I’ve talked to hundreds of business owners and almost without exception their prime focus in regard to their website is to have it appear high in the rankings of Google. Without wishing to demean such a laudible endeavour. I have never heard in the any of these conversations  the word “conversion”. It’s as though the only thing that has to be done is get truck loads of visitors to a site and they will buy and we’ll be banking truck loads of dosh (cash) to the bank.

It appears the underlying assumption is that once the traffic starts arriving they will naturally start buying or registering - no questions asked!

Unfortunately, the reality different. People may be attracted in coming to your site because it is listed high in Google, but on arrival they are confronted with many obstacles that prevent them from either buying or registering.

There can be many on page factors that make it difficult for people to perform the action you would like them to do. For example, there can be a lack of congruence (continuity) between the search engine listing and the page (in other words what you have promised on the search engine listing, is not what is obvious or delivered on the page). Further, a page may have too many conflicting options that make it difficult for visitors to select from. Or, the process for purchasing may be too difficult and confusing. It is always a bad assumption to make, that because the page looks good, it will perform its function and convert.

I see no point in optimising a page for search engines, if no effort has been made to optimise the actual landing page so that it becomes easy for a visitor to not only fulfill their objectives in coming to the site, but also yours.

I am sure I have said this in a previous blog, I can see no point in undertaking search engine optimisation on a page if it currently performs poorly in terms of conversion. Getting more visitors to the page will not increase the conversion rate when there are inherent on-page issues that first need to be corrected and tested.

For the life of me, I just can’t understand how so many people can have Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so wrong for so long. Just to check, it is 2009, right?

SEO Horror

I’ve recently been asked to make some changes to an existing website. How could I refuse, brand new client, well designed website. I then had a look at the source code for the home page, in particular the title, keyword and description tags. My first thoughts were ‘amusing’. The description tag, despite being a long monotonous story was, at a pinch, relatively within the subject area. But the keywords were anything but.

I then proceeded to look at the tags for all the remaining pages of the site, only to discover they were an exact copy of what was on the home page. Oh, and by the way, the title tag, was the name of the company. Well, I suppose that’s better than having nothing there at all.

The big issue for me is that it appears that websites such as this, are sold under the guise of having been optimised. Whereas, optimised they are not.

Using title and description tags to best effect

I’m going to be a bit loose and liberal here, but hope you’ll see the point. The emphasis placed on meta tags is misplaced. From an optimisation perspective the important tags where care needs to be taken are the title and description tags. The title tag should give the reader and idea about what the subject of the page is.

The description tag serves a slightly different purpose. This should be used to invite people to open the page. In some ways this is like and advert that calls the reader on a search engine page to action. And yes, both the title and description tags should contain the appropriate keywords!

Keyword tag

As far as the keyword tag is concerned, none of the major search engines are going to penalise you if you don’t have this tag - in fact they don’t even look at it. That said, I still use the keyword tag, but more as an aid to remind and help me focus on what the exact keywords for that page are.

I’m constantly amused by the number of  web design and developer sites I go to, where wearing their expert status hat, they pontificate to us mere mortals that you need to have original content on your website. And that’s as far as their advice goes. Period!

Apart from copying content from one website to yours, I’m really at a loss as to what these guys mean by “original content”, they don’t explain what they mean. If you compare their websites directly you’ll quickly conclude (and at the same time become bored out of your tree) that there is nothing terribly original in any of their content. It’s the same-old telling us how marvelous they are.

So, what is original content?

To find out what “original content” was, I had a look at Google’s advice to webmasters and site owners. It’s pretty clear that what they mean is “authentic content”. That is, it’s your content and not copied and pasted from some other site.

I think website content must be defined who you are writing for and their needs. It may be that you’re not offering anything different to your other online competitors.  But, because you are marketing to a distinct audience, the difference will be reflected in the content, and hence it should be authentic and unique.

You need to keep your content “fresh”

We often hear web designers and developers say that you’ve got to keep your content fresh. If you don’t, not only will Google punish you, but so will everyone else by not visiting your site. I think we need to examine that notion in a but more detail.

For me, this notion of “fresh” is a load of rubbish. If your site is to generate leads or make sales, the only time you want to change your content is to improve its rate of conversion. If the content on your site is pulling in the punters, why would you want to change  it? All that you’re is the ability for that particular page to generate traffic and convert lookers into buyers.

To change what working is just sheer lunacy.

Not being one to eat my words, I do think there is a place for fresh or new content on a website. So, it probably is a good idea to designate pages or sections of your website where you are constantly updating content with new articles or news releases. But, it’s important to make the distinction between these pages and the pages that are designed to pull the punters.

There are any number of websites that haven’t changed their content for years. To my knowledge thay have not been penalised by the search engines and appear high in rankings. This can only happen because they are wll optimised and pull in the punters for their owners.

I do think it’s important to challenge the notion that visitiors won’t return to your site if there is nothing new there. May be, may be not. Let’s look at visitor behaviour (or rather our behaviour) on websites.

Why I visit a website is because I want something. In many cases I’ll hardly revisit that website again, or only because it has got something that I want. The fact that it has or hasn’t got new content is probably not going to matter that much, as long as my first experience was good. As a general rule, I’m not going to be going back to the site in the hope of finding “fresh” content. I don’t know about you, I’ve got better things to do with my life.

Now there are exceptions. What I have been talking about has been about websites whose sole focus is to generate leads or make sales. Other sites, like informational sites, there is definately the need for the continual and regular update of material.

In a previous blog I talked about promise and fulfillment and I thought because it was so important to the user experience we should talk about it in a bit more detail.

When a person is searching it is usually for a reason, they want something to  make their better, easier, more prosperous easier or to take away some pain they have got. Usually most surfers will start by using a search engine (probably Google!).

The promise

The search results are options for the surfer and every result is one that he could click on. What appears in these search results are assolutely pivotal to the success of any website. Most website owners would be absolutely flawed to know that what appears here is the first and only chance that they have to get these surfers to open their site. But, what’s more every website owner has the ability to manage and control what appears in this introduction.

The search results are comprised of two elements:

• The Title tag
• The Description tag

In the search engine results the title tag will appear at the top and will be the hyperlink that will take the surfer to your site. The description tag will be the two lines that appear beneath. These threee lines are going to be the first contact a surfer (and someone who is actually looking for what you sell).

If you are going to use these two tags well, you’ve actually got to think carefully about how you use them. They actually have to be a total and tantalising summary of what a person will see if they click on your link.

I believe these two tags actually have to be a promise and create an expectation. If a surfer click on this link they will be under no illusion about what they will see when your site opens.

Fulfillment

Fulfillment should be realised when a vistitor, who has clicked on your search engine link arrives at your website. Their expectation should be immediately met.

Unfortunately most people who click on a search engine link do so out of desperation and are only hoping that their expectation can be met, because in most cases they are not. In many cases there is a total mismatch between what appears in a search engine listing and the content of the page. The the cases where there is a match,  the adrenilen of the visitor is not pumping, simply because both the title and description tags have been poorly written.

You don’t have to be good to be the best

For many website owners this will be put straight in the too-hard basket because they think it is too hard to do. Let me tell you straight, you are either lazy or just don’t understand that just about any change you do that sharpens up your title and description tags (as long as you remember to keep your keywords in tact) will lift the click through rate of your pages. By creating interesting descriptions that grab the attention of your market, you will obtain a higher click-thru rate than your competitors.

For the life of me I just can’t understand it! Why are so many website owners fixated about appearing high in search engine rankings as though it’s going to be the biggest determinant in their online success?

The fact of the matter is SEO must be placed inside the context of internet/online marketing. If you do not have a online marketing strategy, SEO becomes an expensive waste of time.

Often when I have talked to business owners and managers about the marketing of their website, they become frustrated because they are getting little or no enquiries or sales from their site. The immediate response is that they need more traffic.

More traffic is not necessarily the answer. If you have got, for example, 2,000 unique visitors coming to your site each month and you are getting little or no conversion, doubling the traffic will not change the conversion rate. There is something fundamentally wrong with the content of the site.

This means that either your offer is not right or sufficiently compelling, or that it is not targeted to a narrow enough audience.

We’ve all heard that content is king on a website, and that is absolutely true. However, it is not any content. It is content that is crafted to gain Attention, draw Interest, create Desire and drive to Action.

It often seems a shame that with most website developments, the development of content is left to the owner. In most cases, owners of the business are just not the right people to develop sales copy. There is no doubting that they have an intimate and deep knowledge of their products or services, but in presenting in a compelling way, rather than in a matter-of-fact presentation, is something else.

To be fair to owners, the only real visible model they have to go by for the presentation of text is existing website. And lets be honest, nearly all of them are failures and sources of frustrations to their owners.

The real issue I have is with many web designer companies, who make huge and extravagent  promises about getting their clients’ site to list high on Google. They carry on about Meta tags and the frequently changing algorithms of the search engines, in a way to clock profound mystery.

The fact of the matter is:

• No one can guarantee you high rankings on Google
• Google is not under any obligation to list your site
• Search engine algorithms do not change with any great frequency
• Good compelling and targeted content is how you will get targeted traffic to your site

Ok, without wanting to offend the real SEO experts. There is a real place for SEO on a site, and they do have a distinct knowledge mix to bring to the party, but it must be within the context of Online and internet marketing.