Final blog assignment...

 

Search Engine Optimization –

Something I knew nothing about before this class, the concept is pretty simple. How to get your website to the top of the list when a consumer does a search to find the products or services that you offer, after all, what good is a website if no one can find you. I learned many things these past weeks, such as placement and usage of keywords; (among many other strategies) that will help me in both maintaining websites, and when I am creating marketing plans.

Developing and maintaining a good web site.

I think there are a lot of small businesses out there that truly believe that if they put a web site up – they are done, maybe update an event or promotion once in a while. After taking this class, I do not believe that any website is truly finished. The reality is we only have seconds to capture a potential customer’s attention. As technology advances, we need to adjust and re-evaluate. For instance, who would have though a few years ago that websites would need to be changed to accommodate mobile (smart) phone users? People want interaction, and want to share their experiences with social media, such as Facebook and Twitter – and as marketing professionals it is our job to stay ahead of the game, and make sure our customers can “keep up” with adapting their websites to fit their customer’s needs.

 

Blogs…

I have found blogs to be a useful tool to gain customers trust, although I am still not convinced that every company that has a website should have one to be in business. The key to blogging is like any customer service tool: Know your audience and make it relevant – at some point I read, “Customers don’t buy an object, they buy an experience. I am like many people are learning to embrace change – even my Mother has taken to using “Google” as a verb! (She asked me to Google her a map). With that embrace, I will be continuing to blog, and I plan on starting one at work during the holiday break.

Quality vs. Quantity

We have mere seconds to grab a customer’s attention, so why are websites still trying to dazzle us with gobbledygook, doctoral level terms, and flash videos that make you feel like we are still on dial up?

I have read several articles the past couple weeks that make some great points on what we should focus on when we create website content. It all comes down to just a few simple points.

• Know your audience – Answer the question of why your product is right for them IMMEDIATELY – not after minutes of searching.
• Tell them basically what they need to know – and allow for more information IF they want to read it.
• Keep it simple – Customers want to be dazzled by your products – not by the automation capabilities of your website designer.

And if that isn’t enough to convince you – my personal favorite of the week.

“If your content sucks, a panda will eat you!”

 

Google’s algorithm will find you! When it finds your poor quality site – your search engine listing will drop.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29824/5-ways-crappy-content-destroys-your-inbound-marketing?source=Blog_Email_[5%20Ways%20Crappy%20Conten] 

Heatmapping – Not Just for Military Secret Ops Anymore!

Heatmap technology has been around for a long time, but did you know it could provide clues on how to improve your website? It can be used by finding out where someone’s eyes spend the most time on a web page – and of course where they are not looking. A company called eyetrackshop did a recent test to see where most people (or their eyeballs) spend the most time on social media sites.

Here are some highlights from their findings that I found on Hubspot.com:

Facebook

People spend the most time looking at the profile picture and the first two posts. EyeTrackShop also shared a metric called fixation order, which is the order in which most people looked at areas of interest on the page. Interestingly, most people on Facebook started by looking at the middle of the page where status updates are posted, then went to the left panel where friends are listed.

Google+

Google+ profile photo doesn't attract as much attention as the Facebook profile photo. The most attention was paid to the name, tagline, and first post. Like on Facebook, someone's Circles was also of interest.

Twitter

The most notable viewing pattern on Twitter is how far down the eye goes on the screen compared to other social networks. Because of the pace at which tweets come through though, this is not surprising, as users are used to scrolling further down the page to see tweet streams.

I do not think that I will be running out and paying for this kind of technology anytime soon, but I do think that we can all learn from their findings:

• Profile pictures do matter.
• And the biggest attention grabbers are within the upper left section of the page – where most of the titles, names and first status updates are listed.

If you want to read more (this is an interesting article about the technology): http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29863/Heatmaps-Reveal-Where-People-Look-on-Social-Media-Sites-Research.aspx#ixzz1h2R5Gros