especially important)
4. A graphics page does not give you the ability to execute callouts, such as RFP forms or newsletter signups.
5. Large graphic images, like those that represent a whole page, can take a long time to download, especially if someone is on a slow Internet connection.
6. It's difficult, if not impossible, to get web visit statistics.  These metrics are important and give you information for many of your strategic decisions going forward.
7. A web page built as one big graphic is an indication that the developer didn't have a clue to how to build a site.

If you'd like to discuss your website project and ways to improve website ROI, please give me a call.

-- Kurt Scholle