1. Keep everything above the fold as much as possible. Unless someone really wants to – they will not read the paragraphs of information. Also, keep all information about one product on the same page if possible. Limit scrolling.

2. If information is tabbed, an end user generally will see all the different tabs of information.

3. If you have specs and technical information – make sure to have it all on your site. Also, make sure the technical specs are easy to print off. Many of the engineers will print specs to compare products across multiple vendors.

4. Have your telephone handy. Any age engineer will pick up the phone and call when needed.

5. Have your address visible. Your footer is a great spot for this. If someone needs next day shipping from the Midwest  they are not calling a company on the East Coast!

6. CAD FILES, CAD FILES, CAD FILES. If you have these, get them up on your website. A few engineers said they won’t work with a company if they can’t get their CAD Files. (On a side note, make sure your CAD program is compatible. There are a lot of companies out there with outdated software. In the 5 tests that we ran, on one of the websites the CAD integration looked great, but the interface didn’t work for 4 of the end users because an updated Flash version was needed.)

7. Your top navigation bar is important. This will be the first thing an engineer will look for and will most likely use this to navigate your website. Make sure your navigation is well organized and mean something to the end user. Categorizing products by brand names or series isn’t helpful. If possible, keep your categorization of products by functionality or type.

8. Overview pages or comparing products is important. An engineer wants to know what the difference is between a G10 and a G30 for example.

9. Noise: company information on the homepage, giveaways, miscellaneous information that doesn’t get them the information they are looking for. It’s good to have the company news and the date of your next Lunch & Learn, but don’t let it be the focus of your home page!

10. Product Pictures. Put pictures up on your website. These help jog memories if they have used your part before and also ensure that they found the product that they had in mind.

It was interesting as we were running the tests a few comments were made – obviously you can’t take these as a guarantee for everyone – but they are worth noting:

1. If McMaster Carr doesn’t have the product or Grainger, then I will go to Google to search.

2. I never go past the first page of Google, unless there are no companies in the first page of results.

3. If I can’t find the information I am looking for, I’m going to call the company to make them suffer through their website!

4. I’ll call a sales representative to determine whether or not I want to work with this company.

5. I want everything digital and want to communicate via email.

6. If I find the product I want, I want to check out immediately and pay with a credit card. Kind of like Amazon. I don’t want to work with a rep.

It was amazing how many of the engineers had a one track mind. Once they found the product they were looking for, they wanted to interact with the company in some way and move on. If it was someone doing the spec’ing or purchasing, they were more willing to spend more time on the website. If it was a govern’t employee of some sort, they just cared about the price.

If you are looking to get some fresh ideas on your website or to take it to the next level, a user test might be something worth considering! It’ll open your eyes to new content ideas, ways of organizing information and give you an idea of how certain areas of your website really work!

Along with all the fun spring activities, I’m sure the echo of your wife or mom’s voice is ringing in your ears…It’s time for spring cleaning! And to add to the echo, I’m going to say it too! It’s time for spring cleaning!! Let’s dust the cobwebs off of your website and make sure you have the top 5 industrial requirements.

If you are looking to do a website redesign or just review your website to freshen up a few areas, here are the top 5 things you should have on your site:

1. Your Telephone Number – have a phone number handy in your top header. Depending on your target audience, the length of time spent on your site, or if you are the 3rd website they looked at that is selling Widget A – a visitor will want to pick up the phone and talk to a person. The time may vary before a customer will call, but it can be immediately or after a few minutes on the website.

   If you are a manufacturer selling through a distributor or sales rep, have your number handy and also easy access for your visitor to find who they should be reaching.  A bold Locate a Dealer button always comes in handy!

2. Company Information – About Us Page, Company Video, Photos of Employees or Operations, contact info. This information will help build credibility and help distinguish you from a competitor. As someone may pick up the phone and call to get a feel for a company, viewing photos, videos or information can also help seal the deal.
3. Certification Information – ISO Certs, etc. If you are ISO certified or have other certifications that matter to your target audience and their industries, make sure you brag about it! You put a lot of effort in to become a certified company, let it do some work for you too! Depending on the market, like medical, certifications are important, so again this can be a selling point in your favor.
4. Contact Us Form, Request for Quote, Ecommerce, Access to Sales Reps/Distributors/Dealers. Your website should be an extension of your sales team make sure that there are conversion points on your website that will help generate conversations between you and your visitors. A contact us for, request for quote or purchase of a product at a part number are important. Let your website help your business grow!! Also, if you sell through distribution, make sure you have quick access to this info so your customers don’t have to dig for it!
5. A reason to bring visitors back – content, video, blog, etc. Is your website resourceful in your marketplace? If you only work with a customer once a year, is there a different way to keep them engaged with you as a company? Come your yearly visit you don’t want them picking a different vendor. Your website should be a place that entices an end user to come back to on a regular basis. Do you have whitepapers, blogs, videos, a newsletter? Do you have any tools that an engineer would use on a regular basis? Think of the things your target audience might use and make them a part of your website. Become that resource!

Alright, now that you have the list, visit your website and make sure your site isn’t too dirty that even you can’t find a number to call!

Look at the website with a fresh set of eyes and if things are looking good, maybe its time to employ an industrial marketing expert from Ecreativeworks to help drive more traffic and conversions! It’s always nice to have fresh perspective on your website and your analytics!

Happy Spring Cleaning!

1) Keep an easily-accessible list of ideas. Be it a notebook in your top desk drawer, a file on your computer, or any other easy-for-you-to-access-and-use medium, use it use it use it. Write down every potential blog idea that passes through your mind.

Do it right away, too. No matter how sure you are that you’ll remember your fantastic blog idea later when you’ve got time to work on it, you’re better off writing it down. There are few things worse (in the realm of writing) than forgetting a great idea.

2) Proofread everything you write. Spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and the like can make you seem like a dope in the eyes of your readers, no matter how well-informed you may be on the subject (and since you’re ostensibly writing about your business, or something pertaining to it, you’re probably pretty darn well-informed).

Don’t just count on your writing program’s spellchecker to catch your errors, because many writing mistakes aren’t spelling problems. Check your work yourself for proper grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc.

a) That said, it’s best not to try to edit/proofread as you write. Finish your blog post, then go back and fix any mistakes you may have made. Trying to edit as you write is a surefire way to kill your productivity and any writing rhythm you may get into. (Getting into a good rhythm as you write is surprisingly important.)

3) Have A Set Time to Write. Be it daily, weekly, or whatever fits your schedule, set a specific, regularly-scheduled time to write, and don’t do anything else during that time. You don’t have to crank out ten pages in an hour, but at least write something.

a) Don’t “force it” if you’re not feeling particularly inspired that day, but don’t tap out, either. If you’ve set aside an hour, use that whole hour. Even if you don’t end up with anything that seems “usable” at the time, you may come back to it in the future and find that it’s a good stepping-off point for other writing.

i) In that vein, keep everything that you write. It may be just one paragraph of rambling right now, but it could spark a great idea later.

4) A Great Title Can Go A Long Way. However…

5) A Great Title Is Not A Substitute for Good Writing. It’s far better to have a well-written, informative blog post with a boring title than a poorly-written, boring article with the greatest title of all time.

Let’s look at an example. If you’re a user searching for “pneumatic valves’ you might click on a listing that brings you to the home page for a company that sells exactly what you want – pneumatic valves. That’s great, right?

Well, sure. But the real question to ask is, “Is that the BEST experience for the person searching for my product?”  If the company offers valves, manifolds, fittings, custom systems, an email newsletter signup, links to company news, and more on the home page, is that really a good experience for that searcher?

Wouldn’t it be better to land those searching for “pneumatic valves” on a page that had nothing but pneumatic valves?

The most successful SEO strategies don’t deal solely with getting your keyword to rank. They also focus on making sure the right page for that keyword is the one that ranks. However, when we get that “right” page to rank for a keyword, we sometimes see falling pages per visit and time on site.

If the searcher is brought to the page about “Pneumatic Valves” instead of the home page – you’ve already decreased pages per visit by 1 for that keyword.  And, because you brought them to right to the valves, they spend less time on the home page (and the site) trying to figure out where to go and what to do next.

Time on site and pages per visit are great metrics, but it’s important to understand that if they decrease, it doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong. Sometimes, it can even be a good sign.

If you are an internet marketer or trying to get better results for your website through search engine optimization, I’m sure you have a love / hate relationship with Google. Google and the changes they have made in the last 5 years have kept me up at night. In 2010, Google made 500 changes to their search algorithm. If I did my math right, Google is changing their method of displaying results organically every 18 hours. I love Google for the business it brings our customers, for the business it brings us, and I use it myself for everything.  Especially now that I use Chrome – the address bar is my Google search, so I just type something right in and away we go on a Google search. I’m beginning to hate Google at times for what it’s taking away for organic search or the direction is it going with some of their algorithms. In the last 10 months, Google has made a TON of changes and now gives me weekly nightmares!

Dreaming about Google and work probably is a sign that I’m obsessed. Sometimes I solve problems in my sleep that actually are legit solutions and other times I have dreams that leave me shaking in my sheets. I love the challenge, I am obsessed, but I’m also a firm believer in what the internet can do for a company and I want you on board and buying into the strategies.

In the spirit of Halloween, haunted houses, and crazy corn mazes – I thought I’d share some of the major changes Google has made in the last couple of quarters so you can have nightmares about Google tonight!

A couple good resources / references for additional reading and further explanation and Halloween humor:

-       Search Engine Land (Full details on algorithm updates came from here.  Thank you!)

-       Google Algorithm Humor

-       10 Spooky SEM Surprises

Google has 2 different types of “Actions”.

• Manual – Someone at Google has reviewed your site and “decided to issue a penalty against it.” ie.) Google penalty against JC Penney. You will get notices in Google Webmaster Central if you have this set up for your website.
• Algorithmic Actions – Google’s automated algorithm that affects ranking, this would include changes or filters to Google’s list of 200+ signals. Some of their “big” changes or filters have caused havoc in the search engine optimization world.

Some of algorithmic actions are:

- Invasion of the Google Panda – (Feb 2011 & Rolled out 20 time since then). Designed to fight sites with poor quality content. Panda (image credit)

- Elimination of the Top Heavy – (Jan 2012, October) It’s no longer your advantage to be top heavy. This filter prevents sites with “top heavy ads” from ranking well.  Top Heavy

- Attack of the Penguin – (April 2012, 3 Updates) The Penguin updates was designed to get rid of web spam, by hitting sites that were buying links to boost rankings for their website. Penguin

- Robbed by Thieves. (August 2012) This hasn’t affected too many people in the industrial marketplace, but might be something worth looking further into. This penalty has to do with copyright complaints. Pirate

- Clone Killer. (September 2012) Designed to hit sites that were getting artificial rankings for exact match domains or keyword domains. EMD

A couple other major changes online that has affected some people in the industrial marketplace.

-       Google Shopping going to all paid – Free Shopping Listings Disappearing

-       What is displayed above the fold on Google, organic results pushed way down.

-       Google Analytics data shifting from people logged into Google Account, using Safari on a Tablet, etc.

-       Competing with the big guys. Amazon getting 30% of searches for people wanting to buy.  Checkout the industrial section of Amazon.

-       Lack of visitors or qualified traffic from vertical search engines or directories.

-       Attention span of end users or the type of information they are now expecting.

-       Changes with social media and the latest requirements of Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

A blog is a great place to add content, case studies, informal examples of work, research or company news and updates. It is also a great marketing tool to use for social, newsletter content or to get your customer feedback.

There are a three distinct ways you can set up your blog – each have a different strategy and benefit:

1. Set the blog up on WordPress or Blogspot. http://ziptieguy.wordpress.com

• a. Pros: You can quickly get a blog up and running with little time or resources like a web developer. If each blog post is written well and has a link back to your main site then you may get traffic and backward links increased in Google.
• b. Cons: The content isn’t on your website. The blog may not be found on wordpress.com. You now have to build links to your main site and your WordPress site. May not build trust with your end user if they don’t know for sure that it is you.

2. Set up a blog on a separate url. www.industrialsearchenginemarketing.com (like this one, idea to build traffic and links back to our main website, www.ecreativeworks.com)

• a. Pros: This url could be a legit url that means something in your marketplace. It could become a credible source in the long run and share authoritative links back to your website. You potentially can have two domains with good visibility driving traffic and conversions.
• b. Cons: Content isn’t on your site. You will have to build links to both sites.

3. Blog on your main domain. www.ecreativeim.com/blog

• a. You are building the size of your website and generating content that will hopefully create a following. Once a visitor is on your blog, if set up right, they can easily get to your main website without too much work. Your traffic to your website will increase tremendously. When you are building links you have more content to link back to. With your social marketing efforts you are sending them right to your website.
• b. Cons: You have one less link resource.

Reach out if you need help with getting your blogging off the ground…www.ecreativeworks.com.

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While the changes are mostly superficial, they give the AdWords interface a much more modern feel, and make it much more appealing. As someone that works in the interface every day, I think the new look is a big step forward.

1. All that work we did with the keyword research, keyword mapping and navigation adjustments have led up to this point.
2. If  you want to be found for the keyword phrases that we chose as priorities, you will have to write them in the content of that page.
3. Be sure to follow the search engine “best practices” advice.  For example, keyword stuffing is bad.  Writing great compelling content for your end users is good.
4. On the same note as #3, I will continues to talk about how the better your content is for the end user, the better we will do in the search engine results.  The googlebots are pretty smart these days, so write for your end user first and they will reward you.
5. Make sure you are clearly communicating what you want your users to do next.  Does your content compel them to take another step?  Do you have a clear “call to action” on every page?
6. Remember that this is a 24 hour salesperson for your company, make sure you have all the answers that your customer would want (or at least a clear way for them to get any question answered).

Of course, this is not all the information that you would get in a meeting with me.  I know that writing content for your website is the last thing that you really want to do, but you will get out of it what you put into it.  If you find this process overwhelming, there are lots of talented copy writers out there (including the ones on our staff at Ecreativeworks) that can help you with this as well.  Happy writing!

Ecreative Works Place Page

Ecreative Works Google+Local Page

Managing Your Listings

For now Google says to continue to manage both your Places and Local+ listing through the Google Places admin. This may not be permanent, but in the meantime this is how you will be updating your listing. However, keep in mind that not all of the functionality of the old Places listings have carried over yet. For the time being you will not be able to use the post to places or add a video features. Although I expect that video functionality will return eventually.

Reviews

You will be able to transfer reviews from you old Places listing, but they will all be anonymous. You will also have the option to import your reviews the first time you write a review on another Google+ Local page. Google will then ask you what information you want to import from your Places listing, which includes photos as well as your reviews.

The biggest change to reviews is that now people will need a Google+ account to write a review about you. Before people were able to right anonymous reviews or use a nickname, but now everyone will be required to use their name.

The Addition of Zagat

Although Zagat ratings have traditionally been for restaurants, they are being rolled out across all businesses. Instead of receiving an aggregated score combined from three different scores like a restaurant, normal businesses will receive a single number which will be their score.

Claiming a Local+ Page

The process for claiming a Local+ page is the same as it was for claiming a Places page. You will have the option of either receiving a postcard or a phone call with a verification code that you use to claim the listing.

Verified Listing Issues

Right now Google is having issues with showing Local+ listings as claimed. Google has said they are working on resolving this problem.

Merging Google+ with Local

While it hasn’t happened yet, Google will be merging you Google+ business page with your Local+ listing. We don’t know what form this integration will take, but it will be important to watch out for in the future.

Recommendations

My first recommendation is to set up a Google+ business page if you haven’t already. Although we don’t know what kind of integration will happen between business and local pages, the fact that you need a Google+ page to write reviews makes it essential you have a presence. Secondly, make sure all of your information transferred correctly. While most listing I have taken a look at appear to have made the transition correctly, there have been reports of recently updated information relating to the name, address, or phone number not updating to the Local+ listing.

The important thing with all these changes is to make sure your information makes the transition and everything is correct. If you would like more information Google has provided some information to help lessen the confusion around these changes here.