Have you ever seen one of those cars on the road that has every after-market item ever made for that particular model vehicle attached to it? You've seen them. They have curb feelers, window rain liners, spoilers, bug shields, tinted windows, bra, custom rims and exhaust, deer whistles and countless other things. Looks pretty tacky right?
Over the years programmers and designers have developed lots of cool new web conventions, functionality, widgets and countless other neat things. Alone, these items can serve a great purpose and may allow for robust engagement. However, putting all of these into one website can often damage the website's ability to convert visitors into a customer or lead. Good Internet marketing and web design agencies understand this and truly look out for the best interest of the client.
On the other hand, poor Internet marketing and web design agencies either don't understand, or are simply trying to maximize profits by selling as many add-ons as possible. The bigger and bulkier the website is, the bigger the bill for it will be. SEO is a common argument made to maximize the size of the website. This too is a misnomer, because most large websites with lots of pages and content are oversaturated with meaningless keywords which ruin Googles ability to properly define a website's Keyword Theme. Either way, it can have a detrimental effect on the website's ability to maximize ROI.
Visitors to a website are there to be entertained or to solve their problems - quickly. This, above all other Internet marketing concepts, should be the factor that drives the website's strategy. For example, the home page of a website should function as the first entry point in your company's sales funnel irregardless of how the visitor came to arrive there. Successful Internet marketers know that once a visitor lands on the home page of a website it only has four seconds to communicate to the visitor what they need to click on to solve their problem.
Good Internet marketing and web design agencies that understand this utilize simple segmentation calls-to-action above the fold to communicate to visitors what they need to click on to solve their problems. Segmenting visitors into a sales funnel should always be done with one, three or seven grouped calls-to action. This will depend on the company's goals and the products or services the company is selling. See "The Rule of 1, 3 and 7 in Internet Marketing and Website Design." In addition, segmentation provides for a clean and clear transition for the visitor to enter step two of a company's Internet marketing sales funnel.
Website's that are designed without a proper segmentation strategy tend to ignore the four second rule. Remember, visitors are on a website to be entertained or to solve their problems - quickly. When possible, designers should minimize the number of items on a home page that can be clicked on. These items should only include segmentation calls to action and standard web conventions. Otherwise, a website visitor will be faced with dozens of links to click on and having to decide which one will best solve his or her problem. That's a lot of decisions to make in four seconds.
Below is an example of a very nice looking website design that has a very poor Internet marketing sales funnel. Visitors to this site are faced with a whopping 108 decisions to make or links they can click on - all within four seconds - on the home page!
Some company's will argue that all 108 links and decision points on their website's home page are important to their business. They may be important, but they should never all be presented on the home page. Maybe the company's goal isn't to drive sales but to provide a wealth of information to their existing clients or the community. That's fine too, but consider segmenting those visitors with a targeted call-to-action or a portal. Successful websites should always provide a clean and clear path for visitors to engage so they can solve their problems - quickly.
If you think your website or Internet marketing campaign suffers from bloat and would like a free review, feel free to contact me at Chad(at)DigitalHill(dot)com or call 1-888-537-0703.
Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of a new web design for Das Dutchman Essenhaus, of Middlebury, Indiana, in the heart of the Amish region of Elkhart County. Click the link to see the new Essenhaus web design.
The new Essenhaus web design for this Elkhart County tourism hotspot features a full CMS Backend administration area allowing them to add new flash images to their home page, custom pages via a Microsoft Word Style interface enabling them to add and manage content, images, and even embed videos. They have a unique color scheme for main category page sections including:
The new web design also features ability to complete Inn Reservations online, a full e-commerce store where you can purchase gift cards and other great Essenhaus items after you've left Elkhart County, including their nationally known noodles, and more! The site has an easy e-mail sign-up to subscribe to e-mail updates, as well as a robust News area allowing the Essenhaus to do Internet Marketing with an RSS feed, allowing users to subscribe via RSS Readers.
Das Dutchman Essenhaus is an ideal place in Elkhart County's Amish heartland to experience the time-honored tradition of sharing a meal together. Family, neighbors and friends are welcome to pull up a chair and savor the authentic (generations-old) family recipes served since 1971, and to stay for a weekend in their full service Inn and Conference Center. Close to Shipshewana and its Amish amenities, the Essenhaus is just off the Indiana Toll Road via the Elkhart or Middlebury exits.
Digital Hill Multimedia is pleased to be the web design provider for the Essenhaus. Serving the Elkhart, South Bend, Goshen, Middlebury, Fort Wayne and surrounding areas with professional web design and Internet Marketing, as well as Social Media Marketing, Digital Hill is your one-stop for a powerful web presence. View the new Digital Hill Facebook Fan Page App here, and contact Digital Hill to discuss your website and Internet Marketing needs.
Whether you are in Elkhart County, Indiana or nationwide, Digital Hill can provide professional services including but not limited to web design and Internet Marketing to make the web work for you!
--------
Digital Hill Multimedia - Serving Elkhart County, South Bend, Fort Wayne, and National Clientele
Digital Hill Invited to Present at Blog Indiana 2010 in Indianapolis
FORT WAYNE, IN, May 15, 2010 - Chad H. Pollitt, a Web Technology Consultant and Internet Marketing Manager for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. will be presenting Social Media Infrastructures at 2:45PM on Saturday, August 21st in Indianapolis, Indiana at IUPUI in room IT 252 as part of Blog Indiana 2010. Blog Indiana is the Midwest's foremost Blogging and Social Media Conference.
Social Media Infrastructures are multiple social media platforms chosen for engagement and how they are connected to one another. Most companies that fail in social media marketing have each platform in a silo without regard to SEO, connectivity or the efficiencies of time and message that can be gained. The infrastructure approach creates a search engine optimization "keyword neighborhood" and maximizes share of voice while creating consistency and clarity of message on the internet.
Reviewed in the presentation:
SEO, Keyword Themes and Social Media
Building a Social Media Infrastructure (What is it and how to build it?)
Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco's prestigious School of Business and Management.
Chad is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an Internet Marketing Manager at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., the leading web development and internet marketing agency in the Midwest. His white papers and articles have been published in over a dozen newspapers and websites throughout the world. With over 10 million dollars of tracked ROI for SEO alone, he has been a guest lecturer, guest blogger, keynote presenter and featured on multiple radio shows, podcasts and in The Wall Street Journal.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Database Development, and Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Northern Indiana and throughout the Country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
Elkhart, IN, April 13, 2010 - Mike Gingerich, a Web Technology and Internet Marketing Consultant for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will present to the MEMA Financial Services Group, Inc. Manufactured Housing / Recreational Vehicle Group Executives on Web Search Tools - Conducting Effective Business Research using Advanced Web Search Tools."
The Hilton Garden Inn, Plaza Court, Elkhart, IN, will be the host venue for this web presentation.
To be covered in the Elkhart Presentation:
Web Search for Business
Google Web Search Functions
Bing Web Search Functions
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Search Opportunities
Since 2006, Mike has played an integral role in designing, deploying, and tracking robust web design and Internet Marketing strategies for over 100 clients, and is an accomplished Internet Marketing consultant. He holds a M.S. in Organizational Development & Leadership from Shippensburg University of PA, and a B.A. from Bethel College in Mishawaka, IN. Mike is a Web Design and Internet Marketing Consultant at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., a leading web design and internet marketing firm for Elkhart County and across the Midwest.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, Application Development, and Internet Marketing Strategies for Goshen, Elkhart, Northern Indiana and throughout the country.
For inquiries regarding web design, Internet Marketing, and Social Media strategies, they can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
The great thing about the "Internets" and Internet Marketing is that you can be as creative as you would like with your strategy to grow brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales and leads. As long as you stay within the accepted (white-hat) rules of SEO, web design conventions and track your campaigns you will be able to measure your success (or lack thereof).
As our populace grows more comfortable and gains experience with utilizing search engines their queries are becoming more and more sophisticated. SEO and internet marketing professionals are keenly aware of this. Long-tail search phrases or phrases that contain a geo-location (area, city, county, state, region) are becoming more and more prevalent. Because of this, businesses that offer products and services in multiple cities are faced with the challenge of getting their website to come up for geo-specific keyword searches utilizing SEO.
Trying to optimize a website to come up in search for multiple locations utilizing SEO is difficult to do, even with a robust geo-targeted landing page strategy. This is because your website, on the whole, will be oversaturated with city names. When Google spiders your site it may become confused as to what location is the most important to rank you for. Should you have a competitor in one of the cities you wish to rank for that is only in that city and they have an optimized website, they will more than likely come up higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) than you. What's the best strategy to overcome this challenge? Geo-Targeted Microsites.
Rather than optimizing one main website to come up for multiple geo-specific searches consider building several mini or micro-sites with unique URLs targeted for specific local search queries in your internet marketing campaign. If it's done on the right technology platform and optimized properly it can be affordable and highly effective. The affordability comes from recycling the webdesign across your microsites. This methodology will increase your company's SOV (share of voice), leads and ultimately sales. It's also a strategy that I have successfully deployed and tracked over the last 16 months while reaping the benefits of the hundreds of leads the strategy has provided. Below are the search engine results achieved by deploying highly optimized geo-targeted microsites.
Geo-Targeted Keyword Phrase: Fort Wayne Web Design
Strategy: Microsite and SEO
Geo-Targeted Keyword Phrase: Indianapolis Web Design
GOSHEN, IN, - Mike Gingerich, a Web Technology and Internet Marketing Consultant for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., along with Troy Rumfelt, President of Digital Hill presented, "Web Marketing for Business" to business owners and Dealers of Borkholder Buildings in Nappanee, IN (Elkhart County) today.
The presentation was done at the invitation of Borkholder CEO, Dwayne Borkholder, and was designed to inform the Borkholder Dealer Network on the social, technological and business changes necessary to stay competitive today, with a focus on effective websites, Internet Marketing, and Social Media. The event was a follow-up to the successful launch of a new Borkholder website, New Energy Homes, a new division of Borkholder, which focuses on building Net Zero Green homes and buildings. New Energy recently opened a model Net Zero home in Nappanee, Elkhart County. Digital Hill built and launched the new website for this Elkhart County Manufacturer.
Below are slides from this Internet Marketing and Social Media Presentation:
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Web Application Development, and Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Goshen, Elkhart County, Northern Indiana and throughout the country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
FORT WAYNE, IN, April 1, 2010 - Chad H. Pollitt, a Web Technology Consultant and Internet Marketing Manager for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will present "Social Media Do's, Don'ts and Rules of Engagement" to business owners, managers, entrepreneurs and independents in Fort Wayne.
The "Change or Die" seminar series is designed to educate Fort Wayne business people on the social, technological and business changes necessary to stay competitive today. The event is sponsored by OurSpace, LLC located at 825 S. Bar Street in downtown Fort Wayne and will begin at noon on April 1st. There is no charge to attend the event and door prizes will be given away.
Seats for the panel discussion are limited so reserve your seat via RSVP: ourspacefortwayne@gmail.com.
Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco's prestigious School of Business and Management.
Chad is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an Internet Marketing Manager at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., the leading web development and internet marketing agency in the Midwest. His white papers and articles have been published in over a dozen newspapers and websites throughout the world. With over 10 million dollars of tracked ROI for SEO alone, he has been a guest lecturer, blogger, keynote presenter and featured on multiple radio shows, podcasts and in The Wall Street Journal.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Database Development, and Web Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Northern Indiana and throughout the Country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
Our president Troy Rumfelt gives his tips on web design, Internet Marketing, and social media in an article published in the South Bend Tribune recently.
Rumfelt talks about using social media in web design and Internet Marketing, and how businesses can use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging to help them be found in this new age of digital networking. Rumfelt mentions using tools such as Facebook and new applications like Facebook TabSite to effectively engage audiences and share your message. Facebook has had phenomenal growth in the past year moving into mainstream acceptance. In fact, recent data published by Nielsen noted that active Facebook users spent 7 hours of time in January on the Facebook portal.
Digital Hill Multimedia is a full service web design and Internet Marketing firm serving Goshen, Elkhart, South Bend, and Fort Wayne regionally, as well as national clients from coast to coast.
South Bend, IN, March 11, 2010 - Mike Gingerich, a Web Technology and Internet Marketing Consultant for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will present to the CB Richard Ellis | Bradley South Bend Area team on social media marketing and its business benefits in a presentation entitled "Social Media for Business."
The Summit Club in downtown South Bend, IN, will be the host venue for the March 12 social media marketing presentation. Attendees include regional brokers and team members of CB Richard Ellis | Bradley in the South Bend area.
To be covered in the Presentation:
Business applications for social media
Personal Branding on the web
YouTube, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
Social Media Search Engine Optimization
Since 2006, Mike Gingerich has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, and tracking robust web design and Internet Marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations, and is an accomplished Internet Marketing consultant. He holds a M.S. in Organizational Development and Leadership from Shippensburg University of PA, and a B.A. from Bethel College in Mishawaka, IN. Mike is a Web Design and Internet Marketing Consultant at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., a leading web design and internet marketing agency for South Bend and across the Midwest.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Application Development, and Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategies for South Bend, Northern Indiana and throughout the Country.
For inquiries regarding web design, Internet Marketing, and Social Media strategies, they can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
I often get asked to search engine optimize sites that have been built and deployed already. These projects actually take more work and resources to optimize than if the site was being built from scratch and tend to be strategically flawed sales funnels in internet marketing. SEO should start before any line of code is written, design considered or site map developed. SEO starts immediately after target demographics are defined and personas are developed. Why should SEO be started before the other steps above? The reason has to do with the on-page factor we in the SEO and internet marketing world call Keyword Themes.
Put yourself in the shoes of a search engine and consider what a website looks like to a search engine spider while the site is being indexed. Search engine spiders are looking at source code. What is in source code? A whole bunch of letters, numbers and character strings that tell web browsers what and how to display a website and its functionality. Many internet marketing professionals are not programmers and tend to forget this.
Search engine spiders keep track of every character string it's confronted with and the number of times they're presented. This process creates a ranked list of words for every page and is critical for SEO. The words at the top of this list (1, 2, 3, etc.) are that page's keyword theme according to the search engine. Each word is assigned a significance based on the search engine spider's perception of several on-page factors (i.e. placement, repetition, Page Title, Header Tags, Bolding, Alt Tags, etc.). Once a search engine has spidered more than one page and determined the pages keyword themes it can combine the ranked keyword lists from all of the pages it's spidered to determine an overall website keyword list. This final list shows your website's keyword theme. Google's Webmaster Tools reports on website keyword themes:
Because of keyword themes it is very important to do a keyword workshop to create a list of keywords your potential customers may type into the search engines. These keywords allow you to predefine what every page's theme will be and what the overall website's theme for SEO will be before it goes live. Assign a primary keyword or phrase to every page on your website. This assignment will drive all of the content on that page. Otherwise, you're crossing your fingers and hoping Google ranks you for those keywords. That is not SEO.
In order to convince the search engines that a particular phrase should be the overall website theme it is important to make your homepage's primary keyword phrase the secondary keyword phrase for the rest of the pages in the site. That way the overall keyword theme is well represented throughout the website and your SEO attempts will have a better chance for success.
Websites that are optimized after they are developed tend to have multiple pages with no real SEO value or don't fit within the keyword theme strategy. These pages actually hurt your SEO and chances of high rankings because they dilute your overall website's keyword saturation with meaningless words.
Professional Website Development
complete Inn Reservations online, a full e-commerce store where you can purchase gift cards and other great Essenhaus items after you've left Elkhart County, including their nationally known noodles, and more! The site has an easy e-mail sign-up to subscribe to e-mail updates, as well as a robust News area allowing the Essenhaus to do 
