1.  If you are going to build something then you better have a plan on making it work right from the start, there is nothing worse than building something and having to tear it apart and start over again.

How I perceive this is that if I am going to be coaching a company on selecting their focus keyword phrases as a base for the SEO of this new project, we need to make sure we do it right.  We do not want to just pick phrases out of thin air, or use phrases that are used internally.  No, we need to do some extensive research on the terms that are being used on the search engines themselves.  Let’s make sure that the phrases we are using as a base for your website have a high search volume as well as a decent competition number.  Oh yeah, they need to make sense to the actual content that is going to be on the pages also.  The last thing you want is to build your site around a set of keyword phrase only to want to change them right after you launch your site.

2.  If you want it to perform better, then you need to build it better. Duh!

You would think this would be a natural thing that would enter everyone’s mind that is building any type of project.  Although, how many times have you had the conversation in your company that starts with we need to have a superior “X” and then in the next sentence comes:  but, do it with as little resources as possible?  What generally happens is that a great idea is often sidelined by the actual amount of effort that is put into the creation.  With a website, everyone wants to have the best, with as little effort as possible.  We need to make sure if we want a better website, we must do everything we can to build it better than our competitors, starting with using the keyword phrases that have the potential to bring in the most traffic.

3.  You will get out of it, what you put into it.

How true this one is, and obvious if you think about it.  Thanks dad for always pointing out the obvious to me.  This means that if you put extra effort, write more content, write better content and hand off work to “experts” when needed you will get a great site.  If you try to skimp on content, or just get by with minimal amount of effort, that is what you will get; a minimally effective website.

So like my dad always says:  “If you don’t want to do the work, don’t complain to me that you don’t end up with what you wanted.”

404 Page Not Found Errors happen any time a searcher clicks on a link for a page of your site that is no longer there. The page could have been removed, like when you discontinue a product.  Or, it may never have existed, like when you accidentally mistyped the URL in your email newsletter (oops) or is simply mistyped.

But why won’t they just go away?

• Google still has the page in its index. It can take search engines days or even months to update their index and remove that non-existent page. In the mean time, it’s still out there for people to click.
• Past marketing efforts, like emails, press releases or articles have a link to the non-existent page.
• People bookmarked the page because they wanted to come back to it later.
• Someone liked it so much they shared it through social media, and now their “friends” are clicking on the shared link.

So, how do you make lemonade out of these error lemons?

If there is a replacement or newer version of a discontinued product, or if you merely changed the URL, then you should 301-redirect the old URL to the new URL. Then, visitors will simply be taken to the new page.

If there isn’t a great replacement product, then allowing the 404, but maximizing the 404 page to be helpful to searchers is the best option.

Must Do’s:

• Customize your 404 page to include your website header, footer and navigation. That way, searchers won’t just get a plain old browser page that makes it look like your site doesn’t even exist.
• Make sure the message test is clear and offer to help in other ways. Whatever you do, don’t blame the visitor (or make them feel stupid) with text that says, “You’ve typed in a URL that doesn’t exist.”

Worth Trying (make sure to test):

• Consider adding a little humor and personality to your 404 pages. This is where knowing your audience comes in handy – it can be fun, but shouldn’t be off-putting. I know this can be challenging in the industrial sector, but why not do something that makes you stand out from the crowd?
• Add links to popular categories or products. Adding images with the links can help people visually decide what to click on.
• Add your phone number so it’s easy for people to call with questions. And, if you have a live chat feature, this is a great place for that too. Be as helpful as possible.
• Add another search box. Even if you have the search box in your header, try adding one in the content area so it’s even easier to find.

What I am getting at here is, I know that you are the best expert there is on selling xyz widget or manufacturing abc product.  But, do you really know how to market your business online, set up your website navigation, implement great SEO strategies, etc?   I am going to guess that this process would be best left to the experts.

Companies like Ecreativeworks,  pride themselves on being the experts in their industry (industrial website design).   Although, we also have experts within our own walls.  We have web designers who specialize in web design.  We have programmers and developers that each specialize in a different aspect of code building.  We have copywriters, who write a mean piece of copy for those sites.  We have SEO specialists who also are experts in different aspects (ecommerce, social marketing, video, blogs, the list goes on).  So you can see that we take our positions very seriously and want to help the industrial world make their mark on the internet the best we can.

Now “Let’s Build it Together.   If we can take your product knowledge/expertise and combine that with our website building knowledge we can have a great outcome.   You will be able to say that you have the best possible company working hard to build you a website that will function properly, gain visibility in the search engines and keep visitors on the site until they are ready to make a purchase, fill out a request for quote or contact us form.   Bottom line, you will have a site that converts well because you relied on the experts to take your industry expertise and apply it to the internet in a way that will be successful.

So, now that you know you need to hire a professional to redesign or build your website make sure you take one more step.  Talk at length with that company about what they plan to do for you.  Make sure it involves proper code building techniques for a great user experience, make sure they have great designers that will put your vision in great graphics, make sure they have SEO professionals that will work through your project from start to finish (not an afterthought), and finally make sure they have great project managers to see you through the steps of this exciting process.

Most will find that writing the Homepage, About Us page and the forms come very easily.  What they don’t expect is that writing about their different categories and products is not so fun.  It did sound like fun before starting but now…this is work!

Here I come in again, at this point we need to make sure that we are writing as if we are talking (selling) to a prospective customer face to face.  After all, many have decided to upgrade or redesign with the thought that this will be a sales tool or even a virtual salesperson.  So, we need to make sure that we are populating the content in the same manner than our original reason for doing this project was.

Now, after writing this content many times I need to go back again and ask for more content.  You see, content is still KING in the online world.  Search engines love it, viewers love it—so we need to do it.  I will not stop asking for more content from my clients, and will always ask for it ahead of time as well.  What we need to remember is the reason we started the web project in the first place.  Hopefully that reason is to increase your business and add dollars to your bottom line.

If you have real world salespeople you would train them on what to say and express how and what your product is and does, Right?  So why would you not want to get that into words on your website—this can be your best salesperson ever and you don’t have to pay them a commission!

My takeaway here is simple:  write, write, write until you have explained exactly what it is you or what your product can do for your customer.  If you need help then hire a good copywriter, you will be happy you did.

The next step in my beer (moonshine) making process is to wait for all of the ingredients to work properly with the yeast that was added.  Now with my website project I launched and then submitted my xml sitemap to the search engines (the yeast here).  Now we just need to wait a little while to see what will happen.  Are my ingredients working?  This is where it is a little easier to have a website project than a moonshine operation.  You can actually see the rankings and traffic rise each day if you put things together properly.  In my beer making I have to wait it out and hope for the best.

Next I would be bottling my beer which will include adding another ingredient to start the carbonation process—then wait again.  Your website will also need to have some more SEO tweaks done at this point, after a few months you should reevaluate your keywords, traffic and all the data you have.   You can then add some ingredients to make it perfect (although remember this is an ongoing process).

Now one big difference is that after just a month or so, I can enjoy my beer and then have to start over again.  Your site however is going to continue to ferment and get better & better every month if you have started with the right ingredients.  It will also continue to grow the more content you add.

When it comes to copywriting, you may need to write about a wide variety of subjects. If you’re like me, you find yourself covering a range of topics as broad as the day is long—hydronic heating systems, eldercare, agricultural touch screen keypads, and on and on.

This is where it becomes important to keep your audience in mind when considering your writing style and tone. It’s perfectly acceptable to adopt a cold, technical style when writing about the specifications of a hot water heater, but when you’re discussing the assisted living options for someone’s dear old grandpa, that same style will be a problem.* Similarly, the warm, friendly tone you used to describe the homey amenities of an assisted living center will seem strangely out of place when describing how a five-wire resistive touch screen works. You’ve got to adapt your writing style and tone to suit the project at hand.

If you find yourself struggling to adjust to different writing styles, practice, practice, practice! Like anything else, you’ll only get better at writing by doing it more. Not to sound like an English teacher, but writing exercises are immensely helpful.^†

If you have difficulty writing technical-type content, try typing out, from memory, as many of the exact, specific rules of your favorite card- or board game** as you can think of—imagine that you’re writing them for someone who’s never played before. It’s a lot harder than you’d think.

If you find a more casual writing style to be somewhat taxing—plenty of people can’t get out of technical-formal mode—try good, old-fashioned stream-of-consciousness writing for a while. Whatever comes into your head, comes out your pen onto the paper (or out your fingers onto the screen). This, too, is harder than it seems until you really get going.

Changing your writing style from project to project isn’t difficult. Doing it well isn’t easy. You need to keep your audience (the “end user”) in mind at all times. If you need it, practice. If you don’t, practice anyway. Your writing will only get better—your boss will be impressed by the massive improvement in your work, and you’ll get a huge raise and a company car. ^††

* No one wants Pop-pop to be looked after by robots.
^† Though yes, they do seem lame when thinking about them. Actually doing them is far more interesting.
** If you don’t have a favorite card game or board game… you’re a weirdo.
^†† Guaranteed!***
*** Not guaranteed at all. But you will be better at your job. Which is good.

 
You? Of course not!

This may just be the “English-major-spelling-and-grammar-Nazi” in me showing through, but there are many easily confused/misused words in our dumb language that I notice in writing all the time (billboards, business signs, newspapers, everything—as my wife says to me: “You copy edit life”). Here are just a few of the greatest—ungreatest?—hits:

#1) You’re and Your: This is one that’s actually pretty easy to fix, if you take the time to think about it while you’re writing. Since “you’re” is a contraction of “you are,” any time you’re unsure which to use in your writing, just replace the confounding word with “you are.” If it sounds weird, then it should be “your.” If not, “you’re” is correct.

#2) Their and There and They’re: This is a common problem for the same reason as #1—they all sound alike. But, this one doesn’t have as easy a fix. “Their” denotes ownership or possession by a person or group (I suppose you can think in a British cockney accent, and make the E and I be “he and I”—“’e and I, guvna”—to remember a group of people). “There” denotes a place—since it’s close to “here,” which is also a place, that may help. And “they’re” is another contraction—if using “they are” sounds correct in its place, then it’s correct.

#3) Should have and Should of: “Should have” is always correct, but because of the way it sounds when we talk, “should of” sometimes seems more accurate. I can’t really think of a helpful hint for this one, so just remember that it is always “should have.” Or “would have” or “could have.” Never “_____ of.”

Keep these handy hints in mind when writing blog posts for your company’s website. Again, your blogs don’t have to be anything big or fancy—no one’s expecting them to be. But, improper grammar can be a huge turn off for any reader, no matter how interesting or relevant your blog may be.

There are about a thousand more grammatical gaffes I could add to the list (like I said, I majored in English), but that would take far too long. Chances are you’d stop reading after number three anyway; lists like this get really boring, really fast. If only it dragons or something to make it more interesting.

 
Not that kind of dragons, dagnabbit!

Because you can give your site visitors and readers a quick, easy-to-read update on your business’ latest and greatest news, upcoming events, relevant topics, or whatever’s on your mind (though something somehow related to your business is usually best), it’s easy to keep people coming back. With so much of EVERYTHING available today (internet sites, TV channels, etc.), people tend to prefer short, to-the-point content. Update your blog as often as you can, but try to keep it interesting—no one wants to read something boring, even if it only takes them two minutes. The more new, interesting content you post, the more likely people are to keep coming back to read it. This will boost your page views, and will help your site as a whole (Google juice!).

Even if you feel like you’re not the creative, writery type who would keep a blog, do it anyway. It’s easy, and it doesn’t take that long. The more you do it, the easier it will get, and, again, the more content you add to your site, the more people will check in on a regular basis to see what’s new. For example:

• Does your company have a new product available (or even one that’s just in development or testing stages)? Blog about it!
• Is there a big industry conference your company will be taking part in? Blog about it (before, during and after)!
• Even something as minimal as a relevant photo and a good caption will sometimes suffice.

Heck, sometimes you can even write a blog about writing a blog and it will work out. A blog blog?

Black Hat SEO: This is the first SEO term that I found really intriguing, and is sort of the catalyst for this post. “Black Hat SEO” is, unfortunately, not related to “Black Tie SEO,” which is guys in tuxedos and top hats creating fancy, elegant, high-class search engine optimization, including special content for viewing through a monocle. No, Black Hat SEO is the use of unethical practices to create high page rankings. While a lot of what Black Hat SEOers do isn’t technically against the rules, per se, most of their techniques are frowned-upon^† and can give good SEO (White Hat SEO) a bad name, as well as getting the Black Hatted site blacklisted from search engines. Why I Like This Term: It’s fairly simple, and it really just boils down to the name. Black Hat SEO sounds exactly like what you’d expect—the bad guys doing bad things. It’s like the Dark Side of the Force, but without lightsabers.

Bot: “Bot” is short for “robot,” but can also be called a “crawler” or “spider.” In internet jargon, these are automated programs that search engines use to find and add websites/pages to their index. These are, in a way, the thing that SEO is trying to target so that your page will achieve a better rank in search. Most search engines have their own, customized bots to bring them results (Googlebot, for example). Why I Like This Term: The way I see it, computers are basically robots, although not exactly the most interesting ones. The internet is essentially a supergiant, non-existent robot that works with computers through technological magic^♠. Also, I love the practice of adding “-bot” onto the end of words to name an automaton after what it does (a robot that makes sandwiches: Sandwichbot. A robot that takes you places: Gobot. A robot that moves at a brisk canter like a horse: Trotbot. Etc, etc.)

Google Juice: This basically means the level of trust or authority your page has built up with Google. If your site is popular, has plenty of good content and solid backlinks, etc., you’ve got Google Juice. This is really what you’re trying to achieve with SEO. Though there are other search engines that you want to have juice with as well, I’ve never heard the term Bing Juice (at least not yet). Why I Like This Term: Mostly because it’s fun to say. Or sing in a loud falsetto while sitting at your desk, apropos of nothing.**

Those are just a few of the greatest hits, and are pretty broad simplifications.^†† There are plenty of weird words associated with SEO, like there are with almost anything.^♠♠ If anyone else out there is a word nerd like me, you can check out http://www.seoglossary.com/ for more SEO terms and definitions, and read more of the odds and bodkins that we use on a daily basis. It seems strange that, as part of an industry that relies so heavily on getting every last letter exactly right,*** SEO would use such bizarre terminology. Human language is truly a peculiar thing. ^†††

* I hope!
^† Like walking over the pitcher’s mound on the way back to first, A-Rod, you bum!
^♠ Non-existent, because can you actually go to the internet? No. It’s not really a real thing. Nothing on the internet is actually anywhere. It’s just a bunch of ones and zeroes. Magic, because is it’s easier than trying to explain how it actually works.
** Try it. Everyone in your office will love it.
^†† Like I said, it’s Friday.
^♠♠ Why the heck are three strikes in a row in bowling called a “turkey”?
*** Ever written computer code? Even one space in the wrong spot can cause huge problems.
^††† Lemur language, however, makes perfect sense.