websense

For sure it’s time. If you’re not planning, or at least thinking about, a mobile version of your website by now, then get ready to play catch-up.

Mobile is catching on. Wireless companies are finally bringing some smart phones to market that browse the web fairly well. As an early adopter, I’ve been wanting the web and email from my phone for at least 5 or 6 years, and not until the last 2 years did that really happen. And believe me, I tried every device that came out claiming it could do it. Even since it did happen, I’ve had to carry around what isn’t all that different from a brick in terms of shape, size and weight.

Well, they’re getting better, they’re getting slimmer and they’re actually becoming reliable. I would argue that it’s really tough to beat the combination of a Windows Mobil 6 device with Microsoft Exchange server. That puts your contacts, calendar and precious email in your hands at all times with very little setup or maintenance. Business owners will go with a smart phone for that reason alone, then they’ll realize one day that they can access the web through the same device.

So, it’s inevitable, mobile web content is becoming a necessity.

Now the question is, what does a website owner do about it? And how soon?

Start thinking about it now. Start determining which parts of your website a customer might want on the road: the hours you’re open; your current inventory of products they regularly buy; directions to your facility. These are pretty basic things, and would be surprisingly easy to have them added to your site in a mobile friendly manner.

Mobile users are likely to be after small bits of information about your business, not reading your corporate history. The content should be trimmed down to what they’ll want, which gives you an advantage in this new challenge. You don’t have to over think this mobile web design thing and make it harder than it is. It’s not an all or nothing deal. Start somewhere, with the basics and see what kind of use/response it generates.

As you see results from adding small parts of your website in a mobile version, add more to it based on user feedback and analytics.

Something I’ve noticed over the years is that so many site owners want to take the easy way out on content. Maybe the worst offenders are Auto dealers. Auto dealer websites tend to be some of the worst I’ve come across in my 13 years in this business. So, I’ll use that example in this post, but the concept applies to any site marketing products they don’t manufacture. The reason they do this, I believe, is 2 fold. First; it’s not cheap to add all of that content, especially in an industry where the whole product line changes every year or so. Second, it’s too tempting to take advantage of either the free website the Auto manufacturers will give them or to just link to the manufacturer’s site for details.

In my opinion, the Auto Manufacturers are just enablers in this arena. Either by justifying to their dealers that it’s really OK to link back to their site for details, or by handing out cookie cutter, poorly built websites to their dealers that have little to no chance of helping them separate themselves from every other dealer that has the same site.

Whether you’re a car dealer, or you’re a dealer of any other manufactured product, before you take the cheap way out and rely on what the manufacturer will give you, consider these points:

• Linking to the manufacturer is sending the visitor away from your site; giving up the conversion completely.
• Using a website that a manufacturer supplies you; makes you look exactly like your competition, not any better.
• Not having the content within your domain affords you no opportunity for natural search engine rankings.
• Using the same exact content as everyone else, also limits your ability to rank and adds little value to your users.

So, if you’re going to take the web seriously, build a professional site. Make sure that your site has all of the information a prospect needs to become a customer. Take the extra time to make that information unique to your site. It’s OK to add in all of the content that the manufacturer supplies you, but it’s better to enhance that content. Add your thoughts, your opinions and your expertise.

These are likely the reasons people buy from your dealership in the off line world. Is there any reason the same principles would not apply online?

Some of the better questions and answers that came up:

Is there a an SEO advantage for either .NET or php?

Short answer is no. They are both perfectly fine languages and can generate search friendly dynamic content as long as some simple guidelines are followed.

Mod Re-write, or Isapi Rewrite to keep URLs clean, and of course avoid the common mistakes like session id’s multiple URLs for the same content etc.

There was some mild debate on the panel, as Sage mentioned that in his experience, it has been easier to get Mod Re-write accomplished, thus giving php an advantage for him. Because of our development backgrounds, Colton and I have both had relative ease with both .Net and php.

A good question from an attendee: “I have millions of pages and only a small percentage are indexed. Should I use sub domains”?

All panelists seemed to agree that sub domains are not likely to solve the problem. There is likely another core issue, such as session id’s, duplicate content, query strings, etc., to look into first.

It should come down to the user. If there is reason to break it out into many sites, for the users sake, then do so. However, if it makes more sense to have all of the content under one domain for the user, then leave it that way and diagnose the real reason the site isn’t being fully indexed.

A member from the audience did make the point that with a site that large, it may simply be a matter of disc space. He had observed in his own industry, that sites with millions of pages just don’t get fully indexed due to limited resources of the engines.

There was good attendance and good response to the session, which tells me the market is ready to hear the advantages of getting SEO and Development under one roof. As I mentioned in my last post, the presenters were coming from 2 different perspectives; integrated web shops and specialized SEO shops. It would have been great to have a panelist coming from the perspective on an internal corporate SEO, maybe next time…

Chris Boggs of Brulant was our moderator. He did a great job of facilitating good questions and guiding us in a useful direction.

A brief overview of what each speaker said in their 5 minute presentation, listed in the order they presented:

Geoff Karcher

• SEO and Dev need to work together in 1 consistent effort
• Traditional challenges of working with artists and programmers are similar to challenges between SEO/Dev/Design
• Each group (SEO/DEV/Design) have their own interests and agenda
• Client’s best interest is a combination of the 3.
• All groups need to learn to focus on the user!
• Client should never have to deal with the headache of managing these groups.

Common issues that result from focusing on their own agenda rather than the user’s:

• Flash only pages and sites
• Query strings & session IDs
• Overuse if image based text
• Lack of usability (programmers too focussed on server performance, code efficiency etc. rather than the user’s experience)

Colton Perry (NetPlus Marketing)

• Full service shop allows for easier integration and implementation of efforts.
• Coordination with all forms of marketing (traditional and online) is key.
• SEO team needs to know about off line campaigns and marketing efforts.
• Ability to integrate these efforts so your PPC and SEO campaigns can support offline advertising is huge. An integrated shop makes this integration possible.

He gave some barriers to SEO that can result if teams operate in silos:

• Duplicate Content (resulting from session id’s, cookies etc)
• Indexing Issues
• Critical content only being accessible via forms or pop-ups.
• Lack of a sitemap
• Poor, vague or no title tags.
• Ugly URLs

Sage Lewis (SageRock)

• It’s better to buy separate specialized components rather than 1 unit. He made a creative analogy using an image of a tv/vcr unit as compared to a component based audio video system. The first image stated “All in one shop: If one part breaks the whole thing is junk”. This slide was followed up with a graphic of an AV system with about 14 different components, which read “A specialty Shop, if it matters you buy components”. The message being that several, specialized, vendors will perform better than an integrated shop.
• SEO-only firms offer more specialized services; they are focused.
• Coordination & communication between the SEO firm, development shop, site host, other marketing/design firms and the client is key, but can be challenging.
• Referenced the Clash of the Titans to illustrate the challenge in trying to coordinate different specialists, but stressed how important it is to manage this effectively.

He mentioned some of the differences in opinion that specialized shops might have:

Specialized Development Shop may think:
SEO will turn your design into stone.
There is no value in SEO.
Some SEO requests are not possible.

Specialized SEO Shop may:
Often be belligerent and inflexible.
Have extreme all or noting attitueds.
Often recommend you destroy everything and do it their way.

Sage also listed some common Developer Values and some Common SEO Values:

Developer Values: Design is Job 1. Portray the brand beautifully. User Experience.

SEO Values: Ranking is Job 1. Optimize for user and algorithm. Focus on experience and conversion.

In summary, Sage said that hiring specialists can create a highly advanced website. Though, it’s up to the client/site owner to promote intense communication between what he called “warring factions” to build a successful site.

I have my thoughts about whether or not a client should have to manage vendors with such different agendas to try and achieve success; but that’s a topic for another post!

Second post coming soon to cover Q&A. Some great discussion came out of this!

Heading out for SES Chicago tomorrow morning. We’ve been fortunate enough to be asked to speak on a panel with some other great search marketers; Sage Lewis from SageRock.com Colton Perry from NetPlus Marketing and our Moderator Chris Boggs from Brulant.

The session is called Get It Together. The topic is whether or not Web Development and SEO should be done in a combined effort. Obviously, a hot one for us, since our philosophy has been that they are integrally linked for 7 or 8 years now.

In the session, we’ll discuss the challenges that site marketers face both with in house teams as well as those that arise in managing multiple vendors. It can be a challenge either way. Whether it’s dealing with artists programmers internally, or it’s managing a development shop and and SEO shop, trying to get them to play nice.

I’m sure there will be some good debate, and points made for both integrated shops and points made for specialization. Either way, I’m glad it’s making its way into the industry and being discussed in a forum such as SES.