Building an Online Presence Alameda County SBDC Technology Series

Transcription

1 Building an Online Presence Alameda County SBDC Technology Series Seminar 3: Search Engine and Website Optimization

2 Building an Online Presence Alameda County SBDC Technology Series 8 week program highlighting the latest online techniques for growing your business. Subject Date/Time Location 1 Start with your Website & Blog Guest Speaker: Wix Wed. 8/28, 6-8pm HUB Oakland 2 Increase Brand Awareness Guest Speaker: Visit Oakland Thur. 9/12, 10-12pm Oakland City Hall, RM 4 3 Search Engine & Website Optimization Guest Speaker: Wix / Thur. 9/26, 6-8pm HUB Oakland 4 LinkedIn to Grow your Business Guest Speaker: SF Business Times / Linkedin Thur. 10/10, 10-12pm Oakland City Hall, RM 4 5 Facebook for Customer Engagement Thur. 10/24, 6-8pm HUB Oakland 6 Yelp to Manage your Reputation Guest Speaker: Yelp 7 YouTube Videos Change Everything Guest Speaker: Patrick Schwerdtfeger Thur. 11/7, 10-12pm Oakland City Hall, RM 4 Thur. 11/21, 10-12pm Oakland City Hall, RM 4 8 Designing Customer Loyalty Programs Guest Speaker: Constant Contact Thur. 12/5, 6-8pm HUB Oakland 2

3 Our Series Speaker David Mitroff, Ph.D. Founder, Chief Consultant Piedmont Avenue Consulting fb.com/piedmontave twitter.com/davidmitroff linkedin.com/in/davidmitroff Upcoming Events

4 What we will cover Overall Online Presence Strategy Website basics SEO / CRO Google Search Engaging Visitors (Fresh Content) Resources / Action Items

5 MARKETING HAS CHANGED traditional traditional marketing marketing find convert engagement marketing FIND MORE find convert keep flip the funnel: retention is the new acquisition -- Joe Jaffe keep

6 Goals of Marketing Communicate with your customers to: Create Brand Awareness Strengthen Customer Loyalty Generate New Opportunities

7 9 Key Areas of Social Media 1. Website & Blog 2. Online Directories 3. Review Sites 4. Social Networks 5. Micro Blogging 6. Rich Media 7. Mobile Apps 8. Industry Specific 9. Event Promotion

8 1Website & Blog Google Ranking, Alexa Page Ranking, SEO/CRO, Blogger, TypePad, Wordpress Control the content. A chance to tell your story. Define a clear message. What do you offer? Create a medium for contact. Invite feedback, questions Provide links to other pages. Share your FB, Twitter Update your content. Consistency in theme and info.

9 Website The Hub Of Your Online Strategy Most important area Definition of you and your message Central hub with links to other sites You control it

10 Call to Action: Make An Offer discounts downloads B2B services hints + tips event invites support a cause

11 Measuring Your Online Presence To begin, look at: What is being said about you? Are you seen as an expert? How well are you engaging with existing experts? How are you reaching specific customers?

12 Theme Does the theme of the website continue throughout each page? i.e. each tab/ page appears to belong to the recurring theme of the site. Overall Look, clean, concise, themed throughout each page Updated

13 Brand & Purpose of The Site When on the Homepage What do you want me to do? Purpose Message clearly written Provide background Products and Services clearly defined What are we about

14 Calls to Action What are your next steps, requests, actions Are services/products labeled and promoted properly?

15 SEO / CRO Search Engine Optimization / Conversion Rate Optimization Helps drive traffic to your site Off-page SEO (work that takes place separate from your website) On-page SEO (website changes to increase rank)

16 Domain Name Easy to access site Name/message should be in the domain Brand identifiable on home/landing page Is the domain/web address clearly branded and easily identifiable? - Is it independent from a website/blog support or production site?

17 Rich Media Videos / Pictures How are the graphics of the page? Images, fonts, layout, etc. Media Photos, videos On website, event sites, Linkedin, YouTube, Flickr Quality of photos and videos

18 Stay Current = SEO How often is the website updated/monitored? Is it relevant?

19 2Online Directories Google Local/Maps, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages, CitySearch, Chambers Search yourself. The power of Google! Look for similar businesses. If you re not listed, someone else is! Display correct contact info. Location, phone #, hours, directions MUST be correct. Take a photo. If they know what to look for, they ll find it.

20 GOOGLE GET YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE

21 GOOGLE SEARCH

22 GOOGLE ADWORDS

23 GOOGLE AND YOUR SITE: KEYWORDS, TITLE TAGS, ETC.

24 Popular Tools Used To Monitor, Manage, and for Content ideas Popular time management and monitoring tools include: Google Alerts HootSuite TweetDeck RSS NutshellMail

25 What Should I Monitor? 1. Your Brand. Think about all its possible spellings/configurations. For example: Far and Away Bicycles, Far&Away, Bicycles, Bikes, etc. 2. Your competitors. Spot successful tactics being used by others in your industry (and the not-so-successful) For example: Does the pizzeria down the street tweet daily? Do the other consultants in your area of expertise have LinkedIn profiles? 3. Categories, topics, and keywords of your business. For example: Pets, Dog Day Care, Cat, Dog, Pet-sitting, Animals, Rescue, etc. 4. The experts and influencers in your business.

26 MONITORING - BIG DATA

27 GOOGLE ANALYTICS

28 MONITORING NUTSHELLMAIL Track your Page Insights Sign up for a Free NutshellMail Account. Read Fan comments Reply from your Inbox

29 MONITORING SPROUTSOCIAL

30 SITES TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE HealthGrades.com is an online provider of quality and safety ratings on local Doctors, dentists and hospitals. More than 10 million user visits per month Over 900,000 physician profiles listed How managing a profile on HealthGrades.com can improve your business: Increase online visibility Provides vital information for potential customers to access Affiliate your business to others in the area that are similar

31 Medical Industry Example: Over 60 Sites!

32 Best of Sites

33 SF Bay Area A-List (SF.CityVoter.com) The San Francisco Bay Area A-List is an annual contest featuring more than 10,000 local businesses. Local consumers vote to win awards for their favorite businesses. Why You Should Be Listed: Free to be listed on the site Brand Awareness People nominate you for different awards - winning votes means winning new customers Engage your loyal customers who vote for you with 'Voter Deals' The 'Business Center' on their website offers free tools for all businesses to use on their site Consumers trust other consumers Social Media 33

34 Example: Green Business Program Value to Community Network of Partners Special Events Marketing Materials Social Media 34

35 What Should I Do Now? Start listening to your passionate customers Learn more about using marketing and social media together Get simple! Today Sign up for SBDC services Create a website and/or update your website to include: - Clear call to action - Integrate social media - Blog or promote events - newsletter sign up Next 30 days Make adjustments to your website (test and see what works) Work on increasing your business awareness on Social Media Request a Social Media Report Next 60 days Develop a more comprehensive marketing plan based on your initial tracking and experiments in social media. Attend another SBDC workshop.

36 Need a Speaker for your next Event? David Mitroff, Ph.D. Founder, Chief Consultant Piedmont Avenue Consulting David@PiedmontAve.com fb.com/piedmontave twitter.com/davidmitroff linkedin.com/in/davidmitroff Upcoming Events

37 Website Checklist q Is the domain/web address clearly branded and easily identifiable? q Is it independent from a website/blog support or production site? q Is the brand/purpose of the site readily seen on the home/landing page? q Does the site include information about the business such as purpose, story, background or 'what we're about? q Does the homepage contain links to other sites/pages/accounts such as Facebook, Twitter or other affiliate groups? q Are there clear icons/links? buttons for such sites? q Is contact information available such as /phone/address? q (CALL TO ACTION) Are services/products labeled and promoted properly? q Is there a medium to interact with clients such as an signup? q Does the theme of the website continue throughout each page? q How are the graphics of the page? Images, fonts, layout, etc. q How often is the website updated/monitored? Is it relevant?