November 2007 Newsletter

» Effective SEO Options in Website Design
» Fact Byte
» Website Newsletters vs. Traditional Strategies
» Fact Byte
» Too Much!
» The Programmers Corner: Off the Shelf or Custom CMS, It's a Simple Choice

The term SEO is often thrown around haphazardly on the internet when dealing with Website Design. The term SEO means Search Engine Optimization and it's something I've written about before (see the article in the July 2007 M9 Newsletter titled Google's Top Ten: How to Get There From Here) where I've talked about issues like site structure, content, relevance and outside linkages. However the SEO term keeps coming up in conversations, emails and questions so I decided I should deal with it more completely.

An accurate definition of SEO is hard to find, since it refers to the ephemeral world of the internet where the meaning of terms are very fluid. However here is an up-to-date definition from Wikipedia:

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the
volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via
"natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Usually, the
earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site."
Source: Wikipedia Article

There are basically two ways to do SEO; white hat strategies (which basically rely on organic changes within the content and form) and black hat strategies (which tend to rely more on gimmicks).

White Hat Strategies

White hat strategies maximize the attractiveness of your site by design that follows the guidelines listed by search engines, i.e.: site structure, content, relevance and outside linkages; nothing more and nothing less. Those four factors are the essentials of all the ranking systems out there: Google, Yahoo, Ask and so on all refer back to those four central concepts. These strategies also have the side effect of making the site more attractive to readers.

1) Site structure is how the site is put together by the designer. A good website designer will take care of this for you automatically.

2) Content refers to what is actually on the site; as long as the text is regularly updated and well-written your site will work fine.

3) Relevance refers to the material on your site and whether it refers to itself within the site itself.

4) And, lastly, outside linkages refer to the number (and quality) of links that the site has to outside sources.

In truth those are the only tools you really need!

SEO Black Hat Strategies

Black hat strategies (on the other hand) are always tricky and there are, unfortunately, lots of people out there who sell (or give) some really bad advice about search engine optimization. They talk about things like:
- link farms
- hidden text
- invisible text
- portals
- off-screen text
- redirects
- hidden links
- page hijacking
- etc.
These all have one single element in common, they are trying to fool the search engine and they might succeed or they might not, it depends. And if you get caught then the search engine might just de-list your site as a punishment, in which case you've wasted a lot of money and time for a negative result because if the search engines are not listing you then no one is going to be able to find you!

Another feature of black hat strategies is that all of them require a great deal of work and skill to implement. Frankly, it's easier and more productive to follow the rules, along that particular way you'll also end up creating a better, more user-friendly website for your customers and clients and they're the ones who are buying from you, aren't they? I mean the web-crawling googlespiderbots are nice but they don't buy anything so maybe its best to write for the reader.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me, I am Michael Van Rooy and can be reached through our contact form.

Michael Van Rooy, Lead Content Writer

Search Engine popularity varies on a daily basis. As of September 2007 the percentage of users using the different engines looks something like this:

Google: 3,994,158 Searches 54.8% Total Searches
Yahoo: 1,443,244 Searches 19.5% Total Searches
MSN/Windows Live: 890,685 Searches 12.0% Total Searches
AOL: 444,493 Searches 6.0% Total Searches
Source: Netrating

Every day at M9 Web Design Company I get calls from potential and current clients who aren't exactly sure about our E-mail Newsletter option. For that reason I've decided to take some time and contrast it with traditional newsletter options.

M9 E-mail Newsletters have:

". . . multiple subscription methods so the customers who want to
hear from you will hear from you! At the same time our one-step unsubscription form eliminates hassles so those who don't want to
hear from you won't be bothered.

Along with emailing the newsletter to your clients the same newsletter is posted to your website which keeps it updated and dynamic for visitors and search engines. Also you will be able to create your very own newsletter through your custom control panel so you can make it as personal as you want it to be."

This tried and tested process is very effective at delivering the message to exactly the right person at exactly the right time!

With the M9 Newsletter system we set up a system to send a link to specific clients that lead them back to your website to read the newsletter. This also has the effect of bringing customers to your website which gives you, the business-person, a chance to engage their interests even if they're not interested in the newsletter itself.

Traditional Newsletters

When considering traditional newsletters there are two big problems: their cost and their effectiveness. The cost of a newsletter is exorbitant, just the cost of writing and design is perhaps $100.00 per page and then you have to deal with photocopying which can cost anywhere from $.06 to $.10 a page. Then there is the cost of the mail out, about $.38 (minimum) per item, but only in certain specific cases and only as long as you send out a minimum of 1,000. After all these expenses are calculated your final cost varies anywhere from $540.00 to $580.00 for a single page email.

To top it all off the effectiveness of regular emails is extremely low: in my experience only 5% of the recipients of regular newsletters will read it and only 1% will act on what they learn.

M9 Email Newsletters

Knowing all that I worked to come up with a solution and here the picture is much nicer. The cost of writing and design remains the same but that's about it, there are no costs for photocopying and mailing, just a small cost to M9 to develop the system for you. There is also no limit to the size of the newsletter; it can be as big or as small as you want.

Plus the Email Newsletter is environmentally friendly; there are no pulped trees, no wasted paper and no toxic ink.

And if you are busy then M9 will write the Newsletter for you as well using our content service. So give me, Roger Syntak, President of M9 a call and let me help you build your business.

Roger Syntak, President

In terms of size the total internet was estimated to be 5 million terabytes in size in 2005 by Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. He went on to state that Google (the largest search engine currently in existence) only indexed 170 terabytes. A terabyte is 1,099,511,627,776 bytes of information or about 500,000,000 sheets of typewritten text. Source: Softpedia

Why You Should Not Send Mass Emails Through Normal Channels

Here at M9 Web Design Corporation we know that emailing is a powerful direct marketing tool with a high rate of penetration paired with a very low basic cost. Simply write whatever offer you want, put it into an email and choose your client target.

It's that simple.

Okay, It's Not that Simple

The problem with this kind of tactic is that the Internet Service Provider (the ISP) can very easily be blacklisted for doing this kind of mass email because it is indistinguishable from spam. That means that, if you do a mass email, then your site (along with every other one run by your ISP) can be blocked. This means no emails in or out, which is very bad for business.

Consider This

Everyone has spam filters in place out there in cyberspace and, in addition, web mail service providers, like Outlook, are extremely aggressive in stopping spam of all types, especially if there are images included. No one likes spam and so everyone on the internet is involved in responsible internet use which means constant careful monitoring is going on.

A Solution

The M9 Web Design Corporation solution is simple. We use an Email Newsletter design that focuses on tracking permission based mailing. That means that our mass emails are allowed; the customer says they want to receive what we're sending! Remember that M9 Corporation has been making technology work for a long time now.

Michael Van Rooy, Lead Content Writer

There are two kinds of CMS's (Content Management Systems, a web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage a website), pre-built ones (off the shelf) and custom ones (what we do!) There are upsides and downsides to both kinds:

Off the shelf

Upside: Plug and Play, sometimes with step by step instructions and walkthroughs for inexperienced users.

Upside: Generally very powerful and flexible

Downside: So much power and flexibility leads to greater memory overhead and unwieldiness. As well as an increased learning curve to use and maintain the system properly.

Downside: If you have a specific need that isn't already compensated for then it has to be built into the system at a greater time and expense.

Custom

Upside: Lean, clean and mean; the 3 things you need for a CMS to work quickly and effectively.

Upside: We build it from the ground up so adding or removing bits and pieces is a piece of cake.

Downside: Not "plug and play" takes longer to get it going in the first place.

Downside: No existing "plug ins" so all new features must be built custom from scratch.

Off the shelf systems are usually built by developers like me who grow tired of "reinventing the wheel" so they make one last CMS and integrate people into it. Here at M9 we know that every client needs a something different, however we don't develop in the dark. We use what we learn from each development to make the next one better than the last, so you are always getting our best work.

There are a lot of other problems with off the shelf systems. For example, a lot are open source community based projects, if that community grows tired of the project they will move on and support for that CMS system will evaporate. If you go with a commercial system, it's less likely to evaporate, but it will cost you money on an ongoing basis.

By and large pre-built means over-built and, as a result, they are as slow as molasses. They are great for beginners and amateurs, and people who can't afford our custom development, but they are not great for people who want something that will work exactly to their needs. To see what I mean just browse our website portfolio and see some of the systems we have created in operation.

So when it comes to creating your next website, are you going to want to go with an elephant in a box, or do you want us to make you a cheetah?

Ian Prentice, Lead Programmer