Unlike Facebook, which by default only lets search engines find limited information, Google wants their Google+ pages to be found by search engines. To this end, Google+ pages are optimized to impact search results. Be sure when creating your Google+ page to fill in all the fields with consideration of the keywords you’d like to optimize for: every field is important and will be used to determine your profiles position in search rankings.

Let’s say, for example, that you have a Google+ page for your portfolio of freelance illustration work, and in your page you have provided links to your actual portfolio website. If somebody is following your profile, and puts in a Google search “freelance illustrator”, your actual portfolio website – not your Google+ page – has a chance of having its ranking increased.  If that same search is performed while not logged into Google+, you would see a noticeable decrease in ranking for your site. This clearly displays the power of the interconnectedness of the Google+ social platform and the Google search engine itself.

Aside from the ability of Google+ to boost your position in the SERP, the actual search results themselves are bolstered if they have been optimized for Google+. The ability to claim authorship for your articles by linking them to your Google+ page adds a nifty little avatar to the search result, resulting in more trust from your audience, and more valuable screen real estate being taken up by the search result. Look at this search for Toyota USA, and how much is taken up by just the first result, thanks to its integration with Google+:

Another factor making Google+ attractive is that a Google+ result on the Google SERP takes up far more screen real estate than a Facebook Page, for example. By integrating a “+1” button into your website (much like a “Tweet” or “Like” button), your Google+ activity actually shows up in search results. And because Google is both the social media platform and the search engine, far less SEO optimizing is needed for you to dominate search rankings with a Google+ page. This may seem like ‘cheating’ on Google’s part:  Facebook has for more users and far more authority in the social realm, but Google is able to boost the results of its own social platform above those sites which should naturally occur higher.

Keep an eye on the Gnu World Blog for more insights into the rapidly changing world of social media and how you can leverage its power for your business.

Although these ideas may seem plausible at first, the implications and amount of ongoing work that is involved is customarily not quite fully understood.

The motivation behind a community interaction or user-generated content is often incorrect and the cost of building and maintaining it cannot be justified.

Part of our role as a marketing, design and development company is to offer expert assistance to help our clients in making informed decisions when it comes to online marketing. Considering that projects have time constraints and limited budgets, items that have the most direct and effective results possible should receive the most devotion.

An example

Let’s look at a forum as an extreme example. In this case the client might mistakenly believe this is an easy way to “generate a buzz” about their product or service. In reality, someone who is willing to comment on an article is often not prepared to go through a registration process. An active forum requires constant moderation (often 24/7), costs a lot to set up and requires a large user base in order to function.

Similar objectives can be accomplished through simpler and cheaper alternative means such as professionally designed Facebook and Twitter pages.

A common goal

The budget for an effective web presence is divided into parts, all of which work together towards a common goal. A successful business website will receive appropriate traffic, establish a professional image and convert visitors into clients.

Design

A goal oriented, simple website design will establish a professional identity and employ an intuitive interface that allows visitors to quickly find what they are looking for.

Development

Websites require a solid back-end that is secure, scalable and easy to administer and update.

Marketing

An SEO and marketing campaign will drive qualified visitors to the website, resulting in leads and ultimately conversions.

A final note

More traffic does not automatically equate to more business. Unqualified visitors are like shoppers coming into a restaurant because they mistook it for a furniture store or to simply use the restroom.

Relatedly, a badly built website might be hard or impossible to optimize properly for search engines or could daunt potential clients through its poor usability, resulting in a high bounce rate.

Speak to the team here at Gnu World. We are here to help you plan your marketing strategy.

The way we access information online is rapidly evolving. Just as we are getting used to getting online on our mobile phones, we are now adapting to using things like iPads and other ‘tablet’ computers. Many of these new mobile browsing devices have awkward keyboards, if they even have one at all, leading some people to use voice-activated commands to operate them.

Besides operating our online devices in new ways, the way that search engines operate is also changing. Whereas search engines used to only display a list of links to answer your search query, they can now give answers directly to you on the results page.

Entering a search on Google for ‘Johannesburg weather’, for example, will show a weather forecast for Johannesburg on the results page, as well as showing the regular links to website results underneath. This shows us that search engines are learning to answer questions directly, and not just to analyze the words you’ve entered and bring up related websites.

Websites like Ask have been attempting this for years, but the technology is advancing to the level where the natural talking computers of science fiction may soon be reality. Google have announced that they are working on such a ‘Star Trek future’.

‘What’s the weather like in Jo’burg, Chips?’, you might ask your wrist device. “It is cold tonight Sir, only 10 degrees centigrade, but tomorrow should be hot and sunny.”

The Big Change is yet to Arrive

Even with this exciting new technology in the works, the ‘old’ way of searching is still very much alive. In 2011, in a survey conducted by pewinternet.org, it was found that 92% of adult internet users used search engines on a daily basis.

The change is yet to arrive, but we can expect to see search engines giving us much more than just indexed websites that are related to your search query.

People are still, for the most part, using search engines in a way that web marketers expect them to: by entering search queries and clicking through on the links they are provided with that seem to offer the most relevant information.

Keyword Based Searches: Still your Best Bet

So, while we may soon see a completely different way of searching in the near future, keyword searches are far from being extinct.

Furthermore understanding the keywords relevant to your business and the way that they interact with the online search market will continue to be critical to developing optimized marketing strategies.

For example, an awareness of what search terms are driving traffic to a website that sells sports apparel will allow a sitemaster to position frequently searched for products more prominently on the site, and to work towards further increasing the exposure of relevant pages for these keywords on search engines.

It is routine for us to have to tell prospective clients who have just spent tens of thousands of Rands on a website that their site is unfit for use as a marketing platform, and that they will either have to abandon SEO marketing altogether and focus on Pay Per Click marketing, or design their website from scratch.

This means that many businesses setting up an online presence tend to waste thousands of Rands on failed websites and ineffective marketing campaigns before they finally come across a web agency qualified to provide them with the expertise, information and guidance they need to build successful websites.

This situation is a result of the fact that many business owners and prospective webmasters simply lack the level of knowledge of online marketing, design and development processes required to make informed decisions when it comes to choosing who should build a website, what it should cost and how they should go about the entire process.

There’s a legion of independent designers, developers and SEO marketers out there who are more than happy to capitalize on this confusion and siphon money off businesses – providing partial, often ineffective, and sometimes damaging and expensive ‘solutions’ to companies’ design, development and marketing requirements.

In essence the situation boils down to the following factors:
•    Many business underestimate how much modern, fully functional websites or SEO marketing campaigns cost
•    Businesses therefore tend to look for the cheapest solutions to their design and marketing needs
•    There are countless one-man-bands who offer ‘value’ design, development and marketing services and are more than happy to exploit this state of confusion to sell their services and products
•    Even those businesses with realistic expectations of cost are frequently unable to discriminate between digital agencies capable of providing effective solutions and ineffective fly-by-night operations

We have found that independent web designers are often the worst culprits when it comes to marketing ‘complete’ web design and development solutions that are anything but complete. This is largely a result of the fact that designers are quite easily able to lure clients into deals based on mock-ups and designs that simply look good to clients.

While appearance is a critical factor in the overall scheme of marketing and designing a successful website, there are numerous other factors that are either subtle or effectively invisible to prospective clients that are far more important in determining whether a site will or won’t be useful and effective.

These factors include, but are not limited to:

•    Optimization of content, information structure and page layout
•    Use or absence of Flash elements on the site
•    The type of platform used to build the site
•    Use of images to present textual information on a website
•    Absence or presence of conversion optimization elements
•    Information architecture

•   Conducting market research to determine optimal layout and content requirements

However, because these elements are sometimes invisible, and are understood only vaguely, if at all, by many businesses, clients tend to zero in on the element of the site that they can most easily access, relate to and assess – its appearance.

Designers are able to leverage off this confusion over web fundamentals and over-reliance on appearance to market their products using superficially attractive images and mock-ups.

They often sell a ‘complete’ web design service based on a single mock-up when they in fact have very limited or non-existent knowledge of market research, conversion optimization, back end development, front end development and SEO best practise. In fact many of them will work off a standard design template that will allow them to knock out a new website in several hours.

These websites are known as ‘cookie cutter’ websites in the industry, as they provide very little customisation in terms of either design or functionality, and are frequently inferior to the free blogging sites offered by WordPress and Blogspot, which can be customised by a user and are at least fit for online marketing campaigns.

The results of this are websites that:
•    Are not structured to meet the needs of the client’s target market
•    Are difficult for search engines to ‘read’ and index
•    Require expensive 3rd party assistance for the addition or modification of content
•    Cannot be used in SEO marketing campaigns
•    Are not scalable, and can require extensive redevelopment to add additional functionality, pages or design elements
•    Lack the elements required to convert traffic onto the site into sales

While designers are often guilty of wasting client funds by churning out aesthetically pleasing but otherwise substandard websites, SEO marketers are often just as guilty when it comes to providing partial services at ‘reduced’ costs.

Rather than turning away business promised by the owner’s of substandard sites, marketers will take on business, deliberately overlook the fact that the site is not fit for SEO optimization, and proceed with months of Internet marketing. This will either involve the use of illegal or ‘black hat’ marketing techniques that may ultimately have devastating consequences for the site’s rankings, or will attempt to market the site through conventional means with very limited scope for success.

Case Study

One of our current clients, Africa Skills Village, provides an excellent example of the results of this sort of process.

ASV Original Site

At first glance Africa Skills Village website appears satisfactory -  the site has a pleasant colour scheme and an engaging central image. However, to the practised eye there are several critical elements that are faulty or missing from the site entirely, including conversion optimization, layout, absence of a content management system and the overall presentation of the ASV business model.

ASV approached us with this site requesting marketing assistance, only to find that the design was inadequate, the site would perform poorly on any SEO marketing campaign and had been developed on a platform that made the addition or modification of content expensive and unwieldy. As a result ASV contracted Gnu World to build their website from scratch.

In order to build a successful website for ASV, Gnu World drew on the expertise of five different departments in our company:

•    Marketing
•    Web design
•    Development
•    Content
•    Project Management

Each of these departments contributed information and insights that are essential for building an effective website:

•    Marketing performed market keyword research for ASV, indicating what keywords consumers were using to search for the types of services that ASV offers.
•    Project management consulted with ASV to develop a design brief that would accommodate the aesthetic and corporate branding requirements of the client.
•    Content used the market research and client business model to develop a flowchart indicating the optimal structure for the site as well as required content and pages.
•    Development assisted in assessing the effectiveness of the layout and structure as well as providing feedback on the client’s functionality requirements and recommending optimal  and cost-effective development solutions.
•    Web design was then provided with wireframes (basic page layout guidelines) of the critical site page templates, and was left to implement knowledge of design and conversion optimization to create a premium design.
•    Once this design was completed it was submitted for internal review before being delivered to the client for feedback.

As you can see this is a complex, multi-level process that requires the integration of input from diverse people with specialised knowledge of marketing, design and development, and is obviously not something that could easily be performed by one-man-band development agencies.

Here’s a draft of the home page that resulted from the Gnu World development process:

The site has effectively come to life and includes:
•    Multiple, clear avenues to conversion (client contact)
•    A clear, concise mapping of the client’s business model and various services allowing visitors to rapidly determine what ASV does and what services can be accessed on the site
•    A carousel providing the site with a live dynamic feel, whilst simultaneously showcasing and marketing ASV’s core services
•    Clear indication of the company’s accreditation, adding authority to the website
•    Bold, simple design, easy-to-read text and bright colours, giving the site visual appeal

‘Hidden’ elements that are included in the new ASV website include:
•    Building the site on the Drupal CMS, allowing ASV to inexpensively control, add and modify content
•    Market research that was used to determine the site layout and content structure
•    Meta Data on each page containing professional SEO text designed to optimize the page for indexing by search engines
•    Analytics services that will track visitors to the site, determine which content is functioning optimally, and be fed back into ASV’s marketing campaign to ensure that traffic to the site increase as it climbs the search rankings for critical keywords

We hope that this post has clarified why the integration of marketing, development and design talent is essential for the production of successful business websites. Taking this information into account one can easily understand why this process can be more expensive than the cheaper design solutions offered by many independent agents.

However, we firmly believe that you get what you pay for in the online business environment, and that in the long run a cheap solution to your web development requirements will prove far less cost-effective than building a high-quality website – capable of delivering results from the outset – up front.

For more information on integrated website development solutions contact Gnu World on 021 448 9280.

What is conversion optimization?

Conversion optimization is essentially the art of optimizing the structure and content of a web page to make it as simple and attractive as possible for visitors to your website perform a desired action – ranging from calling your company for a quote to purchasing an item from your eCommerce store.

Achieving this goal requires taking various elements of page structure, content, and design into account and strategically using these to increase the number of conversions generated by a website.

Conversion optimization basics

• Think clearly through content before creating a page. Use Google’s Adwords tool to research the most searched keywords for the item or service you’re selling. Use these keywords to optimize your page for search engines. Also ensure that the content on your page meets the expectations created by the page title and description displayed in PPC campaigns and search results.
• Make it work above the fold. The area of the page that is immediately visible to a visitor to your site is essential to retaining and converting traffic. Use this area to assure visitors that they have found what they are looking for, use quality, persuasive copy to tell them what you have to offer for them, and have at least one prominent route to conversion in this area – be it a contact number or an ad banner. As a rule of thumb the most important conversion elements should be placed in the top of the page as well as the top-left or right area of the page.
• Avoid clutter. Bright flashy banner ads that are not relevant to your content or services are distracting and annoying, and tend to be subconsciously screened out by the majority of web users. Ensure that any advertising on your page is content or product-relevant, and don’t go wild with fancy page elements and widgets. The less your visitors have to sort through to find what they want, the less likely they are to leave your site without converting.
• Keep converting easy. Site visitors shouldn’t have to dig around your site to discover how to convert. If you want them to contact you put your contact number in a clearly visible position above the fold. If you’re looking for bookings put a booking form on the page. If you’d like your visitors to click through to an affiliate, pepper your content liberally with affiliate links and showcase affiliate banner ads where suitable.
• Calls to action and benefit statements. You can be virtually certain that you’re not the only website that sells the services or products that your visitors are looking for. You need to reassure them that you’re their best option – therefore make sure your page contains benefit statements that tell visitors why they should use your product or services. Then round off your content with a call to action – a short phrase that functions as a nudge towards converting as soon as possible.

Conversion Optimization Case Study

Here’s an example of a conversion optimized page created by Gnu World for a 2011 Six Nations Championship microsite created for our client, Gambling Guru. This website is designed to facilitate online betting for sports fans who follow the Six Nations tournament – the goal of the site is therefore to direct site users to trusted British bookmakers. The image below is a screenshot taken of the home page of the Six Nations site, displaying content above the fold.

Note the following:

• The top banner ad is content specific, showcasing the odds for a forthcoming Six Nations match.
• The center of the page features a bright, attractive image that links off to a tournament preview where visitors will find a pre-tournament analysis, along with betting tips and the latest odds.
• The page features both a fixture list and the points table for the tournament – relevant, topical information that provides the site with authority.
• The right hand side of the page features a Paddy Power ad with a prominent call to action and powerful benefit statements – directing users to a bookmaker that will offer maximum benefits for their rugby bets.
• The site is uncluttered, with all content and links featured above the fold directing visitors to relevant, useful, topical pages – which are, in turn, conversion optimized.
• There are two prominent conversion opportunities above the fold.
• In addition the page has been optimized for the keyword “2011 Six Nations Betting”, with this keyword included in the page title, header text on the featured image, and in copy located below the fold. At the time of posting, the Gambling Guru Six Nations site ranked #2 on Google.co.uk for searches of “2011 Six Nations Betting”

Get Expert Advice

Many online marketing agencies focus exclusively on optimizing content for improved search engine rankings. However, understanding the role that website design and structure have to play in getting traffic to convert is essential to creating a profitable website.

Gnu World places a strong emphasis on its integrated, holistic approach to web marketing – combining over a decade of Internet marketing experience with superb design and development capacity. This ensures that your website’s design and structure are capable of assisting in the conversion of traffic generated by search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns.

If you’re looking for expert advice optimizing your website to generate conversions, or want to build a profitable website from the ground up, contact Gnu World now for a quotation.

WordPress helps to keep things current

A big turnoff for visitors is outdated content such as advertisements for events that have taken place, special offers that have ended and contact information for employees that have quit. WordPress makes it extraordinarily easy to create and delete pages and posts. You don’t even need to know what HTML is.

An uncomplicated administrator “Dashboard” with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface allows editors to restructure menus, write or style rich text and add lists, tables, images and videos.

Blog posts are organized according to dates, categories and keywords and can be subscribed to via RSS feeds, making it simple for subscribers and return visitors to keep abreast of new content.

WordPress is very SEO Friendly and complies to Web Standards

Being accessible to Search Engines such as Google is extremely important. A beautiful site with no visitors is rather useless and a little sad too. Standard WordPress features including XML sitemaps and automated search engine friendly URL’s are utilized to ensure that websites are 100% search engine friendly and comply with all Web Standards.

Using WordPress is easy

You don’t need to buy a book or attend a lengthy seminar to figure out how to run your website. Most people have no problem understanding the back-end interface. However, if you get stuck or are unsure how to do something, there is always a lot of help right at your fingertips:

• Ask Gnu World. We are always happy to help you get the most out of your website.
• Watch YouTube. There are many excellent WordPress tutorial videos.
• Visit www.wordpress.tv. for training videos.
• Search for answers to your questions in community forums. Chances are your question has already been answered in detail.

WordPress gets better every day

Improved versions of WordPress with new features are released often. Developers are also continuously writing new plug-ins to extend the functionality off the CMS, making it more powerful and versatile than ever before.

Contact Gnu World now if you’re looking to set up or redesign a WordPress website.

Online search trending tools are proving to be critical to this part of search engine optimisation. By analysing search, social media and general interest trends these tools providing assistance with keyword ideas and combinations.

Here are some free tools and tips on using trends for keyword research.

Google Trends

Google Trends shows how many times a search term is entered relative to the total number of searches for a particular region. This free tool allows you to compare 5 search terms, evaluate singular and plural versions of keywords and view related searches. Take a look at Google Trends Hot Searches for daily content ideas for and article marketing keywords.

Although Google Trends does not tell you how competitive your chosen keywords are, you can still go back to check them on the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Google Insights for Search

Google Insights presents more detailed information than Google Trends. Search keywords can be filtered by web, image, product or news searches. The site offers a wealth of free data including:

• Worldwide top rising searches
• An animated map showing the changes in regional interest over time
• Top search terms
• Rising searches statistics
• Regional interest

Trends Buzz

Use this resource to keep up with hot topics and search trends across Google, Yahoo Buzz, Bing, Twitter and even Wordtracker. This valuable tool has the ability to view searched words for an exact moment as well as top searches for the entire day.

Trend Hunter

Loaded with information from fashion, art, news and pop culture, to social media and search trends, Trend Hunter can be a bit overwhelming due its huge amount of information. However, it is a worthwhile research tool for websites that focus on viral news, social media, design, fashion, culture and technology.

Twitter Trends

Trending Now can be used for getting an idea of real-time search and online discussion trends. A simple search on Twitter Search for your keywords or related phrases can also give you an idea of how many people are actively discussing your topic, product, or even your company name.  Check out Trendistic for more Twitter statistics and trending topics over 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days.

Competitor Sites

Don’t forget the valuable information you can pull from keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to online, what keywords they use and social media strategies they implement. Arming yourself with this information will be crucial when conducting keyword research as it provides an insight into successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) keywords and phrases.

Keyword tools and resources:

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
• WordTracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
• Keyword Basics: http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/keyword-basics
• Google Search-based Keyword Tool: http://www.google.com/sktool/#
• Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends
• How to Spot Keyword Trends: http://www.seobook.com/how-spot-keyword-trends
• Keyword Discovery: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
• Microsoft AdCenter Labs Keyword Forecast Tool: http://adlab.msn.com/Keyword-Forecast/default.aspx