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Posts Tagged ‘building a website’
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Small businesses thrive on repeat customers, and it’s no different on the web. The goal is to entice your viewers to return to your site again and again. How? By offering your viewers new content—discounts, helpful information, interviews, contests, and other fresh material.
The other easy and overlooked way to get viewers to return to your website is by bookmarking.
Yes, anyone can add you to their “favorites†list, but I compare that to remembering to take in my recyclable bags to the grocery store—I mean to, but most of the time I forget.
So why not help your viewers out by posting a small bookmark icon on each of your web pages, and including your blog. You’ll immediately notice a bump in traffic by bookmarking.
Since Microsoft Internet Explorer accounts for about 60% of the browser share, and MSIE 5.0 offers a bookmark icon, and you might want to consider it, but you do have other options such as. FastIcon.com and IconArchive.com have a collection of social bookmarks that you can download for your website.
Two other, and more popular, bookmarking icons that you can which are ready-made for using on your website are AddThis and ShareThis. You simply sign up for an account and insert the code into the content of your website. The icon will appear for your visitors to use for bookmarking your website at one of several bookmarking services online.
It only takes a few minutes to add a Bookmarking icon to your site, and your viewers won’t mind the friendly nudge. Continue to offer solid content that gives them a reason to return—and tell others about your small business website.
Tags: bookmark, building a website, we, website design
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing, Social Media, Tools for Small Business, website development | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Have you ever landed on a site and you couldn’t figure out your way around? Did it look sloppy? Overwhelming? Designing a website for your small business so it’s easy to navigate takes thought and preparation. Your approacch has to be two-fold: part content and part strategy.
What Makes a Good Website Navigable?
It’s so tempting to go for flashy intro, but don’t. Take it from the big boys. Look at Google’s home page, Amazon, CNN, Forbes, Disney, and other major sites. They’re clean and uncomplicated.
Resist opening your webpage with flash animation or video. This slows down the system, and many of your viewers have basic computer systems that are at least a couple of years old. They won’t be able to load your website quickly. If they’re impatient or get frustrated, they’ll simply go to the next site on the list.
There’s a more important reason not to go for the grand entrance–graphics aren’t indexable.
That means the search engines aren’t picking up on keywords, and in turn, they’re not finding out who you are and what you have to offer. That means they’re not directing traffic your way. That’s the equivalent of buying the corsage, renting the tux, and then not getting to go to the prom.
Make sure that you’re not using an image file to write content in, because a search engine is reading it as an image and will not pick up on the keywords.
When in doubt, go white. A white background with black text is simple, but it also doesn’t give search engines any problems. Now, that doesn’t mean your site can’t be laid out well, but think about it–when we read a book, does it bother us that it’s not on green or pink paper? No, we’re reading for content, and the information is what we’re after. Search engines are getting more sophisticated, and it’s perfectlly okay to have a site with color and even a few graphics, but the point is not to go overboard.
Make sure your site is easy for visitors to get around. If you have dangling or orphaned pages and don’t offer an index, navigation bar, or site map, so they can return to previous pages.
It’s a smart idea to embed some long link texts into your pages so that your viewers know exactly what will happen if they click on that link. You can move a viewer around your site by simply referring back to something on another page with long text links, so consider high lighting and linking a phrase that’s clear for your viewers to understand.
Try visiting some major sites and really begin to view them from a web designer’s frame of mind.
Do you like the way the page appears? Is it easy to read, pleasant on the eye, and easy to navigate? Are you confused? Are you looking for something to click on like it’s “Where’s Waldo?” Are you asking certain questions, wondering what’s missing?
Creating your small business website comes with an initial time and effort investment, but this is your public face, and a tool in which thousands can locate you, your products, and your services.
The old adage of “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right the first time” makes sense.
Tags: building a website, internal linking, search engines
Posted in SEO for Small Business, Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, Uncategorized, search engines, website development | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Pay per clicks can be a shortcut to building traffic for your site.
In fact, some larger companies are foregoing SEO and going straight to pay per click (PPC).
Is PPC feasible for small business owners? It’s certainly worth considering the pros and cons.
The basic premise of pay per click is that you pay each time one of your ads is clicked on.
So instead of finding your keywords, optimizing your site and searching for innovative ways to link and get linked, you simply “buy” your way to the top of the search engine mountain of success.
Google AdWords is one useful type of PPC, now Yahoo! and MSN have their own version.
It’s relatively simple to set up a PPC account.
For example, on Google, all you have to do is go to Google Adwords, register, give them your credit card number, and you’ll have an account. From there, you create an ad (with a title, text, and a link to your web page), and then choose your keywords that will guide traffic to your ad (you can’t get away from keywords no matter what). The next step is to then bid on those keywords.
How do you know what to bid?
Your goal is to be in the top three bidders for this keyword.
Any pay per click company you use will list their ad prices. See if this is something you can afford. Being in position three has its advantages–you pay less and you still get “seen” often. Because the pay per click system is determined by many factors such as quality, click throughs, and other factors, being in the number one position isn’t always worth the extra monetary output.
Two Types of Pay per Click Ads:
• Search engine ads are just that. These PPC ads will be placed on search engines.
• Content match ads are placed on websites and will be distributed throughout that system. For example, Google AdWords are distributed throughout the Good AdSense program, so this type of pay per click ad will show up on a variety of sites.
The Pros of Pay per Click Ads:
• It’s dependable. If you have the money, it’s pretty much a sure bet to generate web traffic quickly. By quick, I mean within days or weeks as compared to months, if not years of building your site’s recognition by natural search (when people just type in a word or phrase). Also, PPC’s don’t experience as much fluctuation, so you don’t see the daily ups and downs that occur otherwise.
The Cons of Pay per Click Ads:
• You have to pay, and sadly, it’s become popular and the prices are still going up.
• Natural searches work as well and shouldn’t be ignored. Ideally, PPC’s should be used as a part of your promotional campaign and not its entirety.
Nothing is guaranteed, but pay per clicks can be a great tool to help small businesses get established fast. The secret is to do some research and get those all important keywords nailed so that whether your clients find your site through a natural search or through a pay per click, those keywords will draw the right viewers straight to your website.
Tags: building a website, pay per click advertising
Posted in PPC for Small Business, SEO for Small Business, Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, Uncategorized, search engines, website development | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Keywords are a very important part of your web design. If used correctly, keywords can help search engines find your site and drive traffic your way. Small business websites need all the help they can get and with a little bit of know-how, you can position your small business site for maximum exposure.
First, you need to develop your keyword list.
How? One easy way is to brainstorm. What is your site about?
List all the key words that describe your business, its services and products. If someone were looking you up in the phone book or on the web and couldn’t remember your exact name, what might they check under?
Other ways to create your keyword list is by utilizing sites such as Keyword Discovery.com or SEObook.com, or Google AdWords.
Ideally, your Internet search will verify many of the keywords you came up with on your own, but it will also give you some new possiblities. You should have about 50 to choose from, and of those 50, you’ll probably focus on 10 to 20 on a regular basis. By keywords, I also mean keyword phrases, such as: water damage, carpet repair, etc.
It’s important to note that the broader the category, the more competition you’ll have. It’s better to be king of a small kingdom than a peasant of a large kingdom. Don’t go too obscure, but narrow the search to what your company does and what people would look for that would lead them to your site.
Once you have your keyword list, it’s important to optimize each page with one or two keyword phrases.
To optimize a page, the TITLE tag is on of the most important components. The best position for a keyword is at the beginning of your tag. Place only one key phrase at the beginning of the tag. Remember to scatter one or two keyword phrases throughout each of your web pages. You’ll find that it comes pretty natural if you took the time to choose the proper keywords.
See? It’s not as difficult as it sounds. Keywords are the best way to draw traffic to your site and let the search engines know what you’re all about. Take the time to incorporate keywords into your website design and in time, you’ll reap the benefits for your small business needs.
Tags: building a website, keyword phrases, keywords, SEO, web design
Posted in Blogging for Small Business, Local Internet Marketing, PPC for Small Business, SEO for Small Business, Tools for Small Business, Uncategorized, link building, search engines, website development | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
Here are seven things you MUST know before hiring a web designer, developer or webmaster for your project:
When you’ve decided on the type of website you want to build and are ready to implement your Web 2.0 strategy, finding the right web professional is the next critical step. Web professionals will be responsible for setting up your server, creating login information for access to your site, and will essentially have full command and control over how your site looks and performs on the web. If you aren’t hiring the right match, your entire business could be at risk.
Here are seven things you MUST know before hiring a web designer, developer or webmaster for your project:
1. Do they have enough experience? A web professional without enough experience may slow down your business and marketing growth plans – if they’re always trying to catch up on the latest market trends and changes, you could be sabotaging your business efforts and miss out on key opportunities.
2. Can they create an SEO-friendly site? Search engine optimization is a critical factor for success in today’s competitive marketplace. Make sure the web professional can comply with SEO standards and build something that can stand strong with the constant changes presented by the search engines.
3. Do they check their work for validation? W3C validation is another critical element for all websites and blogs, and compliance means your site can be found across several search engines and networks with ease. Make sure your web professional has a system in place to check their work.
4. Can the web professional help you develop the site for the long-term? Web design and development isn’t a static process, so you’ll need to work with someone who can build, create and explore new opportunities as the site grows.
5. Are they involved with ongoing education? The world of the internet is constantly changing and shifting; if your web professional stays one step ahead of the trends and ‘buzz’ in your industry, you may have a stronger chance of succeeding with your business ideas for the long-term.
6. Can they provide product support? If your web professional is introducing new products, software and components into the website, can they offer support and guidelines for use? If your company grows and you build a team with other developers and designers, everyone needs to be able to use the system. Your web professional needs to be knowledgeable and capable of training others if needed.
7. Do they charge by hour or project? If you are hiring a web professional on-site, you may be involved with salary or hourly rate negotiations. However, many talented web professionals work on a freelance basis so you’ll need to develop a contract to determine how to coordinate payment for their work. Make an offer based on their skills, experience and potential with your company – they may be one of your most valuable assets.
Hiring a web professional who has the right skills and working knowledge of your market is ideal, but there are several other characteristics that you need to look for. From understanding SEO to staying ahead of market trends, the best web professional will help you build and develop your site with the important marketing and growth strategies in mind. Make sure you’ve considered these seven items before hiring a web designer, developer or webmaster for your next project.
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Tags: building a website, web 2.0, web designer, web professional
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
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