Website Promotion is not Voodoo

What is the function of your website?  Do you use your website as an information tool?  Do you use it as an arm of your sales team?  Why not have your website do both?  Too often small business owners focus on creating a flashy, aesthetically pleasing website. Instead, they should focus on a website that produces results.

The Web Analytics Association defines conversion as a “percentage of a visitor type who complete a multistep conversion process with a defined beginning and end within 30 minutes, whether it be signing up for a newsletter, buying a product online or some other desired outcome.”

One of the most important and oft-overlooked aspect of SEO is link building. Link building strategies are one of the simplest concepts, but most make it more difficult than it needs to be. For instance, Sage Lewis defines link building as, “The integration of useful elements into a whole Web site to allow for the accretion of links through natural means.” Sage obviously doesn’t follow one of the mottos I live my life by: Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.

It has come to my realization that I am in a rut. An external linking rut.

Well, I knew I needed to revisit linking strategies … it’s one of those things that I never sat down to research and really dig into because I have procrastinated incredibly well, but the past week has propelled me in that direction, not necessarily with my consent. But once I started digging into the data and ignoring the world around me, it was good.

It was good to see what I have been doing right and to discover those little opportunities that I have missed but can now take advantage of.

We all know that one of the fundamental goals in designing a website is to provide information. Without an audience you might as well be a tree falling when no one’s around. So, how do you get an audience? As research shows the best way to get the best traffic is by telling your friends and family. They alone will get you all the traffic you need. That’s how the six degrees of separation works, right?

WRONG. While it is still important, it takes a lot more work and effort to grow your business than just word-of-mouth.

I have most recently become a fan of “ProBlogger”, Darren Rowse. His website problogger.net contains rich insight and useful tips that can be used by both a blogger newbie up to a more seasoned one. I have found that his suggestions transcend to Internet Marketing and are easily applied to one of our favorite topics – increasing site traffic.
We always want our clients to have a steady increase in website traffic, the reality is that there will be occasions when a dip may occur. A recent post published by Rowse offers explanations and suggestions to better understand declines in blog, or in our case, website traffic, 6 Reasons Your Blog Traffic Might Be Declining [And What to Do About It].

I have most recently become a fan of “ProBlogger”, Darren Rowse. His website problogger.net

contains rich insight and useful tips that can be used by both a blogger newbie up to a more seasoned one. I have found that his suggestions transcend to Internet Marketing and are easily applied to one of our favorite topics – increasing site traffic.
We always want our clients to have a steady increase in website traffic, the reality is that there will be occasions when a dip may occur. A recent post published by Rowse offers explanations and suggestions to better understand declines in blog, or in our case, website traffic, 6 Reasons Your Blog Traffic Might Be Declining [And What to Do About It]

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My friend, and a very smart local entrepreneur, Chris Schultz

wrote an interesting piece entitled 10 Tips for Launching Your Startup in which he makes a pretty bold statement relative to PR (that’s public relations, not PageRank, for you search geeks).

There are a ton of other great posts on startups and bootstrapping including a recent one from a guy I’ve been reading since he was in print Guy Kawasaki.

So, whether or not a young startup needs a PR firm will no doubt be hotly debated for some time to come but I think there’s an important message in there: make a positive contribution

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Updated after another day of marathon editing by Aimee:

Wow!

Talk about some great feedback!

Thanks to everyone’s input we already have an updated theme incorporating all that feedback.

Please feel free to reference the original (and of course the comments). I’m feeling pretty good about the current design. I think it needs a little more polish, like amplification of the navigation but otherwise it’s approaching Ideal. Then of course there’s the sub-pages and blog-theme (whew, it’s a good thing Aimee ’s a friend of mine).

I had the great experience recently to be interviewed in a lengthy email by Natalie, the Office and Marketing Manger, of an Atlanta Office Cleaning company Clean-Guard Inc.

She sent me an email with a list of questions which were based in large measure on a list at SEOConsultants.com. It was a great list, I’m a guy who likes being challenged and with Natalie’s permission I’m reposting the bulk of that email here:

It’s funny this is the first time I’ve been asked to answer so specific a set of questions but I’m happy to have the opportunity.

Internet marketing for plastic surgeons presents some interesting challenges. Surgical practices make a lot of money and are attractive targets. Unfortunately, more often than not, the results haven’t matched the promises.

Right when it came out I pointed to a recent article in the NY Times. This post is intended to clarify my thoughts in response.

Table of Contents

• The good news for plastic surgeons’ internet marketing
• The bad news about internet marketing (history)
• Return on Investment (ROI) analysis
• Tracking your results – Important!
• I’m a surgeon (or I work for one) what do I need to know