With search engine optimization being a process (not a trick) I thought I would post a series of updates over time on our own SEO process.

We have identified the search term “minnesota web design” as our most sought after keyword term.  With the newly re-branded Five Technology website up for just 2 months we are at least now on the radar on Google appearing on page 8 for this search.  It won’t be easy or quick, but we plan on moving up by doing the right things.

I will get more in-depth on some of these in the future, but here are the basics of SEO we have conducted so far.

1.  Identified our top search term and  designated the home page to compete for it.

2.  Designed our website search engine friendly with CSS and proper website structure.

3.  Created content to inform site visitors first and please the search engines second.
(We are still tweaking and evaluating  enhancing the content further … as always!)

4.  Completed on-page optimization of structure, meta data, images and anchor text.

5.  Started building links into our website/url with anchor text involving “minnesota web design”

Again, this is just a short glimpse but you get the gist it involves proper research, building, content creation, on-page optimization and link building.  That last one, link building, is the hardest yet most rewarding in both rankings and relevant traffic.  More to come on our SEO progress and all of these basic steps.

You need a change, you need control of your website. Maybe you have depended on a webmaster or an internal employee with some web skills to make updates to your website, but it no longer is the right method. You want things to happen quicker, you want to enhance your content and functionality and you’ve heard it can be done without knowing all that HTML stuff. You want a content management system and you’ve heard right, it can be easy.

Five uses a content management system called the Site Management Console (SMC), developed by our parent company, Intrcomm.

In simple terms it allows your organization to fully control your website, without web skills … add pages, edit text, photos, create online forms and more. On the complex side of things it can handle just about anything you throw at it from e-commerce to user accounts to database integration.

We usually integrate our SMC tool when we are doing a new web design or a website redesign, but sometimes we will just integrate an existing website design into the SMC. Below is an example of a basic conversion to our content management tool we just did this week.

Content Management System Integration Example
National Wall, a concrete wall systems company, had contracted another firm to build their first website just last year, but they soon needed control to update the site with more information. In reviewing their website, we could see they had more areas for improvement, but getting them control was first and foremost.

National Wall’s SMC enabled website has only been up for two days, but in that time they have already:

• Edited content on their existing pages
• Added a Contact Us form
• Added the KonCote product page
• Added PDF documents for download
• Updated their News & Events page
• Uploaded new logos and project photos

Below is a screenshot of the SMC console for editing basic page content. As you may notice, it’s similar to creating or editing a Word document.

During the SMC conversion process we also corrected some of the site’s structure and usability issues making it a little more attractive to the search engines as well as users. There is still work to be done down the road on the interface design and SEO, but it’s much better off today then last week. If you have the need for control of your website, drop us a comment, a contact form or call us.

If you are considering adding a blog to your small business website here are 3 reasons to start a blog today. Business blogging is a growing strategy of many small businesses for a number of reasons, but here are three with visuals I built to accompany them (I’m a visual guy).

Start a Business Blog Reason #1 - Build Content
Many small business websites consist of basic page structure. You’ll find many a four or five page site covering information about the company, the services, the products and how to contact or visit their location. By adding a blog and posting just once a week, you’ll have 52 more pages of content (each post becomes it’s own page). That additional content will be search engine friendly, contain keywords and industry terms and valuable information to clients and potential customers. Just one year of blogging can grow your site’s content by 1,000%!

Start A Business Blog Reason #2 - Provide Answers & Examples
A business blog is an excellent opportunity to get more specific with your experience, product or service. Posting on details, processes and possibilities in depth often answer visitors questions and build trust. You can also post on examples of how your service works or benefits a client and recap examples of this success or use. This can increase even further when readers of your blog ask questions in the post comments and you respond.

Start A Business Blog Reason #3 - Link Building
Link building is the most difficult part of search engine optimization, but many will argue it holds the most weight. Links are like human referrals, just online. Websites or blogs that link to you are saying you are a trusted source for this information, service or product. Blog posts with tips, in-depth information, industry news and examples become great resources and other bloggers and websites love to link to great resources. It’s tough to get someone to link to your company overview page, but a good blog post can attract many links.

There you have my three reasons. If you are in the Minneapolis area and are interested or just starting in blogging, there is a local business blogger meetup on April 28th. I’ll be there.

If you are a search engine optimization beginner a great place to start is with your site’s page titles. Please make note right now that SEO is a process of many components, not just one or more “tricks” to rank batter. Page titles are very important to aiding in a better ranking from Google, Yahoo or MSN but they are not a magic wand (nothing is!). I can’t count how many times a potential client has complained of their lack of traffic from search engines, but then doesn’t even have a unique page title for their websites home page. Below is the classic “home” tag, showing they have done nothing with their page titles.

So lets break down the almighty page title and what you can do with it.

What is a page title and where is it?
The page title is the summary of what your web page is about. There is one for every page of your website located in your code and near the top.

Each page title should summarize that page’s content (which should be your targeted keywords). If you use a content management solution, it should have access to the page properties to complete this information for each page (Our CMS does). If you work with a web company, make sure completing the page titles and meta data is part of their service proposed. Also make sure they don’t talk about meta tag keywords for hours …. that’s a bad sign.

Why is the page title so important?
The page title has two jobs in todays world of search. First it is the summary of the pages content and the engines greatly consider the words in your title for their algorithms. The engines take this summary and use it to help them figure out what your web page is about. They will only pay attention to so many characters in your page title so you need to be brief and truly target what that page is about. Stuffing your page title with 30 words will do you no good. A few good rules of thumb are 4 to 8 words or under 65 characters including spaces. Below is the example of our home page’s page title. We are targeting “Minnesota Web Design” more than anything, it’s who/what we are, so those words appear first (left).

(ps- this is a competitive term and we will need some time to gain rankings on it)

This page title contains our main service, who we are and further down hits upon our secondary service (Internet marketing). Some people will put their name first, but I choose to place more importance on the targeted term for SEO as your business name is the easiest to get a top ranking for (almost always).

Here is another example for a Minneapolis plumber who has done the job of page title correctly.

It doesn’t hurt that their name includes major keywords they are targeting of Minneapolis (location) and Plumbing (service). You can see from above that their page title uses their location targeted twice, implying both “Minneapolis “and even using “minneapolis metro” to show they do the suburbs and area around the city.

Secondly is that the page title is what appears in the search engine result pages. Here is how the Minneapolis Plumbing example appears above in Google for a search of minneapolis plumber. They are the #1 organic web result.

The page title is what searchers see first and use heavily to determine if they will click that link. Building a page title that can rank you well is great, but you should also consider how it reads once displayed.

What should you consider when writing page titles?
1. Your page title should summarize the pages content, links and photos/graphics
(If it doesn’t, then realize your content needs to be more search friendly structured)
2. The main keywords you are trying to rank for that is your service or product
3. The main area, location or city you want to target. Location, location, location.
4. Most important words to the left.
5. Be brief, you only have 4 to 8 words or 65 characters.
6. Make sure it reads well and makes sense to a search engine user
7. Mix in your company name whenever possible, its good branding.
8. Lose the marketing words like “greatest, trusted, perfect”. Wasted characters.
9. Use dividers like pipes | or dashes - where needed to separate information
10. Most important - Write a unique and relevant page title for EACH page on your website!

In the weeks upcoming you can expect more basic SEO tips to learn more on picking which keywords to target, proper content structure, link building and more.

Here are some additional valuable posts on website page titles:

• Page Title Best Practices from SEOmoz
• Webtacs Video on Page Titles

Winning online is something I talk about a lot with clients. In looking at things like an Olympic track and field event, your website has to win a combination of heats to get to the medal round and then capture the ultimate goal, the gold medal. Online, that gold medal is the customer … and that can be their trust, their time, their communication or their money. Here is a short summary of just some of the heats you need to win to get to the medal round, but keep in mind they all play off each other to create success.

Heat 1: Getting Customers To Your Site
What are your strategies to move people to your website? SEO, Google Adwords, email marketing, local search marketing, banner ads and inbound links are all ways to push users to your website. Offline is important as well, placing your web address on all your materials and finding ways to include your website as a step in working with you or the end result. More than anything, you can’t afford to just rely on one of the strategies I mentioned, you need to leverage a team of them together.

Heat 2: Search Engine Results, SEO
It’s the race to be ranked. Good site structure, content, trusted inbound links and a good page title are just some of the pieces to get you into the race for great search terms with your competitors. Make sure you are in this race by utilizing good search engine optimization (SEO) practices. If you choose to ignore organic search results, you won’t be anywhere near the finish line.

Heat 3: Design of Your Website, Make a First Impression
What is or isn’t great web design, is always up for debate. You can’t ignore the value of a professional web design, properly coded and constructed to produce a clean, easy to use interface for your website. While it is cheaper for the kid next door to put something together for you, it is expensive to lose this race repeatedly because your quality, experience and trust never connect with the customer.

Heat 4: Website Content: Less Fluff, More Good Stuff
You land them on your site, your design and layout is trust worthy and inviting … now they want answers. Explain what you can do for them, give them examples of how you’ve helped others, product reviews, needed details, relevant photos or graphics. If you answer their questions and educate them, you win their trust … you win them. The web is increasingly going the route of full disclosure, giving as much information to the customers so they can make a decision in their comparison is a must.

Medal Round - A Clear Path, Website Usability
I touched on it a little in heat #2, a website that is easy to use is often a winner. Don’t loose customers, don’t confuse them and don’t make them think. Just provide easy next steps to get them to the end goal they desire (which is usually your goal as well). Clear navigation, content funneling, well placed anchor text and call to action buttons/graphics should all be in the mix here. You should also employ various web analytics and reporting tools to identify roadblocks or patterns as you can always fix things and try new routes.

If you’ve won these heats in any order, you most likely have won the gold medal and earned that customer. They found you, moved through your site and gained answers and insight to how you can help them with their need, problem or question. You funneled them to the goal and they bought your product, filled out an online form, signed up for an account or even called you. Enjoy your moment on the podium.