Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Small Business Reminder: Google Is Blind


The environment for business to have a website and look to the internet as a new marketplace to promote our goods and services is no longer new. It's been around for more than 10 years now and certainly over the past five years has become mainstream.

Or so it seems.

So why is it that so few businesses are using the internet in a way that promotes them effectively?

You have a website.
You may have paid a lot for it to be developed.
How is it doing?

How do you tell?

What bits are working and which bits need to be changed?

Traffic is not the be all and end all of having a business website. But it is fairly fundamental as a starting point to measure your progress and to see where improvements should and can be made.

Yet time and again I see business owners with no clue what their numbers are but not even the most basic idea how to find out and what they should be looking for.

Reasons

One of the misconceptions with web property is that a web designer - or even a web hosting company that sells you a template that you pay monthly to host your website online is the place to learn about what you need to know to get the best results.

Nope.

Indeed many of these places know very little and care even less about your results. Their product is to get you online. Your success online is not their problem. With many designers, they will do the site as you want it and it is up to you to know what to put there and they will do it. The responsibility for how well it does is not their concern. That's up to you.

Here's another myth.

What your website looks like is an indication of how well it will function to attract customers.

There are two parts to correcting this myth.

SEO - search engine optimisation is all about ( or should be but often isn't effectively done) how Google "sees" on your website. Google is blind. It reads instructions behind the page and content on the page. That's pretty much it. Ask a blind person to tell you how you look today? That's about the same as Google viewing your website. So you want all the elements that don't show and the content that does, to be right.

PEO Person Eyes Optimisation - is all about how those people having searched and found your site through SEO - can find what they are looking for, what they want to know about your business, where you are, how you work, how to reach you and whether you have even bothered to be findable. The content needs to be useful and current and easy for them to buy from you. This is true even if you don't have a shopping facility on the website - they can still reach you by phone or email and purchase whatever is they want that you have.


There is a bit to learn about this topic and yes there is a lot of bad information out there. Sales pitches are not the best place to learn what you need to know. And yet it seems like many business owners want to be sold the magic bullet (sorry, there isn't one) and instant results. There isn't any of those either.

Nor are there any fixes that don't cost time and/or some money (probably both) to work effectively. But then your experience with other things in life has shown you that already, right?

Steps To Take Right Now

  • Find out how your website statistics are being tracked.
  • Get access to check them at least weekly.
  • Check them at least weekly.
  • Look at where your traffic is coming from.
  • Get your friends in different places to look for your business online as they would if they didn't know you and were just a customer looking for someone who does what you do. Collect the responses for where (page)you come up in their search.
  • Find out which companies are coming up first for what you do
  • Consider your message and what story you have to tell about your business as your keywords you need to use will be in there. 
Google is blind when it comes to 'seeing' your website but it picks up everything it needs if you set your website up well. And your web? Well it is a lot like a guide dog. Look after it and keep it well fed and it will be on duty 24/7 and returning the love.


    Call me if you need a hand.

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    Lindy Asimus
    Business Coach
    Mobile: 0403 365855
    lindyasimus@gmail.com
    www.lindyasimus.com

    www.designbusinessengineering.com
     



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