When I first took a look at the Oakwood Cleaners website, a dry cleaner and specialty cleaner in Nashville, Tennessee, who also does wedding gown cleaning and wedding gown preservation, there were a lot of obvious problems.
1. First Impression
Design was not reflective of the company. Oakwood Cleaners is the best of the best. They are a member of the Leading Cleaners Internationale - something few can claim - and the site simply did not reflect the level of professionalism and service the company delivers.
2. Critical Disconnect
Again, a potential conversion killer, Oakwood Cleaners brands itself as a eco-friendly cleaner. The “Greener Cleaner” to be exact. The old home page didn’t promote that message appropriately or as effectively as it should. There was some text on the home page, but that was about it. Since it is a very important part of the company’s message, it needed to be appropriately communicated on the home page - both visually and textually.
2. Navigation
Again, another conversion killer, the navigation of the old website was all over the place. It was confusing, the most important links were not at the top of the site, there are a lot of pages at the website, but getting to them was not as easily as it should have been.
3. Technical Issues
There were a lot of technical issues with the website, too numerous to go into detail for. These technical issues, in some cases, created error messages and overall created a less-than-friendly user experience. Search engine optimization was minimal. In addition, the owner of the company didn’t have full-ownership/control of the oakwoodcleaners.com domain.
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Logging into your Google Analytics account is pretty straight-forward.
If you are using Google Analytics you should have a Google Account (something@gmail.com). If you have a GMAIL account you have a Google Account. If you don’t, get one - they are free.
Visit http://www.google.com/analytics/ and toward the right of your screen you’ll see a button/option for Access Analytics.
Use your Google Account (name and password) and you’ll be put into a “control panel” or “dashboard” of sorts that allows you to drill deeper into your analytics data.
That’s it. Pretty simple.
Google Anlaytics Login Screen
On the next screen, there are several options in addition to selecting a report to view. You can configure users, others who can see your stats, as well as set goals (i.e. how many people went to my inquiry form page!).
Next Menu Down... Select Reports To View (and More!)
2500 Internet Marketing Tips…
I started a path that brought me to where I am today, doing Internet Marketing, in the basement of a bank in downtown Boston.
A technical support “geek” they called me.
Until I was promoted to Vice President. :)
At heart though, I AM a geek. And as a result, I absolutely love this video that shows one of Google’s data centers.
The “container” concept is nothing other than Google genius - smart thinking. Very cool.
I hear this is how the Japanese are building new homes in Toyko.
Thanks for the opportunity to speak with Leading Cleaners Internationale.
Here are the documents from the tele-clinic/webinar held June 4, 2009.
I know we covered a lot and all of this information can be a bit overwhelming. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Both are .pdf files and require a pdf reader (you can download one here if you need one).
Questions To Ask A SEO Consultant (pdf)
Presentation Slides (pdf)
Audio…
20MB downloadable file (mp3)
(Right-Click, Save As)
Or listen online…
Chris Jaeger
(866) 652-7791
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and website pages, as well as managing factors outside of your website (i.e off-site factors), to acheive top rankings or positioning at Google, or other search engines, on a search engine results page.
As a result of this increased online visibility, which shows up in people’s browsers when they are searching, you get more QUALITY traffic to your website, increase your brand/company awareness, more effectively compete in the marketplace, and ultimately increase inquiries and sales (i.e. conversion).
Many of the people I’ve talked to think just building a website and getting online will be the key to new sales and business growth. This is bad thinking and actually a mistake.
It’s not a mistake because I say so.
It’s a mistake because dozens of people have called me who tried that approach and it didn’t work. So now, they’ve been online for six to sixteen months, have little to show for it, and have a new problem - they’re six to sixteen months behind their competition. Playing catch-up on the Internet is not fun.
Q: Would you open up a new restaurant and then not advertise, market, and promote it - and it’s location?
A: No, certainly not.
But that same logic seems to get lost on the Internet.
I think it’s because in days gone by there was this mentality that the Internet was free - and a lot of people are stuck with it. Sure, it sounds good, but it’s not true.
Add onto that bogus success stories about online success and even infomercials at wee hours of the morning promising Internet millions while you “sit back, it’s on auto-pilot” on the Internet Marketing Speedway… ouch.
Here is why you probably want to develop and implement a search engine optimization strategy for your business website:
1) More Sales
2) More Leads
3) You Make It Easier For Your Existing Customers To Find You
4) You Make It Easier For NEW Customers To Find You
5) Your Existing Customer Expect To Find You
6) Don’t Let Your Existing Customer Find Your Competition (you lose sales)
7) More Visibility For Your Company, Brand, Products and Services
8) Reaching New Customers From Outside Your General Marketplace
9) Enhanced Credibility and Legitimacy
10) Testing New Products
11) Competition
12) Gives You Competitive Advantage
13) Predictable Costs
14) Measurable ROI
15) Long Term Benefits
A lot of people call me because they are unhappy with the results they are getting from their websites or the advice they got… which didn’t work out as they expected.
Here are the things most of these callers have in common and signs of trouble at your website:
1) Poor Results (or No Results)
Let’s face it. It’s all about results. Unless you are a movie star, you built a website to generate high-quality leads for your products and services. You’ve got trouble if you aren’t getting any inquiries, phone calls, or generating new sales with your website.
2) No Traffic
This one leads to #1 above and unfortunately many people don’t realize they have a traffic problem until months down the road. Yes, months. You should be reviewing your website stats weekly. Monthly you should be comparing the results and analyzing trends. If your website doesn’t have any traffic you’ve got trouble.
3) Traffic But No Inquiries
When you have traffic but no inquiries you have a conversion problem. There are only three reasons for a conversion problem. The first is that the quality of your traffic is poor. The second would be you don’t have any traffic. The third would be website design. Poorly designed websites are a leading cause of poor conversion. You may love your website, but if you aren’t converting your traffic into inquiries, phone calls, or sales - you have a problem.
4) People Can’t Find You At Google
70% of the people who use a search engine use Google. That’s millions and millions of searches every day. If you don’t rank well for your targeted keywords and keyword phrases - a competitor is stealing your business. Most people don’t think of it that way (but should). When people can’t find you at Google you have trouble - and are losing market-share to a competitor.
Things I’ve read that I think you will find valuable also…
The Elements of Design Applied to the Web
Design is broken up into a number of basic principles that apply to all design from type creation to painting to page layout, both on the web and in print. However, especially on the web, these rules tend to be forgotten and we just go with what feels “right.” This isn’t because designers are feeling too loose to abandon these rules, but rather, most people working on the web don’t even know they exist – if they do, they don’t understand how to use them.
http://astheria.com/design/the-elements-of-design-applied-totheweb
As most everyone who has worked with me, or talked to me, knows I use and I love GMAIL.
It’s a very powerful tool and has made managing my email so much easier than days gone by with Microsoft Outlook.
Why do I like it and recommend people seriously consider it for managing their email?
Stable
Reliable
Makes EMAIL management easy
* You never have to delete another message
* Tons of free storage
* Super SUPER easy and fast finding old email based on keywords
* Identifies 99.9% of SPAM correctly
* Rarely tags something SPAM that is not SPAM (Yea!)
* Is available from any device connected to the ‘net (PC, phone, Internet cafe)
* Very easy to manage email conversations, sometimes called threads
* Works with any mobile device that connects to the Internet
* Other features… too numerous to mention here (but you’ll find here)
Oh yes… and it’s free.
There are a few things that are different and take a bit of getting comfortable with.
One is never having to delete email. Sure, delete stuff you don’t need, but if you want to keep something - go for it! No problems because you have tons of storage.
I’ve been using GMAIL for almost three years and have only just hit 23% of my storage limitation. Trust me, I have tons of email archived.
With GMAIL, if you want to keep something for future reference - just don’t delete it. Just save it in your archives by selecting the “Archive” option after reading it.
Archiving something puts it into your All EMAIL “folder.”
Speaking of archives, GMAIL does things a little different than most email programs.
One of the things it does differently is how it approaches what would be normally called “folders.” Folders are gone. Labels are in.
So, for purposes of discussion, GMAIL basically has two “folders,” if you have to use that word - In and All.
Either an email is in your In box or you put it in your “archives” or All EMAIL.
That said, everything can and might have a label.
You create labels (left side of GMAIL screen) and then apply them to different email messages. You can “tag” email messages with multiple labels.
GMAIL is worth taking a look at and for most people it will work great.
