“California
dreamin’?” She replies.
“Yeah, you know, the only way you will get visitors to that site is to ‘get
down on your knees and begin to pray...’”
Mary laughs and says, “What were you doing on the site?”
“My sister owns a company that specializes in creating Internet traffic.
So we looked at it, she said the site really sucks and it would be nearly
impossible to get visitors to the site from the search engines.
Customers just won’t be able to find the site, the way it is structured
now. Plus that ‘cha-ching’ sound has got to go.“
Mary responded, “Mike wanted that sound on there so people could think
they are saving when they visit our site, but the only ‘cha-ching’ is
what we paid to the geek. As far as getting found, you are telling
me the only award it could win is the ‘Where's Waldo’ advanced
version?”
Having heard enough, and softly remembering the line, ‘All the skies
are grey,’ Mike startled them both as he came around the corner. X-er
left, Mary tried to, but Mike wouldn’t let her go.
Mike didn’t like what he heard, he was frustrated and a bit impatient,
but always had good business judgment, and said, “OK, Mary, ask his
sister to come in and see me. We’ll see how good she is.” Mike
was committed to making this site go; to creating an online presence.
An Interview With A Geek…
Two days later, Linda came to Mike’s office.
Linda didn’t look like too geekish, but once she opened her mouth, well,
Mike knew that she knew what she was talking about.
“Michael, I don’t usually travel to clients offices, most of my
consultations are in netspace; but you are in town, and my brother said
you could really use the help... and I agree. Plus, I haven’t had to
wear anything but shorts and t-shirts for the last three months, so this
is a good change of pace for me.” Linda said.
She looked over Mike’s shoulder and saw the picture of his family, and
books, lots of books… management books; and books on presidents, Nixon,
FDR, Kennedy…
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Linda
was probably close to Mike’s age, but dressed like a net person, polo
shirt with her company’s logo, no brief case, and a casual
approach. “Well, I could beat around the bush, but I looked at
your site” she said, “and while it does look nice, it... it … umm,
well, it sucks.”
“At least it looks nice…” Mike replied, thinking that ‘sucks’
really is a net word.
From Bricks To Clicks…
With that Linda politely smiled and went into a full-on geek/net/cyber
dialogue, make that monologue.
“You know that web sites end in dot com? That .com doesn’t stand
for communication, or commerce. It stands for competition, your
competition. All the companies are trying to do what you are doing -
attempting to convert from ‘bricks to clicks.’ Trying to leave
the physical limitations behind and go electronic. Replacing
clerical staff, replacing sales staff.”
“Yes!! Replace! Replace! Replace!” Michael said to himself, sounding a
bit like that robot in Lost in Space.
Linda continued, “If you don't have a domain name, you don't exist.
People think you are out-of-it. And you are losing your customers, because
they are online - accessing your competitors.”
"Only about 7% of users really go beyond the first three pages of
results," Linda said, “and I checked Infoseek this morning
and it had 425,000 pages with ‘loans.’ And AltaVista has 680,000
pages with ‘loans.’ The search engine have proprietary
algorithms that rank each page, and because your existing page is so
graphic intensive, there isn’t much the search engines can grab onto to
rank your page. I would guess, as nice as your site looks, you would
be ranked around the bottom of this list, maybe number 416,000th… at
best.” She was serious.
“And that is your major problem,” she said, “We have to get
‘eyeballs’ to your site. You have a site that is not going to generate
traffic search engines. It is an Internet site, and you should
attempt to use the Internet as the medium to deliver visitors. Sure,
you can spend thousands of dollars off-line, but why not use the power of
the Internet, to deliver targeted visitors, immediately, to your web
page?”
|
Long Train Runnin…
“Michael, we have to pave the road less traveled.” Linda continued.
“Let me give you an example.”
“Imagine you have a small town, isolated in the middle of nowhere, and off
in the distance, 20 miles away, are train tracks and an occasional train.
Your town needs tourism to survive. How much traffic are you going to
get to your town from that train?”
Mike laughs, “Not much.” And he begins to see the similarity between
this small town and his site.
“Ok, now imagine that this train now stops, 20 miles away, but there is a
bus that people can catch from the train station to your city. There
is a chance that some may get off the train, catch a bus, and visit your
town. On the net, this is like using banner ads, and you may get some
traffic, but still not much traffic.”
… Just A Click Away.
Linda continues, “Now imagine, waking up one day, and finding not only
does the train go right through your town, but it stops at your town.
And then discovering not only is there one track, but 8-10 tracks that now
come across the empty plains and stop at your town. Each one of these
tracks in a search engine and can deliver hundreds or thousands visitors
every day. That is what happens when you get ranked in the search engines.
The ‘railroad tracks’ are electronic, and can appear instantly. The road
leading to your site is now paved, guiding visitors to your site.
When you get ranked in the engines, you are just a click away from a highly
targeted visitor, coming down the track to stop at your domain. That is what
optimizing a web site can do for business.”
Count Me In. Oops, Make That, Count Me Out.
“Let me address some other issues with your site. You know that
counter, the one that says 91 (“Whoa, I am up to 91,” thought Mike, then
he remembered he told his mother about the site as she just got online),
that is pretty low. What is sad is that the 91 count probably is just you,
your employees, probably even your mother (How did she know? Mike
wondered).”
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