Ok, we all know that if you’re going to move a website or even a single page, you’ll want to make sure you issue a 301 header to tell the search engines that the page has been “moved permanently”. I always equate it to moving to a new office space, but leaving a sign at the old location that says “We’ve moved!” and lists the new address. The 301 header performs exactly the same task as that sign.

However, last month marked our first experience with having to move a site we had previously optimized to a new domain altogether. The client hadn’t been sure which of their two domains was going to be the ‘official’ one, and didn’t decide until after we had already placed them on Google page 1 for their primary target phrase – on what was to become the ‘unofficial’ domain.

I had read other peoples’ stories about temporarily losing placement when doing 301 redirects, but in the back of my mind I thought, “they didn’t do it properly – they missed something or the 301 header wasn’t being issued”. I guess you can blame the ego on my programming background. In any case, I wasn’t expecting any trouble with the ranking.

Lo and behold, soon after setting up the redirects and changing the virtual hosts, the site dropped from page 1 to page 3-5 for the targeted phrases. No need to panic though – I figured things would balance back out soon enough. It took 2-4 weeks to creep back into the first page of results, but we’re pretty much back in place except for one straggler at the top of page #2 (although we’re getting the #1 local result for that phrase, so it’s not as big an issue as it might be).

So that was our experience with 301′ing a whole site. All in all not too bad, but I think the conclusion should be that unless you have direct help from Google (which they will provide for very large scale/well known sites), you can expect your positioning to get rocked a bit for a few weeks.

Up until last week, we had been using Trac to manage our web development and SEO projects. Initially, Trac managed our workflow well enough to keep us from investigating alternatives. However, as our number of projects and number of people grew, I found that Trac simply wasn’t scaling with us. Each project needs to be set up independently of all other projects, including users and permissions, and creating a new project requires command line intervention. Multiple project support for a single Trac instance has a been a long standing issue, and the progress (or lack of progress) on that front has been recorded in the “infamous” Trac Ticket #130 .

A New Contender

Enter Redmine, which I actually came across by accident. I was looking into Lighttpd as an Apache replacement for an upcoming project that might require all the performance we can squeeze out of our servers. Browsing the Lighttpd docs section, I thought “hm, this is a nice wiki/issue reporting system they have going here”. At first I thought maybe it was custom, but some quick digging showed that it was built on Redmine, an open-source, Ruby on Rails-based project management system.

Some areas of Redmine look nearly identical to Trac, which is fine by me (Trac is good at what it does, it just lacks some key features). You’ll find Roadmap, Activity (Timeline), Issues (Tickets), Repository/SCM, and Wiki implementations that will feel very familiar coming from Trac.  However, Redmine picks up on a lot of areas where Trac wavers or fails. First, it has a web-managed, role-based security setup, so you can manage your users globally, but set roles on a per project basis. Perfect. Redmine also features document & file management out of the box, which is a nice touch, as is the support for sub-projects, which I’ve already found to be quite useful. Generally, the system is just very intuitive and the default theme has a very clean, polished look.

Installation

As I mentioned earlier, Redmine is built on the increasingly popular and influential Ruby on Rails framework. Installation was fairly easy, and would probably have been a snap if not for the fact that I didn’t already have Ruby on Rails running on the server I was installing to. You can read my notes from the Install (Apache 2.2 / RoR / FreeBSD / Passenger ) here.

Conclusion

At least for the moment, I’m ecstatic about the switch. Obviously we haven’t been on the system very long, so I’ll be sure to update if we hit any hiccups or roadblocks. I have to be grateful to the Trac project due to the time we spent on Trac, but we needed something that didn’t require as much administrative effort to maintain. Also, Redmine’s Trac migration script made the change a breeze.

1. Taking credit for ranking…for their own company name
   I’ve seen SEO companies tell clients to search for their name on Google to show that they rank at #1 for their own company name. If you can’t rank for your own company name, either your company is named “blog”, or you’re just not even trying. Even if you are able to fill the entire first page with articles about your own company, there’s nothing impressive (or conversion worthy) going on there.
2. Ranking for phrases no one will ever search for
   Some SEO companies will make it a point to note how they rank at #1 for phrases like “the best greatest Internet company #1 in Philadelphia”. Maybe they do, but no one’s searching that term. In fact, you can easily find out what the actual search volume is for any given keyword on Google before you decide which phrases to target. For example, tomorrow this blog post will probably be ranked at #1 for the phrase “Jim Keller’s super wonderful informative seo blog”, but it doesn’t matter because no one’s (normally) searching for that phrase.
3. Claiming pay-per-click / sponsored ads as a #1 positioning
   I’ve also seen SEO companies tell clients “look, we got you to page 1″. When the client asks “where? I don’t see it”, the SEO company then directs them to the sponsored links on the top or sides of the search engine results. Pay-per-click, or PPC,  is a valuable tool for Internet marketing – there’s no question about it. But anyone who’s willing to spend enough money can get a #1 sponsored link position almost immediately, because positioning is based on how much you’re willing to pay, not by actual content relevance or domain authority. You don’t even need an SEO company to get a first place ranking in the sponsored ads, you just need to sign up & pay the bill.
4. Claiming to have intimate, exclusive knowledge of Google’s algorithms.
   No, they don’t. Even Google has debunked the myth of SEO companies with “special relationships” or “detailed information” about their algorithms, so this one is just a flat out lie. Maybe you can bend the truth by doing what every SEO does, which is to study empirical results and then make educated guesses about how the search algorithms work, but that’s hardly “detailed information” that’s exclusive to one company.
5. Focusing on raw traffic and “hits” rather than actual conversion rates
   Many “lesser” SEO companies don’t even breathe a word about conversion to their clients. They’re too focused on making the Google Analytics graph go up and to the right to notice how many of those visits are actually resulting in warm leads, product sales, or whatever the goal might be. All too often, clients are completely unaware that there is more than one page to Google Analytics. Their SEO company sends them a report that consists of the monthly overview (which is interesting, but probably not helping much, especially if no one points out the 87% bounce rate), never indicating what the results actually mean or how the client can measure them in dollars and cents. For any business looking to undertake an SEO campaign, I recommend educating yourself on Google analytics as much as you can so that you know what’s possible and what to expect. Google’s Conversion University is a great place to start, though it may be a bit technical for some.

There you have it – Five things that give SEO as a whole a bad name. Clients often get soured on the whole notion of SEO thanks to companies who promise the world but provide no actual results.

…at least according to our Google positioning today. I’m happy to report that, from where I’m searching, Context is the first result for “Philadelphia SEO Firm”, one of our targeted keyword phrases:

We still have work to do on phrases like Philadelphia SEO (<– notice the gratutious internal link) and Philadelphia SEO Company, and obviously the position is going to bounce around based on locality and the other normal factors that effect Google’s algorithm, but hey, it’s always nice to see #1 positioning on a target phrase. I like to think that the positioning we do have is largely based on providing relevant, useful content to visitors (basically, posts that aren’t nearly as self-serving as this one is) via the blog or other parts of our site.

Also, why do I get the feeling we’ll mysteriously bounce out of place once @wilreynolds gets wind of this?

A few months ago, I made a post about choosing a CMS. At that time, we were utilizing several different content management systems depending on project complexity and client preference. Since then, however, we have switched exclusively to Drupal as our CMS of choice, and in this post I will explain why.

A Real World Example

We are currently working on a website redevelopment project for the American Society of Media Photographers (new site will launch in early summer ‘09). In addition to requiring a full range of content management features, the project had three requirements that were a bit outside the normal range of a CMS project:

1. Authentication against an existing, proprietary user database
2. Integration of existing PHP code into Drupal, preventing the need to re-code entire site features that already worked as standalone components
3. The ability for chapters around the country to manage their own sub-sites on the main ASMP site

Obviously, we did our homework before settling on a CMS platform. The first thing to realize about Drupal is that it offers a truly granular level of control over the entire system. Here at Context, we’re generally fans of fully object-oriented MVC architecture. Every custom PHP project we do is built on top of Fuse, and we lean heavily toward Magento as our E-Commerce platform of choice. Drupal, however, is not MVC driven, nor is it generally object-oriented. However, the hooks system is extremely well documented and well integrated, and it allowed us to hook directly into the authentication functions to make short work of item #1 above.

Next, a mix of the PHP evaluator module and the PHP path module allowed us to simply ‘include’ existing PHP files at URLs of our choosing, and surround them in the Drupal page layout. We removed & replaced the page styling on the legacy pages with the updated CSS (and also removed the header and footer), and found that we had the legacy code transparently working within the Drupal structure.

Finally, #3 – chapter sub-sites. Initially I had thought we would need to develop a custom module or make heavy use of Taxonomy to tackle this one, but the Domain Access module provided a much more comprehensive solution. Built specifically for the management of sub-sites, we were able to integrate it into our Drupal install and get moving right away on managing sub-sites.

Why NOT Drupal?

So, we all know that Drupal is extremely powerful, but what keeps developers consistently choosing other open source content management systems? Previously, I felt that due to Drupal’s complexity and learning curve, it should be reserved for larger scale projects that really require its power. Otherwise, I thought, maybe it would be best to just put together something in WordPress, Joomla, or ExpressionEngine. However, Drupal’s bark is bigger than its bite when it comes to the actual learning curve, even for the more powerful and complex fatures. Drupal is certainly set up a bit differently than other content management systems, since it lacks the user friendly admin dashboard we’ve come to expect from Joomla, WordPress, or EE. Additionally, the Drupal default install is quite unimpressive. You have very little functionality until you start installing modules, and some of the terminology and information architecture can be a bit confusing at first. But just hang in there. Everything starts to make a lot of sense once you start delving into the system, and from there you will be “hooked”. Having a good book doesn’t hurt either – we liked Pro Drupal Development and Learning Drupal 6 Module Development .

So, at least for a while, it’s Drupal for us as our CMS of choice for any size project. I’m interested in seeing what Joomla does with version 1.6 (granular user permissions, finally), but I have to admit that I’m considerably more excited about Drupal 7.

One of the toughest questions for businesses – especially businesses who don’t sell products directly through their website – is: how can we generate return on investment after launching our new website?

If you’re asking this question, you’re on the right track. Many businesses never bother to ask about website ROI, and instead pay for flashy web design and copywriting, only to realize that none of it had any effect on their revenue.  If you fall into this category, please be sure to read on, as you may be surprised at just how much your website can do for you.

Goals and Analytics

Website ROI comes down to two things: goals and analytics. In this article, I’m going to focus on setting up website goals. A followup article will detail how to measure and report on the effectiveness of your implementation of those goals.

Too many businesses think of their website as an online business card – a place where people may go if they’re directed there by a salesperson, but nothing that is going to drive new business opportunities.  Oftentimes, we find that our clients have never viewed their website in the appropriate light, and instead subscribe to an antiquated idea of what it means to do business on the web. Regardless of your industry, your service offerings, or your target demographic, your website should be a tool for generating new business, for creating and maintaining contact with warm leads, and for decreasing their overhead costs.

Setting Goals

So, how do we shift our thinking and get started with ROI on our website? First, set a goal.
Many companies have never asked themselves: “why do we have a website?”. Other questions too rarely asked include: “Ideally, what types of visitors would we like to attract to our website” or (this one is very important) “what do we want them to do when they get there?”

For companies that sell products online, the answer to these questions is generally pretty simple – “we want our visitors to go through the buying process and purchase our products”. There is still plenty of room for creating efficiencies & identifying goals in that process, but right now I will take a moment to talk about those companies who don’t sell products online. Maybe they are service based or have a lengthy sales cycle due to custom or niche products. These are quite often the companies that overlook the value of their website, assuming that because they don’t have an online store, the web can’t be at the forefront of their business. This type of thinking is toxic to a business model in 2009, and needs to be addressed and updated.

Why do you have a website?

The answer to “why do we have a website” should be something to the effect of “to drive new business to our company through search engines and to offset our customer service costs by providing information and online support to our clients, employees, and investors”.

The first part of this answer is handled by search engine optimization, or SEO, which is the process of positioning a website high in the search results for given keywords and phrases. This process should be handled by a capable SEO firm, but be wary of SEO companies that promise big results but don’t ask many questions, or who seem to be unable to give a clear idea of what you should expect from the process.

The second part of the answer – offsetting customer service costs – is often overlooked. Consider how many man (or woman) hours your company might save if you were able to reduce the number of customer service calls by 20%? What about 40%? What if you directed your customers or investors to a web page rather than mailing out hard-copies of presentations, white papers, or financial reports? For many companies, having complete, constant control over their website content is something they think is out of their reach, because the old method of content control is to email your web design company and have them make small changes to existing text (usually at a hefty hourly rate). However, content management systems (CMS) are the standard for building websites in 2009, and if you are operating on anything else, you are at a disadvantage. A CMS makes updating your website as easy as word processing, and is a staple of a successful website.

What types of visitors would you like to attract to your website?

The answer to this question should be: “everyone in your target demographic”. Often we find companies who are convinced that their target demographic is not using the web. Actual statistics show otherwise. According to Internet World Stats, 248,241,969 people in North America have access to the Internet (consider that the entire population of North America is 337,572,949, according to the 2008 census). Additionally, a recent PEW research study concluded that “Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the ‘Net Generation,’ Internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life.”. Make no mistake about it: your target demographic is on the web, and right now, they’re browsing your competitors’ sites.

What do you want visitors to do when they get to the site?

The simplest answer here, if you’re not selling products directly, is “contact us”. It is extremely common for companies to purchase warm leads, why not use your website to bring in your own? Browse through your website and ask yourself “how hard is it to figure out the specific services we offer, and what value we bring as compared to our competition?”. Also ask, “how easy is it for a potential customer to contact us from any page of our site?”, and “how easy is it for visitors to get to specific information about our products and services?”.

Implementation

After you’ve determined what you’d like to do with your website, you need to implement changes to help reach your goals. A competent web strategy firm will be required to help you with this process. If you have separate marketing and web development teams, you should ideally have your marketing team develop a clear plan for the web team, who should then implement the changes.

Context can help you get the most out of your website by developing and implementing your goals, then measuring and reporting on the progress and ROI. Please read more about our SEO, Website Optimization, and Content Management services.

What’s Next

Once you’ve identified your goals and updated your site to best suit those goals, you need to find out how successful you’ve been in your implementation. This is where analytics comes in, and I will be following up shortly with an article about measuring ROI.