Do you think that Google served up a wonderful listing of all of the local insurance professionals within 50 miles of me, with phone numbers and links to their websites?  No.

Instead, I was served up a listing of the internet’s largest insurance websites that are clearinghouses for agents that pay for the service.  Apparently only one agent in my whole county has signed up for this service.  The blowhard agent called, and I asked for a quote over the phone.  He asked me to come in to his office – I declined.  I again asked for his best quote.  He declined to give me a quote over the phone. No sale.

This is it!?  One blowhard agent calling me and telling me that I need to come to his office so that he can subject me to his hard-sell approach?  I know for a fact that there are several insurance agents within 10 miles of me.

I liked the good old days of Googling when I could get a full page of local contractors/service people for my small town.  Instead, Google has now determined that “Authority Sites” – sites that get awesome traffic and have many pages should be ranked higher than a local company’s 5 page website.

I disagree.  I want a full page of local company’s websites.  I also want a search engine that is smart enough to either serve that option up first, or let me decide.  Maybe I won’t throw out that recent edition of the yellow pages just yet.

The content of the web site must make sense in order to make the top spots in Google.  Google does not reward websites that stuff keywords into their text, such as a list of cities or different names for their profession.

Authority backlinks are important for a website’s rankings.  An authority backlink is a link on a site such as postings on blogs and forums.  Also important are posting/pages on article directories and places like wordpress.com, hubpages.com, weebly, and any other free web space that allows you to set up an account and add a link.

Also, don’t forget about the meta tags and appropriate H tags (stands for header tags).  Meta tags are still relevant in today’s web site’s search engine optimization, as are header tags.  Always include your primary keywords in both the meta tags and the header tags.

While no one knows exactly what comprises the exact way to gain an excellent search engine position, there are definitely ways to help your site increase its rankings in the search engines.

Posted via email from ladwebdesign’s posterous

Posted via email from ladwebdesign’s posterous

Google does not do this automatically though – a business needs to register all of this information with the search engines first.  Putting up a small website is not enough anymore for businesses – now there are Twitter, Facebook, and Google accounts that need to be managed.

Feel free to contact us at sales@ladwebdesign.com if you want more information on how you attain success on the internet.  Follow us on http://www.twitter.com/ladwebdesign because you will find out we are real people with great information to share.

I have read the book “Influence” by Robert Cialdinia and found it to be a fascinating book that all marketers and business people should read.  It examines in depth how we are influenced in both interpersonal relationships as well as influenced by marketing messages.  The information is backed up with scientifically peer-reviewed studies.  Here is a snippet from google:  http://books.google.com/books?id=d91vPwAACAAJ&dq=Robert+B+Cialdini

Below is a quote from Cialdini’s website on using scarcity in influencing someone:

“If I can’t have it, I want it.” Cialdini gave the consumer market fervor over iPhone as an example. “The idea of losing something mobilizes people into action.”

And, when combined with exclusivity, scarcity became even more effective. “People are more convinced and receptive to exclusive information.” A product that is scarce and marketed with information that is exclusive is highly persuasive. Cialdini cautioned that information must be shared quickly or it can lose its potency. “It’s like bread not wine. It doesn’t get better with time. You need to serve it up while it’s fresh and warm.”

Cialdini made a slight modification to a Bose Wave ad that resulted in a 45 percent sales increase versus previously stagnant product sales. Whereas the high end stereo manufacturer was using words like “new” to launch its product, Cialdini instead employed the words “Hear what you’ve been missing.”

As you can see, the way you communicate with your customers, clients, (and even friends and family lol) can be greatly influenced by just using a slight change in strategy.  Give them the gift of missing you.

Twitter is so easy to use.  You can add links to your blog posts, links to websites, talk about anything. You can publicly respond to other people.  It is about relationship building.

I am only following a few people, and I currently have about 50 followers.  Follow me here:   http://www.twitter.com/ladwebdesign

This blog will be about any and all things web design related.  Are you looking to understand how to get better SEO (search engine optimization) results for your website?  Are you looking for easy ways to update your pages?  I will be discussing all of that here.  

LAD Web Design is on the Space Coast of Florida, in lovely Brevard County.  It’s growing, it’s changing, it’s hot.