The week before Thanksgiving, when the turkey is defrosting in your refrigerator and you’re trying to figure out how to squeeze Auntie Lorraine in at the end of the dining table, the nation’s retailers begin to bombard us. On radio, television, and in newspapers across the country, it’s impossible to avoid the chatter about post-Thanksgiving sales.

Traditionally, there has been only one way to join in on these “Black Friday” festivities. You must awaken at 4:00 AM after eating the biggest meal of your life. You must slug 5 cups of coffee and drive erratically to the nearest big box store. Then, shivering all the while, stand in line with complete strangers in the pre-dawn darkness. As the clock strikes 5:00 AM, prepare to claw your way into the entrance and down the aisles to seize the digital camera or IPod you’ve been dreaming of. Enjoy!

Luckily, back in the early 1990s Al Gore invented the Internet, and the average consumer no longer has to put up with the overblown theatrics of Thanksgiving weekend sales. While some discounts are limited to in-store purchase, most retailers have realized the true value of leveraging their Website to drive holiday sales.

So how can you take advantage of your Website to get in on the action?

In the last month, we’ve written a lot about Website optimization, often referred to as search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a truly effective way to rank higher in the search engines, and reach users who are interested in your products and services. However, there are no shortcuts to excellent SEO. To rank high, you need many pages of quality content, a sufficient number of inbound links, and a logical internal navigation structure. In essence, you need to be one of the best sites on the Internet for your particular mix of keywords. That doesn’t happen overnight.

So while you’re working on improving the optimization of your site, consider starting a pay per click (PPC) advertising campaign. PPC ads appear on the right hand side of major search engines like Google and Yahoo, and are a great way to drive traffic for keywords that are relevant to your business. To start, you select a list of keywords that represent the key components of your business. Then, write specialized ad copy that matches up with them, and select the amount you’re willing to pay for a user to click on your ad. It’s a “pay to play” system where you only pay if a prospect actually clicks. In this way, it’s a much more efficient and targeted advertising program than many forms of traditional media. You’re only showing ads to consumers who have a demonstrated interest in your product and you’re only paying when the user chooses to click over.

The best part about PPC advertising? You can set up a campaign and start running ads instantly. So if you’re sorely in need of holiday traffic, you can have a campaign up and running pronto. Major PPC advertisers like Google and Yahoo offer an array of tools to monitor and measure the results of your PPC campaign. This is important, because you want to keep the campaign on budget while making sure your click charges are justified by back end sales from the PPC effort.

PPC advertising can be a boon for consumers and retailers during the holidays. It’s an effective and efficient way to get your message out. And who knows, in the course of sifting through the wide world of Internet retail, maybe you’ll find a nice Christmas or Hanukkah gift for Auntie Lorraine. Word has it she has her eye on an IPod Nano.

Imagine... you go to Google.... type in the #1 phrase that describes your company... and (sigh of relief), you're website is listed on the first page.... Hurrah!!!!

Now imagine... A few weeks later.... you go back to Google.... type in the #1 phrase that describes your company... you're so excited to see your listing on the first page... and....it's not there. "Okay," you say to yourself, "we must be on page 2." You scroll through page 2, page 3, and page 4...still no listing. Page 6, page 7...nothing...you start to panic.

You wonder what on earth could have happened. You're site has been consistently on page one of Google for over a year and you hadn't made any changes to your site. Why the sudden drop in ranking? Well, don't panic, you're not alone. This is the most common question we get asked at the Harvey Marketing Group.

Although no one can ever guarantee that your site will always rank well or always appear at the top of search results, there are a few basic reasons why a site drops in rankings.

1. No changes have been made to your site, while other sites made lots of changes.

2. You haven't kept up with SEO for your site while your competitors have. i.e.: other sites added (or tweaked) their content to add more relevant search terms, they revised their META tags, added Alt links, etc.

3. The other sites ranking higher than yours may have received significant inbound links which boosted their rankings.

4. Several other competing websites that target your exact key phrase were indexed.

5. Simply, Google has changed its algorithm and your site no longer meets its criteria.

So, now that you know why your site may have dropped in rankings, what can you do about it? Keep working on SEO. Most people assume that once your site has gone through some serious Search Engine Optimization that you can stop there. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. SEO requires constant attention to remain successful. So, keep at it and soon you will see your site rise in rank once again.

Most search engine marketers at some point in their career are faced with the daunting question from upper management: “Why is our site not listed on the first page in Google?”

As you know, there are many steps to organic Search Engine Optimization. Your site must not only have logical navigation, as mentioned in our previous Blog, but one must consider the Meta tags, internal links, ALT tags, content, etc. All aspects to your organic SEO campaign are important, but what bring them all together to build a successful website are keywords. After all, your keywords and keyword phrases are used in your title tag, description tag, content, alt tags, links, breadcrumbs, etc. Your keywords are used not only to describe your organization and the products you offer, but they are also the portal in which your target audience finds your site.

So, how do you choose your keywords wisely? Well, you have to think like the customer. Say, for example, your organization sells shoes. The end user isn’t going to their search engine of choice and typing in “shoes”, instead, they’re typing in more descriptive phrases such as “men’s running shoes,” “kids’ athletic shoes,” “women’s casual shoes,” “designer dress shoes,” etc.

Also, it’s a good idea to look at your competitors’ websites and see what keyword phrases they are using. Now consider regional phrases, such as “brand name shoes in Portland Maine,” or “discount shoes in Boston.” Gather all these phrases and see how they rank using a keyword tool like the one found on Overture.com. Pick the phrases that rank well, but also directly relate to the content on your site. Obviously, if your company sells mostly athletic shoes, using a keyword phrases like “designer wedding shoes” will only hinder your site’s performance.

Once you have your list of keyword phrases, use them to your advantage by including them in all aspects of your site including Meta tags, ALT tags, content copy, internal links, and so on.

Remember, SEO is a continuing process so be sure to regularly monitor your keyword phrases and how they are performing using a web analytics tool. And don’t be afraid to re-evaluate and revise your list. The more you stay abreast of what keyword phrases your customers are using to find you, the better your site will perform.

In our previous blogs we’ve discussed what to focus on in terms of website content and search engine optimization techniques that can improve your customer’s online experience. We’ve also reviewed the benefits of web analytics tools that allow us to see user behaviors and actions while surfing your website. We’ve also touched base on what to focus on in an analytics report in terms of what take-aways will help you increase leads, sales, and site flow. The next leg of the stool in improving your customer’s online experience is to actually take a look at the navigation design and menu layout of your site.

Your website navigation and site structure should be one of the first things to focus on when considering your desired customers and sales goals – it’s the backbone of your entire website. Not only should you have clearly delineated pages in a logical layout, but your site menu or navigation needs to make sense. From a top-level viewpoint, what are the top 5 or 6 menu headers you want? Usually this consists of links for your home page, products, services, info about your company, contact info, additional links, etc. Always have a way for the user to get back to where they came from and start anew. Break your menu out in a logical outline. Arrange it in a sensible hierarchy from big to small. Once you establish an easy to use menu, your customer feels comfortable navigating your site.

Not only do you want to have crisp, logical site navigation on every page, you also want to keep the layout and structure clean. Don’t confuse them! The idea is to give a potential customer as many chances to take a desired action as possible. Site navigation should remain consistent from page to page to avoid confusion and alienation. The last thing you want is for a customer to be stumped on where to go next, or unclear about how to buy your product. From a SEO perspective, CSS or text navigation is best because search engines can see them. Flash and image-based navigation can’t be seen by search engines. Also, browser compatibility, plug-in issues, and coding errors can even lead to menus not appearing for some customers! Not only can you include JavaScript or CSS drop-down menus on each page, but also consider adding breadcrumb navigation to show a user where they are in the site and where they’ve come from (i.e., products > socks > wool socks). Many websites also use redundant text navigation links at the bottom of the page to provide another option for navigation. Giving your customer as many options to navigate your site is great as long as you keep it clean and comprehendible.

In addition to clean navigation, giving a customer multiple opportunities to sign up for that newsletter, fill out that contact form, click on that sales banner, download that brochure or whitepaper, view top selling products, will give you a better chance at a sale. If you have a top-selling product, then why not put info about it on your home page, or product page, or every page? These are strategic forms of navigation. It’s a fine balance. Don’t overdo it either. We’ve all seen websites that are so cluttered you don’t know where to go. Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Keep it consistent. Your menu should let the user find what they want in the shortest number of steps possible. The longer they have to search, the more frustrated they become.