In the last post, we explored five of the Top 10 Guidelines to Establishing Web Credibility, provided by Standford back in 2002. Still relevant today, here we’ll explore the remaining 5.
Business Principles Blog Post Archives
What Can Brick and Mortar Teach You About SEO?
Nov
12
2010
Operating an online business has a lot of advantages over brick and mortar shops. But, contrary to what many believe, being online is not the holy grail of business success. Brick and mortar stores have been successful, to varying degrees, for millennia. Comparatively, the web is barely a twinkly in Al Gore’s eye.
Unfortunately, many would-be business owners plunge ahead in this new marketplace as if it were some magic beans that will suddenly grow into a giant money tree. To be fair… for some, it has. But for the most part, these online business successes are rooted in the old-school business brick and mortar business philosophies. What has changed are the methods of marketing and advertising used to generate new and repeat business.
The 12-Step Program for Online Marketing
Nov
09
2010
The 12-Step Program, developed by AA, has been used by countless individuals and copied by many organizations to help people get their lives on track. Here, we present the 12-Step Program for business owners when dealing with their online marketing campaigns.
How to Turn a Negative SEO Experience Into Success
Nov
03
2010
Over the last dozen plus years, unscrupulous SEO’s have given the entire search engine optimization industry a bad rep. It seems like every few months some high profile person in the Internet world says something about how SEO is snake oil, sending ripples throughout the SEO community.
To be fair, some of the complaints about SEOs are deserved. Not for the entire SEO community, but for a small segment of “SEO providers.” Unfortunately, like sleezy lawyers, it only takes one to ruin the whole batch, perceptively.
I’m sure many readers have either heard about, or know someone who has had (or have themselves had) an extremely negative SEO experience. I talk to many business owners who are skeptical about SEO because their last SEO didn’t perform as expected, either over-promised and under-delivered, dropped out of contact, or just wasn’t doing the job as promised.
Sometimes this is an accurate reflection of the SEO and their work, sometimes it’s just about misplaced expectations. Either way, something, somewhere went wrong, and the client walked away unhappy, which is never good for the rest of us SEOs looking to make an honest living.
Don’t Let One Bad SEO Ruin the Whole Batch
Every industry, I believe, has it’s Enrons and BPs. Sometimes they are good companies that make very bad mistakes. Other times they are bad companies out to make a quick buck at the expense of others. But anybody who has been burned by an SEO and has decided not to go that route again must consider what else they would be giving up if they followed the same precedent.
Several years ago I had a problem with my truck. Wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew it wasn’t running right. I took it to my local mechanic and paid $80 for a diagnostic. The mechanic wasn’t able to identify the problem and suggested I take the truck to the dealer. $80 lost.
Now I could swear off auto mechanics forever because of that one bad experience (and, lets be real… many others), or I could find a new mechanic that is more reputable and trustworthy. I’ll go with Plan B.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten burned by Best Buy. Several years ago, I bought a vacuum cleaner that crapped out on me in a few short months. I brought it back to the store, knowing the warranty had me covered.
Best Buy informed me that this model vacuum was no longer sold, so my only options were to accept a lower quality, less expensive vacuum for free, or pay an extra couple of hundred dollars for their next higher quality vacuum available. Neither of those options were suitable for me.
The warranty should have guaranteed us a vacuum of equal or greater value, not one of lesser value and quality. A full refund or in-store credit would have been sufficient, but Best Buy refused both options. I spent over an hour haggling with the sales clerk, then the assistant manager, until finally I got the store manager on the phone. Once I managered-up, I finally received an acceptable resolution (cheaper vacuum plus in-store credit for the difference).
I never should have had to haggle for an hour–or get the store manager on the phone–to get this resolution. However, this bad experience doesn’t scare me away from all electronic stores. I simply find a store that provides the customer service I expect, and, well, that tends to be Best Buy still.
We are all going to have bad experiences in life. And if you engage in SEO, there is a chance that you may have a bad experience with that as well. But, don’t let it burn you on SEO completely.
I know that the Best Buy sales clerk and assistant manager were bound by company policy. It wasn’t until I forced a call to the store manager that I got what I wanted, and only because the manager didn’t want to have to deal with such a petty situation. A bad experience with an SEO may have less to do with the skills and qualification of that SEO than it does with misplaced expectations or miscommunication in the sales and optimization processes.
Walk It Off
I can’t remember what movie it was, but I remember a teenage baseball player kept getting hit with the ball by the pitcher. The coach’s mantra was “walk it off”. The more times the kid got hit, the funnier the line “walk it off” became.
But, sometimes that’s what we have to do. You can’t quit baseball because you got hit by a rogue pitcher. Nor can you quite SEO because you had a bad experience. Sometimes you just gotta walk it off.
A while back, I signed a new client that had just ended a 12-month contract with another SEO firm. In our preliminary checks we found that a good majority of this client’s primary keywords were ranking poorly on virtually all the search engines.
I could easily paint this SEO firm as being inept; however, without knowing exact details of the contract, I’d just be talking out the side of my asshat. But, what matters is that the client wasn’t getting what they believed they were paying for. Regardless of contract, budget, and promises made, the client had very different expectations than what was provided.
Within just a couple of weeks, after rolling out our optimized version of their site, our client is seeing significant improvement in the rankings in Google and Bing.
Why was the other SEO firm not able to achieve, after 12 months, what we achieved in a shorter time? Truthfully, I don’t know. Fortunately for both us and the client, they didn’t take that bad experience and let it turn them off to SEO altogether. Now they are getting the results they were expecting a year ago.
Turn Your Bad Experience Into a Successful Experience
One of my favorite movie lines comes from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The bad guy grabs what he thinks is the Holy Grail, but he won’t know for sure until he drinks from it. After he does, you see him take a sudden turn for the worse (he died). The knight guarding the grail says to Indy, “He chose poorly.”
This is followed by Indy selecting and drinking from another grail, to which the knight tells him, “You chose… wisely.”
So, you chose poorly on your first SEO and got burned. Fortunately, that doesn’t lead to near-instant old age, your face melting off, or girls laughing at you because you showed up at school naked (am I the only one that has that dream?). You get a second chance to choose a new SEO. Choose wisely.
Research
Do your research before choosing your next SEO. Figure out what you want and what services will be required to get you there. Be willing to explore alternatives and varying options, but also have a basic handle on what it’s going to take to get you the success you want.
SEO plans and pricing differ widely, and it is often difficult to compare apples to apples. Do your best to understand what you’re getting for your money. If one SEO is expensive, find out why. If another is cheap, again, find out why. You often get what you pay for, and somebody charging more is often doing far more extensive work to ensure you’ll be successful.
Get Recommendations
Recommendations are great. Ask around to find out who others use and what their experience has been. If you find a company you are interested in, ask others if they have heard of them. Read lots of blogs. Choose someone that you know has the experience to get the job done.
Check References
Every SEO should be able to give you a list of references. Don’t settle for less than three, but five is a better number. Of course, every SEO will send you their very best references, those that will give the most glowing report, but you can’t discount this.
Talk to each reference to get more than just a thumbs up or down review. Find out if they are happy with the results they are getting. Ask what keywords are being optimized and verify rankings.
You should also ask about their specific SEO plan and if the reference feels as if they are getting their money’s worth. Find out how competitive their keywords and industry are. Get details about how the SEO works, how they communicate, and their overall work ethic. All of these things can weigh heavily in your decision.
Verify
Ask either the SEO or their references for stats and try to verify them as much as possible. If they spout numbers for success, ask who they can talk to get confirmation of these numbers.
Validate Communication
Don’t jump into a decision, but instead keep communicating with your SEO prospect. Call to ask questions about their experience, details about their proposal, expectations for results, expectations from you, how they work, etc. Look for anything that you think might cause a communication problem. If you see warning signs, make note of them. Ideally, you’ll be doing this with several companies at a time so you’ll get a good sense of who will be better to work with.
Being diligent isn’t foolproof, but it is a fool suppressant. By taking the time to look into each of these areas you’ll be far less likely to pick another lemon SEO. But, more than likely, you’ll actually pick a winner.
With your negative SEO experience behind you, you can now move forward in a better position to ensure a positive SEO experience and a chance to achieve the success you deserve.
How to Deal with Criticism Properly
Aug
02
2010
The only way to avoid hearing criticism is to be deaf or dead.
The only way to avoid being criticized is to never have been alive.
As history books have shown, even the dead can’t escape criticism. So, those of us who are alive must simply learn to deal with it; even as we often try to avoid it.
As much as we hate it, criticism isn’t all bad. Criticism, regardless of how it was intended, can help us adjust and adapt to situations. It can provide useful insight, justified or not, into our lives and give us the opportunity to become a better person.
Rarely do we enjoy hearing it, but criticism is a needed component for growth as a person.
There is an old Arab proverb that says, “if one person calls you a donkey, forget it. But if five people call you a donkey, buy a saddle.”
Or, take a lesson, and perhaps try a different approach.
In most circumstances, you can freely ignore criticism coming from a single source, or perhaps a few dubious sources. But be careful about ignoring criticism from someone who knows you pretty intimately and is likely point out things that other people won’t–or can’t.
Regardless of the source, if you find yourself hearing similar criticisms from multiple avenues, it might be a good idea to take stock in what’s being said. Failure to do so will only result in the same mistakes being made time and time again.
Of course, not all criticism is justified. Sometimes we get criticized for things that other people don’t understand. Often ignorance or lack of information, combined with a healthy dose of bias, can bring someone to criticize something that they really don’t get. I have recently found this to be true of myself. People just don’t know the full story of what is going on in other people’s lives, but they often find it easy to criticize anyway.
Preacher, Henry Ward Beecher stepped up to the pulpit one Sunday morning to deliver his sermon. As he put his bible on the pulpit there was a paper with the word “fool” written on it. He lifted the paper for the congregation to see then announced, “Generally I receive letters from people who write letters and forget to sign their name. This letter is different. The person signed his name but forgot to write the letter.”
There is nothing you can do about unjustified criticism other than to let it roll off your back. Don’t let it get to you, don’t let it bother you or change you. But take note of what you hear; if the same criticisms keep coming up from multiple and trusted sources, then it may be justified. In which case you need to accept it, learn from it, and change what is necessary to become a better person, employee, business owner, spouse, parent, grandparent, friend, etc.
Criticism is a part of life. But, what we do with it makes us who we are.
Outfox, Outsmart and Outgrow Your Big-Business Competition
Nov
03
2009
I believe that one of the key things that keep small businesses small is that the owners maintain a small business mindset. For many, being small is just fine. They don’t ever want to be anything more than a mom and pop operation. But others dream big and want to see big goal accomplished but continue to struggle to “make it big.” They can’t ever seem to get over that hump that propels them out of small-time territory.
If you don’t want to be a mom and pop operation, or you want to be more than the small business you are, then it’s time to start thinking not like the small business you are but like the bigger business you want to be.
Is Netflix Still A Customer-Service Business?
Jun
20
2008
I’ve been a Netflix subscriber since they went by the name Netflix.com and were boasting 7,000 titles in stock. They now claim to have over 100,000. That was many moons ago. But I haven’t necessarily been a Netflix loyalist. Over the years I’ve tried other online movie rental services only to keep finding my way back to Netflix.
But over the years Netflix has begun cutting out key customer features. They say it’s to improve their system, customer service and the traditional yada, yada, but I’m not so sure. But with each feature they eliminate, instead of differentiating themselves from the competition, they are systematically eliminating the benefits of being a Netflix customer.
If Only DVD Companies Had This Kind of Personality
Jun
09
2008
I belong to an online book exchange site that basically lets you exchange books for points and shipping fees. I can get just about any book for a mere $4.50 for shipping. I’ve even gotten a hold of some brand new hardbacks still on the new release shelves!
Recently they started doing the same with DVDs, which for an avid movie watcher like me I love. It’s my chance to offload some stuff that I no longer watch and look for some of the titles that I want but was just never willing to shell out the bigger bucks for.
For a while I’ve had the movie Highlander in my want list and it recently became available and I was lucky enough to snag it. What was funny is what I actually got in the mail:
Duplicate Content Issues: Domain Name Redirects
Apr
16
2008
Registering multiple domain names is, and should be, common practice for businesses wishing to protect their brands. I discussed buying alternative domain names earlier this week, but I wanted to address it again, this time from the context of duplicate content issues which may arise if you don’t set up your new domain names properly.
Domain Name Redirects
The first thing you need to consider after you’ve purchased additional domain names is to decide what you want to do with them. Not every domain name needs to have a site on it, though it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some kind of generic company page in place for lack of anything else. But for the most part, you will probably want to redirect all your alternate domain names to your main company site. This is especially true of many of the issues covered in the article linked above.
The question then becomes, how best to implement those redirects. There are many ways to redirect websites, most of them will often do more harm than good. One of the most common ways to redirect domain names is to “park” them and point them to your main site. How your web hosts parks domains is crucial to know, in order to make sure that the domains are redirecting properly from an SEO standpoint.
Here is an example of a improperly redirecting URL (note: the image is just for example purposes):
This is how most web host companies park domain names. Essentially, every parked domain will feed the user the content from the primary URL, but it keeps the visitor on the domain name which they typed in. This can lead to problems with branding, not to mention the duplicate page(s) created by this kind of re-direct.
Here’s what you need to know about domain redirects. This is important to be able to tell your web host, developer, or whoever else is in charge of your website. You want your alternate domains to “301 redirect” to your main URL.
A 301 redirect tells search engine spiders that the domain they tried to access has been “permanently moved” to a new location, which is your main URL. When implementing a 301 redirect both your visitors and search engine spiders will be automatically forwarded to the new URL.
If your web host doesn’t implement this kind of redirect when parking domains or doesn’t offer 301 redirecting, then you’ll have to do it yourself. The easiest way is to get a second web hosting account for ONE of your alternate domain names, and implement the 301 redirect by adding the following code to your .htaccess file :
Redirect permanent / http://www.mainurl.com
…then parking all your other alternate domain names to point to the redirected domain.
Checking for proper redirects
If you’re not sure if your alternate domain names are redirecting properly, you can do a simple check using a program such as WebBug.
Click for larger image.
This screenshot shows me that the domain www.projectinsight.com IS properly redirecting to www.projectinsight.net, returning an HTTP header of “301 Moved Permanently” which is exactly what we were looking to achieve.
Without implementing proper redirects on your alternate domain names, not only will you have duplicate websites, but you’ll likely be splitting all your link flow between each version of the site. This will potentially cut your site’s value (as determined by the search engines via incoming links) in half.
While it’s possible for the search engines to figure out that domain A and domain B are the same, you’re still forcing them to decide which of the two domains is the one you are trying to brand, and they have a 50% or greater chance of getting it wrong.
What success means?
Apr
10
2008
Success means a lot of things to a lot of people, but the bottom line, for most of us, is that success doesn’t come easy. Most people who see someone else’s “overnight success” cannot fathom the months or years of hard work, lost sleep and sacrifices made to achieve that success.
Of course success is more than money or power. I tend to subscribe to definition #1 above rather than #2. You don’t have to have any of those things to truly be successful, and you can be successful in many things that won’t ever provide them. In business, success merely means that you’ve achieved your goals and dreams.
A few months back I came across these little bits about “success” that I thought would be worth discussing:
Success means…
Having dream nobody else believes in and holding it through hardest of times.
Success is achieved by first having dreams and then doing what most are unwilling to do to achieve them. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person that didn’t have a dream. The only problem is that for most dreams are just that; something unreal and unobtainable. Sure, some of my dreams may never be reached, but that’s only because I’m working on other dreams at the moment. But the point is you have to have goals, and then you have to go after them. There will be set-backs, hard times and people along the way that do nothing but try to hold you back, but if you give up, then you’ve lost your dream and your path to success. In the words of Peter Quincy Taggart, “Never give up. Never surrender.”
Success means…
Handling resentment from those closest to you and keeping a good attitude.
First of all, I know that at times I’ve been envious of other people’s success. I’m not proud of that, but sometimes it’s there. So it only stands to reason that there are some out there that will be envious of yours. They’ll resent that you had opportunities they didn’t have. Or that you had help from people in high places. Or that somehow you were “lucky.” Someone once told me that the definition of luck is being prepared when an opportunity arises. Those that are not lucky are simply not prepared. To be successful you need to be able to not let that kind of resentment get to you, especially from those close to you. You have to let it roll off your back and keep doing what you need to do.
Success means…
Maintaining your integrity when faced with temptation.
There are many who find success that have no integrity whatsoever. But that kind of success is usually both fleeting and unsatisfying. Integrity helps build success that is more than just being about fame or money, but about knowing that what you do has purpose and value to others. There are many temptations on the path to success. A little lie here, a little cheating there. They are often so small and so easy to to think, “what’s the harm.” But maintaining rigid integrity is essential to find purposeful, life fulfilling success. And make no mistake, sometimes maintaining your integrity means going against every fiber of your natural inclinations. It’s not always about being right, but about doing what is right.
Success means…
Being so honest the prison warden would trust you with the keys.
I love this one. It lends to the integrity issue, but speaks directly to your honesty and trustworthiness. Now a prison warden certainly could trust me with the keys, but how about the banker with the keys to the safe? If you knew you could lie or steal and never be found or suspected, would you? I’m an honest person, but I know I’d struggle with that one. But that’s the kind of honesty that you need to have to find real success. Someone needs to know that your word is your word. Forget the contract. Forget the extenuating circumstances. If you said it, others need to know–not just believe–that it’s true.
Success means…
Being gracious when you have the power to retaliate.
Now see, retaliation is one of the most wickedly enjoyable things in life. And I know all the “right” reasons to retaliate. “This will prove to them…,” “They’ll get what they deserve…,” “They’ll never learn unless…” All of this and more goes through my head when an opportunity for retaliation comes up. But success isn’t about retaliating. Retaliation doesn’t bring in new business, it doesn’t strengthen your team and it doesn’t help you overcome obstacles. When you’re thinking of retaliation you’re focusing on the negative. Success isn’t achieved through negative actions, it’s achieved through positive actions. Let things go and focus on the positive. Your own success will often be the best retaliation there is.
Success means…
Saying the right things to yourself when those around you are saying the opposite.
There is an extreme amount of power in the spoken word. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” If you’re only speaking negative things, then that’s where and what you are. I believe that what you speak you often bring about in your own life. If you speak positive things, then you are bringing about positive things into your life. Staying positive with both your words and actions can be difficult when those around you are dwelling on the negative. Solution: find new people to be around you.
Success means…
Staying so prepared that even though your dreams are delayed when the door opens you’re ready to walk through it.
Remember the definition of luck from above? Achieving success means being prepared for success. That’s where most of us go wrong. We want success, but we are not prepared for it. We don’t have the knowledge or the education to grab success when it comes knocking. You don’t do successful things only once success comes. You have to do successful things long, long before you even see a hint of success. And then you must continue to do them even when success still seems far off or long delayed. Those who act successful are successful!
- "Our clients often tell us we're one in a million. Turns out we're really just one of a hundred thousand or so. But what they're really saying is that we get results that increase traffic, sales and ROI! Number one of a million? Yeah, that's where we put you when we velocitize your web marketing."
