Why Google Loves Wikipedia (And How You Can Grab Some of the Glory)

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Here's a fun game.

Google a topic that interests you.  Go ahead, any topic will do.  Once you've done that, take a look at the results.  I'll be willing to bet that Wikipedia's article about the subject comes up in the top five.

Here's Why

Wikipedia has a lot going for it in Google's eyes.  Google loves sites that are well organized.  It loves sites with a lot of content. And it loves sites that are updated frequently.  Since Wikipedia has all those things going on, Google rewards it with high search engine rankings - on almost every subject!

How To Be Like Wikipedia

While we can't all be Wikipedia, we can follow their lead and use some of the same techniques on our own websites.  And here's the big secret - many of the attributes that Google loves about Wikipedia can be easily accomplished on our own websites by maintaining a blog.

Adding a blog to your sites and posting regularly can give your website an advantage in search engine rankings because it adds organized content to your website on a regular basis.  As your blog grows and adds more and more content to your site, Google will start to see your site as a mini-Wikipedia, focused on your particular specialty.  And you'll watch your search engine rankings improve.

Of course, you still may not edge out Wikipedia.  But you could edge out your competitors' websites.  And that's what SEO is all about.

Don't Be Afraid of Twitter

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
The Twitter bandwagon is getting pretty crowded.

Everyone from retirees to tweenage iPhone addicts has joined Twitter to get the play by plays of their friends' lives.  And from PETCO to Pampers, every company in every industry seems to be tweeting as well.

What?  Your business hasn't taken the Twitter plunge yet?  Well, now is a great time to make your Twitter debut.

The Power of Twitter

Twitter is all about sharing information.  You share information with your list of "followers" (the people who have agreed to be notified when you post something), and then those people can pass the information on to their followers as well.  If you've posted something worth passing along, your information can go out to a pyramid of people in the blink of an eye.

FOR FREE.

From a marketing standpoint, this is amazing.  For zero dollars and zero cents, you can advertise your latest promotion or the big news at your store to a huge audience.

So...What's the Catch?

Having a free platform and a big audience is an awesome opportunity.  But we all know individuals who have had similar opportunities...and blown them.  After all, every once in awhile, a seedy drunken uncle gets a hold of the microphone at a wedding and gives an impromptu speech that makes the bride hide under the table.  And every so often, a coffee house open mic night turns ugly.

With Twitter, there is a right way to handle the opportunity for all the free advertising, and a not so right way.  Some unwritten rules and protocols are starting to develop on the Twitter scene, and before you jump up on Twitter's stage, it might be a good idea to get a brief on the dos and don'ts by some Twitter geeks - er - qualified Twitter experts.

So definitely don't be afraid to get your business involved in Twitter ASAP.  It's free, it's fun, and it's fantastic for marketing.  But to avoid accidentally sharing the fate of drunken Uncle Sketchy ... you might want to to have a little chat with a more experienced tweeter before you get started.

A Psych Study that will Blow Your Mind

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
I came across a couple of crazy videos the other day.  The first one was a recap of a study that showed just how little we really pay attention to details around us.  The second, which you can see below, is an interesting commercial that comes to a similar conclusion.



So just how out of it are we?  It's actually pretty scary.  I mean, think about it.  How many times have you been driving somewhere and realized that you can't really remember the last ten minutes of your journey?  How often have you found yourself sleeping with your eyes open as you channel surf?  We spend a good portion of our days in autopilot mode, and during those times, we're not necessarily taking in everything we should be.

What does this mean for web design?  Well, for starters, we have to design websites that can be navigated through easily by the sleepy, multitasking, or just generally dazed web surfers of the world.  And what makes a website easy to click around when you're out of it?

Easy Access to the Important Stuff.
When it comes down to it, there are only a few things we reeeeeally want our web visitors to do.  Buy stuff.  Call us.  E-mail us.  Maybe enter their contact information.  So the buttons to make these things happen need to be super easy to find.

Consistency from Page to Page.
If a visitor is happily clicking around our site and concentrating on the new content he finds on each new page, he's probably not going to notice if our "Contact Us" button is on the top right corner on one page and the top left corner on the next. But if he thought he knew where it was and finds it missing when he goes to use it, he's going to be angry, confused, or at least mildly annoyed. So keep those important buttons as anchors that don't change location from page to page.

So keep your important stuff bright, bold, and in the same place and your web visitors will be able to find their way around, even if they are a little dazed.

Web Marketing 101: Be Specific

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Chances are, your company sells more than one product.

Whether it's a line of goodies for pets, an assortment of sparkly accessories, or an array of services that ranges from plowing snow to cleaning gutters, most businesses these days make their money from numerous products or services.

If this is the case for you, here's a little tip to help increase traffic to your website.

Search engines try to deliver the most relevant results to their users.  You can take advantage of this by building different pages that focus specifically on each of your products or services.  Instead having of a page listing all of your goodies for pets, have a separate page for puppy rain coats and another page devoted to doggie feather boas.

And How Does This Get Me More Visitors?

People tend to Google exactly what they're looking for.  If you happen to be looking for homemade dog biscuits, you're more likely to Google that keyword than, for instance, "pet products."  If someone types "homemade dog biscuits" into a search engine, the search engine's first choice is to find a page devoted to that product.  If you have a separate page for homemade dog biscuits and your competitor does not, guess which one of you is going to come out on top?

And once you've got your visitors in the back door of your site to learn about your homemade dog biscuits, you may even find that they browse around a bit and end up purchasing doggie strollers and organic puppy desserts too.

But...My Website Will Have 597 Pages!

Having a page for each product is ideal, of course, but you can definitely start small.  Figure out which of your products are the most popular or the most unique, and start by devoting a couple of pages to those. Like maybe one for plastic fasteners that lists all the types of fasteners you have.  You can always build more pages as you go along (e.g. plastic bolts, plastic u-bolts, plastic nuts, etc.)

So why not try setting up specific pages for your doggie charm bracelets, doggie roller skates, and doggie dream interpreter kit, and then go from there?

Worms, Peanut Butter, and Other Fish Food

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
So you know how important blogging can be to the success of your site.  By blogging about topics relevant to your company's area of expertise, your clients will get to know and like you better, and the search engines will like you better, too.

But in addition to adding more content that search engines will value, a blog can also help you out with another important area of SEO - establishing links to your site.

The search engines really like links.  Basically, if you can get the right links coming in to your website, your website will get better rankings.  And you can use your blog to entice other web users to link to your site.

That is, if your blog does something to lure them in.

And that, kiddos, is what we call link bait.  If you can come up with a blog post that other sites will be tempted to link to, your blog will take on a whole new role in your SEO.

So...what types of posts are considered link bait?  What are people out there itching to link to?

Link bait stands out. By being unusual, controversial, polarizing or extremely useful.

It could be a post with a point that you make that is really out in left field - something that other people aren't already saying.  But of course, you have to believe and support what you're saying, or you'll have people linking to a site with no brand equity.  Controversy gets people talking, but of course, you need to make sure they aren't talking about how out of your tree you are.

Writing extremely useful link bait might be a little safer.  Here, we'd look for a post that has really strong content that people can use as a reference.  We're talking about things like 50 Frequently Missed Tax Deductions or 101 Ways to Cook Chicken.  The types of posts people forward to friends or print out for future reference are the types of sites to which people will also link.

Writing link bait isn't really all that different from writing a regular post.  At the end of the day, you want the content in your blog to be stuff people want to read.  When a post qualifies as link bait, however, the author has gone the extra mile and made sure that the content will get people talking, and, of course, linking.

Why Split Test?

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Did you guys hear about the experiment that Highrise did to see what type of copy would work best on their call-to-action button?  There's a great little blog post that explains what they found out.

Their results showed the impact that subtle wording differences can have on visitors, but they also showed something even more valuable -- the impact that split testing can have on the success of your website.

Split testing is setting up different versions of your home page so that different visitors will see a different version.  It uses the magic of the web to look at your visitors' reactions to each version of the site.  Did your visitors click around?  Click your call-to-action button?  Leave?  All of this information can be tracked, so split testing is a good way to figure out which of several ideas is the best one.

In other words, if you can't decide whether to have a button on your snowshoe company page that says "Shop Now" or "Click for a FREE coupon code," you could set up two versions of the site and use split testing to track which button got more clicks.  After you've done your test, you can make an informed choice about what will make the snowshoe enthusiasts of the world delve into your site.

Highrise found a way to increase their signups by 200%.  Can you believe that?  That's HUGE.  But they never would have found it if they had never tried out the different possible options for copy.