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Home - Services - Internet Marketing - FAQ's

Internet Marketing FAQs

1. What Search Engine Optimization services does GHI offer?
2. Is there more than one type of search result?
3. How do Search Engines rank content?
4. Once customers visit my web site, how can I get them to buy my products? Does GHI have a service that will convert site traffic into tangible business revenue?
5. How can I email bulk messages to 1000’s of customers? Does GHI have software that will make the process easier?
6. What should I look for in an email marketing system?
7. What are some key elements of campaign based email software?
8. Does GHI have a service that will make my site more user friendly?
9. What about Web Metrics and Business Intelligence Services?
10. What is a Web Content Management System?
11. Does a CMS support search engine optimization without modifications and programming?
12. What kind of Web Content Management System (CMS) should I use?

Question 1: What Search Engine Optimization services does GHI offer?

SEO is the art and science of helping companies' web sites achieve higher positions on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask Jeeves and the other major search engines.

Research has shown that web searchers are most likely to click on the first few results of a particular search. In fact, over half of web searchers view just one page of their web search results, 19% went on to the second page and only 10% bothered with a third page.

Put your web site directly in front of customers who are searching for what you're selling with GHI's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service, Start Position. We assist clients across the country and around the world through strategic consulting, an understanding of your business and your potential customers, careful keyword research, sophisticated software tools, and the development of optimized web pages to put your web site on that critical first page of search results.

It's all about who is out front. It’s all about your start position…

Click here for detailed information on Start Position Search Engine Optimization.

Question 2: Is there more than one type of search result?

There are usually two kinds of results that will appear once a user enters a term into a search engine. The first kind is called “organic results.” Engines present these results by querying an enormous database of Web content and the associated URL's that the engine has collected or purchased. Search Engines build these databases using automated tools to “crawl” sites (navigate from hyperlink to hyperlink through and across sites) in order to collect and classify their content.

The second kind is labeled as “sponsored listings.” This kind of result is paid by advertisers who are charged by the engine each time a user clicks their link; this process is also known as ‘pay per click.’

Question 3: How do Search Engines rank content?

When deciding where to place web pages in any given search, search engines primarily evaluate three areas of the content of the page:

The page URL : This is a critically important factor to search engines in trying to determine what a page is about and thus whether to rank it toward the top or towards the bottom of their results for a given search phrase.  This stands to reason --- for the search phrase “Volkswagen Parts” a page called VolkswagenParts.htm seems more likely to be relevant than a page called Category.asp (a common page name on large e-commerce sites).  This means that VolkswagenParts.htm would probably rank higher, even if it had far fewer parts than were displayed on Category.asp. 

The page Title : This is also an important factor to search engines in trying to determine whether a page is relevant for a given search phrase.  The logic, essentially, is that there is only one page title on a page, and if the webmaster has set the page title to be Volkswagen Parts, for example, then that is probably what the page is about. 

Links: The text of links on the page is also important.  The logic here is that a page with lots of links to Volkswagen parts pages is probably relevant to a search for Volkswagen parts. 

Alt Text in Images:  This is the text that shows up if an image does not load, and it is assumed to tell users something about the image.  This is considered important because, again, a page with lots of pictures of Volkswagen parts is probably relevant to a search on that term.

Body Text:   Finally, the actual text of a page, minus links and images is considered.  This is critical because the words on the page at the end of the day really determine what it is about.

 In evaluating all of these areas, search engines look at:

• the frequency that the selected keyword appears in the text of the page,
• the prominence of the keyword in the page content (i.e. how close to the front the keyword or phrase appears), and
• the length of the element

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Question 4: Once customers visit my web site, how can I get them to buy my products? Does GHI have a service that will convert site traffic into tangible business revenue?

Finish Line is GHI’s Internet Service's Conversion Rate Optimization Internet Marketing Service. Finish Line converts search engine rankings and site traffic into new customers and new revenues.

Finish Line goes beyond achieving high search engine rankings to successfully generating high customer actions through the custom development of unique, creative web site landing pages that entice site visitors to action - generating increased site traffic, qualified leads, and of course, revenues.

High Rankings are great … but … High REVENUES are better.

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Question 5: How can I email bulk messages to 1000's of customers? Does GHI have software that will make the process easier?

In the real world, business users are communicating via email every day, and sending your marketing message to thousands of recipients via email costs much less than traditional mail.

GHI’s CleanAir provides companies the ability to quickly and easily create HTML branded email-marketing campaigns from any computer in the world...helping you better connect with your customers no matter where you, your computer, or your data resides.

With CleanAir you can track who opened your message, when they opened it, how many times they read the message, and which specific customers or prospects clicked through an embedded link within that message, helping further focus your targeted follow-up.

.Question 6: What should I look for in an email marketing system?

The most important consideration in evaluating an email system is how it fits into your organization’s big picture. To realize the true power of the Internet as a primary point of contact, your email system should integrate tightly with your web site, allowing you to leverage content from the Web to email and allowing email recipients to log on to the web site for more information or to manage their contact preferences.  It’s essential that you spend the time to find a system that offers this kind of integration so that you do not end up with two separate islands of information (one stored in the email system and the other in the Web user database) that you must manually move data between or pay a systems integrator to bridge.

GHI’s CleanAir™ is the perfect solution for your email marketing needs. With CleanAir you will be able to effectively carry out branded email campaigns, thereby keeping in contact with customers and prospects.

Question 7: What are some key elements of campaign-based email software?

Beyond integration, there are some key elements of campaign-based email development and tracking features that make email communications much more effective and easier to manage. Key functions that you should consider include:

CAN-SPAM Compliance:   The Federal CAN-SPAM legislation actually includes only a few, easy-to-implement requirements for commercial email, yet a majority (66%) of companies with prominent online presence failed a CAN-SPAM compliance audit in 2004. These were not spammers, but reputable companies with no intention to violate the law. Your email marketing system should make compliance foolproof. An unsubscribe link that automatically updates user preferences, for example, should be a part of any email, and its proper functioning should not be dependent on the skill or accuracy of the person developing the email or of a clerical person processing user requests. 

Easy email development:   A web-based email system should offer features that make it quick and easy for users to develop attractive and effective emails that comply with the company’s standards. Look for, at a minimum, the following: an easy-to-use integrated HTML editor that makes development of an email like using a word processor; template email libraries; a granular security model; versioning and rollback.

User-configurable workflow management.  Just because email authoring and campaign development is distributed to multiple users does not mean that you should lose control of the process.  Look for a system that supports and automates workflows by routing emails and campaigns to appropriate people for approval.  Be careful of systems that offer “workflow automation” but really just automate one simple author -> approver -> live workflow.  This may not work in your environment.  Instead look for a flexible, user configurable workflow model.

Multilingual capability.   The Web is a global medium, and an increasing number of sites are finding that they must present content in at least two languages in order to serve their target market.  Your email program should support the ability to develop email campaigns in multiple languages, and to send them to groups based on language preference.

Bounce Handling. Sending repeated emails to bad email addresses is not only a waste of resources, it is a good way to get mistaken for a spammer. Your email program should track bounced emails and automatically purge bad email addresses from your user information.

HTML and Plain Text.   If you send an HTML email to a recipient whose email client is configured to not display HTML, the recipient sees an unintelligible jumble that quickly makes your organization look unprofessional. Your email system should support a multi-part mime email format, with a separate text version that will be seen by recipients whose email clients do not display HTML emails.

Recipient-controlled subscribe, and unsubscribe.   Your email must contain a working unsubscribe link in order to be CAN_SPAM compliant, but your email system should let you go far beyond a simple “click here to unsubscribe”.  Your email authors – without IT assistance – should be able to give recipients the chance to not only unsubscribe, but, for example, to subscribe to additional email types, update user profiles, and enroll for restricted web content areas.

Understandable email metrics.   For any sent campaign, you should be able to see at a glance key information like: How accurate are my email addresses? (how many emails bounced); How active are the addressees? (how many emails were opened); How interesting was my message? (how many click-throughs); How negative was my message? (how many un-subscribed).

Question 8: Does GHI have a service that will make my site more user friendly?

Here at GHI we offer the following web site usability services:

• Usability Testing
• Contextual Assessment
• Task Analysis and Design
• User Interface Standards & Guides
• Expert Design Evaluation
• Usability Benchmarking & Management

If your not sure about you website's effectiveness, contact GHI about our web site usability services and let us help you connect smarter to your customers.

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Question 9: What about Web Metrics and Business Intelligence Services?

Business Intelligence moves towards a more controlled and collaborative environment that allows you to manage and improve your businesses financial and operational performance.

GHI’s Web Metrics and Business Intelligence services take full advantage of a integrated architecture to provide information that is not only accurate, but information that is delivered to the right people at the right time.

GHI’s WM & BI services In a Nutshell:

• Partnership/Co-sourcing: we work elbow-to-elbow with your staff.
• Knowledge Transfer/Mentoring: we'll make sure you have the required knowledge to maintain the solutions we deliver.
• Consulting Support: we offer both consulting services and experienced practitioners.
• Outsourcing: we provide solution development and/or ongoing support through outsourcing.

As an industry leader, GHI provides a unique, proven approach to Business Intelligence and Web Metrics. Unlike other software and web application vendors, GHI provides an integrated framework for data warehousing, analytics and business intelligence that delivers value-adding insights and intelligence across your entire enterprise.

With GHI services, business managers and analysts can integrate analyses of the past into accurate models and forecasts of the future.

Question 10: What is a Web Content Management System?

A Web Content Management System is a type of Content Management System software used for managing web sites.

The software manages content (text, graphics, links, etc.) for distribution on a web server. Usually the software provides tools where users with little or no knowledge of programming languages (such as HTML) can create and manage content with relative ease. Most systems use a database to hold content, and a presentation layer displays the content to regular web site visitors based on a set of templates. Management of the software is typically done through a web browser, but some systems may be modified in other ways.

Question 11: Does a CMS support search engine optimization without modifications and programming?

A CMS without search engine optimization (SEO) abilities can be a disaster because most CMS systems were not designed for search engine marketing. 

Lots of systems now advertise that they are "search engine ready" or "search engine friendly", but be sure to read the fine print --- what they often mean is that a programmer can modify the system with add-ons (e.g. the Apache "mod-rewrite" extension) to not damage search engine results too badly.

Some specific problems that CMS generated content has in being indexed by search engines include:

• Dynamic URL's .  Search engines are programmed to limit the number of dynamic pages they index, and the primary way they determine pages are dynamic is through page URL's with special characters (%&=).
• Bad meta tags .  Many CMS systems do not allow users to assign unique, relevant TITLE and DESCRIPTION meta tags to content,  and these are very important to search engines.
• Keyword poor URL's.   Even systems that do not use dynamic URL's often do not let you create URL's that include keywords.  Keyword-rich URL's are an important step in optimizing your pages to rank well in search engines.
• Using third party SEO tools with most CMS systems is time consuming and repetitive.   At the very least, users will need to be in one tool to create content and another to analyze it.  In most cases, the SEO tools cannot optimize content until the pages can be viewed live from a URL on the Web, so content that has not yet been published can not be optimized.
• Most CMS users are not knowledgeable about SEO.   Paying SEO professionals to learn your CMS and then use it to optimize all your content can be cost prohibitive.

Question 12: What kind of Web Content Management System (CMS) should I use?

In order to get the best of both worlds --- the convenience and management advantages of a CMS and the site promotion advantages of SEO --- you need a search engine friendly CMS.  At a minimum, the CMS should not create URL's and content that engines refuse to index because it looks dynamic.  The system should also allow you to create relevant, per-page meta tags and titles. And, the system should present content using navigation menus that search engines will follow. 

To really make the most of your content in reaching better search engine rankings, your CMS users must easily be able to optimize content as they create it.  For this, you need a CMS that allows non-technical users to easily specify keyword rich URL's, title tags, descriptions and image alt text.  The system should provide feedback on these elements in terms of how they will impact the page's performance for selected keywords.  This kind of CMS allows users to create and optimize content in one tool rather than having to switch back and forth between a CMS and a set of SEO tools.