I was checking out this article on WebDesignLedger.com called “40 Tasty Restaurant Websites to Inspire You” and two things immediately occurred to me.

First, I was really really hungry looking at all the amazing food on these sites’ home pages – great job on most of them to really highlight their food well in a very appetizing way!

Second, my marketing head kicked in.  Fortunately, many of these guys do a great balance of graphic art (look of the site and displaying the food well) along side complementary marketing (making sure people can find the site and, find what they need and find their way around the site).

Previously, I had reviewed another Top Sites article, which highlighted Photographers’ websites.  Unlike the samples for the top restaurant sites, it was obvious that the photographers’ websites list was compiled by a designer who didn’t look at the sites from a usability standpoint, but rather from an aesthetic one.

Though the photographers’ sites had beautiful images, they didn’t encourage people to take an action.  You know, like contact the designer or purchase an image.  Never mind things like calls to action and search engine optimization, the majority of those sites actually made it hard for people to get back to an image they liked.  They probably were too focused on the images and believed that if their art was good enough, they didn’t have to ‘market’ the site.

Well, that is kind of true if:

• You are already a well established artist and a well branded name
• You are expecting people will know of you and come looking for you
• You are only sending folks to your site, not expecting new people to find you

This is not true if:

• You are trying to build brand recognition based on your new site
• You are building the site to have new people, who never heard of you before, find you through the search engines
• You are trying to get people to take an action, like call you or purchase something

Getting back to the restaurant sites, while I was reviewing these I got really hungry, so I went to lunch.  A QA (Quality Assurance) and UI (User Interface) professional joined me and I told her what I was writing about.  She said to me, “The reason restaurants are more likely to accept marketing than photographers is because restaurants get that they have to get people in the door, to keep their doors open.  Photographers are artists and want their sites to be a reflection of their art.”

At this point, I could easily turn this into a blog post about finding the balance between art as art and marketing an art website for a business, but let’s save that for another blog post.  However, there is relevance to what the QA/UI person said with relation to restaurant websites:

What if the restaurant has a chef who thinks more on the lines of an artists?  What if he/she thinks of his/her food as an artistic creation?  That’s when they might forgo or forget about the purpose of their website and focus too much on the ‘food as art’ design.

So many times, when I come across these Top Website lists, I come away thinking : “Well, the referenced sites are graphically lovely, but I don’t think new people, landing on the site for the first time, know what to do or even what the site is about.  And, they certainly aren’t encouraged to go deeper into the site.”  Often the visitor can’t find their way around, even if they want to.

Using this 40 Tasteful Restaurant Website’s article, here is an example of what I perceive to be a food as art designed site – either the chef/restaurant is world renown, or they didn’t want to compromise with marketing/usability (or don’t understand there needs to be a balance).

I’m guessing the chef is the brand, or at least I am hoping for that, and they aren’t concerned with new people searching the net to find them, because they are already a known brand. What do you think – tell me by commenting below?

The site is very pretty and very appetizing, but let’s pretend a friend sent you an email with a link that stated: “Thought you’d like this…”

What is your first reaction (OK, your first reaction, if you like cheese as much as me is “YUM!” – but what comes after that?”  Do you know what the site is about?  Do you guess it’s a restaurant, or are you thinking maybe it’s a cheese manufacture?  Do you know where to go next, to find out your questions?  (HINT: Orange Letters – but which one takes you where?)

Now to be fair, this restaurant is not targeting everyone and not assuming people will just find them.  Additionally, they do have some other images rotating on the home page, which make it clear it’s a restaurant (if you look threw all the photos).  And, this site, if they are banking more on reputation, may have intentionally been created this way.  They are selective and probably only want the people who can afford and appreciate them, the type of person who is intentionally seeking them out – not the stumble uponers.

But stay with me another minute and let’s get back to your pretend friend who sent you the link originally.  Let’s just say you guys are looking for ‘the experience’ of this level of dining and your friend emails you, “Let’s meet here for dinner…”

Though you guys are intentionally going to the site, is the site providing you with a good experience?  Do you know where they are located?  Do you know how to call for a reservation, do you need a reservation?  Do they cater to your ’special diet”?  Can you look at the menu?  Have you figured out yet, which orange letter will get you to the page to tell you the info you need?

Now, let’s look at a site that I think does a nice job of balancing graphic design and marketing/usability  I’ve marked it up to show you what works (Stuff in yellow are my markups):

The graphic layout and the marketing components blend nicely & effectively together – underneath my markups, that is.

Now to be clear, I have to tell you too things:

1. I understand the audience for these two restaurants are different

2. If you click to this second site – MarieCatribs.com - this is actually not their home page!

However, you can see from my notes, why I think they are doing things correctly – for usability purposes, yet not loosing their creative aspect.  If I had time to redesign the first example, to give you an idea of how – with a few minor changes – they could be both artistic and user-friendly, I would, but to tell you the truth, this post has gotten me too hungry.  So why don’t YOU tell me what you think the first website could do to make their site just a bit more friendly for the visitor, yet keep its creative vision… (comment below)

Bon Appetit and happy, balanced, web designing… (looking forward to hearing your ideas!)

Learn how, and why, to use WordPress for your complete web solution.  Set up and create sites (as well as blogs) using WordPress.org:

Getting Started with WordPress – For Content Creators
Date(s):
Monday, July 06, 2009 | 6pm – 9pm For description and more info, click here

Getting Started with WordPress – Web Developers
Date(s):
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 6pm – 9pm For description and more info, click here

Location:
BDA Studio
2510 47th Street, Suite 202, Boulder, CO  80301

Registration and more info available at BoulderDigitalArts.com

OK, many of you have been asking us to do this, and it ends up that due to family circumstances Doug won’t be able to teach his normal WordPress Workshop for Boulder Digital Arts.  So, Angela Bowman and I will be doing it for him.

If you have been wanting to learn how to set up Wordpress.org for yourself, instead of hiring me to do it for you, this is the time and place.

You actually benefit from both Angela and my own experience.  Interestingly, we both took Doug’s class a couple of years before we met each other.  So, when we did meet, we were so excited to find someone else who loved building websites (not just blogs), from the fantastic WordPress tool set.

Anyway, for these classes, you get both of us teaching you all we learned from Doug, originally, plus all we’ve learned since.

So take full advantage of it.  Instead of paying one of us our normal hourly fee, you get both of us for 3 full hours, per class.

There are two options, and taking both classes could be beneficial, depending on your goals.

The first Workshop is for those who want to run the site themselves, to understand the power of Wordpress.org as a content-creation or management tool, plus a review of the marketing advantages of using it.

The other workshop is  for using WordPress.org as a site-building tool ( bit more technical, so it’s geared toward those who want to learn all the nooks and crannies).

There will be a review of plugins during both classes, and some of the content will overlap, so if you have questions on which to take, call me and we’ll figure it out.

Sign Up Now, while there are seats available! Or contact me with any questions

There’s going to be lots of fun information.

Getting Started with WordPress – For Content Creators

Getting Started with WordPress – Web Developers

I spoke at the Denver Coach Federation, last night.  My presentation was called It’s A Blog. It’s A Website. It’s a Marketing Tool…It’s WordPress!

I told everyone I’d give them my slide presentation on why to use WordPress to build your site and blog.  So, here it is in two forms.  One is as a pdf and the other as a slide show.

Whether you were at the event last night or not, feel free to enjoy an introduction to WordPress.  Either download the It’s WordPress pdf or simply view the slide show below:

Here is the download of the It’s WordPress PDF, if that is easier for you!

FYI: The Denver Coach Federation has a great group of folks and it was fun to hear about their individual specialties.

Two of my existing Do-It-Yourself WordPress clients were there, Lee from Retire Your Way, LLC and Mary Lynne from Be Great Teen Coaching, LLC.  Right there, that shows you the range of amazing coaches, from those inspiring the youth to those enlivening life after careers.

Plus I got to meet a bunch of others, including a few who are already setting up their 1 hr free consultations, so that they can take advantage of all the amazing advancements of WordPress.

If you want to learn more about WordPress, either visit their site at WordPress.org or contact me to set up your own free one-hour consultation.

P.S.  A big NOD to Dhyan Atkinson of The Five Essential Skills - who not only gave my name to Barbara of the Denver Coach Federation, but also introduced me to Lee, Mary Lynne and many of my other existing clients.  If you need Essential Business Skills for Your Small Business, contact Dhyan.  And, thanks to Cindy from Kalmarx Design, for the intro to Dhyan.  A great example of how working together within your community can bring about amazing opportunities.  Check out Kalmarx Design, for all your illustration and design needs!  Cindy also has a fun cartoon line called the Optimistic Dog – can’t wait to share that link with you all!

Oh, and let me know what you think of the slide show or if you have questions about WordPress, by commenting below…

OK, I know, I am a WordPress Dork, but really, this thing just keeps getting better and better!

I must admit, when I heard about 2.8, I didn’t expect much. After all, WordPress 2.7.1 did such a great job that I wasn’t missing much, other than the theme uploader. And, with Vladimir Prelovac’s Theme Test Drive plugin, I didn’t even miss that!

So what could WordPress 2.8 have that I’d need? Well watch the video and you’ll see.

If you haven’t watched the video yet, and you are still reading this, I’ll give you a hint of why to install 2.8: (Angela, this one is for you) You really won’t need to open up the FTP for editing php!

If you aren’t coding, that one won’t be too exciting, but then check out the Widgets section. In fact, here, just watch the video. And, if you are as big a dork as me, you’ll be going “No Way! How Cool!” through the whole thing.

Oh, and the nod to jazz is nice, too.

And, if you are as big a WordPress fan (if not a WordPress dork), you may want to check out Inc. Magazine’s “The Way I Work” feature on WordPress visionary Matt Mullenweg.

When it comes to WordPress 2.8, dubbed Baker – after the great Chet Baker – to this dork, it is like the first time I heard Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. I find myself torn between enjoying it quietly on my own and making everyone I can find listen to why it is so great.

If you aren’t familiar with why I love WordPress, check out some of the WordPress based sites I have created or contact me for a free 1-hr consultation of why you should be using it to maintain your own site and/or blog.

Also, feel free to share what you like (or maybe dislike) about WordPress 2.8, by commenting below…

When you hear the words “keyword” or “keyword phrases” do you know what they mean to you, your business and especially your clients?

So many times, when I begin to work with a client, the first thing they say, before they even have content for their home page, is “I just want to rank #1 on Google.” So, I naturally ask them which keyword or keyword phrase they plan to rank #1 for? And, that is when I often learn that they hadn’t thought much past the desire to rank well.

I can relate. We are constantly hearing that we need to rank well on the search engines, in order to get traffic to our sites. And, though this is partly correct, I believe there are many options to get traffic to your site, but we’ll talk more about other options in a future post. For now, let’s talk about ranking appropriately with the search engines.

For the purpose of this post, we will focus on the topic of keywords and keyword phrases. So, let’s start with a quick definition of these terms related to search engines:

Keyword or Keyword Phrase: A word, term or phrase that someone types into the search box on a search engine site (such as Google, Yahoo or MSN), to find information or sites that talk about ‘their’ subject of interest.

I want you to be sure you understand this: the definition does not say a term that you, and folks in your industry, use to describe your services or products. What it does simply state is that it is a term someone else (a potential client or customer) might use to find info about the subject they are interested in.

For example, though you want to rank #1 for your company name and products, there are folks who may not know you, yet, so you also want to rank for the terms they’d use to solve their problem.

Here is an example that might be helpful.

A few years ago, I went to meet with a company that duplicated CDs. Before I walked in, I did a few searches, to see what they had already begun and how they were ranking in the search engines. I couldn’t find them for any of the ‘obvious’ terms I was searching for (cd duplication, cd manufacturing…). So, you might be as surprised as I was when their president said to me, “We’re # 1 on Google!”

“Really? Wow, that is great, but may I ask for what terms?” I politely questioned, because either I had done something wrong or he was using a term I wasn’t looking up (and maybe his potential clients wouldn’t use his term, either).

He proceeded to show me and, when he did, it became clear why he was #1.

The way he was looking up the term, and the way he had optimized his website, was to use the following full keyword phrase, exactly as it is written below:

“CD/DVD Manufacturer and Duplication Services”

Now, let’s break this down, because – at first sight – it does seem like folks might find him this way:

But let me ask you, if you were looking for someone who did CD manufacturing, would you type in the term exactly as he had it? Take another look and remember, he was ranked # 1 exactly as it is written above – slash mark between CD/DVD, and all. Because he did his search with quote marks around it, as well, this meant his clients would have to use the words in the exact order they were in and how they were presented to find his company’s only #1 ranking search term.

He was nowhere to be found on the terms individually, because he had only placed the words on his site as they appeared in his search term (minus the quote marks).

That would be like me doing a search for…say… the above sentence.  Chances are I would easily rank #1 if I did a search for the above sentence (once the search engine’s indexed this page), because no one else has written it the same exact way I have.  But would anyone be looking for it to find my company?  If not, it doesn’t matter how well I rank for it!

Most likely, if you were looking for his CD duplication services, you would be looking for the term CD duplication or the term CD duplicators. Maybe you would be looking for CD manufacturing (not manufacturer). But chances are, you would not go to Google and type in CD/DVD (because most people don’t think to put the slash in between). So you would never see him.  In fact, I went to Google’s keyword research tool, to see how many folks were looking for the term, as he used it, so I could show you the results.

As you can see from this image, there is not enough data (meaning no one is typically looking for that full term that he ranks #1 for). However, Google does provide you with additional searches to consider.  This is handy, because look how many folks are searching for CD duplication or CD duplicators, not to mention DVD duplication and DVD duplicator (notice no s at the end of that specific keyword phrase).  Also, you might notice folks were looking for the term dvd cd duplicator, which is interesting to note (and could be a whole post of its own), but no one searches for it as CD/DVD (it isn’t a natural instinct for most folks to add that slash to their search).

Let’s pause for a moment…

You may be saying, yeah, but if he includes that full term on his site and he is ranking #1 for it in any fashion, doesn’t that mean he’ll rank for the individual terms, as well? Well, that is a maybe. See, if there are 200 or more sites who are optimizing their site with the correct keyword phrases that do rank well, then he will be pushed below them – meaning someone would have to search a long time to find him.

If you know that folks are looking for the term CD duplication or, better yet, CD duplicators, you should be consistently using the term or terms appropriately throughout your site. Not the term “CD/DVD Manufacturer and Duplication Services.”

If no one is looking for the keyword phrase you are using, then it doesn’t help you to rank #1 for it!

This brings us to another example.  In this case, it is of a keyword phrase lots of folks are using, but one that is useless for the site to use (fortunately, the client realized it):

I have a client who offers software internationalization services. It’s a specialized field, but basically they work with the strings of code (the backend of the software) to prepare it to work in any language.

Their president told me he had a disappointing experience with a search firm. They were trying to rank him for terms that didn’t make sense to his clients and he knew it.

They were suggesting he use the keyword phrase “translation software”, because they found it ranked better than some he was using. And, yes, they were correct, a good number of folks were searching for that keyword phrase. The problem was most of those folks were looking for:

1. A product like Rosetta Stone (which teaches you how to speak another language)
2. A way to translate a simple line of text from one language to another – you know, like how to say “Hello, it is nice to meet you” in French

The second searchers were looking for a free online tool like Babelfish not a company that organizations like Yahoo and HP might go to, in an effort to make sure their millions of lines of code work in any language.

Fortunately, my client knew his own clients well enough to know the search firm was giving him bad advice, at that moment. Keep this lesson in mind, just because a word ranks well doesn’t mean it will bring the folks who need your product.  Maybe a lower ranking word will bring better targeted folks to you.

The thing I want you to take away from this post is that ranking well in the search engines requires understanding how your customers would search for you!

If you don’t know, then ask some of your existing customers. Whenever a client calls me for the first time, I ask them how they heard about me. Granted, for me it’s usually from a referral, which I like even better than ranking #1 in any search engine, because it means another client recommended my services! But on those occasions that folks said they found me on Google, I always ask them if they remembered what search term they used.

I also listen to what terms they use when they speak to me, because they may give me clues there, as well.

As I’ve mentioned before, my forte is online marketing, not SEO, but they go hand and hand.  I believe I do a good job at starting folks out on their SEO campaigns.  When I am working with a new client’s optimization, one of the first things I do is spend a minimum of 1-3 hour just doing a keyword research campaign (I’d prefer more time, but again, this is just to get them started).

However, before I begin the research, I ask the client what terms they think folks are using to search for their types of products or services. Then I go to a series of keyword researching tools to begin to capture results. BUT, I always keep in mind that just because a keyword ranks well, such as translation software, it doesn’t mean it is the word potential clients are using to find them. So, I go to Google and do some searches to see what types of companies are listed for that specific keyword phrase.

And, of course, while I am doing that, I encourage my clients to check with a couple of existing customers. Because, after all, their customers are the best resources, as they were once prospects, too.

Here are my suggestions of free keyword research tools, to get you started:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

This post is just the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to keywords and keyword phrases, but I do hope it expands your mind and offers some good advice.

By the way, if you haven’t already, you may also benefit by reading two previous posts on UniqueThink’s blog, about search engine optimization:

SEO tips: How to Optimize your site

Setting Realistic SEO Expectations

And, of course, don’t forget I offer a 1-hour free consultation, if you need to discuss your specific situation!  Feel free to contact me.

If you have any keyword horror stories that others can learn from, or any good research tips, please share them by commenting below! 

OK, I am trying out a new tool – which is Free and available to anyone looking to do a slide show.

It’s from http://www.slideshare.net/ and you can create your own page there, just like I did. Then set up a Powerpoint presentation. Mine is below, it is one I did a few months ago on Dhyan Atkinson’s Wed Afternoon Teleclass.

My presentation was called It’s A Blog, It’s A Website, It’s A Marketing Tool…It’s Wordpress. It talks about using WordPress as both your blog and your complete website.

Comment below and let me know what you think of both the presentation and the SlideShare site!

Focusing on the possibilities…

Jill Whalen CEO and Founder of High Rankings wrote an interesting article about SEO Expectations in her newsletter, shortly after I posted my SEO post on this site.

It is a sharp read, about being realistic in your SEO campaign. It doesn’t sugarcoat anything, so if you are looking for someone who is going to tell you they can get you to #1 overnight, this is not the place. This is actually why I trust Jill – she doesn’t make false claims, she is realistic about what it takes to get ranked well in the search engines. If you are looking for instant gratification, her article may not do the trick. It will, however, talk about realistic steps to take to make your site rank well consistently!

After reading it, I contacted Jill and asked her if I could mention it here. She promptly gave me permission and sent me a link to where it is posted online. I think it is a great read about setting real expectations for your SEO campaign.

I especially agreed with these comments under the subheading of What Exactly Is Good Content?:

Good content is unique. Really and truly unique. It is creative ideas that simply popped into your head which nobody else in your space has thought of yet…

And it’s (say it with me) making your site the best it can be for your site visitors AND the search engines.

And, be sure to read her section called It’s About Targeted Traffic, Not Rankings - which starts with:

As we move forward in this industry, webmasters, site owners, and SEOs need to shift their focus from asking how they can get this keyword to this position in this engine to how they can get more targeted traffic and convert it into customers.

Read Jill’s full article called Setting Realistic SEO Expectations and consider signing up for her newsletter at her HighRankings.com site. I’ve been reading her newsletter for years and she definitely knows what she writes about. So, for a realistic and authoritative view into SEO, I highly recommend her.

There are a couple of other people I recommend for SEO, too, so let me know if you need other recommendations.

I look forward to hearing what you think of Jill’s article, so please comment below.

For some reason, lately, people are asking me more and more about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I figured instead of writing directly to each of them, I’d put a post together to share what I know with everyone. This way, you might be able to start doing some of these tips, yourself.

Recently, I had written an email to one of my business associates (Eliana at Sidewalkcafedesign.com), who asked me what I could share with her about SEO. I am using that info to start this conversation.

Since I wrote this for someone with a bit of SEO knowledge, if something doesn’t make sense, let me know.

Also, if, by chance, you are an expert in SEO and you are reading this, please feel free to provide ‘constructive comments’ – if I did get something incorrect. That way, we can all learn from the experience.

Before I begin, I want to emphasize these two things:

1. The Search Engines don’t share how they factor their ranking systems.

The content in the below post contains many of the best practice examples I have learned, about how you can possibly help your site. They are things I do for my clients, based on things I have heard (from reputable SEO firms), but I don’t guarantee to get you to #1 using content from this one single post. That takes a lot of time and effort. These are just ideas to help you along the way.

2. Check the date of this post.

Since the search engines are always changing, if you are finding this post a year or two from now than I’d like to say “Hello to the future” and remind you that the search engines change their algorithms constantly. However, since most of these are best practices, they should not hurt you, even in the future. Though it is wise to look for newer posts, to stay current.

Alrighty, then, here we go:

• It is critical to get the appropriate keywords for your site, so let’s address that for a moment. It doesn’t matter what you as the site owner think people are searching for. What matters is what people really are searching for, not the terms used in your industry or internally in your office, but what the person looking for your product or service is typing in as their search term. Know how people are searching, then put those words in the title, description, and keywords (as mentioned in a bullet below) and, especially, in the content on your site. Because, let’s face it, it doesn’t make sense to have them appear in the code, if you are not using them in your copy

• Write the content (a.k.a. copy or text, as well as any image captions) of each page, in a natural voice. Don’t try to force the use of keywords. But, after you write the original content, go back and see if there are appropriate places where you might be able to change the sentence to appropriately include that keyword. You need to remember, it must be easy and natural for the site visitor (the person) to read that sentence. Search engines are getting very sophisticated and are now learning to read the sites like a human, so even more reason (not that you needed any) to write for the human visitor’s experience

• When Search Engine spiders (a.k.a. crawlers and robots) come to your site, they start at the top of the home page (viewing the site’s code, which also shows the content), so make sure you include good keywords high up on the page

• There are behind the scenes things (in the site’s code) called Meta Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords – that the search engines will read. Make sure you or your web person takes advantage of these sections and include the appropriate keywords.
  • Meta Title: This is what appears at the top of your browser window and as the title for a Google Search Result. Each page’s title tag should contain the keywords that are used in the copy on that page.
  • Meta Description: The description should be no more than 160 characters and should tell folks what they should expect to find on that page. This content is often what Google uses as its description for your search results
  • Meta Keywords: Current wisdom is that the Meta Keywords section of the code aren’t being factored into the search ranking formula, because people used to ’stuff’ them with inappropriate words (high-ranking words that weren’t relevant to their site, in an attempt to rank higher). However, it is still good practice to include your appropriate keywords in the Meta Keyword field, because you never know when that factoring might change.

• Make sure each and every individual page (or blog post) has a relevant Meta Title, Description and use of Keywords – don’t just use generic Meta data on all pages.

• H1 tags (headlines) should contain strong keywords. Too often I see people write the word Welcome as the first and only thing for the headline on the home page – big mistake and waste of a good keyword opportunity!

• Write for the human experience. Yes, this is kind of a repeat of what I wrote a few bullet points above, but it is that important that I kept it in here twice. Search Engines are trying to emulate the visitor’s experience, so make sure you write for the visitor, not just the search engines. (After all, if you’re ranked #1, but then when folks get to your site, they can’t connect with the content or easily navigate through your site, then you are loosing them.) The human visitor is who will be buying your services or products, not the search engine robots, so the humans’ experiences are always top priority.

• Image (and other media) File Names and Alt tags should use keywords. Often I see image files called something like 10008438.jpg. Since the search engines see those image files, why not, when appropriate use a keyword. After all, that might help you, too, if you need to find that image file, later, you know what it is called. And, alt tags don’t only help the search engines, but also someone who is visually impaired and using an audio reader to ‘hear’ the content of your site

• Use clean urls (no “?” and stuff like that in the url address) – here is an example:
  • Bad Url (this is for example purposes and not a real link): http://www.uniquethink.com/?site_id=619&page_id=25384&id_sub=25384
  • Clean URL: http://uniquethink.com/services/wordpress-sites-by-uniquethink/
    • Isn’t the second one clearer to understand – plus, from what I have been told, most search engines don’t read anything after the ?, anyway.

• It seems the search engines think it is less important to link to other people (though it is very nice and I link to people I like all the time). I have heard it is more important for them to see other sites linking back to you. Links from other ‘authority sites’ (For example: Relevant, well-known sites, in your industry), that send folks back to your site, weigh heavy to the algorithms – so, it is just as important to get people linking back to the site. Besides, if you can get folks linking back to you, their audience is also learning about you – so it is a win/win situation. How to get those sites to link back to you is a post of another color (a.k.a. a future post)

• It also helps to have links from one page to another – on your site – A site map and Internal links directing from one page to another seem to help index more pages of your site

• The other big factor that search engines take into account is FRESH, RELEVANT, ORIGINAL CONTENT that is CONTINUOUSLY ADDED

As for WordPress, specifically:

• Search engines love blogs, because the main concept of a blog is to continuously be providing fresh, relevant, original content

• WordPress doesn’t merely wait for the search engines to come to the site (like a traditional site does), but it also pro-actively sends each post (not pages, but posts) to the search engines – that is why I use the blog as a marketing tool (re-purpose newsletter content, use it for case studies/success stories, articles…) So, each time you write something, as a post, it gets submitted to Google (and others) upon publishing, thru RSS

• WordPress is set up well to help with a lot of the above mentioned items – like clean urls, putting in alt tags, H1… and there are great (free) plugins – like the All-in-one-SEO tool that make it really easy to add appropriate customized titles and descriptions to any page/post

OK, that is a lot of info. So, why not start with the obvious, keywords. Take note about what I mentioned about them. Don’t use what you think are important keywords, but instead find out how your prospects might be searching for you. Then start using those terms naturally within the content of your site. Then come back to this post and find another tip from above and start implementing that one. You can also contact me. I give a 1-hr free consultation to potential clients and we can use that hour to review these tips or talk specifically about your site.

Again, if you have any tips or suggestions of your own – feel free to share that, or any constructive comments, below.

Focusing on the possibilities…

I thought I’d write a follow up for my last post entitled Oprah, Skype and the Book Club:

I did have a chance to watch the taped version of this ‘premiere’ use of Skype for Oprah’s Book Club with author Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awaking Your Life’s Purpose

If you haven’t read my last post, it was not a review about the book, but (since this is a marketing related blog) more an examination about the marketing behind the event. I am still fascinated by this campaign, it is a rather impressive idea. And, though I don’t often have clients with the budget of Harpo Products (Oprah’s multimedia production company), I do like to watch how they are doing this and conceptualize how I can create scaled down versions for appropriate clients.

For clarification of #4 on the last post: They do use pre-selected “Skyper” (viewers with a video camera on their computer, who talk via Skype) and do mention Skype a great deal. Though Oprah confesses she had never heard of Skype before, she acknowledges how cool it is to be able to have people (sitting in their homes) talk with her on videocams. She had people from across the U.S. and a woman based in Germany call in on Skype. She also used ‘emails’ and the ‘phone’ to talk with other individuals across the globe.

Now, to be fair, other marketers have already started using Skype for group meetings. Last year, Ed Dale (located in Australia) of StomperNet did a series of Skype calls with members, across the globe, in StomperSimple. And I am sure there were others, before him. But Oprah’s group has done it on a grander scale:

Obviously, this new example is a high profile (meaning: high budget) campaign – more like an interactive live Internet TV-style show – it was stated that 500,000 people watched the live version of this, and, as of the other day, 1.5 million have downloaded the pre-recorded version (either from Oprah.com or iTunes).

Yet, as ready as the Harpo team was for this experiment, there were still complications. Though, to their credit, the group is taking ownership and finding ways to resolve them. It seems, many viewers didn’t get to actually watch it live. So, they are responding by asking people to show up early to the next “class” and emphasizing this is a new media that they are exploring. They wrote, in a reminder email (about access to the next installment): “If you’re willing to partner with us in exploring this new frontier, we’ll see you in class on Monday!”

They also remind people they can download each class, afterwards, if they can’t get on the live call. I like that they are being proactive for the next class. Also, I like the availability of the downloads, I know I am not going to spend my Monday night watching the live version. I’d rather watch it on my own terms, which reiterates my constant reminder to my clients that the need to make their webinars or even newsletters available in a variety of ways. That’s why I love blogs: You can post links (without HTML knowledge) to pre-recorded webinars, archive past newsletters, and more… This way, a month from now someone new can find it and utilize the info. So, you don’t need a budget like Oprah has to achieve a lot of these results (though you may have a smaller audience, you can still make a big impact).

As a marketing tool, I think this combination of Virtual Classroom and Skype accessed students is a great experiment to witness – I am sure many people will follow on what they are creating. I know I am already brainstorming ideas.

And, yes, as a viewer, I am also enjoying it. It is self-help oriented, but is ‘bigger’ than ones-self. And it is not limiting, like The Secret has been accused of being. (The Secret seemed to leave out the step about taking action, and they focused too much on material gain.) Though I have not read Tolle’s book, this workshop, based on the book, isn’t like that, it seems to be more about “awareness” and getting past our individual ‘egos’ – Now, I am sure, as with all things in life, there is not a lot of new content in this book, just a ‘re-visiting’ of it, but maybe it is a re-visiting in a way that more of the main-stream can understand and take action on it! So bravo to Oprah and Eckhart for doing this.

The other thing that I liked, from a viewer’s point, was that they make it clear that Eckhart is not trying to be a guru or a prophet. He is just a guy who took his ideas and wrote them in a way that he hopes can help others. Yes, he is making money off of it, but his intent seems genuine after watching the first installment. Let me know (by posting below), if you disagree.

Though, I have to say, I downloaded the video recording and there is a weird glitch that happens when I watch it on my computer: On occasion, for no apparent reason, the recording will jump back to a section I have already listened to, not to the beginning, but an earlier section. It seems to always take me back to one of 3 sections. I found it quite amusing though, because it was always interesting stuff that I might not have listened to sharply enough the first time (since I listened to it in the background, as I worked). So, I would laugh at myself and re-listen more focused, the second time. And, when it happened a 3rd time, I could also just use the forward option, to go back to ‘the future’ space where I had last heard new content.

Like everything on the web, there were glitches, but overall the campaign (and for me, the content, as well) was worth following along.

Let me know your thoughts on either the marketing campaign, the content, or even my use of this example on this blog, by posting below.

I am always looking for interesting ways to market something, so when I got the email (pictured left) from Skype, I had to check it out.

After all it seemed to be about Oprah and her Book Club using Skype to conduct a chapter by chapter reading of bestselling author Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awaking Your Life’s Purpose.

It seemed, from this email, that Skype was hosting this virtual book tour/club. Every Monday for 10 weeks, starting yesterday (Monday, March 3rd), they explained, Oprah and Eckhart would be reviewing a chapter and answering questions.

I thought the goal was to take questions from readers around the world through a live Skype video call. I figured this meant you got to see Oprah and Eckhart live, and though I didn’t see the first installment, yesterday, I gathered you might also get your own mug up there.

After all, one of the things I use Skype for is to be like The Jetson’s and talk with my clients or my mom over the computer using our built-in cameras to see one another. In my mind, I began to try to figure out how they would do that with 500,000 people.

As I mentioned, I missed the premiere of this happening, last night, so I went to Oprah’s site to find out more.

Of course, Oprah’s site tells you that you must join the site and the book club, which I promptly did, to investigate.

So, why am I mentioning it here? It’s not because I am a fan of Tolle, I have never read his stuff (so I have no opinion either way about that, sorry) and didn’t previously have interest in Oprah’s book club (though I appreciate how she encourages her audience to read!). The reason I wanted to write this post was because I was intrigued by their process and what I found out – and I thought you might be, as well:

1. This seemed to be an expanded method of doing a book tour using the Internet (though book tours have been done through webinars and maybe even using video, I have not heard of people using Skype to market in this way. So, I had to check it out – I’m still confused where Skype comes in, more on that below.
2. I was surprised to see that Penguin (the publisher) is not mentioned on either Skype or Oprah’s site – and depending on where you look, it seems to be more about Oprah then Tolle (though I gather neither publisher or author are complaining). And according to The Huffington Post “About 3.5 million copies of Eckhart Tolle’s spiritual self-help guide have been shipped since Winfrey, host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” announced her selection four weeks ago.”
3. I was curious about the joint venture between Harpo and Skype and how it is being handled. My first impression was that Skype dropped the promotional ball by not announcing this sooner, but then again, I don’t read every promotional email that comes in – so maybe they wrote about it earlier. Or, maybe Harpo’s agreement was to not mention it to the Skypers until they knew the Oprah crowd had time to register? I didn’t know why they would do that, but it got me wondering what the terms were and how Oprah’s site was handling the promotion
4. Oprah.com doesn’t mention Skype at all, or at least I couldn’t find them mentioned (if you find it, let me know). One thought is they are just sponsoring and not actually providing access to the event. In fact, after you sign up you are told you have to download something from a company called Move Network.
5. What is Move Networks about and why is their image so blurry? OK to be fair, it was only the first 1 min and 43 seconds that the image on their own site was extremely blurry, oh and the reason I kept watching it was because during part of that time my mouse froze. (I have a year old MacBook Pro, so it can’t be that my system is that outdated already, can it?) After that the picture was AMAZINGLY clear and I did continue to watch the rest of their 3 min and 26 sec video of beautiful areal views of snow covered mountain tops – it really was crystal clear.
6. What does Limelight Networks have to do with this promotion and should I already know more about them?
7. And, of course, Oprah’s people are making the podcasts (taped versions of the ’show’) available on their own site and on iTunes.

So, no, this is not a post about Eckhart’s book and what I think about it. So, please understand that fact. It is an evaluation of a new way of getting information out there and how Harpo Production is doing that (and with whom they are coordinating the efforts.)

For the time being, I can’t say whether this is a valid new method of marketing, because I am still evaluating it, but I thought it was an interesting exercise on how the pieces came together and how everyone was benefiting from this campaign.

What are your thoughts?