Web Sites Still Matter!: Your Home Page Is Your Home Page

From my co-author, all around good guy, and someone who really "gets" communications of every kind, Shel Holtz.
...................................
These things are true:

• If your website domain isn't instantly intuitive, people will go to a search engine to find you
• If people are looking for companies that do what your company does, they will go to a search engine to find you
• As people conduct searches about your organization, they'll find what has risen to the top, whether it's positive or negative
• With increasing regularity, people visit destinations other than standard websites when trying to learn about an organization

I get all that. And yet I am increasingly irritated when I hear someone utter this nonsense:

Google is your new homepage.

This phrase produces more than 8,500 results in a Google search, mostly blog posts exhorting companies to embrace this belief. Yes, search in general and Google in particular are vitally important. But your homepage is your homepage.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, let's remember that a homepage is defined as the opening page of a web site. Your index file, not Google, is the opening page to your web site. But this is a bigger issue than just a formal definition.

While the era of the destination website may be over, the corporate website is far from dead. The notion suggests that destination website no longer dominate the customer's attention online. They once did, mainly because there wasn't much else online to see. Now, with social networking and online video dominating people's attention, the importance of the destination website has diminished.

That only means traditional websites are now part of a bigger mix of options online, not that their usefulness has vanished.

The 2009 Trust Barometer from Edelman reiterates that a company's own website is one of the most credible source of information a company can provide about itself, beating business blogs, social networking sites or advertising. Only corporate communications — such as press releases, white papers and emails — ranked higher, and only by a two percentage points. And while searches of Google News and Yahoo News ranked higher, searches of the core Google search engine didn't even make the list. At the very top of the list you won't find any new media at all, but rather the staid and traditional industry analyst report, reinforcing the high levels of trust people place in third-party experts.

Certainly, consumers may glean information that doesn't help your company's cause when searching Google. In fact, according to one study, search engines are the most common way consumers find opinions about products, brands and services. But if they're looking for what you have to say, they'll still click through to your website, and most often the top search result will connect consumers to your homepage.

Your website is also the home of the static content that still serves a purpose. The bio of your CEO, shareholder information, details of your corporate social responsibility efforts, archives of your news releases (your authoritative statements of record), job listings — all these represent details people need.

And search engine optimization, which has become a core corporate activity as the importance fo search continues to grow, is still about enabling discovery of your content on your site. As this Google-as-home-page notion gains currency, I fear people will spend less resources on the maintenance of their websites — an odd dilemma, since one SEO fundamental is to continuously update your website and infuse it with new content.

Still, according to a study just released today, web content managemente has fallen as an intrinsic component of organizations' communication efforts. While social networking is part of web-based communications for about 72% of organizations, web content management is an activity among only about 53%. That's particularly odd given that the study found SEO is an activity at nearly 70% of organizations. What's more, web content management is declining as a skill companies look for when making a PR hire.

That is, more organizations are optimizing their sites for search than are managing those sites in order to ensure that the sites offer value to those who find them, despite the fact that corporate websites are among the most credible communication a company can produce.

That's a huge disconnect.

SEO, along with social media engagement, are critical, but let's not lose sight of the basics as we embrace new media. SEO is a critical skill and companies must do it well. But your homepage is still your homepage.

Uhh Ohh, another site

Alright, I can't control myself.  I've launched another site.

Warning: so far, it's ugly, only one page, and full of typos no doubt!

Salt Water Fly Fishing Reels

I'm a pretty serious salt water fly fisherman, and lots of the questions I get from others have to do with fly reels,  so why not put the info online?

Nothing fancy or exciting, just some text that answers common questions I get - trying to add value online, and maybe even make a few bucks (I will add ads eventually - no, I think I will now).

It's only one page so far, but I have another 10 mapped out, based on both talking to saltwater fly fishermen and Google keyword research.

True longtail keyword research often has an online AND offline component!

Wii Games - My Kids' Web site

I've helped my kids start a Web site - they actually have a lot of input although I do most of the technical bits and ghostwriting.

Jamie, 9, Amelia, 6, and Stacie, 5, have a new Nintendo Wii.  They are pretty excited.

So we started a Web site on Wii game reviews. We've gone through some keyword research together using the Google Keyword Research Tool, and are writing some reviews using long tail keywords.

For example, 1300 people a month Google "Wii Active Life Outdoor Challenge" (exact match, meaning they type in exactly that phrase). Yet there are only 921 pages that have that exact phrase (found by Googling the phrase in quotes - Google tells you how matches there are).

Now of those 921 pages that use that phrase, how many do you think concentrate, i.e. are optimized for, exactly that phrase? Probably very very few -- we didn't research further. Instead we threw up a quick yet hopefully useful review, using both personal experience and that of others to add more value (i.e. we read about 150 other reviews online).

I'm betting we snag some of those 1300 searches a month.

We've added Google AdSense, and may add a few other potential moneymakers like Amazon Affiliate links and ClickBank ebooks. My kids will get to buy new games with any proceeds, and if it's a total flop, I'm sure we'll still make enough after expenses to buy 2-3 games minimum.

What did it cost, other than time? Well, I bought OurWiiGames.com for US$2.19 from a domain name sale at GoDaddy this week, normal price about $10.00, and I already have several hosting accounts so that was a non-issue (it's hosted on BlueHost which I recommend - cheap and good).

Now instead of wondering what I'm doing on the computer all day, well, they have an idea now.

PS: My 6 year old wanted it to be a blog, but quite honestly, her writing weekly might just be a bit too much extra work for me :) (she does write well, and may probably be blogging within a year or two)

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Is Google or computers in general making us stupid?

Certainly the way we deal with information, the way we read, and our expectations have changed. Spelling is no longer very important at all.

Is it true that "as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence?"

Fascinating article, although long-winded as we nowadays tend to read it bits and bites, in The Atlantic by Nicholas Carr: Is Google Making Us Stupid.

Thanks to Morty Schiller for the heads up!

How to Promote Yourself With Blog Comments and More, Part II

How to Promote Yourself With Blog Comments, Part I - click here

Here's part two of how to promote yourself, your blog, your Website, your charity, your sleazy underworld pursuits, or anything else  using blog comments.

I'm just giving you the tools -- please play nicely now!

How do you make search engines jump up and down in excitement about how cool you or whatever you're promoting is, whether it's a charity or even something sleazy?

As I said last week, "blog comments are awesome. They let you enter someone else's Internet real estate and leave public statements, which can make you look smart, drive traffic to your blog or Web site, and make Google and the other search engines jump up and down in excitement about how cool you are too."

Did you know that most traffic on the Internet is driven by the search engines, especially by Google, which is #1 by a long shot?

That's why search engine positioning, where you show up in the search engine results, really matters a lot.

For example, my new Web site flyrodstripedbass.com, is getting over 80 visitors a day JUST FROM GOOGLE. And the visitors are sticking around and reading several pages because they like the content (good content is very important, but you know that right?).

We can't go into all the reasons right now as to why Google digs my new site, but one primary reason is because it has a lot of links to it from other Web sites and blogs. Google and the other search engines take each link as a "vote of confidence" -- if it's worth linking to, it must be valuable they reason.

Well, there are lots of ways to get links, including leaving blog comments, buying links (called "text link advertising"), registering with directories, etc.

But let's step back - the search engines:

IGNORE MOST LINKS FROM BLOG COMMENTS!

You see, there are two types of links.

• Ordinary links, called "do follow links" and
• No follow links, which search engines ignore

Most blog comments utilize no follow links, in part to combat comment spam.

All intelligent blog comments are valuable, because readers may see them and follow them to your blog or Web site.

Unfortunately, all do follow blog comments, even comment spam, are valuable as the search engines take them as a vote of confidence. That's why we see comments like "wrerw effwefwe ewewffew" left by "Cheap Vaigra."

This causes a link to be made with the anchor text (the clickable part) of  "Cheap Viagra" and if the comment is left on a "do follow" blog, the search engines not only take the link as a vote of confidence for the cheap Viagra site, but they also use the anchor text to help figure out what's important about the linked to site.

Leave a couple million comments like this using automated spamming software and some of them will be do follow and your site promoting cheap (and probably fake) Viagra will get more search engine traffic, you'll sell more cheap vaigra, and perhaps live long and prosper, although I hope you die a early death in prison you miserable spammer!

I'm assuming my readers are good people and we're just looking at mechanics here.
Of course they can be used for good as well as evil.

So, "do follow" comments, actually any "do follow" links are very valuable, especially if you can use keywords as your name, the anchor text.

So, how do you find "do follow" blogs?  Several ways:
(most spammers don't get this -- don't tell them!)

• There are do follow blog search engines, for example
  http://dofollow.thegermz.com/
• You can use the Firefox browser with the following plugin which highlights links
  depending on their follow status
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5687
  Red is no follow, blue is do follow
• You could just look at the underlying HTML code!

There is one other method I suggest, but it costs $5 a month
(pretty cheap, huh?).

Easy Backlink Builder sends you 30 easy to get do follow links back to your site each month. They're not all blogs, but they all let you build do follow links back to whatever you're promoting, as long as you're nice, leave good comments, don't spam, follow sites terms of service, etc.

Let's look at two real (and ethical) Examples

#1) I have a Website on fly fishing, www.flyrodstripedbass.com

Now I do make some money from this site, but it primarily exists because I LOVE to fly fish, especially for Striped Bass.

I left comments on do follow fishing blogs to help build the sites importance to the search engines and get more traffic from them.

Actually I used Easy Backlink Builder as part of my strategy to help find places to (politely and respectfully) drop back links.

Hey, it's a fishing site, and I'm a fanatical fisherman. Leaving comments on fishing and related blogs makes perfect sense.

#2) "Bob Smith" (not his real name) has a common name. He has no Web site or blog of his own, but does use LinkedIn and considers his LinkedIn profile to be his home on the Internet.

If you Googled Bob, his LinkedIn profile showed up on page 7 of the search engine results. Everything else was some other Bob Smith.

Bob created a couple of backlinks to his profile, primarily using do follow blog comments (as well as leaving plenty of no follow blog comments), each week. Now, a few months out, if you Google Bob Smith he's THE NUMBER ONE RESULT!

So, Bob left a very few thoughtful comments each week, and he went from essentially unfindable to extremely findable!

Now as an aside, not all links are created equal. Links from important and related sites are worth more than links from obscure and unrelated sites, but pretty much all links matter.

Disclaimer: If you try Easy Backlink Builder I get enough money to buy a cup of coffee -- but not one of the expensive froufrou coffee drinks at Starbucks :)

SO:

• Build backlinks, but be nice!
• Bloggers don't need to be too concerned as bloggers naturally link to each other -- but "manually" creating a few links can and does make a big difference
• Many big companies including Fortune 500s spend a lot of effort building backlinks

OK, so why would someone have a "do follow" blog and how do you do it?
Stand by for part III!

Green Hosting for Blogs and Websites

Green Hosting? What's that?

I've just signed up with DreamHost, a Carbon-Neutral Web Hosting company.

I've been through a lot of hosting companies for my blogs and Web sites, and so far DreamHost is great!

They are definitely cost competitive, ranging from US$5.95 to $10.95 a month, which INCLUDES a free Domain name registration (you can use it immediately or save for later on).

WordPress support, including one click install, and just about everything else you might want is included, and they have a 97 day money back guarantee.

Click here to check out DreamHost

I've signup up for a year - it's cheaper if you sign up for multiple years, but although their great reputation, moneyback guarantee, and the fact that I love them so far, don't sign up for too long, for example 10 years. Too much an change in 10 years!

Build an Online Playground

I built an online playground, something just for fun, and I've learned A LOT while having fun building, writing, talking and more about a personal passion, fly fishing, and it's even made me a few bucks (why a couple just today) and the site is just getting going.

Need to Know, a free book by Paul Myers, a guy I respect and learn a lot from, convinced me. I recommend the book strongly - everyone will get at least something from it I think.

Passing on the favor, I got a friend to build an online playground too.

Had lunch with my friend Jeremy today - he's 100% totally into farming -- local food, organic, healthy, and he probably digs goats too (very environment friendly).

Jeremy has some big plans to do related things online, including video, comprehensive Web sites, blogs, etc.

We all have big plans. Some of them get done  - sometimes.

But sometimes we just need a stake in the ground. The beginnings of our online playground.

Jeremy just did it! Maine Local Food - currently a one page blog/Web site which promotes worthwhile local Maine food related businesses. It took him a couple of hours maximum.

It's a beginning of something he's into, something he's passionate about, his online playground.

Your online playground could be a blog, a Facebook or LinkedIn group, a Website, etc.

Here's the list of Internet resources I personally use.

So, go forth, do something fun online! You may already be doing it.

Need to Know, a free book by Paul Myers, got me started. I got Jeremy started. You should start too if you haven't yet.

Click here to get Need to Know - it's free and a fun read

Blog Only - Or Blog and Website?

There is a trend to have a blog only instead of a Web site and a blog, although that is certainly not for everyone or every organization. Most traditional businesses are expected to and should have a Web site. Could you image going to Walmart's site online and only finding a blog? Probably not. Then again, if I went to my auto mechanic's site and found a blog with hours, directions, and other info in the sidebars, and a post on seasonal car care tips, that would work extremely well.

Here are two examples of people who would just start a blog if they started anew. Guy Kawasaki, has mentioned that if he did it all over he would just start a blog, and in the sidebars of his blog he would have links to all the "brochure type" and other information he has on his website. He almost never updates his website, but he updates his blog almost daily. Also Michael McLaughlin, who is the co-author of "Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants," started both a website and a blog to promote his book but if he did it again, he also would just start a blog.

Most companies however will need a Web site, perhaps even more than one. Most people are familiar with traditional Web sites, and that's what they expect to find. Also Web sites are better than blogs for many purposes, for example a retailer who has many different products available, and sites that contain primarily "evergreen" material that is rarely updated or added to.

Me personally? I am keeping my website as well as my blog. Traditionally I have some very large corporate clients, some big Fortune 500 companies, and they certainly expect and understand websites very well. That said, when considering engaging me for a project, they almost always find my blog and enjoy looking at it and getting to know me a little bit before they contact me.

And for over 100 more tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com

New Web .whatever addresses ??

New rules!  Anyone, anywhere can soon apply for new Web address extensions.

I could do .demopoulos for example, Berlin will be able to apply for .berlin, etc. Extensions can even contain non-English characters (i.e. more than the 37 Roman characters now allowed).

If your name is Joe Smith, wouldn't it be cool if your Website URL could be www.joe.smith??

I'm mixed on this. There are a number of issues

• Some already existing new domains like .museum, .aero,  and .mobi are barely used if at all. They are big yawns.

• This will no doubt cause confusion among Internet users as well.

• Who will control new domain extensions? What if both Melbourne Australia and  Melbourne Florida want .melbourne ?

• Non Roman characters in domain extensions are a STUPID idea!! Criminals will have a field day. Imagine a URL that looks exactly like the URL to your bank, but contains a perhaps a Hieroglyphic character that displays as the "o" in ".com" for example on your computer. Think advanced phishing attacks.

Overall I'm positive, but wary.
Choice is good, but it's all up to the implementation.

These new rules were approved unanimously by the Internet authority, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) on Thursday.

More here: Biggest Expansion to Internet in Forty Years Approved for Implementation

Some Hopefully *very* Helpful Interviews now online

I've put a couple of audio interviews you might find interesting online.

The first is an interview on blogging with Peter Anthony Holder on radio CJAD -- Peter always does a great job!

Click here to listen or download the mp3

Also an interview on developing an Effective Internet Presence for professionals on MySuccessGateway.com:

Click here to listen or download the mp3

There is also a complimentary teleseminar this Thursday on using video in Blogging with Brian Edmondson on Blogging with Video. Click here to signup for this and some future teleseminars, including one with me.
I'll be listening for sure.

Last but not least, this one costs just a few bucks, Is a Blog Right For You?, a teleseminar with me and Dianna Huff of DH Communications next week.