All Entries in the "Advertising" Category

Overdeveloped Websites – Are you guilty of this mistake?

Over time, has your website started loading slower? You need to empty your browser’s cache to see how fast your website loads. If it is saved in your cache, it loads faster for you than for your first-time visitors. How fast your website loads affects how well you rank in search engines and most importantly, it affects your sales. People will not wait for your website to load no matter how important you think your information and products are to them.

As you develop your website, you add a new graphic here, an image there, maybe a video, a new cool snippet of javascript, maybe a little flash and pretty soon, you have created a slow-loading website one little piece at a time.

It’s easy to get into adding a little bit to your site frequently. You find cool new things you want to share with users. Those little facebook, google plus and twitter icons and plugins for your blog, a cool new flash header you’re sure your visitors will just love and of course you have to add that new video you just made.

Adding freash content to your website is a great way to improve your rankings in the search engine. But add that new stuff on new pages you add to the website. Don’t keep over-developing your home page or any other page. If you slow down your website, your rankings will suffer.

Take a fresh look at your website. Look at each item. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this here?” and “Is the time it takes to download this worth it if it is going to affect my SEO efforts?” Trim the fat and you’ll be much better off.

There are some really big companies online that could use this lesson. Those slow-loading flash ads on some news sites, sports sites, gaming sites and others are annoying to users. Those ads that expand when you mouse over them might look cool, but they are annoying to your users and they slow your website down.

Most importantly, they do not convert any better than an adsense text ad that loads really fast. I’m not saying start promoting adsense instead of the ads. But use the fastest loading ad possible, not the one you think looks really cool. Your conversion rate will actually improve.

Related articles

• Web design tips – things to avoid (marketing.yell.com)
• Flash and SEO: why it’s best to keep it simple (marketing.yell.com)

A Website is just an Ad!

I know some people will disagree with that statement, so let me qualify it with an explanation. Websites that do not sell anything, those that were not built to generate leads or get someone to sign up for something are not ads.

Business websites are ads though. First you had print advertising, then radio advertising, then tv advertising, now the Internet is the next in that line of progression.

people call their websites their online business, their home on the web, etc. But it isn’t. it’s an ad for your products or services.

There is an old saying on the web. “You build your first website for show and the rest for dough.”

When you buy print, radio, or television advertising, you know that repetition is the key to successful advertising. You don’t buy one ad in a newspaper or magazine. You don’t buy one radio or tv spot. They sell them in bunches.

The Internet is no different. Of course you want your one “corporate website” or base, which has information about your company and everything you sell. But is that all you need to do?

Many seo services and webmasters focus on that one website and continue to make changes they think the search engines will like or because they learned the latest “google trick” or something they read on someone’s blog.

The truth is you should adopt a build em and leave em alone philosophy. Cover all the bases when you build your website. Make sure filenames, titles, keywords, alt tags, anchor text, and everything else is covered. take the time to build it right the first time around.

Then go build more sites! Here is an example. You run a website that sells tools. In your main website you have all the tools you sell in a shopping cart and ready to be purchased. maybe you were smart enough to have a page for each type of tool, like hammers.html, screwdrivers.html, etc.

You can now take each of those categories and build a microsite. Each microsite is about just one category. So you get a domain name that is like hammersforsale.com or buy-hammers.com and build your microsite. You need an about us page, a contact page, a terms of service, and a privacy policy just like any website.

Then you optimize the index page for the same key phrase you targeted in the domain name. Then you can add a page for each brand or type of hammer and optimize those for those specific phrases. Then when someone searches google or other search engines for a particular type of hammer, you have a chance of being one of the top results.

The cool thing is that you do not have to put a shopping cart into each microsite. You already have one in your main website, so all the links from the microsite for a purchase go back to your main website to complete the deal.

The second cool thing is that these microsites are ads that never expire and they are extremely cost-effective.

We build you a basic 7 page microsite for just $600. Additional pages are just $50 each. If you want to learn more about how microsites can help you advertise your products or services or how they can help you generate more leads for your business, call Chris McElroy at 786-317-8774.

Why Do You Have Just One Website?

This is a question I get to ask a lot of clients. Let me give you a different take on the Internet and Internet Marketing than you may have heard before.

Many, many years ago in a galaxy far, far away, if you wanted to advertise your business, there was only print media, basically newspapers and bulletins.

Then Radio came along and at first advertisers stuck to print media rather than advertise on that newfangled radio. Soon they began to see the value of advertising on radio and all was good. They now had two ways to advertise.

Then the television hit the scene. But many saw this as a fad and stuck to their print and radio advertising until they saw everyone liked watching TV. SO advertisers had three choices and began to favor TV ads because it combined the voice that radio had with the visual elements that print media had, only better.

And Now Internet Marketing Changes Everything

Now we skip way ahead where the Internet and its wide commercial use came around in the 1990s. Again, companies believed it was a fad and stuck to other forms of media for their advertising.

Now most companies saw the error in that type of thinking and have shifted a good portion of their advertising and marketing budget to Internet Marketing. They learned that their company needed a website. They were told to think of it as their own home on the web, their online store, or their web address. And all was good as long as they had a website.

Many still believe all they need is a website. Build it and they will come. When they bought print ads, radio ads, and TV ads, they did not have to do anything but buy the ad and people saw it. The sellers of the ads took care of getting their ad in front of the public. So it stands to reason they would think the same about the Internet.

Most have learned that they have to do more than just build a website. That is where search engine optimization comes in. To get your website in front of your audience you need to rank well in the search engines or buy more ads about your website to get users to visit.

Your Website is just an AD

Think of your website as your Internet Ad the same as you think of a commercial as your TV Ad. Your website and the pages within are advertisements. They are not your home on the web, your online store, or some physical address in cyberspace. There is no such thing.

The Internet is just another form of media companies were slow to adopt. Then when they did adopt it they saw their website as some sort of store location or semi-physical space. Again, it isn’t. It’s just an ad.

Now that being said, when you buy an ad in print media like newspapers or magazines, do you buy just one ad and stop? How about on the radio? Do you buy one radio ad and stop? And with TV, one commercial and you’re done?

If the answer is no to those questions, WHY DO YOU HAVE JUST ONE WEBSITE?

The smart way to use the Internet as a form of media is to build one website that is your corporate image online. It can have everything you sell there, company history, investor information, and more. It can be huge. It’s still an ad, but it is your corporate identity ad.

Why You Need More Than One Website

Now, you can build campaign websites, satellite websites, mini-sites, or micro-sites, whichever you want to call them. They are really just smaller ads. Each one should be only about one product or one service or one campaign you are promoting. They do not have to be big. They do not need to be expensive.

These smaller ads are much easier to optimize because you are targeting only one topic, product, or service, while your main website has all of your products and services.

In print media, on radio, and on television, everyone knows repetition is the key. Everyone knows you have to keep advertising and keep creating new ads. On the web, people seem to throw that logic out the window and think they only need one website.

How many demographics do you target? If more than one, you need more than one website. If you sell to both senior citizens and to teens, would you design the same ad for AARP Magazine as you would for Teen Magazine? I doubt it. Those two ads would be nothing alike. SO WHY WOULD YOU BUILD JUST ONE WEBSITE?

The Internet has a huge advantage over other forms of media. Your magazine or newspaper ad is in one issue and it expires and you have to create a new one. Each radio or TV spot is heard or shown one time and it’s gone. You have to buy more. Your website doesn’t expire so when thinking of it as an ad, think of an ad that just keeps getting better with age and doesn’t expire.

The more advertising you do in any form of media, the more business you bring in. The Internet is no different. Keep building websites. Doing so is no different than buying other forms of advertising in that you are using repetition, but your old ads/websites are still there earning money for you while you build your new moneymakers.

Another difference with the Internet is the ability to advertise your ads. Your website is an ad, then when you use PPC or buy ads on other websites, you are advertising to bring people in to read your bigger ad.

Now I doubt you would buy a radio ad and tell people to watch the TV commercial you have coming out. However, you do see the value in buying a short TV commercial or radio ad and telling people to visit your website right? Buying ads on the Internet that bring people to your website is no different.

If you would like to discuss the different ways you can really use the Internet to advertise your business, products, and services, call me at 786-317-8774 for a free consultation.