3 Ways Your Story Can Help Your Brand

It's Monday morning, as you enter your office the thought of it being another Monday morning runs throughout your mind. Causing your mind to wonder off in different areas. Man, this weekend was a blast! I'm actually still hungover from tailgating at the Tennessee Titans football game from the day before.

Your weekend was fun, and you start to think that your fellow employers need to hear the whole story as well. Maybe they will find it funny when I tell them how I slipped on a ice patch and busted my butt in front of a couple of hundred people. Maybe they have a similiar story about their weekend. You find this to be the source of getting your thoughts and mind off the subject of it being Monday morning and you hate Monday mornings!

Read more...

Animal Care Center in Oxford Mississippi

Trust Me, Black and White is Not in Style

(www.Animal-Care-Center.com)

This style website will not grab your visitors attention.  Black and white websites are just not, how can I put this in a nice way, effective.  Effective meaning, upon the arrival of a visitor to your site the likely hood of them becoming your customer is pretty slim.


Your site needs to look professional.  You are a professional business man or women so that means your website is also reflected as your personal image as well.  If your site doesn't look professional than who would think that you are too.


This critique is going to be short and to the point!  There is a lot of serious problems that need to be addressed here and I don't want this post to turn into a short story.  Below is some issues that the Animal Care Center in Oxford, MS needs to change.

• Get rid of the black and white
• Needs email marketing
• Google analytics has to be installed
• Adjust the alignment, Center would be the idea here
• Integrate Google Maps(street view is a cool feature to have)
• Needs a picture of the staff and location on home page
• Meta tags on all pages

So I'm only going to touch on a few of these... The whole design would be the first issue to resolve.  Seriously, black and white?  At least center your website.. A professional website can reflect a professional image of your business.  They are like peas and carrots.  They just go hand in hand.

Meta tags and Google analytics would be step two.  Correct meta tags will help your search engine rankings and Google analytics will help you monetize your traffic for more customers and profits.

All together, this site needs to be scratched and remodeled!

Jason is considered a top Internet marketing specialist for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Jason is considered a top Internet marketing specialist for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Downtown Oxford Inn Has A Great Website... Two Thumbs Up

(downtownoxfordinn.com)

The Downtown Oxford Inn is a great hotel (I know personally, I've stayed there a few times) with a superior location.  However, The Downtown Oxford Inn's location is not the only thing that is superior; their website is superior as well.  Honestly, I believe this website is one of the best that I have seen in a long time.  DowntownOxfordInn.com is a perfect example of a website that is considered a true asset to the business... it works for them -- not against them.

Here are just a couple of aspects that are great about this site:

1. Everything that is important to the visitor is above the fold
2. They have an E-mail opt-in (also above the fold)
3. Flash element is perfect
4. Great Search engine rankings

* The one negative that I see with the site is the absence of an XML sitemap.

All Important Information Is Above The Fold.
The designers of downtownoxfordinn.com definitely know what users want to see when they arrive at a website.  All the important elements on this website can be accessed without having to scroll down.  Perfect!  It really doesn't get much better than that.  The menu structure is also perfect.  It is coded in HTML so search engines can read each menu item.  Many sites just create images with text on them for their menu... search engines cannot read images.

The three elements below the menu ("Quick Reservations", "Take A Tour", "Stay In Touch") are laid out perfectly and I am sure they get plenty of action because it is right there just above the fold when you land on any page within the site.

I would not expect the average local, non-chain hotel to get many online reservations.  However, Downtown Oxford Inn is not average.  I am sure they receive more online reservations than any other hotel in the Oxford market.  This site is so good, I would venture to say that if one were to compare downtownoxfordinn.com's visitor analytics vs. anyotherhotelinoxford.com's visitor analytics, Downtown Oxford Inn would dominate the average time on site statistic and bounce rate statistic (not to mention total visitors).

Downtown Oxford Inn Utilizes E-mail Marketing.
By now, if you have read this blog for any length of time, you are completely aware how much of an advocate I am of e-mail marketing.  This is another major plus for Downtown Oxford Inn's website.  Now, I know that most people are thinking, "Who would want to receive a newsletter from a hotel?"  Well, you are right... probably not that many people.  However, I am sure that Downtown Oxford Inn does have a sizable e-mail marketing list and the people that actually do receive the newsletter are also offered discounts and other ammenities.  E-mail marketing is just a great way to establish a relationship with your customers and to reward them for being your customer.  This creates REPEAT BUSINESS!

The Flash Element Is Great.
When a visitor first arrives at downtownoxfordinn.com, the first thing he is likely to see is the flash element.  Sometimes, I see many websites that completely overdo the flash... which is not good for search engines at all.  Not here.  The flash element is actually very attractive and quite welcoming.  That's really all I can say about it.  It just works for them.

Downtown Oxford Inn Knows The Importance of SEO.
Wow.  Right now I am completely shocked at how great the search engine optimization work is for downtownoxfordinn.com.  I just ran a ranking report for 12 popular keywords related to "hotels in oxford ms" and Downtown Oxford Inn absolutely dominates these keywords.  According to local search volumes related to "oxford ms hotels" there are about 11,546 Google searches each month!  That is a HUGE amount of interest for any keyword related to Oxford (see more local business categories Google search volumes).  With that many searches each month, Downtown Oxford Inn obviously saw how being at the top of search engines could benefit their business.  Take a look at their rankings for the high volume keywords.  It really is incredible.

Look at that!  For all of those high volume search keywords, Downtown Oxford Inn is primarily the FIRST website you will come across when you type those words into Google!  Downtownoxfordinn.com is getting tons of targeted traffic from people that are looking for hotels in Oxford, MS.  No doubt about that.  Tell me that this website is not the biggest lead generator for Downtown Oxford Inn.  I know it is!  People have dropped the YellowPages and started Googling.... a long time ago.  Which is why businesses need to incorporate Internet Marketing into their marketing budgets.

This information tells me one thing.  Downtown Oxford Inn dominates the hotel market in Oxford.  Bottom line.  That right there is why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is so valuable to any business.

Adam is considered a top Internet marketing consultant for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Adam is considered a top Internet marketing consultant for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Proud Larry's Is Looking Real Good

Proud Larry's website has the right approach

(www.ProudLarrys.com)

One of the best designs in Oxford in my opinion!  There is a lot of websites in Oxford that have great design layouts and great marketing along with it and Proud Larry's website is on my top 5 list.

If you haven't stopped by their site lately then take a second and check them out.  Their newly design layout has a good touch of structure and design.  Being more of a music attraction you can see that is their main focus upon arriving.

I have A LOT of good things to say about Proud Larry's here is a list of a few great things that stood out to me:

• Has email marketing
• Great design
• Search bar
• Good URL structure
• Has Google Analytics
• Has a picture of the staff and the building
• Menu is on site rather than off site

Has email marketing

This is extremely important!  In order to get some value out of your website visitors an email opt in list is a MUST!  They have it in a great location which is above the fold and on the right side of the web page. The only down side is that it is only on the home page, stick it on all the web pages and that will drastically increase your opt ins.  *Remember: not all your visitors will arrive to the home page every time.  They may find your site while searching for concert pictures in Oxford, MS and that brings them to the photo gallery first. More on email marketing and the importance.. Click here

Great design

The design is laid out perfect.  The program this site uses is called Joomla and it is an user friendly CMS(content management system) which the design and layout for the most part is always easy on the eyes and functionality is great as well.  For another example of a CMS Joomla site visit OxfordSearch.com

Search bar

A search bar these days is important.  Why? because everyone searches, it's convenient.  The search bar is on every page as well which is also important.  The visitor at any given point may have a topic they want to find.  With the search bar being on every page this solves this problem. *Interested in the local search volume for "oxford ms restaurants"? Click this link for a full case study: Restaurant in Oxford MS search volume

Good URL structure

All the URL's on the Proud Larry's site have good structure.  This is due to the CMS which is used.  Joomla is a great user friendly management system and it is also liked by all the major search engines.

Has Google analytics

It does have Google analytics installed on every web page within their website.  Great plus here! Tracking your visitors, and using that data can help you increase your profits to a much higher level.

Has a picture of the staff and the building

This is ALWAYS good for any business website.  It's a must! Plan and simple.

Menu is on site rather than off site

Thank you! Not to many people do this.  Put your menu on your website, not in a pdf file.  This helps out with your content on your site.  More content equals more love giving in return from Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

With all the good about Proud Larry's site out of the way I would like to touch on just a few changes that need immediate attention.  Change the meta tags for the home page and on all the pages.  Insert the email opt in list on every page and get a location tab and insert Google Maps.

OVERALL RATING:  I give them a 8 and a hook! It would have been a 9 if the email opt in list was on every page.  Overall great website Proud Larry's!!

Jason is considered a top Internet marketing specialist for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Jason is considered a top Internet marketing specialist for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Video Views Reach 30 Billion in U.S.

WOW! This is huge news! In the month of November 2009 the total video views surpassed the 30 BILLION goal which is the first time in history. This 30 billion mark is double the amount of searches the U.S. gets each month, according to October of 2009, records show there were 14.3 billions searches that month from all search engines.

This goes to show that people love some video for entertainment and searching for an answer or problem that needs to be solved...

Click here to read more...

Elite Furnishings Website... Not So Elite

(elitefurnishingsofoxford.com)

Elite Furnishings is a new furniture store in Oxford located in a prime location on the square.  I've personally never shopped at Elite Furnishings but I have passed by many times and from the looks it appears to be high end merchandise... it's definitely no Cheapo Depot.  Also as their name implies, they obviously cater to the "elite" customer.  So, if this is the image that Elite Furnishings is trying to convey, they certainly are not extending that image to their website.  I'll just be honest about this one -- there is nothing elite about Elite Furnishings website.

Here is what I notice when I look at the website:

1. It just looks cheap -- there is absolutely nothing custom about this website
2. The free Flash player extends beyond the margin
3. Terrible search engine rankings for main keywords
4. No Sitemap
5. Hitcounter Should Be Axed

Elite Furnishings Website Looks Cheap.
From the "Create a free slideshow with Picnik!" to the "Free CSS Templates", everything on this website screams, "Cheap!".  However, I bet their furniture isn't cheap, so their website definitely shouldn't convey cheap... but it does.  I can't say it enough, "A businesses online presence is just as important as their offline presence".  A business website should work for you, not work against you.

The Flash Player Extends Beyond the Margin.
Take a look and you will notice that the flash player just doesn't fit in the template.  For any half experienced web developer this could be fixed in less than 5 minutes.  Besides not fitting in the template, the flash element needs to be custom, rather than just a free plugin by Picnic.  This flash slideshow looks like it belongs on somebody's Myspace profile, not on a business website... especially a business that calls themselves elite.

Terrible Search Engine Rankings For What Should Be Their Main Keywords.
According to Google search volume related to furniture in Oxford, MS there are about 485 searches each month on Google alone.  As the image below shows, Elite Furnishings is missing out on some very powerful keywords.  People that are searching for "furniture oxford ms" are obviously potential customers for Elite Furnishings.  However, those people that search for furniture in Oxford will not find the Elite Furnishings website because the website is not in the first 1000 results for any of these keywords on any major search engine!  That's terrible.  Elite Furnishings is missing out on some customers.  What's the point in owning a website if nobody is going to be able to find it on search engines?  Search engine traffic is the most valuable source of traffic and Elite Furnishings is getting none from these essential keywords.  Write it down, that's a fact.

No Sitemap.
Elite Furnishings has 130 indexed pages on Google and therefore they need an XML sitemap.  With that many pages, search engines want to see a sitemap so that they can easily find every page on the website.  This simple change would definitely help boost Elite Furnishings terrible search engine rankings (although there is much more involved to get good search engine rankings... but a sitemap helps).

Ax the Hitcounter.
Honestly, nobody cares how many visitors your website has received, plus hitcounters are not accurate anyways.  If you want detailed traffic analysis then have your webmaster install an analytics code on your site so that you can monitor your website visitors rather than showing that information to the public.


The moral of this story is that business owners can't cut corners when it comes to their businesses online presence.  A website is an extension of the business and the last thing people should think about is how cheap the site looks.  Cheap is definitely not the message that you want your online presence to convey.  I understand that businesses need to watch their expenses, but a professional website is surprisingly inexpensive these days (at least with P.O.G.).

Adam is considered a top Internet marketing consultant for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Adam is considered a top Internet marketing consultant for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

The Oxford Center Has Major Website Problems

Is it theoxfordcenter.com, theoxfordcenter.net, drwooten.net, or is it oxforddentalcare.com?

(www.theoxfordcenter.com)

How many domain names do you need for your business website? Answer is very simple, 1!

Having more than one is extremely bad for you website.  Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines down grade you when you have more than one domain.  This is called duplicate content.  Each domain name has the exact same content.

If you do not understand what I am trying to say, open up two different browsers on your computer, on one type in the domain name drwooten.net and the other theoxfordcenter.com.  Each site will be exactly the same, each page will have the exact same content.  Even the url structure is the same.

I honestly have a list of over 15 things wrong with this website(websites) but I will only touch on the top 10 major, major issues here.

1. Duplicate content (very bad for search engines)
2. No email marketing
3. Is paying for traffic rather than free(organic) traffic
4. Has no tracking analytics
5. More than one domain name
6. URL structure of the site is way off track
7. Has no sitemap(Google doesn't know the exist basically)
8. Home page scares me!
9. Need to integrate Google Maps not Yahoo maps
10. Is on page 3 when you type in "dentist in oxford ms"..competitors are killing you there

Duplicate content:

I touched on this briefly in the beginning of this post.  Have the same exact content on more than one domain name is bad for a domain names reputation.  Scratch and delete all by one domain name and stick with that ONE and Google and other major search engines will start showing you some love.

No email marketing:

This is a simple concept here.  Stick a email opt in list on your home page, and every page within your website.  Once a visitor opts in then they are your customer for life.  For the most part, if someone gives you their name and email address this means they like you, they are interested in your services.  For more information about email marketing visit this link: Importance of Email Marketing

Paying for traffic rather than free traffic

When you type in the keyword "dentist in oxford ms" into Google theoxfordcenter.net shows up in the paid search column on the right hand side rather than the organic column underneath the google map.  There you will find all of the oxford center's competition (ex. oxforddental.com and faresedental.com) this is where you want to be.  Instead of paying for your clicks to your website you are getting your clicks for free.  Who doesn't want free traffic?

Has no tracking analytics

I say this knowing that they don't have Google's traffic tracking analytics.  In this day in time you have to have this installed(embedded) into each web page within your website.  What does this do?  It will track where your traffic comes from and how much traffic you receive. More on traffic click here: Traffic, Why It Is Important

More than one domain name

This can be explained very well, have only ONE DOMAIN NAME.  That clear enough for ya?  Redirects and cloaking domain names is a whole new ballgame.  Just stick with the basics, you are a local business that does not need to get fancy.

URL Structure is out of track

Kind of hard to touch on this subject without confusing you... here is what the "Meet The Staff" URL looks like right now, theoxfordcenter.com/view/22 .... a proper URL structure should look like this, theoxfordcenter.com/meet-the-staff .. you see the difference?  Being granular with the page titles within your website is very important.  If you don't take care of this then search engines will slap you.

Has no sitemap

This too does not help your relationship with all the search engines.  Here's the best way to explain why a sitemap is important.  When you build a house you have a foundation, your plumbing, electricity, your walls, and a roof, you have to structure your house properly for it to stay standing up.  This is the same with a website.  Each webpage on your website has to all be connected somehow.  With a sitemap it connects the dots for you.  I hope I didn't lose you on that one.  Basically you have to have a sitemap in order for your website to stay alive.

Home page scares me

Upon arriving to the home page you are greeted with a mouth.  Who wants to see a mouth and teeth when arriving to a website.  I know you are saying well this is a dental website but wouldn't you want to see a full body picture of the whole staff smiling or even a picture of the location(the building).  Toss the mouth and teeth and be normal and put up a picture of the entire staff or the building location.

Get rid of Yahoo Maps

Who uses Yahoo Maps?  Answer is, no one!  If you can put a Google link on your website than DO IT!  Besides Google Maps has the street view, have you not seen that yet?  It blows Yahoo out of the water!  Scratch Yahoo and use everything related to Google.  If you do, they will start giving you high fives.

Ranking for the keyword "dentist in oxford ms"

theoxfordcenter.com is on page number 3 for this search term.  You think anyone actually goes past page one to find a local dentist in Oxford, MS?  ummm NO!  Get rid of all but one domain name, get your URL structure right and you will be on page one.  It is that simple. Below is search volume for related keywords of dentist in oxford ms

***Hold Up! Like seeing these numbers, there's more... you can see ALL searches related to Oxford MS businesses just visit Local Search Volume page at P.O.G.

Thanks for sticking to the end here!  I really don't have anything good to say about this website.  Maybe next time!

Jason is considered a top Internet marketing specialist for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com

Jason is considered a top Internet marketing specialist for the local Internet Marketing company P.O.G. in Oxford Mississippi. To learn more visit: http://ProfitOptimizationGroup.com