It’s one thing to know what key search phrases you want to optimise your own site for.

It is quite another to know what your competitors are trying to rank for.

There are some clever little tricks where you can check websites in your industry to see their search engine optimisation efforts. For a start you can quickly see what their Meta Titles are on pages on their website.

*  In older versions of Internet Explorer, the Meta Title appears in the blue header of the window it’s open in.

*  Internet Explorer 9 and up, Firefox and Chrome, mouse over the tab the webpage is on. This shows the Meta Title (and the URL in IE).

*  Right click and select View Source in any IE version and you can see the actual Meta Title between <title> tags, Meta Description in a tag that starts with <meta name=”description”…, and also the keywords (although Google doesn’t look at this field anymore).

*  Firefox and Chrome you right click and select View Page Source to do the same thing.

Try to avoid clicking on content and images, click in space or on the background outside the website. Take a look at multiple pages and you should get a feel for what they are trying to optimise their site for. Then test those searches in the search engine and see where they turn up. If their Meta Titles are short, or all the same, then you know they aren’t doing a great job. Likewise if their Meta Descriptions are short, all the same, or non-existent, they shouldn’t be hard to beat!

Facebook isn’t going away anytime fast. And what we call ‘more mature users’ are joining at the fastest rate. So with this normalising of Facebook amongst your target customer base, the question needs to be asked – is Facebook for your business? Take this test.

i) Social media is about online communities. People like to talk to each other about things they have in common and are interested in. Appropriate clients of ours that pop to mind would be doing things like fixing high end brand scooters, fashion designers for ‘mother of the bride’, road and mountain bikes sales and service. Are your clients likely to form an online community and chat on your Facebook page?

ii) Facebook can be a natural place for testimonials from clients thankful for the work you have done for them. An example might be a wedding planner or wedding photographer; clients might naturally come and add a comment and some photos. An indication might be you already receive a lot of testimonials naturally from clients. Are your clients likely to provide feedback and testimonials on your Facebook page?

iii) You will struggle to get Facebook friends if your service or product is something clients would rather keep private. This largely covers all medical services. I think my dentist is on a hard road to build friends on Facebook. I’m unlikely to discuss this with my friends in normal life, never mind have it posted on my Facebook wall and friends feeds when I ‘friend’ or ‘like’ or comment on their Facebook page! Is your service something your clients would be likely or willing to refer and discuss in normal life?

iv) Facebook is one of many opportunities to put together your company profile for display in the digital world. You only have so many hours in the day, and other online options may make more sense as a priority. Some of these options are Your Website, LinkedIn profile, Google Places page, Finda directory listing, Google+ business page etc. Have you completed your website onsite optimisation and are you consistently creating quality content for your site?

v) Facebook for businesses is only appropriate if you can generate content on a consistent basis. You can’t set it up and just leave it. This content needs to be targeted correctly. There is good evidence people don’t respond well on social media to direct hard core marketing. You must respond to contributors. Do you have the skills and time in your business to create appropriate content in sufficient volume?

If you answered Yes to all or some of these, Facebook could be for your business. Make sure you re-read point v).

If all you heard was a resounding No, you have your answer! The one thing that is certain in business is that things change. So while Facebook may or may not be for you right now, we will keep you informed as things change on the internet and social media landscape.

People say they want to be on page one on Google. That’s a reasonable request, but it’s missing a step.

The first question should always be “On page one for what key search phrases?”.

To properly optimise a website you need to know the target key phrases. Do you have a plan of attack when it comes to optimising your website?

There are some questions to ask that might help you.

Q: Are you looking for ‘new’ clients who are randomly searching the web for your service? For many business people this isn’t the case. For many of us the website is there to support existing clients, and to support specific marketing or referral clients. Someone is referred to you, they check you out more online to see your product or service, and your team. To see how credible you are before making the next step. In this case the answer is simple. You really need to make sure you rank well for your company name. You should also try to rank well for the owners name, or key staff. There isn’t space here, but to do this read the SEO Guide we gave you at training, or any of the Search Engine Optimisation blog articles and videos we provide. Everyone should at least optimise for their company name, it’s just sensible.

Q: How broad is your target market online. We typically don’t focus on Key Search Words. You will hear us talk a lot more about Key Search Phrases. The reasoning is as follows. Say you decide to optimise your website for one word, for instance ‘builder’. For a start common single words are usually very competitive so you are going to struggle to get on page one anyway. Secondly it is very broad. You would essentially be fishing for anyone searching the word ‘builder’ and that could include searching for ‘train to be a builder’ ‘website builder’ ‘boat builder’ ‘building courses’. You might get large amounts of traffic, but it won’t be target market. This is just like the SEO specialist email offers that arrive in your mailbox everyday, making claims about huge traffic increases. What they don’t tell you is that most of it is useless traffic.

Q: How narrow is your online target market? Let’s say you do one thing and you know who you want to reach. Optimise your website for something more specific and something longer. For instance ‘house and land packages’ will pick up very particular people looking for a very particular thing. Your search traffic may be lower, but it will be better targeted.

Q: What is your target market searching for? There are Google tools to see what is being searched across the web. You can start typing a search phrase into the Google search engine and the suggestions that appear in the drop down indicate most common searches. However this is internet-wide. This doesn’t tell you about your target market. The key to the answers above being effective, is matching them up with actual phrases being searched by potential clients. We all tend to live in our own industry jargon bubbles, but get out there and talk to some clients. If they call it a ‘sandwich board’, or if they think of you as a ‘computer technician’, then those are the phrases you need to optimise for.

The last newsletter dealt with Google Places and Finda, both technologies that feed into the mobile sphere. But apart from those, how do you know your business has the mobile revolution covered? What have you heard and who can you trust. Take a minute to read the basics and be informed.

There is a bit of scaremongering and misinformation floating around out there. There is even one large NZ traditional print advertising company aggressively selling a package that amounts to nothing more than an online directory listing and some logins to readily available free social media products. Call me cynical but without content these ‘accounts’ are redundant, and they may not even be a great fit for every company anyway. We know people in New Zealand are accessing websites in various ways, on desktop computers, mobile laptops / netbooks, tablets / iPads, and smart phones. How do you know your website works in all these places?

Your Surefire website is designed with technology to work across these platforms. However, the simple way to find out is to try it! Chances are you have access to desktop and laptop computers at home and work. If you don’t have a netbook or a tablet/iPad, just go to your local mall and pop into Dick Smith electronics or Noel Leeming. They have all the toys and these days many of them are connected to the internet. It might feel cheeky but, pick up an iPad and browse to your site! If you can see your core messages clearly, can click on your call to action buttons, and access the menu, then that is a good mobile experience!

Unfortunately smart phones in stores aren’t typically connected to the internet. So ask around friends and family to view your site on their phones.

Some companies are offering mobile websites for additional cost to your main website. The direction is either a) a mini cut down content version of your full site or b) a specifically crafted site with contact and location information, but excluding product and general content. If the testing explained above of your main site was satisfactory then a) is covered. If you have had your Google Places account setup for you, this essentially covers b).

As is the way with internet fashion, there are also techniques coming back into vogue for stretching or compressing your website automatically to fit a space. With modern pinch zooming on mobile devices this is largely solving a problem that doesn’t exist, and has funny side effects on full size screens. It remains to be seen what niche mobile sites will fill. For the typical business owner at this time we would recommend concentrating on your website and Google Places, and feel confident your bases are covered. We will certainly inform you when things change!