January 28, 2012
I was at dinner with my brother when he suggested we needed to “toot our horn” a bit and get the word out about the great success that our clients are having with their SEO (search engine optimization) campaigns.
Just a quick refresher that the better your site is optimized for SEO aspects the higher it tends to appear in search engine results such as Google or Bing. (Read another post dedicated to SEO.)
Overall our clients are in the top 3 results for their desired search categories in local markets and we even have a website with a top 10 ranking for the world market. This is no small feat as some of the categories are highly competitive.
Here’s just a few of our clients who are ruling the rankings. Here’s a fun way to test it out. Pick a search term for the websites below and see where they come up in the search results.
downunderwinebar.com
sanfelipescantina.com
arizonacactussales.com
salontru.com
roastemup.com
November 20, 2011
Haven’t heard the term SEO before? Not problem, here is the absolute basic primer to get you up to speed on search engine optimization and more importantly how it affects your website.
SEO, or search engine optimization is designing/tuning and maintenance in making your website easily readable by web search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.
Many years ago as businesses set up websites to attract potential customers it became apparent that ranking higher in the search engine listings is optimal for getting the most amount of visitors to a website, especially in a competitive field.
Let’s do a quick example. Say you own a dog grooming business. If there are 20 competitors in your market. The goal for the SEO of your website would be to get as high in the search engine listings as possible. When searching most users have a high record of clicking on the results that are delivered to them. If your website is delivered as the very first listing after I do a search, there is a very good chance that it will get clicked on. A %75 effective SEO campaign would put you in the top 5 listings and a %90 effective campaign would put you in the top 2 listings for your desired keywords and market.
Beware of businesses and agencies that guarantee SEO listings as there is no real way to make such guarantees. The search engines themselves have very complex programs and applications to determine search engine listing placement. That is their job to deliver the best and most relevant listing to what people are searching for so you do your website a great service to make it easy for search engines to identify and record the information in your website and that is exactly what SEO is, making your website as accessible as possible for visiting search engines.
November 20, 2011
A WordPress website is one of the various CMS (content management systems) available so what makes it so great? How about these traits…
Option to be Self managed
With a WordPress website there is always the option of having it managed by the client themselves. WIth a highly structured back-end management system any user can log in to and make edits to current content or even add new content. It’s a great option to have to have and many times a client’s new website starts off s fully managed but there is a transition period of training and then the website becomes self managed. The Tank is then called in for high level design and development purposes to add new features and functions to the established website. It’s a great way to leverage the ongoing cost of maintaining a website.
Lightweight/Small footprint
A WordPress site has a small initial file size yet can support websites with thousands of pages of content. You get the benefit of having a website that is optimized for speed of page delivery and still have a great amount of room for expansion.
SEO Friendly
If you haven’t heard the term SEO (search engine optimization) it is a highly sought after feature of a website. Having a website be easily accessible by the major search engines such as Google and Bing are aspects that are full projects all on their own besides website design and development. This is a good time to say that the design of a website including layout and navigation will definitely play into the SEO aspect so that is an important aspect to consider when designing your website. WordPress websites are naturally lend to the SEO ranking of a website by overall making them very accessible to search engines.
November 20, 2011
Feel like you can do social networking better than Facebook? Well now you have your chance as there is a great social network plugin for WordPress, called BuddyPress. It will get you your very own social network community/blog services. This would be best used for a niche market for your hobby or industry. Creating a social network is a great way to keep conversations going between people who have heavy involvement with or a serious interest in a specific topic.
Here are some great uses for BuddyPress installations.
- social networks for schools, colleges and universities
- internal communications for groups, businesses and companies
- a social network for a highly specific topic or niche market
November 20, 2011
Many times when I am asked what are the first steps for getting a new website I always recommend to get all of the content of the website in an outline format. More times than not when I am approached about a client getting a website for the first time the client does not know specifically what they want on the website. So attention all clients! You have homework – make an outline of all content for your new website.
This helps in (2) ways: First, it will allow a web designer to quote for your project. If you can get a website designer to give you a quote for a project where they have not seen at the very least an outline of the websites content then either the designer or client is probably not going to end up very happy with the amount of work going into the website. The designer runs a risk of under-estimating the amount of time and work it will take to complete a website or also it could to lead to project drift or creep.
Second and more importantly, knowing all of the content will allow for the optimal design for the website. Knowing all aspects of what is to be included on the website will absolutely affect it’s actual design.
The outline form can easily take the traditional outline format. Did you ever have to create an outline for a paper that you wrote in school? Ever had to give a presentation and wanted to make sure you covered specific points? You have probably created a content outline in one form or another.
A basic format is to make it look like this….
I.
A.
B.
1.
2.
a.
b.
II.
A.
B.
Remember the saying….”Content is King.”In most cases it is always the responsibility of the client to provide the content for the website. Again, in most cases that is optimal as no one knows the clients product or service better than the client does and what the best approach is to present it in a sales or information pitch via website. Remember the saying….”Content is King.” Be sure to treat it that way!
