Jeremy LaDuque, CEO, and Steve Bridge, CFO, will be attending the IFA Public Affairs Conference at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C. September 14-15, 2009. They will be available and happy to answer any questions related to franchise software, local online marketing, search engine optimization, among many other topics. They look forward to seeing many of you there!

Elements Inc., an interactive web agency, designs and develops online business applications, corporate web sites and Internet marketing strategies that enable clients to harness the power of the Internet to streamline their business. Based in San Luis Obispo, CA, and founded in 1999, Elements recently introduced ElementsLocal™, a software platform developed specifically for the unique challenges and opportunities franchise companies face in online franchise marketing. ElementsLocal clients include Jiffy Lube, Paul Davis Restoration and Always Best Care, among others. For more information on the company, visit www.elementslocal.com.

Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is complex and requires a systemic approach when working to enhance your natural search results strategy. “Natural” or “organic” searches that drive traffic to your websites are just that: the natural choices a user would make in entering search words (or sometimes, a singlular word…resulting in the user finding a new universe on the internet rather than more directed results).

A natural search assumes that you may not yet have other strategies in place, or if you do, you are still trying to optimize this type of search. Other strategies you can pay for include SEO/Search Engine Marketing (SEM) analysis services, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, linkbuilding services and trend analysis.

It Happens Overnight?

Not exactly, it takes a few months, maybe as many as 4-6 or 7 after you’ve put these strategies in place for you to see good results. One source sites “over 200 SEO factors that Google uses to rank pages in the Google search results.” So a working understanding of how search engines (SE) do their magic will help increase the chances of your site appearing high in a list of thousands or more search results.

Certain keywords and/or keyword phrases are highly competitive – meaning they describe and are used for a wide array of businesses with websites offering those products or services. “Cooking” and “appliances” describe a huge variety of products and services and keywords like these are competitive. So, logically, there are hundreds and hundreds of websites using these as keywords; it would be an uphill battle to achieve a Top 10 search result with natural searches.

Most internet users know what they want and often know specific details about what they want. One of the keys through this Labyrinth is to understand what specific goal or target users have when they search. For example, after a home fire, a user may know they want to find a “residential restoration” service or they may know they want to find a “residential restoration fire water damage” service or even more specifically “paul davis residential fire water damage  restoration theirtown.”

The last two sets are much more specific and competition for these is probably lower – they are applicable to fewer companies offering those products or services. Using more specific keywords and phrases can help better optimization and search rankings, providing there are enough numbers of people searching on those terms. Choosing keywords that are specific but not popular with users won’t necessarily deliver better results.

A Good Foundation

Doing some keyword research will help you build a good foundation for choosing keywords for your website. Doing some marketing research for your geographic area or your own target audience will give you even more ammunition. And trust yourself. You are the expert in your industry and your local area…how would your target audience search for you?  There are several free keyword search tools online. They give you an indication of how popular certain words or phrases are based on current databases from companies such as Google and Nielsen. Keep in mind, the results provide good indicator – not the end all of keyword results. Your industry, vertical market, product and geographic location are among the things that affect the outcome, not to mention results from automated traffic (you guess it, another Labyrinth path).

Cross check your word search with various free tools. We found a few:

• http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
• http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
• http://www.seocompany.ca/tool/keyword-research-tools.html

Improving Your Search Results Ranking

When a user enters words into a search field, the search engines go to work and in seconds, have wound their way through countless number of websites and web pages looking for the combination of keywords the user entered.  By using some smart content strategies you can help increase your search results ranking. The following are some factors that affect page ranking and most are things you can put into place yourself.

So there are a few important “on-page” items and “off-page” factors that we look at:

Things to do On-Page:

• Include one or more keywords in your site domain name.
• Use keywords in your directory paths or folders on your site.
• Include keywords in your Title Tag.
• Use the keywords in your Title Tag in several variations that mirror your product or service and get a lot of searches as well:

  Home Fire Water Damage Repair – Fire Water Damage Mitigation – Residential Reconstruction and Restoration

• Include keywords in your H1 Tag (first header tag).
• Make your content keyword-dense; include your keywords often in the body content.
• You need to incorporate your keywords and phrases logically in your content; you cannot merely repeat these words over and over. Use your keywords in your content in a logical and relevant way.
• Create a customized keyword set for each section of your site, or better, each page.

Things that affect your site ranking Off-Page:

• Length of time your site has been live.
• How popular your website links are.
• Link popularity within the site’s internal link structure.
  ~ Whether others linking to your site are relevant to the topic of your site.
• Topical relevance of inbound links to site.
  ~ Whether the inbound links to your site are well-worded and use your keywords.
• Anchor text of inbound links
• The quality of sites who link to your site.
  ~ Whether your site links are popular overall and draw users to your site.
• Global link popularity of site

Several off-page items are dependent on other websites’ awareness of your website and content. There are strategies you can employ on your site that can influence this, especially when they involve other sites linking to your site. Since this is yet another path in the Labyrinth, we will save this topic for another discussion.

Search Engines Are Your Friends

These days there are so many metrics that add value to search rankings, but keywords still provide the foundation of attracting search traffic. Search engines, depending on how many (or few) words the user queries, return a list of relevant sites that is ordered by relevancy or importance to the keywords. Again – searching through what could be thousands of websites and thousands and thousands of webpages, almost in a blink of an eye. As the web designer and/or content author, you can help your search engines friends by making your sites and content more SE “compliant” – by getting with their program and using keywords in the same key positions on the webpage.

Page Construction to Optimize Keywords

Once you’ve determined your keywords and phrases that users most often use to find your company, product and/or service, you’ll need to incorporate them into your webpages. The days of hiding keywords with white text (stealthy invisible), or using them repetitively in every html tag are gone. Keywords must now be incorporated logically into your content and add to the usability of your page and content from a users’ standpoint. Using the stealth strategy will actually cost you SE ranking as the SEs will realize the tactic and penalize your site accordingly. Search engines and their algorithms don’t like when we webmortals think we can outsmart them.

On-Page Factors

Again, the goal is to place your keywords in positions on the page that SEs can find them easily. Search engines interpret how important the keywords are to the user by the keywords’ placement on the page. Roll up your sleeves and revamp your pages and content:

Title Tag. Place a keyword phrase in the title tag; the title tag is about the most important factor when SEs rank webpages. Including keywords in the title tag shows the SEs the page’s focus. It is important to have a title tag on pages such as special interest, product, and services pages.

Header – H1 Tag. In HTML-speak, your “H1 tag” is the “header” or “headline” – generally, the large one liner at the top of your page. Bigger is better in this case: SEs consider larger type to be more important because it is more visible and easily read.  HTML header codes go from largest to smallest, H1 to H6. Your H1 Tag should contain your keywords for that page.

Other Header Tags – H2 to H6. The H-Tags specify a text hierarchy for headlines or subheads on your page. The higher the H-Tag number the smaller the text size. Generally, H1 is the only headline on the page, appearing at the top of the page. H2 tags are slightly smaller and can appear as subheads for the page. H3 tags are even smaller and may serve as a header for a bulleted list. H6 is the smallest text size and you may want to use this tag for image captions.

You don’t need to use all of the H-Tags, but their hierarchy should stay in tact. Again, part of the SE search involves keywords in the H1 tag, so remember to use a keyword or two in the headline of the page. In this way, you are optimizing the relevance of the keywords on the page as well as providing reinforcement to your users. They’ll see the Title Tag and the page headline (H1) with the same words they’ve searched for and know that they’ve come to the right website.

Keyword-rich Content. This may be “logical” but it is still worth mentioning. Your page content should contain your keywords and phrases several times. If you have target keywords per page, each page should mirror the unique set of key words. The content should be relevant and different for each page.

Creating extra pages on your site with duplicate content is another strategy that SEs don’t like; they will recognize the duplicate page content and give your site a lower rating. Also, if you mindlessly repeat your content, SE filters would catch it and not rank your site.  Unique content using your keywords is critical when you are dependent on natural search results.

There are a few ways to increase unique keyword-rich content that make SEs happy:

• Break up your content by using subheads containing keywords.
• Include keywords in the first sentence of your content and tie it up nicely with a summary sentence containing keywords.
• Depending on the page design, bold your keywords now and then for emphasis. Create visual interest by pulling out important aspects of content as a bulleted list – keywords should also appear in this list.
• Attribute images with a caption containing keywords.
• Give your images and links Alt-Tags (or a Title Tag) using keywords.
• Also, provide a way for your users or solicit your users to send you testimonials about your product, service or company (for example, a blog that users may participate in by submitting comments)
  ~ Content from your users is highly coveted because it can provide relevant and unique content without you having to generate it.

Keyword-rich Links

Search engines also looks at your internal links (page containing a link and the page the link goes to within your website). By making some text a link, you create “anchor text.” When you use keywords in your “anchor text” search engines consider the page it links to important to that keyword.

Meta Description Tags.

Meta Description Tags summarize the page “in 25 words or so” and are put into a “hidden” or background part of the webpage. When search engines display search results, they typically display the Meta Description Tag under the title of the page in the results. Again, include your keywords and keyword phrases. Use the most important keywords for that specific webpage.

If you feel as if the Tasmanian Devil has just whirled around your head a few times, you’re not alone. Search Engine Optimization is logical, but its logic contains many, many variables. These variables must be in place for the SEs to find your site among possibly thousands in a natural search query. Some of the variables are more difficult to control (mainly the age of your site). But by following these key strategies, you increase your search result rankings within the SEO Labyrinth.

Let’s review:

• Update your site often – with photos and content. Activity on your site always verifies to SEs that your site is authentic.
• Generate key words and phrases for each page of your site. You can do this just by sections of your site as well.
• Include keywords in your Title Tag. Make sure your keywords are also in your Headline (H1) of the page; use the H1 to H6 tag hierarchy giving relative importance to text on your webpage.
• Mirror your key words and key phrases in your content at least 3 or 4 times. Use the terms logically – you cannot just type your key word over and over and over.
• Use bullet point lists containing keywords as a way to break up the page content and add key words w/out having to write longer sentences.
• Bold at least one of your keywords within your content – it gives importance to that word. If you can do this to several keywords without making the content awkward, this is even better.
• Use keywords in your text links to your own site pages.
• Give your images captions and alternative text – this is an opportunity for you to get more key words on the page.
• Acquire user-generated content.

Website Optimization and Marketing Consulting
ELEMENTS Inc. | 805-547-1160 x205

The primary objective of any focused marketing initiative is to drive qualified leads, which convert into users, customers and clients. ELEMENTS specializes in creating business results for franchise and mid-size companies using integrated website optimization and internet marketing strategies, with a firm belief that success can not be obtained with a singular focus on one small portion of “Search Engine Optimization”.

Successful website optimization requires holistic planning and management of all aspects of search engine marketing (SEM) including public relations, website content, keyword buys and search engine optimization, as well as most aspects of information architecture, user-interface and online community best practices. ELEMENTS applies both marketing sensibility and technical expertise for campaigns that focus on customer acquisition and retention.

While the President-elect Barack Obama readies an economic stimulus plan to revive our failed economy, franchises can turn the current recession into positive and successful sales and marketing opportunities. There are a myriad of ways to help you ride the storm, one of them is to revise your marketing strategy.

John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School and known worldwide for his expertise in global marketing, branding and communications, discusses this issue in the Harvard Business Review. His original blog was posted in February 2008 and outlines some excellent ways to address marketing revisions.

Quelch was one of ten marketing experts profiled in Conversations with Marketing Masters, (Laura Mazur and Louella Miles). He also co-authored Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy (Quelch and Katherine Jocz). Additionally is a non-executive director of WPP Group plc, the world’s second largest marketing services company, and of Pepsi Bottling Group. He served previously as a director of Reebok International.

Please read the full article at the HBR, John Quelch, Marketing KnowHow: How to Market in a Recession.

The ripples of our nation’s recession have gotten wider and more far-reaching, touching everyone. Effects from the subprime mortgage crisis have stretched consumer confidence and spending (on credit) to its limit, both of which have been keeping our economy afloat.

Your 2008 marketing strategies are probably already updated this late in the year. We’ve distilled Quelch’s eight factors here. Give yourself some flexibility and consider these principles for your 2009 plans.

1. Know your target customer.
The economy has left consumers with less diposable income and everyone is now more frugal and savvy at finding the good deal. We will spend more time searching for goods and services, drive a harder bargain at the counter, or will trade off: put off purchases until a better deal comes along, settle for less, or buy less. We weigh: want vs. need more heavily. Although brand loyalty is high and those brands can pull off a new product launch, think about limiting new product lines and new brands – they may not be so successful in this market.

2. Home sweet home.
It’s human nature to retreat to the hearth-and-home in stressful times. Rethink and gear your advertising images from action-packed, extreme, and fear factors toward warm-and-fuzzy family images. We spend less by staying in, but still want to be connected, therefore, we will still spend on things that make our homes more comfortable (furnishing and entertainment), as well as greeting cards, telephone and internet use.

3. Maintain marketing spending.
As competitors cut their advertising budget, companies increasing their advertising during a recession experience a high level of success. They improve their market share and lower their return-on-investment. As more consumers stay in, television watching increases and lowers the rate of cost-per-thousand impressions. If you need to reduce your marketing, maintain your frequency of exposure by shifting to shorter advertisements; incorporate radio and direct marketing, possibly giving you more immediate impact on new sales.

4. Keep product line essentials.
Companies need to re-evaluate their product lines and trim the weaker products. Consumers look for good values now more than ever and opt for multi-purpose over specialized products; private label/store brands over more expensive national brands; goods and services a la carte rather than bundled. If you’re launching a new product that puts pressure on competitors by addressing current consumer needs, focus your advertising on a high level of price performance rather than trying to extend your corporate image.

5. Support distributors.
Give your distributors added incentive to stock your full product line by offering early-buy allowances, financing and flexible return policies. Acquiring some strong distribution channels that have been let go by other company and phasing out your own weaker ones may also be good way to beef up your sales force. Beware of damaging the strength of your existing distributors and brand image by expanding into lower-priced channels.

6. Make the price right.
Consumers are hungry for the best deal in tough times. Sweepstakes, mail-in rebates and other promotions requiring a customer’s time and effort are not very attractive. Offer temporary price reductions, lower quantities for bulk discounts, extended credit (trusted customers) and better pricing for smaller pack sizes.

7. Protect your market share.
In this present economy, market share can be a matter of survival, not just a battle for a share. Before implementing cuts or consolidations, make sure you know your cost structure to avoid adversely impacting your customers. Strong national companies with productive cost structures have the best chance at a possible gain in market share. Smaller, but still profitable companies can also vie for a bigger share by acquiring weaker competitors.

8. Put people first.
Companies have had to implement different cost saving strategies, including letting employees go, closing facilities and the like. Executives need to maintain employee and customer morale and confidence by focusing on quality products and services and continuing to provide these to their clients. In a recession when concerns are redirected toward profit and loss, it’s easy to concentrate on balance sheets and managing company capital instead of managing relationships with people – internal and external.

Our ElementsLocal™ online solution provides franchise systems an unmatched ability to give franchise leaders BrandSecure™ online marketing tools. ElementsLocal puts the power of online marketing in your franchisees’ hands, while consistently driving your brand across all web properties.
For more information, call us at 805-547-1160 x205 or visit us at http://www.elementslocal.com/cm/Home.html.

Numerous research groups have conducted studies to determine how people read online (and print) content. Eye tracking research tests the theories and assumptions about this consumer behavior and can help us build a better website and guide better designs.

Although the test methodology may differ, researchers have collected and analyzed data regarding how different aspects of a web page are viewed (headlines, subhead/tag lines, ads, photos and other graphics); how people navigate a website; how long the readers stay with an article and how much of the content they read and content placement may affect any of this. Some research even tests reader retention.

Generally, eye trackers use fancy eye tracking equipment that records the users’ eye movements on a page. The results typically show red/orange/yellow spots where the reader’s eye stops or lingers; green/blue indicate areas that the reader finds less important or interesting, or, in some studies, the areas a reader does not even look at. Some tests also record where the reader clicks on their mouse and how far down the page the participant read or scrolled before bouncing away somewhere else.

Left, Right, Left

Reading in our Western culture flows top left corner to right and has a great influence in these studies. Not surprisingly, the upper left corner of the page (print or web) seems to be the overwhelming favorite gateway to websites. The upper left side of the page was strengthened when strong headlines and company logos (flags) were incorporated into the design of the page. Larger sized headlines obviously being more noticeable than smaller headlines.

Top, Right or Left

After starting in the top left corner of the web page, users’ eyes then moved left to right so logically, users focused on  main navigation bars or other navigational elements that were placed at the top of the page. In some studies, main nav elements in the right hand column got more attention than those in the left hand column. The argument for a right side secondary nav is that the scroll bars are usually on the right side of the browser window. By putting the navigational elements on the right side, you increase your users’ efficiency on your website.

The argument for a left hand secondary nav is that the users’ eye always traveled back to the left side of the page (Western reading), so using the left column for this navigation would seem appropriate. The majority of websites are designed with left hand navigation and users’ are comfortable finding it in this area – force of habit. Forcing a change in this habit could force your user to have to work to figure the page out and potentially spend less time on the important content, or leave the site altogether. A good compromise is to leave the secondary navigation  in the left column and include other calls-to-action items or links in the right column.

Pretty Picture or Catchy Headline?

There’s some controversy over whether people are more attracted to a photo or the web page’s headlines. After landing on a homepage, most users were attracted to content – catchy headlines – more than they were large photos. Content also guides the users’ actions on a site, so good content is critical. Users gravitated toward headlines and summaries leading into the main article as well. In most studies, they preferred content written in short paragraphs. Remember most online users scan for what they are looking for, rather than reading entire paragraphs of content.

However in some studies, users were attracted to larger and more eye-catching photos with good placement: mid-page and above the fold. Users do like content broken up with images (photos or graphics; photos were viewed more than graphics in general), whether larger or icon-sized. Since the text dictates the users actions more than images, compelling images will supplement your content well.

Ads and Folds

Ads placed in those same areas (left side of page, top of page) received a lot of attention, but that placement can cause a design challenge if you want to establish clear brand identity. Ad placement on a web page has more limits on the real estate, so it’s an extremely important exposure issue for advertisers. Users also looked at bigger ads over smaller ones and those placed near content they were interested in reading.

Content and ads placed “below the fold” or in the lower parts of the screen received some attention, but were often overlooked, especially if the user has to scroll too far down. There is some controversy over content placement in the lower right corner or lower parts of a web page, as those areas would be the logical end of the users’ eye movement. The decisions about where to place a call-to-action or an ad are: how far south on the page and above or below the fold. Best practice is usually above the fold.

F+

What we’re really looking at here is an ‘F’. The user enters your web page at the top left corner of the page (top left corner of the ‘F’) . Their eyes them move across the page to the right, comes back to the left side move down the page and then across the page to the right again….a loose ‘F’ pattern. Good web design will take advantage of this almost automatic reading behavior and place critical elements in the page’s strategic hot spots.

• ~ Place a captivating image or a dynamic headline in the top left area is great; combine the two and placing them together has even greater impact.
• ~ Use your left column for secondary navigation – it’s a natural fit for the spine of the ‘F’. And place other important navigational or calls-to-action on the right side of the page where the users’ eye naturally travel makes perfect sense.
• ~ Keep your most important content and eye-catching photographs above the fold helps grab users quickly.
• ~ Write in a way a scanner can rapidly absorb information on your home page to keep their interest. Include links or other strategies to lead users to sub pages where they can read articles in full or gather more information.

I can’t recall how many times I’ve sat in a discovery meeting with a client and it became clear that a design direction was very unclear. During those meetings, the client expressed they either didn’t have an existing website or their website wasn’t working for them for some reason or another. Yet there wasn’t an obvious “next step” solution (or even “first step”) in their mind — only that the client wanted to take a step toward a new site or an improved site. It is critical that an interactive agency provides that clarification and guides the client skillfully through this discovery process. Enter the Creative Brief.

The Creative Brief is a document addendum to the Project Brief (the other invaluable document outlining the entire scope of the new project) that clearly defines all design aspects of the project. Without it, a project can quickly become a mish-mash of random notes, lost communication and a game of they said/we said. None of this bodes well for a successful outcome!

I’ve recently revisited our own Discovery and Creative Brief protocols and revised them. I felt that even more details could be added and fleshed out in the discovery process. The more information we have from our clients at the beginning of the project, the better. But it’s not always obvious what questions to ask. A few topics we discuss with client that eventually make it into the Creative Brief include:

• ~ When someone visits your new website for the first time, what do you want their immediate reaction to be? What are words to describe that?
• ~ How would you characterize the personality and style of your new website?
• ~ What main colors would you use? What complementary colors?
• ~ What existing marketing materials do you have? Should the website emulate them?
• ~ What do your competitors websites look like? Do you like them? Why? or Why not?
• ~ What would your calls-to-action be? What is your primary message? What do you want your users to do?
• ~ What type of imagery will you be using? Photography, illustrations, etc? What flavor of imagery — people shots, kids; lifestyle, commercial; edgy styling, B/W, white space; certain ethnicities, professions, actions?
• ~ What type of navigation scheme do you want? Vertical, horizontal, graphic, text-based? Is there a sub-navigation?

When you get down to it, the website look and feel is much more than “I like this” or “I want it to look cool.” What’s cool needs a definition and needs to work in the scope of existing or new marketing goals, ease of use and navigation, industry best practices and a host of other considerations. A successful website project needs to be a well-defined and understood undertaking.