Is Your Website a Worker or a Slacker?

With ninety percent of adults using the internet for local search, it is critically important that your businesses have a website that is easily to find by local prospects. Here is a simple test you can run to determine if your website is a really a worker, or just a slacker.

First some definitions: by "worker" I mean a website that reaches out to your prospects, presenting your products and/or services to the communities you target. A "slacker" website is one who may look good, is there when you go looking for it, but never seems to produce the results you expected.

I run this test everyday for companies that we invite into our Trusted 411 Marketing Alliance, and to be honest, it produces disappointing results most of the time. Business owners are rarely good webmasters so they farm it out and often forget about it, believing that just having a website is good enough. As we improve their search results they come to appreciate how powerful the internet can be at making the phone ring and their doors swing, even in this slow economy. The test results create a valuable baseline and clearly identifies what areas of your internet presence need to be improved.

Google is so dominating in local search we'll start there, but later you can run this same test with Yahoo, Bing and any other search engine you come across. Your ultimate goal is to be in the top three organic (not paid) listings but that can a difficult achievement, so if you find yourself in the top six, or even on page one of your search results, feel free to pat yourself on the back.

We start with a simple form that tracks your searches and results. Using your word processor create the following document: start with your list of keywords, those words or phrases that consumers might use to search for your business. Number them, 1 through whatever. Now make a list of the communities/cities/towns that you want to draw from and number them as well.

Below these lists add the following, and insert your company name where indicated

Search for (your company name) . . . circle results: . . . . Google page.. 1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found

Search for (your company name your city) . . . circle results: . . . . Google page.. 1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found

Search for: keyword1 . . . city1 . . . circle results: . . . . Google page ..1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found
Search for: keyword1 . . . city2 . . . circle results: . . . . Google page ..1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found

Search for: keyword1 . . . city3 . . . circle results: . . . . Google page ..1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found
continue adding these lines until you have enough to include all your cities

Search for: keyword2 . . . city1 . . . circle results: . . . . Google page ..1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found
Search for: keyword2 . . . city2 . . . circle results: . . . . Google page ..1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found
Search for: keyword2 . . . city3 . . . circle results: . . . . Google page ..1,.. 2,.. 3,.. ____ .. not found
continue adding these lines until you have enough to include all your cities

See where we're going? Each block of searches combines one keyword with each of your communities. Continue this process with keyword3, keyword4, etc. until all your keywords are included.

Now, using your word processor, conduct a "find and replace", substituting your first keyword from your list for the term "keyword1" , your second keyword for "keyword2" etc. Then find and replace all your "city1" with the first city on your list and continue with "city2" etc. until all your communities are accounted for.

Print out your list and with pen in hand go to www.google.com and conduct your searches line by line. Only count your own website, not a directory or list that links to your site.

The first two searches are like looking for yourself in the phone book's white pages. These are for people who already know your business name. How did you fare? On the company name and city search you should have been found in the top position.

The keyword and city searches are like internet yellow pages. These results are the ones that really count. Once again you want to be found in the top three, but on the first page is OK. Page two is not good, page three is bad and after that it's almost useless. The only reason to continue looking past page three is to see if your site shows up at all and so you can document your progress later.

In the margins you might want to note the web addresses of your competitors who are beating you in the rankings. This will be important to creating your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plan as it help to know just how strong you have to be to beat them.

If you are happy with the results of all your searches, congratulate yourself and your webmaster. If you are in the majority and see plenty of room for improvement then you need to sit down with your webmaster and make SEO a priority.

About the author: David J Keenan is a self professed Marketing Geek with more than twenty years of successful sales and marketing experience. His firm, Trusted 411 Marketing, is an alliance of non-competing, locally owned businesses, who share a team of online and off line marketing professionals in order to multiply their marketing efforts while cutting their costs.

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