Posted On October 12th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business, Marketing, 0
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 use Google as the basis for this post, but please note most of what I am referring to is common among other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing, however with 83.34% of the market-share at the time of this writing, it’s safe to assume Google is the primary focus of your efforts.
How Google works
Google in a nutshell, is a massive database of links. It employs what are called ‘bots’ or ‘spiders’ which are automated programs that “crawl” virtually every website on the planet, reading it’s content and posting it in their database. So, really getting on Google is automatic, there’s nothing you need to do to get in it’s database. But keep in mind when first launching a site, that it takes time to even get on Google, let alone rank highly. Don’t expect to be #1 for a long time—if at all—unless you are prepared to put in the work.
Speeding up the process
If you have a brand new website, it will take the bots some time to get around to crawling your page. There are a couple of ways to make this happen faster, the most simple being to start a Google Webmasters account, add your site, and create a sitemap for google to crawl (basically just a text file with links to the pages on your website).
Being penalized
Also, if your site has been around for some time and it’s not showing up at all, even when searching specifically for your company name, there may be something wrong. Google may have your site penalized for unwittingly breaking it’s rules. This can happen for a number of reasons, and you can fix these issues yourself by doing a little home work or hiring a professional.
The second part of this series will deal with the question: How do I optimize my website?
Posted On August 25th, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Marketing, 1
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 not expressing what the brand is, or even how the brand should behave, they merely express what it looks like.
Thinking of a brand as a person, consider this: If I was commissioned to write an essay describing you as a person to strangers, what would you want me to say? Of course you would want me to be honest mostly, but at the same time paint a positive image of you, and downplay any negative aspects of your personality. Fair enough. But what if my essay didn’t speak about your morals or kindness, your discipline and determination, your conviction or your generosity, it just talked about your hair and eye colour, height, weight and style of dress. A tad superficial, no? Worse than that, it would need to be kept up-to-date as fashions change (not to mention weight periodically).
To me, this is what brand guidelines are—nothing more than a style guide. They say nothing strategic or high-level about a brand. Instead, a single designer has made interpretations of how the brand should be presented instead of what the brand is. At worst, these guideline documents pigeonhole any possible new expressions and extensions of the brand, favouring a locked-down visual template. But even when this isn’t the case, the document is often ignored anyways—which begs the question; Why bother creating one in the first place?
On the other hand, think of popular and successful brands that have lasted for decades; Apple, Nike, Coca Cola, Disney, to name a few. What do they have in common? They didn’t rigidly stick to a style guide. They have changed and reinvented how their brands are presented while staying true to the core essence of what makes them who they are.
So a word of advice to smaller companies out their: Create a brand. Hire professionals to help uncover your brand and document it’s values and goals. Hire talented designers and marketers to creatively and consistently interpret and present your brand to the world. But don’t waste precious time and resources on creating a paint-by-numbers style guide. Set your brand free.
Posted On October 16th, 2009 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Design, Marketing, 9
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 great work, and have 4 teams, or “labs” that corner every area of the web, design, marketing, user-experience/strategy and development. Each of these labs have their own blog off of the main company website with an entirely different look and feel.
Company Website
User Experience Blog
Development Blog
Marketing Blog
Design Blog
Many of us in the web design world were impressed when Viget came out with their 4 sub brands, and even more so when we saw the quality of the content for the most part, and the consistency with which each blog was updated.
However, despite the fact that all the micro-sites are well designed, have the same quality of content, and the same team coding them and optimizing them for search engines, which one ranks better when searching for the term “Viget” in Google, other than the company site? The design blog. Why? The design blog simply has a more impressive design. Sure, the other blogs look great, but the design blog, with it’s water-colour background (which has since become a web design trend) has a certain mood and feel that the others can’t compete with. And when all of the other design blogs and ‘best-of’ lists came out, most of them included the Viget design blog over the others. And of course, the more quality in-bound links a website has, the higher it’s search-engine ranking will climb.
In short, create something that people enjoy using, because of it’s great content and design, and most likely, users will stay on the site, come back to it, link to it and search for it. Good design really has a complete impact on the entire strategy of your website.
And it looks pretty.
Posted On March 23rd, 2009 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under External Articles, Marketing, 0
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.
Why is this powerful?
- The demographics are far more accurate than most data (age, sex, gender preference, relationship, etc.)
- The deep data - being able to choose to market to employees of specific companies - should be an amazing tool for the right advertiser
- The keyword associations that people have with their Facebook accounts are correlated quite highly with true interests
- The “approximate reach” number gives you great insight into your target market size (even if you never place an ad)
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