Dallas Business Consultant Elijah ClarkDallas Business Consultant Elijah Clark

Example Website Business Plan

CompanyEC is an interactive recruitment marketing company founded in 2003 and headquartered in Minnetonka Minnesota. This company utilizes interactive marketing and technology to help its clients find better, engage better and know better candidates activities through multiple channels of recruiting. The goal of the company is to help businesses find better job recruits at an affordable cost. This company believes that recruiting is a form of marketing and they take pride in their marketing skills. By using online tools such as search engines, social networks, employee referrals, past applicants and recruiting networks, CompanyEC finds the best possible job candidates for the position.

This document will include details on CompanyEC’s current search engine optimization (SEO)Ā plan, along with a new SEOĀ planĀ that will assist in improving the sites structure and its content. Ultimately, thisĀ planĀ will help by improving visibility, sales and user experience for the company’sĀ website.

SEOĀ PlanĀ Objective

This SEOĀ planĀ will go into details and will place together an effective marketing strategy that will consist of CompanyEC making adjustments to its title and meta tags, pursue possibilities for incoming links and create a stronger architectural design for itsĀ website. In addition, this strategy will also include details of how to increase traffic through new content, a social networking presence, through the use of proper link baiting and by upgrading keywords and creating a PPC campaign that will increase site and customer conversions.

CompanyEC’s CurrentĀ Website

CompanyEC’s currentĀ websiteĀ has over 335k backlinks and over 20k indexed Google pages. CompanyEC also has a great flat site structure that benefits its users and that is easy to navigate (Baxter, 2009). Another positive about theĀ websiteĀ is that its navigation links are simple and aren’t crowding the page.

WebsiteĀ grader has recorded that CompanyEC doesn’t have a blog, RSS feed, is missing image ALT text and that its domain name is set to expire in nine months.Ā  In addition, theĀ websiteĀ doesn’t have any del.icio.us bookmark subscribers. TheĀ websiteĀ currently shows as having 20k+ pages crawled by Google. That number is far from being accurate and needs to be investigated and corrected.

WebsiteĀ Improvements

A Strategy that could work well with improving site conversions for CompanyEC includes adding an online blog and newsgroups. This is a great way for the company to start conversations about progress of company, success stories and interact with its users. In addition, this will also help theĀ websiteĀ with increasing stickiness and unique content, which can benefit the site within search engines. By utilizing this strategy, site visitors will help add content to theĀ websiteĀ through their questions and responses that will ultimately get indexed by search engines and help draw new traffic to theĀ website.

In addition to creating a site with user interaction, CompanyEC also uses videos to draw their users in. Though these videos may be affective with users, the uses of video ALT tags aren’t being very effective and need to be upgraded. The ALT tags for each video currently says ā€œPlay this video.ā€ These tags need to be updated and should include details of the video and keywords should be taken advantage of also when creating these ALT tags.

Keywords and PPC

CompanyEC currently has a very short list of keywords that aren’t very effective. From the home page of theĀ website, the keywords are CompanyEC, Online Recruiting, Interactive Recruiting, Social Network Recruiting, Mobile Recruiting and Recruiting Dashboard.

This list of keywords is very short and isn’t being as effective as it can be. By including more relevant to content keywords, CompanyEC can take proper advantage of the search engines by using its keywords to the fullest. Each page of CompanyEC.com includes a keyword list of only six words or less. A good keyword number to keep in mind is between ten and twenty to produce the best results.

In addition to having a small number of keywords, CompanyEC also is not creating a strong list of keywords. While Online Recruiting and Interactive Recruiting is what the company does, these keywords aren’t direct enough to the types of users that CompanyEC are trying to draw in. To make these keywords direct, they should read ā€œOnline Job Recruitingā€ and ā€œInteractive Job Recruiting.ā€ There are many other keyword that can be added to this list, however, this is the direction that CompanyEC needs to be headed. Being that recruiting is a broad term used for job openings, school admissions and the military forĀ example, CompanyEC could be wasting time and money by not creating these keywords to be more direct within its niche and toward its audience type. Being that CompanyEC doesn’t seem to be focused on military or educational recruiting, directing the keywords away from them by using a negative keywords list will help in creating a strong keyword and ad campaign.

With more popular keywords, the company can easily gain more exposure. The current list of keywords, though relevant to the company, is not relevant to users search results. By changing or adding the suggested list of keywords to theĀ website, the company will be found easier by its targeted users. CompanyEC is currently ranked at the top of the search results for its current list of keywords. However, it isn’t beneficial to be ranked high for a list of keywords that aren’t being searched very often.

By upgrading its keyword list, meta tag descriptions and ALT tags, CompanyEC has a great opportunity to increase traffic through its organic search results. CompanyEC should also look to include a sitemap on itsĀ websiteĀ for use with search engine. In addition, sitemaps are also beneficial toward helping some users find their way around theĀ websiteĀ easier. Overall, it’s a good tool to have and wont hinder the websites structure or performance.

CompanyEC should also include A/B Testing for their PPC ad campaign. According to the laws of A/B testing, by creating multiple copies of the control ad, the user does not lose as much profit due to the control ad always running. Instead of the user losing 50% of ad impressions to the testing ad, that percentage shrinks to 20% because of the additional control ad copies.

In addition to this type of testing saving profits and potentially accelerating the testing process, it also allows for CompanyEC to create a valid testing environment by ā€œcomparing the performance of the test ad against the copies of the control only (Thies, 2008).ā€

In addition to upgrading its onsite search optimization, CompanyEC should also look into marketing its company in well-known directories such as Yahoo,Ā Business.com and DMOZ.com to increase site rank and popularity within search engines. Listing the companyĀ websiteĀ and brand within .org, .gov and .edu websites will also greatly help increase credibility within search engines. CompanyEC should also look to add an RSS feed to itsĀ website. Though it currently is involved within social networks and users can stay updated through these tools, having an onsite RSS feed allows for search engines to index them and allows for users an easy click to stay updated with site content.

Job2Web already has a great social networking campaign in place. It utilizes and is involved with all of the most popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to market its company and product. However, theĀ websiteĀ itself doesn’t have direct access for users to connect with them via these social networks. TheĀ websiteĀ should include easy click links for these users to follow, like or befriend the company. This is another user interaction strategy that CompanyEC currently doesn’t take advantage of.

CompanyEC should also setup quality backlinks on niche websites and not just broad sites. By including its link on sites relevant to its own will positively help in its rankings. These niche websites should also include sites with a high page rank. Other link building strategies can easily come from participating in blogs and other online forums and local event groups. When placing a backlink on these sites, they should create these backlinks by utilizing unique keyword descriptive anchor text.

Another option to find credible backlinks is to search CompanyECs competitor’s link groupings. ā€œA local link grouping would be a page on the Internet where all or most of your competitors get incoming links from (Caldwell, 2009).ā€ By searching CompanyEC’s company’s keywords, common backlinks of their competitors can be located. Once these backlinks are indentified, CompanyEC should include itsĀ businessĀ name and link within those same sites if possible. Nonetheless, these links should be on niche websites that are relevant to the works or CompanyEC’s own in order to produce the most favorable results.

Conclusion

By utilizing blogs and newsgroups to involve its site users, CompanyEC can create an affective stickiness strategy which will help with sites user click-through rates and length of time users spend on theĀ website. This could ultimately help with increasing search engine credibility.

In addition, including keywords and better descriptions within the sites video ALT tags will create an extremely effective strategyĀ planĀ that is not only beneficial for search results within search engines, but will also be helpful by creating higher traffic within video directories.

Overall, the biggest concern that I see with CompanyEC is that they do not create many opportunities to get their users involved with the company. Though CompanyEC does have accounts on every major social networking site, theirĀ websiteĀ doesn’t say this and they have failed to include user interaction directly on its ownĀ websiteĀ via blogs, newsgroups or RSS feeds. In addition, CompanyEC should include an easy bookmark feature on itsĀ website. By including a bookmark widget, CompanyEC can gain user dedication and rank better with search engines that index bookmark websites such as Del.icio.us and Google bookmarks.

To create a strategy that will encourage user interactivity, CompanyEC can also setup email marketing and newsletter campaigns, along with creating polls and surveys to gain user feedback on what else the site could do to enhance the user experience. The newsletters should include information on upcoming specials, events and changes that CompanyEC has made within its company that can benefit its users. Allowing users to opt out of receiving emails and referring a friend for discounts should also be included within each newsletter.

TheĀ websiteĀ should be regularly checked by utilizing web stats and tracking tools such as Google Analytics. By viewing monthly reports, CompanyEC will be able to see which keywords, content and PPC campaigns are being most affective. In addition, it will also allow for CompanyEC to see where visitors are coming from, how long they stay, where they go when they leave and how CompanyEC stats compare to its industry benchmarks.

ThisĀ websiteĀ businessĀ planĀ will improve user experience and search engine credibility. With these new changes to CompanyEC.com, it will only be a matter of time until it sees an increase in profits and user activity.

Website influence

AĀ websiteĀ gives your business the opportunity for exposure 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no other medium that allows consumers to discover all of the benefits of your business, at their convenience, and provide a source for direct correspondence from the user to you in real time. The benefits of a website are limitless.

Building Process. When building a website, make certain that you design the site for your customer and not for you or the graphic artist or designer. Design for the individuals that will use the site. By building for your customers, it allows you to target who is actually going to be viewing, and hopefully purchasing, from the website. Don’t design for looks, but for a purpose. If customers don’t like the colors then, no matter what you or your designer may think, those colors need to be changed. When building a website, you need to focus on attracting your target audience and making the site user-friendly.

A properly built websiteĀ requires an effective title and meta tags, incoming links, and a strong architectural design. In addition, you should implement social mediaĀ strategies through the use of proper link baiting, keywords, and creating a pay-per click campaign that will increase customer conversions.

A strategy that I have found to work well in improving websiteĀ conversions includes adding an online blog or newsgroup. This method has shown to be a positive step in influencing conversions as well as conversations. In addition, it helps to generate a higher domain authority when utilizing unique content which can benefit the site’s ranking within search engines. Furthermore, blogsĀ and news updates elevate customer satisfaction and attract traffic to your website.

Another question that should be asked when building your websiteĀ is, ā€œDoes my website compete with my competitors?ā€ and ā€œDoes it target my desired customer group?ā€ If you don’t have your website built by a designer who understands your industry, then the answers are likely to be, ā€œNo.ā€ Your website needs to represent you and your business. If it looks cheap, so will your business. If you try to cut corners, your customers will know. It’s better to have no website at all than a badly designed, poorly built website that doesn’t represent your business in a positive light, doesn’t serve the needs of your customers, and doesn’t drive traffic.

Website Traffic, Is It Alien Or Human?

There are two ways to gain customers for your websiteĀ or business. The first way is to pay for it. You could easily pay a marketer, advertiser, or branding company and gain customers that way. The other way is to earn your customers. This is the way that I believe works best and the one that I practice. To earn customers, you must get to know them. You should know where they go, which websites they visit, and local events they attend. This doesn’t just consist of putting your name and business card in these locations, but it involves you interacting with them and finding a true understanding of their lifestyle and preferences, and what it is that they desire from a business such as yours.

Alien Traffic. A study by Incapsula, one of the leading web security services and optimizers, unearthed that more than half of your websiteĀ traffic could be alien. Not exactly the ones portrayed in War of the Worlds, but maybe. The findings released suggested that around 31% of website traffic was harmful and includes spammers, spies, scrappers, and hackers.[1]

Then there are the 20% of friendly visitors such as GoogleĀ Bot as well as other search engine indexers. What this means is that analyticsĀ do not provide the whole picture and human visitors are not alone prowling the internet. To mitigate this, you should make security a part of your online marketingĀ undertaking and tighten your websiteĀ content with relevant keywords for the friendly indexers so your website is pulled by more human traffic based on the intent of website visitors.

 

[1] http://www.bizepic.com/2014/12/19/shocking-half-website-traffic-2014-bot-traffic/

Website Marketing

While social mediaĀ sites are great for bloggingĀ and news updates, you should also include the blog text and updates on your business website so that it creates more content and attracts attention from search engines. By utilizing blogsĀ and newsgroups to attract website visitors, you can create an effective strategy which will help gain and increase websiteĀ click-through rates and the length of time users spend on your website. This could ultimately help with increasing search engine credibility and domain authority. In addition, including keywords and descriptions in image ALT tags on your website will create an extremely effective strategy that is not only beneficial for improving content search results but will also boost your rank in image search directories.

You should additionally include an easy bookmark feature on your website. By including a bookmark widget, you can gain customer loyalty and rank better with search enginesĀ that index bookmark websites such as Del.icio.us and GoogleĀ bookmarks.

To create a strategy that will encourage customer interactivity, you can also setup email marketingĀ and newsletter campaigns along with creating polls and surveys to gain customer feedbackĀ and help enhance the experience of your customers. Newsletters could include information on upcoming specials, events, and changes in the business that could benefit the customer.

Links for allowing customers to opt out of receiving emailsĀ and referring a friend for discounts should also be included in each newsletter. Your business can benefit by tracking the results of email campaigns using newsletter and website tracking tools such as Google Analytics. By viewing monthly reports, you will be able to see which keywords, content, and paid campaigns are most effective. In addition, it will allow for you to see where visitors come from, how long they visit a certain web page, the last page they viewed before leaving your website, and how your stats compare to the industry benchmarks.

Website Analyzers and Tracking Tools

1. AWStats –Ā http://awstats.sourceforge.net/Ā 

What I like about this analyzer is that it’s simpleĀ andĀ clean. The analytics show up within one pageĀ andĀ the user can get a quick analysis of all of its trafficĀ andĀ user activity. Another benefit of this analyzer is that it includes much more information on referring sites than otherĀ tools. In addition, it also has a great way ofĀ trackingĀ bandwidth usage on the server. The benefit of this is that it allows great protection from bandwidth thieves.

Sitepoint.com is a highly respectedĀ andĀ well ranked company within the web development industryĀ andĀ they recommend this service as #1 within its top ten list of web analyzerĀ tools.

What I would change about this analyzer is the look. Though it does cover a large list of features, I don’t believe it to be very pleasing to the eye. By adding more linksĀ andĀ tabbed panels, it would allow for users to easily navigate throughout the tool with ease.

Nonetheless, this is still a great tool for someone looking for a simple yet detailed synopsis of theirĀ websiteĀ traffic.

2. eLogic –Ā http://www.elogicwebsolutions.com/website-statistics.htmlĀ 

What I like about this tool is that it creates a list of three different packages for different types of users. Nonetheless, I also believe this to be the downfall of the tool. The tool is offered free for those looking to handle smaller task. However, to get the full list of features, there is a charge of $9.95 a month for the Pro version.

However, though it does costĀ andĀ I may not like it, it may be a cost worth paying. The Pro version includesĀ toolsĀ that other analyticĀ toolsĀ just don’t have. TheseĀ toolsĀ consist of real-time traffic statistics, log file storage, custom email alertsĀ andĀ unlimited history.

While eLogic does have a plan for all types of users, I don’t believe that paying a monthly fee for a web analyzer tool is a great move. With the multiple freeĀ toolsĀ within the market, eLogic may not be making a smart move with charging its users a fee.

TechchiaĀ andĀ Sitepoint, both of who are respected names within the web developmentĀ andĀ technology marketplace, have named eLogic within the top 3 web analyticsĀ tools.

3. ExtremeĀ TrackingĀ –Ā http://extremetracking.comĀ 

I would not recommend this tool. While I do love the simplicity of ExtremeĀ Tracking, I just don’t believe it to be a professional tool that gives in-depth details on user activity. This tool is good for someone with a smallĀ websiteĀ with a few pages of information. The downfall of this tool is that it only provides a small amount of detail about the users. This information includes, date, referring site, browser typeĀ andĀ how many visitors ventured onto theĀ websiteĀ for that day, month or year. As a userĀ andĀ web developer who looks to find a true understanding in its users, I don’t receive much valuable information from this tool.

Nonetheless, for a monthly subscription of $4.95, users can receive more information on their traffic.

My suggestion would be to get rid of the freeĀ andĀ paid versions,Ā andĀ to just allow users the full benefit of using the tool. In addition, the paid version still doesn’t compete with free versions of analyzerĀ tools. By charging its users, this tool is hurting its brand. This is mainly due to web developers not promoting it to their customers as a valuable tool to use that’s free of charge. By charging a fee, most developersĀ andĀ users won’t even test the tool.

Philosophy Of A Website For Visitors

Website visitors want clear immediate direction on what they should do once your website is pulled. Wordy text, meaningless graphics, and multiple differing calls to action, are the ingredients to cause visitor bafflement and bounce. Your website should have a clearly defined goal, and that goal should be straightforward for your website visitors.
  • Is your website to produce leads? If so, then the path for conversion is for the visitors to signup in as few clicks as possible.
  • Is your website to have visitors call you? If so, then the path for conversion is for the visitors to call.
  • Is your website ecommerce? If so, then the path for conversion is for the visitors to get to your thank you page in as few clicks as possible.
  • Is your website informational? If so, then the path for conversion is for the visitors to get at what they want in the shortest time and path.
Unluckily, there is no easy fix when website clutter exists. Overhauling a website begins when the visitors’ perspective is taken. Demographic user testing is the starting point. Learned insights shed light on your website’s:
  • intuitiveness
  • messaging
  • conversion paths
  • content value
  • overall context
Identified insight variables become your blueprint for delivering a predictable goal designed website for your visitors. See on the web, your visitor is always right. By constructing your website for visitor usability, you in turn increase visitors’ desired action as well as upgrade your website’s SERPs, which is a bonus win for your bottom line.

Why or do I need to add a copyright to my website?

I did something different this time around when I built my website. When looking at the footer and how to design and what to add to it. I considered the traditional copyright 2014 Elijah Clark. All rights reserved.

Then I asked myself why I was added it. The answer was that I really didn’t know. I became so used to adding it by default to my own and others websites that it had stuck with me.

Nonetheless, I really never knew why. Do I add it because I’m supposed to? Do I have it to make my site look professional or am I adding it to simply scare people off so that they don’t copy the text?

Either way, after research, I’ve found that there is no real reason to have it at all. The fact is that as long as I’m the first to publish the content, then I own the rights anyway. A website has a great track record of changes and my site content, so I don’t really need the copyright for any protection purposes. People will steal content with or without the text.

So, next. Am I doing it to look professional? Well, I think I did at one point. When backlinking was big and I wanted to add my name next to my clients copyright notice with a link back to my site, it made perfect sense. It was branding. My name didn’t look out of place then. Nonetheless, now that a backlink is deemed bad if it’s coming from a new non-nitch website, I no longer add my name or link.

Either way. No one really cares about the copyright. It scares no one and you aren’t going to lose a client because of it.

From a technical standpoint, the law eliminated the requirement of public notice in 1989. So, it isn’t necessary and up to you on whether Or not you want to include it.

Website with Photoshop

https://youtu.be/jSvxdObw3uE

I often get asked how to build websites from customers who are graphic designers. Though it is a good question, its sometimes odd when I have the graphic artist send me the layout that they want, but just want me to build it into a functional website. What I find interesting about this is that I believe graphic artist and web designers are one in the same. Web designers are just graphic designers who know a little something about html.

Within this video, I have outlined how to build a website using Adobe Photoshop. I believe it will be an interesting discovery for many Photoshop experts who felt they knew nothing about building a website. Check out the video for further details.

Ā 

READY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS?
Copyright 2023 - Dr. Elijah Clark Enterprises - Sitemap - Policy - Fees