JUMP Internet Marketing

You Can Build Your Website in ONE Day, We Guarantee It.

We're very excited about our newest workshop: Build Your Website in ONE Day.  For years we've coached businesses that were stuck, unable to get anywhere on the internet because they had no website. Does any of this sound familiar to you?

"We're still waiting for the website developer to get back to us."

"I know we need a website, but we just can't take that project on right now."

"We have a domain, but I don't have a login.  I think the guy we paid to build the website has it."

"I'm not technically savvy.  I don't know the first thing about building a website."

Maybe you've said it or you've thought it.  GOOD NEWS!  We've created a special workshop just for you.

You need a website that tells the story of your business.  (See the earlier post, Stop Wasting Your Website Dollars)  Website visitors want quick, logically organized and helpful information explaining how your business meets THEIR NEED.

You'll leave the workshop with a completed website, we guarantee it or your next workshop is free. 

We're so excited about this new workshop that we are offering a Special Introductory Price for internet customers. From now until January 31, 2010, you can register for only 287.50!

Stop Wasting Your Website Dollars

A wise business owner leverages all of his available resources to grow his business in the lean years and in the gravy days.  When it comes to the Internet, however, we've seen businesses throw buckets of money towards a website that didn't produce sales.

Businesses "waste" their web marketing dollars for two primary reasons:

Reason Number 1: They don't understand the technologies involved - so the first search engine snake oil salesman or the owner's brother's friend who knows how to develop websites is entrusted with mission critical tasks. 

Honestly, it should come as no surprise when the snakeoil salesman who promised the business listings in Google for only $39.95 has now found ways to force you to buy more services and still has delivered nothing.  And if the business is lucky enough to get "listings," you can be sure it doesn't produce business.

Neither should it surprise anyone that the owner's brother's friend is late on delivery of the website, holds the domain hostage, and, when finally ordered to turn over what he has created, there is little to nothing of any value for anyone else to move forward.

Reason Number 2: Businesses forget who they are and what makes them special or important to their customers.

We are surrounded with buzzwords and technology trend news that convinces us that our way of doing business must change at lightning speed to keep up with technology.  We say, "That's a lot of bunk." 

Technology is a tool to be utlized strategically.  If you don't know how to apply the tools used then simply having the tool is worthless.  What's worse, opportunity is being lost as weeks and months of missed sales slip past while waiting for something to happen.

The truth is that businesses operated and grew before the Internet.  What makes a business special is not a flashy website or tweets or facebook posts.  Sure, businesses have used these tools to increase their businesses.  But the increase has come through the business's voice and the message delivered through the particular medium.  These tools are helping to promote what the business has to say or offer to people.

So, here's an exercise for business owners as you sip your morning coffee.  Think about one of your best customers and what he says to others about why he buys from you.  Now look at your website.  Does it tell the tale?  If not, now you know your first step to getting more from your website dollars.

If your business has no website, that's great! You haven't wasted any money yet.  Make the time to write the story that must be told on your website, and THEN proceed to step two.

Do You Know About Trade Adjustment Assistance?

We've become acquainted with several of our manufacturing friends through SWTAAC (Southwest Trade Adjustment Assistance Center) grants working with the Oklahoma Alliance MEAs (Manufacturing Extension Agents).  From their website:

"TAA focuses on providing financial assistance to import-impacted manufacturers"

The program offers 50/50 cost sharing and other benefits.  Through this program, some of our customers have been able to implement new search engine marketing campaigns and dramatically increase the visibility of their company on the Internet at 50% of the normal cost.

The link to the benefits page is: http://www.taacenters.org/benefits.html

Because of our previous experience in these projects, JUMP can get you started quickly in your project once you've been approved for the grant.  Contact the TAA program or the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance.

For Small Business Owners: Are You REALLY Sure About Your Website Content?

For small businesses, juggling website content management and tracking search engine positioning as well as overseeing operations and accounting can be an overwhelming task.  Over the years we've spoken with many small business owners who had made a good first phase effort in building a website. However, when looking at their target customers as they are represented by keyword phrases in search, we often find a HUGE disconnect between the small business owner's assumption and the reality of his site content.

Most often, the keyword phrases simply aren't there.  There may even be several pages of topically similar content on the site but the words contained in the phrase aren't there.  No matter how you slice it, if the message isn't there then you're getting nowhere with that target.

Here's a worthwhile exercise for small business owners to assess how well their content is aligned with their goals:

Take your top ten keyword phrases (highly targeted phrases that actually represent a buyer) and go to Google.  Type in your domain in quotes "www.[name of your domain].com" and then type in one of the phrases.  Google will tell you whether or not it finds that phrase on your site.  If you want to know if the exact phrase appears on the site enclose the phrase in quotes as well.

This exercise assumes your site is indexed in Google to begin with.  (If Google doesn't see your entire domain then you have a bigger problem.)

The results of this assessment will probably surprise you.  Most of the time we find big gaps and missing content.  

Through September 30, 2009: Be sure to click the free download link on this page.  This download is from one of our most popular seminars.  It addresses key concepts and disconnects that lead to missing website content.

Worried about Google Caffeine?

If you know anything about search engine marketing you know search engine algorithms are like Oklahoma weather...both are constantly changing.  But this is a good thing.  Well at least progress in technology is. (I'm not sure 35 degree temperature swings in Oklahoma are a good thing.)

How is the change going to affect us?  The update rumors to rank "real time" information (like Tweets) higher than older content using the assumption that newer is more relevant.  Perhaps it is  The change may be good news for marketers who keep their content fresh.

What we have always said is that Google is committed to providing the most relevant results.  So, if you're an online marketer offering great content, and you understand WHO this content is for and WHERE it must be published for your target audience to find it, you'll probably be just fine.

In the end, if you'll focus on good technology, good content, and compelling offers, you can probably just let Google be Google (with Caffeine or without).

If you want to check out the Google Caffeine Update, go to http://www2.sandbox.google.com.

P.S. Please don't spam us for devaluing SEO ;-).  I'm simply reinforcing a holistic approach to online marketing.

SEO for Public Outreach Programs

According to a recent PEW study, people generally turn to the Internet as a source of information more than any other source. The same study also suggested that most Americans expect to be able to obtain information about government services through the Internet. (Estabrook, Witt, Rainie) However, website owners continue to make mistakes that cause their websites to be virtually invisible. Unfortunately, simply posting information on the internet does not automatically connect consumers with content. 

JUMP Technology Services is a pioneering company in public sector search engine optimizations.  Working with the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative since 2002, JUMP has applied innovation to traditional SEO strategy to create an approach specifically for public outreach.

 

While government agencies are easily able to implement web technologies, they aren't immune to making errors when it comes to websites and Internet self-service applications. Unfortunately, for public programs, technical structure and 508 compliance are too frequently the primary concern in creating new web applications and content while ignoring the many search engine optimization design and review points that must be considered BEFORE the site is constructed.

 

The instincts driving program administrators towards web enabled self service technologies are good instincts.  How much efficiency is gained by allowing consumers to access applications online?  Using e-metrics, online marketing strategists can provide very good estimates using counts of keyword phrases actually typed by consumers in the search engines every day.   Return on investment is easy to determine, but often a gap in the project strategy leads to an implementation that misses the mark in connecting with consumers so the anticipated ROI is never achieved.

 

Where is the gap and how do we fill it?

 

Quite frankly it's a gap seen in private sector web initiatives as well.  The assumption that a web developer knows how to implement search engine optimizations is a faulty one.  "Yeah, it's all just meta tags.  I can put those in." 

 

The solution is to describe consumers in terms of how they will interact with the content on the website understanding that they will not all arrive at the home page.  To do this requires adequate research and planning at the very outset of the project.  Next, this research drives the technical structure of the site in planning for how each type of consumer will navigate through the site. Finally, this research will govern how the content is created for the website.

 

As the most experienced public sector SEO consultants, JUMP Technology Services can provide many different avenues of assistance for government agencies.  JUMP provides SEO consulting services, website audits, and SEO Workshops to assist agency staff.  Workshops are held regularly in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  Some workshops are offered on-site for a minimum number of participants.

 

 

Small Business SEO

Your decision to invest in SEO is not about being ranked #1 in Google.  It's about being ranked at the top of the search engines, like Google, for the keyword phrases that represent your buyers.  Get this wrong and you'll invest time and money only to be quite frustrated later.

You're probably saying, "of course!"

 

On the surface it seems so logical, but through the years we've worked with many small businesses who have made a significant investment in their website that in the end yielded nothing.  Many times the site had to be majorly reconstructed or the optimization effort was discarded because they were targeting the WRONG KEYWORDS.

 

SEO companies that attract businesses with promises of huge traffic based on high 24 hour counts miss the mark and even mislead small business owners.  Traffic is great, IF...  If it leads to sales then traffic is great.

 

We are often engaged by small business owners after a significant amount of SEO energy has lead nowhere.  The good news is that we can move forward by developing a good strategy today.  That's really where it needs to start.  Back at the beginning where you describe who is looking for what you offer and we describe them by the keywords they use to search remembering that the more refined the phrase, the better the traffic and conversion will be.

 

We recommend attending JUMP's Increasing the Sales Effectiveness of Your Website as a great place to start.  The seminar is FREE and offers search engine marketing tips and techniques that can be implemented immediately. They are offered monthly in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Visit the schedule at JUMPTechnology.com