You run a business.

So you need to understand search engine optimization (SEO).

Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. You understand direct mail? I don’t mean in detail, not to be the one to actually run the campaign. But you know what it is, and what it can do for your business, and you can make decisions about it.

It is the same with SEO. You have to understand it because if you run a business that works online in pretty much any way at all, you are sure as hell going to be making decisions about SEO.

So, I’ve come up with a simple way of explaining what SEO is and how it works. (Well, you can be the judge of that anyway).

You can think of SEO like this.

The more relevant visits you get to your website, the better the chances you have of turning a lead or a sale.

You can get visits out of search engines two ways.

1. Advertise. You can pay to advertise, and pay for every click you get. Simple, quick and often effective. Paying for clicks is called search engine marketing (SEM) or Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
2. Optimize. You can optimize your website for certain keywords so that people who click on ‘normal’ search engine results (not the sponsored/paid ads) have a better chance of seeing your website entries. This is search engine optimization (SEO).

Because there are so many websites jostling for attention, getting found in the organic search engine results can be difficult. There are so many factors that influence where particular web sites rank in search engine result pages.

If you are going to wind up paying someone for SEO, you can look at the money you pay as going into one of two areas: Technical SEO and Marketing SEO.

Technical SEO

There are a whole bunch of things a website can do to kill its chances in the search engine race. Technical SEO makes sure that a website can at least get to the starting blocks.

You would think every website in the world would do this already, but they don’t. Some websites can’t even be indexed by Google (and if you ain’t indexed, you ain’t getting found anytime soon).

Technical SEO means making sure that all your web pages can be indexed, that each page has a unique title and description, that web pages use headings properly, that special sitemap files are prepared so that search engines can read them … the list goes on.

Marketing SEO

Ok, so if that was Technical SEO, what is left?

Where to start, all the really, really hard stuff. You see, because there are SO MANY web pages out there (increasingly with very smart SEO folk advising them or working for them), just getting to the starting blocks isn’t enough.

You need to stand out from the crowd. Writing good content isn’t enough, you need to promote it so it is noticed, read and passed on to others.

Websites without other websites linking to them don’t have any authority. And Google likes authority. Google seems to love authority so much it goes all misty eyed with high authority web pages and puts them right at the front of the queue.

SEOs who are good at Marketing SEO know how to get not just any old links, but high authority links, the ones that turn their web pages into high authority web pages as well. All links are not created equal, and Marketing SEO is what you need if you want good links.

Since SEO is so competitive these days, Marketing SEO is also very concerned with competitive research. Where do your web pages rank, what competitive pages rank higher, how many visitors do they get and where from, how many links do they have and where from, how can I get some of those visitors and those links … and so on.

I could go on. But I won’t. SEO is a big field. The CPC (cost per click) of many paid ads is already prohibitively high for many. We may see temporary falls with the economies of the known world going into reverse, but as and when things recover, CPCs are likely to rise.

So at some point you may find you want to spend on SEO. Technical SEO is relatively easy, and if not for the way search engines work you could hire a Google Certified SEO Technician to ‘do’ your website.

But Marketing SEO, that won’t ever be as easy. Marketing SEO is the hard bit.

And that brings me back to direct mail. Direct mail is easy. Print some letters, whack them in a stamped, addressed envelope and you have done the job. But … anyone who has done direct mail knows that good creative matters. A great offer, presented by a true master of direct copywriting, will outsell a mere technically proficient letter.

And the same it is with Marketing SEO. The creative aspect is very different, and right now a lot harder to understand. And even when you understand it, hard to do well.

So if you need to spend money on SEO, figure out what you are getting for your money. Technical SEO is almost a one off fee, just make sure you know what you are getting and who is doing the work. You might even consider getting another Technical SEO to check the work.

Marketing SEO is going to be harder to negotiate. The top Marketing SEOs aren’t for hire, because they can make so much money for themselves why would they work for the likes of others.

Good Marketing SEOs can be found, but you may find you get what you pay for. Just like the rest of the world. Damn.

We’ve recently added a new feature to OM4 websites allowing you to display an Event Calendar in your sidebar or on any webpage. Note: this will work for most Wordpress websites, not just ours

You might publish event information about your own events, like Sarojini’s Sri Lanka Food website, where she publishes information about her cooking classes.

Or you can publish information about any events relevant to your visitors.

A new How To article has been published that tells you how to set it all up: How to Add an Event Calendar to your Wordpress Website

Let me know how it works for you.

Any telemarketers out there, be warned about the Tom Mabe story.

I first came across this as an mp3 file, linked from one of Gary Halbert’s articles. Isn’t it strange how YouTube has liberated so much audio content.

A lot of businesses want their own website, but have put it off because they don’t know how.

At OM4 we have put together a system that allows you to create your own website quickly and easily. Importantly, when you have created your site you can:

• update your own content - add new pages, add blog posts, change information any time you want
• update your own design - either follow our instructions to do this yourself, or you can use any graphic designer to do a custom design for you
• use your own domain name - just register with any domain name registrar and we’ll help you with the rest
• add images, YouTube videos, audio, links to Google Maps
• add contact forms to allow visitors to contact you with enquiries
• add your own BuyNow, Add To Cart and Donate buttons to accept payments direct to your PayPal account
• full integration with Google Apps so you can have free email at your domain

Sign up here for a free trial: OM4 Website 30 Day Free Trial

We’ll send you regular emails giving you instructions on how to use your site. While we have lots of information that you can read all at once (if you are in a hurry), most of our clients find it easiest to get instructions bit by bit.

You’ll be learning to maintain your website using the industry leading Wordpress platform. Every time Wordpress issues a patch or an upgrade, we apply it for you. You don’t need to use FTP or anything more complex than the Wordpress dashboard, which is used by millions worldwide.

You’ll have access to a very useful set of Wordpress plugins for you to use, and keep these up to date as well. While anyone can download and use Wordpress, in practice you may find upgrading the software can be a bit tricky. As can selecting the right mix of plugins to support a business website. With OM4, this is all taken care of for you.

And what does it cost? Nothing to try it out. If you want to keep on after our 30 day trial, then it costs $20 AUD per month. That is less than you would pay for a normal business website hosting account (and that wouldn’t normally include someone administering your website for you).

So, did you get the link? OM4 Website 30 Day Free Trial

Wordpress plugins are really useful for all sorts of business purposes. We support plugins that:

• let people subscribe to your blog posts using RSS or email
• enter client testimonials and have a randomly selected one display on every page
• maintain a collection of quotes and display a random one each page
• integrate an email autoresponder such as Aweber or iContact so visitors can sign up to your email list direct from your sidebar
• integrate your website with Google Analytics so you can see exactly how many visitors are coming to your website, which keywords they are using to find you from search engines, which websites are referring visitors to you, and which pages they are reading

Ok, no reason now not to give it a try. If you have any questions, just log on to our OM4 forums and ask a question - no charge for forum answers.

See you on board!

Fascinating snippet from the Rubicon 2008 Online Advertising Market Report:

Ten years ago only 5% of consumer time was spent online, today consumers are spending 33% of time online.

The stat is a bit odd - I think this percentage must refer to the time consumers spend consuming media.

But what I am interested in is the shift represented, a shift in attention. 6 times as much attention online as there was 10 years ago. More attention available online than ever before.

That is why online marketing is so important for a business.

When you track your website with Google Analytics, one of the figures you can see is Bounce Rate.

If a visitor comes to your website, views one page and then ‘bounces’ off elsewhere, that is called a bounce.

If 40 visitors out of every 100 only view one page before leaving, that is a 40% Bounce Rate.

You can view the bounce rate for your website overall, but you can also see it reported for individual items, such as by keyword or by page.

This is an extract from the Keywords view (with keywords removed) - you can see the bounce rate for each keyword in the right hand column.

The bounce rate by keyword shows is which keywords are delivering the most qualified traffic.

If you look at the bounce rate by page, you can see which pages don’t engage interest and lead visitors in to the rest of your website.

Trellian - who own the excellent keyword tool Keyword Discovery - sent me a good promotional email today.

Now Keyword Discovery is a good tool, I’ve subscribed to it before.

But I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying. It didn’t matter that much, as Google’s keyword tool is comprehensive, accurate and free.

Life must be really hard for Keyword Discovery since Google unleashed the economics of free on the keyword research market.

Online marketing is a field with enormous amounts of information available.

The sheer volume of concepts is a real challenge if you are coming at it for the first time. And things keep changing all the time, just to add to the complexity.

For this reason, good summaries and lists are very useful. SEOmoz have put together a very good collection of resources called the Internet Marketing Handbook.

This link building article - referred to from the Handbook - is definitely worth looking at if you are wanting more links (and who doesn’t): Link Building Notes of a SEO Kindergartner.

Learning about online marketing is a good idea. But don’t get stuck in learning mode and neglect doing. Take the link building PDF linked to above. Take notes as you read it and take action on 3 link building tactics this week. Integrate your learning with your online marketing activity.

(Found this list thanks to Copyblogger and 10 Cool Links for Bloggers and Copywriters)

We’ve recently gone live with a new OM4Tourism website for Roderick and Alida Woodland at Digger’s Rest Station.

This website was a lot of fun to work on. The landscape of the Kimberley region is just breathtaking - we have four clients from the Kimberley region, and each time I see new images I want to take a few weeks off and head up there. The horse treks run out of Digger’s Rest are particularly interesting - one of the best holidays I have ever had was a 6 day horse ride in the Victorian high country. So I’m a big fan of horse treks.

Digger’s Rest Station was one of the locations used by Baz Luhrmann to shoot Australia, the movie. That is pretty special. I’m sure they are going to get a lot of attention, because Tourism Australia is running a big new campaign to coincide with the release of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.

Locations used in the Kimberley included Digger’s Rest Station, El Questro and Carlton Hill Station:

• Kimberley Echo Article
• Baz The Great - Australia Locations
• Sydney Morning Herald

In New Zealand, a lot of people went to visit the locations used for The Lord of the Rings, so perhaps the same thing will happen in the Kimberley. I don’t think you can stay at Carlton Hill (perhaps if you are friends with the Packer family that doesn’t apply), but both Digger’s Rest and El Questro let you stay in view of the Cockburn Ranges.

In putting together this site, Alida asked for it to be quite visual. So we’ve used image buttons to allow visitors to navigate to the major parts of the website. By looking at the home page, you can see pretty quickly what the Digger’s Rest experience is all about.

Hope you get the chance to visit the Kimberley - watch the Tourism Australia ads on youtube, and perhaps that might happen sooner rather than later.

Is it really possible Skype officially uses a Catch 22 to make their refund policy worthless for business control panel users?

Seems like it is.

Recently I ordered a subscription for one of our team, using my Skype business account. With a business account, you purchase credit, then use your business control panel to allocate it to individual accounts. It is a good system for business.

There was a problem with the subscription - I got charged not only for the monthly subscription fee (expected), but was then charged again for the 3 ‘included’ numbers. As the additional charge was 3x the original subscription, I wasn’t too keen on paying it.

After some glacial responses from Skype support, I requested a refund of the amounts over charged. That is when things went decidedly weird. This is a summary of how Skype has explained it to me:

• to request a refund from Skype, I have to provide an Order Number
• the amount I was overcharged for the online numbers was an ‘allocation’ (meaning Skype allocated the amount from my business account to pay for the online numbers)
• allocations do not have Order numbers
• no Order number, no refund.

Say what?

Skype’s how-do-I-request-a-refund FAQ states:

Now you can try all Skype products at no risk and with no commitment. So, if you’re not happy with your online number (SkypeIn) experience, you can ask us for a refund of your latest subscription purchase. If you ask for a refund within 30 days of your payment, we will refund you the entire amount of your online number purchase. … You can request a refund by submitting a ticket to Customer Support. The refund will be credited to the purchaser’s credit card, so you must be able to provide proof of your initial purchase.

Simple enough - but it should say it doesn’t apply if you buy as business (with an allocation).

In case you think I am imagining this and there is no way a company would create a modern day Catch 22 that had the effect of avoiding refunds, here is the answer to my ‘do you mean you have a Catch 22 in place?’ question:

About the Catch 22 you are referring to. Unfortunately we can not refund Business Control Panel credit allocations. Please read our Terms of Service which say that credit allocated to a user cannot be refunded. We apologize for the confusion and thank you for understanding. Please do not hesitate to email me back, if you have any further questions regarding Skype.

[name removed] - Skype Support
Office of the President
Skype

Saying “we can not refund” isn’t true, of course, “we will not refund” would be more accurate. Their allocation process, their refund policy, their choice.

“Thank you for understanding” - I understand, but don’t agree.

Turns out the whole issue started due to a bug Skype have in their billing. Skype have told me that the amount that is shown as having been allocated out of my account has not been allocated:

Due to a bug in our system, there is a false allocation shown on the BCP. This bug is connected to an allocation of Skype subscription from the administrator to a user and the user has activated her/his online numbers. As soon as the user activates the online numbers, which are including in the subscription, there will be a false allocation shown in the BCP. We are very sorry that this false allocation has appeared in your Business Control Panel and we are working very hard to fix this bug.

The subscription I originally purchased is working, with 3 online numbers allocated. So from that perspective at least, everything is working. And a Skype Subscription is very useful, no doubt about that.

But offering a money back guarantee with a hidden Catch 22 - that is unusual, to say the least.

The way Skype have responded to me means that the way their website represents their refund approach is not accurate. If you use a business control panel to purchase online numbers for members of your team to use, there is no refund available. 

Now Skype could easily choose to treat a business control panel allocation as a purchase. So is this all a crazy mistake on Skype’s part? Would they really have designed orders and allocations and specifically decided to exclude allocations from being refundable? Maybe Skype Support and the ‘Office of the President’ have been confused by the complexity of their own billing system. 

Not that I need a refund now, but I would hope Skype do an internal review on this and get rid of this crazy Catch 22 for business refunds.