Posted On November 3rd, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Internet Marketing, News,
Most business owners know that the internet opens up a lot of marketing potential, and that harnessing the power of the web, and specifically social media, is important to staying relevant. However, many entrepreneurs fail in a few key areas of managing their online presence — particularly when it comes to online communities.
NOTE: This article was published in the October 2010 issue of Business Voice.
It can be very tempting to want a blog or forum on your corporate website. After all, getting customers engaged with your brand is the holy grail of all forms of marketing. Some companies opt to use Facebook or Twitter for their online business communications, avoiding the upfront development fees associated with a custom blog. There’s nothing wrong with either approach, provided you keep the following points in mind:
Commit
Too many business owners begin an online community, thinking that simply getting a site built or starting a Facebook page will be all that’s needed. At the beginning they are fired up and excited about it, so they emphatically post their first couple of entries (Usually something akin to “We now have a blog” or “Welcome to our Facebook Page!”) But then life happens,…
Posted On October 26th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business Development, Internet Marketing,
This is part 3 in a series of blog posts. The last two dealt with
This deals with the question: How can I improve my ranking and get closer to #1?
Google looks at a number of factors to decide how highly to place a website for a given search term. One important factor is the age of the domain. So if you had a url like www.dartmouthcomputers.net for a couple of years, it’s already likely to rank higher than a brand new url you just purchased last week.
Link Building
Think of Google as a snob in school that only likes the popular kids and their friends. Google has it’s own way of ranking how important a website is called PageRank. It is measured on a scale of 1 to 10, so a website like Apple has an extremely high PageRank, whereas a new website has next to nothing.
The way to increase your PageRank is by having website’s with higher rankings (the popular kids) link to your website. When another site links to yours it is called an inbound link.…
Posted On October 19th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business Development, Internet Marketing,
This is part 2 in a series of blog posts. The last post dealt with the question: How do I get on Google? This part deals with the question: How do I optimize my website?
The next question lies around optimizing your website for search engines which is sometimes called “on-site optimization”, in other words, optimizing the code or content on the site itself, as opposed to other tactics which I’ll get into later.
Content and keywords
When a user types in a keyword, they are looking for content. Google bots index the content on your website and makes a judgment call on how relevant your content is. Relevancy is the key thought to keep in mind because it’s what Google bases all of it’s decisions on.
So for example, if you are trying to rank well for the key-phrase “dry-cleaning in Halifax”, you would be sure to have a decent amount of content that describes your service and uses one or two combinations and variations on the words “Dry-cleaning” and “Halifax”. The content should be descriptive and helpful for a user who comes to the site, so avoid the temptation to overstuff your content with key phrases that…
Posted On October 12th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business Development, Internet Marketing,
We often get asked about Search Engine Optimization when starting a new web project for a client. Usually the conversation starts something like “How do we appear #1 on Google for every keyword in the dictionary?” The client has no idea what SEO stands for or what it is.
It’s with that in mind that I write this 3 part series which may seem elementary to anyone who deals with websites on a professional level. But for people who are experts in other things, like law and real estate, SEO seems complicated and they need just a brief basic intro to help get acquainted with the really simple concept. This series summarizes the 20 minute conversation I usually have with newbies, it’s here for all to see.
The series will cover these 3 topics:
- How do I get on Google?
- How do I optimize my website?
- How can I improve my ranking and get closer to #1?
How do I get on Google?
The first question you may ask when getting your website rebuilt, or recognizing the lack of search performance on your existing site is “How do I get on Google?”
I will…
Posted On August 25th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Internet Marketing,
I was recently beginning a new website design for a client. This included brainstorming concepts, looking at other design inspiration, and experimenting with texture, type, colour and layout.
Then I received the client’s brand guidelines which outlined exactly how the logo should be used, what type of imagery (right down to the photography techniques and where people in the shot should be looking), what percentage of a page the header should take up. The list went on. For those wondering what these are, brand guideline documents are expensive, lengthy books created by branding firms, typically by the designer of the company logo. They specify how other designers should use the logo, included a lot of basic “Don’t mess with the logo” examples. It is meant to ensure “brand consistency”.
It got me thinking about brand guideline documents in general and wondering; what’s the point?
Before I get much further, I should state that I agree with the idea of brand guidelines. Businesses with no knowledge of their brand and no champions and enforcers of it are unlikely to succeed in communicating who they are to potential buyers. However here is my issue with these documents: Brand guideline documents are…
Posted On October 16th, 2009 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Branding & Web Design, Internet Marketing,
Many business owners think of graphic design as just eye-candy. They’ll use terms like, ‘I need you (the designer) to pretty it up.’ Or, ‘I’ve got the basic layout done, I just need you to make it look good.’
Of course we know that true graphic design is about communication, and to be a good designer, you need to be a good problem solver. Even more true with the web, design is about looking great, for sure, but also being usable, accessible, converting users, etc. But sometimes we forget about how good web design can influence search engines.
You may say that I’m mad. That google bots can’t possibly crawl my web page and tell whether or not it looks good. Indeed, some of the ugliest websites can rank #1 for a particular topic. In fact, my latest search on Google for good web design brought up this page as #1 in the organic results. Hardly eye-candy. (Funny enough, the author is Robin Williams)
However, I’m going to show you a prime example of how good design can affect search engine results. There is a web marketing agency in the US called Viget Labs who does…
Posted On March 23rd, 2009 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Internet Marketing,
Another great post by SEO Moz - Facebook Advertising - An Opportunity for Deep Targeting at Very Low Cost
Let’s face it - social media is the big buzz word right now. But even so, I highly endorse the view that using social media to promote a business can work as long as there is a real plan in place, not simply an “everyones doing it, so should I” approach.
In the post from SEO Moz, there is some interesting notes made about advertising on Facebook, worth checking out. Note a few excerpts:
“Facebook advertising differs from traditional paid search advertising in that instead of bidding for certain keywords that people are searching for, you are bidding on the demographics of the user. The demographic filtering technology is still in its infant stages, but even so allows you to target your ads to a specific age, sex, and even things like what school they attend or their sexual orientation. The strategies for advertising in this direction are still being developed, and the competition is still far less than you will encounter in the paid search area.
…
Posted On March 19th, 2009 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Internet Marketing,
This post is heavily based off of the vlog from SEO Moz; Whiteboard Friday - How to Get Awesome Links
At one time, SEO for most businesses meant stuffing a few keywords inside meta tags. Things have certainly changed. Among many other techniques to boost ranking, the biggest being useful, keyword rich content, link building stands as the most effective way to drive traffic to your site. The basic concept is this; your site is being linked to by another site (AKA an inbound link) - not only does this help your site because user’s are directly visiting your site from this inbound link, but Google will increase your actual search ranking depending on the quality of the link. Which leads us to…
What makes a good link?
Three main factors make a good link, in order of importance.
1) Motivation - sometimes, the best things in life are free. In this case, that cliche certainly applies. When a site links to yours because they genuinely like your content and want to promote it, this makes for a better link than one that is simply exchanged or paid for.
2) Source metrics…
Posted On June 1st, 2008 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business Development, Internet Marketing,
- Know your audience
- Content
- Content Management Systems
- Hosting and Domain
- Bandwidth
- Web standards
- Search Engine Optimization
- Browser Testing
- Accessibility
- Design/Usability
- Open Source or Proprietary?
- Flash or HTML?
The previous post covered topic 6. This post will discuss point 7 - search engine optimization (SEO).
If they find you, they will come
The web is increasingly becoming the new phone book. And we all know who the Yellow Pages is in that analogy. That’s right, Google. It’s become so prevalent that the company name has become a verb, and if you’re company isn’t getting Googled, you’re in trouble.
The fact is, search engines are one of the most important ways to market your site, and a niche service in the broad field of internet marketing is that of search engine optimization, or SEO. This is relatively simple, as much as SEO experts would like you to believe otherwise. Despite the scientific sound of the term, search engine optimization is just that, it’s optimizing your website for search engines. It’s making your website ‘search-engine friendly.’
The pen is mightier
The key…
Posted On May 29th, 2008 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Internet Marketing,
This post is not meant to be particularly insightful or surprising—just a simple observation that may generate discussion. I don’t claim to be an expert in advertising, though I did work in an ad agency for a couple of years, and had some fun coming up with headlines while throwing a rubber ball against a wall. I definitely don’t make advertising my focus for Headspace, nor do I pay much attention to it as an industry (though I usually check out Ads of the World and every year I read the Communication Arts Advertising Annual ).
With that being said, I can’t help but notice a trend in advertising in recent years. That of personifying the inanimate,—using human beings to represent company products. True, using people to sell is not a new concept. Since as far back as the 1950’s, housewives would hold laundry detergent, real or imaginary customers told testimonials, celebrities would endorse big brands. It also used to be more common that inanimate objects were used as the metaphor, not the other way around (remember “This is your brain on drugs” back in the 80’s, with a fried…
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