I often receive emails from directories who are asking me to pay a fee to list my company.  Highly ranked directories can not only drive traffic to your site, but can help your rankings on search engines.  However, pick the wrong Directory and it can actually lower you rankings with Google and other search sites.  Below are a few tools you can use to determine the quality of a website before you place links or advertise with them.

I recently found a fantastic social networking site (www.bigTreetop.com) focused on small businesses located south of Boston.   I’m considering enrolling as a company, but wanted to do some research first.  I’ve outlined some of the steps I’ve taken to learn more about this website.

Google PageRank

Google ranks all web pages on a 1 – 10 scale.  An average website has a 2 or 3 ranking, a good website has a 4 to 6 ranking, and larger, well-developed sites have rankings over 6 (few websites get rankings over 6).  www.eBay.com, for example, has a google PageRank of 8, and a well-known local website like www.wikedlocal.com has a Google PageRank of 5. 

BigTreetop.com has a ranking of 3, which is a good ranking for a fairly new website that focuses on a niche local market.  Our website, www.sinatraco.com has a PageRank of 4 probably because we’ve been around a little longer (I would suspect that BigTreetop will have a higher PageRank in the next year or so).  Our higher PageRank has moved us to the #3 spot on Google for “South of Boston Web Design” and #4 for “South of Boston Marketing.” 

What plays into this ranking is the number of quality sites (PageRank of 3 or higher) that link to your site as well as the age of a URL.  Also, the number of outbound links to high quality sites (PageRank of 6 or better) will also play into this ranking (I often link to www.wikipeida.com to provide more information on specific terms and ideas).  There are many other criteria that play into this rank, but these are key factors. 

If you want to see Google PageRanks go to www.Google.com and download their toolbar.  Once loaded, you’ll see a little green bar that shows the rank of each page in which you visit.  You will also be able to see all the linked sites that figure into the PageRank by putting “link:” before any URL in the Google Search Box. 

For example, you can see the inbound links for www.bigtreetop.com by putting “link:http://www.bigtreetop.com” in the Google search box.  While there may be dozens of inbound links to a site, Google will only track the highly rated sites.

Keep this in mind when a company solicits your business to advertise on their site.  If it’s not a highly ranked site it will not even show up on the Google links page.  Importantly, if it ranks 0 – 1 it may even hurt your ranking on Google and other search engines.  Be very leery of anyone who asks you to put links to your site all over the Internet on free directories.  Being linked to a handful of good quality, relevant sites is far better than being linked to thousands of sites with low rankings. 

Another way to learn more about a web site is via a DNS lookup.  This will tell you if a site has been around for a while, which has a strong weighting on Google Search results and PageRank.  It will also tell you if it’s only been around a short time and you can often see the owner of the URL. 

If you look at www.BigTreetop.com, for example, in a DNS lookup (via www.dnsstuff.com), we found that the site is owned by the CEO of BigTreetop and that it has been around for many years.  These are both positive indications that this is a solid website. 

The last tool I’ll share is fun to use.  It’s called the “wayback machine” and allows you to see what a web address looked like in years’ past.  Simply go to http://www.archive.org/web/web.php and type in a web address.  I typed in www.bigtreetop.com and found out that they’ve been working with a social media concept since as early as 2007.  I also learned that this is was the only usage of this web address.   

This tool is also helpful if you’re picking a URL so you can make sure a previous owner of the URL did not use it in negative ways.

Overall, I learned that www.bigtreetop.com is a reputable website, has some positive momentum in terms of increasing their PageRank, and they’ve been working in the social media space for several years (which is a fairly “new” industry). 

In the atmosphere of full disclosure, we also have a fairly new website, www.AnAffordableWebsite.com that provides free websites for small businesses, which has a PageRank of 1.  This is likely due to the age of the site (it’s fairly new), there are few outbound links (we don’t have a blog on this site), and few inbound links (we do mostly Google Ads rather than linking to promote the site).  While we have not done any “search engine optimization” on this site yet, our intent is to move this page rank up in the months to come. 
    

Simplicity is the Key

Think of your website like a retail location with dozens of visitors walking by the front window.  Your home page is similar in nature to the display window.  If someone visits your home page and leaves without clicking a link this is like someone walking by your window and not coming in. 

An effective window display is simple and specific.  It captures the attention of prospective clients quickly and easily.  As you walk through a mall notice the displays that capture your attention, and notice the ones you walk past.  Most likely the ones you walk past either don’t communicate well or they’re not relevant to you personally. 

As you begin to develop your home page put a list of key word phrases together – a list of words and statements someone would type into Google/Yahoo/MSN to find your site.  These ideas will form the foundation on which you’ll build your entire web site, especially the home page.

You’ll want to incorporate these ideas into the design as well as the copy over an over again.  Put these statements right up front on the web page along with some strong visuals.  Don’t put too many words on your home page (remember, it’s just like a window display).  The goal is to engage a visitor, not tell them everything you do right up front. 

Think about how you’d like people to “walk” through your site – create specific “sections” so people can find what they need right up front so they don’t have to “hunt around.”  Think about what action your visitors should take and help guide them from the home page, to some interesting content, to some deeper ideas, and then to an action step.  

Take a look at how our website is set up (www.sinatraco.com).  You’ll notice three specific services across the top (Website Design & Development, Marketing Services & Branding, and Ecommerce), and very few words.  We’ve also added some links down the left side for easy access to key information. 

Also notice that we have many services, and few of them are listed on the home page.  The key is to keep your home page simple and uncluttered, while providing some specific entry points.  Visitors can see right up front some samples of our work and some testimonials and not much more.  As people dive deeper into the site they’ll gain access to more and more information that will help to meet their needs. 

Our goal is to have visitors fill out the “Free Consultation” form so we have a button on every page that leads to this form.  We provide many links to interesting content found in this blog.  Our hope is people will read this blog and gain a sense of what we’re about, how we approach web design, and acquire some helpful ideas that may impact their business in a positive way. 

Conclusion

I think the most important element of any home page is simplicity and focus.  Let people know who you are and what you’re about right up front (with as few words as possible) and then provide a few specific entry points into the site.  Too many choices on the home page will often lead to confusion, which will lead to visitors bouncing to a different site.  Check your web logs to see what percentage of people are only viewing your home page.  If more than 50% of your visitors ”bounce” off your home page you may want to consider redesigning your site and making it more specific and simple. 

If you have any questions feel free to fill out our form: http://sinatraco.com/consult.html 

If you don’t know Cloud Computing (or even if you do) this post is a “must read.”

It’s an unprecedented time in history when it comes to IT infrastructure; yet, few companies are utilizing these advancements.  I’ve managed a large IT infrastructure and know the downside of upgrades, patches, security issues, desktop management, etc.  In fact, 80% of our time was spent maintaining a clunky physical infrastructure, rather than providing real business value.  Millions of dollars were spent keeping this behemoth running. 

As time moved on, more pressure came from the business units to deliver value, rather than maintaining (let’s face it, it’s only when the network goes down that anyone cares about technology).  Small businesses deal with this same issue – a modest in-house network, email, and databases all absorb vital cash.  In this economy, reducing expenditures is essential, but only if a company owner can deliver better technology and maintain a competitive advantage.

It has been my experience, that Cloud Computing can deliver superior results and lower IT costs by as much as 60% or more.  A few years ago I experienced first-hand the power of Cloud Computing when working with a financial services firm with about 20 employees.  I was able to reduce their IT budget by 70% and deliver a multi-million dollar CRM / Business Management system.  This system changed the way they did business.  It gave unparalleled visibility into their business. It introduced new insights and efficiencies.
   
The new system included a defined sales process, automated workflows, commission tracking, management dashboards, a 360-degree view of clients, and the result was a 400+% increase in assets under management. The transformation was quite miraculous.  
 
I’ve worked with small companies for years (both as an owner and consultant), and I have never seen technology have such an impact on process improvement.  In fact, at one startup we received multiple offers for $500K in funding as a direct result of the automated workflows and CRM system. A few years ago I experienced first-hand the power of Cloud Computing when working with a financial services firm with about 20 employees.    This system changed the way they did business.  It gave unparalleled visibility into their business. It introduced new insights and efficiencies.   The new system included a defined sales process, automated workflows, commission tracking, management dashboards, a 360-degree view of clients, and The transformation was quite miraculous.   I’ve worked with small companies for years (both as an owner and consultant), and I have never seen technology have such an impact on process improvement.  In fact, at one startup we received multiple offers for $500K in funding as a direct result of the automated workflows and CRM system. We were able to track:

• when clients came into the system
• how often they were contacted
• flag customers who were not contacted
• store all financial information in one central location
• provide a customer portal so clients could log into their account
• this was all done on a shoestring, startup budget of $500 per month 

Today, as I sit down with business people and map out their Business Processes, clarity gives way to efficiency (spreadsheets are replaced with a cutting edge technology platform).  It also provides employees with 24/7 access and a flexibility that allows them to work from home, at night, and on weekends. 

Often, the simple act of being able to check email before they go to bed provides for a peaceful nights sleep.  The benefits are almost unlimited and the infrastructure does not need to be maintained, upgraded, or cared for.  4 to 5 upgrades take place effortlessly every year, and substantial functionality is added consistently (Google does 18 to 24 upgrades per year!). 

For example, Salesforce.com recently developed a fully integrated platform on which to develop web sites.  Now, a company can manage their website content through the same application they’re managing customer relationships, tracking web visitors, and keeping track of Google Adwords campaigns. 

Integrations with Facebook, Amazon S3, Google, and other cloud applications are accelerating.  Thousands of applications are being developed and the Cloud Computing industry is growing at record speeds.

As Developing Nations have skipped over the copper telephonic infrastructure in place of wireless, the startup of today is by-passing a physical infrastructure in place of the cloud.  Many companies are building their entire infrastructure in the cloud and gaining significant competitive advantage.  Lower costs, more flexibility (applications can now be deployed in hours rather than months and years), and seamless integration is replacing older, stand-alone technology. 
In short, Cloud computing is a new paradigm and the company who does not take advantage of this technology will have difficulty competing with those who do.   
  
If you’re interested in learning more please call me immediately.  We provide a “quick start” program to review your business processes, goals, and objectives, which results in an unbiased recommendation of next steps. 

The total process takes about 10 hours (7 to 8 hours in-person and 2 to 3 hours documenting the recommendation). 

Total Investment:  $1,200.       

It doesn’t take long to figure out why Disney is such a success.  It’s clean, organized, and the experience is unforgettable.  I heard comments like, “They [Disney] just know how to do it.”  There’s a reason Disney is successful.  It’s not luck, or circumstance, or a “good business model.”  Importantly, the same underlying principles that make Disney successful can make any small business successful.

Seeing the multitudes of people happily move through their day as Disney reminded me of Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s.  Next time you go to McDonald’s step back and watch the order.  The number of people, the location of each “station,” how the drive through orders meld with the orders coming in from the counter.  Ray Krock spend years perfecting the operations underlying the overall McDonald’s experience, and it was this eye-to-detail related to the customer experience that propelled McDonald’s to one of the most successful franchises in history.

It’s not enough to have a good product or service.  Small business owners need to focus on two key elements:

• The overall experience
• Delivery of that experience

How do your customers interact with your company?  Put yourself in the place of a customer, step away from your business, and walk through what a customer would experience when dealing with your company.  Take notes about things you’d change, add, stop doing.  Develop an overall experience that a customer would have.  Did they receive a thank you note?  Did they have a positive initial contact?  How did they find out about your company?

Now that you’ve developed what that experience may look like, begin to systematize the inner-workings of your company.  Make sure each customer has a consistent experience.  One way to do this is through technology and thanks to “cloud computing” (a.k.a. Software-as-a-Service) any small business can have access to a state-of-the-art customer relationship management system. 

A few years ago I worked for a financial service company.  We developed a system that made sure each client was contacted at least each quarter.  We used the leading Software-as-a-Service application, salesforce.com, to create reminders of these interactions and used HTML emails with merge fields to send customized communications.  We were able to create a number of automated workflows which resulted in a consistent customer experience.  Not surprisingly, the assets under management grew over 300% in 18 months. 

Step back and look at your company through the eyes of you customers.  Determine the optimum experience and try to replicate it over and over again using the latest technology.  It’s not rocket science, but it does take dedicated time and energy, and it will require you to get out of the day-to-day operations on a consistent basis.  

Here are a few links to explore:

Home:  An Affordable Website Home Page

Design Choices:  Affordable Website Design and Color Schemes

Articles: 

The Affordable Website Problem

Why So Affordable?

How the Affordable Website Works

Affordable Website Service

Feedback:  Contact Us Form

We have found that this assumption is often seriously off base and the statistics prove this true.  Ask your new clients if they visited your web site and you may be surprised by how many did.  I just saw a statistic in Entrepreneur Magazine that said, “41% of consumers say a frustrating online experience would make them less likely to shop at a retailer’s physical store.”  I believe this statistic also holds true for any local business, not just retail.

Other statistics from SEO RoundTable (8/22/07) show a significant trend toward local searches:

• 2.2 Billion monthly Internet queries have a local intent
• 82% of local searches resulted in contact with a local business
• 93% of local search conversions (sales) take place offline

Clearly, there is a “Silent War” taking place among local businesses.  People are looking at company web sites before they decide to contact the company – this is especially true with the 20 and 30 somethings.  Sadly, many small business owners have no idea how many people are visiting their web site, and don’t understand the value of a strong web property.

Importantly, your prospective clients have access to your web site as well as all your competitors.  If they don’t gain a good impression from your web site or find what they need quickly, they’ll visit your competitor’s web site a few seconds later and you’ll be none the wiser.  It is a ”Silent War” because a tremendous amount of business is won and lost via the Internet and company owners often have no idea. 

I would recommend that you install Google Analytics on your web site and look at your traffic each week.  Check out how many people are visiting, from where they’re visiting, what pages their visiting, and how long they’re spending on your web site.  While this data sounds complex Google has done an excellent job presenting all this data via graphs and charts.  Plus, it’s a free service from Google.

Also, check out your competitors web sites – does your web site measure up?  does it communicate effectively?  does it present the same kind of information?  This kind of competitive analysis is essential because often your web site will be your first impression.  If it looks amateurish, so will you.  If it’s hard to navigate and looks “low-end,” so will you. 

The local search trend has grown significantly in the past few years.  The way in which people interact with companies is evolving quickly and includes research on the web. If your clients/customers are not finding you via your web site now, they certainly will in the months and years ahead. 

Presented with this information, some company owners overreact and go overboard with their web site.  I worked with one small company who was spending tens of thousands of dollars per year on web development.  We were able to lower this expense significantly and provide a more professional web presence. 

You don’t need a high-end web site with all the gadgets and animation.  You simply need a professional web site that is easy to navigate and communicates what you’re about.  I would recommend that you avoid both low-end ”create your own” web site software as well as high-end Flash web sites.  Find a place in the middle and recognize the web site is only one part of an overall brand-building strategy. 

If you have any questions about south of Boston web design or marketing feel free to request a free consultation from our corporate site:  www.sinatraco.com  

It’s amazing how quickly search engines respond to new content.  A few years ago it would take months to get listed anywhere.  I remember submitting my site to Yahoo! and it took 3+ months to see the site anywhere.  Also, changes to the site would take weeks to get re-cataloged.  Technology has come a long way in a very short period of time.  The algorithms used by search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN are incredibly sophisticated these days. 

In fact, it’s my understanding that part of the reason Google is digitizing so many classic books is so they have a massive sample of quality content on which to test algorithms in order to identify strong content.  As these search engine algorithms become more sophisticated it will be far more difficult to “trick” them into getting web sites listed higher.  For example, when the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry began you could put hundreds of your key words at the bottom of each page and make them the same color as the background – they would not be seen by visitors, but search engine spiders would catalog them and your ranking would skyrocket. 

Those days are long gone – thank goodness!  Try that “trick” today and you’ll quickly be banned and penalized and your ranking will drop.  Now, it’s more about being a good Internet citizen as I recently discussed in a post.  

Back to the reason I posted these comments:  the speed and dynamic nature of local search placement.  After I realized we dropped in our Google ranking, I decided to do some more research and post more content.  Here’s the amazing part of the story – within 20 minutes Google already cataloged the page and the new post was listed in the Search results.  Our ranking for ”South of Boston Web Design” jumped to #11, and we were back to #2 for “South of Boston Marketing.”  I find it breathtaking how far search technology has come in such a short period of time. 

My recommendation to any company South of Boston is to find a way to add valuable content to your web site (perhaps use a blog like we have done here), partner with other businesses (cross link between web sites as much as possible), and don’t let your web site become static.  If it does, you’ll drop in the search rankings, but more importantly, you’ll become less relevant to those visiting your web site.  The Internet is dynamic and alive, so use your web site as a tool, not a brochure.
  

Here’s the rub: Web site designers are first and foremost artists.  They’re primary goal is to create beauty.  Yet, the Internet is about sharing information.  The webs’ primary purpose is to deliver relevant information, regardless of how this information is packaged.  Several years ago I owned a self-help web site that was truly pathetic from a design perspective - it was built on some lame template, had no images, and the layout was horrible.  Yet, within a year or so I sold over 1,500 packages that helped people live a better life and had over 6,000 subscribers to my newsletter. 

I then had a professional web site designer redevelop my web site.  I thought the conversion rates would increase and more people would sign up for my newsletter.  Nothing changed.  The conversion rates remained the same and so did the percentage of people signing up for the newsletter.  The fact is, it’s not so much about web design as it usability and valuable information.  

Conversely, a small business needs to create a professional image.  I recently met someone at a conference, looked the company up on the web, thought the presentation was horrible, and decided not to do business with them.  The key is to balance usability, content, and professional web site design.  The key to success is rarely one element (unless you visit www.craigslist.com, of course, which has little to do with anything graphical).        

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content is king along with inbound links.  When it comes to giving a professional image, design is essential, and a poor design can cost you business without even knowing it.  When it comes to presenting vital information, usability is the essential ingredient (which is why Blogs end up doing so well in search engine marketing).

You’ll notice on our web site we use this blog to provide valuable design and marketing information to small businesses south of Boston, and we use the corporate web site (www.sinatraco.com) to present our web site design service and design samples.  Adding a blog to a web site design strategy is a great way to bridge the gap between valuable information and a professional image.  

Usability is also essential.  I found a great web site that has over 100 “best practice” usability tips (see link below).  Some of my favorites include:

9. Redundancy in Navigation. Navigation is fundamental to website development so redundancy assures users will find what they are looking for. Some may be attracted to images, some may wish a descriptive text link and some may wish to see an embedded link which assures them that what they are clicking is what they want. It never hurts to make it easy for the user to find their way around even if that means pointing them directly to what you think they may want.

From Schkecy

42. Keep everything close. No matter how complex your directory structure may be, there’s no reason any page should be more than three clicks away from the home page.

From Bob Gladstein aka qwerty
Raise My Rank SEO Services

49. Keep the page simple. Direct the readers eyes to the important parts of the page. Overloading the page headlines and links in confuses people.

50. Be careful with animations & marquees. They distract a reader from reading your content.

51. Make links obvious. Don’t use the same font settings and color to make links visible only on a mouse-over.

From Bernard Ertl
SEO Help – search engine optimization reference, tutorial and advice

Full list of 101 web site design usability tips can be found here:   

 http://www.keyrelevance.com/articles/usability-tips.htm

If you have any questions about south of Boston web design or marketing feel free to request a free consultation from our corporate site:  www.sinatraco.com

Today, Salesforce.com (the leading on-demand Customer Relationship Management application) and Google just announced a strategic partnership.  I’ve been writing about “software-as-a-service” almost since the beginning of this industry.  I’ve seen first hand how these applications, which are delivered via the Internet, have transformed companies.   

While the industry has been slow to develop due to security issues, when Google announced their Google Apps solution it gave the industry a shot in the arm.  Since then, the momentum has been building (since August Salesforce stock is up over 50%).  The synergy between these two apps are amazing:

Seeing these different applications work in concert is nothing short of amazing, but knowing that all this can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection is fantastic.  Now, anyone within a company can have access to all critical data at any time from anywhere, even via wireless devices.

Today, the world of business changed.  While the effect may not be felt for years to come, today is historic.   Visit salesforce.com at 3:00 ET today to see the full announcement. 

If you have any questions about south of Boston web design or marketing feel free to request a free consultation from our corporate site:  www.sinatraco.com

The Google Principle

Google has been highly successful for one reason: They do one thing better than anyone else.  Importantly, their focused approach is reflected in their design and communication.  Use the “Wayback Machine” from above and take a look at what Google’s web site looked like in 2000.  You’ll notice that in almost 8 years there is virtually no change to what you see to day.  Do the same thing with other search engines like Yahoo! and MSN and you’ll see significant differences. 

This exercises uncovers one of the most powerful principles in building successful companies: consistency and focus. While Google focused on one thing, Internet search, and kept their offerings concise, other search engines tried to diversify their offerings.  Yahoo!, who once focused wholly on search, added dozens of other offerings, which watered down their search offering and gave Google a competitive advantage.  If I need to find something on the web, I’m going to go to a place that pours a large percentage of their resources into this functionality.

A small business can do the same thing.  Ask yourself what you can do better than any other company in Massachusetts?  What is your specialty, and how can you maintain focus on what you do best.  A fantastic book about this subject is Good to Great by Jim Collins.  A good overview of his ideas can be found in this pdf document: click here

If you have any questions about south of Boston web design or marketing feel free to request a free consultation from our corporate site:  www.sinatraco.com