Localize Your Website's Content

Don’t be afraid to mention your location on your Web site. Don’t make it a secret to the search engines or your customers. Let them know where your business is located. It’s natural information that both the search engines and your users are going to want to know. Who do you target? What area(s) are you relevant to? When are you open? How can people can find you? Tell them.

Where do you slip in these trust and location cues within your content?

Home page: While you’re out there telling people what you’re about, mention where you’re located. It shows customers you really exist, while also giving the search engines’ local algorithms something to work with.
About page: Your About page should not only tell people who you are, it should tell them where you’re located. It’s one of the many trust signals users will be looking for and it acts as a great citation for the search engines.
Press page: Do you have a page on your site that encourages people to get in touch with you for media purposes? Don’t forget to include your address, phone number and email.
Contact page: This should be a no brainer but you’d be surprised how many people lose their brains writing Web copy. Include your location, a map, your cities served, hours, email address, fax number, phone number, directions and other any information you have that establishes your location.

Richard M.J. Jarosz
Lone Keep Internet, Inc.

So Project: What's on your shelf begins...

Last week I made the first 20 calls. The results were what I expected. 10 were out of business or have switched jobs. 8 answered the phone like they were keeping their business a secret!! Several of these were Marketing Firms. None of the Internet based companies were around anymore - save one. This is why Lone Keep Internet has been around for over 22 years now...

Only two businesses called back. These were the ones who wanted to actually grow their businesses... So they are on my shelf! Next time I'll give you snippets of some of the actually conversations so you do not make the same mistakes on trying to "Get the Word Out" about your business.

Your Thoughts?

Will the Internet Save my Business?

Will the Internet Save my Business?
The short answer is NO! But it will help you grow your business.

What I mean by that is if you are looking to jump onto the 'Net as a last resort to try to get sales to save you business it won't work! Heresy you say! I just got off the phone with a prospect. Months ago he wanted to promote his website, use Adsense and basically turn his internet presence into a source of revenue. He complained about the cost and work necessary to do that and never pursued it. Well as I always do, I keep track of prospects (some finally come to their senses) and followed up with him after a few months. He is out of business and moved to Michigan.

I have a number of stories like this. Now if you apply the lessons learned and you have a plan and means then yes, it can help your business grow.

Lone Keep Internet hosts FREE seminars on this subject and more... The last few have been on Social Networking. The next one will be concerning Twitter on September 24th in Asbury Park, NJ. If anyone wants to join us email me
richj

Is customer service still needed in this age of the Internet?

After reading "Inside the Magic Kingdom" by Tom Connellan I realized that Customer Service is what distinguishes Companies from each other. So I started thinking which of the Internet companies have I used and continued to use based on their Customer Service.

Before I begin let’s examination how an Internet based company can lend itself to Customer Service. The first and only way is by Communication. Now that Communication can take several forms; a phone number with a live person or without, surveys and just regular emails keeping you informed. What it should not be are line items on your monthly credit card statement, or an avalanche of trial offers via the post or emails!

I will cover two good examples and several bad examples. By the way I warned the bad examples that I would be using them as "Bad Examples" and still no response… Go figure!

Good Examples:
Netflix.com – They tell you when a movie is received and when it shipped with an estimated arrival date. Great, but real Customer Service is what they do when something goes wrong! I did receive a damaged DVD once and on their website is a place to report it. Once it was reported they shipped a replacement even before I sent the damaged one back. No questions, No Problems. Another time the shipping center that we normally deal with did not have a requested DVD in stock so they sent the next one in my Queue, while they searched and found the requested one. They shipped both and informed me of the issue via email.

SingingBearsOnline.com – A small firm that sells Toy Bears. Roz likes to list her telephone number on the site so she can speak with her customers whether they have something good to say, a question or a problem.

Bad Examples:
A certain "Professor" – First they charged my credit card the wrong amount after 4 months I am still waiting for my $75 check. Needless to say I cancelled the account once I found out that they would be billing me monthly. I guess I missed that in the fine print. Still they charged me for shipping on the second month. When I called about that the representative blamed it on the previous person I spoke to and I believe the account got cancelled but I am still waiting for that refund too! Now when I call, it’s becomes a game when I’m bored, they place me on hold until I hang up or take my number (Due to large a large volume of calls) and will call me back. Guess what. Still no call back. So will I ever recommend this company to my friends or my clients?

Spoke.com – This company is the most frustrating. They have not taken any money from me but have hurt my company’s reputation, which I guess is about the same thing. One day I got a Google Alert that a new page was indexed that mentioned Lone Keep Internet on it. I took a look and found a person listed who has never worked for my company as being the Vice-President! I emailed him and Spoke.com about this error and did not receive word from either. So I placed my profile Spoke.com hoping to make myself legit in their eyes and still nothing! Turns out there are 19 Co-workers listed on their site of which only one is real and she did not create her profile there. Someone else created it for her! They have no phone number listed so no human contact and they have not responded to my filling out their support requests except to find out if I wanted to upgrade my account to a paid account?!?!?!!?

State of New Jersey – Don’t even get me started! This website is supposed to make it easier to deal with the State. If anyone has found it easier concerning any kind of problem let me know and I will do an entry on that!

So in conclusion "Is customer service still needed in this age of the Internet?" The answer is yes but as in Brick & Mortar Businesses most do not have a clue on how to do it…

Internet Marketing - What is PPC ?

Pay Per Click, or PPC, is an Internet advertising model that uses search engines, advertising networks, and content sites to display your text ads - matching the type of business that you have or the type of products you are promoting.

With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keywords or keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. Basically, you the advertiser pay a rate you specify for every visitor who clicks through from that site to your web site. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site. Each unique keyword phrase has its own bid price. You set the budget.

Although many PPC providers exist, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the three largest network operators, and all three operate under a bid-based model. Cost per click (CPC) varies depending on the search engine and the level of competition for a particular keyword or phrase. Successful PPC advertising, managed by a certified expert, ensures that your text ads reach the right audience while your business only pays for the clicks your ads receive.

What is the key to an effective PPC campaign?
The key to effective PPC campaigns is in your keyword strategy and the quality of your visitor analytics. Many companies set up their PPC advertising campaigns without much planning or monitoring of daily results. Campaigns need to be structured so that unproductive keywords can be filtered out and high performers improved upon.

Popular keywords are associated with particular solutions in visitor’s minds. Your ad’s appearance is not a certainty when you’re trying to sell a specialized niche product under a general common search term. A sophisticated keyword or key phrase and ad copy strategy will be needed.

To maximize your PPC advertising performance, you must bid on the right key words or keyword phrases, write persuasive ad copy, and have a well-written page to have them click through to. If you know how to attract the prospect and deliver them seamlessly to a solution they need, you’ll be achieving a valuable sales rate. The number of words you can use in your ads is restricted so writing attractive, persuasive text ads is much harder than you’d expect.

To find out more about PPC and related Internet topics join us at my FREE “Branding” and Tea seminar on May 29th, 1 – 4 PM. It will be hosted at the Sixth Avenue House B&B in Asbury Park and the Keynote speaker will be Craig Gunter of INCA Graphic Production.

Internet Marketing - What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is basically a fancy way to say “Doing things to improve your website rank with the search engines”. Technically it is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to your web site from search engines via "organic" search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears on the search engine results page (SERP), the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. The high-level way to describe what SEO includes is On-page vs. Off-page.
On-Page optimization are things that you do to the pages on your website (such as Title, Description and other Meta Tags and Visible Copy)
Off-Page optimization are things that you do externally to your website pages (in-bound links from other websites, Social Networks, etc)

What will make your SEO campaign a success?

To have a successful traffic-generation plan you must completely investigate what your website already has with an internet marketing expert. You must first make sure you have all the appropriate tags, keywords, and coding done correctly on your site before adding anything else. You must optimize this invisible area (the code) of your site so that search engines will find you. Links are also an important aspect of traffic generation. Make sure you are linking to and from other relevant sites and that your internal links have keyword-rich text. Remember, building traffic takes patience and consistent action.

To find out more about SEO and related internet topics join us at my FREE “Branding” and Tea seminar on May 29th, 1 – 4 PM. It will be hosted at the Sixth Avenue House B&B in Asbury Park and the Keynote speaker will be Craig Gunter of INCA Graphic Production.

SEO ‘lingo’ - what do all these terms and abbreviations mean?

• Inbound links: Also know as external links, which occurs when other sites link to your site. It’s generally accepted that a big factor in search engine algorithms (see below) is the number and quality of inbound links pointing to your site.
• Keyword: A word or phrase that is typed into a search engine. Site owners typically want their sites to be visible in the search engines for specific keywords that relate to their product or service.
• Link building: Since inbound (external) links influence a site’s organic rankings (see below); many site owners will undertake the process of link building. This can consist of explicitly asking other sites to link to them, or encouraging inbound links by creating valuable content or tools, posting product reviews or forum comments on other Web sites, or partnering with relevant sites.
• Organic ranking: The position that your Web site appears in the unpaid listings of the search engine results, which typically take up the majority of the page.
• Search engine algorithm: A complex formula that search engines use to compute how to rank site A over sites B to Z. Apparently they are made up of thousands of unique factors, but we will likely never truly know since Search Engines make a habit of not disclosing details.
• SEO: Search engine optimization involves undertaking activities to make your site rank higher in the search engine results. Often it involves attempting to intuit how search engines rank sites and applying industry best practices.
• SERP: Search engine results page, which is the page that comes up after you perform a query in a search engine.
• Sponsored listings/ads: The text ads that typically appear along the periphery of the SERP, such as along the top and the right hand side. Advertisers determine which terms they want their ads to appear for and compete with other advertisers to achieve top positioning