Google’s Traffic Diet PaysTo be honest and in order to share the irony with you, I must admit that I did not come up with this image on my own. The image creator itself is uncertain, but we found it on the University of Minnesota library blog for the biomedical department in a post by Jon Jeffryes entitled “Google for Researchers” and the diet metaphor is richly and rightly portrayed in this and many other aspects, especially in online marketing realms where a good, daily dose of Google traffic is one of the main (and sometimes only) ways new small businesses survive. Online marketing is getting tougher everyday. Google makes it hard to rank organically with it stringent but necessary algorithms. This leaves many little choice but to spend money on an SEO (search engine optimization) consulting service, a pay for click (PPC) campaign, linking campaign in conjunction with or separate from an SEO campaign, or wait, pray and hope that merely building it will in fact mean they will come. Can a website survive on the Internet without getting traffic from Google? The short answer for most online businesses and small business owners using the Internet for their online marketing campaigns is simply, no. That is not to say or discount that many businesses can, and many currently are, enjoy traffic from other sources, namely social media networks, but for the majority of businesses, social media marketing is still more a compliment to their desires to rank in the one Internet traffic source that is still the king of consistent visitors on a daily basis – Google. So Mr. Jeffryes’ find or creation of this image displays applicability across many genres and cliches, to include ours here today – a diet of Google traffic a day does pay!Getting Right with Google While no one knows for sure the undoubtedly very complex algorithms of Google, there are certainly hints and even free Google SEO advice based on their own Google SEO guide and discussions, posts and more hints from the infamous Matt Cutts. While the Google SEO Guide is lengthy, it is certainly a prerequisite to beginning the process of getting right with Google. It only makes sense to read the course syllabus and understand not only the requirements to pass, but the expectations along the way for the best possible grade. Like any course outline or syllabus, this one too has a required reading list, beginning with the Google SEO Starter Guide. Google SEO Starter Guide Highlights Here are some highlights of the guide mixed with our own insights and additions.First, get used to the term “Googlebot” – this is the “robot” or “spider” that crawls the Internet and your website pages gathering information, data, and quality markers for Google to cache and rank in the search engine result pages (SERP).
The first, and obviously very important, thing the Google SEO Stater Guide points out is the need to ensure your title is unique to the page and richly, concisely indicative to the page it represents; keywords of your title will appear in bold when search engine information seekers use those terms in searching. Keep your title from being too length; about 65 characters including spaces.
Make use of your description meta tag. Although Google does not always use this information – it sometimes uses a snippet of the page content or DMOZ directory description – it does sometime rely on it for display in SERP. Descriptions should be short, descriptive summaries of the page it presents or represents; keep to about 160 characters with spaces.
Keep your URL structure user and googlebot friendly by using keyword specific terms where possible but keep them from being too long; keep to a maximum of 75 total characters or use a URL shortening service for posting in social media networks and other places where long URL’s may not be bot friendly.
Create sitemaps for your users and for search engine robots like the Googlebot; an html sitemap for the humans and an xml sitemap for the automated robots coming by on behalf of search engines. Good pages titles with specific URLs and a well structured hierarchy structure will ensure a friendly, easy to follow sitemap for both human and artificially intelligent visitors.
Create smart, friendly 404 error pages should your users get lost. Keep track of legitimate error pages and correct or redirect them.
Provide quality, unique content for your visitors. The importance of quality content cannot be stressed enough. While perfect English, grammar and rhetoric skills are not necessary, good writing mechanics and usage go a long way in keeping your visitors returning and Google impressed.
Optimize images where used; use the alt text attribute to give short descriptive analysis to your viewers what the image is or is about. The same is true for file names – use descriptive words when saving to a logical (/images) and common folder, using common formats (bmp, gif, png, and jpg) that most users will be able to access. Finally, keep your image file size as small as possible for faster loading for readers and better accessing by Googlebot.
Make use of appropriate headings to show your readers important sections of your text and draw careful attention to particular parts, words or messages. Outlining your content with keyword relevant headings helps your readers and your ranking. For a good look at how your website page appears in heading outline you can use the W3C Validator; simply click “more options” and select “show outline” to see this important factor of your website page that is an important, key SEO factor too!
Make good, smart use of your robots.txt file to tell Googlebot and other search engine robots what they should and should not index into their databases for ranking and displaying to the whole of the world wide web.
Make use of free webmaster tools. There are a ton of websites out there and some of them are not only paid webmaster help sites, some of them get down right expensive, but some of the best and easiest to use are the free tool offered by Google for webmasters.These are but a few of the Google SEO starter basic and a cursory glance at them, but when Google tells you how to rank in Google, it’s generally a good idea to pay attention.So On-Page SEO is All I Need? Uh, nice wishing; but, no. A well built site with the aforementioned factors factors kept in mind will have a great leg up in getting recognized, but unfortunately these attributes alone will not readily propel a site to the top of Google’s SERP, especially for high contested and competitive keywords or phrases. At L5DG we put the maximum effort possible to on-page factors as outlined above, where possible, with a great emphasis on content for the user; more succinctly put, we build the foundation right and work our way up.
Top 10 Mistakes Business Owners Make With Their Technology and IT Decisions
Technology. Love it or hate it, it’s a necessary part of business today. Some business owners feel investing in technology is a waste of funds. Others think technology works well for other business owners, but can’t make it work for them. Here’s a list of the top 10 mistakes business owners make that leads to the cost of inefficient IT adding up. Read it and avoid the same pitfalls.1. Is IT a part of your strategic business plan? If not, why not?If not, your company will be unnecessarily challenged in meeting strategic goals.Technology is complicated, confusing and intimidating, but also closely tied to the success of an ever increasing number of businesses in today’s marketplace. All you need is a good IT Advisor to work with you, make recommendations based on your goals, and deploy those recommendations on time and on budget. Don’t think it’s important? Well let’s review that for a moment.
Your client info is stored on computers
Your sales efforts, leads etc are stored on computers and require advanced software to track.
Your employees work on computers, and are more efficient with file and printer servers installed as part of the network.
Your communications rely on email, antivirus software, cell phones and SmartPhones and syncing them all back to office computers and so on.
All your data needs to be protected, backed up and available for recovery should disaster strike.
If you haven’t thought about just how important a regular IT audit & review is for your company, you’re leaving too much up to chance. IT is an integral part of your business. Give it the appropriate focus, budget and consideration and see how it can add value to the overall strategic plan.2. Does your technology match your business plan or did you try to make your business plan fit with whatever technology you had?If your growth strategy requires a team of independently operating sales reps, make sure your IT supports that in the most cost and time efficient way possible. If your work flow is more of a process that must go from person A to person B to person C, then your IT design should match your work flow. If it doesn’t, it’s costing you time and money.Don’t make the mistake of making your business strategy fit into your existing IT set up. That could be a devastating move for your business. With the help of a trusted IT Advisor, you can find and implement solutions that support your business needs, add value to your company and simplify daily operations for your entire team.3. Is Your Technology Secure?
Your threats might include:
A virus
A network wide virus
A fire
The failure of your single back up drive
Employee theft of data
And just plain ol’ we hack for the fun of it hackers Your technology should be secure. Many businesses under invest in this area and too many come to regret it. One unfortunate incident can prove to severely outweigh the cost of investing in appropriate security.4. Are You Under Utilizing Technology In Your Business?Have you purchased the right amount of technology or power for your needs? Are your processors slowing down your team? Is your server scalable? Do you continue to invest in an antiquated model when the cost/benefit ratio for a new system makes fiscal sense. Technology is an investment and can give your company a considerable competitive edge. Don’t overspend on unnecessary technology just because you are enamoured with “toys” – yes, this is the case with some rare folks. But do strike the correct balance that will give your business the IT power it needs to excel forward.5. You bought what? How are you planning on using that technology?You might be surprised to learn that there are cases of business owners purchasing technology and then never using it. It usually results from an impulse buy or a “sale” purchase. If your technology purchase was not part of strategic business plan, it may not fit in. If your technology purchase was the result of a sale, it may be the wrong technology. Even if it is the right piece of equipment or software, simply purchasing it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have thought enough about how to:
Make it work with what you’ve already got
How to properly install and configure it
How to train your team on using it properly/to full potential
Porting your data over to it…and so on.
Don’t be frivolous with IT purchases. Work with your IT Consultant to make planned purchases and implementations.6. Don’t Get “Sold”If you go out shopping for IT, or give most IT “departments” a budget, I assure you they will find something to spend it on. It may not be what your business needs, but they already have a “new”, “exciting” or “cutting edge” solution that they have been drooling over and dying to work with. Is it what best suits your needs? Maybe. Maybe not. Will it be the simplest most effective solution for your needs, and easy enough for all you employees to use? Are you sure about that?It comes down to this: You don’t want business processes to fit in to your technology. You want the right technology to support your business processes in the most efficient way possible. An independent IT Consultant who won’t gain financially from a purchase recommendation is a wise choice here. Such an IT Advisor won’t “sell” you anything, but will help you navigate your options and purchase the IT you need.7. Failing To OutsourceThere comes a time in every new business when the cost benefit of managing your IT yourself diminishes to the point of no return. At that time, outsourcing might just be the sensible option. In mid size companies, outsourcing or having an IT firm on call as needed helps balance costs and necessary IT support. In a large company, outsourcing can significantly reduce the IT budget with Service Level Agreements.Service Level Agreements are suitable for many companies, giving them a fixed cost for enough IT service to efficiently run their business. The best part is that Service Level Agreements cost a fraction of a full time IT employee. Be sure to explore this option thoroughly. Unless technology is your core service or product, your needs may best be served by an independent IT firm and a good Service Level Agreement.8. Failing To Plan for the WorstDisaster recovery is a term often used for cleaning up after a hurricane, tsunami or data loss. Albeit in different ways, all incidences are considered a disaster for those involved.But data loss doesn’t just happen when a drive fails or becomes corrupted. Paper fades or goes up in a fire. Devices are stolen. Data Protection solutions help reduce such losses. Overall, a well thought out back up and recovery plan can be simple to implement and low cost to run. Not having a data backup and recovery plan is just too high of a risk. In some instances, it could mean the death of a business.9. What’s Your IT Policy? How Many Hours Do You Want Employees On Facebook?Endless of hours are wasted each day by employees who are the clock, but doing anything but business related work. Web surfing, IM, chatting, social media, online dating and personal email pervades the business landscape. You don’t have to be austere and cut it out completely, but you can monitor it, curb it and significantly reduce those lost productivity hours.How about your company green policy and the environment? Is it important to you? Have you communicated that to your employees? Do they know not to print documents unless essential, to refill cartridges if possible, to recycle old electronics in appropriate ways?Make it policy and it will stick. Whether it’s reducing wasted hours on social media or dating sites, or saving paper, your trusted IT Advisor can help you better manage your resources by implementing the right technology and policy.10. Grow With It. Scale It. Upgrade. Keep Your Technology Up-To-Date.Technology evolves faster and faster. Don’t buy in to the one sided view of “IT is a never ending cost with no return”. Rather, accept and plan for technology that will suit your purposes today but will also grow with you in future. Accept that upgrades are as essential as ongoing product development, sales training and team building. Avoid delaying upgrades until all your technology is obsolete and unsupported by your industry ( or the software industry), leaving you with an enormous upgrade bill due all at once.Of course on the flip side of that token, don’t be the company buying up technology aimlessly. Your IT purchases should always be planned out and support your business model.
Effective Communication and Why it is Important to Your Business
Why is building up the communications skills of employees something a company should not pass up on? Does the industry that your company belong to matter? How does one conduct communications training to maximum productivity? Let us first go back to basics. What does it mean to communicate? What are the medium used to communicate? How does one ensure minimum possibility of misunderstanding?I talk. I write. I paint. I dance. I sing. I play an instrument. I act. I do. All of those mentioned are ways that a person can communicate to another person. However, the bigger thing is if the person sending the message is able to effectively communicate the message he wants to send or convey.Communication is most effective when it is understood by all persons involved in the process. It is most effective when the receivers are able to decode the message the way the sender meant it to be decoded. The key to effective communication is to rid the message anything that may lead it to be interpreted in another way.But how does a sender ensure that he is sending a message which has the least possibility of being misinterpreted? Consider the following factors to help you effectively communicate your ideas or thoughts: there are barriers to communication (which are considered noise), there are different communication styles, remember cultural differences between persons involved, there are appropriate communication channels for different types of messages and always consider your audience or receiver.So where does your business come in? What can your business profit from investing in communication skills? The answer is obvious. Your company is made up of people. Some genius once said that in business communications is everything. The hard truth is, it is; starting from business development down to personal selling or marketing. In a business environment, communication is downright and flat out critical. It is crucial that internal communication, which includes managers to employees communication, is effective or it could go downhill for that company fast. A message must be understood in its entirety for it to be effective. The importance of effective communication can never be overemphasized.Effective communication is the backbone of an organizations ability to thrive in the business arena. It gives a company the flexibility to respond to the changes in the market without disruption of operations, thereby saving the company from wasted time, resources and man power.Effective communication leads to productivity. How? When managers are able to send messages effectively to their subordinates and subordinates are effectively able to do their reports, report their grievances and suggestions to their seniors, you are able to establish harmony in the communication channels of your business. Effective communication in companies also helps avoid unwanted and unnecessary delays in operations or implementation of a policy or transactions.In some industries, if not all, ineffective communication is very expensive; and because of the rapidly developing technology, communications has become even more important as businesses now deal with clients over the phone and other technologies. The business arena can receive even small players for global competition. As a manager or business owner, effective communication will provide a good start to a good style of management. Your employees will know what is expected of them and give them the knowledge of how to do what they know they should or could do for the company.So how do you start on building on communication skills? First, make the workplace environment conducive to open communication. Address communication styles differences and think of ways to overcome them. Provide your employees training and the tools that they may need to help them communicate effectively verbally or non verbally.Stop preaching and start doing. Let them see your ears in action. Practice active listening. Make it a point to reiterate a point back to the sender, even if it is just for confirmation or acknowledgment. Show both body and verbal response to a conversation with your subordinates.Talk and convey your messages with clarity, both in meaning and show of emotions. Remember that communication is also considered signaling. It is more than just a transmission of thoughts. Your thoughts convey certain emotions or responses.Bank on your communication skills of your employees and the return of investment is going to come even years after.