One of the questions I get asked a lot is; “Why isn’t my website getting traffic?” When I tell them that I have no idea it takes them back a little because I am supposed to be an expert in the online traffic world. But just like real traffic, there are numerous things that can happen out there on the road that can slow, stall or bring traffic to a stand still and it’s the same with a website.

That’s why having someone conduct an audit when you have no idea what is happening is extremely important. It’s also much better for a real “live” person to do it so they can “see” what’s happening on the page; navigation, content, etc. I say this because there are companies that charge a fee to do an audit and all they do is run your website through a program to find keywords, density, links, etc. While all this is good stuff to know, I have yet to find a program that can help you with navigation, content, structure and strategy. That’s not to say that it won’t happen someday; but it has not happened yet.

Just last week I sat with a client that had no idea that the bots sent to the website couldn’t get past the front page. Everything past the home page was not being seen by the search engines. All of the page rank and page strength (a.k.a. juice) was coming from links that were going to the individual pages, which was good. However, they were not indexing the entire website because they couldn’t get in through the home page even though by looking at the home page one would “think” they were getting in because the visitor could.

This is just one of the things that could really impact a website and if you don’t have people looking at it that can connect the dots then you could spend a lot of unnecessary money to find the answer and correct the problem. Getting a website audit is well worth the cost to get your site working for you and your business.

The one thing everyone can agree on when it comes to Google is that it is always in flux. It is this constant motion that both confounds some and challenges others. You might fool yourself into thinking you have tamed the monster for a little while but in time it will roar back in full form. This makes dealing with Google a very difficult thing especially when you have a million other things on your plate to get done in your business.

It’s no different here at Harkins Creative except for the fact that we HAVE to stay on top of the changes in Google for our clients as well as ourselves. It is a part of our business and we spend time and resources making sure we find out as much as possible about what Google is doing. The reason we pay so much attention to Google is simple; they control more search traffic than the other search engines combined! When someone else comes along and knocks Google off that mark, and that could theoretically happen one day, then we will start watching the new king of search. Until then we will all have to learn how to “dance” with Google and try to follow its lead; like it or not.

I’ve been studying up on keywords lately. I used to be fairly haphazard about what keywords or key phrases I used in blog posts and pages. I didn’t really understand how search engines used these words to help people find my content. When you think about it, you can write the greatest prose since Shakespeare, but if no one finds it, it’s not really that useful.

When search engine spiders crawl your site, these keywords and key phrases help them decide the relevance of your site. So, if you want people to read your great article about your favorite restaurant in Montreal, Canada, then you want to be very specific with your keywords. What part of town is it in? What type of cuisine do they serve? Are there other identifying characteristics about that restaurant? Answering these questions will help you know what keywords to use.

While there are several aspects to good SEO, mastering the keyword and key phrase concept is a solid first step. You’ll have your website seen by the web browsing masses in no time!

In about an hour I will be joining my friend and colleague Taylor Hill to give an informal talk to members of my local merchant’s association about Social Networking and SEO, and how each can be used to grow a business.  I am looking forward to it!

For those who would like to follow along with the notes (there won’t be any slideshow for this one) you can download the PDF here.

In economic down times, businesses have more and more to do to generate the same levels of revenue, with fewer and fewer resources allocated to those tasks. It’s no secret that marketing activities are usually one of the last areas to be affected, because marketing is (correctly) viewed as the one activity that can still have a bottom-line impact.

But not just any run-of-the-mill marketing activities. After all, marketing dollars have to be stretched too. The holy grail of recession marketing is figuring out how to separate the most expensive, least profitable prospects from the prospects who are eager and willing to do business today, perhaps even at a premium. So how does this happen?

Stand up and be the expert in your market.

It is generally accepted that recognized experts make more than others for the same basic work. It is also generally true that experts stay busier, with fewer recession-related dips in business.  With such compelling reasons to demonstrate your expertise, what steps can you take today to begin doing just that?  Here’s our list:

1. Start Podcasting. A simple, sustainable, 5-minute podcast production every week with one central point that touches on your area of expertise; that seminal item that you get paid to know or do for your clients. Use the podcast as a teaser to demonstrate the many solid reasons your prospects should be calling you today.
2. Release regular Video Tutorials that address the most painful problems your prospects face. If done artfully, the unspoken conclusion of these short, pointed video productions is that you are capable of providing the solution they desperately need.
3. Create a Blog. If you do either or both of the items above, then you will be using a blog to do it, anyway.  A blog post twice a week builds a record of authority, both for human visitors and (perhaps even more importantly) for Google.
4. Get your best customers to go on the record by testifying to the value of your expertise. A written testimonial, or better yet, a video testimonial can be a compelling badge of expertise.
5. Begin Publicly Speaking. Anywhere. Anytime. In front of any audience with your market’s focus. This is a long-play strategy, however.  If you signed up today to speak for a group, it might be 5-6 months before the actual engagement.

Expertise is currency. And those that can demonstrate it to their market stand to reap rewards far greater than money alone.

It’s rare to find a brand willing to give away good information, especially when that information might even cut into sales. But that’s just what our client has done, and we think it’s brilliant!

There is an eCommerce client of ours that sells Greenhouses, Sheds, Garden Decor and more. It’s a new site, and it is already picking up a fair amount of traffic and high search engine rankings on big, competitive keywords.

Recently we discussed using viral video to attract people to the site, with good, solid, FREE information that its customers would find useful. Much thought was put into what these videos should contain, and it was soon decided that the first video would be a step-by-step how-to video for building a composter out of an old trash can.

Here’s the catch. The site also sells composters of various sizes and shapes. So the question was, would the video, intended to show an alternative way of getting into composting, siphon off sales of composters on the site?

The answer is a resounding “NO”. Studies have shown that those looking for DIY projects aren’t typically interested in buying off-the-shelf solutions, and vice-versa. But as a way to introduce people to a site full of other related products, the strategy presents some real opportunities.

Web videos are one of the top linked-to items on the web. Beyond providing good information to customers, the page on which the videos reside has become a strongly linked page, which boosts overall site strength.

How does video help with SERPs when Google can’t digest the content? Here’s one answer. We know that Google is getting better at understanding how much time someone spends on a page. Bounce rates factor into Google’s value assessment of page relevance. So video can help keep a person on a site for longer, which in turn communicates a higher value message to Google, thus increasing SERPs for page content. We have been testing this strategy, and we are seeing it work.

From PubCon this week, there have been some interesting speculations about the future ranking of sites that do not contain any video. Bruce Clay predicts the rapid shift toward heavily favoring sites that employ video and other Engagement Object Level tools during the first quarter of 2009. All the more reason, during challenging economic times, to make sure you aren’t finding your site becoming irrelevant to Googlebot.