Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
If I had a nickel for every time a potential client said to me, "Thanks for the proposal, but I've decided to let my 17-year-old grandson build my website", I'd be able to throw a pretty sweet pizza party for all of my employees. Sure, the guy's grandson could buy Front Page and put together a site, but the kid could also buy a set of wrenches and a copy of Fixing Cars for Dummies and have at Grandpa's transmission.
Your company deserves a strong website. And how the website looks and functions reflects on your company big time. So when someone offers to build you a site, you need to be able to ask the right questions to make sure he or she has what it takes to not only build a website, but build the right website for your business.
For starters, you are always going to want to ask the following questions.
1. Will you be using tables to build my site? Remember tables? They have those pesky invisible boxes that we've talked about before. A web designer who uses tables to build a website is kind of like a wedding photographer who uses a 1986 edition Polaroid camera to take wedding portraits. Using tables or an outdated camera will sort of get the job done, but in both cases, there is new technology out there that can create a much better product. You want to choose a web designer who can use DIVs to put your site together.
2. How many websites have you built before? No one really wants to be the first patient a surgeon operates on or the first defendant a lawyer represents. And in those situations, the newbie professional has had years of training and practicing. If your web designer hasn't built many websites, chances are there is a lot he or she has to learn. Are you sure you want that person to do that learning while building the website for your business?
3. Can you build me a functional website? I'm sure most people who offer to build websites have enough knowledge to put together a site that looks halfway decent. But it takes a lot of skill to set up a website that can actually do stuff. If you are just looking for a site that showcases a few pictures and tells visitors your phone number, some amateur web designers might be able to come up with something that sort of meets your needs. But websites constructed by professionals have the potential to be much more functional. At IntelliSites, we set up websites with forms to collect visitor data, sites that allow for online shopping, and so much more.
4. Are you available when I need updates or have problems? Websites aren't meant to be built and remain the same forever. So you need to make sure your web designer is planning on being in this with you for the long haul. I'm sure family functions can get a little tense when Grandpa has been nagging for a few months and his grandson still hasn't found time between band rehearsal and track practice to update Grandpa's website.
5. Can you make sure my site looks good on every major web browser? Something amateur web designers might not know is that you can't just code a website once these days. Web surfers use many different internet browsers and versions of internet browsers, and your website could potentially look different to people using each one. Professional web designers like those at Intellisites take the time to look at our finished product on all major browsers and make any necessary corrections to make it look great on all of them.
Best of luck as you search for a web designer! (Did I mention that the crew at IntelliSites can give the right answers to all of those questions?)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Does Your Website Really Show Who You Are?
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
It seems that a lot of people aren't aiming high enough when it comes to their SEO goals.
Often, we find that our clients are primarily concerned about ranking highly when people Google their company names. While that's clearly important, we want more from SEO. We want our clients' websites to top the results not only when web searchers already know our clients, but also when people who don't know their company names are just seeking their particular services.
After all, people use Google today like they used to use the yellow pages. Whether they're looking for podiatrists, plumbers, or pet groomers, they usually have a better handle on what service they are looking for than which particular companies they will use. We want you to have the advantage that businesses whose names started with the letter "A" used to have -- a top slot on the list of businesses in your category.
So, the goal of search engine optimization should be to get your website to rank as high as possible when a web surfer is searching for the service you provide. How can you make that happen? By zeroing in on keywords that random web searchers might type in if they were looking for businesses like yours.
There are two ways to do this.
1. Become psychic and read the minds of web surfers everywhere.
2. Consult the friendly crew at Intellisites. We know keywords like podiatrists know feet, plumbers know pipes, and pet groomers know PediPaws.
It seems that a lot of people aren't aiming high enough when it comes to their SEO goals.
Often, we find that our clients are primarily concerned about ranking highly when people Google their company names. While that's clearly important, we want more from SEO. We want our clients' websites to top the results not only when web searchers already know our clients, but also when people who don't know their company names are just seeking their particular services.
After all, people use Google today like they used to use the yellow pages. Whether they're looking for podiatrists, plumbers, or pet groomers, they usually have a better handle on what service they are looking for than which particular companies they will use. We want you to have the advantage that businesses whose names started with the letter "A" used to have -- a top slot on the list of businesses in your category.
So, the goal of search engine optimization should be to get your website to rank as high as possible when a web surfer is searching for the service you provide. How can you make that happen? By zeroing in on keywords that random web searchers might type in if they were looking for businesses like yours.
There are two ways to do this.
1. Become psychic and read the minds of web surfers everywhere.
2. Consult the friendly crew at Intellisites. We know keywords like podiatrists know feet, plumbers know pipes, and pet groomers know PediPaws.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Give Your Reviews a Face Lift
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Did you hear about this craziness?
Seems that a cosmetic surgery franchise has been successfully sued by the New York State attorney general’s office for posting fake positive customer reviews on social media sites.
Oops. They broke more than the law. They also broke the first rule of social media: be authentic.
Deplorable, immoral, and as proven by New York State courts, illegal. That’s misleading your customer in the most traditional sense of the word.
They’re Talking About You
That’s an extreme sample from the world of online review sites. There are loads of them out there, and consumers use them all the time to research before making buying decisions. Check out yelp.com, epinions.com, or even Amazon.com’s review section for examples of this kind of thing.
You just might find that they’re talking about you on some of these sites. Hopefully it’s all good press. If it’s not, don’t panic and shoot yourself in the foot like “McNosejob’s” did. (Round of applause to whoever can come up with a funnier name for a cosmetic surgery franchise. I call dibs on “Long John Liposuction’s”.)
Leveraging Review Sites without Selling Your Soul (or being sued)
We’ve got a better solution. One that’s honest, transparent, and authentic.
We’ve developed a program that activates your loyal customers, and encourages them to post honest, impartial reviews of your business on review sites. We’ll get your customers set up with profiles on relevant review sites, show them how to work the ropes, and then step back and let them post their true feelings about your business. It’s honest press that potential customers can use to get a true sense of your business during their decision making process.
It’s all part of our unique Marketing GPS approach, surrounding your customer with your message in all the places they hang out.
Did you hear about this craziness?
Seems that a cosmetic surgery franchise has been successfully sued by the New York State attorney general’s office for posting fake positive customer reviews on social media sites.
Oops. They broke more than the law. They also broke the first rule of social media: be authentic.
Deplorable, immoral, and as proven by New York State courts, illegal. That’s misleading your customer in the most traditional sense of the word.
They’re Talking About You
That’s an extreme sample from the world of online review sites. There are loads of them out there, and consumers use them all the time to research before making buying decisions. Check out yelp.com, epinions.com, or even Amazon.com’s review section for examples of this kind of thing.
You just might find that they’re talking about you on some of these sites. Hopefully it’s all good press. If it’s not, don’t panic and shoot yourself in the foot like “McNosejob’s” did. (Round of applause to whoever can come up with a funnier name for a cosmetic surgery franchise. I call dibs on “Long John Liposuction’s”.)
Leveraging Review Sites without Selling Your Soul (or being sued)
We’ve got a better solution. One that’s honest, transparent, and authentic.
We’ve developed a program that activates your loyal customers, and encourages them to post honest, impartial reviews of your business on review sites. We’ll get your customers set up with profiles on relevant review sites, show them how to work the ropes, and then step back and let them post their true feelings about your business. It’s honest press that potential customers can use to get a true sense of your business during their decision making process.
It’s all part of our unique Marketing GPS approach, surrounding your customer with your message in all the places they hang out.
Do You Know What Is Really Going On With Your Site?
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Is anybody actually visiting my website?
That's a question that a lot of people ask themselves. After slaving away to keep their sites polished and updated, business owners want to be able to see whether their site is actually working for them.
So what's the best way to do this? Look at your analytics.
Through Google analytics, you can find out not only whether your site is getting visited, but a boatload of details about who is visiting it and what they're doing there. It's kind of like 24:7 video surveillance on a store - except it's on a website.
In some ways, Google analytics are even better than constant video footage would be. For example, you get to find out how visitors ended up at your site. In other words, what did people type into Google that made your site pop up? That's really important information from a search engine optimization standpoint, so that's an awesome feature of Google analytics.
You can also use Google analytics to determine your site's bounce rate. A bounce rate basically shows whether people who visited the site peaced out right away or spent some time clicking around to different pages. Your goal is to have a site with a low bounce rate, which would indicate that your home page is enticing people to delve deeper into your site.
And that info is just the beginning. Do you want to know the average time your visitors spend on your site? Do you want a map of what areas of the world your visitors live in? Are you interested in how many new visitors vs. how many returning visitors? Do you want to compare your traffic from one day to the next? Google can hook you up with all of this information, and more.
Of course, the benefit of a store's video surveillance system is that it can be used to see people's faces (well, at least a grainy version of them). So while you can actually see who visits a brick and mortar store through its video security system, you cannot see a picture of exactly who visited your website through Google analytics...
...yet.
Is anybody actually visiting my website?
That's a question that a lot of people ask themselves. After slaving away to keep their sites polished and updated, business owners want to be able to see whether their site is actually working for them.
So what's the best way to do this? Look at your analytics.
Through Google analytics, you can find out not only whether your site is getting visited, but a boatload of details about who is visiting it and what they're doing there. It's kind of like 24:7 video surveillance on a store - except it's on a website.
In some ways, Google analytics are even better than constant video footage would be. For example, you get to find out how visitors ended up at your site. In other words, what did people type into Google that made your site pop up? That's really important information from a search engine optimization standpoint, so that's an awesome feature of Google analytics.
You can also use Google analytics to determine your site's bounce rate. A bounce rate basically shows whether people who visited the site peaced out right away or spent some time clicking around to different pages. Your goal is to have a site with a low bounce rate, which would indicate that your home page is enticing people to delve deeper into your site.
And that info is just the beginning. Do you want to know the average time your visitors spend on your site? Do you want a map of what areas of the world your visitors live in? Are you interested in how many new visitors vs. how many returning visitors? Do you want to compare your traffic from one day to the next? Google can hook you up with all of this information, and more.
Of course, the benefit of a store's video surveillance system is that it can be used to see people's faces (well, at least a grainy version of them). So while you can actually see who visits a brick and mortar store through its video security system, you cannot see a picture of exactly who visited your website through Google analytics...
...yet.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Web Design - Home Pages That Sell
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
A web design has a lot of jobs, and one of the most important jobs is to make you some dough. Your chances of making this happen increase when a web design gets people delving further into the site, arriving at points where they can input their contact information, get a quote, or buy something. We talked a little about this before in previous articles
That means that in order for a design to work, your homepage has to hook your visitors.
If you don't get your visitors involved right away, you may lose them, so you need to get them clicking deeper into your site. You do this by focusing on their pain points, and then giving them the first step to a solution right on the homepage.
The problem they have, of course, will depend on the goods and services that you're selling. But the idea is to reveal a pain point for the visitor that will make him think, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel!"
For example, if your business involves fixing cars, you could include copy that reads, "Are you sure that your car will keep your family safe as you drive this winter?" Copy like that makes the website visitor stop and think, Wait, is my car safe for winter? I think so, but I'm not a professional...Should I get it checked out?
Since people are bombarded with advertising messages like that, however, you do have to get your visitor to act right away before they move on to the next dilemma. This can be accomplished by pairing this compelling copy with a call to action button that gets the person involved in addressing this problem immediately. Keeping with the car example, something like, "Click here for information on our FREE 12-point winter car inspection" would work well. Now that you've raised the issue, you've given the web surfer a way to start the process of solving the problem.
Take a little gander at your homepage. Have you reminded casual visitors that they have a problem that you know how to solve? Have you given them an easy way to get started with that process?
A web design has a lot of jobs, and one of the most important jobs is to make you some dough. Your chances of making this happen increase when a web design gets people delving further into the site, arriving at points where they can input their contact information, get a quote, or buy something. We talked a little about this before in previous articles
That means that in order for a design to work, your homepage has to hook your visitors.
Here's How to Help Your Homepage Hook
If you don't get your visitors involved right away, you may lose them, so you need to get them clicking deeper into your site. You do this by focusing on their pain points, and then giving them the first step to a solution right on the homepage.
The problem they have, of course, will depend on the goods and services that you're selling. But the idea is to reveal a pain point for the visitor that will make him think, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel!"
For example, if your business involves fixing cars, you could include copy that reads, "Are you sure that your car will keep your family safe as you drive this winter?" Copy like that makes the website visitor stop and think, Wait, is my car safe for winter? I think so, but I'm not a professional...Should I get it checked out?
Since people are bombarded with advertising messages like that, however, you do have to get your visitor to act right away before they move on to the next dilemma. This can be accomplished by pairing this compelling copy with a call to action button that gets the person involved in addressing this problem immediately. Keeping with the car example, something like, "Click here for information on our FREE 12-point winter car inspection" would work well. Now that you've raised the issue, you've given the web surfer a way to start the process of solving the problem.
Take a little gander at your homepage. Have you reminded casual visitors that they have a problem that you know how to solve? Have you given them an easy way to get started with that process?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Search Engine Optimization - How Blogs Help you Rank
Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Here's a little secret about this blog.
We write it partially because we love sharing our thoughts and knowledge about web design with you. We love giving out free advice and information because, truthfully, we like you a whole lot.
But, to be honest, we also get something out of it. (Besides, of course, the joy and warm fuzzy feeling that only generosity can bring.)
By blogging it up on this page, we're kissing up to the search engines. The articles we write deal with lots of issues that are relevant to web design - and the more we write, the more the search engines like us. As we touch on different website-related issues, we're incorporating more and more valuable content into our site. The search engines are definitely going to take that into consideration when they figure out how to rank us.
Why are we telling you this secret? So you can go out and do the same. Blogging is a great way to let your clients get to know you better and to provide them with interesting information. It helps you to show off your expertise while giving your clients a good reason to keep checking back in on your website.
And, like the cherry that tops off a perfect sundae, it helps to make your website more attractive to search engines.
Now, in order to maximize the appeal that your blog has to search engines, just make sure that you do put together posts that are really informative and relevant to whatever business you're in. To some, blogging implies writing casually about day to day happenings, and although blogging about the Jay Leno shaped cloud that you saw on the way to work might make your readers smile, just make sure to incorporate that anecdote into an article that has something to do with something important.
If you can pull that off, you'll have a blog that your website visitors - and the search engines - will dig.
Here's a little secret about this blog.
We write it partially because we love sharing our thoughts and knowledge about web design with you. We love giving out free advice and information because, truthfully, we like you a whole lot.
But, to be honest, we also get something out of it. (Besides, of course, the joy and warm fuzzy feeling that only generosity can bring.)
By blogging it up on this page, we're kissing up to the search engines. The articles we write deal with lots of issues that are relevant to web design - and the more we write, the more the search engines like us. As we touch on different website-related issues, we're incorporating more and more valuable content into our site. The search engines are definitely going to take that into consideration when they figure out how to rank us.
Why are we telling you this secret? So you can go out and do the same. Blogging is a great way to let your clients get to know you better and to provide them with interesting information. It helps you to show off your expertise while giving your clients a good reason to keep checking back in on your website.
And, like the cherry that tops off a perfect sundae, it helps to make your website more attractive to search engines.
Now, in order to maximize the appeal that your blog has to search engines, just make sure that you do put together posts that are really informative and relevant to whatever business you're in. To some, blogging implies writing casually about day to day happenings, and although blogging about the Jay Leno shaped cloud that you saw on the way to work might make your readers smile, just make sure to incorporate that anecdote into an article that has something to do with something important.
If you can pull that off, you'll have a blog that your website visitors - and the search engines - will dig.
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