I have had several perspective clients recently talk with me about their need for a website and whether or not better positioning would result in more revenue and or, more use of the website. Their current designers or hosts had been telling them that top positioning with a broad search term would really benefit them and until they had reached that goal they really could not judge the value of their website.

Well, let’s talk about that – search engine positioning is dependent on many things among them; how many people click through to your site, how often the search term is used in the body of your site, and how many other sites are linked to yours.         

Consider the clients from above; both of them operate service businesses that are dependent on local customers within a 10 -20 mile radius. One business is very dependent the seasonal business we have here in the Lakes Region and the other is not. Even if we could get them to the top of the listing for a broad search term like “exercise”, what good would it do them? Their customers are not going to come from further away than 10-20 miles. 

Let’s look at the different goals of different companies. Basically there are three different sorts of companies using the net.

1. Type1 - Those that sell a product or service and ship nationwide or further. Foundation or charity, online retail store, or web design company.
2. Type 2 - Those that provide a service or product that is widely available state wide across several towns and cities. For example, a catering firm, or gutter installation.
3. Type 3 - Those that provide a service or product that is provided really within a 10-25 mile radius, such as a gym, doctors, most food establishments, or small clothing retailers.

Obviously, the needs and expectations of all these businesses are slightly different.

1. Type 1. Search engine placement online marketing is critical for these people. They are targets of the articles and sites about SEO, site placement, key words, and online marketing. The group needs to have links from other sites to them.
2. Type 2. Search engine placement and online marketing is important to this group also. They should be positioned well in a broad search term and should strive for the top of the list when the search has a locale added to it. For example, gutters, laconia or interior design, lakes region.
3. Type 3. This group, in general, has a website as a brochure; it tells the time of operation, very clear contact info, and a page or two on what they do. A restaurant should include a menu, a doctor’s office may want intake forms available, a local gym may want to list equipment, etc. Positioning is important only when the local area is added. A Chinese restaurant in Wolfeboro for example, better be at the top of the first page.This group may find very little action on their website and may indeed find that it is not a cost effective way to market. This group should not be intimidated because they are not on the top of a search engine page with a broad search term. Try as hard as hard as they will, their site is never going to qualify for this.

So yes, search engine positioning is important, but it is not equally important to all people.

Thunderstorms and the internet - I live in a part of the country that lives through thunderstorms almost every day during late June and most of July. We often lose electricity and most of us are used to it. A few hours without electricity is common – oil lamps, books, high power LCD flashlights and coolers are all part of our lives. Last night however we lost only cable TV and the internet. Wow! What a loss. I couldn’t buy my airline tickets, the shirts I wanted on sale, or look up hotel rooms. I couldn’t use Google to set up Ad words, and I couldn’t check the weather, or my bank account. These are but a few things that crossed my mind as I tried to find something other than reading to occupy my time.
To have electricity and no internet! What a feeling. I actually found myself standing in the kitchen while cooking wondering what I was looking for – a recipe – on the internet of course!
So much of my day is spent online that I felt truly distracted and handicapped without the internet. I wonder how many of you feel the same?

Creativity - What is it. We all know what it is when we see a piece of art, an advertisement, or a web site that is creative, but what is creativity and is it something that can be fostered.  Certainly the HOW Design Conference thinks creativity can be fostered.  Classes, discussion groups, meeting people with new ideas or ways of viewing the world, all of these help spark creativity. 

After spending time with a lot of creative people during the conference I have come to the conclusion that creative people spend more time looking at the problem instead of jumping right for a solution. Often the problem being addressed is not the core of the issue.  If this is the case a really creative solution will be difficult to arrive at.  Looking at the problem to find the core issue often leads in a totally different direction than jumping right in to solve the problem.

An example in my own life are this year’s oil prices - I only buy 500 gals/year and this year it will be very expensive.  I have been trying to figure out ways of trying to afford this 500 gallons of oil when i realized that the only reason I get 500 gals of oil is to provide hot water (occasionally it provides heat when I don’t feel like moving wood).  Now its a totally different problem - there are a variety of ways of producing hot water without using oil including several “green” methods that make me eligible for tax credits and rebates from my electric company.

I am always being asked about spam because I set up email accounts when a new domain or web is purchased. Spam is a fact of life and here to stay. One of the best anti-spam programs out there is Cloudmark (cloudmark.com). Install this program and soon all you’ll be getting in your inbox is mail.

Bookkeeping for many small business people is something they have to do and hate to do. Make life easy and set yourself up with QuickBooks. If you haven’t done so, pay to have it set up. A professional can set up all the accounts for you so that all you need to do is pick the appropriate account from the list. Then once a month, sit down for an hour or so, and complete all the invoices and pay all the bills. If your company requires several hours a week of bookkeeping services consider outsourcing this work.

                It only makes you look unprofessional and limits your overall image if you don’t get invoices or payables out in a timely fashion.