1. Good ideas for chasing, catching, and holding on to Google’s page 1.

2. Good ideas that take a lot of time — and why we do what we do.

4. SITE PERFORMANCE

6. Know where your page ranks. There are many ways that you can affect your ranking, both online — such as email, click-thru ads, and linking — and offline — such as direct mail, print advertisements, and TV and radio spots. The highest-ranking sites use a combination of many efforts.

7. Being neighborly. ©2011 Spider Trainers | PO Box 280487 | Lakewood CO 80228 | 303 862 8951 | info@spidertrainers.com | www.spidertrainers.com

8. Understand results. A search engine will always attempt to return the most-relevant results for the user. An important factor when gauging relevancy is location. The search engine identifies the IP address of the computer being used for the search. IP address and past searches can cause the user to receive results that are different than someone else using the same search words and phrases.

9. I’m influential.

10. Avoid influence. Search-engine spiders (applications that browse web pages and index their content) are intelligent and remember sites that the user has visited in the past. Clicking the links of a site or the site of a competitor may change the relevancy of the site in future searches.

11. Help me find my keys.

12. Identify keywords/keyphrases. Webmasters embed keywords/keyphrases in each page of the site as a shorthand method of describing the content of the page to the search spider. Keywords and keyphrases must be accurate and correctly identify the text that is contained within the page.

13. Your name in lights.

14. Use your brand as needed. Many companies use their name as one of their most-important keywords/keyphrases, but unless the company already has wide name recognition, the site is more likely to benefit from keyword emphasis on the products or services offered.

16. Make it easy. Many companies with difficult-to-remember or difficult-to-spell domain names have established websites using a name that is more easily remembered and typed

17. Walk this way…

18. Link to other sites. Outbound links to sites with supporting and credible content are yet another method of validation. Link quality and quantity are both critical — it’s never enough to just add copious but random links without regard for who, what, and where.

20. Link to your site. Search engines attempt to validate sites based on relevancy and authority, among other things. Inbound links to a site from credible sources help to convince a search engine that the content of the site is authoritative and valid.

22. Be professionally visible. Social media enables a company to connect with their customers outside the corporate site. A company’s executives and key employees might be posting to their social-media accounts information that can be used to positively affect the corporate site’s page rank and consumer confidence.

23. Who’s there?

24. Know your visitors. Establishing who and why visitors come to a site is the first step in effectively meeting their needs — this is called developing personas. There must exist relevant content for each persona in order to keep that person engaged and, if selling online, to make a purchase.

25. A great track record.

26. Analyze and adapt. Analytics software installed within a site provides detailed information about who is visiting, what pages are visited, how long a page is viewed, from where the visitor came, and so much more.

27. Put it on the map.

28. Map the content. There are two primary types of sitemaps, XML and HTML. The first is designed strictly for search engines and the second for visitors, but they are of equal importance. Search engines have structured processes that enable web designers to submit sitemaps that will assist search spiders in indexing the content of the site.

29. Business attire required.

30. Be professional. Email addresses with free services such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Hotmail are unprofessional and can diminish a company’s efforts at establishing themselves as a trustworthy service provider.

32. STRATEGY

33. A good story.

34. Tell a good story. Many sites have outdated content and do not take full advantage of the search-engine optimization techniques recommended today by website experts. Those who have established the persona of their visitors, speak directly to the needs of those visitors, and update their content so that it tells a good, persona-sensitive story will also speak clearly to search engines.

36. Optimize images. File names of images used within a site should clearly define the subject matter and, when appropriate, include words from the site’s keyword/keyphrase list. Alternate (or Alt) tags are text displayed when the images will not load or are suppressed by the visitor and used by the search engines to understand the subject of the picture.

37. Exactly right.

38. Create targeted landing pages. Marketing campaigns should always direct the recipient to a page within the site that contains many or all of the same design elements and content as the campaign. These are called targeted landing pages.

39. Leave a Trail.

40. Promote your blog. Blogs can be used as a primary website or as a supporting site. Companies such as Technorati are dedicated to providing information about blogs and indexing their content so that visitors can easily find a blog on the topic of their choice.

41. I’m just saying…

42. Become an authority. Most blogs allow visitors to comment on a topic. Commenting at other companies’ blogs of a similar focus enables the commenter to leave a trail of enticing information and links back to their own blog.

43. You’re invited.

44. Become an authority. Most blogs allow visitors to comment on a topic. Commenting at other companies’ blogs of a similar focus enables the commenter to leave a trail of enticing information and links back to their own blog.

45. Share and share alike.

46. Identify cross-linking opportunities. Contributing to other sites that will quote the source is beneficial in building a link campaign. As an author of content posted at other sites, always include a short author bio with appropriate and well-structured inbound links to your site

47. Tell everyone!

48. Encourage reviews. Review sites abound — both locally and globally. Dex Knows, Yelp!, Angie’s List, and others enable customers to review products and services from restaurants to plumbers and from cars to printing, and much more.

49. Be social.

50. Promote social contributions. Social-media participation enables a company to interact with prospects and customers in an environment cultivated for sharing.

51. Hi! It’s me…

52. Track inbound calls. Prospects who phone after visiting a website can be effectively tracked through a dedicated phone number posted only at the website..

54. Keep the site current. Websites with aged content typically rank lower in search-engine results. Pressrooms provide an area within the website where a webmaster can easily and continually add relevant, current content.

55. We’re so proud!

56. Feature testimonials prominently. Survey results, review sites, and follow-up calls can be used to collect positive comments and testimonials from customers.

57. You gotta see this!

58. Be seen. YouTube is typically the second most-popular search engine, ranking directly behind Google in number of searches. Posting video content about a company, its executives, and products is an effective method for driving traffic and educating prospects as they are guided down the path to purchase.

60. Create downloadable resources. Posting content such as whitepapers, surveys, datasheets, and tip sheets can establish a site as an authority on a topic in addition to providing a path for capturing subscriber information.

62. VISITORS AND CUSTOMERS

64. Post a privacy policy. In a world where identity theft is more likely to affect you than not, every visitor wants to feel confident about how the information a site collects will be used. This is as important for a subscription form as it is for a shopping cart. A privacy policy should outline how both non-identifiable and personally identifiable information will be stored, shared, and used.

66. Capture the customer. The most-qualified prospect is one that asks for information. Registration and subscription forms convert a casual visitor into a prospect and are an easy way to collect information that can be used to develop appropriate campaigns and content at the site.

68. Encourage action. A call to action (CTA) can be a link to a social-media account, a subscriber form, a link to a download, or a promo code for use in a shopping cart. Placing a CTA on every page prompts visitors to interact with the site

69. Sign me up!

70. Entice subscribers. Subscription forms transition visitors to customers of content and give the site owner opportunities to further them along the conversion funnel. While many companies are challenged by the burden of developing ongoing content that is interesting and engaging, the benefit of collecting visitor information is priceless.

71. Divide and conquer.

72. Segment subscribers. Subscriber forms should require enough information that the list can be segmented into logical marketing groups. This ensures more-effective messaging and better content within the targeted landing pages. Segmentation qualifiers can be demographics, product interest, or any other group-identifying information.

73. What’s the score?

74. Keep a running tally. Lead scoring is a process where points are tallied each time a prospect responds to marketing activities. Lead scoring alongside a multi-tiered nurturing campaign is quite effective at moving prospects through the conversion funnel and understanding when a prospect is ready to make a decision or purchase.

76. MARKETING

77. It’s like a leaky faucet.

78. Drip market. Create a single marketing campaign that can be released over time to prospects and that allows you to stay in touch with subscribers — even though they may not be ready to engage at a level higher than receiving direct mail or email.

79. Be nurturing.

80. Nurture prospects. Many companies use an ongoing marketing effort that proactively guides prospects through a process of awareness, interest, and preference, and with lead scoring to identify the point at which the customer becomes ready to make a decision or purchase. This is called a nurturing campaign.

81. Open market.

82. Deploy multi-touch campaigns. Engage users with the same offer that spans both online and offline media and use analytics software, segmentation, and dedicated phone numbers to monitor the responses.

83. On target.

84. Use campaign-specific landing pages. Targeted landing pages for each occurrence of the same offer within a multi-touch campaign provide dynamic reporting that enables the marketing manager to quickly react to a particular touch that shows exceptional response rates.

85. Let the bidding begin.

86. Create search-engine marketing campaigns. Search-engine marketing (SEM) can be an effective marketing tool while helping a company to learn which keywords perform best at driving qualified traffic to the site.

87. Click here.

88. Post click-thru ads. Reciprocal click-thru ad space on sites or within emails creates a win-win for companies and their partners. Trading space keeps costs at a minimum and targeted landing pages provide visibility into which partner sites perform best.

89. Really?! That one?

90. Respond to customer preferences. Questionnaires integrated into drip and nurturing campaigns enable a campaign manager to respond quickly to changes in customer needs and behaviors. Surveys used shortly after a visitor subscribes can be used to indicate preferences regarding frequency and topics of messages that they wish to receive.

91. I have a coupon.

92. Use promotional codes. Promotional codes used in online and offline campaigns enable website owners to effectively track which messaging is most effective at converting prospects to buyers.

93. Hello?...

94. Use dedicated phone numbers. Extending the use of dedicated phone numbers to offline activities enables the tracking of campaigns that are likely to result in phone calls.

96. Collect online feedback. Posting a survey form for site visitors is akin to an online suggestion box

97. How’d we do?

98. Incentivize offline customer feedback. Offline customers can contribute online when a survey link is included on in-store receipts. As an offline customer, it may take an incentive to attract the customer to the website. Incentives come in many forms, but are typically a random drawing from completed surveys.

99. Scan this.

100. Add QR codes. Quick-response codes provide a shortcut for smartphones to access targeted landing pages, quickly add contact information to their address book, and more.

101. Let’s stay in touch!

102. Include social-media links. Social media enables a campaign manager to reiterate messages to prospects that have already established an interest in the company or product.

103. Monty, I’ll take door #2.

104. Test messaging and design. Use A/B and multivariate testing (MVT) to help identify effective components so that future campaigns can capitalize on better-performing design elements or content.

105. www.heythatsme.com

106. Implement PURLs. Personalized URLs are targeted landing pages with the visitor’s name in the URL, which adds credibility.

107. That’s personal!

108. Use variable data to personalize. One-to-one marketing or variable-data marketing is the production of personalized images or content based upon information known about the recipient

109. Let’s just meet there.

110. Start, join, and participate in groups.Groups are a way for companies to disseminate information to members with whom they share interests, without including the site’s general membership.

111. Where good ideas are put to great use. www.spidertrainers.com/50-good-ideas info@spidertrainers.com