Past columns have talked about making sure your web site is ready to receive visitors before you spend your time, money and effort inviting them, and that concept is so important.  You have only the one chance, probably, to make that favorable first time impression, and if you don’t grab them in the first three seconds or so of their initial visit, you’ve likely lost them to your competition.

This is not the same thing as saying your web site needs to be beautiful – – really, it means only that it can’t be ugly.  Purpose and process are far more important than pretty, something I have written of often, and yet folks still get hung up on the pretty.

Attention spans are very short in real life today, and shorter, still, on the Internet.  If a user has spent time and effort searching for something in particular, they want that particular something quickly once they find it.  Your “call to action,” what to do and how to do it, is far more important than your pretty, so if you need a definition of “purpose and process,” there it is.  Tell your visitor what to do and how to do it, and then get out of their way.

Graphical works better than words, and if your product or service lends itself well to a graphical call to action, put it “above the fold,” where the visitor will see it as soon as the page opens.  Purpose and process – – give your visitor what he or she wants.  Make it easy for them, and stay out of their way.

But, let’s get back to how the Internet is used. It’s a single word – – searches.  People use the Internet to search – – for products, for services, for news, for answers.  What do they use for their searches?  Search engines.  Google, alone, is used for 1 billion searches per day world-wide.  The average Internet user conducted about 33 searches online per month in 2009  and that number is expected to grow to about 50 in the next five years.

Google represents about 67% of the searches conducted every day, more than any other search tool.  Last year, both Google and Yahoo began incorporating real time search from Twitter and blog feeds.  This will contribute to the growth of searches per month because it makes the results of those searches more relevant.  Search tool bars for Internet Explorer and Firefox will contribute to the growth of searches, too.  But it still comes down to searches.

How does your web site end up as one of those search results?  By its content.  Searches are still word value-based, irrespective of the search tool used.

What does that mean from a practical standpoint?  Do your research, find out what the inventory is for every conceivable word or phrase someone might use in a search for which you want to be found, and then make sure there’s enough of a search inventory to warrant having those words on your site.  In other words, find out what people are already searching for that has to do with your product or service, and then make sure your web site content is crafted around those keywords.

When you’ve done that research and have your list of keywords you know users are already searching for, then and only then are you ready to create content.  Without the knowledge aforehand that comes from solid research and well-conceived plan, the chances of success that come from a carefully coordinated strategy among all of the resources and online tools is diminished greatly. And when I speak of content, I mean content on your web site, content on your Twitter page, content on your Facebook business page, content in your blog.  If you haven’t done your research, assembled your Plan, and coordinated all of that content before you undertake its creation, you’re really just wasting your time.

Everything in its place, in proper order, all aspects correctly interwoven.  This is the best practices approach to the development of an overall Internet Marketing Plan, and is far more likely to achieve the success you hope for – – not high follower numbers on Twitter, not high friend numbers on Facebook; rather, visitor traffic to your web site with a high conversion rate.

“Followers” and “Friends” are nice, but a good conversion rate is the brass ring.  Get your web site ready first, make your Plan first, create your call to action first, craft your unified content first.  Then, you’ve maximized your chances for success.

Google made some major missteps in rolling out its Buzz, but that will pass. Once Facebook introduces its own email product (development well underway), the competition will become even mightier.

What does this mean for your web site marketing strategy, and is there a common element addressing both of these tools to improve your traffic?

Well, obviously, you need a presence on Facebook.  Your presence can’t be static, though.  It is no more true with Facebook than it has always been for your web site.  The “Build it and they will come” Internet strategy has never worked, and it still amazes me that so many think they simply need a web site to make their fortune.

Actually, let’s expand the discussion about social media to include Twitter, because it’s an excellent tool in its own right as a part of an overall social media marketing strategy.  And, the right tool for the right job applies as equally in this mix.

The element common to all of these tools, one so often overlooked or neglected, is actually the starting point in your social media marketing strategy.  The concept that “Content is King” has morphed just a bit, but it is as valid a concept today as it ever was.

Think about this carefully:  Social media works only if you have compelling content and something interesting to say.  Punch up your copy first – then invite guests.

Your strategy in the social media arena will be wasted energy if you have nothing of value to say on your website.  Traffic is one thing; but a clear “call to action” and meaningful content to back it up must be in place before the guests arrive, or the effort you invested inviting them will be for naught.

We’ve preached content growth and content refreshing, carefully planned, strategized and crafted around the most appropriate keywords for your business, for years.  It’s as true and necessary today as it has ever been, and it’s the reason we’re writing this piece to our blog today, as a matter of fact.

We want visitors to find a good take-a-way, something worthwhile and of value.  We want our visitors to find enough of interest in our content to help with their own online efforts, and hopefully something sufficiently useful to make them want to return later to learn something else of use.

We’ll then use our social media strategy (Twitter and Facebook, at least) to promote this piece, and hope it brings those visitors.  Excerpt feeds to our home page place these thoughts prominently for those visitors to see, as does our use of the Twitter Widget in the home page’s right side bar just below those excerpt feeds.

But, it starts with the content of the site.  We’ll say it again:  Social media works only if you have compelling content and something interesting to say.  Punch up your copy first – then invite guests.

By taking that first step, by offering that meaningful content, you’ll be ready to entertain and inform your guests when they arrive.  Neither your time nor theirs will be wasted, and you’ll have a much better chance to engage them in a solid conversation.

That is the point of the exercise, after all.

Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site. Depending on whose statistics you use, it’s either the most frequently visited site each day, or it’s number two behind Google, 400 million members strong.  YouTube, Yahoo and Live round out the top five.  Facebook is moving toward its initial public stock offering, and everything it can think of is being monetized.

If you visit the site, you’ve already seen those advertisements in the right side bar.  More of that is coming, and as it does, your privacy is going.

You know how you’re asked about allowing your profile to be accessed every time you want to take one of those silly “Quizzes” on Facebook, like “How Well Do You Know So-and-So”?  If your email address is listed in your profile, you’ve just been added to someone’s mailing list and can expect to be receiving marketing emails.

Privacy has long since disappeared, and on the Internet, and especially on Facebook, whatever thin veil you think might still exist is useless in hiding any of the good parts.  Notwithstanding Facebook’s published Privacy Guide, your info is not the least bit safe.

Money has everything to do with it.  Currency on the Internet is traffic, and in that sense, Facebook is a currency printing press. Eyeballs on the site in those numbers make the Googles of the world salivate.  Add to that the email addresses for e-newsletter marketing, and, well . . . you get the point.

And lest you think the toothpaste can be jammed back into the tube, try getting that embarrassing Facebook update off Facebook’s server, or out of Google’s cache.  The only option you have is to take comfort in the notion of once burned, twice shy, and vow never to put anything anywhere on the Internet you can’t live with forever.

But, it still comes down to money.  Privacy issues can stand in the way of monetisation, and when that choice has to be made, the answer is clear.  Making money is not a bad thing, mind you.  The costs of maintaining sites like Facebook, Twitter and so many others is substantial, and business is business.  It’s why the sites and systems were developed in the first place.

Just be careful.  Forever is a long time.

Blogs are pure content, and as you have read on these pages often before, content is still king on the Internet. Content growth and content refreshing are two of the practices we recommend to every one of our clients, and with good reason.

Search engines reward the growth of content on a site, and why wouldn’t they?  More content, well planned and regularly added, keeps a site dynamic and interesting for its visitors.  Take a moment and read the Webmaster Guidelines at Google, and you will find the strongest of recommendations that sites be made user friendly with helpful content.

Reviewing your site’s performance, and staying abreast of Internet user search habits, help you identify keywords, especially of the long-tail variety, that your potential customers are using in searches you want to be found for, and refreshing your content puts you in front of their eyes.  Blogs can help you do that.

They are as easy to manage and write to as emails are to write and send.  Blog systems will have a password-protected back end, and a rich text editor that works very much like MS Word or Open Office Word.  Anyone familiar with email sending can write to a blog.

Writing for a blog is not something to be intimidated by, either.  We tell clients what they write is not as important that they write, and since we assume you know your business and your products and your services, writing about them should come easy to you.  Blog systems even have spell-checking, so there’s no excuse for misspelled words, either.

All of that having been said, take a step back and look again at what you are reading and where.  We customized the blog system and seamlessly integrated it into our web site.  We added an excerpt feed from it to the home page of our site, too.

Every time we write a new blog post, like this column, the content of our site has grown.  And, because of the excerpt feed to the home page, every time we write a new blog post, the content on our home page gets refreshed.

Now, look even closer.  One of the services we offer is search engine optimisation, writing content for a client’s site optimised for the most appropriate keywords, all designed to improve search engine rank position for those keywords.  SEO is our business, and one of the better tools for SEO best practices is a blog.

See the title of this blog post?  “The SEO Benefits of a Blog.” See the first paragraph of this blog post?  “The SEO benefits of having a blog . . . ” are included in the excerpt feed to the home page of our web site.

Having a blog as a part of your web site gives you the ability to grow the content of your site, introduce and increase the keywords that are the most appropriate for your business, and refresh the content of your home page.  These all represent search engine optimisation best practices, and help improve your search engine rank position.

That’s why we recommend a blog to every one of our clients.  As you have seen, we also follow our own advice.

We’ve written so many times about basic SEO concepts, and yet it’s still the most common question we get asked everywhere we go. “I’ve got this new web site, take a look, let me know what you think,” are some of the most often spoken words to us.  And, “I rank #1 on Google for our site’s name” is another.

The purpose of this test today, though,  is to see how well you know your own site,  and not what we think of it. So, let’s get to the questions, and we’ll see your degree of self-awareness:

1.  For which keywords have you optimised your web site?

2.  Where does your site rank on Google, Yahoo and Bing for those keywords?

3.  Which search engines are sending visitors to your site and in what numbers?

4.  What searches are your visitors conducting on those search engines that bring them to your site?

Four questions, a pretty easy test.  How did you do?  How many could you answer?  Let’s review the importance of the answers and let you know your grade.

1.  One of the concepts many don’t yet get is that you choose the keywords for which your site will be ranked.  You choose those keywords based upon your product or service and the keyword inventory of how many searches are being conducted for those keywords on search engines now.  You write your home page copy, your page titles, your meta description, to incorporate those keywords in a good density that will insure a good search engine indexing.

In short, you choose, and you optimise based upon your choices.  So, if you don’t know what keywords your web site has been optimised for, you didn’t do your work properly.  For those of you who do know, though, we say “Well Done.”

2.  Assuming you got a “Well Done” on the first question, and your site has been optimised for the right keywords and in the right way, the rank results on Google, Yahoo and Bing should be good.  That will mean your site is easy to find in a search at one of those engines, and perhaps is in the top 20, or even the top 10.  Simply go to one of them and enter one of the keywords for which your site has been optimised – - and then scroll through until you find your site listed.

If you don’t find it in the first two or three results pages, then perhaps you optimised it for the wrong keywords; or, your keyword density is too low for a good rank.  This means you have more work to do on your site.

3.  Your site should have some statistical gathering tool for you to review, whether it be one provided by your hosting company, like Webalizer, or perhaps Google Analytics or Yahoo Web Analytics.  Any one of those will be able to tell you which search engines are sending visitors to your site, and in what number. This data is helpful in determining the success or failure of your optimisation efforts, and should be reviewed at least monthly.  How else will you know whether you are on the right track?

4.  This is the second part of question #3, actually.  Those statistical gathering tools will tell you what searches your visitors actually conducted that lead them to your site.  Once again, the word or phrase used in a search for which your site is a relevant result is called . . . . a keyword.

It’s important to know how visitors are finding your site.  The data tells you whether your efforts in creating optimised content were successful.  The data also tells you what adjustments in your content might help improve your rank position to make it even easier for people to find your site.

So, how did you do?  How many could you answer?  What did your answers tell you?

These are only four questions, four basic questions.  There are many more that should be asked on a regular basis.  Search engine optimisation is not once-off, no matter what anyone else tells you.

When you open a “sticks and bricks” store, you don’t simply open the door and expect to find a queue already.  You hang a sign, place adverts in the local papers, perhaps consider radio spots, neighborhood leaflets.  Even these are not once-off efforts – - they continue from month to month, season to season, and that’s how you grow your business.

On the Internet, it’s the same.  You don’t just launch your site and have a queue form the next day.  SEO is ongoing, or at least it should be if you wish to be successful with your online presence.

If you couldn’t answer those four simple questions, that success is not likely to happen.

Perhaps an example might help. I hesitate to tell the story because I don’t want to create the impression it’s SEO lightning that will strike the same place time and time again. There’s no magic to it, and just taking the time to read the Webmaster Guidelines Google offers will tell you that. And, SEO efforts achieve varying degrees of success at different speeds depending on the web site, its subject matter/products/services, and a site owner’s dedication to engage in ongoing best practices.

With that said, let’s look at Inuit Images. John and Victoria have been operating an Inuit Art Gallery for thirteen years, and their web site was ten years old when they called KISS. The Inuit sculptures, carvings, drawings and master works are beautiful, authentic, and both prehistoric and contemporary.

Yet, even with that tenure on the Internet, the web site did not rank well for keywords associated with their art. We were asked to give their site a face lift and help them be found a bit easily in searches. We performed our due diligence on keyword inventory research, assembled a list of keywords to target, wrote new page titles, meta description and structured copy, helped them find a new look and feel for the site, and launched the new version in early October.

Last week, we reviewed the site’s first month performance and were delighted to find that its rank position for the targeted keywords, which for the old site was not in the top 50 results in any instance, had improved into the top 25: “inuit art” has them ranked #25; “inuit art sculptures” at #8; “inuit sculptures” at #13; “inuit art books” #24; “eskimo art” at #6; and, “inuit art gallery” at #18.

These are keywords for which their site wants to rank well – – they all have to do directly with their gallery offerings and the pieces they present. There’s no mystery here, either. You assemble the list of keywords, craft the copy around it, and review the statistical data periodically to see how the content is performing.

Results are not always this quick, to be honest, and not often as dramatic. We always assume the first month will simply establish a baseline performance for the second month’s stats, and hope for some movement by then. The basics don’t change, though, and the exercise is still the same.

Of course, there is more to the work than these steps. There’s link building strategies, social networking (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), as well as content growth and refreshing, to mention a few. Websites are perpetual works in progress, frankly.

But, that’s where it all begins: compelling content that targets the right keywords; words in all the right places; keywords in the right frequency; page titles; headings; main body text; all coordinated for a solid and strong indexing by the search engines.

It does work.

Dublin businesses and anyone wishing to reach consumers in the Dublin market can open accounts in the site and create vouchers to be made available to those consumers. There is an off-line component to Micheal’s new venture, also – print versions of vouchers that will be distributed door to door in the areas where the businesses are located.

We wish Micheal well and the very best success. We’re been asked to remain involved in the management of the system, and will be writing for its blog and Twitter account as part of our SEO marketing services for Dublin Vouchers.

Those four site elements were: page title, meta description, headings, and word count/keyword density. So that we could make sure everyone was on the same page, we offered a definition of “keyword”: a word or phrase a person was likely to use when searching for a web site’s product or service for which the site would want to be a high-ranked result.

Past columns to this blog have addressed the importance of page title, meta description, headings and word count/keyword density, and they can be reviewed in the Web Copy Writing/SEO category if you’re interested. What I want to talk about today is the self test we gave the group at the end of the presentation – – our idea for a good “take-a-way” from the meeting. I’d like to offer it for you to take on your own, and don’t worry – – it’s easy, quick, and there’s no follow-up quiz for you.

Pretend for a moment you are not you, and you don’t know your web site exists. Instead, you are a person looking for the real you and your web site, and the product or service you sell. You are that person sitting in front of your computer ready to conduct a search on Google or Yahoo or Bing or one of the other search engines to find the real you.

Make a list of the words or phrases you would enter in the search field to find the product or service you promote and sell on your web site. Write three or four search phrases that occur to you. Remember, now, you aren’t you, and you don’t know your web site exists – – all you know is the product or service you want to find.

Then, with that list in front of you, go to your web site and look at your page title, your meta description, your headings and your home page content. If you don’t find the keywords from your list in any or all of those places, and in the right frequency, you have some serious work to do on your site. If those keywords aren’t there, it’s not likely anyone is going to find you in their search.

There’s a lot more to SEO than this simple test, but it’s a good start. It’s a worthwhile exercise, and it will be very instructive for you.

While a stamp is not necessary to send an email, technology is. Companies use Microsoft Exchange servers for the service to their staff, and the software is not free. Neither are the servers or their management. The only other option, at least for operating systems, is the Linux competition.

Linux operating systems are free – - at the server level it might be the Red Hat version, or the FreeBSD version, and each has been around for a long time.  While the software is not necessarily free, perhaps from Novell GroupWise, it is less expensive than Microsoft Exchange software, and requires less maintenance, and fewer updates.

A study done earlier in the year compared these overall costs, and found that companies could cut the total cost of email by up to 64% if they were to switch from Microsoft Exchange to Novell GroupWise.  The report was published by independent analyst house Osterman Research.

They based their findings on a global survey of 132 organizations, and compared the total cost of email systems.  An organization with 1,000 users, they found, spends an average of $29.67 per Exchange email account, while just $11.64 for Novell GroupWise accounts on a Linux server.

In the spirit of disclosure, KISS is an open source company, and our servers use FreeBSD as their operating systems.  Our work stations are powered by a Linux derivation system, also.  In at least one instance, Novell’s Evolution, a free email client similar in functionality and features to Microsoft’s Outlook, is used.  However, KISS is not affiliated with  either Osterman Research Group or Novell, and are not compensated for this blog post.

The Osterman report also indicated that the average person spends almost one-third of their workday on email, and sends/receives an average of 124 messages every work day.  With about three-quarters of all outgoing communications today done via email, it has become critical to a company’s everyday business activity.

At the very least, it is worth serious consideration in the corporate world how best to manage the costs of doing business.  Reviewing the cost of the single most important communication vehicle in the world today should be on the list.

While it is a mostly Microsoft world we live and work in, it is not the only technology world available to us.  Linux does offer a meaningful alternative, as this Osterman Research report, which you can access here, suggests.

The title of the article is “The Facebook Death Watch Begins,” and the premise of the piece is that Facebook will eventually die an incredibly profitable death, but die it will. His reasoning is sound, and every web entrepreneur should pay attention.

Basically, the article suggests that Facebook will wither and die because it is trying to be all things to all people.  Rather than concentrate its efforts on being the best at one or two features, Facebook is trying to do too many things.

Photo sharing?  Sure, but that’s what Flickr does about as well as it can be done.  Gaming?  Sure.  Email?  You betcha.  Social meeting place?  Okay.  But, there are plenty of alternatives to each of those, and everyone has their favorite.

We don’t always go to the same restaurant every time we eat out.  We don’t watch the same movie over and over.  We don’t always play a game of golf with the same three people every round.  We mix things up, we all like variety, and we have our own ways of doing things.

AOL tried to be all things to all people, and it failed spectacularly.  When you try to be all things, ultimately you become no thing.  Those who concentrate all of their efforts and apply all of their strengths to one or two endeavours usually succeed.

A restaurant that has 100 items on its menu, from Italian to Chinese to Thai and every ethnic offering you can think of, can’t possibly offer the best in each, certainly not the way a single ethnic restaurant can.  It has to carry too many raw ingredients to meet menu demands; the costs to carry such a high inventory eventually pulls it down; and, those wanting Chinese will go to a Chinese restaurant, not the “all foods to all people” place.

When it comes to your online business, don’t follow AOL’s model, and don’t emulate Facebook’s everything to everyone approach. Pick the one or two things you believe yourself to be the best at, and devote your energy to them.

Online shoppers have their favorite websites for the products they buy online.  They’ve had a good shopping experience somewhere, feel comfortable with the purchases they’ve made, and go back to where they’ve had that success.

From an online marketing standpoint, especially when it comes to search engine optimisation, the more finely focused your efforts are, the better the results will be.  A single, strong home page call to action that grabs the visitor’s attention quickly and clearly will most often lead to your getting your most desired response from that visitor.

Keep it simple, and solutions are easy to find.  Facebook will make its owners a great deal of money, but I do agree that eventually it will suffer the same fate as AOL – - it will over-reach and topple over from too many things.  Don’t let that happen to your web site.