I’ve written before about using your tagline (or slogan) in your logo, so most of you know that I’m against it in the logo in the first place (The Memorability of Your Logo). But another good point to bring up when it comes to the internet is whether to use a text tagline, or an image.

It’s actually a very easy question to answer. Does your tagline include any of your keywords? If that answer is yes, then your tagline should be text and should be placed in your website header.

This was a lesson I learned early in my internet career. When I went online in 2002 with my Stationery shop, I decided that my creativity meant that I could design and implement my own website. I had a logo for “Classic Creations Stationery & Gifts” and so I used it. Within 6 months of starting my website, I had learned a lot about keywords and SEO. I realized that “Classic Creations” could be anything and while it was important to my current catalog customers (for finding my site), my crucial keywords were “Stationery and Gifts”. Thus, I made the decision to use them as a text tagline in my page header. Of all the things I did back then, that was the smartest! My traffic tripled within the days and weeks following that change!

If your tagline is something akin to “Your One Stop Shop”-there are two issues at play here…

ONE: it obviously is not important to your SEO, so use an image with a cool font.

TWO: WHY aren’t you using keywords in your tagline and taking advantage of the benefits it will provide to your Search Engine Optimization??? Just adding one word would make all the difference: “Your One Stop Stationery Shop”. And suddenly the text “stationery” is on the top of every page of your site.

Something very important to consider…

I am often asked what is the one communication skill small business owners need to have to be as successful as possible. The best advice I can give is to be receiver-oriented, which is the fancy communication way of saying stay focused on your clients’ and prospects’ needs and wants. Sure there are techniques for all sorts of communication skills like becoming more confident; boosting your “know, like, and trust” factor; putting together a presentation; and rules about email etiquette. Certainly learning more about all these areas will improve your professional communications.

But what’s most important to remember is to always keep in mind your client or prospect. If you pay more attention to your clients and prospects and put yourself in their shoes, you’ll be practicing empathy. And empathy is the most important communication skill a person can have at work or at home. By putting yourself in the other’s place, you’ll get a sense of how it feels to be bombarded with 20 emails in a week from the same person trying to sell you something, for example. You’ll understand how it could take a little while to make a sale until the other person knows you and your business and feels you and what you have to offer are trustworthy.

(more…)