Keyword stuffing

The biggest, fattest DO-NOT-DO-THIS on the list: keyword stuffing.

Keyword is exactly what it sounds like: stuffing a bunch of random keywords into places they don’t belong, bogging down your content so it’s barely readable for any actual human.

This mistake sits at the top of the list, because algorithms are much smarter than they used to be — and much smarter than keyword stuffers give them credit for. Search engines know when you’re trying to play them.

Forgetting to change title tags and meta descriptions

Individual title tags and meta descriptions should be present on every single public page of your website. Title tags are a page’s message to the world, and meta descriptions are the explanation of exactly what a reader will find on that page.

If you use the auto-generated title tags and meta descriptions, you risk not accurately representing what is on your website, which will likely result in less views and clicks.

Not consistently updating your website

Miss Google values a fresh, clean, accurate website. Consistently updating your website is key to remaining relevant to search engines, and offers the added bonus of keeping all of your content current and correct.

Not using Google to your advantage

When people talk about SEO, they often mention how we need to do everything in our power to show up in a Google search… but people rarely mention all the ways Miss Google can actually help us do exactly that.

Aside from explicitly outlining everything we need to know about her algorithm, Google has a number of practices inside the Google Marketing Platform place to help us optimize our sites for SEO.

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Let’s be honest, although technology plays a crucial role in our lives, it can be intimidating. If you’re running a business, you often don’t have time to be on top of “the next big thing” each time it rolls around. You trust your vendors and partners to provide you with honest direction and to understand the role technology plays in your business. Perhaps you’ve been pitched marketing packages by fast talking, high pressures sales folks signaling doomsday if you don’t sign up for their digital services. We have seen (and been told about) several examples of these partnerships going awry. After the contract is signed, you’re unable to cancel, continue to be billed for months and can’t get a hold of anyone in customer service. Not cool.

At JB Systems, we prefer to do business a bit different; entirely different, in fact. Our commitment to our clients means we’re always available to offer advice on what web, marketing and other digital services might be the best fit for your business. Additionally, our proposals are always transparent, straightforward, and easy to understand so you know exactly what you’re paying for. Give us a call and setup an appointment for a complimentary website review and/or to discuss any of our services. We won’t lock you into a multi-year contract, highjack your domain or send you invoices for additional services you didn’t agree to. It’s all part of our promise at #TeamJB to make the web simple.

Did You Know? JB Systems Offers The Following Services:

• Monthly SEO Programs
• Pay-Per-Click & Ad Remarketing Services
• Content Strategy/Preparation with Emphasis On SEO Analysis/Mapping
• Photography
• Video
• Email Campaign & Drip Messaging
• Social Media Management
• Website Maintenance Programs
• Print Collateral & Marketing Materials
• …and course, website design, development, training and more!

We’re proud of our 15 years of business and the hard-working foundation to which our company is built on. We thank you for your business and hope to continue to partner with you as “we’re never done.” Please click here for any additional questions on how we may be of service to you.

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This is when it helps to have a professional step in and help you understand the Analytics and the SEO world. JB Systems has an in-house SEO Strategist who takes the confusion out of SEO and assists our clients in understanding their Analytics. Two SEO vocab words that seem to have people confused as of late are Bounce Rates and Exit Rates.

The bounce rate shows you how many people (or users) visit your website, and then leave after only one pageview. This means that either the user clicked on your website by accident, they weren’t getting the information they needed, or they DID get the information they needed in one page, so they left.

The exit rate refers to anytime a user leaves your website, regardless of how many pages they viewed of your website.

Make sense? Let’s dig into this a little more. Let’s say you have three web pages that are visited throughout the work week:

• Home page
• About Us page
• Contact Us page

On Monday, a person visits your website they start on the Home page. From there they go to the About Us page. Lastly, they visit your Contact page before exiting your website. (Home page> About Us page> Contact page> Exit)

On Tuesday, another person visits your website. They start on the About Us page, and after reading more about your company they realize they clicked on the wrong link so they bounce off your site. (About Us page > Exit)

On Wednesday, a different person comes to your website and they start on your Home page. Next, they visit your Contact page. Lastly, they view the About Us page and then leave your site. (Home page> Contact Page > About Us Page> Exit)

Thursday rolls around and a new visitor comes to your website. They enter your site on the Contact page. They fill it out, and since that’s all they needed, they leave your website. (Contact page > Exit)

Finally it’s Friday, and one more person visits your site. They arrive on the About Us page and read a little bit about your company before clicking over to your Contact page. Then they check out your Home page. From there, they exit your site. (About Us page > Contact page > Home page> Exit)

Let’s summarize the week:

• Monday: Home page> About Us page> Contact page> Exit
• Tuesday: About Us page > Exit
• Wednesday: Home page> Contact Page > About Us Page> Exit
• Thursday: Contact page > Exit
• Friday: About Us page > Contact page > Home page> Exit

Using the summary above as a reference, let’s look at the Bounce Rate for each page. The Bounce Rates for this example are as follows:

• Home page: 0% (one session began with the Home page but it led to other pageviews on the site, so it has no Bounce Rate)
• About Us page: 33% (3 sessions started with the About Us page, but only one of those sessions led to a bounce)
• Contact page: 100% (one session started with the Contact page, and it lead to a bounce)

Now let’s look at the exit rate. Remember, the Exit Rate refers to the page of the website that the user left on. The Exit Rates for this example are:

• Home page: Out of the 3 sessions that included the Home page, only in 1 session did the user exit on the Home page
• About page: Out of the 4 sessions that included the About page, in 2 session the user exited on the About page
• Contact page:  Out of the 4 sessions that included the Contact page, in 2 session the user exited on the Contact page

Make sense? If you’re still confused about bounce rates or exit rates, or have any SEO related questions, please Contact JB Systems. We’ll work together to make sure you have a solid grasp on SEO!

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Branding takes many forms, such as a new logo design, changing the colors of an existing logo, updating a slogan, and more. At JB Systems, we recently had the opportunity to help the Eau Claire Police Department re-brand themselves by creating a new logo.

On Tuesday, August 18th, some of our team members were in attendance at Phoenix Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin as Police Chief Gerald Staniszewski unveiled the logo on two new police vehicles, along with another vehicle that will serve as the community relations car.

An Eau Claire police officer stands with a new squad car with the new logo on it.

Given the unpopular view of law enforcement the past year, we knew our team had to be very sensitive and strategic in our design. Our graphic designers needed to make sure to give the ECPD a logo that conveyed both an authoritative AND approachable feel, while also delivering the award-winning level of work JB Systems is known for.

“The main challenge they presented us with was they wanted a logo that would be more recognizable by the community and be relatable,” says Meghan Bauer, Art Director at JB Systems. “Especially with all the negativity surrounding law enforcement right now, they wanted something that would make people feel at ease with the department and not think of them as completely aggressive and authoritative. They want to be seen as people you can be comfortable to approach any time with any need.”

The elements of the logo are seen here, with the water in the background representing Eau Claire, the eagle, and the six stars representing the Eau Claire Police Departments core values.

From there, Meghan and Jenna, two of JB Systems’ graphic design artists, went to work, using this project to challenge themselves as designers and learning to apply creative design to solve such a complex public issue. There were many different elements the ECPD wanted to incorporate in their brand, such as “Old Abe” the eagle, to represent strength and authority. They also wanted water represented in the logo to symbolize “Eau Claire,” our city of clear water. Having the word “police” in a strong font presents an authoritative image, while having “Eau Claire,” in a softer font, gives the vehicle an approachable feature.

While we wanted to give the ECPD brand a fresh look, we also wanted the logo to maintain some of the original logo elements, in order to keep their identity visible and familiar to the community. Our design team accomplished this by including six stars, which can be seen along the sides of the badge. The stars represent the Eau Claire Police Department’s six values of Honesty / Integrity, Dignity / Respect, Commitment, Service / Caring, Professionalism, and Lawful Behavior.

The new branding will be featured on ECPD’s police cars, letterhead, mailing labels, envelopes, and business cards. We even took photos of ECPD staff of various departments, which were used on the community relations car to make it personable and approachable.

Community Relations car.

“The Eau Claire Police Department was a pleasure to work with,” says Meghan. “All in all, it was a lot of fun to work on their logo, and I’d say we’re very proud with how it turned out!”

Are you looking to update your brand and set your company or organization apart from the rest? Give JB Systems a call, and we’ll get started on designing a brand that will give your company the competitive edge you need. Not only will be back your site, but we’ll also back your brand!

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and messy website will turn away visitors and potential customers, and in turn, your company may lose revenue. Building a custom website can be expensive, but it’s a worthwhile investment to create a unique experience for site visitors that’s built to meet the needs of your company and your clients.

Having an aesthetically pleasing website isn’t enough, though. If your website doesn’t encourage visitor engagement, then you still won’t see results. Website Magazine agrees with this train of thought, too. You can have all of the most important information written on your site, but if it doesn’t engage your visitors, then the quality of the information almost doesn’t matter.

This begs the question– how do I create engaging content?

There are a variety of ways you can engage viewers on your website. Here are a few:

These tips are great and are proven to increase visitor engagement on your websites. Having an engaging website will also keep your visitors coming back to your site. You might be asking yourself, how do I know if my website engages people?

Here are a few tips for how to check the success of your website in terms of engagement:

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In a previous post, we had discussed the security vulnerabilities in plug-in based template sites and the latest malware attack is a perfect example. The problem: many of these plug-ins are not easy to update and leaves not just the plug-in but the whole website in jeopardy. Each plug-in (and there are literally hundreds) can be developed by a different business or individual who is responsible for monitoring security threats and creating fixes. If your website “solution” relies on 4 different plugins (not uncommon) that translates into a lot of potential issues with many different hands touching a site. Most of which support and provide these plug-ins,
for free, raising the issue of how “motivated” are the developers to stay current with vulnerabilities.

We all know the importance of having a good business website and ranking high on search engines, Google specifically. Over the past few years, WordPress has been used to create quick, fast business sites. But what happens if one of the hundreds of different plug-ins from a hundred different companies are affected by a security flaw and your site suddenly disappears from the search rankings? From experience, getting a site back up in the search rankings is not as simple doing an update and suddenly you are back to #1 or #2. It takes time for Google to re-index and confirm that you are indeed, a clean site.

Imagine that you are a small consulting firm, using your website as a way to generate leads. You are currently ranked #2 on Google using your WordPress site. So far, things are going well. You are generating 2-3 conversions per week and business is growing. Suddenly, a malware attack strikes and your website can’t be found on the first 10+ pages of Google search. Now, you have to spend precious time and resources researching the problem, fixing the problem, and waiting for Google to “OK” your site again. Two weeks have passed and you may have potentially missed out on 6 new clients and this is ONLY if you can gain back your #2 spot.

In this day and age, security is important! As a business owner, your website is your image and your brand. It would be devastating for your business to close your store for 2 weeks because someone boarded up the door and you have to figure out a different way to let your customers in! Making sure to have a secure, well-coded website is a smart business investment and although it isn’t a 100% guarantee that a security issue won’t happen, you are 100% guaranteed that your website will have a secure foundation from the beginning. And if the worse should happen, a good development team will get your site fixed as soon as possible and it will be back to business as usual.

In summary – we leave leave you with this question, “Who’s backing your site?”
If you’re not enthused about maintaining 8 moving pieces of your website, from eight different developers, most likely from 8 corners of the world – you may ready for a new experience in web design. We encourage you to give JB Systems a call – our custom website brainstorming sessions are free – as is a great cup of coffee.

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Relevance in Search Engines

Relevance used to mean that you had the most backlinks and popularity among other sites. Then people started using money to gain popularity, trying to beat the system. Google’s response: Google Panda Update.

Relevance used to mean that your site had a dense amount of specific keywords in it. Then people started hiding text and stuffing keywords wherever they could to trick Google into ranking them first. Google’s response: Google Penguin Update.

Well, today, Google has pretty much manhandled every trick in the book and the only way to have long-term success in search engine marketing is to focus on your users, your content, and the overall health and usability of your website. While you still want to optimize your content using keywords, structure, tags, etc., you can’t take advantage of the rules and “trick” Google into putting you at the top of the list. Google, like your users, will respond positively to a great user experience, so that should be the goal when building or redesigning your website.

What did all of those Google updates do?

I’m not going to mention all of the many versions of updates that Google has performed, but here’s a basic recap of major recent algorithm updates from Google:

Google Panda – February 2011

Google started filtering out sites with ‘thin’ content that didn’t have much substance. This is really when it became more important to focus on the quality of your content, not just quantity.

Google also heard from users that they didn’t like the experience of having to scroll past a bunch of ads before getting to the actual content, so they rewarded sites that had their original content at the top of the page.

Google Penguin – April 2012

Google penalized those sites who were spamming the search engine using keyword stuffing, cloaking, paid links, or other ‘black-hat’ SEO tactics. This update also got rid of a lot of the ‘aggregator’ websites whose sole purpose was to provide backlinks for boosting SEO. If you want to get backlinks to your site, you need to earn them by producing and sharing useful content.

Google Pigeon – July 2014

(Actually, Google didn’t name this one. Pigeon was the label given by Search Engine Land.)

In this update, big directory sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor have benefited the most. This may be because of Google wanting to offer better comparison shopping for users, or a better way to offer reviews to users. However, it also reaffirms Google’s push for local search. Many changes lately have been focused on localizing the search results to help users find services that are closest to them at that moment, a trend that is largely being driven by the increasing use of mobile devices. According to Google, the goal is “to provide a more useful, relevant and accurate local search results.”

Other recent Google updates include the loss of author photos, video snippets, and review stars to reduce visual “distractions” in the search results page. That’s not to say that all visuals are going away – you’ll still see video screenshots come up with a YouTube listing – but you won’t see these extra visuals as much.

What can you do to make sure your rankings get to (and stay) at the top?

This search results page from Google shows the local carousel full of images and reviews/ratings, and the directory listings at the top of the organic results.

If you are a restaurant, hotel, service business, retail shop – make sure your listings on directories like Yelp, TripAdvisor, UrbanSpoon, and others are up to date and consistent (name, address, phone number, web address) across all sites, including Google Plus.

Make sure your site has a solid SEO structure and good general web practices, such as renewing your domain for several years, establishing/earning backlinks from partners, vendors, related industries, etc.

Restaurants, hotels, and retail stores in the ‘carousel’ have heavy emphasis on image and ratings – pay attention to these! Make sure you have nice photos uploaded to your Google Plus page, and ask your best customers to leave you reviews when you bring them their check (or send a thank you or make a follow up call).

Contact us at JB Systems today to learn more about our ongoing website SEO service.

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I recently did a website statistics analysis for a client of ours and as I was writing the summary, I found myself using lingo, jargon, geek-speak…whatever you want to call it. I realized that I might have some explaining to do. So, I put together a quick “Lingo List” for your website analytics, to help more of our clients sort through and understand the information they see in Google Analytics.

Visit = one sitting at a computer/device, viewing your site (you may see this also referred to as a Session)

Unique Visitor = one person who may have multiple visits to your site

Bounce = When a visitor gets to your site, doesn’t click on anything else, then leaves.

Bounce Rate = Rate at which people are leaving your site without clicking through to another page. Lower rates are better.

Channel = This is something newer in Google Analytics – it categorizes your referrals into groups of traffic, such as organic, direct, referral, and social.

Direct = This is when someone types in your web address (www.mywebsite.com) to the navigation bar in Google (not the search bar – yes, there is a difference), or uses a bookmark to find your site.

Referral = This is any other website that is linking to your site, not including social sites (however, in some cases, I’m still seeing social traffic show here)

Social = This includes traffic from social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Organic Traffic = When someone types a search query into Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. and clicks on an organic (not paid) search result

Paid Traffic = This refers to visitors to your site who have clicked on a paid search advertisement, such as the ads at the top or side of a search results page.

Not Set or Not Provided = Google switched their signed in users to using a secure (https://google.com) search so that user searches aren’t tracked anymore. For example, if I’m logged into my Google account and visit sites with Google Analytics, you won’t see my keywords or referral source. Due to that, you’ll see either (not set) or (not provided) as probably your top keyword. Which relates to this next one…

Keyword = These are individual terms or, more frequently, phrases that people type into the Google (or Yahoo, Bing, etc.)  search bar to find what they’re looking for. Keywords are disappearing from Google Analytics, and it’s because of the secure searching that I mention above. We also think that Google – which is  an advertising-fueled business model – is trying to get users to do more paid search advertising in order to get more keyword data. That’s just a guess. However, there are other ways to find keyword information:

• Webmaster Toolkit – This shows you 90 days of keywords of those who found your site, and search queries of those who didn’t click on your website in the search results page. This is great insight into what people are looking for that you’re not providing (or they don’t think you’re providing). For this, you’ll need a file uploaded to your website, which we can help you with (…if you’re a client of JB Systems. If you’re not, well, maybe we should talk anyway. wink wink )
• AdWords Keyword Planner Tool – This is a tool within AdWords, but you don’t have to pay to use it, you just need to have an AdWords account set up. You can do keyword research and find suggestions, get traffic estimates, and find out about the competitiveness of that keyword.

For the sake of keeping this post short, I’ll refrain from listing other tools – though there are many out there. If you have questions about your analytics, or want an analysis done, send me an email!

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Tomorrow, I’ll be presenting at the Eau Claire Chamber’s Social Media & Marketing Conference at Florian Gardens, which JB Systems is also sponsoring, so I wanted to give our blog readers a sneak peek at what’s in store!

We have a lot of clients lately asking about how they can keep up with the mobile world, in relation to their websites. There are a few different routes to go that we discuss with our clients, including:

• A mobile app – This is a native software application that you download to your phone that performs functions or offers content to users. Many times, mobile apps have very specific functions (browse homes for sale, refill a prescription, check nearby gas prices, etc.). This type of mobile interaction is usually much different than the customer’s main website, so it requires a different set of information and requirements from the client. It also goes through a process to be approved and sold on an app store like iTunes, for example.

• A mobile website – This is a website that is independent of your main website. Mobile websites are usually hosted under a subdomain or different domain altogether (i.e. m.facebook.com or jbsystemsllc.mobi). Mobile websites are a great alternative if you want the flexibility of the web but want to offer users different content than what they would see on your full site. Many times, you’ll see something like ‘View our Full Site’ on a mobile site. The goal is to offer users quick, relevant information for mobile users, instead of inundating them with the full breadth of your full site content.

• A responsive website – This is the same as your website – only different. (What?!) Responsive design is a newer trend in web design that rearranges the elements of your layout to fit a wide variety of screen sizes, instead of just shrinking them, thus eliminating the need to pinch-and-zoom all the time. The result of responsive design is easier access to all/most of the content on your site, one set of web files to manage and maintain, better SEO, and lower cost in most cases.

I’ll be discussing these topics and other mobile trends, tools, and tactics in my presentation, as well as pros and cons of implementing these strategies. Look for a follow up blog post with more info from the presentation!

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A Promo Code, as used by Walgreens

You’ve all probably seen them – codes that may look something like “JUNE2011″ or “SPG56″ or “COUPON11″. These are lovingly referred to in the e-commerce world as “Promo Codes” and they can be extremely powerful, if utilized to their full potential. Some of our clients use promo codes in their online stores promoting sales, offering exclusive discounts to their Facebook followers, or as a customer service ‘thank you’. Promo codes also work great for tracking offline marketing efforts like direct mail or trade show leads.

Promo codes are really not a new concept in the marketing world – traditional marketers have used these for eons, except they have been in the form of coupons. Now with the explosion of e-commerce, the promo code is making redeeming those coupons even easier – and simple is definitely a key element in the online world.

If you’re a retailer who is already using coupons, and you’re thinking about e-commerce, you’ll probably love using online promo codes in your store. Through our e-commerce system, you can easily create your own codes, name them whatever you’d like, and attribute them to either a dollar amount or percentage off. (We’ve even gone so far as to do some crazy buy 1, get 1 kind of stuff – but that’s a little more involved.) Then, all you have to do is promote the heck out of your promo codes – email them to your customers, post them on Facebook, add them to the back of your business cards – make them all different and track which ones bring in the most sales. What?! Tracking your marketing?! That’s why we love the web!

Give us a call if you want to chat e-commerce or promo codes – or even if you just want to come up with some new ways to use your website as a marketing machine.

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