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We came across this story here in the office about our favorite coffee spot, Tim Horton’s.

In it, Pete Blackshaw breaks down the fall of Starbuck’s vs. the rise and intense loyalty of Tim Horton’s customers. While regional chains like Tim Horton’s have their charm, Blackshaw uses an interesting metric to track the positive reputation Tim Horton’s has relative to Starbucks, even though both experienced rapid, wide expansion: Facebook.

It’s worth asking here whether Tim Hortons is executing what Starbucks is trying to rediscover. Even though it’s a chain, the brand — its mission, its people, its community ethos, even its interaction-rich and user-friendly website — comes across as uniquely authentic. And the appreciation for its authenticity shines in the Facebook forums in particular. Yes, brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks have more fans in total, but Tim Hortons takes the cinnamon donut when you look at total fans relative to total outlets*. And the fanaticism is notable, if not a bit scary.

It’s an interesting take on using Facebook and other social networks - instead of quantifying numbers of people interested in a topic - music, restaurant, ice cream flavor - Blackshaw is using social networking as a way of gaging the qualitative value of a customer base.

It’s an interesting interpretation, one backed up both on the Internet by the unabashed names of these Facebook groups -

Tim Hortons for Our Troops: 15,500 members
Biodegradable Cups at Tim Hortons: 10,300 members
Addicted to Tim Hortons: 9,000 members
Tim Hortons Rules of Ordering and More: 5,600 members
Addicted to Tim Hortons #2: 5,000 members
Tim Hortons Is Like Religion to Me: 1,900 members

- but it’s also reflected in the customers at the Timmy Ho’s themselves, an experience we North Coasters are already quite familiar with, but one Blackshaw only recently discovered.

The Buffalo franchise was mobbed, and the drive-through line in particular brought back Southern California high-school memories of the congested, almost-communal In-N-Out Burger line. But in full pursuit of the “total” experience, drive-through would not do. So I kissed the wife and kids goodbye and walked inside, only to encounter an equally long, yet somewhat impressive, line. So with time to boot, I started quizzing folks around me about the “secret sauce” of the brand’s success.

“Good food — always.” “Great menu.” “Friendly employees.” “You mean, you haven’t been to a Tim Hortons?” “The coffee is addictive.”

While we’re all about Tim Horton’s, it’s interesting how social networks can be used more as a qualitative barometer rather than simply a quantifying tool. It’s something we’re looking into with our own web marketing campaigns - sometimes building a small rabid fanbase leads to bigger things down the road.

* Emphasis is ours

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Google is the premier search engine on the web today. There’s no denying it, and both users and the stock market alike are clear indicators of how important Google is to search engine efforts. In some ways, Google controls the Internet economy moreso than even the all-powerful Microsoft. Appearing high on Google’s search pages for a given term - related to whatever business you’re involved in - is more valuable than any billboard or television commercial.

But is Google really the gateway to all web business? When a search engine optimization specialist tells you “Your site isn’t Google-friendly” does that mean you have to kowtow to the one company whose motto is “Do no evil”?

Yes and maybe. The same strategies that work well on Google work well on almost any search engine - Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, etc. Relevant keywords, related content, powerful links to and from related, high traffic sites - they work regardless of the search engine.

But should your site be written to appeal to Google’s search bots? Or should you write to your human site visitors? Can you do both?

In an ideal world, yes, writing for both Google and other search engine bots and human visitors should operate the same way. But while search engines prize keyword density, human readers can usually tell if a site is designed for search engines. Search engine optimized copy is not quite as natural as normal marketing copy.

For example, here’s a paragraph Google might read as very powerful for selling web design:

360 PSG, a web development company, offers website design, custom web applications, and a powerful content management system for any business website. Our web designs fit any small business. They work for e-commerce, online portfolio pieces, and online news releases.

Now, that’s not bad, but it’s a little dry. At the same time, it’s readable, simple, and clear.

Another tack we could have taken was straight-up advertising-style copy:

Take control of your website with 360 PSG. Our powerful web designs can help your business establish a strong web presence. Our Fission CMS makes it easy - just login, click, type and save, and you can have unlimited pages, and unlimited web options. Find out more today.

That’s not bad either, as ad copy - it’s inviting, it sells our system as easy to use, and effective, but you’ll notice there are very few words or phrases in that paragraph that count as keywords.

In that first paragraph, we had “website design,” “custom web applications,” and “content management system.” The second paragraph had none of those words together.

If someone is searching for those particular services or products, the first paragraph is more likely to attract search engine results. The second paragraph might be more effective selling to human readers, though it’s much less likely to attract search engine results.

So it’s a fine line to walk - on one hand you want to attract search engine traffic. On the other, you need to drive sales through your site.

Here at 360 PSG, we focus on both - the subtle techniques that boost search engine ranking, plus the effective copy that attracts visitors to a sale once they’re at your site.

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There is only so much search engine optimization techniques like keywords, content, metatags and meta descriptions can do to raise your website’s profile. The real trick - and the method search engines like Google and Yahoo use to measure a website’s “relavancy” - are links, particularly incoming links.

Links, in human terms, show that like minded people are seeking out and reading your site content, whether its an online store, a blog, or some other type of website. Social networks and social bookmarking sites and indexes like Digg or Myspace are great places to drum up that important related traffic.

Incoming links are any link on another site that points to your site. Search engines index sites and their outgoing and incoming links - the more you have, the better. But while almost any incoming link can help your search engine ranking, the best links come from high-traffic sources related to your website topic. For example, this blog discusses web design, web development and web marketing strategies. Good links for us are similarly focused sites - a post on the Blogdesignblog about good blog design is related to our web design topics. A post about the future of search engine optimization on the Search Engine Roundtable relates well to this particular post.

The above links both to our own site and the blogs and websites I mentioned will all be counted by search engines as topical, related incoming links to those sites, and measured as topical, related outgoing links from this site.

But, as a blog author, I had to actively search for those above topics. I used the Google Blog Search to find them, but there are other ways to get those types of incoming links.

Social networks like MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook are good places to post links and material related to your particular industry or topic so people looking for that type of information can find them. For those types of services, you can create a profile and post links to your site, with categories that people with related interests can see.

Social bookmarking sites are similar in that shared interests can draw attention to your website, but sites like Digg, Technorati and Reddit target specifically news-style articles. That might mean you have to go through the work of generating your own content, but that content in turn is put into a feed read by over 500,000 (in the case of Digg) users who rate, read, and discuss your article. Those comments might be full messages, but users also “digg” or give your site “authority” through links. The more links or diggs you get, the more eyes will see your article, and in turn your site.

One important note: People - particularly the savvy Digg community - can see through cheap tricks, black hat tactics and spam like X-ray. Don’t cheat with duplicated, plagiarized content or BS links. It’s not cool, and could get you blacklisted in the long-run.

So get out there - make friends, discuss your business, industry or hobbies - it all can track back to your business.

PS - Digg this article! Click the icon below!

HT: Lorne Fade Design for the pic

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We’ve got some exciting times here at 360 PSG - namely the launch of a bunch of new websites for some of our clients. Here are some of the highlights:

Grow! Inc.

Grow! Inc. is a Virginia-based small business consulting firm that already had a website, but wanted something a bit more enticing to both clients and potential prospects. So we built a brand new website design for them, complete with the web content control of the Fission Content Management System. We also had our copy department build original web content for the site, including full search engine optimization. We’re pretty pleased with the design, and let us know how you think it worked.

KaLu Salon & Spa

KaLu Salon & Spa came to us needing a completely new website from the ground up. So we set them up with the content control of our Fission CMS and came up with a complete website design for them. One of the CMS features KaLu staff has used the most has been the graphical calendar feature of the website. With it they’re able to advertise their regular “special” nights, like teen parties and their Martini Nights. We’re proud of the look of the design, with the rich hues and calming design, exactly in line with the way a spa should look.

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One of the most important parts of search engine optimization, or SEO, is that a site should be updated regularly.

One of the most important aspects of a blog is that it is (theoretically) updated regularly.

It’s simple addition: if your site has a regularly updated blog, your site can benefit from it through SEO. But that’s not the only reason a blog can help Google or Yahoo find your site.

Like we mentioned before, a business blog can be a powerful tool for establishing a good reputation among both customers and business peers alike, but that same blog can also raise your profile for search engine rankings because of the content and potential audience your blog can bring to your site.

Here are the three basic reasons for it, and how you can take advantage:

1. Frequent updates: A good way to use your blog is for information that might not warrant a press release (like a sale or new product). Those little news nuggets might happen as frequently as once a day or once a week, but you should make sure you post them on a timely basis. If you don’t have an announcement or something like that over a given time, find something. You might find a news article that deals with your industry, or maybe a customer question gave you an idea for a How-To piece (hey, kind of like this post!) to educate people on self-help tips (which might lead to them coming to your company for extra help). The simple trick, though, is to update your blog regularly. Don’t let it sit too long, or you’ll lose out on good SEO.
2. Keywords galore: If you keep your business blog focused on your business, meaning your posts are consistently related to one topic, you’ll probably find yourself filling it with vocabulary and terms related to your business. That’s exactly what you want for search engine optimization. Search engines love key phrases in fresh content. For example, in this post I’m discussing search engine optimization and blogs, so good words for me to include are “search engines”, “seo”, and “blog.” If you’ve made it this far in the post, you’ve probably read those words a few times. If you’re writing a blog about your own industry - let’s say it’s one that focuses on antique toys - you’ll be loading your blog with keywords and phrases like “victorian era toys” or “toy truck” or whatever other terms related to what you sell or do. While those words are naturally in your body copy, don’t forget about your titles, tags and categories. It’s just as important to target words for those areas as it is to include them in your copy.
3. Linkbacks got your back: If you’re writing a good blog, you’re already linking to other websites, blogs or news articles that are related to or illustrate your point. For example, SEO for Google has an article on how blogging frequency can improve your Google page rank. And this article talks about what a linkback is, and how it helps blogs. They’re both articles where I did research for this post, so it’s only fair that I reference them, especially if I quote them verbatim. The added benefit is that search engines reward sites that link to relevant content. And if you link to another blog, they might link back to you, sending not only more readers, but further rewarding you with SEO improvements.

Everything I mentioned above is something you can definitely do for your own business, but if you’re like many business owners, you might not have time to keep up on point number 1: frequent posting. That’s where (plug alert!) companies like 360 PSG come in. We offer blogging as a service, written by our staff of copywriters, focused on your business. So if you’re strapped for time, or maybe need a little bit of writing help, give us a call.

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“Credibility” and “blog” are not words that have traditionally gone together, at least not with celebrity-hounding sites like PerezHilton.com or any political blog constantly harped on in the news, but it has increasingly become an effective tool in spreading the word about your company - and drawing visitors to your site.

A business-based or industry blog can add credibility to your website and your business as a whole. By focusing on one particular niche issue, whether it be advertising, real estate or any other industry focus, you can offer commentary that contributes to the dialog on that issue.

Think of it this way: Let’s say you own a company that specializes in dog grooming. There are thousands of people every day looking for tips for primping their pet on the Internet. Who would be the expert those people would trust getting advice from? A dog groomer, right? You, as a dog grooming business owner have an authoritative voice in that particular topic.

It’s the same thing that we at 360 PSG are trying to accomplish with this blog. We’re experts in web development - from web design to custom programming to web marketing. So we’re offering our expertise with the posts on this blog. We’ve talked about web headlines and logo design, and we’re going to have more posts about anything else that can help a web business.

Why would a business, especially one that traffics in information, offer free tips about its specialties? Well, it’s not like we’re giving up the farm, such as the secret of our amazing Content Management System or telling people exactly how to design a great website. We’re offering tips and knowledge - background stuff that, in all honesty, we want potential customers to read before they work on a project with us. The information in our blog not only tells customers about 360 PSG, but customers with good research know better what we can do for them.

That’s what you want a blog to do for you. It’s a win-win situation, really - a blog both educates consumers and also sells your company, products and services.

Targeting potential customers is one way to approach your blog. Another tack to take can be to start an industry blog targeting your business peers as an audience.

Here’s another example: You’re a plumber. Sure, you could write a blog discussing tricks for customers to solve septic tank issues, but maybe you don’t specialize in home plumbing - you’re a commercial installer. An end-consumer blog won’t help you much because your sales are driven more by referrals from other companies. That’s where you can be a source of industry news within the plumbing industry.

Instead of how-to’s or tips, maybe you would focus on new technology in plumbing, and how it helps or doesn’t help plumbers, say, implement commercial bathroom installations. Or perhaps you comment on the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Association’s actions in some way. You’re not at all targeting prospective clients, but your blog could potentially raise your profile within the plumbing industry, by extension helping your business.

The real trick is focusing on one issue, and as a business owner your business is your focus. Just talk about it.

There’s another benefit to blogging, one that might draw more eyes to your website. But we’ll put that up tomorrow. Check back soon!

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