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“We are grateful to Stephan for planting the seed for one of the most successful Web projects The Carter Center has undertaken to-date.”

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Many ecommerce sites have session IDs or user IDs in the URL of their pages. This tends to cause either the pages to not get indexed by search engines like Google, or to cause the pages to get included many times over and over, clogging up the index with duplicates (this phenonemon is called a “spider trap”). Furthermore, having all these duplicates in the index causes the site’s importance score, known as PageRank, to be spread out across all these duplicates (this phenonemon is called “PageRank dilution”).

Ironically, Googlebot regularly gets caught in a spider trap while spidering one of its own sites - the Google Store (where they sell branded caps, shirts, umbrellas, etc.). The URLs of the store are not very search engine friendly: they and are overly complex, and include session IDs. This has resulted in 3,440 duplicate copies of the Accessories page and 3,420 copies of the Office page, for example.

If you have a dynamic, database-driven website and you want to avoid your own site becoming a spider trap, you’ll need to keep your URLs simple. Try to avoid having any ?, &, or = characters in the URLs. And try to keep the number of “parameters” to a minimum. With URLs and search engine friendliness, less is more.

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The Internet’s next killer app for marketers has emerged: Google.

Google’s search algorithms power over half of all Web search queries, making high-ranking Google listings a marketer’s dream. While natural listings in Google deliver millions in sales to some of the Web’s savviest retailers, most websites are not properly designed to reach this market. How can you adjust or revamp your site so Google will love it?

Join us at the May Brainy Breakfast with Stephan Spencer, Managing Director of Netconcepts, to learn the essential strategies of putting Google to work for your website.

You’ll learn the secrets of how to:

• Check your “Google Pulse”
• Estimate missed opportunity costs
• Ensure Google crawls 100% of your site, including dynamic pages
• Design your pages to dominate rankings
• Avoid getting banned or penalised by Google
• Use paid placement with Google AdWords & optimise your search ads
• Measure return upon investment
• Prepare for imminent changes in the search engine industry
• …and more!

Where else can you reach a majority of qualified prospects at zero or very low cost per click?

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The Internet’s next killer app for marketers has emerged: Google.

Google’s search algorithms power 80% of all Web search queries, making high ranking Google listings a marketer’s dream. Where else can you reach 80% penetration to highly qualified prospects at zero cost per click?

While natural listings in Google deliver millions in sales to some of the Web’s savviest retailers, most Web sites are not properly designed to reach this market. How can you adjust or revamp your site so Google will love it?

Join Stephan Spencer, President of Netconcepts, during this rich presentation to learn the essential strategies of putting Google to work for your Web site. You’ll learn the secrets of how to:

• Check your “Google pulse”
• Estimate missed opportunity costs
• Ensure Google crawls 100% of your site, including dynamic pages
• Design your pages to dominate rankings
• Avoid getting banned by Google
• Prepare for changes soon to come in the search engine industry
• and much more!

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• Revenue has doubled every quarter
• Website drives catalog readers to buy
• Blogging a sales success

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It never ceases to amaze me how few companies have a suitable marketing plan, let alone one that is actively maintained. Many companies operate under the myth that their overall marketing plan can simply include an online component. The Internet however, is not just another channel. It offers an entirely new way of doing business. It deserves - and necessitates - a separate, in-depth marketing plan.

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Join us for a hands-on, one-day workshop on Internet marketing tactics, including search engine optimisation, copywriting, conversion, and web project management. Each module will be jammed packed with practical advice, online resources, tools, tips, case studies - including the “inside scoop” on what worked and what didn’t - and interactive critiques of attendees’ websites and online marketing efforts. With a live Internet connection, we will examine in-depth:

Search engine optimisation
You want to get to the top of the search engines? Ah… but which search engines should you target? What keywords are your prospects searching for? And how do you get your site to the top for those keywords and then stay there?

Learn the tactics that will make your site ’scream’ in the search engines - ethically and sustainably - without costing you a fortune ongoing.

• Hands-on keyword research
  
• Fine tuning your content, HTML, design, and site architecture for optimal rankings
  
• Workarounds for poor search engine practices (such as frames, question marks in URLs, Flash, pop-up windows, links that say “click here,” page titles like “Welcome to ABC.com”, pull-down navigation menus)
  
• Making your e-commerce or database-driven site “search engine friendly”
  
• Building links (directories, niche sites, etc.)
  
• Google’s secrets revealed (PageRank, hyperlink text, etc.)
  
• Pay-per-click search engines (Overture, etc.)
  
• Benchmarking & competitive intelligence
  
• Measuring the return on your search engine marketing investment

Improving conversion rate
So you’ve got visitors on your website, but will they “convert” to customers? Improving conversion on your site is an art and a science that involves a mix of clever copywriting, compelling offers, a follow-up strategy, meaningful metrics for measuring success, and more.

• Developing a unique voice / personality
  
• Active vs. passive tense
  
• Verbs vs. adjectives
  
• “You” vs. “we”
  
• Toning down the marketingspeak
  
• Fine tuning your offer
  
• The call-to-action
  
• Segmenting
  
• Personalizing the content and the message
  
• Marketing metrics: cost per click, cost per conversion, customer lifetime value, churn rate, etc.
  
• “Blogging”

Working with your web developer
What are the ingredients for sucess when launching a redesign or a new site? What processes are helpful in keeping the project and the vendor on track? What are reasonable expectations of the client and the vendor? What goes into (and what doesn’t go into) an effective brief or specification? How do you manage the legal risk?

• Writing a strategic brief, creative brief, functional spec, content plan, etc.
  
• Budgeting and resource allocation
  
• Vendor selection
  
• The art and science of estimating time and costs
  
• The web development process
  
• Change management
  
• The project extranet
  
• Web development contracts
  
• Liability and disclaimers
  
• Ownership of source code
  
• Terms & Conditions for your website users

We guarantee that after this intensive workshop you’ll walk away with loads of practical, actionable tactics and tips. So what are you waiting for? Register today.

BIOGRAPHY
Stephan Spencer, M.Sc., is the founder and president of Netconcepts, a full-service interactive agency with specialization in search engine optimisation, e-commerce, email marketing, and Web site auditing. They count amongst their U.S. clients: Birds Eye, Wella, Midwest Express Airlines, InfoSpace, Homestead.com, The Sharper Image, Cabela’s, and MP3.com; local clients include Westpac (NZ), The Fletcher Trust, nzgirl, SmokeCDs.com, TrustPower, and Business in the Community.

Stephan is a columnist for Unlimited. He has also written for Marketing Magazine, Management Magazine, Catalog Age, and Building Online Business. He has been featured on the cover of In Business magazine in the U.S. Stephan is a frequent speaker at Internet conferences around the globe - Berlin, London, Toronto, Santiago, Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco. He currently serves as a director of Sales & Marketing Executives International.

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Presented by Stephan Spencer, Managing Director of Netconcepts:

• Search engine optimization
  You want to get to the top of the search engines? Ah… but which search engines should you target? What keywords are your prospects searching for? And how do you actually get your site to the top for those keywords and then to stay there? Learn the tactics that will make your site ’scream’ in the search engines - ethically and sustainably - without costing you a fortune ongoing.
• Improving conversion rate
  So you’ve got visitors to your site, but will they purchase? Improving conversion on your site is an art and a science that involves a mix of clever copywriting, compelling offers, a follow-up strategy, meaningful metrics for measuring success, and more.
• Email marketing
  Email can get you in front of your customers and prospects without relying on them to remember to come back and visit your site. But pitfalls abound. Get it wrong just once and you’ll significantly trim your list and burn your relationships. Learn what it takes to make great campaigns and newsletters, get the permission you need from your intended audience, and then test your assumptions scientifically.
• Working with your web developer
  What are the ingredients for sucess when launching a redesign or a new site? What processes are helpful in keeping the project and the vendor on track? What are reasonable expectations of the client and the vendor? What goes into (and what doesn’t go into) an effective brief or specification? How do you manage the legal risk?

Presented by Kelly Goto, Principal, gotomedia, Inc.:

• Usability
• Information design
• Workflow
• Metrics for ROI from a user experience perspective

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In an intensifying effort to capture internet users’ attention, online advertisers are resorting to ever more intrusive - even dodgy - tactics like…

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