Website Design Determines Search Engine Results

Who Stepped In It: There’s nothing more disappointing than finding out your “great investment” wasn’t so great.  That’s the conversation I had several times in the past month with smart, successful business owners in Virginia Beach and Norfolk who came to realize the website they purchased for a great price wasn’t a great deal.

In essence, they bought a brick and mortar store for a great price, then found out it’s located in the middle of nowhere with no roads leading to it.  Invisible.  Nothing.  Zero.  Their location makes Timbuktu look local. 

These business owners want websites that rank high in major search engines in order to help with their branding, marketing and public relations.  However, their websites were built in “frames,” which means the websites will have problems being found by search engines. 

Search engine robots and spiders look for complete web pages which contain unique meta tags.  Websites designed with frames usually have none of these, making them blank slates and you invisible. 

The competition for page one and two of major search engines is intense.  You may have the desire to get there, but you better back it with a website designer who knows what he or she is doing or you’ll end up on page 27 — joining hands with members of the Invisible & Frustrated Web Club.

Good website design leads to good web marketing which leads to potential customers.  When hiring a website designer or web marketing company, ask the following three questions.  If the answer to all three is yes, you’re in good hands.  If not, you’ll be investing in a website design that will not rank high in major search engines and never create the web marketing and public relations you’re looking for.

Questions for website design companies:

- Do you understand how search engines operate on the technical level?

- Can you design a website that is search engine friendly?

- Can you demonstrate real-time search results you have achieved for your clients, nationally, regionally and locally over Google, Yahoo and MSN?

There are many businesses in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake with no desire to have a large web presence.  Their public relations strategy calls for driving potential customers directly to their website by listing the address in their marketing and advertising efforts. 

However, if your business plan calls for potential customers to find you through search engines, you’ll need a website designed to satisfy their spiders and robots.

Is your website designed to increase branding, leads and sales; or is it designed to make you the next Houdini?

July 30, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | 1 Comment 

Who Stepped Up

Money Follows Knowledge, So Blog:  If you like a huge return on investment and are an expert in your field, you may like blogging more than you think.  Blogs showcase your knowledge (and business) better than any public relations tool available — and they’re free.

An increasing number of professionals are stepping up to blog to increase their brand and public relations, and to help others.  However, a majority of professionals are still hesitant to blog because of some common misconceptions.  Following are some important facts to know about professional blogging:

Myth: I have to blog three to four times a week to be effective.
Fact:  You can blog once every two weeks and be very effective.

Myth: I have to be technically savvy to set up and operate a blog.
Fact:  Blogs can be set up in less than 20 minutes by someone who’s never done it before.  If you can operate a TV/DVD remote control, you can click through the blog set-up steps.  If you run into problems, ask your teenager, niece, nephew or neighbor. 

Myth:  I’m too busy to blog. 
Fact:   An hour or two every two weeks is all it takes.  Good blogs take less time and are more effective than many networking efforts.  You will reach more people and actually save time by blogging.

Myth: I’ll look silly if no one participates in my blog.
Fact:  The intent of your blog is to showcase your expertise and help those who need your information.  Whether 0 or 100 people jump into the conversation does not reflect on the impact of your blog or diminish the value of your expertise.  Most blogs have far more readers than participants.

Myth: Dealing with the comments will be time consuming.
Fact:  Comments from legitimate readers and annoying spammers will come to your e-mail inbox.  Delete them.  Every few days log into your blog and delete or accept the comments.  This takes less than five minutes.

Myth: Blogs look messy and have too many buttons and ads; I don’t want to present myself that way.
Fact: You don’t need ads.  The beauty of blogs is that you control it.  It can be clean, easy to read, and free of ads and other distracting items.  If you don’t want a busy looking blog, don’t add distractions.  Keep your content pure and your design simple.

Myth: I already have a good website.  Why do I need a blog?
Fact: Websites are a great 24/7 public relations tool, but for the most part they’re justifiably static and take way more effort and knowledge to update than a blog, which is click and post.  A blog gives potential clients and reporters a living document that showcases your expertise and line of thinking in a current context.  Plus, having two separate items that search engines can find, a blog and a website, gives you a powerful one-two punch when potential customers or reporters are looking for an expert.

Myth:  Blogs are dull and impersonal.
Fact:  Blogs allow your true personality to shine through.  Your audience will really get to know you and how you approach your business.  You will develop a connection with a large audience of potential customers in a manner that is second only to personal contact.

Positioning yourself as an expert in your industry with a blog offers many benefits with little downside, especially as more and more potential clients and influential reporters use search engines to find experts on everything under the sun. 

Internet territory and audiences are being developed and going quickly.  Have you staked your claim?

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | Leave a Comment 

Who Stepped In It

Damage Control Techniques:  When the United Food and Commercial Workers Union failed twice in the last decade to unionize Smithfield Foods’ meat-processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., they should have recognized the brick wall ahead.  But, they didn’t.

Instead, according to a damage control article by Mary Worrell of Inside Business, the union took its public relations battle to the Washington, D.C., area and flooded buses, billboards, and local television and radio airwaves with a negative ad campaign aimed at Smithfield products — a roundabout way of influencing North Carolina families to unionize. 

This public relations campaign is a waste of the union’s effort and money, which brings into question their leadership and vision.  People the union could have persuaded may now feel alienated by a big media campaign out of D.C., which does not resemble the grassroots audience the union claims to represent.

If your company or organization comes under attack, here are some helpful damage control PR tips:

- Write, distribute and post on your website a news release or news releases that dissect the misinformation and present the facts.

-  Cite incorrect statements.  The union is saying a Smithfield worker sliced “thousands of hams a minute” which translates to a few dozen hams a second.  That’s impossible, and it calls into question the credibility of the complaints. No one likes unfounded attacks.

- Present the information on a well-designed, well-written website.  Every business that has the potential to end up on page one should have an off-line website that covers a variety of crisis scenarios and can be tweaked and on-line quickly.  Speed is the name of the game in our Internet-driven society.  If you are not proud of your website, you need to be before a crisis hits.

- Inform employees quickly of high-level anti-company public relations campaigns so they hear it from you first.  Let them be your ambassadors who knock down the attacks through their social networks and lend public relations help.

- Coordinate interviews with reporters covering the issue.  If the issue is important, reporters should talk with senior organizational leaders — not only the PR team.  The public relations team should prepare the battlefield, but leadership should be the on-the-record voices.

- Communicate openly with reporters, meet deadlines and always be accessible to address follow-up questions.

- Talk positives as often as possible, but address rumors, innuendo and misinformation.  Take the high ground as often as possible and focus on your organization’s strengths.

- Understand every element of the story.  Try to know all the people who will be sourced in the reporter’s coverage of the story.  Make sure you understand what each source is likely to contribute to the story.

- Invite reporters to your company to give them a firsthand look. 

- Have a strategy to engage in new media like blogs and YouTube.  Be prepared to provide responses in multiple venues. Communication opportunities are abundant and more people can enter the conversation. Protect your brand and use the situation to strengthen it.

- Realize when you need public relations help.

What you should not do when attacked
- Do not ignore the attack.  If you’ve been targeted by smear specialists you’ll need to take them on to either hold your ground or grain ground at their cost.

- Do not assume people will automatically dismiss the attacker.  Just because you’ve successfully developed a brand for years or decades, doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels.

- Do not repeat the negative.  If they accuse you of “employee abuse” do not say, “We do not abuse our employees,” which repeats the charge you haven’t committed.  Better to say, “The relationship between our company and employees is strong and our record shows it.” 

If your company’s 15 minutes of fame turns out to be damage control against absurd charges, are you prepared to successfully handle it and turn it to your advantage? 

July 3, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | Leave a Comment