» tips from the trenches

I want to pay thousands for everything except content

jawinn — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:03:29 +0000

This is something that has always both frustrated and baffled me. I see companies all the time that are willing spend big bucks to have their online corporate identity overhauled; including logos, web template designs, content management solutions, etc. Yet these same companies cringe at spending money on having a professional copywriter do their site’s content.

Copy is as important as the other two parts to a site (design and code). It delivers the message to the potential client and it optimizes your site for the search engines. People don’t understand how valuable solid copy is with regards to search. Natural search (results displayed on the left of a search results page) are FREE ADVERTISING. That’s right, you pay nothing for that. There are obviously many more factors that go into search results (which I will talk about in another article) but content is a major one.

What ends up happening time and time again is that the site is designed, partially coded and then we (the coder, designer, and the client) wait for weeks or months for the client to get the copy to us. This grinds the entire project to a halt.

There are basically two options in my experience. One, have all copy written before you start redesigning and programming a new site. Two, hire some one like my friends at www.homerowed.com to do your site’s copy.

To sum up just understand that content is just as important as the design and programming. If you don’t have content written for your new site, either write it ahead of time or budget for and hire a professional.

Google’s Getting Cheaper, Jump In!

jawinn — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:00:44 +0000

According to reports in CNN and Time, the cost to advertise on Google’s Adwords program is down by 20% this year. This is clearly due to the down economy as companies slash costs across the board.

This means two things for companies either currently advertising on Google or thinking about advertising on Google. First if you are currently using Google you can almost certainly review your keyword bids. You may be paying more than you need to to keep your ad rank. Second, if you are planning on starting an advertising campaign you may be able to lower your overall budget or use the same budget and buy more traffic to your site. Either way if you are savvy your company can profit from others spending less in online advertising.

Some Facts About SEO

jawinn — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:19:52 +0000

1.    Google changes their search algorithm about every 3 months. There are countless sites that had an SEO strategy, were doing well in search, and saw their search traffic plummet after the Google update.
2.    Over 60% of the world’s search goes through Google.com. Playing by their rules is key to succeeding online.
3.    Google’s algorithm for search (how they determine a site’s ranking order in search queries) is probably one of the most valuable trade secrets on Earth. They put different weight on different factors. There is no way to know exactly how these factors work together. To know them absolutely would be to dominate the Internet for any niche.
4.    Links from .gov and .edu sites are GOLD. Google gives a huge advantage to these links since they see .edu and .gov sites as having a higher integrity with regards to whom they link to.

Turkey Day and “Thank You” Gifts

jawinn — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:56:20 +0000

If anyone at all is reading this then you have truely found this post by accident. =) I just had a thought about a comment that was made at one of my usual networking groups a few weeks ago. The person, Barbara LaRock, noted that one should send out your corporate gifts on or around Thanksgiving. The logic being that your gift will stand out and not get lost in the crowd of all the other gifts that business owners send and receive around Xmas time.