Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

I'm one of the millions of Canadians who uses a mobile device (two, in fact) to surf the Web. Twice this past week I was thwarted in my attempt to access a number of popular Websites because the sites weren't designed to allow mobile surfers, like myself, in.

I have two observations to make regarding this:

1. Companies that continue to ignore (shut out) mobile surfers are going to start noticing that they are losing customers and, even worse, irreparably damaging their brands. As more and more people start to use mobile devices to access the Web, they are going to flock to the Websites of the companies that welcome them and their wireless brethren and avoid those that don't. Even when mobile surfers are forced to surf through a 'wired' device (e.g., a desktop computer), which Websites (and brands) do you think are going to be top-of-mind to them? Certainly not the ones that spurned them in the mobile environment.
2. It's not as difficult as you might think to make a Website (or at least some of its key content) accessible to a mobile surfer. You don't even need to create a separate WAP Website. If you avoid the use of frames, JavaScript/Flash navigation, image maps, and tons of images, your main site will be more mobile-friendly. Sound familiar? Pat yourself on the back if you recognized that many of the same best practices that make a Website easily found by search engines also make a Website easily accessed by mobile users.

If you're planning on launching, or re-launching, a Website, make sure you remember to consider the mobile surfer in your plans. Their numbers are only going to increase over time.

Site Search Best Practices

We all know that anything to do with search is hot these days.

And now the smart companies are starting to take a closer look at the search engines on their own sites.

Whether you call this "site search" or "internal search" or 'who-knows-what' search, I predict this area is going to see a lot of excitement and evolution in the next few years.

I recently completed a fascinating site search consulting project for a large media company. Since they publish a number of magazines, they have a vast content archive and a vested interest in making it as easy as possible for Website visitors to be able to get to their content as efficiently as possible.

My company was hired to help the media company understand how to improve their site search. During the course of the project, my colleagues and I developed an unofficial list of what we started to refer to as "Site Search Best Practices." These best practices are independent of any one particular site search system (i.e., the technology solution) and will be of benefit to any company, large or small, that is implementing site search.

So, without much further ado, here are some of our Site Search Best Practices:

1. Make sure you are measuring usage and other key metrics related to site search so that you can keep track of the impact that any fine-tuning to the system makes. You can't manage what you can't measure.
2. Most site search systems allow the Website owner to configure the default search results layout a number of different ways. For instance, you usually have control over whether or not the results display the article's full URL, author's name, publication date, etc. Consider your particular target market and configure the search results layout in a way that is most relevant for them. If you don't know, ask them!
3. Include a highly visible link to 'search tips' content on every search results page, preferably adjacent to the search input text field, and make sure this content is written in plain English and kept up-to-date.
4. Automatically display 'search tips' content if the user's search does not generate any search results. Don't just strand them on a page that says, "No results found."
5. Follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices when creating new content/pages (and design templates) because a page that is well configured for an external search engine will also be well configured for an internal search engine.
6. If you are using a content management system (CMS), ensure that your internal content development team understands how to properly input and tag the content they are creating and why this is so important.
7. Synchronize your site search system's crawling/indexing schedule with your content publishing schedule, whether that be daily, weekly, or monthly. And make sure it stays in sync.
8. Configure the site search system to automatically notify representatives of your company's IT department AND content/publishing department in the event the system goes offline. Because it will, and you want to be the first to know.

Since the site search landscape is in a constant state of flux, I consider this list to be very much a 'work-in-progress.'

Eight Words that Rocked My World

Since I loathe shopping in the real world, I spend a lot of time shopping online.

Not too long ago I was on Henry's Website in the middle of purchasing some camera gear when I stumbled across a touch of pure e-commerce genius. Right below the section of the shopping cart where I could enter my credit card information was a simple but powerful eight-word sentence that rocked my world. Next to an optional checkbox was written...

"Please call me for my credit card information."

Let's face it, despite the fact that we Internet marketers know transacting online is way safer than transacting offline, there are still lots of people who are skittish about revealing their credit card information over the Internet.

Henry's ingenious answer to this is to give the scaredy cat shopper an alternative way to transact, rather than risk losing the sale. This is a brilliant way for Henry's to reduce their shopping cart abandonment rate and, perhaps, to give them an opportunity to up-sell or cross-sell a highly motivated buyer. (I don't know if they do this because I didn't ask them to "call me," tempting though it was.)

What I love about this tactic is that it's so simple and so perfectly positioned right at the precise moment in time that a prospective buyer might be having second thoughts about providing their credit card details. Cool and sexy tactics have their place, yet sometimes it's seemingly 'mundane' tactics like this one that can make all the difference in increasing e-commerce conversion rates.

Henry's, I salute you!

How to Avoid the Sleazy SEO Up-Sell

My ever-trustworthy Snake Oil Detector registered a big one last week after I was approached by an online retailer with questions about search engine optimization (SEO).

Turns out they'd recently launched their Website and were shopping around for some much needed SEO help. They had been speaking with another firm that purported to do SEO work, and they were a bit suspicious of what they heard. Turns out they had every right to be.

When I did a bit of digging, I uncovered one of the most egregious scams I've come across in a while.

The main business of the other SEO firm (hereinafter referred to as "Scamco") is designing Websites. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But here's what is.

The Websites Scamco builds aren't search engine friendly at all. In fact, they're great examples of what not to do if you want your Website to be found by search engines. But, and here's the kicker, for an extra $5,000 on top of your Website production budget, Scamco will 'optimize' your Website.

Now hang on a second here. If Scamco knows how to build search engine friendly Websites in the first place, which they should if they offer SEO services, why don't they just incorporate SEO best practices into the initial build of the Websites in the first place? (The answer, of course, is that this way they can hose their customers for more money.)

Which is precisely the way Scamco operates, I found out. When their unsuspecting customers, upon discovering that their Websites can't be found in search engines, turn to their Web developer for help 'correcting' this, Scamco is happy to help - for the aforementioned $5,000 fee.

Don't fall prey to the Scamcos of the world and their sleazy SEO up-sell. If you want your Website to be found by search engines, make SEO a priority component of the initial build of the Website, and insist that your Web development firm adhere to SEO best practices. In fact, make following SEO best practices a part of your initial selection criteria when choosing a Web development firm.

And if you suspect that your Web developer isn't familiar with SEO best practices (most aren't, in my experience), bring in a SEO consultant who is. He or she will straighten the Scamcos of the world out, and the bill will probably be way less than $5,000.

Wal-Mart Now Stocks Websites

Last week I popped into SAM'S CLUB Canada to see what they had in the way of bulk cat litter (don't ask). For those of you who may not be familiar with SAM'S CLUB, it's Wal-Mart's version of warehouse retailer Costco. The cat litter reconnaissance mission was a bust, however I did notice something intriguing as I headed for the exit. There, by the Customer Service desk, was a three-panel brochure with the headline "SAM'S CLUB Announces... Business Web Sites."

Intrigued, and somewhat fearfully, I grabbed one of the brochures. Sure enough, SAM'S CLUB has teamed up with Vista.com to offer its members a "professional web site at no cost for the first year." According to the brochure, "it's fast and easy... you create and manage your own site. Easy-to-edit templates and tools will get you started with no software to buy, and no special computer skills necessary."

I can't help but be impressed by what a good deal this must seem like to a business owner - who doesn't know any better. A free "up to 56 page" Website with all sorts of bells and whistles, designed (I use the term very loosely, based on the examples I saw in Vista's portfolio) and hosted for an entire year, with no extra fees charged to maintain it. Sure, your Website is clunky, generic, and template-driven, and looks like every other clunky, generic, and template-driven Website out there, but at least you've finally staked your claim in cyberspace.

Then it hits me. It doesn't matter whether a business owner spends a million dollars on their new Website or "activates" their SAM'S CLUB "complimentary business web site." Both Websites have one important thing in common: regardless of how much money was (or wasn't) spent building them, these sites have no traffic on the day they launch.

So go ahead, pour millions of dollars into building your Website, or get yourself a free Wal-Mart Website. Either way, if you want to get traffic, you're going to need a Website marketing plan. Which means you're going to need the help of an Internet marketing professional. And that's something that you can't get for free, even at Wal-Mart.