A Mexican Lounge, a Band, Closed Doors and a Lesson for your Website!

Are you Missing the Obvious with your Website?

I recently came back from Mexico, my husband and I had a fabulous time doing nothing at all! This was the first time we took a vacation like that in 25 years. Three kids and two dogs keep you as a group most times.

Now, you should know something about Marco and I; we were truly made for one another. Our brains like to think a lot in terms of customer service, business, and common sense, but not always in that order – and we have fun doing it! (Some call it an illness!).  So one night as we were waiting for a band to play in one of the resort lounges we got to watch a perfect example of “How NOT to welcome People” into your place of business. And yes, it was talking business, but we really enjoy it. Again, we were made for each other!

That experience combined with the info I was gleaning from the book I was studying all week, had me focused on reworking my website and thinking of ways to bring more people into the site…rewriting the content to be more clear on what I offer and welcoming. There are some specific tactics to use in your website and blog content that will help bring in more traffic and keep visitors on your website. All of these ideas fit together to inspire the article today.

So what happened In Mexico ?

We went to watch a band play in one of the lounges one night, it was located just off the lobby at the resort. When we got there the entire 30-foot area of entry was sliding glass doors and the doors were open only a foot, we figured they were closing which was odd.   We were sad and thought we missed the band, but a man was coming out so we asked him if the lounge was closed. He said when he had come in and it was the same, so he was not sure. But he had his drink so he was happy, and left, was closing the doors back to where they were when he went in.

We decided to go in – asked the waitress if it was closed and she said: “No we close the doors for the noise”.  Ahhhhh…. they close the doors when the band is going to play, makes sense, I guess. Now at this point, there were only 14 other people inside when we got our drinks and sat down.

As we waited for the band to get going, we watched the live lesson unfolding on “How not to welcome people to your business”.

We sat there talking and watching people walk by, look in and ponder if they were open and then keep walking away, assuming it is closed or closing. It was hilarious yet not so funny, at the same time. The best part was the waitress was standing about 10 feet from the door watching the soccer game on TV. It was pretty empty and not very busy, there were only 16 people inside in total, but no wonder – the doors were closed!

We watched six more people walk by, check it out and make the decision it was closed and leave. That was 8 people in total, 50% more business walked away because the doors were closed.

Then one man goes out of the lounge and closes the doors back up after him – patrons are very compliant and courteous here it seemed.

“Leave everything as you find it”, appeared to be the rule.

That same man came back a few minutes later, walks in and closes the doors again. It is so funny watching this … we are just sitting there giggling (we were in Mexico at an all-inclusive resort) at the whole thing. And right then we see one couple who had thought about coming in before and had left, but now they are back. They watch this man go in, and they follow him. And you guessed it… closing the doors again after they enter!!!

The waitress is still watching the game not too far from the doors as the band had started and the 18 people inside now are enjoying the music. I want to go print a piece of paper off the computer saying – “We are open come in and close the doors after you because it helps keep noise down in the lobby.” (And by the way, no one was in the lobby – this was a new lounge in the resort, and not everyone was using it as much as the others it seemed.)

Sometimes all it takes is a few words to let people know you are open for business – even if the people are right in front of their eyes. A sign would have worked wonders for them! The waitress had the most to gain from the tips if more people came in, and yet she was clueless. She would actually close the doors tight if anyone left them open a little.

People need messages to be clear. You need to use language and signs they understand. Keywords!  This lounge was clearly not doing that.

Sometimes the most Obvious things are not so Obvious and Overlooked.

How does all of this Relate to your Website?

I recently did a Blog review for one of the students in my program. In checking out her articles on her website – and there were several blogs, which was fabulous to see, but there was one thing missing from different areas in the blogs… and it is the ONE thing that ALL your marketing content needs to make it effective and helps the search engines understand what your website is about.

She missed the most obvious thing that should be used in all marketing content.

KEYWORDS!

When you put new content on your website or blogs you want to ensure you are implementing the #1 tactic for marketing which is using your main keywords in the content.

The whole purpose of blogging – from a technical standpoint – is to get new keyword rich content on your website for the search engines to register. This boosts your online visibility. Which means, more people can find you because the search engines know you are there – and Google does control the world! (Ooops, I mean they control search engine results. Hehe, well… both statements are probably one day going to be right!)

Most people do not think enough about integrating keywords into their content – website pages and blogs, and yes, you can overuse keywords in your online marketing content – but most people have to worry about the opposite in fact – UNDERUSING your keywords. Like the student in my Mastermind.

Underusing keywords is the same as missing the obvious in this situation. The keywords are just like the sign that lounge needed. They are the words to let people know you are here and open for business.

SEO and Keywords and understanding them both play a huge – HUGE – part of your online marketing content and strategy. Especially content on your website and blogs. The more you can produce content that is related to your main focus keywords and uses words people will enter in an online search, the more content you are giving the search engines to index and register.

This is a fundamental tactic to getting your website pages and blogs (which are all website pages) to show up in a search result and let people know you are here and open for business.

You always need to review your blogs and marketing content for keywords.

Keywords must be integrated into 5 main areas on every website page and blog post:

1. Title – which is the MOST Important place, page and blog post titles.
2. Subtitle– this is a lead into your blog article or the page content and should also have keywords in it.
3. Content – never forget them in the actual content. Be sure not to shorten terms too and forget to be clear on your content. ie. Email Marketing List is a term for me. If I say list in my content versus email marketing list, people might understand but maybe not and I have lost a natural way to add in a keyword.
4. Blog Categories – you should always use categories that are essentially keywords.
5. Blog Tags – same with tags, and these can be longer phrases with several words. Like How to start a blog or Blog training for small business.

Your lesson today -Be certain you are factoring in keywords into your content when writing blogs or new web pages – or any marketing content for that matter. It truly is very easy to do and can bring about more website traffic which will help you bring in new leads and prospects.

Let people know you are there – Open for Business! Then your job is to make the sale!

PS. When we left the lounge, we purposefully pushed opened the doors wide!!!

Looking to get a little more understanding on SEO?  The other articles listed below will help.

A Basic Understanding of SEO for your Business

How Does a Blog Optimized for Search Engines bring more website traffic?