Today is vacation. I sit alone, quietly drinking coffee, as the rest of my family and our friends sleep. It is our annual family vacation up north and this is the first morning. As I sit with my cup enjoying the sunrise over the lake, I begin reading Engage by Brian Solis. I am bothered. Not by the book, but by a conversation I had with a prospect a week ago. Yes a week ago. The woman was an SEO referral from another marketer I know in Detroit. We had a wonderful conversation about her company’s lack of SEO and outdated website. When I mentioned blogging, she told me “they will not Read more
DIY SEO or Professional SEO Consultant?
Posted in: Search Engine Optimization | June 13, 2011
What’s your SEO approach? Are you a do-it-yourself SEO or did you hire an SEO consultant? DIY SEO can be great because it is a whole lot cheaper than hiring an SEO professional. And even better, since you are your own SEO expert, you are in control of everything. On the flip side, DIY SEO can also be very time consuming and it can lead you down a dark path of destruction without you ever even knowing. It can also give you a false sense of security and make you believe you know enough to be effective, when in reality you know enough to be dangerous. The Case of Harry, the DIY SEO Over the Read more
Top Ten Signs You Need a New Website
Posted in: Website Design | June 6, 2011
Each week I speak with companies who need a new website and complain to me about their current website. I’m a frank person and once someone knows this, they frequently just start saying the first thing that comes to their head. Some of the comments are so funny and painfully accurate, they have me laughing out loud and whipping the tears off my face. While that is good for me, it is not for the company who owns the website. The below list of top reasons for a website redesign is a humorous take on my recent conversations with website owners. I wish I could say these were unrealistic Read more
Internet Marketing is a Battlefield
Posted in: Internet Marketing | April 6, 2011
Winning the Internet Marketing War Requires a Marketing Recognizance Mission, Bulletproof Armor, and a Strategic Plan of Attack Make no mistake, internet marketing is a battlefield. You’re going to war against a million other websites and you need to have sufficient weaponry to compete and to walk away unscathed. You need to know your enemy, you need armor for proper defense and you need a clearly defined plan of attack to win the online battle. When was the last time you performed a marketing recognizance mission? Have you looked at your competitor’s website recently? Or even Read more
Browser-Based Enlightenment
Posted in: Internet Marketing | March 7, 2011
Open Up Your Browser and Take a Good Look at Your Online Presence Immanuel Kant defined enlightenment as “The emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error." The term enlightenment reminds me of the small business owner and his undeveloped view of internet marketing and more importantly, how he and his company fit within today’s internet dependent culture. Now don’t take that comment as a negative view on the small business owner or small business in general. I love the average small business owner. I am a small business owner and this Read more
Bad Website Architecture: The Silent SEO Killer
Posted in: Search Engine Optimization | February 21, 2011
My focus is small business marketing, so I encounter a lot of people who have tried a do-it-yourself SEO approach to internet marketing. The semi-savvy business owner thinks his SEO knowledge is pretty darn good, yet he just can’t figure out why he isn’t seeing increases in website traffic. In our conversation he provides obscure long-tail keywords to illustrate his SEO tactics are working. He also tells me he lacks traffic and real revenue resulting from all the time he has allocated to his SEO research and implementation efforts. He finally informs me that he cannot allocate a Read more
SEO Can’t Help a Website That Sucks
Posted in: Website Design | February 17, 2011
Each week I speak with potential SEO clients who ask me to “make their phone ring”. It is an honorable request, but I struggle with this because in many cases, SEO alone can’t solve their problems. SEO can help, but once the website visitor arrives to their website, they’ll run screaming for the hills. I’m not a website snob and I value the small business owner and his desire to bring sales in through the internet. I think internet marketing is critical for many small businesses, because it is relatively cheap compared to other marketing tactics. The problem is most small Read more
The Magic Formula of Great SEO
Posted in: Search Engine Optimization | February 7, 2011
This weekend I looked back at SEO related statistics for a B2B website I launched in November of 2009. A full year has passed and I wanted to see the progress this company made over a twelve-month period. After launching the new WordPress website, the client retained me to work on their internet marketing efforts. It helped free up time for the client, it gave their internet marketing a cohesiveness it would not have had otherwise, and it gave me time to nurture my new baby. I believe it was a good year for SEO and Google Analytics agrees with me. The Data Doesn’t Lie I decided to Read more
What’s Your Threshold of SEO Pain?
Posted in: Search Engine Optimization | February 2, 2011
My husband and I are finishing our basement and attempting to make it the cool place for our kids and their friends. Whenever we make a major purchase, the decision always boils down to my financial pain threshold. I don’t know the competitive market price for granite or quartz, but I know my budget and what I can afford. My list of wants end up being scaled back to what my bank account will allow. As we discuss a custom bar and bamboo flooring (I’m a bit high maintenance I’m told), it reminds me of my SEO clients. Like myself, they themselves have a pain threshold. While we both Read more
Have a Seat Mr. Website Owner, It’s Time for Introspection
Posted in: Website Design | January 30, 2011
When a client signs a contract with me for a web design, the first thing I do is send them a three page questionnaire and request they answer as many questions as they deem appropriate. This questionnaire helps me get inside their heads and it helps me better understand their marketing objectives, the opinion of their existing website, and their overall view of internet marketing. I ask a lot of questions about the current and future state of their sales process and marketing programs. While these questions are informative, I definitely have a few questions that are my favorites. In Read more