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Just a quick note to say that I completely understand a client’s frustration when I tell them that their website needs to be redone because the design is not conducive to getting ranked well.
Often, the client has spent thousands of dollars for their website, and they don’t want to hear that it isn’t good enough and they need to spend thousands more.
However, things change in the world of the web. How sites are designed has changed drastically from when I built my first site in 1997. How search engines “read” sites has also changed. And both of those things will continue changing.
It doesn’t mean the previous design was bad when it was done (although it may have been).
Just as you would maintain and update a physical business or home, you need to do the same with a website. We don’t walk out to wells to pump water to bring to the house. We’ve progressed. And if you’re old enough to read this, then you’re no doubt old enough to remember when there wasn’t an Internet as we know it today. Times change; technology changes; websites must change.
So, the best advice I can give is to plan for these changes. Plan now for that next overhaul.
Depending on your site, it might cost $800 or it might cost $5000 (or more). Find a web designer/developer with good references and trust them to do a good job for you and tell you when changes need to be made. And set aside an amount every year so that when the time comes, you’ll be prepared.
If you submit your products to Google Shopping, be aware that you will probably need to redo your feed/spreadsheet to comply with the new requirements posted here.
The deadline for compliance is August 31, so if you have a lot of products, better get cracking!
If you’ve noticed the “+1″ by sites in search results or on ads and wondered what it was, it’s Google’s way of letting you recommend websites or companies. Kind of cool, assuming some black hats out there don’t figure out a way to spam it and give a website unwarranted pluses.
Along the same lines, I heard a piece on the radio recently about Google’s new Plus program which is only being tested right now. It’s similar to Facebook, but they’ve designed it to be much easier to use, especially with regard to having a single identity but having “circles” of different groups, like family, colleagues, customers, etc. And, for me, the biggest deal is that they’re promising that if you want to delete your account, it gets deleted entirely from their server. That’s the exact opposite of Facebook, which I’ve grown to hate for its intrusiveness and how difficult they make it to protect one’s privacy. I think it’s fine for businesses, but it’s way too Big Brother for my personal life.
How important is your privacy? Some folks care; some don’t. If it’s important to you, I encourage you to check your privacy settings on every online service you use, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and so forth.
Facebook is now building a database of photos based on those photos that have been tagged with someone’s name. They will even show you a bunch of photos that might be you. And the default Privacy setting is to allow that function. The whole thing creeps me out.
I really don’t need everyone in the world to know what I look like. …Not that the whole world – or even a tiny portion- really cares, but one has to draw the line somewhere and Facebook just stepped over mine.
Omigosh! Just called Microsoft because a credit for a client hasn’t been showing up after their merger or whatever with Yahoo! and ended up spending 48 minutes (my timer was on) with this guy. If we cut out the 18 minutes of pure BS in between the useful information, it was a worthwhile call.
The gist of it: Get really specific with your ads and your keywords. Really, really specific. I could go on, but suffice it to say that it is impossible to be too specific.
Okay, I’ll go on. If you sell gifts for brides to give their bridesmaids, don’t just advertise for “bridesmaid gifts”. Use keywords like “bridesmaid sister gift” and “childhood friend bridesmaid” and so on. And be sure your ads include a call to action and, if it can appeal on an emotional level, so much the better. For example, “Make Mom Cry at Your Wedding” would be a good emotional “call to action”. Of course, Microsoft and Google rarely give you as many characters as you’d like to use in your ad, so you need to be creative here.
But, all in all, I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time. However, I do have to mention that he wanted to show me something, but that feature wasn’t available. He had to get off the phone while we were talking because he couldn’t find the feature, just as I couldn’t and, come to find out, they were updating the page. Just imagine how much of a client’s time I could have wasted trying to find out how to add new keywords to a campaign when the fricking button wasn’t anywhere at that time???
And that’s why I charge $85/hour. Because I don’t work in a business where procedures and methods haven’t changed in 20 years. I work in a business where procedures and methods change every 20 minutes!
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