Friday 26 February 2010
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Sunday 7 February 2010
Friday 5 February 2010
Starting an online business...a few tips from a non tecchie!
As our new online business moves into the end of its first trading quarter, I wanted to pass on a few tips, words of wisdom and experiences to my fellow start ups. Launching as a distributor in the highly competitive promotional merchandise industry sector has been a very steep learning curve!
Tip 1 - Don’t skimp on the website build!
This is not the area to do on the cheap and cheerful because, fundamentally, if the website is not built to be search engine friendly you’re wasting your time and money. So you should also choose your web builder with this in mind. Look at their portfolio and the sites they have built. Do they show signs of having any functionality that you want? How are they ranking? Do they all look the same (and so question the design capability of the company)? You’re looking for examples of good and varied designs, evidence of the inclusion of site maps and good balance between imagery and text.
Tip 2 – Consider Google in all that you do!
It’s the number 1 search engine and it’s not likely to relinquish that spot in the near future. So try and read up on how it works, about the ‘spiders’, the ‘sandbox theory’, what it likes, what it dislikes and build them into your thoughts. For example, we operate in the very competitive promotional merchandise industry. So knowing how highly fought over the keywords ‘promotional merchandise’ is we built them into our name of Code Promotional Merchandise. Only a small point but as the one of the largest retailers in the UK keeps drumming into us...every little helps!
To be honest though, get your website builder choice correct and they should be recommending and implementing this for you. When you brief them (and it only takes an hour to write out your requirements and it removes the chance for disappointment at the end) ensure you clearly state that the site needs to be built to ensure maximum seo friendliness.
Tip 3 – Get writing!
Your website is going to be searched on text, not imagery. So start writing a couple of paragraphs around the key areas of your site. These paragraphs should be your thoughts on the area, include keywords that relate to the topic and make sense! For example, we have a section on writing products that can be used for promotional means. So it highlights the type of products in there e.g. plastic pens, metal pens, recycled pencils etc.
Don’t expect the web builder to write them. They are web builders, not copywriters! And besides, it’s your business so you should know best.
Tip 4 – SEO (the dark arts!)
This is the unknown quantity at the minute for us. The website has been built to a very high ‘seo friendly’ status and we are ranking well. The question is do we commit funds into monthly SEO activity. From what we can gather this is manipulation of keywords, coding etc in order to respond to the competition and keep Google interested. The problem is you will be quoted a shed load of money with not one guarantee that it will get you onto page of Google.
It has to be your call based on your budgets, the market you are in and whether you feel you will rank naturally highly anyway. Shop around, ask for quotes...but if someone guarantees that they will get you onto page 1 make sure you get it in writing as a contract!
Tip 5 – Outbound activity
Don’t just rely of people finding you. Get yourself out there by means of eshots, article submission and news stories. The eshots do not need to be award winning design pieces...we use a an eshot manager that costs us £50 per month, allows us to build trackable eshots using images and texts, is completely compatible with data protection laws and is easy to use. Invest in a targeted email database but measure the bounces and build an acceptable bounce rate into the contract (10% or less I’d suggest).
And article writing is not as daunting as it seems...I mean, your reading this!
Tip 1 - Don’t skimp on the website build!
This is not the area to do on the cheap and cheerful because, fundamentally, if the website is not built to be search engine friendly you’re wasting your time and money. So you should also choose your web builder with this in mind. Look at their portfolio and the sites they have built. Do they show signs of having any functionality that you want? How are they ranking? Do they all look the same (and so question the design capability of the company)? You’re looking for examples of good and varied designs, evidence of the inclusion of site maps and good balance between imagery and text.
Tip 2 – Consider Google in all that you do!
It’s the number 1 search engine and it’s not likely to relinquish that spot in the near future. So try and read up on how it works, about the ‘spiders’, the ‘sandbox theory’, what it likes, what it dislikes and build them into your thoughts. For example, we operate in the very competitive promotional merchandise industry. So knowing how highly fought over the keywords ‘promotional merchandise’ is we built them into our name of Code Promotional Merchandise. Only a small point but as the one of the largest retailers in the UK keeps drumming into us...every little helps!
To be honest though, get your website builder choice correct and they should be recommending and implementing this for you. When you brief them (and it only takes an hour to write out your requirements and it removes the chance for disappointment at the end) ensure you clearly state that the site needs to be built to ensure maximum seo friendliness.
Tip 3 – Get writing!
Your website is going to be searched on text, not imagery. So start writing a couple of paragraphs around the key areas of your site. These paragraphs should be your thoughts on the area, include keywords that relate to the topic and make sense! For example, we have a section on writing products that can be used for promotional means. So it highlights the type of products in there e.g. plastic pens, metal pens, recycled pencils etc.
Don’t expect the web builder to write them. They are web builders, not copywriters! And besides, it’s your business so you should know best.
Tip 4 – SEO (the dark arts!)
This is the unknown quantity at the minute for us. The website has been built to a very high ‘seo friendly’ status and we are ranking well. The question is do we commit funds into monthly SEO activity. From what we can gather this is manipulation of keywords, coding etc in order to respond to the competition and keep Google interested. The problem is you will be quoted a shed load of money with not one guarantee that it will get you onto page of Google.
It has to be your call based on your budgets, the market you are in and whether you feel you will rank naturally highly anyway. Shop around, ask for quotes...but if someone guarantees that they will get you onto page 1 make sure you get it in writing as a contract!
Tip 5 – Outbound activity
Don’t just rely of people finding you. Get yourself out there by means of eshots, article submission and news stories. The eshots do not need to be award winning design pieces...we use a an eshot manager that costs us £50 per month, allows us to build trackable eshots using images and texts, is completely compatible with data protection laws and is easy to use. Invest in a targeted email database but measure the bounces and build an acceptable bounce rate into the contract (10% or less I’d suggest).
And article writing is not as daunting as it seems...I mean, your reading this!
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