Usage and usability:

• It’s an extra ‘click’: When someone sees a search result that has what they are looking for, they click on that result and expect to go there. When they are asked to click again to enter the site, they often get annoyed and go back. In today’s internet world, particularly with e-commerce, people simply won’t wait.
• Load time: Flash uses more bandwidth and can take a large amount of time to load in certain situations. If your customers or clients are not connected to high-speed internet, don’t have the latest and greatest computers and hardware, (which is actually a high percentage of the online population), or think Google Chrome is a finish for motorcycle fenders, this could prevent them from ever even getting to your completed splash page.

SEO:

• “Link Juice”: The flow of links on a web page has a hierarchy of sorts…your ‘home page’ should be the strongest of all your pages, and whenever a visitor has to pass through another link to get to it (the splash page), the subsequent page is losing “weight” with the search engines, passing along only a portion of the rank value to the home page. In short: it may affect your placements.
• “Content is king”: You may have heard this phrase in relation to websites and SEO. This is more true than ever today. Competition for online attention is fierce, and the home page you present is your ‘storefront’, so to speak! The window display in a brick-and-mortar store (their ‘home page’) is not only ineffective if it is empty, but can be actively detrimental to the flow of customers into the business.
• Fresh face: To remain current and ‘fresh’, your content should be ever-changing, whether it is in the form of tweaks to the meta data, updated content, interlinking, etc. When visitors come back to your site, they will quickly get bored with that intro piece…rather like a commercial on TV that you just can’t stand to watch anymore!

Flash can jazz up a website, create amazing effects and present your product or business in a phenomenal light! At Mannix Marketing, Inc., skilled and experienced website design services are SEO friendly and designed to ensure your site is accessible to visitors and the search engines! Having a clearly defined  SEO strategy  is the #1 way to keep your website fresh, relevant, and visible.

There are great alternatives to splash pages – contact Mannix Marketing, Inc. for the most innovative ideas in design and development, SEO, SMO, and all of your internet marketing services.

Any business that has a physical location and is listed in Google Maps has the chance to get one of these great listings. And they are great. Think about it. If someone is searching for any business in your area and you have one of these gray listings, you have the chance of getting in front of that person whether or not they were searching for you. They could have been searching for a competitor or a business in a totally different industry. It doesn’t matter. As long as what they are searching for has brought them to a map page within a few blocks of your business, your business and its location will be in front of them.

Now that you realize how important getting directly on Google Maps is, the question is, “How do I get my business on there?” That’s the rub. At this point in time Google does not have a process to submit your business to get this type of listing. Similar to their organic listings, Google uses an algorithm to find the places that would be most interesting and helpful to people looking for information on a city. And they have not given us a clue to what is in the algorithm. All they are saying is they can’t list what they don’t know about, so be sure to have your Google Local Listing filled out as best you can.

There may come a time in the future when you can submit your business to be including on the map itself. If this does happen, we will let you know right here.

What are your thoughts? Do you think this is fair? Do you think these types of listings are useless? Let us know what you think.

Let’s start with an explanation of what breadcrumbs are. Breadcrumbs are a form of navigation that shows the users path that got them to their current location. It allows for a user to easily return to the page they just left if they landed somewhere they didn’t want to. In addition to being very useful for the user, it turns out it is also very search engine friendly!

To make your breadcrumbs search engine friendly, simply utilize relevant keywords in your word navigation. Make sure to make it natural and flows with the theme of your page. Here is an example of breadcrumb navigation on a website:

Instead of simply putting Home > Cross Country Skiing > Fun For Kids, I took advantage of adding keywords like Adirondack. This is an excellent way to improve the seo on your pages.

Matt Cutts was recently asked what kind of delimiter to use in this video. As you can see from the above example, I use the right arrow (>). Other possibilities are the vertical pipe (|), a slash (/), a bullet, a dash (-), a colon (:). He doesn’t give a clear cut answer, but he does shed a little light on the fact that this is a new possibility with Google that users seem to like.

Inevitably the way Google displays the breadcrumbs will evolve. We have already seen a few ways:

Breadcrumbs showing up with a > delimiter

and

Breadcrumbs showing up with a - delimiter

As Google figures out what the final breadcrumb product will look like within the SERP’s, it is certainly a good idea to add this to your site. Discovering an additional form of user friendly navigation that is also search engine friendly is a win / win situation. Or a win – win situation. Or a win > win situation.

• The earlier you start the better prepared you will be if other things pop up (which they inevitably do)
• You may find that some of your ideas may take time to come together (Do you have some research to do? Do you need other people to make things happen? How much time will they need to get their part done?)
• If you are optimizing for new products or services, it will take some time for your efforts to show up in the search engines
• If there are changes to your website or marketing message you’ll probably want to test a thing or two to make sure you are getting the most out of your efforts (and test it before the holiday rush of visitors hits your site)

Let’s take a look at each one of these points in a bit more detail.

Things Pop Up
When was the last time your business ran as smooth as you planned for an entire month, let alone an entire year? Probably never. Unexpected things happen that take up your valuable time – the time you may be planning on working on the holiday season. If you are able to map out a plan of attack for your holiday season right now, you will be more likely to stick by it and be able to complete it on time.

Most Online Initiative Take Some Time To Come Together
Some initiatives require other resources like designers and copywriters. The earlier they are involved the more apt they are to meet your deadlines. A PPC campaign is often a powerful revenue driver around the holiday season. And sure, you can pull one together over coffee one afternoon in late November. But to really get the most out of your investment you should start early so you can test different keywords, different ads and different landing pages. That way once the holiday traffic is searching for your product or service you are ready to take advantage of it.

Jumping Up The Search Engines Doesn’t Happen Overnight
As we all know, it takes time for solid SEO efforts to show results in the search engines. So if you start now, you may just be #1 for the terms you want by the time we’re all holiday shopping. But if you start in November there is virtually no shot at that.

It’s Better To Test With A Smaller Sample Size
If you’re testing a new marketing message with an email campaign and / or your website, why wait until the bulk of your customers are coming to buy your product to test it? It make sense to test it out when the stakes are not as high. Test a few landing page designs on a small sample (maybe only part of an email list, maybe a month when traffic to your site isn’t that high). That way you have the kinks out when it’s time for the holiday rush.

Are you still under the impression that it’s too earlier to start thinking about Christmas 2010? Or are you all ready starting to plan for the 2011 season? Let us know your thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how Buzz takes on the other social networking sites. It appears to be blending Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare into one formidable challenger, but is it likely to be that “killer” of any or all of these? Ummm… doubtful. I think it offers a different way of sharing media but it’s unlikely to lure over Facebook or Twitter users. It’s likely to be attractive to a small percent of existing Gmail users who are not already using one of the other social media sites.

The biggest issue I predict with Buzz is that it’s not a stand-alone application. Meaning someone who’s never heard of Buzz will only be aware of it if they have and use Gmail and are connected to someone else who also has and uses a Gmail account. It’s kind of like an invitation to a party that you already have to be attending in the first place. Google could have made Buzz accounts accessible with existing Gmail accounts (and provided the Gmail integration), but it should have made Buzz its own site with allowances for other non-Gmail accounts to participate. Perhaps that’s phase two though, after testing it on a smaller scale. We’ll wait and see if it’s really a buzz or just a buzzard.

Well, if this is a problem of yours, then your life is about to get a little easier! I recommend HootSuite for those managing multiple twitter accounts. It’s what I, personally, use now for managing my own personal Twitter account as well as all of our Mannix Marketing Twitter accounts for Saratoga, Lake George, Albany, the Adirondacks, etc. (I switched from Tweetlater after just one day of using Hootsuite!)

HootSuite has been more than a timesaver; it has been a lifesaver for me! It’s a fun, cute design, and it makes things incredibly easy….

- Hootsuite Screenshot -

The above is called your 'Hootsuite Dashboard'

Simply set yourself up with one username in Hootsuite, and you can add in all your Twitter profiles, and then update them all right from one place – without having to sign in and out, etc. You simply click on the profile icon (upper right) that you want to update, and then type your status in the box at the top. It is SO easy!

You can even schedule tweets in advance. You just click Send Later instead of Send Now and then choose the exact date and time you would like to send.

Hootsuite also lets you shrink links down into a special format, which allows for link tracking (as well as more room in your tweet). It will keep track of how many people clicked on that link so you can test the effectiveness of different messages. It will also tell you where those clicks are coming from. So, for example, if you have your twitter feed feeding into your Facebook page, you can easily tell if you generated more clicks from your Tweet or your Facebook post. It’s really helpful.

What I really love is that it lets you pull in your friends feed for all the people you follow. This is what makes Hootsuite unlike many other platforms where you are just a one-sided broadcast for yourself and not connected to the rest of the Twitterverse. With Hootsuite, you stay connected!

You can even customize your columns to show exactly what you would like, where you would like it. So if you don’t care about having your pending messages there, but maybe you would rather have a private messages column, you can do that. Or if you would like to have your Sent Tweets column first and your Home Feed second, you can do that too. It’s completely customizable.

Best of all, Hootsuite is free to use! You can do all this and not pay a dime. It’s really great, and I recommend you give it a try!

Find more information about Social Media Do’s and Don’ts…

Not sure how to get started on Twitter? Give us a call! We’d be happy to help you out! Mannix Marketing 518-743-9424

But my challenge to you this year is to not only make resolutions for yourself, but make them for your business. After all, our business is our livelihood. We need to make sure that it is just as “healthy” and “happy” as it can be.

So, here are some ideas to start 2010 with gusto!

A. Get that website redesign that you’ve been thinking about! It’s time and it really does make a difference.

B. Try Social Media Marketing. That’s right … Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr. It cannot be denied that Social Media is a powerful tool in marketing your brand. Start slowly by creating one account. Get used to how it works and how you can use it for marketing purposes. Put it on your daily schedule for updating and work on building your fan base and followers. Once you are comfortable with the one account, you are ready to add another.

Make sure that you are maximizing your opportunities with social marketing. The conversation starts online, but the conversion happens in the real world.

C. Embrace one new “function” on your website. Try adding something new and creative to your website. After all, your website is your vehicle to promote your business. Explore videos. Add a Newsletter Sign up and try Email Marketing. Try blogging. Add related articles or expand your content by adding a new section altogether. Keep your website moving forward!

D. Set marketing goals. With all these new marketing strategies, make sure you track your efforts. You’ll easily be able to see the difference your new strategies are making by analyzing your statistics. Continue doing whichever avenues have made a positive impact.

E. Get involved. Read related blogs and leave comments. Become fans of Facebook pages. Send Direct Messages on Twitter. In a word … participate. Your effort will be rewarded.

F. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s. Make sure your online profiles are fully complete. If you can add 10 pictures, add 10 pictures. Fill out all descriptions and added info sections. Don’t forget about the reviews! Make sure you have enough reviews by soliciting happy clients for them. It’s a good idea to go and check all accounts. You may have thought you would go back to finish one or more of them but forgot about it.

G. Manage your reputation. With the introduction to real time search, it is more important than ever to be aware of what is being said. Use Twitter Search to track any mention of your name, your keywords, your location and your competitors’ name. Use Google Alerts to have an email update sent directly to your inbox. Based on your choice of query or topic, Google will send an email of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.). This is very handy indeed.

Above all, have a happy and healthy New Year!

Those corporate site bigwigs were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of dollar signs added up in their heads.
But MaAndPa.com worried, that when Caffeine soon unwrapped,
They’d be in for something colder than a long winter’s nap.

When away from the PC, the screen did refresh,
Pa sprang from the couch to see what was left.
A look to the screen and nothing new yet,
Time to open more tabs and surf on the net.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the luster of midday to objects below.
When, what to pa’s wondering eyes should appear,
But a post from Matt Cutts, Oh dear, Oh dear.

With a little hesitation he decided to click play,
The moment had arrived to hear what he had to say.
Without hesitation, he got to the point,
Without further delay it was time to anoint.

“Now faster! Now better! More user friendly for all!
On my PC! On your Mac! They’ll be no slow crawl!
To the top of the rankings go the relevant and fast!
Now search away! Search away! Nonsense is a thing of the past!”

As fast as pa could he got ma from her tea,
They’re going together to face off with Caffeine.
So over to the PC they once again went,
With knots in their stomach, and most of their energy spent.

And then, without warning, IE just shut down,
They looked at each other and said not a sound.
Double click on the Mozilla icon, it had to be done,
For them to see tonight if they’re still #1.

It went to their home page, their business of course,
Of which they were the only labor force.
They got here quickly, as many others before,
But with Caffeine now live, would it ever happen any more?

Google.com went into the address bar,
As they made one final wish on a bright, twinkling star.
Into the search box was typed their major keyword,
Wishing that good things was what they were headed towards.

Pa clicked on ‘Search’ as he had done many times in the past,
They hoped that their site, would be looked on as one of the fast
What will happen right now, we’re not quite sure,
But come back in a few months and we’ll know a lot more.

These results will be displayed similar to how “News” has been populating into the search results. The difference is that it looks to be longer and with scrolling capability for more current results. There’s also an added function for drilling down into the data by time or date range. Real-time results do not appear to be taking the spots of natural listings in the Top 10… if anything, the results are pushed a little bit further down on the page.

“Google isn’t the first to initiate real-time search, but it is likely to make it mainstream.”

The implications of this new addition are a little too early to see clearly, but I think it will eventually change how we use search and therefore how we strategize for SEO. Google isn’t the first to initiate real-time search, but it is likely to make it mainstream. People are going to be taking crash courses and learning very quickly just how important the “now” information can be. Likewise, businesses are going to quickly see that having “active” social media profiles are not just good ideas… but necessary components of their search strategy. Businesses will also become mindful of the language used and will need to include search phrases (as it pertains) within their social profiles. I’m sure there will be some gaming attempts of the real-time results, but Google’s pretty quick at catching on - they’ll likely start to blacklist profiles from inclusion… so be careful not to overdo it and be mindful of your audience – they’re not dumb.

When looking at social media, the conversion rates thus far have been pretty miniscule (and over-hyped) when compared against traditional search conversions, but I think these conversions will change too, and should shoot way up with the new integration.

“…Real-Time Search will… [lead to] …an increase in bookmarking and back linking…”

Kind of a random thought, but I think one of the side effects of this new Real-Time Search will be an increase in bookmarking and back linking to the included sites and pages. With a traditional search, you could generally find the same page again simply by replicating the search (the Lazyman’s bookmark). With real-time resources… that information could be long buried. Searchers will be more likely to record these important time/date sensitive information somewhere… So another important feature that’s now even more necessary – having bookmarking scripts included on all of your web pages.

It’s pretty exciting stuff happening, and I think SEO as a whole be very busy in 2010!