Part 1: Optimizing your SharePoint Website for the Search Engines

The Internet is like the busiest shopping world in the entire galaxy.

Not only are there billions of shoppers there are also over a billion shops or websites (Internet Live Stats).  As you can imagine in a shopping mall this busy, it would be very easy for a shopper to get lost, for them not to be able to find exactly what they are looking for. As you can also imagine it is also very easy for "a storefront" to get metaphorically lost, for it to remain hidden and unloved, off the beaten track, stuck behind monster department stores, with no one ever finding you or noticing you.

When you think about your SharePoint Website or Extranet it is imperative that it is not difficult for the "right people" to find you. In fact your website should be incredibly easy to find on big Search Engines like Google. When people are looking for your products or services, you should be the first option provided to them by the Search Engines.

Register for our Free Webinar on Creating and Optimizing SharePoint Website for search on August 9th at 11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern.

This is not about ego, this is not about been the most popular kid at school, this is 100% about being relevant and about being known as the expert in what you do or provide. Search Engines results are increasingly becoming less about popularity and more of a measure of expertise and authority in the minds of those who search.  And this authority is vitally important when it comes to your brand's value and perception.

So the first question, that we must ask when it comes to optimizing your SharePoint Website for the Search Engines is this: What are the areas of expertise and authority, that you wish for your business to be known for more than anything else?

 

Cutting Your Own Path Through the Forest

At the beginning of this article, I used the metaphor of the Galaxy's Biggest Shopping Mall to describe the Internet, but I would also like to use another metaphor, I'd like to use the metaphor of 'the Biggest Forest you could ever imagine." Making your way through a thick, giant, dense forest is extremely difficult, not only is it easy to get lost, it is actually very difficult and sometimes impossible to move fast.

In a dense forest, pathways and tracks are extremely important if you wanting to move at any speed. As you think about optimizing your SharePoint Website or Extranet for search, I want you to think about the dense forest in which you are operating. The best way to help relevant people" find your business in this dense forest is to cut your own path through the forest.

The phrase "cutting your own path," expresses clearly the need for your business to be unique, to be original, to offer a point of difference from all of your competitors. When you are not fighting with your competitors both in business and on the search engines, then you are free to be original and to carve out your own specific niche. "

At Emgage, we like to say, when competition is low, it is extremely easy to win."  

Knowing Your Competition Allows You To Avoid Your Competition

One of the first things that we do when it comes to optimizing a SharePoint Website for a client is to analyze the competition. We want to see what they are doing on the Search Engines. We ask questions like:

• What is their unique selling proposition?
• Who are your ideal clients or customers.
• Who are your competitors ideal clients?
• How well optimized are their websites?
• Where is their traffic coming from?
• What "search terms" are they targeting?

We don't ask these questions so that we can necessarily beat them (although we will attempt to if we think we are stronger), we ask these questions so we can also avoid them, so that we can come up with a fresh approach, a new SEO strategy, search terms that are relevant and easy to target and rank for.

We analyze your competition so we can help you cut your own path through the dense and murky forest of the search engines; the kind of path that will allow large numbers of relevant people to find you and drink from your well of authority.

In the next blog post, I will take you through exactly how to cut your own unique path through the forest and to succeed with the search engines.

Register for Our Free Webinar

Sign up for our Free Webinar on Creating and Optimizing SharePoint Websites and Extranets for search on August 9th at 11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern.

The SECRET to Increasing Corporate Intranet Adoption Rate

Putting Lipstick On Your SharePoint Intranet

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.

In the same way, you can try your best to make your SharePoint Intranet more attractive. You can try and teach it to behave by transforming it into a "social intranet. You can do a lot of superficial things to increase your Intranet Adoption rate...  but at the end of the day, if it was once a pig, it will always and forever still be a pig.

Not that I have anything against pigs.

As a former Veterinary surgeon, I know only to well that pigs are supremely intelligent; they are even very clean, if given the space a pig will designate specific areas for specific activities, one area for eating, one area for the poop and pee, and a separate area for sleeping. But you cannot expect a pig to be anything else other than a pig.

This is not an insult...but...

Your SharePoint Intranet is a pig. It is very smart, highly functional and it can grow very, very quickly. but if you want it to reach its full potential, then you are going to have to stop dressing it in heels and putting lipstick on it. Let her be a pig.

Getting Primal with Your SharePoint Intranet

When it comes to Intranet Adoption it's time to get primal and go back to your piggy roots and asking the hard questions like, "exactly, what is the core purpose of this thing?"

The overarching core purpose of any piece of enterprise software is to make work significantly better for the user. When this happens there is no problem with Intranet adoption.

In fact, low Intranet adoption is a symptom of an Intranet that doesn't solve big work problems for the User. When your employees are not adopting, when they are reticent, they are actually trying to tell you something about the technology... they are trying to tell you that the old way of doing things is still better.

Getting primal with your SharePoint Intranet is the first step in solving your adoption problem and greatly increasing the efficiency and productivity in your workplace.

3 Primal Questions to Ask:

1. Where are the sticking points/log jams in work productivity for each of your Users? (You will have to ask them)
2. What are 3 ways in which your SharePoint Intranet could make work significantly faster and simpler for each type of User you have?
3. Does your current Intranet address these problems and provide significant solutions? If not, why not?

Avoiding the Lipstick

There are a lot of vendors out there, who are promising to put lipstick on your pig. They promise to rebrand your Intranet, give you nifty social tools. and to really get your people talking via your Intranet. This lipstick should fool no one.

Identifying your work problems and creating an Intranet that will truly solve these problems is the process that you must go through if you are truly wanting to use SharePoint Intranet to grow your organization.

One organization that is doing a great job of addressing the deep issues with Intranets is Emgage. I would recommend you check them out and book a demo here.

What is a Responsive SharePoint Intranet?

Don't build a great looking Intranet without thinking about the actual screens your knowledge workers are going to be using to access your site.

No one would bother inventing a black and white only television screen today.  In the same way, creating an intranet that is not highly responsive, and that does not work properly on smartphones or tablets is futile.

What is a Responsive SharePoint Intranet?

For Enterprises developing Intranets with SharePoint, it is imperative that their sites look great and work well on mobile. Work is becoming increasingly virtual and increasingly mobile, so if your Users cannot access the valuable resources (via your Intranet) that they need to do their work efficiently from a remote position, then you are going to see their productivity drastically decrease.

A responsive SharePoint Intranet is one that works and functions well on a screen of any size. As you can see from the image below, smartphones, tablets and desktops have very different screen sizes and shapes.

The mobile screen is the shape of a typical door and yet your desktop screen is a wide landscape. So the question is how to you design and develop an Intranet that works well and looks great on such different devices?
  Responsiveness isn't a native feature within SharePoint. Read on, and I will give you a really great tip on how you can make this happen without hours and hours of costly coding and development.

The Giant Problem Of A Lack of Responsiveness?

When you think about the phrase "responsiveness" and you think about it in terms of typical human relationships, you will intuitively  understand that it is extremely difficult to have a relationship with an unresponsiveness person?

This is exactly the issue you will have if your SharePoint Intranet or Website is not responsive. The relationship that your users have to your Intranet will be extremely difficult; when relationships are too difficult people tend to leave (unfortunately sometimes) and look for something else.

If your Intranet or Website doesn't make the work lives of your users significantly better then you are almost certainly going to suffer from a lack of use and user adoption issues.

Take A Giant Leap andMake your Site Responsiveness 

While many large enterprises are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and many months, branding and stylizing their own Intranets there is a much more efficient solution. At Emgage, we've worked really hard to develop a product called Prime that sits on top of SharePoint and makes your Intranet Responsive instantly without the unnecessary and painful sweat of in-house development.

 In the 21st century, you must be mobile with your Intranet, it must be highly responsive and dynamically powerful... but it doesn't have to cost you the earth. See Prime from Emgage.... they give free Demos  

Intranet Best Practices. See how to create an Intranet that works

Unpack the best Intranet sites. See how to create an Intranet site that works. Intranet best practices look at exactly what is an Intranet and how to succeed.
https://emgage.com/white-papers/intranet-best-practices-how-to-create-an-intranet

Extinction is Coming --- Meet the New Infopath Replacement

Dinosaurs, Dodo Birds, Giant Sloths – another one is about to bite the dust. Be prepared to add one more item to your list of extinct creatures who once roamed the world.

The next on the list to fall into the dark chasm of nothingness is...InfoPath. That's right - InfoPath will no longer be a part of SharePoint come 2023. Not to fret, there are many great InfoPath replacements out there on the market. Before making a final selection, take a couple minutes to ask yourself some questions before settling on a solution. We put together an InfoPath Replacement Checklist to get you through your transition. ​​​​​

Price: What type of budget are you working with? Depending on the scale of your company and overall budget, you may not want to invest a large portion of your budget for replacing InfoPath. Although there are many alternatives out there that are more cost efficient, buying a new solution that is compatible with SharePoint should not be overlooked. Be sure to ask how well your new solution integrates with SharePoint.

Installation: This brings me to my next point. How easily will your new solution be to install? With all the other projects on your desk, the last thing you want to spend time on is another time-consuming installation. Make sure to ask each vendor how quickly you will be up and running. 

Intuitive Features: How easy is it to use? The last thing you want to have your end users spending hours trying to figure out how to use a new product. Pick an InfoPath replacement that has intuitive features. Although there are quite a few options for InfoPath alternatives on the market, make sure to purchase one with drag-and-drop features.

Functionality: How functional is your new solution? Make sure you have the same form capabilities with your new product that you had before when you were using InfoPath. Ask specific questions and get technical with your sales rep. When switching to a new product, you want to make sure to be well educated about how a product works.

Mobility:​ If mobility is not an issue yet, it will be soon. It's time to make sure that your SharePoint site will one day be fully functional. This means your forms will be used on mobile devices on day. Get a running start on enterprise mobility and ask your rep about your possible InfoPath replacements mobile capabilities.

In Conclusion: 

As you look to find the most suitable InfoPath Replacement think not only about your needs now but your future needs. The end user is constantly facing new work problems and as such you need a solution that is flexible enough to adapt and solve new problems quickly.

Note: This blog was originally published on the Emgage Website

How to Build An Intranet that Works

Check out this great SlideShare on Increasing Intranet Adoption from Emgage.

The SECRET to Increasing Corporate Intranet Adoption from Harout Katerjian