Just the Basics

When I conceived this blog a few weeks ago, it was intended to illustrate the special circumstances of search engine marketing and search engine optimization in Australia. I picked up a few books on SEM and waded through them, bookmarking handy sites and lists of sites, all along comparing them with the clients and their marketing goals.
It wasn't long before I had lists on lists all over Australia.

I planned to do a few test projects to get me started. Each site could be representative of small business in Australia.

Because Australia has taken to the Net so quickly, and with the advent of real broadband speeds, this project looked to be fun - a case study in globalization that might track well as other small countries move onto the Net.
I felt kinda lucky to have found them, since each plan appeared to apply to thousands of businesses.
The real surprise after doing the research across the country to prepare for these projects was the restrictions of the new copyright law in Australia, but nuff said about that for now.

Small tech company
Because his business involved computers, his clients expected him to have a website. The business is home-based, which limits the service area to a few suburbs on the east side of Melbourne. He said if it weren't for his customers wanting the address of his website, he'd probably not bother with one. His business was based on referrals. Like nearly all Australians, he had no idea what purpose a website served other than a brochure.
His naivete was striking because he had worked with computers all his adult life, and was one of the first to get an Internet connection.
His niche services are to troubleshoot broadband connection issues, then to set up a network to share the broadband connection; maintenance and repair of computers or notebooks. In a developing market where broadband connections are increasing rapidly, many consumers were unaware of the service gap when they get a computer.
The special issues here call for an entrepreneurial approach to this website; focus on the limited geographical area; and a need to brand - within that geographical area - his niche specialty.
The usual SEM tools don't meet these requirements easily.

Barcode Designer
It may sound a little odd to say "Barcode Designer", but it's warranted when you consider the many technical aspects of barcodes printed on various materials.
This is another home business, but with a national and international market. Barcodes are regulated by international organizations and standards. There is no real branding involved because of the capacity of the business and its broad market. The market is extremely competitive from the business' viewpoint: 1) many consumers have moved to making their own barcodes; and, 2) barcodes are often built into the package design process for large consumers. What the company is seeking is those businesses who require small numbers of barcodes delivered quickly and efficiently - within a few hours usually - that will scan on their packaging.
The usual SEM tools may work well to get wide exposure, but may fail if the service is not clearly defined.

New Weight Loss site
This project is actually to support the efforts of the wife of one of the owners of the other sites. This site has paid another company for SEM. All efforts will only enhance the chances of success. Although the project is hampered because there is no coordination between my efforts and the other company. That was the choice of the owner, who felt they would not get all they could for their money if the other company knew someone else was working on marketing the site.
Realistically, I shouldn't get involved in this mess, but a friend asked for the favor. And since I am still researching and learning the tools of the SEM trade in Oz, I might learn something useful.
I'm free of the SEO responsibilities here (other than carefully timed suggestions possibly).
The site will be marketed initially to Australia and New Zealand, then when the kinks are worked out to the rest of the world - or at least that's the plan.

Getting things started
To get the projects rolling, I tracked down a short checklist of the basics. It would also serve as a starting point to introduce the clients to the SEO-SEM process.
As a programmer, you learn a simple maxim: "Good programmers write code. Great programmers steal code." Or, put another way: "Don't reinvent the wheel...

How will you increase traffic?

Wish you had more traffic to your web site? Well stop whining and do something about it. This methodical approach—attracting new visitors, increasing the length of visits, and bringing visitors back more often—works every time.

Attract new visitors
Get your site listed in search engines and directories:

• Submit site to Google and other search engines    
• Submit site to Yahoo! and other directories    
• Revise site as needed to improve search rank    

Try other strategies:
            Strategy                                    Did it        Not gonna do it

• Solicit links from other sites
• Advertise online
• Advertise in other media      
• Start a "tell-a-friend" program      
• Buy an email list      

Bring visitors back more often
Craft an email strategy to bring users back:
                  Task                                                    Done?

• Start collecting addresses (membership)   
• Integrate email sign-up form on home page    
• Send first round of email messages    
• Experiment with approaches to email 

What are your other strategies?
                Strategy                                Did it            Not gonna do it

• Update site more often      
• Run promotions & sales      
• Add community features      
• Become the user's home page      

Increase length of visits
Improve site design
                            Task                                        Done?

• Make choices intuitive    
• Make navigation consistent    
• Un-bury site features    
• Clearly label site features    
• Integrate site search    
• Make sure site search returns good results    
• Test site with users    
• Test site with users other than Mom    

What are your other strategies?
                    Strategy                                    Did it        Not gonna do it

• Encourage participation      
• Break articles into multiple pages      
• Give "more" (suggest related links)   
• Integrate site search      
• improve site speed

                                                I have read and understood   
                                                        true    false

A short checklist like this is deceptively simple. It's so short it's not intimidating. Everything is really an open question. You learn a lot about the client in a few minutes. And you get a chance to discuss many areas quickly.
The details you leave for later. Even a small site often requires a lot of work.
And clients will always surprise you.

Comments

[Judy Matthews]

Hi Paul quite and interesting site you explain things well with out to much of the usual tech stuff that us normal people don't understand keep up the great work and good luck