I Know Web » Recommendations

User-Defined Events are Important Measurements

Mary — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:02:21 +0000

MarketingSherpa (MS) released a chart this week that shows some interesting statistics in online marketing. In discussing “user defined events”, MS offers a valid argument to marketers that “PPC search marketing is able to maintain the accountability and a results-driven approach that makes it so effective by embracing conversion metrics other than the immediate sale of a product.”

Makes sense, doesn’t it? While product sales on a website are usually on the top of the list for Web marketers, other metrics such as number of newsletter sign-ups, time on site, and non-sale related actions are also very important.

Remember, people buy from people they like. Part of building an online presence is increasing your ‘likability’ factor. If today’s visit is a positive, albeit non-sale, visit from a user, your chances of tomorrow’s visit being a sale are increased.

Lessons Learned – Do Your Research

Mary — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:50:15 +0000

Yesterday I took some of my dying plants to the plant shop and asked the plant expert (horticulturist?) to diagnose and fix what was wrong with them. They were wilting and brown, and looking all-around pathetic. Turns out there was no drainage for the poor guys, and they were drowning. The friendly plant person drilled holes in the bottom of my pots, and I walked away with the hope that my plants would recover from a month of suffocation.

Poor Guy!

I didn’t pay for the drilling service, because – as it turns out – it was this same shop who sold me the non-draining pots that would eventually drown my plants.

Seems strange that a plant shop would sell pots that could kill their plants, but that’s what happened. The very same thing happens in the world of Web development and social marketing. Since many of the tools on the Internet are free (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn to name a few) and online tutorials on how to use them are abundant, it’s easy for a less-than-honest person to make claims of expertise that only years of experience can justify.

As a consumer, you need to do your due diligence when hiring someone to design, build, or market a website or other online presence. Check references, view a portfolio of work, ask for a rate sheet, whether there are any guarantees on the work, and what is included – and not included – in the scope of the work that will be done.

It’s important to research the company or individual who will be working with you. Web developers, designers, marketers, and managers are a dime a dozen. Good ones who know what they’re doing are hard to find!

5 Steps to Optimize Your Site for SEO

Mary — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:30:03 +0000

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend and colleague who earns his money by optimizing sites for SEO. He’s taught me so much about it, not the least of which is to leave the heavy lifting SEO Optimization to the experts!

Even so, there are some easy steps that you can take to ensure that your organic SEO is up-to-par.

Here are the Top 5 Steps to Optimize Your Site for SEO:

1) Page Titles Speak Volumes

html page titles (the ones that appear above the URL) are important. They should have relevant keyword phrases in them, and be written so that the keyword phrase comes first, and your site name second. I like to write them like this:

SEO Optimization – I Know Web

2) Headers are King

If SEO is a royal court, then the header tags are king. (OK dumb analogy, you get the point.) Make sure your titles are formatted using H1, and that it contains your keyword phrases. Also important are H2, H3 and so on… don’t neglect them!

3) URLs need love too!

Your URLs should be written so that they contain keyword phrases, and dashes. Google reads dashes as spaces. Don’t underscore, it’s annoying and it doesn’t optimize well. A nicely formed URL should look like

http://www.iknowweb.com/optimize-for-seo

4) Metas Still Matter

Wayyyy back in the beginning of SEO Optimization, meta tags were King. Nowadays, they’ve been demoted, but are still an important part of a SEO Optimized page. Don’t neglect them.

5) Write Relevantly

I’ve saved the best for last, but it’s probably the most important step to SEO Optimization, and that is – write pages that are relevant to the keyword phrase you are optimizing for.

There you have it, the 5 Steps that you can take to optimize your site for SEO. Happy SEOing!

Starting at the Beginning

Mary — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:46:07 +0000

It’s a daunting task, starting up a new blog. For many years I’ve been thinking that I need to do this… heck, I’ve told numerous clients to do it and always felt a little bad and quickly changed the subject when they asked me what my blog address was. Classic case of “do as I say, not as I do”.

Well, the hypocrisy ends today!

So here’s my toe-dip into blogging:

I upgraded my HootSuite account today. Usually I don’t recommend specific products or web tools because there are

I love the simple HootSuite interface

many to choose from, and open source ones tend to have to marinate for a while before you can tell if they’re really good or not.

This time is different.

I have no affiliation with HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com), but I love them! Using their simple Twitter management tool has streamlined my life so much, it’s really great. I love their new tabbed interface and how easy it is to manage multiple Twitter accounts. In my line of work, that’s invaluable!

So here’s a whoop whoop to HootSuite!