An Introduction to the Series

An online presence can serve as a shop window, a sales force and a checkout – with seamless transition from one stage to the next.

Once a functional and effective website is in place it can almost automatically convert leads into prospects and prospects into sales without the need for much (if any) human intervention on the part of the company.

With the Building an Effective Online Presence from the Ground Up series I hope to provide an overview of the major stages and processes involved in evolving an existing business into a successful online brand. Although this series will undoubtedly help those looking to establish a purely online business from scratch – my focus is upon two different types of company:

1 – Established businesses who presently operate in a purely offline capacity but are looking to build an online presence.

2 – Businesses who already operate online but who are not experiencing the results they would hope for (and are willing to make radical changes to remedy this).

Having established my aims with this series it’s time to get started:

Establishing Viability

Before jumping headfirst into website creation it is essential to thoroughly consider the reasons why you’re building an online presence and what you intend to gain from it.

Establish Aims

If you’re a retailer then your primary aim will likely be revenue generation through e-commerce sales – for some industries however, the goals are not quite so clear-cut. Those who operate in the B2B arena may wish to build a website which serves as a sales brochure to elicit enquiries from prospective clients, whilst other organisations could well create a website purely for increased brand exposure.

Specific goals and aims must be established before anything else is done to ensure that all aspects of your website and online marketing are tailored to best serve the business and achieve your stipulated goals.

Establish Market

With goals and aims freshly established there remains the vital task of assessing whether the market exists for you to achieve a high enough volume of conversion (completions of established aims) to justify the cost of entering the online arena. Examination of competitor websites and use of tools such as the Google Adwords Keyword Research tool will help you to understand the demand for your product, service or offering. Essentially, the more people using search engines to search for terms (referred to as ‘keywords’) which are relevant to your industry: the more of a pre-existing market there is.

If there does not appear to be a significant pre-existing market, then you will have to be especially ruthless during the course of the next stage.

Establish Budgets, ROI + KPIs

Unless you have web design, web development and web marketing specialists in-house (in which case this whole series of blogs is unlikely to be of much use!) the creation and development of a website and the subsequent digital marketing services will require capital. How much capital is dependent upon a vast number of variables; not to mention your available budget. At this stage the services of a digital marketing agency are likely to be incredibly useful. Digital marketing specialists are able to outline the website functionality you’ll require to achieve your goals, the cost of website design, development and maintenance and the cost of SEO and other online marketing services to ensure success.

By consulting closely with a digital marketing agency – or indeed utilising your own experience you will be able to establish two vital acronyms: ROI and KPIs. The Return On Investment is essential – if you can’t foresee an ROI which offers definite benefit to your company then it may be necessary to re-think your aims and market. Key Performance Indicators serve as benchmarks – basically a series of targets which demonstrate that you are on course to achieve (or better) your desired ROI. Any digital marketing company worth their salt should be able to assist you in formulating and ultimately facilitate the attainment of KPIs spanning from website development through to 12 months from launch.

If the figures add up so far then it’s time to move on to the next step – Getting Online.

Guest posting is an essential aspect of becoming a reputed member of the blogosphere. The advantages of guest blogging include increasing traffic to both the blog owner’s and guest blogger’s website (if a backlink is credited to the guest author) as well as helping to build a rapport with other bloggers within the same niche.

When guest posting for other blog owners you have to be prepared to adapt your writing style and tone, so the ability to be flexible is a must. In order for the blog owner to accept your submission there are a few aspects of guest posting to bear in mind to enhance your chances of getting published.

Audience Analysis   

Analysing certain elements of the blog’s primary audience is necessary to have a high chance of getting your writing published. Understanding the audience may seem an elementary aspect of blogging, yet many writers fail to do this when guest blogging.

Things to consider regarding the audience of the blog you’re guest posting for are:

Audience Nationality – Understanding where the majority of the audience are based can help you to tailor your language accordingly. US English and UK English have different spelling variations, understanding this and adapting your language appropriately will save the webmaster some editing time, therefore making you favourable as a regular contributor.

Main Topic Interests – Many sites have a broad subject horizon, but some posts on the site will probably have been received better than others. To find the most popular subject area view previous posts and note the volume of comments and shares. Use this as a base for your topic idea, add a twist on the topic and even get controversial to spark discussion and shares.

Readers’ Level of Knowledge – You can refer to previous posts on the site to determine what the general level of knowledge the fan base has on your chosen topic. Are they beginners looking for how-to tutorials or are they seasoned experts who enjoy heated debates surrounding the site’s general focus? It’s important not to undermine your reader’s knowledge as this will come across as patronising, but overwhelming them can lead to confusion and disinterest.

Audience analysis is so important when guest blogging, the primary intention of a blog is to gain, sustain and increase readership so your guest blog post will have to appeal to the right people. If you’re ever unsure of the audience of a website, ask the blog owner – they will probably appreciate the fact that you want to entertain their readers and provide relevant information.

Website Analysis

Much the same way that the audience needs analysing, so does the theme of the blog. Blogs generally have a typical house style that must be adhered to when writing. Follow this checklist when guest posting to ensure you’re keeping with the style of the blog:

Level of Formality – This is one of the main reasons why guest posts are rejected by webmasters. Researching the level of formality is essential before you even put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). Is the blog attached to a corporate site? If so it’s more than likely you’ll have to maintain a rather impersonal, formal tone which is more factual or instructional as opposed to opinionated. If it’s a personal blog then there’s likely to be more room for movement in terms of adding personal opinion and in some instances; profanity.

Topic Research – If you have a topic idea that isn’t entirely unique and has been worn out in the blogging niche then it may be worth reconsidering your subject or adding an original twist. Blog owners aren’t interested in publishing generic, worn out topics. Popular guest blog locations will want unique ideas which will get their readers thinking, debating and sharing.

There are other elements of blogs worth inspecting before crafting a piece too. Typical post length is important, are the posts short and sweet or do they generally publish in-depth articles which include thorough explanations and how-to’s?

Guest blogging can be an excellent way to get involved with the online community within your niche. Researching your guest location before writing the piece can really boost the number of guest posts you get published. No one wants to waste hours crafting an immense piece of writing, only to find that it’s just not suitable for the website. If you’re ever unsure of the type of content a website will accept then ask! It shows you’re interested and care about their readership, earning you respect and trust as a writer whilst ensuring you’re writing something appropriate.

Following on from their decision to operate solely within the digital marketing arena and dispense with the web development side of operations, Web Vitality have unveiled an eye-catching new website.

Featuring their new superhero themed branding; the fresh incarnation of the Web Vitality website showcases their range of digital marketing services alongside original and exciting artwork. Speaking of the decision to reposition the brand, Managing Director Mark Farrell explained:

“To help further establish ourselves as one of the best digital marketing agencies in Manchester I felt it was important to build a striking and memorable brand identity. Out of this thought the Web Vitality super heroes were born. We brought a top local illustrator on board and are proud to be associated with these memorable and dynamic little characters. Back this memorable new branding up with the quality work that we do and I believe that we have a winning combination. “

With an enviable reputation for their work in search engine optimisation, conversion rate optimisation and social media marketing, the company are experiencing rapid growth courtesy of exceptionally high levels of client retention and consistent new business acquisition. In order to ensure that they continue to provide an unparalleled service they have recently relocated to new premises in Manchester City Centre and are continually on the lookout for new talent to bolster the ranks.

Now located in a new office with a new website and new members of the team, Web Vitality are ready to face new challenges in 2012 and beyond.

• OK but how and what do you need?
• Why should I, because that is what I am paying you for
• I haven’t got time

The above three are by far the most popular replies we get. I sure you have noticed that two of the three are negative responses. The reason for this is because people still do not understand that competing in the internet arena is becoming more and more difficult with every day that passes. To succeed today you need to throw everything you have got at it to stand any chance of winning. Remember, if you’re not blogging your competitor probably is.

What we want to hear from our clients is “yes we will blog but can you give us some guidance?” The response we give also answers the other two negative replies above and hopefully will convince them that they should be blogging in addition to us.

Why Should I Blog?

• More in-depth knowledge of the industry – We will never know the industry as well as the client so any blog produced by them will be much more relevant and industry specific
• More long tail traffic – Relevant keywords and search phrases will be included within the copy of the blogs naturally, thus bringing in more long tail traffic to the website.
• Industry Authority – Blogging regularly will keep the client in front of the competition and overtime may become the first port of call for people looking into that particular industry.
• Increased frequency – A lot of work from an agency will be based around external sources so by the client blogging themselves they will be helping to keep the content on their website fresh, and Google likes nothing more than fresh content.

How Do I blog And I Haven’t Got Time?

There are no hard and fast rules to blogging, just keep it simple and follow the below rules:

• Blog as often or as little as possible
• Blogs can be as long or as short as you like
• Keep them related to your industry and anything goes
• Recruit as many people as you can from the company to blog as all blogs can be approved before making them live
• Keep it original (no copying)

That’s really it. There is no secret sauce when it comes to blogging. The only stipulation is, make it as awesome as possible. It’s important that our clients understand that we are not asking them to do our job for us and get through X number of blog posts per month. All we need is for them to realise that by blogging themselves they will be speeding up the process of becoming an internet sensation.

If you would like to know more about how Web Vitality could help your website then why not give us a call on 0161 660 0423 or get in touch via email.

We get asked a lot of questions during the prospecting process for new web marketing contracts but one question that pops up almost every time is “How long until I start to see results” The answer to this question can make or break the whole campaign which is why I wanted to share my answer here (just so I don’t forget it and can refer back to it when we get asked again)

In short there is no definitive answer to this question. What the prospective client wants to hear and unfortunately will hear from a lot of companies is that they should start seeing something either right away or towards the end of month three. In reality there are many factors to consider before making such a bold statement like this, and in nearly all cases the answer to the question is still a best guess.

Things we consider before giving a reply are:

• Budget
• How competitive an industry is the client in?
• What are the client’s specific goal requirements?
• Is the client insistent on pushing for vanity keywords?
• Has the site suffered any search engine penalties?

Budget

How much a client is willing to invest in an SEO campaign plays a huge part in determining results. The more a client is willing to invest the more hours they will receive and therefore the quicker they will see results.

Embarking on an SEO campaign is a long term business investment and not a quick fix like a lot of companies believe. A good web marketing company should be able to portray this to a client easily by demonstrating their experience and knowledge of their own industry and the clients.

When using a reputable company (like us) it will become apparent very quickly that we put a lot of time and effort into all of our campaigns and try and produce something that is unique and isn’t easily replicated. This level of work is time consuming as we focus on quality rather than quantity and don’t just go through the motions. For this reason the more hours we are allowed to work on a project the quicker a client will see results.

Competitiveness Of An Industry

More and more people are becoming active on their websites which is making all industries more competitive to rank in. This is great for the internet as it means everybody has to step up their game and produce better content in order to out rank their competitors.

What this means from a results perspective is that there is more work involved from a research perspective and during a campaign. The level of research can vary from client to client dependant on the competitiveness of the industry, therefore it is impossible to give the same estimates for results to each client. In the case of Web Vitality we always try our best to complete the research stage of a campaign in month one even if it means going over our allotted hours.

It is only after month one of a campaign when all of the detailed research has been completed can we give a reasonable estimate as to results.

What Are The Goal Sets?

If I keep everything related to those companies that say you will see results in month three it makes it quite easy to explain this one away.

If a client comes to us with an established site that gets a reasonable amount of traffic yet doesn’t convert very well and simply wants to convert better, as opposed to a website that is also established yet has no traffic or conversion there is obviously a distinct difference in the desired goal set. Therefore we can tackle our response differently.

One goal set requires a lot less initial work to achieve the desired goals whereas the other requires a lot of work.
In the first instance the goal set demands an increase in conversion from an already established website that is already receiving traffic. From our experience (and a quick look over the website) we could probably identify a few common conversion mistakes that most websites make. Once these have been rectified a client will probably see an immediate boost in conversion therefore after our initial look we could in most cases offer some sort of timescale that would please a client.

Most websites are still designed to look pretty rather than to convert well (which is way these conversion mistakes exist in the first place)

The second instance requires a goal set of both increased traffic and conversion which puts it in the same category as a new website. The industry would have to be researched and traffic increased before we could seriously look at the conversion rate. By stating that it is plain to see that the work level before goal achievement is much greater therefore an answer on timescales would have to wait until the research stage of the campaign had taken place.

Vanity Keywords

Some clients come to us demanding what we call vanity keywords. A vanity keyword is a keyword that attracts a lot of traffic but in reality will probably not get as many conversions as a keyword that is more targeted.

Vanity keywords are highly competitive and as a result are extremely difficult to rank for. Put bluntly if you are determined to go after a vanity keyword ensure you have an extremely large budget and don’t expect to get results over night.

Search Engine Penalties

There are many different types of penalties that can be applied to websites for various reasons. Some obvious, some not so obvious. If a website has suffered a penalty it will require a lot of work to get it lifted. I say this because to get a penalty lifted you first have to convince the search engine that whatever it is they penalised it for has been rectified. Once you have figured this out you have kind of got to sit and wait.

All of this needs to be sorted before any future work can begin therefore in the case of penalties timescales predictions can get thrown right out of the window

Summary

• Before signing up with an agency do your homework
• See your SEO campaign as a long term business investment
• Don’t expect results overnight as quality is not easily achievable
• Don’t expect a first class service unless you are willing to pay a reasonable fee

Timescales can (and should not) be provided until a full and in-depth analysis of the website and industry has been carried out. Done properly this should take at least a month so don’t expect to receive it commitment free.

We are a really nice bunch of individuals who are extremely passionate about our industry which is why it pains us to see all of the cowboys out there. Transparency and results is the key to our success. By choosing Web Vitality as your SEO provider you are making the best business investment you will ever make (probably)

If you have liked what you have read and want to know how we can help your website succeed then please get in touch

With a good knowledge of writing and with extensive experience in customer service we are confident he can apply and develop his skills within the company and truly become a web marketing expert.

Danny will be assisting in all areas of web marketing and has been brought in as an all rounder, kind of a Jack of All trades but master of them all.

His first day at Web Vitality saw him brew up for everybody except me. I explained that this wasn’t the best career move he could make and have since settled our difference and can now confirm he actually makes quite a nice brew.

Watch out for his future posts and I would like to take this opportunity to firmly welcome him into the Web Vitality family.

P.S He chose his own picture (how vain)

Just Motor Law
www.justmotorlaw.co.uk

Just Motor Law are experts in the field of road traffic defence and can defend any motoring offence.

“Our team of dedicated motoring lawyers deal with every case personally from start to finish, offering a unique service tailored to your needs. Our approach allows you to benefit directly from our expertise and provides you with peace of mind that your case is receiving the attention and dedication you require.”

Keep watching this space as we have lots of new sites about to launch.

Kind Regards

Paul Lee
Business Development Manager

t: 0161 660 0423
m: 07906 442 333
Web Vitality: www.webvitality.co.uk

When I say trial mode I mean that they are testing it with a limited number of trustees. Us mere mortals will have to wait for the initial launch.

If you want to be one of the first to be notified when it goes live you can register your interest by clicking here.

With features such as circles, hangouts and sparks we are sure to be amazed. Lets hope it does better than Google Wave.

Watch out Facebook as Google+ is coming after you

We are proud to announce the following newly launched website.

Designo Garden Furniture
www.designogardenfurniture.com

“From the manufacturer’s who set the standard in casual furniture excellence, Designo Garden Furniture is proud to offer the most exclusive styles of garden furniture available at an exceptional value.”

DGF provide luxury garden furniture, sourced from suppliers all across the world. The site we created for them reflects the quality of their products and their classical tastes.

Keep watching this space as we have lots of new sites about to launch.

Kind Regards

Paul Lee
Business Development Manager

t: 0161 660 0423
m: 07906 442 333
Web Vitality: www.webvitality.co.uk

Steph will be joining Jamie in our Web Marketing team and will be filling the role of Web Marketing Executive. I will let Steph introduce herself to everbody formally through her introductory blog post but would like to say a hearty welcome to the team to her and good luck in her new position.

P.S The picture was provided by Steph and she reliably informed us that seeing her with a glass of wine is quite normal and more strange to see her without one.