Busy with: improving organic search engine traffic, and optimising the client site for more sales calls

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June 3rd, 2009

Quick update: I’ve just spent the afternoon putting together the project approach for a client that has retained us to “make their web stuff work for them” after two bad experiences.

The previous company has left them in the lurch, and from what I can tell from reviewing everything, has left them with programmatically correct code, but not a holistic approach that touches the other elements necessary to make sales over the web. For example, the markup (client side code) used in the site executes the design well enough, but does not accommodate or take into account how search engines work, and most importantly fails on some user interface / usability fronts too. It’s not a product company that sells widgets, but one which relies on personal contact with a salesman to make revenue, but where the personal contact could be first initiated over the web.

If people can’t find you on the web, then whatever your site is, and however good it is, and however much it cost you, is nigh on useless. So these are things that we’re going to be working on - the objective is to improve the organic search funnel to get more people to the site without paying anything, and to increase conversion so that when people are on the site, it does what it is supposed to do. To coin another phrase to explain things, “we want our site to be like 3 salespeople”….

And so this is the high level project breakdown:

1. Setup infrastructure to work fast and make changes quickly
2. Move CRM system over to new server to remove old service provider dependancy
3. Setup Google Analytics and Google Adwords; make them efficient
4. Transfer previous (old) website search engine juice
5. Fix markup sitewide for organic SEO
6. Improve homepage usability and conversions
7. Move content from old website to new website
8. Setup blogging platforms for CEO and company
9. Setup social media funnels for engagement and credibility
10. Create content funnel sites for SEO, client education and acquisition

As you can see, the work varies from development, to online marketing, and with a bit of social media thrown in to make the client acquisition funnel wider.

I’m really enjoying working with a group of people that understand the importance (after a little education) of a holistic approach to what they do on the web, but more importantly the recognition that it is a process that needs to fit in with whatever is already there and is not something that can be rectified overnight (without a huge capital outlay).

The web is too much of an ecosystem now to ignore how people interact with different utilities (google, twitter, facebook, flickr, youtube), and thus how they directly affect the number of visitors to your site. Making sure you optimise for the funnel (into the site), and the site itself (generally usability on the site) will stand you in good stead.

Another update: This has also now started encompassing social media and software as a service consulting and implementation -> “How do we use Twitter?” and “What’s this Google Calendar thing?”….