Ideas for Business

One of the platforms behind search engine optimization is content. “Publish useful keyword content regularly” has been the mantra for over a decade now, however, one wonders if that is all about to change and that content on websites could become defunct. I know that will raise eyebrows, but then, we do know that Google, the number one source of traffic for many websites, is trying to escape the inbound link component of their algorithm.

There’s an interesting article on TechCrunch which, while discussing privacy issues related to Google+ and Facebook, also had this to say:

Google’s PageRank algorithm is seriously out of date. It promotes pages based on the number of links to it. Today, pages are no longer the unit of publishing. Far smaller items than a page dominate our senses. And those smaller messages are produced in huge quantity and in real time.

Those smaller messages are references to Facebook, Twitter and many other social media sites, forums included. This raises the question of content on websites – will it become defunct and replaced by short messages? I for one hope it never comes to that. The content on Facebook and Twitter can never really adequately answer a question. Forums are a different story, questions are answered, often in depth, and with a lot of input from a range of users. You are more likely to find an answer in a forum than you will on Facebook or Twitter. Interestingly, most small messages on those two sites generally include links to more indepth answers often on blogs.

Logic would then suggest that the indepth answer is more relevant and more important than the smaller message on a social media website. Keith Teare, the article’s author, is right when it comes to the privacy issues facing social media. However, when it comes to content, I don’t think we’ll be losing that anytime soon. Yes, Google will find a way to reduce the effects of links in its search ranking algorithm, but that will be because they have found a better way to measure worth, and yes, social media mentions will most likely lead that change.

I wouldn’t be tearing down content or reducing the amount published in too much of hurry. Rather, I’d be concentrating on content that individuals find important enough to share with others. Blogging for small business is still one of the best ways to communicate with the rest of the world, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.

Social media can be a great marketing tool when things go right. It can also be a nightmare when things go wrong. A recent article looks at McDonalds; yes, we’re talking about the famous golden arches, which experienced the highs and lows of social media marketing, all in the one campaign. One of the most difficult areas to manage when it comes to social media is that of control. In most cases, businesses have little control once a campaign starts to move, and once your marketing campaign goes viral, then you have lost all control.

Of course, if you’re fortunate enough to have a positive viral outcome, control is not really an issue. You can sit back and harvest the results of that viral marketing campaign. It’s when that viral campaign is negative that problems really set in. Trying to wrest control back is almost impossible, leaving business owners with a reputation management problem that requires a lot of effort to repair.

For Mcdonalds, they spent money buying Twitter hashtags. There’s no problem there, and their first campaign, using #MeetTheFarmers as the hashtag worked reasonably well.  A cynical reader may well surmise that its success related more to the fact that readers didn’t relate that hashtag to McDonalds. MeetTheFarmers is the kind of hashtag that doesn’t really invoke many emotions. Where McDonalds went wrong is when they changed their hashtag to #McDStories.

Everyone has a story about McDonalds, and we’re talking about bad stories, not good. That hashtag immediately hooked into people’s emotions and it opened the floodgates. Every bad story about McDonalds steadily flowed through Twitter. About the only upside to this result was the humor that many found in these tweeted stories. The other upside is that others, like us here today, are talking about how McDonalds lost control of a social media marketing campaign. That, of course, is from an optimist who tries to find a positive in everything.

The lesson for small business owners is simple. Watch what you write, and watch how you use hashtags. McDonalds does have a poor reputation amongst some sections of the community, so a hashtag like #McDStories was bound to have a negative effect. If you do lose control, you will need to work hard to either reduce the damage or to turn it around to make it a positive.

Search engine optimization is fine, however, small business owners should remember one important lesson – the Google Bot has never ever made a purchase; your customers do. There’s an interesting interview with Hamlet Batista that discusses how too much SEO can harm a website, and it can. Your web pages need to be written so that potential customers can access your content quickly and easily. The article discusses, for example, changing navigation links to match keywords. If customers find your navigation links a little confusing, they may just leave, and that’s going to cost you business.

Drawing traffic from search engines just to boost traffic numbers is not the best way to run a business. You are often better off drawing less traffic from a search engine whilst increasing the quality of that traffic. As a business, conversions are the most important metric, so your SEO efforts should be targeting quality traffic, not just ‘any’ traffic.

Traffic, even from a search engine, is not free. SEO takes time, and that’s either time away from your business or a cost to a business when you engage others to perform it for you. An experienced SEO professional will help you target your efforts towards quality traffic. This doesn’t mean you should totally ignore traffic of a lower quality, by all means, attract that traffic if you wish, but not by making on page changes that could hurt the conversion rate of your quality traffic. Batista makes the following point:

The key principle is to first make sure the site, the content, the layout, and the instruction and navigation makes sense for the users because …. you are not optimizing the site for the search engine bots to make a purchase. You have to optimize it for the user.

It’s an interesting situation for small businesses, especially those in competitive markets. SEO is designed to get the best search results, however, your website should be designed to achieve conversion goals from visitors. The real key is to get the balance right, and it can be done.

There are some marketers that are quite sensitive when it comes to any foray into social media by Google. Google doesn’t have a great record for long term support of projects if they don’t grab everyone’s attention immediately, so there is a little resistance to Google+. The feeling in some quarters is simple enough – why expend energy if the whole concept quietly slips under the carpet in a year or two? Whilst I understand their feelings, I don’t think they are right this time; in fact, I think Google+ is here for the long haul.

One thing is certain, Google is still pumping resources into the project, and their latest offering for website owners includes functional and cosmetic changes to the Google+ button. These changes include:

• the ability to configure a badge to a suitable width
• changing the background color of a widget to match your page’s color
• including a widget that displays your Google+ profile’s circle count

As a marketing tool, website owners have nothing to lose by including a badge on their sites. According to an article on WebProNews, some businesses are receiving a 30% increase in followers simply because of the widget. If your content is of a reasonable standard, then you shouldn’t find it too difficult to encourage readers to click on social media buttons.  There’s no harm in inviting your readers to click on social media buttons – they are often sharing a good story with friends whilst bookmarking an entry for future reference.

When it comes to marketing, you need to use every tool that adds to your website’s exposure. Google+ looks to be one widget that’s here for the long run – are you badged yet?

Online marketing has, to a certain extent, blinded many business people to some of the simpler rules of business. Analytics is one area where the online world often seems to have different rules than an offline business. What’s the most important metric for a small business. Traffic? Conversions? Search rankings? These are all areas that online businesses concentrate on, and whilst they are important areas to measure, they are not the most important.

For small businesses, the bottom line always has been and always will be profitability. Engaging in a pay-per-click campaign is fine, and measuring traffic and conversions is always going to help with future planning, and perhaps even modifying your current campaigns. At the end of the day, if your pay-per-click is not making a profit, then your business could be on the slide. The same can be said for SEO and social media marketing. If your profitability is being compromised, then you need to either modify your marketing campaign or to look for alternative marketing methods.

Pay-per-click, search engine optimization and social media marketing are not always the best channels for some businesses. Alternatives such as email marketing and banner advertising can achieve better results in terms of profitability – the former, often achieved through data collected offline. You would be surprised at how many brick and mortar businesses now collect email addresses at the checkout and then use those email addresses as very successful email marketing campaigns.

The most important metric for any small business is the return on investment (ROI) that is measured against any campaign. There are times when a marketing campaign – for example, a brand awareness campaign – doesn’t result in short term profits that are easily identified. As a small business owner, you need to make judgements as to whether or not a marketing campaign should be measured or designed more for PR or branding. Analytics are important, however, you need the right data and that data should be measured against a desired goal.