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How to Maintain Your Twitter Account…and Your Sanity

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

Since day one, our mission at Trivera has always been to help our client companies become more successful by using Internet technology to improve their brand relationships. And while Twitter is being lauded in many circles as the second coming of the Web, for us, and our clients, it’s simply another tool that will either enhance or erode our brands. The first step for most of them is to have individuals within their organizations get acquainted with Twitter itself, and we’re finding them quickly getting overwhelmed. So today, I want to begin a discussion about a couple tools that we’re using and recommending to help keep Twitter in its proper place.

Millions of conversations are happening at any moment on Twitter. The primary challenge is to figure out which of those conversations are going to be relevant and useful to you and your company. Your corporate strategy will determine who you’ll follow and why, who you’ll want to have follow you and why. It will dictate the types of conversations you’ll want to monitor. And finally, it will help you decide which conversations to simply mine data from, which ones you’ll actively participate in, and what your Twitter “personality” will be when you do (a topic for a future blog).

When you only have a few followers, Twitter itself can manage the tweets. And Twitter’s search function can allow the casual user to feed their curiosity as to what’s going on. However, you’ll soon find that your numbers of followers and relevant tweets will begin to grow. And because of the sheer immensity of data, managing the streams of tweets that result will be a task that could take over your life.

Tweetdeck has become the most important tool in my toolbox to keep that from happening. Running as a desktop application on the Adobe Air platform, Tweetdeck gives you up to ten columns to organize your tweets. So instead of having the firehose experience Twitter.com provides, you can manage tweets into drinkable streams.

Tweetdeck’s “Add to Group” function allows you to determine who goes into one of your columns. Even though you may have hundreds or thousands of followers, there are only a handful that will provide the meaningful dialogue and relationships that will be at the core of your daily routine. My Tweetdeck is set up so that column one is my “Real Follows”consisting of about 30 people that I regularly monitor and engage. Adding a follower to that group is simple. And if I want to remove someone from that group, that allows me to perform an “unfollow” that still allows someone to be a follow, without having to see every single thing they post.

I have a “Replies” and “Direct Messages” column set up so that I can easily see those conversations. And I also keep a column for all friends so that if I want to take the time to jump into the current torrent of tweets, it’s always there… but I keep it all the way over to the right so I have to scroll to get to it.

I also have two columns to subgroup other “friends.” One is a group for several industry leaders I follow. Their tweets usually contain great tips, personal insight, industry inside info, and articles. The second group is my news group, where I follow general local, regional and national news sources. I have been able to turn off all my email news alerts, so they no longer clutter my email inbox.

I also use the search feature to create columns of tweets pertinent to specific subject outside of that provided by my “friends.” These allow me to find great information about topics of interest, and, because it searches all the Tweets, it helps me find new “follows.” I have a column set up to display all the Tweets with the word Milwaukee, but you can use whatever term (or terms) you want to monitor… industry or geographically specific.

With your remaining columns, you have other options. You can display TwitScoop to show the words that are ebbing and flowing in the Twitterverse consciousness. You can display “Favorites,” where a tweet you want to view later can be stored before it drops off the bottom. And, if you’re like me, you’ll keep one column available for an on-demand search for the people, terms and concepts that will come up from time to time.

You can set the number of tweets you want to display in your columns, and filter the column to display only those in that column that meet search criteria. You can mark any tweet as read, and clear those to keep them from cluttering the column. And when a username is displayed in a tweet, clicking it displays their profile, allows you to follow or unfollow and immediately modify what group they should be in.

There are tons of other features in Tweetdeck that will help organize your Twitter experience, and help you maintain your sanity. You’ll learn them as you become more familiar with (and thankful for) the tool. One shortcoming is the memory it uses, especially when your followers number in the tens of thousands. But that’s a bridge you can cross when you come to it.

Before you jump in and actually begin to tweet yourself…especially if you’re representing your company’s brand…you’ll want to take a little time to “lurk,” and get a feel for how things work. And my next blog will talk about how important it is to define your Twitter “personality” before that first tweet. Another future blog will feature another amazing tool that will allow you be a part of the ongoing conversations all day long, even if you only have time to jump in once or twice a day.

And if you’re following me on Twitter, or are subscribed to my RSS feed, you’ll be the first to hear when those blogs are published.

Tom Snyder is Founder, President and CEO of Trivera Interactive, a Midwest New Media firm. Tom is a Web guy, wine snob, music junkie, Ex-Milwaukee Radio Guy, HDTV expert, and political wonk.

Tags: @triveraguy, Brand Erosion, Brand Re-enforcement, Milwaukee, Social Media, Social Networking, Trivera, Twitter, Web 2.0
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Search Engine Optimization Unmasked – Pt 2

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

It’s Saturday. Fox Business Network. The show is called The Fox Docs. Biz Whiz Dr. Dani Babb is talking to a caller who’s not getting the results from his Web site that he should. She tells him to optimize his site to come up in the search engines. Suddenly, as the theme music comes up to go into a hard commercial break, the host asks “so how do you do that?” With six seconds to explain, she said what most people who know a little bit about SEO believe: “Meta data!” Make sure your Meta data is correct.” Cut to commercial.

Knowing there was so much more to SEO, I used Twitter to get in touch with Dr. Babb and offer her some of what we’ve learned (and continue to learn) over our years. After several subsequent emails this week, she was armed with lots of new-found knowledge. So on this week’s show, the very first caller was rewarded as she used my bullet points (and credited Trivera) to explain how to get his site to come to the top, avoid the expense of a Paid Placement option for his keywords and just augment organic placement with Pay Per Click. And the host responded, “Brilliant!” (see video below)

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

But as I watched, it became obvious that SEO is one of those “rocket science” things that will make most peoples’ eyes start to glaze over. As much as you wish getting a site to come up Page 1, Position 1 in the search engines was as simple as watching a business show and getting tidbits of information, it’s unrealistic, unlikely and probably impossible.

The Internet, and the billions and billions of pages on the Web continue to grow by the second. And the search engines need to get better and better at determining which of those pages deserves to come up at the top of searches. So they constantly spider and index every site, every page and every link, compare each to all the other information they gather about every other site on the Web and use complex algorithms to determine how high or even if a site should come up for keyword searches.

Unfortunately, those algorithms are kept more secret than the recipe for KFC. That means that even *I* can’t give you a definitive answer… nobody can. Especially not in 6 or 60 seconds on a business show. But those of us who have been doing this for a awhile take the broad guidelines that Google and the others do give us, combine that with a lot of detective work, much trial and error and networking with others in our field and use it all to come up with strategies and tactics that work..realizing also that what works today may not when Google changes their algorithms.. which they do all the time.

But here are the general tips I gave Dani:

There are some that claim that Google doesn’t even index Meta Data at all for their search results. I was trying to figure out why a particular site was beating one of our clients in ranking at Google, and checked out their “Keyword” Meta Data. The ONLY thing in it was: “Keyword Meta tags are totally useless.” I don’t completely buy that, but rather I’m convinced that Google checks the meta data on a page, and then compares it to the visible text on the page. If they jibe, the site moves up for the words and phrases that, together, describe what that page is about.

But there are a lot of other factors, way too numerous to mention. Here are just a few:

Page titles (what shows up a the top of your browser when you’re viewing a page)
Actual file name of the page (what shows up in your URL bar),
File names of embedded images (and the alt tags for those images),
Text links to other pages within the site (and whether the words that are clickable actually send you to page that are about that specific text – Google is smart enough to figure that out),
How many outside sites link to yours,
How long your domain name has been registered, and how many years in the future it is currently registered for,
How frequently the content of the site is updated
Whether or not your webmaster appears to be trying to jack the system to get the site to show up higher than it should.

That last one is critically important, because while all the other ones help you move up, that last one can force you down, or even get a site de-listed altogether.

Bottom line is that it’s not easy…virtually impossible to do yourself. It’s also not an event… it’s an ongoing strategic process. And most entrepreneurs are too busy running the other aspects of their business to spend the necessary time to learn this and do it right. If showing up in the engines is critical to people finding you, the only silver bullet is finding someone really good to do it for you. It’s like a good accountant, a good banker or a good lawyer… your SEO person is worth their weight in gold.

(By the way, if you are a business owner, and haven’t caught the The Fox Docs show yet, you need to. Dani Babb and John Rutledge are amazing, and you’ll find yourself waiting for every episode for the great information you’ll learn).

Tags: Milwaukee, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO
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Search Engine Optimization Unmasked – Pt 1

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

A week doesn’t go by without someone asking us “How do I get my site to the top of the search engines?” The answer is a simple one:

1.) You and your site first need to DESERVE to be at the top
2.) Then you need every single element in your site that the search engine spiders use to determine that you deserve to be at the top absolutely correct.

That, of course is in a perfect world. But we all know that the world of search engine placement is far from perfect. But that basic premise can help your site place well in that imperfect world of Search Engines.

The primary goal of a search engine’s organic listings is to produce the best possible results to a visitor search. That means when someone searches for a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that sells sausage, the very first position on page 1 of Google should be occupied by a company located in the city of Milwaukee that actually sells sausage. And if there are several, the one that the most likely to sell the best sausage in Milwaukee would come up first. Using common sense, one could assume that would mean the company that has been in business the longest, has had a Web site for the longest period of time, has a great reputation and so has lots of other Websites linking to it.

So it’s no surprise that a Google search for “sausage milwaukee” has Trivera client Usinger’s as the #1 result. Not only that, but the actual shopping cart where you can purchase Usinger’s bulk sausage products also comes up in on the first page as a separate entry, and little further down, Usinger’s Gift Boxes come up as well. When Google lists local businesses on a map, Usinger’s comes up in first place there as well. Additionally, and probably contributing to Usinger’s success, is the fact there are also a bunch of other sites in the first few pages that refer to Usinger’s. Klement’s, another Milwaukee sausage company that hasn’t been in business as long as Usinger’s comes up #2. A few other local sausage companies also show up further down the list, and as you get deeper into the 435,000 results for that search, they get less relevant and less helpful to actually helping one find a Milwaukee sausage company.

And that is an example of exactly how every search should be. Unfortunately, the vast majority of searches produce results that are just the opposite. Incorrect, frustrating, useless and in some cases dishonest results often make searching an exercise in futility. And while that’s bad for searchers, it’s good news for Web site owners.

Going back to my original hypothesis, oftentimes, the sites that deserve to be on the top aren’t built in a way for the search engines to determine that they should be at the top. But SOMEONE needs to be #1. So the resulting vacuum fills the first page with junk… that is until someone whose rightful position may be on the second or third pages of results finds an SEO specialist that help them move up and become the leader by default.

A prime example is the Varicose Vein Treatment market here in Milwaukee. 2 years ago, a search for that produced a list of directories, non-targeted medical information sites, and news links. What wasn’t there were listings for any of the vein clinics in the Milwaukee area, even though there were over a dozen. All of them had Web sites, but there wasn’t a single one that was built in a way that the Search Engines felt they should occupy the top spot. Great Lakes Radiologists was one of them.

In an effort to get serious about capturing a larger market share they contacted Trivera. Re-branding and repositioning themselves as the Women’s Vein Clinics of Greater Milwaukee, gave us the opportunity to register a domain name with “vein” and “clinic” right in it. Even though they didn’t have any actual clinics in the city of Milwaukee, “Greater Milwaukee” in their name gave us that legitimate entre into the search engines. The site was optimized using all the techniques and tools that Trivera has mastered throughout a history of SEO services that began before Google even existed.

The site immediately began to get traction in Yahoo, MSN and AOL. Because the domain name was brand new, Google kept the site in its “sand box” for a few months. But after that short period of typical probationary exile, the site skyrocketed to page 1 positions in every one of the 23 keyword phrases we optimized it for. Within 6 months there wasn’t single targeted keyword phrase that didn’t have them come up in position 1,2 or 3. Traffic to their site continued to increase, and two years later, the site still owns top organic positions. A plethora of Paid Placement ads now peppers the first page to try to undermine that succcess. But when you take the fact that people are 3 times more likely to click on the top organic result than any of the paid listings and combine that with the cost for those paid ads, our client has come out the obvious victor.

Two different cases, but a common moral. Whether you deserve to be #1 or not, you have little chance of getting there unless your site has been properly optimized. When the Search Engines determine who wins and who loses, you need to have your site built to let them know you belong at the top.

Some Advice on Social Networking… from Sun Tzu

Friday, February 13th, 2009

There is a debate going on today in my circle of friends at Facebook about how professional it is for a business (or a business owner) to have a Facebook page. It’s a great question…and it’s just one of the many questions businesses are asking about social networking.

As the lines blur between business and personal relationships, and the availability, variety and use of Web 2.0 tools grows daily, it gets increasingly more difficult for business decision makers to know what to do. Several have come to us, telling us they’d like to start participating in social media as a business vehicle, and asking us to recommend some of the best Web 2.0 networking tools. Unfortunately, that’s the wrong question to be asking first.

In his book “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu said: ” Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

It was true then. It is true now. In this case, the tools are just the tactics. We’ve been helping businesses get the best use of Web, E-mail, and SEO tools, for 13 years. And so our job now is to do the same thing with Web 2.0. Before we recommend tactics, we need to start with the bigger question: “What is your strategy?”

A company could tell their Ad Agency that they want to start participating in traditional Media Marketing. However, without a strategy, a response of “Do some radio, some billboards, and a couple print ads” would be just noise before defeat. With a strategy, the response can intelligently target demographics, evaluate channels for a decent ROI, develop the appropriate creative, make the specific placement recommendations, execute the technical aspects to get the message to market, evaluate the results and adjust the program.

Developing a Web 2.0 strategy is similar. It’s more than just a “Do a blog, find some other blogs to participate in, make a Facebook fan page, Twitter, and keep your LinkedIn profile up to date.” There are a ton of tools available, some obvious, some not so obvious. The question is more which ones are appropriate for their business and will generate commensurate revenue.

Just like traditional media, networking (both the traditional breakfast meeting or after work meet and greets) or the new, digital networking platforms can be productive and profitable. Or they can also be just waste of time, effort and money. But to simply jump in without a strategy and start blogging or posting on Facebook is a huge mistake.

Going back to the original question of how appropriate it is for a business to have a Facebook page, the answer lies in your strategy. If you don’t have one, it will be just a guess, or fodder for discussion among others who will have an opinion, but may not have a clue.

If you do have a well-defined strategy, you already know the answer. And if your answer is “Yes,” then you need to also consider the second part of the Sun Tzu quote: Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.

You’ll need to be thinking about the nature and number of Facebook pages, as well as linking, advertising and networking strategies for those pages and possibly even considering development of a Facebook application. And after you’ve done that, do the same with all the other Web 2.0 tools now available.

Now is the time to jump into Web 2.0 and the world of social networking. But before you do, consider the wisdom of Sun Tzu, and take the time to develop your strategy and your tactics. It will be the difference between success and failure… between victory or defeat.

-Tom Snyder

Tags: Brand Re-enforcement, Social Networking, Web 2.0
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Web 2.0 and Your Business

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

We received this question in an email this morning:

Q: We recently got some inaccurate and unfair press coverage, and that coverage made it to the Web. Because of the way the Web and search engines work, when people Google our company, we come up, but the rest of the results page is full of results that contain or refer to the article..forums, blogs, even Wikipedia entries. I was at a seminar for our industry last week and one thing they mentioned is how we could use Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to force those results to other pages than page 1. How do we do that?

A: The Web allows information about you and your company to spread like wildfire… which is great if it’s good information, but disastrous if it’s bad.

Situations like this demonstrate that conventional Search Engine Optimization is just one part of your Web strategy, because it can be instantly subverted by circumstances out of your control. These days it’s more than just a great Web site and SEO. Facebook and the others you mention are increasingly critical to a total strategy to take fullest advantage of the power of the Internet. It’s also about what is now being called Web 2.0 – all the social networking tools you mention above, as well as RSS feeds, SMS (Text messaging), and Blogs.

These all enable you to communicate, connect and interact with people by putting you and your “brand” are amongst the steady flow of ideas, thoughts and concepts that flow to them via their desktop computer, laptop, and cell phones 24/7. While the goal of all these is not primarily to get to the top of Google, using all of these helps improve your position there.

But like anything valuable, it doesn’t happen by itself. It takes a financial investment, a time commitment, and a partner with the right expertise. Huge companies (and even the Obama Administration) have full time people in a position called “Director of New Media.” Medium sized businesses hire companies like Trivera to formulate a strategy and help execute a plan. Small businesses often have good intentions to try and tackle this on their own but fail because of the discipline and commitment it requires.

Trivera uses all those tools, and has a handful of customers who are using us to help them take advantage of these tools. We’re putting these elements in all our proposals these days. If you’re willing to make a commitment, we can help you. The best way to tackle this is to determine your budget and we’ll give you a proposal with some recommendations.

-Tom Snyder

Tags: Milwaukee, Search Engine Management, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Web 2.0, web development
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2009 – The Most Important Year EVER to Get it Right

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

For years, our newsletters have stressed the fact that the success of your business depends on you taking the fullest advantage of all the Internet has to offer. This one is different. It’s not the success of your business that depends upon a well-designed, search engine-optimized, promoted, navigationally intuitive, e-commerce-enabled Web presence. Given the current economic climate, it’s your business’ SURVIVAL!

When the economy slows, the available market for many goods and services decreases. If the economy is impacting the demand for the goods and services your business provides, you have two options: accept the consequences of lower sales, or work to increase your share of the smaller market.

A textbook example of a company that took the latter route is Kohl’s. While overall in-store sales have been tumbling, their online sales are increasing, and not just by a little bit. While comparable store sales declined by nearly 7 percent for the quarter ended November 1, web sales for that same period rose by 92.2%! While many businesses are struggling, it’s a safe bet that nearly doubling your sales could be called a bright spot.

But just “being” on the Web doesn’t automatically guarantee an increase in business. Amazon.com just finished their best year ever, and American Apparel and Gap also increased their Web sales albeit by much smaller margins. But Web sales for Coldwater Creek and Williams Sonoma decreased during that same period. Watch for the possibility that both companies will be out of business by next Christmas.

While sales for brick and mortar locations continue to disappoint almost universally, smart business owners and corporate decision makers see the Web as the greatest potential area for growth. And Kohl’s commitment to improve and more aggressively promote the Kohls.com “brand” has paid off in spades.

And while your business may not experience the same $40 million bump in sales Kohl’s got just by re-designing your shopping cart and doing a better job of promoting your online brand, it’s a safe bet that you’ll see some sort of increase in sales… especially if your competitors are using the down economy as an excuse not to.

Even if your business isn’t a pure play “shopping” site, you can experience an increase in meaningful transactions by doing the same thing Kohl’s did: analyzing your online transactional processes, improving them, and promoting them… and not just haphazardly, but strategically, methodically and consistently… as if the survival of your business depended on it.

Because it just might.

-Tom Snyder

Tags: e-commerce, Milwaukee, strategy, Web design, web development
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Asking the Right Questions in Selecting a Web Services Vendor

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Selecting a vendor/partner for your online strategy is one of the most important decisions your business will ever make. Here are some of the questions you’ll want to ask potential vendors (along with the answers we give when someone asks Trivera these questions).

1.) Is the Web your primary focus? There’s simply too much to know for a company with a “Yeah, we can do that, too” attitude to handle your project with anything but disastrous results. In an attempt to grab additional revenue opportunities many companies have “added” Web site design to their repertoire of offered services. Avoid companies who make something as important as your Web presence a sideline. Trivera has been Web-centric since our inception in 1996.

2.) How long have you been in business as a Web development firm? Be careful doing business with new firms, as they won’t have the historical staying power to assure you that they’ll be around long term. While there are new companies being formed by the partnering of individuals, those firms won’t have the benefit of a team that has worked together for years. Trivera has been in business for 13 years in Milwaukee, with several of our original team members still in place.

3.) May I tour your facilities? While a small, home-based Web developer may be able to provide services at a small price, we’ve seen too many of them go in and out of business over the years to expect any of them to still be around in 12 months. At Trivera, we encourage our prospective clients to visit our facility, meet our team and view the dozens of client project profiles that line our hallways.

4.) What is your client retention rate? A Web developer may have a portfolio and a list of references. But the best measure is the number and longevity of those clients. At Trivera, we’ve done over 1000 projects for over 250 clients. And several of our current projects are for clients that go back with us to the beginning…Usinger’s, Frank Mayer and Associates, Mitchell Airport.

5.) What are your company’s philosophy and core values? Many Web developers focus on low price alone. Others won’t tell you, but as value-added resellers for third party software, their goal is to maneuver you into their only available solution. And because of the current economy, some can only think about one thing: survival. At Trivera, our goal is to have you as a client 10 years from now. That requires a philosophy of building trust and long-term relationships by providing the appropriate solutions to your specific Web needs. No oversell or undersell, no hidden agenda, working as your sole contact or working with an existing vendor or agency. That’s why our three core values (and thus our name Tri-Vera, i.e. three truths) have always been quality, service and integrity.

The keys here are longevity…length of time in business, length of relationships with current clients, and a view to guaranteeing a long relationship with you. Go with the partner that puts priority on that, and you’ll be best positioned for success.

Tags: Milwaukee, Web design, web development
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Web Investment Metrics – How Much Should I Spend on my Web

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

While some businesses make their Web site an IT expense, many others prefer to make it part of their advertising budget. While technology is involved, it really makes better sense to have your marketing department determining the direction strategy and implementation of this important public extension of your brand.

Most businesses base their advertising budget on a percentage of sales, usually 3% to 10%, with 20% of that ad budget used to establish their Web initiative, and 10% to maintain and promote it. Within individual industries these percentages are fairly constant. You can find out what your competitors are spending by checking trade publications and associations and through financial institutions like Dun & Bradstreet or NCR Business Ratio or the table below.

Advertising Budgets by Industry

The following numbers represent national average advertising expenditures as a percentage of their gross revenue.

Typical initial Web site budgets are 20% of the total annual advertising budget, with 5% of that budget each allocated to ongoing maintenance and promotion after the initial site launch.

Industry	%
Bakeries	2.6%
Decorating and Paint Retailers	2.5%
Discount Stores	2.4%
Educational Services	4.7%
Furniture Stores	7.1%
Hotels and Motels	3.5%
Jewelry	6.2%
Manufacturing	3.5%
Theaters and Entertainment	4.1%
Nutrition/Health Food	3.0%
Optometrists	3.0%
Photo Studios	2.4%
Restaurants	3.3%
Retail Stores	3.5%

According to this formula, a manufacturing company with $5 Million in annual sales will typically spend $175,000 total on promotion, marketing and advertising. $35,000 of that will go for their Web presence. Subsequent maintenance and promotion of the Web site would each be $8,750 per year.

-Tom Snyder

Tags: Milwaukee, strategy, Web design, web development
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How’s Your E-fitness Quotient?

Monday, December 31st, 2007

Originally published, December 2007

For many Americans, a brand new year signals a commitment to improving their fitness. Resolutions are made to eat better, work out more often and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress and increase longevity. TV, radio and print ads at this time of year mirror the huge spike in interest in fitness with hundreds of weight loss, smoking cessation and exercise ads…each with an important disclaimer: Make sure to consult your physician before beginning this new regimen.

For many American businesses this should also be a time to re-commit to improving their fitness. With that in mind, Trivera is encouraging you to make a resolution to make your Web site better, communicate with your email list more often and make Internet strategy changes to reduce business process inefficiency and improve your vendor and customer relationships.

But like personal health changes, a change in Web business practices needs to begin with a consultation with your Web Doctor. So to wrap up 2007, Trivera is recommending a complete Web physical, and is offering a free 15 point custom e-Fitness report to our clients and our potential clients.

Included in this report are answers to many important questions:

With most companies reporting a 25-50% percent increase in their Web sales this year, there’s no question that the businesses that “get it,” are reaping the rewards. Are you? How are your Web conversions?

Are you communicating with your opt-ins? Are you doing so frequently enough? Too often? How do you know?

Does your Web site maintain current navigation best practices? Is your site taking advantage of current monitor resolutions, desktop sizes, greater audience bandwidth availability, differing browsers and mobile delivery systems?

Is your credit card processing mechanism in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards? 85% of all sites aren’t, and will risk being totally prohibited from taking card transactions in 2008. Will your site be among them?

Does your site come up in search engine results that count? Do you come up high in keywords and phrases that nobody’s actually searching for? Do you come up at all in the keywords that people are actually using to search for a business, product or service like yours? Are you an unnecessary victim of click fraud in your paid placement campaign?

Is how your site was built now hurting your position in the search engines? If you have the words “click here” anywhere in your site, the answer is yes. Image Alt tags, link text, page names, incorrect use of images vs. text, file names and content are critically important to your placement. And how they work has changed since last year. Have you made any changes? When was the last time you checked your position against your competitors?

And there are more:

Does your site contain broken links? Are you paying too much for your digital ID? Are you inadvertently giving your employee email addresses to spammers? Is your site experiencing downtime you’re not aware of where it’s hosted? Is your content management strategy doing you harm? Are there Web 2.0 opportunities you’re missing out on?

The new year is right around the corner. 52 weeks to succeed or fail. And while many personal health resolutions require a commitment and discipline that lasts more than the first few weeks of January, all it may take to create benefits for your business is a resolution to act on your e-fitness report from Trivera.

If you’re serious about success, let us help you achieve that success today!

Tags: e-commerce, Milwaukee, Search Engine Management, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, strategy, Web design, web development
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