Yet mention to any small business owner that they’d have to set aside around $6,000 per annum for SEO, which help to be found online, and they won’t believe you.  After all, websites can be built for a few thousand and most web designers state these sites are “SEO optimised”.

SEO Optimised – What it really means

Web developers who claim that their website is ‘SEO optimised’ are just saying that Google will find and index the site – NOT how well you will rank or  how many people will find you each week. Many offshore SEO gurus use fraudulent techniques, telling you that they will get you ranked high for some specific search terms. Yet these often result in few sales leads simply because almost nobody uses these terms. They have fulfilled their task, but not improved your bottom line or sales results.

All websites need some additional, specialist SEO work to allow them to be found in a Google search – To have a large number of pages that get ranked on page one of a Google search for a wide variety of relevant keywords and phrases. The initial cost for this SEO work can easily range from $600 – $6,000. After this initial work, it then has to be monitored and tweaked each month. The net, and Google, is a dynamic environment. What works today may not work tomorrow when it comes to being found.

It takes time

This is what businesspeople find frustrating. They have a new website built and expect instant results. It can take weeks, usually months of work to get most sites ranked high in Google, often supplemented with pay-per-click AdWords.

It’s an on-going project. Large, popular websites will often have a person who does this work full time.  However small businesses often cannot afford a full time person for this, and must outsource, preferably not to India, but to local experts. Most will do an expert analysis of your site and market, them provide an initial and monthly cost. If you want results, then it won’t be cheap, but it will work.

More clicks or more business?

Note that it’s not just about getting the Google traffic and website hits. Your content and offer must be compelling for these clicks to turn into business results. Your SEO expert can’t be expected to do this bit. Your marketing or salesperson must work out and have systems that ‘engage’ your customers and prospects.

It’s more technical now. Remember, in the old days you just paid the Yellow pages and local classifieds to provide you new business leads through listing and display ads. This wasn’t cheap either. Now that nobody looks at Yellow or local newspapers as much, its your WordPress website, SEO and AdWords that do the job.

p.s. If you’d like a free analysis of your website and an honest quote for SEO work, email me at zn.oc.gnitekramlatigidnull@nivek

When developing websites there’s a similar one: Fast, Cheap, Effective. Pick any two

His topic was around the use of cheap design themes and amateurs building their own websites. It often falls back to professional developers to fix these nightmares when they don’t work and get no traffic.

Beware the Fast + Cheap Combo

Fixing up the cheap-quick solution has happened to me several times. The worst was a Joomla CMS installation last year. I quoted for a few days work as part of an annual ($2,000) coding update and design makeover for this large client. Instead, they utilised their new, quite bright marketing assistant, who self-taught herself how these things work as well as selecting a new design theme off template monster.

Almost 5 months later and some quiet nagging from me, they gave up and employed me to ‘help out’ as she was hitting brick walls. I was kind and only charged the $2k, but realistically, it took me longer to fix her work, than if I’d done it myself from scratch. Some of the illogical content structure she setup I could not really fix unless I spent a lot longer on the project. This is often the case and why most professionals in any trade will charge more when DIY experts have had a go, no matter how well intentioned. I’m reminded of a slogan in an automotive  workshop, left. It’s a rate chart I’m now applying for myself.

There’s thousands of suppliers that will  provide a cheap, seemingly easy shortcut to your own business website. Say how easy it all is to get started. One option I recommend for family sites is www.weebly.com The reason I like it is simply because it doesn’t get traffic and hence perfect for home use or somewhat private viewing. But there’s thousands like this. Sales pitch is always superb and comforting. Even Yahoo and the likes of MYOB have some instant website offerings, that suck.

If you read my recent Yellow Pages website review, one could almost put these ‘professional’ offerings into this category, even though it is not strictly DIY.  There’s several advanced eCommerce providers around too. Some of these, like BigCommerce,com are superb in the hands of a professional developer, but for the newbie, can be a real challenge. One of these I spent one hour on to resolve a minor layout issue she had tried to fix for months by reading the many tutorials.

Fast and Cheap comes with Hidden Costs.

Not only can they take up loads of personal time, they’re seldom, if ever effective. Sometimes they can be easy to update and even ‘look nice’. But slick features or design alone will never bring you traffic or sales results. Good coding, content and SEO needs to be in the mix too. I find those with a little IT or marketing knowledge are often the worst offenders, since they don’t want to get to a point of asking for help. Even though the technology is improving, the internet is becoming a more complex beast every day. It’s not what we see on our screens, it’s what’s hidden beneath that differentiates the winners from the rest.

Bottom line is these amateur, self-built sites almost never rank well in Google and from a branding perspective, are too often seen as an amateur effort, which can affect sales and credibility.  The urge to save money and do it ourselves is costing everyone business.

Recalling my 7 years working in the marketing department of a big NZ corporate, any online or print marketing was always about branding. In spite of the large amount of money spent, we could seldom attribute particular sales to an actual marketing promotion. This it seems, is the norm… With just a few notable exceptions, companies with 100+ staff often struggle to get things done in a quick and efficient manner when it comes to online or advertising. The sweet spot for online marketing, it appears, are those smaller companies with just 10-35 employees.

Branding Doesn’t Get You Much Website Traffic

Promotions and marketing for branding alone is a luxury small business cannot afford. Small business must get a return on every dollar spent and hence need to look at online marketing quite differently from their bigger competitors – Be more focused upon results and customer service. This flexibility means it’s becoming common for small businesses to do great online if they plan it well. They can end up with many more sales leads from being high on page one of a Google search result – their far bigger competitors at the bottom.

Corporate email promotions have the wrong emphasis too, with poor content and very low conversion rates. I’ve long programmed my email system to put these in the trash. They’re still in the old world of ‘push marketing’, not customer engagement. This presents opportunities for nimble small businesses to do better, on a limited budget – Propel them past their bigger competitors.

Here’s the quick summary on the six key areas small biz should focus on to get more leads and sales in 2012:

• Write weekly, engaging website content. (Provide helpful stuff, not just product promos. Use WordPress. Hire a copywriter.)
• Have an SEO strategy – Adhere to modern practices. (This is a vital, but complex area – Get me to help set it up)
• Dump the Yellow Pages – Use Google Adwords (Done well, AdWords has 5-10x the return of Yellow, Finda or Gopher)
• Monitor Website Analytics to help tune your promotions (Critical – I can provide you easy-to-understand weekly reports)
• Build up and engage with your Facebook community (Several tutorials available, or outsource to specialists)
• Build mailing lists – Have weekly mailouts with a follow-up strategy (Easy way to boost sales and leads. In-house or outsource)

Follow-up is the Key

That last item where I mentioned the term ‘follow-up’ is perhaps the hidden gem in all this. Few companies, large or small, do good follow-up. (Ourselves included). Today there’s lots of ways to track who opens your emails and visits your website. A strict follow-up strategy via personal emails and phone calls is one of the most cost-effective ways to turn visitors, into lifelong customers.  Read my recent ‘Salespeople – Be Gone’ article for some more common sense ideas on this topic. (click here)

If you want details on how to implement all this, give us a call on 09 889 0785 or email zn.oc.gnitekramizenull@nivek

The above results come from a project done by an expert colleague in the US. But sadly, this seldom happens, as the goals for most website rebuilds is around ‘the look’. It’s somehow assumed that more traffic will magically follow! Yeah, right

Most people, especially company owners, still see the company website as a brochure, not a dynamic marketing tool needing constant care and investment – This old brochure mindset means there’s no strategy or funds made available for website SEO, promotion or marketing of the website – Which means only a modest, if any traffic improvement… Business owners are puzzled why the $5,000 or more they invested in the site update gives them no more website traffic or sales leads…

So, how do you get these 300%  traffic improvements from a re-build? Firstly, recognise that the site look or visual design has nothing to do with getting more traffic. It may help get conversions once people arrive as a professional looking site provides some peace of mind and confidence. But the look contributes little to gaining new traffic via any search (since 50-70% of traffic to the site will be via a Google search). It’s far more important the site structure, content and coding be clean, able to be easily indexed by Google. (read more)

Assuming we’ve a good back-end structure, here’s my ‘to do’ list for new website owners.

• Monitor Bounce Rates – After 30-60 days of website activity, check out your site’s bounce rate using Google analytics. Bounce rate tells us the number of people that leave your site immediately after arriving. Generally, the goal is to keep this below 30% for each page on the site. An examination of keywords and content provides the clues to what’s going wrong.
• Monitor & Adjust Keywords – Both Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools provides loads of data to tell us what’s happening. Webmaster Tools indicates what searches you show up on and Analytics will show you want happens when someone clicks through to your website from those keywords. Set a priority of action items based on your most important keywords. We also have our own expert SEO tools that monitor where you sit for Google page one ranking and keywords, against your competitors.
• Post Regular Articles – Search engines and visitors want to see fresh content. It gives both a reason to return to your website. Fresh content means adding or updating articles. Try to add new blog posts on a weekly basis. WordPress sites make this easy – And Google rewards you with traffic.
• Have a Link Building Strategy – Search engines look at who is linking to you and their importance. Quality prevails over quantity. You will need inbound links to many of your pages as possible to be able to up your ranking on competitive keywords.
• Use Pay per click – This is a great way to get traffic in a hurry. Googles amazing AdWords remains one of the best ways to quickly generate traffic and sales within days, not months. The trick is not just the words chosen, but to personalise the Ads, linked through to special offer landing pages on your website.

It’s a reminder that most of the real work to gaining website traffic comes AFTER the site is built. As we’ve said many times before, at least the same amount of time and money needs to be allocated to website marketing and traffic generation, as is set aside for the original design and building. Unfortunately this seldom occurs.

Ref: 12 Reasons Google Hates You

An independent investigation into the NZ Yellow Pages New Online Services

Yellow Pages new CEO, Scott Pomeroy has a grim task ahead. Transforming Yellow into a true online marketing services provider. One of his first stated goals is to work closer with Google and they recently signed up to become a Google AdWords Reseller. Earlier Yellow CEOs talked about working with Google too. Here’s an article dating back to 2009 which just resulted in Yellow using Google maps technology.

Yellow, Selling Google Services?

Yellow Australia (owned by Sensis), signed up as an AdWords reseller a year ago. However the success of this arrangement is unclear and seldom reported on. Like Yellow here, they’re trying everything they can to stay relevant and in the game.

Frankly, I can’t see it working well, especially in the first year. There will be major conflicts between the old and new. Working out the sales incentives will be the big one. Yellows own products will have a sales rep commission that will be hard to match with Googles AdWords, unless they mark up Adwords beyond market rates. And what happens when business clients discover this, or realise that the say $300/month they spent on their new Google AdWords, is getting them 5x more leads than their current $300/mth Yellow Pages listing, which they’re still locked into? Selling a vastly superior competitor offering, alongside your own outdated one isn’t easy…

YellowToolBox – New Online Products and Services

Aside from re-selling Googles Adwords, the other new ‘product’ to come out is Yellowtoolbox, hastily thrown together over the last couple months. They only purchased the domain name in August, meaning there wasn’t a lot of planning involved. And it shows.

Toolbox is the place NZ business and Yellow customers are asked to go to for an affordable website and a social media presence. In concept it’s a good idea and there’s much hype around it from Yellow reps, but few real-world results yet with only a handful of their 100,000 small biz clients signed up. I suspect there will be a lot of special deals, time payment arrangements and service bundling, which Yellow has a history of to ensure clients are locked in – Preferably to both their online and obsolete print offerings.

The Yellowbox site itself is visually lively, but the coding is poor and SEO non-existent. It’s slow to load and virtually invisible on Google.

If companies don’t have the skills to grow their website traffic, they can just throw money at it

It could take a long time to get this new website to show up in normal Google search result for website design, video or Facebook marketing. The Yellowlocal website has the same problem. Just because they have ‘the brand’ and some cash means nothing online when it comes to getting traffic. Everyone starts at the bottom. Website traffic has to be earned. Somewhat ironically, the solution to running any new website with a poor online profile and crappy SEO coding, is to advertise using Googles Adwords, which Yellow does an awful lot of.

NBR reminded me recently that Yellow are still the largest single buyer of AdWords in NZ. Yellow likely spends tens of thousands every week promoting it’s own second-rate yellow.co.nz online directory on Google. On average, they run around 60 different ads at a time on Google, directed to different categories on their Yellow online directory website. It likely boosts their traffic considerably.

Now there’s even more cash pouring into promoting its new website services, with cost-per-click ranging from $2 to $5 each!  I’ve recorded 66 different ads displayed for the new toolbox site, examples below.  (Now they’re an AdWords reseller, will they get discount? If so, at what point in the future will Google expect to make up the shortfall?)

But Google is in a win-win game. If companies (or their hired web designer-developers) are lacking SEO skills and ignore Google’s guidelines, the result is a website that can’t be found.  i.e. A low ranking and little traffic. Website owners will often end up buying search traffic instead, using Googles popular pay-per-click AdWords service.

High Google Rankings and Expert SEO

The Yellow websites sales pitch video quite clearly says “…You’ll Get High Google Ranking… Expert SEO…” Good to hear. But we have definative data that shows the opposite is true in most cases. Should we advise these clients they’ve been short-changed, or should I tell the Commerce Commission? Maybe the SEO and High Google Ranking is an option?

Yellows 12, proudly displayed showpiece client sites, aside from some commendable Youtube efforts, are mostly cheap designs, poorly optimised for Google search. In fact it was hard to find keywords or pages they ranked well for. The best was fashion-recycle that ranked for 2 keyword phrases. Unfortunately, their main competitor ranked for 79. Like Yellows own toolbox site, it means these sites will seldom show up on page one of an organic search for phrases that could bring them new business. The only solution to this is to have the client spend thousands more on specialist SEO work and/or buy some AdWords online advertising.

A Cunning Plan Maybe?

Maybe this is the secret strategy. e.g. Sell badly coded, non-optimised websites to guarantee that customers will at some point need to sign up for the more costly Yellow-supplied Google AdWords. If true, it’s a really cunning plan, as Blackadder would say…. However I suspect there’s really no plan at all. They’re floundering around in a new market they know little about, with low quality offerings, using their name and reputation to woo hapless customers in.

But Yellow aren’t the only people building cheap, poorly optimised websites. Most NZ small business websites running today fit into this category. If they build up their know-how and sales skills, this is a nice opportunity for Yellow and their new AdWords service.

Or Maybe We’re Dreaming…

Are Yellow grasping at straws? With limited budgets and skills available within the company for website building or SEO work, Yellow are likely doing what most big corporates do in this situation. Promote a new digital service, then outsource as much as possible to local amateurs, or to India, to maintain margins. Much of the AdWords work, if it does take off, will probably be done in India or the Philippines. It’s a low risk strategy, since these contracted staff can be quickly dispensed with if the new services don’t work after 6 or 12 months.

Sales is not so easily outsourced. Building the skills to sell adwords and online will be a challenge. Selling or re-signing people up to simple entries in print and online directories is one thing. But the selling of Websites, Social Media and AdWords another. I worked for Xerox for many years as they migrated from copiers to digital printing, forced upon them by technological change. Most of their salespeople struggled to adapt. It took more than just a handful of new product training sessions.

Google AdWords – Who Benefits the most?

It’s not just about profit margins, but also advertising effectiveness.

What’s not often realised, is that the cost, quality and results of AdWords campaigns varies widely. User polls tell us that around half of AdWords users love it and get amazing returns, the other half say it’s erratic and far too costly. Why is this?  Margins aside, it largely depends upon the skills and instructions given to the person setting it up, then maintaining it each month. There’s also numerous tricks around the offer, landing pages, CTR optimisation, use of forms, analytics etc. Done right, it’s much more complex than making the old paper or digital display ad, which is what Yellow staff are familiar with.

For example, we recently rebuilt a clients costly $1,500/mth Adwords campaign, that resulted in a  $700 per month saving, for the same number of click-throughs, in this instance being over a 1,000 per month. It won’t be in Yellows (or Googles) best interests to setup and provide such super-efficient, highly optimised campaigns! What’s best for the client, isn’t always ideal for the service provider. Financially it would make sense for Yellow to set up ‘less effective’ AdWords for their existing clients, be it deliberately to gain more income, or through plain lack of skills. 

To Know the Future, Look to Auz

For a look of things to come, here’s a commentary from Australia last year entitled Yellow Pages Scam. It’s a conversation between a customer and their Yellow Pages (Sensis) rep selling Google services. Expect similar ‘misrepresentations’ here in NZ – Especially when they pitch their new Yellow Page Website offerings that supposedly have good SEO. (Yeah, right). The average customer will be totally confused and likely just take Yellow at their word.

It’s all profit-focused. In one case AdWords was ‘resold’ by Yellow Pages Australia (Sensis) who billed AdWords at $27,000 pa, which should have cost around $500-700/month if the client had done it themselves. Resellers can legally do this. New, naive small business customers just don’t know enough to argue. Commentators suspect that Sensis is targeting industries with low tech knowledge. They’re also informing them they have a ‘special’ relationship with Google and can guarantee them a number one ranking…

What’s the Yellow Offering? Is it too Late for NZ?

As Scott Pomeroy, CEO of Yellow Pages NZ said in that recent interview. “The success of it [Adwords] will now depend on how well Yellow executes.”  Based upon their execution of their new Toolbox website services, I’m not optimistic. Yes, there is a dire need for a major organisation with a big client base to sell AdWords here. I’m just not convinced that Yellow was the best option for Google.

It’s difficult to see what Yellow has on offer that isn’t done better (and cheaper) by someone else. What’s their value proposition? Yellow have dabbled in lots of new technologies and services over the years. In spite of the money spent and grand promises made, none have been a standout success, or even turned a profit. Years back, profits from the print division would carry things through. Now that print is dead and cashflow has dwindled, options are limited. They missed their opportunity window.
They should have taken the deal offered by Google back in 2006 when Google wanted access to the Yellow Business listings and database which would have been worth a lot to Google. It could have been a really great partnership too, but Yellows pride likely got in the way. They thought they could actually compete with Google in the online space…. Now they’re on the back foot, begging.

End of an Era

It’s looking like a sad ending on the horizon for what was a fine NZ-owned company I once loved. I sincerely hope the Yellow-Google Adwords ‘service’ does work out for them and their clients, but there’s a big learning curve ahead for all. New services always take twice as long to get into profit than any business or marketing plan allows for. Two years is typical. Can Yellow, in their fragile financial state, really wait that long? I’m less optimistic over their new toolbox products, which will appeal only to the most desperate or gullible.

Many Yellow customers have been suitably ‘conditioned’ to have low expectations

Sadly, there’s lots of people out there who happily take Yellow at their word and not want to know about all the geeky SEO stuff I’ve outlined above. They trust Yellow. I also suspect that many of their customers are used to paying out hard-earned money each month, for few returns. They’ve been ‘conditioned’ to have low expectations, which may be what will keep Yellow in the game longer than they deserve.

Yep, it’s hard work turning around an old, fading corporate and keep customers happy. Good luck Scott. You’ll need it.

p.s. This time last year I predicted the demise of Yellow pages, after they posted one of the biggest corporate losses in NZ history.  Read about if on my Ezimarketing website. A year on and little has changed. The banks simply can’t keep Yellow afloat forever…. The really interesting factor is Scott Pomeroy. He has previous experience with struggling companies and may be in the role just preparing the groundwork for Yellow to shut up shop. He was the CEO of a failed Yellow Pages Publishing operation in the US. read more… Obviously, if the Yellow board was really serious about online initiatives being the way forward, they would have appointed someone with a more appropriate background.

I think this is the fear many small business owners have too. If they hire a new person to boost fledgling sales, will they do the job? At an average investment of over $70k per annum, for small businesses in particular, taking on a new salesperson is a high risk option.

Could the internet replace the salesperson?

Some say it can. Here’s a delightful interview with marketing guru and business trainer Winston Marsh a few years back. Winston is a popular speaker and marketing trainer in Auzzie, working with small business owners in australia and NZ to help them promote themselves in traditional as well as online channels.

Here he talks of a simple strategy of how the internet can be better used in small business, often replacing the need to hire a costly salesperson. This strategy is so obvious and simple, I’ve yet to work out why everyone isn’t doing it!
Winston Marsh Tips

With website and ecommerce building costs now at an all-time low, starting from just $1,800, there’s no excuse not to get started immediately. Just email us here for a quote

These are Suspect, Highly Dubious services

Looking at the website traffic figures (for those businesses that track such things), these third party directories have little to offer and provide few sales leads for most business sectors. If they were a political party, they wouldn’t get into parliament. Yet they still crow they have lots of power, can change the world and rebuild your business! Yeah, right….

Let the Figures do the Talking

Left are two very typical traffic summaries from tow of our client websites. Each spends around $500-1,000 per month for their Google Adwords (cpc). A similar amount is invested in  maintaining their SEO and updating content on their website, ensuring they’re high on page one and get lots of organic traffic too. They’re also listed in the third party directories.

But traffic and leads is mainly Google, supplying 70% of their website traffic. 25% is direct traffic and around 5% for all others combined. Certainly the traffic supplied by Yellow and Finda is on a steep decline, under half what it was this time last year.

So, what’s the sales pitch these sub 5% directories are using? Many just push the need to be high in their own listing (which few people will see) together with the generic fact that you need to be in directories to be found online, inferring that their paid-for listings, not the free ones, may help people find you in a Google search.  Yet when shown the poor traffic figures, they tell us that many people will phone you and not visit your website first. Yeah, right… Most people I talk to always click through to the website of a new supplier before they phone, and this visit will be shown in the stats.

Sales practices like this should incur the wrath of the commerce commission, but the commission may just take the line, ‘let the buyer beware’. In the US there have been legal proceedings towards these types of companies, but it’s unlikely to occur ‘downunder’  Everyone’s just trying to make a living and companies have the right to throw money away, especially when it comes to advertising.

So, Where Should We Put Our Ad Dollars?

Many business will spend money on directories in the fear that if they don’t, they may miss out on something…

There’s an old saying (circ 1838) in advertising and business circles ‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.’

Many business will spend money on directories and many other forms of advertising in the fear that if they don’t, they may miss out on something.  Often their own competitors are listed and they have this desire to just follow them, regardless of any logic or sound reasoning. It’s the human condition.

All this may be true of the old, traditional advertising, but when it comes to online and amazing tools like AdWords, it’s all tracked. You know very quickly the ad spend that is working for you and what isn’t.. And you can adjust things quickly, fine tuning the campaign to get a better result, even localise it for particular parts of NZ  The technology also provides the figures and ample proof you need (from the detailed analytics data, shown above), to tell these directory services companies where to go. Threatening them with the commerce commission angle always helps…

p.s. There may be some sectors where these minor directories do work. I’m just not aware of them and would welcome any feedback below, along with stats and proof. Read also. Online directory listings, are they worth it?

However to me it comes down to having the right mix of communication channels available to customers. I have several clients selling their products or services to consumers that use both their Website and a Facebook page very successfully. The general indication is that around half their new business comes from their WordPress blog and website, with people using a search and their site pops up. The other half comes from Facebook chatter and online referrals.

It’s a very simple, somewhat obvious formula. We did it with print for decades, locked into the old Yellow Pages, Classifieds, flyers and newspaper display ads. Sometimes radio. Today the internet has largely replaced these channels. But the net itself has sub-channels and communities.  People look and reside in various places online.

most have a boring website that Google has long forgotten and simply won’t send traffic to

Facebook is important, but so is the company website. The largely overlooked and forgotten website, being the marketing channel that should be supplying half of new leads, usually provides no leads at all. The excuse is that the website was a major project done long ago and it should somehow, years later, continue to do its job with no extra time or money spent on it…. Yeah, right

What’s going wrong?

Most often these  brochure websites that haven’t been changed in months or years tells Google the business is dead, regardless of what’s really happening within the business. Google quite rightly regards the business as not worthy of traffic, as it can’t see any activity or make sense of the content or structure.

Google is programmed to list those businesses on page one search it regards as being relevant, active and having a good reputation by way of links or citations. Most businesses lack this, at least as far as Google is concerned….

Yet it can be solved.  A modest investment upgrading this boring, unfriendly business website to a modern, interactive, SEO-optimised blog-style website could have a very quick return and raise credibility with both Google and existing customers. Interactivity and cross-links to Facebook pages is important too. Lastly, have some funds set aside each month for email marketing and Google AdWords (replacing local Yellow and classifieds), providing an instant boost to sales.

Selling or promoting yourself requires planning, effort and investment on a continual basis. Sadly, it seems many businesses tell me they have no time or cash for this, but are the first to complain that business is slow.

The article, entitled, “The Future is Mobile” started off by discussing the opportunities for small businesses around mobile and the need to have a mobile-optimised website and new generation business tools. Although a self-proclaimed internet and technology geek of ten years, I only recently purchased an HTC smartphone and can now better understand where the opportunities lie.

Payments on the go

The same week I also meet with Roger Wang at Flo2cash.co.nz to discuss their payment gateway for one of our client ecommerce websites. In the past we’d used Paypal, which is annoying, since you have to wait a week to transfer funds to NZ, or setup the DPS gateway for NZ banks. Flo2cash had a great, secure alternative which we’ll use from now on.

It’s not the technology that’s now lagging behind, it’s business adoption.

Whilst there, they showed me an amazing Android App that can be used by any small businesses to collect payments instantly, on their mobile phones. To date, most businesses are forced to purchase the whole EFTPOS suite that can cost thousands in hardware fees, plus large monthly running costs. Plus, these are only available on long term contracts or very costly rental arrangements. (Talk to any Taxi driver about their EFTPOS experiences!)

Now, just armed with a good $500 smartphone with a decent sized screen, you can accept credit card payments from customers in the field, with money going straight into your bank account. (read more)

All this just re-confirmed what was obvious to me around mobile and the whole ecommerce and wider payments opportunity. New vendors like Flo2cash are coming out with some amazingly services that are low in cost, simple to use and highly effective. Check them out.

• 78% of websites have robots.txt and sitemap problems
• 63% of sites have duplicate titles and content issues
• 15% of sites misuse rel="canonical"
• 96% of sites have broken links and 404 errors
• 84% of sites have HTML and/or CSS errors
• 43% of sites lose link juice due to poor structure

Result? Google hates you. You’ve little chance of appearing in a search. And these six issues are just the tip of the iceberg of problems. Sadly, mentioning the above items to the average NZ web designer will get you a blank stare, or have it dismissed as ‘unimportant’.

Leaky Websites?

…sadly, most Web Develepers simply don’t understand how Google looks at their site

A good analogy of what’s wrong with most websites is the leaky homes situation here in NZ. If ‘the build’ isn’t done right, with poor materials and workmanship, then the long term result can be disastrous to the business. Sure, like these homes, it likely looks great when you first move in. The problems show up later. And fixing a poorly built website can be expensive, often as much as the original design cost. Like leaky homes, the problems lie underneath the classy exterior. They’re hidden from view, but NOT from Google…

For those of us with an interest in SEO, this is old news. The problem with most business websites in NZ, is that they’re built by web designers and developers that have only a superficial understanding of how Google looks at their sites. Many still think the inclusion if a few meta keywords is all that’s needed. This trick stopped working in 2003.

My SEO industry colleague, Jim Stewart, spoke earlier this year of what can go wrong for companies and developers around search. (left). Our experience is similar. Most websites today are poorly optimised for Google. It’s often easier to completely rebuild a website from scratch, than trying to patch up a weird html site or content management system.

In a world where everyone is looking for more traffic and a higher Google ranking, web designers aren’t helping their business clients. They’re naturally  focused upon what the site ‘looks like’ visually. There’s little concern, time or budget going into what hides beneath – What Google sees when it examines your website and determines if you’re worthy of its traffic and referrals.

Get expert help – Discover why you’re missing out on website traffic

We’re not asking web designers to learn all this stuff. SEO optimisation and understanding how Google works requires a different skillset, background and mindset from visual design. It’s certainly not a creative chore. SEO techniques also change constantly. There’s no local classes that teach it well either.

The solution? Designers need to partner with an SEO expert (like ourselves), when building any new website, large or small. Sometimes it means trashing their existing web developers toolset or content management system (CMS), in favour of WordPress. This change ensures we can guarantee the sites structure is clean and ‘Google-friendly’, but taking nothing away from the visual design or branding goals.

Call or email us for a free analysis of your site and what you need to do to fix it

p.s. Want an idea of how good/bad your site is, for FREE? Enter your website into Websitegrader  A score of 80+ is the goal. Anything under 50 means you effectively don’t exist online, at least as far a Google and sales leads is concerned.

The listen and it’s gone forever summed it up for me. This is the issue with radio advertising. You’ve got to capture the audience attention and close the deal in an instant. It’s an almost impossible task, confirmed by small business owners I know that have spent a fortune in radio ads over the years, with almost nothing to show for it.

As mentioned in earlier, somewhat similar articles on traditional yellow pages advertising, the reason radio survives at all, could be the fact they have a skilled team of telemarketers or sales reps pushing it. If Radio, Yellow pages or printed classifieds were based upon actual sales results for their customers, they’re be dead in the water….

The other thing that helps radio (and Yellow) survive is that business owners, large and small, are inherently very slow to change their ways. In many markets much slower and more conservative than their own consumers who are often more online and mobile ‘savvy’.  Put simply, just because their existing radio ads aren’t actually working, does not mean they are looking to change things. Their internal business systems, people and processes are there to maintain the status quo. (There’s ample evidence of this sad fact across society – It’s our ‘fear of change’ at work).

Just show me the numbers!

Radio sales reps also spout out the numbers and stats just like eager Yellow pages reps. They mention these huge figures off some ten-year-old survey which sounds comforting, coming to the belief that there’s huge numbers of ‘listeners’ out there today, eagerly waiting for the next commercial ad break. Yeah, right…

But Radio will survive, in spite of itself

A recent analysis in the US has it that radio advertising, in spite of it’s ineffectiveness in terms of results, will continue to stay around 10% of media spend over the next few years. Local studies reveal similar trends here (read more)

Although sales skills and relationships are major factors, I think there’s also a ‘feel good’ factor here too for the paying advertiser and business owner. Just hearing their ad on air gives them a psychological boost. – We all like to hear about ourselves, right? And therefore happy to pay for it each month. It’s somehow ‘classier’ than print ads.

But the problem with radio as Seth mentioned, aside from the fact that it’s intrusive ‘push advertising’ that most consumers hate, is that for the listener, the message is fleeting.

Unless the individual has that exact need, the moment they just happen to be listening, it’s gone. Few will make a note of it for future reference. Some will think, that’s okay, I’ll Google it when I get home. But because the advertiser has no cross-channel marketing strategy in place, little useful comes up in a search result. (see page ref links for these tricks)

The worst, lease effective radio ads are those where the call to action is vague and/or hard to recall. Most seem to rely upon providing a phone number, which few people will remember or write down.

Certainly there are several things radio ad creatives could do to help, like sending clients to an easily remembered website address. Perhaps a directory off their own radio website would help if the client has no website or can’t easily alter it.

This, somewhat ironically, would also help the stations online profile and ad income stream.

Better still, have them use mobile text messaging to make the contact and have a record of the event. e.g. The radio ad could include “Text TOYS to 456 on your mobile for more details and chance to go into a prize draw” The text messaging system would automatically respond, sending through added information or website links at minimal cost. That link could theoretically go straight to the advertisers online store to purchase immediately via mobile, or capture their email address or Facebook details. The advertiser would also now have the customers phone number, from the initial contact, allowing instant follow-up. This is interactive advertising (and selling) at its best.

Sorry Small Business Owner – The old school ways win out

But these little tricks certainly won’t be covered or suggested by the ‘old-school’ radio sales rep or station manager. Like others who work in the agency, design or print sector, aside from the old telephone number, they dislike including other competing media channels as part of any client promotion. These third party ‘extras’ around the web and mobile would certainly boost end results and leads, but are also perceived as unnecessary ‘impediments’ to closing the ad sale (i.e. it’s a harder sell), needlessly delaying the reps sales commission.

On top of this, it’s all part of the established ad provider strategy. If you’re hooking up a client, make sure you get as much of his/her annual ad budget as possible. Make sure they don’t share it with someone else, especially another competing (often lower cost), media channel.

What may be good business for the client, is often not for the radio station, Yellow pages, newspaper or magazine publisher. This self-serving attitude will ensure that print, radio, TV and general advertising strategies will remain locked into the 80s for many years to come – A time when costly promotions were proudly displayed (or said), and the customer expected to pick up the phone.

N.B. The integration of online with offline advertising that provides real returns for business owners certainly seems a long way off. This article helps explain why is there so little consideration for the business owner, listener, or reader in today’s business advertising -  Why 90% of NZ businesses, agencies and advertisers appear reluctant to connect with consumers beyond yesterdays secular tools. Why a change for the better using lower cost, super-effective, new media and cross-channel tools is being held back…

Ref: Cynics sanctuary;  Changing the Channel;   Integrating Radio and Offline with Google Search

But most people when doing a search are looking for content or information. The fact that the particular site arrived at may ‘look nice’ is a bonus, not a key requirement. Google itself doesn’t care about the site looks or branding, since it only sees text and site structure.  The latest Google search algorithm update announced last week places more emphasis upon content, in particular FRESH, unque content.

Static Brochure Websites Can Be a Waste of time!

If you’re looking to attract those seeking out your products or services online, then company websites today need to be more like the daily newspaper and less like the corporate brochures. This isn’t about how good or bad the site looks, but how often it is updated for content. From a perspective of getting more traffic and new business, Google are effectively telling us that static brochure websites are a waste of time and money. The online world is a dynamic place. It’s what’s on your Blog, Facebook page and Youtube that get’s you noticed. And the more often it’s updated, the better… Weekly, or at least fortnightly updates is my recommendation.

From the latest ‘Smartmoney magazine in Auzzie, one of the early online publications to announce Google’s moves, “Businesses are once again being urged to start creating blogs and uploading videos to sites such as YouTube in order to get the most out of critical new Google algorithm changes that will affect more than a third of all searches.”

Businesses are once again being urged to start creating blogs

Entrepreneur Magazine ran a similar story this month entitled New Google Search Update Could Spell More Trouble for Business Websites

They also quoted Search Engine Land analysts “It seems to me that the biggest impact on small-business owners will be that, in some industries, it will be near impossible to get visibility with a small, rarely-updated website”

It’s not just about YOU – Leverage what’s in the news

The other important aspect of this Google ‘freshness’ update is that it’s important not just to talk about what’s happening with your business each week, but general news items that you feel worthy to comment on. Our Auzzie SEO guru, Jim Stewart spoke at length on this topic (right). A new term ‘NewsJacking’ has emerged, that sums up the trend and opportunity.

It just emphasise that Google is not only also looking for newsworthy topics on key sites, but more importantly, looking for informed commentaries on other websites about the said news items. If you run a blog, then it’s easy to make online commentaries on almost anything, within minutes.

WordPress CMS users will take the lead

This is good news for those currently running and daily updating their sites on a ‘Google-friendly’ CMS like WordPress. WordPress has highly advanced ‘blogging features’ built in – Something that most (more costly) CMS platforms do not.

It ‘talks’ to Google far more too. i.e. When WordPress sites are expertly setup, Google is aware of and indexes new article headings within 10 minutes – Something that doesn’t occur with standard html or other CMS websites that can wait a day or two before being indexed by Google. Sometimes a week. With the latest changes this small factor could make the difference between showing up on page one, or not at all.

Search marketing providers like Hubspot in the US have long pushed the need for business clients to run blogs. Their site grading technology factors in whether sites include a blog and has regularly updated content.

WordPress a Winner

Google clearly rewards active, ‘newsworthy’ websites with much higher search placements that can drive traffic to your site be it for a few days or long term. It’s encouraging everyone to become an online publisher and to be heard. So, now is the time to either overhaul your existing website, or simply add a WordPress blog to it.  Call us for a quote. zn.oc.gnitekramlatigidnull@nivek

p.s. I’m not saying good looks and design aren’t important. They are. A good website design can dramatically improve sales conversions. However it’s not what gets most new people to the site in the first place. Typically, Google will provide over 50% of new site visitors. But Google doesn’t see ‘design’ (whether it cost you $1,000 or $50,000). It only sees content. This is why some low cost blogs or news-based magazine sites get ten or a hundred times more traffic than traditional, more costly brochure websites.

It seems there’s dozens of them with Yellow, Finda, Gopher and Localist being the main ones. Some offer free listings, but the big four push ‘upgrades’ with the promise of more traffic, more leads, charging from $20-$500 or more per month. Here’s a typical ‘offer page’ from Gopher.  Like competitors Yellow, Finda and Localist, part of their sale pitch is proudly claiming they have many thousands of people visiting them every day. Yeah, right….

Traffic figures – Fact or Fiction?

Most of these claims of traffic are inflated and meaningless, although in some sense likely technically correct – Like a politicians promises, not the whole truth. Traffic numbers stated likely come from their raw webserver stats, often stating hits and not just visitors, together with vague timeframes. Numbers can include non-human ‘bots’ sent out from search engines like Google and Bing.

That’s not to so say this isn’t useful or may help indirectly. But any directory site claiming you should advertise with them due to their traffic figures is a bit like local magazines claiming you should advertise with them just because their print run is 100,000 per month. Actual magazines sold and subsequently read, then acted upon by people is a more useful measure, which is typically a tiny fraction of this.

The Google Factor

So, is it still worthwhile paying for advertising within these directories? Only indirectly. The benefit you may get could be more to do with the fact that just being in these directories can sometimes improve your placement within the Google local search result, (ironically due to those ‘bots’ visits).

As most people use Google today and not Finda, Localist, Yellow or Gopher, it’s far more important what Google does with these directory website listings (as Google trawls all modern websites). Done right, they act as citations for the  Google maps/business listings, shown right. These are the ones which appear high up on page one of Google for a local search result! And to get this benefit you often don’t need the expensive Gopher/Finda/Yellow listings.

But anything you do to improve your online presence is good. I’ve concluded that a Google Maps/Places listing, together with a basic Finda and Gopher listing is a good combo. There’s also niche industry directories like www.mytradesman.co.nz or www.nocowboys.co.nz setup for tradespeople and their clients. The fact they have areas for customer reviews is critical not just for customers, but for Google who look for favourable client feedback on all directory sites, when determining your maps search page placement.

Pay us more and we list you higher!

The sales pitch to get you to pay more with these directories is they guarantee a top placement. This is, of course, only a top placement within their own directory that they control [and few people visit]. NOT on Google. When Google trawls these sites, it matters little if you’re at the top or bottom. Google just looks for a best match in terms of your service, category and location, not overly concerned about where you are in the site.  The pay more and you’ll get a higher listing only works if you’re the market leader, like Google. Their AdWords pay-per-click advertising works on this basis. However their organic (free) search that most people view is unbiased.

Always Measure and Track Results

The trick though is to ensure you are getting a return on the money spent. You can easily see each month what proportion of your traffic to your own website is coming via these directories and/or via Google.

Actually see if your investment in these third party directories is helping your business. Google analytics we install with each site tells us who visits and where they came from. Examine the live example left from an active client website (Nov 2011), showing that 72% of visitors came from Google, 2% from Yellow and 1% from Finda. Remember, these minor directories want to charge you hundreds per month for their services.

The other trick with advertising in these directories is NEVER be conned into going with any long term, national plans or cross-media plans, not matter how great the ‘offer’ is. A good ‘deal’ does not equate to more website traffic or business.

Unfortunately, some of these providers are taking a hard line, not offering short-term options! Yellow (left) and Localist will even try to sign you up to their print directory as well. Some reps have the cheek to suggest that if you signup with them, you don‘t need anyone else, as ‘their’ listing will somehow get you to page one of Google too! Yeah, right…. (If any dare suggest this, let me know. We’ll get the commerce commission onto them)

Let’s Not Forget AdWords

Tell them that Google’s own online offering, AdWords, (Google CPC) has no long term commitments and looking at the above figures, provides around 50 times more leads! 

In reality, if you’re going to pay someone a lot of money for monthly online advertising, AdWords gives you far greater return than all these directories combined! You can use AdWords for a day, week or month. It’s totally flexible, including the neat ability to ‘localise’ your advertising to within a city or region. Even hours of the day it is displayed. It’s also AdWords that promotes your business across Youtube, Gmail and thousands of related websites via AdSense.

The general tracking and management facilities Google includes as standard is light-years ahead of these minor directory offerings. It’s a bit like comparing a modern motor car, with the horse and cart days. Unfortunately most business people here in NZ simply aren’t aware of all this and what Google can offer them. Our use of Google AdWords and search marketing is one of the lowest in the developed world. Why? Google NZ doesn’t have the huge team of skilled telemarketers on the phones like Yellow, Gopher or Localist. Ignorance of what is available today is what keeps them in business.

The sad truth is most small businesses here give their promotional dollars to those who make the effort to show up or phone them each month. Their relative effectiveness or the sales gained isn’t a deciding factor – Mainly the fact there’s a sales rep nagging them.

So, are they worth it?

Traditional directories are on their way out. Consumers don’t use them. In the US, directory spend (left) is plummeting and rightly so too.

But for now, online directories have their place and the free or near-free ($0-$50/mth) listings are worthwhile, if only to help validate your online presence for Google. But their more costly upgrades are not good value. They all tend to structure and bias listings results with the amount you give them. Although logical for the directory provider, this is extremely annoying for consumers. This is yet another reason people don’t use these sites much and go to Google instead.

These directories also rely upon high pressure sales strategies from the pre-internet era of magazine and newsprint advertising. Real success stories are rare. By all means give them a try, but always measuring daily results and avoiding any long term contracts.

p.s. Beware of con men selling new ‘add-on’ services

To show how desperate these directories are getting to preserve their market share and relevance, some, like Yellow pages, are getting into the website building business. Again. (They’ve tried this before using nasty Yodel tools, with little success).

An early analysis of these Yellow built sites tells the same sad story common with many small biz website offerings by big flashy Corporates. Aside from some Youtube stuff (commendable), there’s minimal SEO effort gone in. Typical Yellow website grading of 12/100 for one of their ‘showpiece’ sites. A grade of 75/100 or more is the goal and one we can usually get within 6 months. A low score means you effectively don’t existing as far as Google is concerned.

However I suspect most of these sites are built to lowest tender spec, perhaps out of India, to maintain Yellow flagging margins. But for just $60-100 per month and no upfront design or SEO fees, should we or small business owners expect more?

If small business owners what to be found online, generate traffic and sales via their website, it needs a far more comprehensive online marketing strategy than signing up to a cheap website. SEO is critical. Checkout the Archer Glass example on our services website.

Here’s a youtube clip of how a new age 1-year-old views the world of print and magazines.

“As for what I call owner-build websites, I have marketing/sales/SEO packages which include no design at all – other than helping them determine how many landing pages to have, and their best keywords, BEFORE designing the site. And analysing what the competition is doing, which very few pure designers even ask about (so I’m told)… The two most important factors in a website are content and links, neither of which has anything at all to do with graphic design.  …..anyone focused on the bottom line should build their own [content-managed] site, then hire somebody to help them with the marketing and search aspects…”

There’s two issues here. One is to build a site that can be found. Technically, a simple WordPress site using a nice Studiopress  theme is all that’s needed. This means the design costs can be slashed by 50-80%. This type of raw site (without much content) could be up and running in a day at minimal cost, usually under $500.

But where the real costs will come in as mike said, is in training the client to run the site and add their own content. (Content is always the killer). They will need lots of assistance with the technical side of SEO too as well as paid search marketing (AdWords). And then there’s other toolsets like email and/or Facebook, to keep them ahead of their competition and generate more leads. This is all content and marketing effort. Very little design.

As we’ve said before, for every $1 spent on ‘design’ another $3 or more needs to go into client training and site marketing.

Many customers see real benefits in building a ‘brand’ and having a site that is special. Unique. Customers saying ‘wow’ when they arrive at the website front page. Design and visuals can do this. I think if you’re in some sectors like finance or you’re selling high value goods, where trust and credibility is important, going the extra mile to get the look right is critical.

Online is a team effort now

Although I agree with everything Mike Hihm says, I still see benefits in using a skilled graphic designers as well as copywriters for many projects. For myself, it seems the sites I ‘show off’ more to prospective clients, are those where we’ve worked closely with, or for, local graphic designers. However all this just emphasises that when it comes to online, design is but one factor to a successful business outcome.

ADDENDUM

As a footnote to this article, Mashable recently posted a story entitled “4 Strategies for Working With Designers Without Killing Each Other

This mirrors my own views, showing that designers and developers have different goals, priorities and outlooks when it comes to website building. But as this article shows, the differences can be easily overcome. And this article will become pre-requisite reading for any new web or graphic designer we work with. It may help them better understand where us geeky ‘developers’ come from. Why site architecture, code, content and SEO is just as important as visual design.  The designer is but one voice in how a high traffic website is built.