Good Internet Search Results Don’t Happen by Accident

If you’ve recently said “Dang, I thought people would flock to my new website, but they’re not!” then this article is for you. So is there something wrong with your website or your expectation?

Well, putting it in the simplest terms, it’s like you built a beautiful, new, highly technical, secure, and fully functional mail box in the middle of a national wilderness area and now you’re just sitting back waiting for your mail to come in.

You know how absurd it is to think any mail will appear in your new box if you have not published the new address. Of course, it’s possible a stray hiker might come across your new mailbox and admire how beautiful it is, but they certainly won’t be carrying any mail for you.

Building and publishing a new website is only half of the battle. The real work is done in marketing your new site so it will be found by your target audience and it’s not as easy as getting a change of address postcard from the post office.

It takes time, persistence and patience to build traffic and to elevate your site in search engine results. There’s no legitimate way to rapidly move your site to the top of the page in search results, unless your website is about the most obscure subject on the planet and someone happens to be searching by those same obscure key word. For example, if you have a website about common fungal infections of slugs and someone happens to be searching for what’s wrong with my slug, you might hit the top of the charts right away, but for the rest of us, who live and work in the real world, it’s just not that simple.
What not to do….
There are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies all over the internet promising to get your site to the #1 position in a Google search. These are “Black Hat” operatives (many from out of the country), and they have a long list of prohibited or questionable techniques they use to “temporarily” move a site up to the top of the page during organic searches by key words. A classic example of one of their techniques is to put a long list of key words, some not even relevant to your site subject in the background and out of site. It’s called Key Word Stuffing and if and when the search engines detect a site with Key Word Stuffing they have the option to flag and block that site. Another technique they use is creating inbound links from websites that are nothing more than long lists of links. But the search engines algorithms are smarter than that and it will only be a matter of time before this or some other black hat stunt will result in your site being blocked. I warn you, (no I beg you) not to get sucked into these scams. The techniques they use are carefully designed to temporarily circumvent the filters and controls of search engine algorithms. These services are expensive, temporary and dangerous and using “Black Hat” techniques could result in irreparable damage to your internet presence. You will pay the price for using nefarious tactics, not the company you hired. They’ll leave you with a site that has been blocked by the search engines, while they’re off pedaling the same bogus service to someone else. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it’s not true.

So what can you do….
All the current SEO best practices say that you need to put your best foot forward on your “Home Page” because it gets the highest status in the indexing process. Also, you need relevant keywords in your headings, and use key words in your content but only in the natural flow of the text. Label all the pictures used in your site. The current best practices “white hat techniques” say to design and write your website for your customers, not for the search engines. Think about the information your customers are looking for, what are their problems, what are their questions, and how can you and your website provide the most current and accurate answers to these questions.

Also, getting good search engine results takes time, 3 months, 6 months even a year and during that time you’ll need to do everything you can to make you and your site an authority in your particular field. It’s more than adding a couple of press releases, or updating your site with new photos. It’s about solving problems for your customers.

If you think about the way you (and everyone else) uses the internet, then the current search engine indexing algorithms make perfect sense. When you do a search on the internet you want the most relevant, targeted, authentic, reliable, accurate, and timely information to rise to the top of the search results page.

But since the decision about what is relevant and timely has to be made by a computer that is searching through billions of bits of information they need to have really powerful algorithms to quickly sort through the data. Just think about the billions upon billions of words on the internet. All that information needs to be scanned, organized, stacked, and presented to you a nanosecond after you hit the enter key. It’s a daunting task that gets larger every day so learn to work with the search engines not against them.

So here is a short list of criteria that impact search engines results.
• The length of time the site has been on the internet
• The frequency and scope of the updates on the site
• The amount of traffic going to the site
• The number of inbound links
• The relevance of the site content (this is where key words come into play)
Certainly, this is an over simplification because the SEO algorithms have over 100 criteria built into the analysis which includes things such as, upper and lower limits for certain criteria, different assigned value to information on the home page and headers, the ranking of the site from which inbound links originate. The algorithms evaluate key words and either add or subtract value based on additional criteria. For example, too many key words in any block of text is devalued even if every one of the key words is pertinent to the content. After all, everyone knows, including search engines designers, that a good sentence has numerous connecting words to make it read correctly, so they evaluate and compare the “density” of key words to the volume of text. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
Don’t just passively wait to be found…
The VERY BEST thing you can do to get to the top of an internet search and stay there, is to be an authority in your field. Make the commitment to write a blog about what’s going on in your corner of the world and link that blog to your site. The posts don’t have to be long, but each one should help someone solve a problem or reveal an answer to a question. If you have a website that sells knitting supplies than don’t tell someone how to change the oil in their car. Your content, answers, and solutions need to relate to your site. If you want to be at the top of internet search results then make a commitment to be an authority in your field and demonstrate that by solving your customer’s problems. Be available to answer questions publicly on, your blog, or via social media all of which should be linked to your website.
Certainly, it may attract future clients, but that should not be your primary purpose in writing blog posts. Think about adding value to the world, and making that value available to anyone with an interest, curiosity, or need to know. Be a thought leader and let your website be the conduit through which the world can connect to your expertise.
Inbound links are important so spend some time building relationships. Ask related, tangential, or complimentary businesses to add a link on their resources page to your site and you can add a link to their site on yours. Many links from high quality sites does help elevate your site in search results so it’s worth spending some time in this process.
Profiles and Social sites are an excellent way to improve search results…
Google gives preferences to sites that are connected to Facebook, Google+, and for sites that have a completed Google profile. It would also be well worth your time to set up Google, Bing, and Yahoo profiles and to open a Twitter account so when you add anything to your blog you can also send out a tweet and post it on your Facebook page, that new information is available on your site with a link to your site.
Internet Directories
In addition, populating internet directories is also useful. Register with as many relevant directories, as possible. Yelp, Merchant Circle, LinkedIn, YP (yellow pages), Angies List, etc. are all good ways to get better search engine results. The directories, by nature of what they are, show up high in search results as do eBay and Amazon, so be sure to piggy back these results by adding your company profile to as many directories, as seems appropriate for your business.
A Side Note about Amazon
Also, if you can sell your products through Amazon or eBay you should consider that option. Yes, you have to pay fees to these organizations for every item sold but their search engine results are always near the top, so having your products listed with them will make your products much more “findable” to a wider market. If you sell knitting supplies and you list them with Amazon (your website might be buried on page 84 in the search results) but your new titanium knitting needles can be in the top spot via Amazon. So you can sell the knitting needles through Amazon for a little less margin or not sell them at all because your site cannot be found. Also, once you’ve sold a product through Amazon, you now have a new customer with whom you can follow-up and build a long-term relationship and the value of the future direct sales to this customer may make the initial fees paid to Amazon of little significance.
Have you ever noticed that you can place one order with Amazon for a book, a case of canned organic pumpkin puree, a new toner cartridge and a pair of slippers, all at the same time and get all these products delivered with no freight charges? There are very good reason practically every major supplier makes their products available through Amazon. It’s simple. Selling through Amazon increases sales, and provides suppliers with direct access to new customers.
Certainly, some products and services can’t be sold through Amazon but if any of your products can be sold through this pervasive internet retailer, then don’t try to go it alone; you’ll just be giving up increased sales and new customers.

Summary
• Be a thought leader in your field and publish helpful, short, relevant blog posts at least once a week.
• Connect Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. to your website.
• Use these free social tools to spread the word about every new blog post.
• Make short technical videos to demonstrate solutions to problems and publish videos to YouTube then add them to your website.
• Populate web directories and fill out search engine profiles.
• Give and ask for quality links to related businesses.
• Review the content on your home page to make sure it tells your story.
• Review every headline in your site to see if you can add one or two key words.
• Sell your products through Amazon and eBay of appropriate.
• Be patient.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Stop Wasting Your Time Using the Wrong Envelopes!

Custom Envelopes On the Internet –  Not Really Custom!

Have you ever noticed that when you go to the internet to find an envelope to fill a specific need that there are hundreds of “custom” envelopes but never the exact one you’re looking for?

That is a lame attempt on the part of internet envelope suppliers to turn a custom print job into a commodity.  Sure those prices are tempting, but after you’ve folded and refolded several hundred letters or statement to make the address “fit” in the window you may reconsider the “value” of compromising the exactitude of your envelope specifications.

And what about the colors?  Online envelope suppliers do offer many other colors besides white.  They have black, and pink, and rust, and gold, and yellow, and brown, and all the colors of Josephs Amazing Coat of Many Colors, but I have rarely found the right color to match or compliment the stationery, checks, policies, or other material that will go inside.  And if I do find the right color, invariably, it will not be available in the size of envelope that I need.

It always seems like when I find the right window configuration then some other part of the specification aren’t right.  For example, I need very specific double window envelopes, with peel and stick glue and a privacy tint on the inside of the envelope.  I’ve search the internet, spent hours checking one website after another, and I can find two out of three of these criteria but not all three in the same envelope.  Or I need a one way remittance envelope with an extended flap in a paper color that compliments my newsletter.  Then there are coin envelopes, policy envelopes, church donation envelopes, and non-tear envelopes for heavy content.  Each of these types of envelopes has unique specifications and I have rarely found an internet source to fill these needs, although I keep hoping and searching.  Unfortunately, if I do find the rare fit between my specifications and an internet supplier, then the supplier always seem to be located on the far side of the country, so whatever I save in production costs, I lose in freight.

So what’s the answer?  Personally, I think we would all be better served and the environment would benefit, if we’d take some time to identify a trusted local source for true custom envelope manufacturing and make a habit of buying locally.  You provide your envelope partner with your specs and time-line and let them price each job according to what it will truly cost to fill the order.  You’ll get the right envelop every time: the right size, paper, color, window placement, printing, glue, tint, die cutting and delivery.  After all, they are custom envelopes made to your specifications.

Don’t try to fit your work into a poorly designed envelope.  Make the envelope fit your work.  I regular receive mail with a letter inside the envelope that has been folded, refolded, and then a ¼” section of the letter is folded yet again, to make the address show in the window.  Another mailer sends their checks actually glued to the inside of the envelope and another one just shakes the content of the envelope down until the address shows through the window then they staples through the entire envelope to keep it there.   Really?

Every time I get one of these pieces of mail it just makes my head shake and I think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just fold their letter or check, stick it in the right size envelope, with the window in the right place, and stop doing all the paper crafting and origami every time they use an envelope?”

Remember, you wouldn’t buy poorly fitting jeans and you shouldn’t settle for poorly fitting envelopes just because that’s all you could find on the internet. If you have specific needs for construction, paper, colors, window placement, or durability, then contact an envelope specialist and ask them to manufacture what you really need!

The money you save through efficiency will more than pay for the custom design.

Exposing the Hidden Cost of Branding

A little knowledge prevents excessive hidden costs.

Just because a design looks good doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Unfortunately, some graphic artists are oblivious to the hidden costs of their designs and one of three things is at play in this situation:

A) either they really don’t know what their designs will cost you over time,

B) they haven’t really thought it through,

C) they erroneously think the extra costs are a reflection of their talent (fortunately, this worst case scenario, is a rarity).

As a print professional I’ve seen this played out in a few cases and it’s disheartening, especially when the client is a struggling new business or non-profit organization and an unscrupulous designer violates their trust.

I remember one private non-profit school that thought they had found the perfect out-of-state design team to help them “rebrand” their school. Prior to the rebranding effort they had a very professional and well-recognized brand identity in the upper class market they served. Their new out-of-state design firm thought the school needed an “edgy new look”. I doubt, however, that the designers ever even visited this campus, which had been built up on an old homestead, where the centerpiece of the campus was a remodeled two-story 19th century barn and the whole campus looked and felt like an old western homestead.

So the design firm create an edgy, modern, new logo for the school, (which, of course, would require all new signage, new bus advertising, new t-shirts, new marketing materials, new parking passes, new internal documents, and new web work) and they made sure the new logo used 5 different Pantone colors, several of which could not easily be converted to process colors without adversely effecting the image.

You don’t need to be a printing expert to understand that the more colors you use in a design the more costly it is to create every single printed document. When multiple colors are used in a design, or the design involved a photograph, the typical production method is to convert all the color to cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K). These are the 4 process colors (commonly referred to CMYK) and virtually all printed photos, art prints, magazines, billboards, and almost every other printed image is created using these colors. Photographs easily convert to CMYK but the Pantone colors are completely different.

There are literally thousands of specific colors defined and used in all the various industries. Paint uses one standard, fabric uses another, the auto industry has its own set of specific colors and the most commonly defined set of colors used in printing is the Pantone Color Matching System (PMS Colors). Each set of colors (fabric vs. print vs. automotive) use their own pigments, binding agents, stabilizers, drying compounds, and mixing formulas. And for the purpose of this article, suffice it to say, that not all Pantone colors convert well to CMYK colors.

Getting back to our story about the new logo for the school… the new logo used 5 different PMS colors. Printing presses come in different configurations and the more colors that can be printed at one time the more expensive is the press, and (logically, it follows) the printed materials produced by the more expensive presses are priced accordingly. Typical printing presses are configured in 2 color, 4 color, 6 colors, etc. and the incremental costs between these configurations are not linear but geometric. For example a 4 color press would likely cost 5 or 6 times as much as a 2 color press and an 8 color press would cost 3 to 5 times more than a 4 color press.

These are general statements but from the standpoint of the costs relative to the school, the new design of 5 PMS colors dictated that they would need costly new levels of technical expertise for all their production work: large screen-printed bus signs, internal forms, T-shirts, parking passes, student ID, newsletters, brochures, marketing literature, letterhead, invoices, checks, envelopes, etc. and the cost for each of these items skyrocketed.

Of course not knowing what I’ve just explained about how the new design resulted in complicated new production methods, the staff on the campus were horrified to learn of the extra costs for every single item they used in their operation and marketing. Certainly, school officials had,budgeted money to hire the professional design firm, but, they had not budgeted extra money to pay for the new production methods needed to print the new design.

Since the school had been in operation for decades they had a clear understanding of how much each line item in their budget would cost. Unfortunately, that knowledge was based on the old logo not the new one, and no one on the schools branding team was print savvy enough to know what impact the design would have on production costs, nor did they ask any of their affiliated vendors for input on the new design. Many of their print partners heard for months that a new branding effort was underway, but none were consulted until the final design was selected and approved.

As you might have guessed, when the staffers began to realize what the new design would cost their particular departments they immediately started to compromise that design to stay within their budgets. And what was intended to be a school-wide brand quickly degraded to fragmented subsets of the new design. One billboard company converted the 5 PMS colors to CMYK screen-print ink, another department asked their printer to convert the logo to shades of gray, another wanted to go back to the original two colors used before the change, and across the board the benefits of the new brand were overshadowed by the constraints of the budget.

Did the graphics design firm know what impact their design would have on the school’s overall budget? I don’t know. Did they care? I don’t know! If they didn’t know, shame on them because that’s their business. If they did know what the hidden costs would be, and failed to mention it, than shame on them for putting the art (form) above the utility (function).

Of course, the final responsibility rested with the school’s new branding team, but their knowledge base was in education, not graphics or print, so the graphic artists should have advised the branding team that the new design might result in additional production costs. With that information, they would have made an informed decision about all the design options.

What can you learn from the school’s mistake? First of all, assume graphics designer are more involved in the art (form) of the design than the use of that design (function). You’re responsible to think about all the ways the logo is used now, or could be used in the future, and don’t be shy about getting outside input from production specialists. You need to set limits at the beginning of the interaction and ask the designer for a breakdown of all their costs.

As a final example, I worked with one designer who purchased a photograph for our mutual client. It was a picture of a plant that the designer used as background art and it was so light that you could barely even see the flower in the finished printed document. She charged the client $1800 for that picture which she purchased from an on-line photo source. I asked her about the expense and her comment was (and I’m quoting her), “I don’t care. It’s not my money.” I believe that attitude may be more prevalent than any of us want to believe, so you need to set some limits and really understand the designer’s pricing structure.

The lessons

1) When you hire a graphic designer, unless the design will be used exclusively on the web (where you can use all the colors of the rainbow without effecting the price) realize that the more colors used in the design the more costly it will be to print anything utilizing that design.

2) If there are many colors involved make sure the colors can be converted to CMYK.

3) Finally, when you hire a graphic designer, ask what kind of production experience they have. If they’ve never been out from behind their computer, I would caution you to ask a professional printer for a quick evaluation before you sign off on even a preliminary design.

4) Have a frank discussion with the designer about all the costs of their design process and the production costs.

Finally, be aware that in design, even the simplest things can make a huge difference in cost. Black on White vs. White on Black seems like basically the same thing, right? But having spent over 25 years in the printing profession, I assure you, those two things are as different as night and day. Ask for a free evaluation of the design from a print professional and avoid the hidden costs.