If your website isn’t in the top five search results - chances are you won’t get a call.  Savvy auto glass repair and windshield replacement retailers are recognizing this trend and seeking out relationships with firms that can help them get their websites properly positioned in the search results. Donaldson Resources has had great success in helping a variety of independent auto glass retailers in the US gain a strong local presence in the markets they serve.

Some of the independent auto glass retailers that we have had the opportunity to work with in recent times:

• A1 AUTO GLASS
  Fort Worth Auto Glass Repair & Windshield Replacement
• AUSTIN WINDSHIELDS
  Austin Auto Glass Repair & Windshield Replacement
• DEALS AUTO GLASS
  Charlotte NC Auto Glass Repair and Windshield Replacement
• PRECISION GLASS USA
  Portland Oregon Auto Glass Repair and Windshield Replacement
• RAY SANDS GLASS
  Rochester NY Auto Glass Repair and Windshield Replacement

Rosewood Rowan Park management uses the browser-based Content Management System to update information on the website weekly.  Tenants and mobile home owners at each park will soon have access to mobile home rental information, local community ammenities and services, as well as a direct communication tool to talk with Rosewood Rowan Oak park management 24/7.

The new website was officially launched in July 2009. For more information about Rosewood Rowan Oak Mobile Home Parks visit them online at www.roserowanpark.com

How do you choose the right keywords? I usually break it down into three steps:

1. Keyword Research

2. Competitive Analysis

3. Conversion Testing

Keyword Research
Start with a long list of what you think your audience types in to find your products or services. I usually look at single words, 2-word phrases and 3-word phrases, then if it’s a local market, add in the local keywords, such as city, state and/or zip code.

There are a variety of keyword research tools available on the Internet to help you learn how frequently these keywords are typed in, what spin-offs of the phrase are typed in and how many competing web pages are out there.

Some of the resources available - Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and Google Adwords database are just a few of the ways we research to determine which keywords look promising.

Competitive Analysis
Get a good feel for which keywords your competitors are optimized for, and how difficult it might be to break into the top ten or top five group on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This is a very important step, since some keyword phrases are extremely competitive and will require an incredible amount of on-page optimization and a solid linking strategy.

Conversion Testing
Before I settle on the exact keyword phrases to optimize for and build a strong position it’s important to know if this phrase is one that will convert to sales for you. Easiest way to determine this - test. Build your landing page and then develop a short Google Adword campaign. Drive traffic to the landing page, and measure the results to determine if that phrase is a good one. It’s not about how many visitors you get for a keyword - it’s all about how well you convert those visitors to sales.

As website owners we become very familiar with the look and the navigation of our own websites. As we grow tired of seeing the same stuff everyday, its easy to focus site re-designs on the look more so than the functionality or effectiveness of your website as it pertains to your marketing program. Don’t fall victim to change just for the sake of changing. Instead take a closer look at how your website has been performing and what those site stats can tell you before starting a re-design effort.

3 Key Statistics that can Lead to a More Successful Website Update

One of the quickest ways to gather some very useful information about how well your website is working - gather the statistics on your website traffic for the past six months and spend an afternoon reviewing them carefully. Yes, there is usually tons of information there, but I would encourage you to start with three primary areas that can have a significant impact on your website updating process and its overall effectiveness, let’s just look at three major statistics that should have an impact on your website update process:

1. Bounce Rate
   Take a close look at the bounce rate (how many one page visitors) - if it’s greater than 30% then you may be driving the wrong audience to your website, or the message on the page doesn’t match what the visitor was looking for.
2. Most Popular Pages
   Look at the pages that are getting the most traffic - if your primary marketing pages (products/services) are not getting the traffic then it may be time to look more closely at the navigational structure of your site. Is it easy to follow - does it intuitively take the visitor to the most important pages?
3. Call to Action Elements
   When a visitor lands on a page in your website what action to you hope to see this visitor take - call the office - fill out a request for quote - download a brochure/report - fill out the contact form - visit your locations page - look at other services or products - buy something? Do your most popular pages have prominent “Call to Action” elements on each page driving visitors to these next steps?

Starting with the basics tends to lead to more productive results. Armed with this information you can then ask your web design firm to provide you with a much more meaningful proposal. Tell them the areas of concern, ask for recommendations on how to improve these things.

The bottom line - when giving your site a face lift - remember a well constructed site that properly positions display your brand, positions your company and engages your audience will drive more sales.

The technical term for those pesky “untitled pages” is Page Title. It’s not technically a meta tag, but it is a part of the source code header on your website pages. It also shows up at the bottom of your browser to help you know a little more about the page your viewing. In the past many website designers would simply put the same page title on all pages - it’s easy and fast, but not very effective in communicating to your audience exactly what each page in your website is all about.

Google now provides your webmaster with a tool to check all pages in your website for Page Titles and to confirm they are within the acceptable character limit and not duplicated on pages within your site. Google also offers this same type of diagnostic tool for the meta tag called “Description”. Both play an important role in search engine optimization and should not be ignored by the site owner.

With that in mind, comes my second tip of the new year -

• Verify all pages in your website have a unique page title
• Confirm that the length of the page title is within 64 characters
• Verify all pages within your website have unique description meta tags
• Confirm that the length of the description meta tag is within the display limit of 158 characters

Not the webmaster of your website? Not a problem. You can check this yourself before making the call to your webmaster for assistance. Just go to Google and in the search bar type in site: www.mywebsite.com and look at the results returned. It should be a comprehensive listing of all the pages in your website and each entry will show you the page title and the description meta tag.

Making your website more productive and increasing the return on your investment is often overlooked until some other element of your marketing program needs propped up and then the focus is on the website. . .

Your website can serve many purposes - provide customers with product support information, show prospects your capabilities, assist customer service and sales people in communicating the benefits of your products/services, provide a means for on-line ordering, the list goes on…

Over the coming months I will share with you many of the lessons I have learned in marketing on the web. This week’s tip:

Review the marketing pages and contact pages on your website. “Marketing” pages are those that sell or feature your product/services.

1. Is the content accurate?
2. Does it include recent product/service updates?
3. Do you make available to your audience a way to download your product/service brochure?
4. Do you have a contact us button and your phone number on all of your marketing pages?
   Is the contact information on your contact page correct?
5. Check the distribution list on the contact form results.
   Are the right people in your organization receiving the inquiries from your website?

Seems like a pretty short list, but quite often overlooked. When someone lands on your product/service page, let’s make sure you’re putting your best foot forward.