You Can Trust Your Design Team

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
It has been said that "the proper limit of trust is prudence, not fear."  And we agree.  You see, we're experts in web design, and we rely on our clients' trust to deliver great products.  But sometimes, clients get a little bit nervous because they feel that their end product will be out of their control.

We know where they're coming from.  It's their business after all, and websites are important.

If you are one of those people who gets anxious about letting your web design team work its magic, take a deep breath.  We know what you're going through, and we know how to help you get through.

It's Just Like Getting a Haircut

Whether you are having your website designed or getting your hair done, an element of trust is absolutely necessary.

When you first sit down in the chair at the hairdresser or the barbershop, you get to talk to your hair stylist about your vision for the haircut.  But once the stylist gets started, you just sit back and trust that it will all come out right in the end.

And, if you've picked the right hairdresser, it will.

Now, during the process, there may be a few times when you get a little antsy in that hairdresser's chair.  The haircut might start looking a little different than you initially anticipated, and you might be tempted to grab those scissors and try to finish up the hairdo yourself.  But, truthfully, as long as a competent hair stylist is in charge, you are probably better off to let him or her complete the job.  And chances are, you'll be satisfied with the results -- and much more so than you would have been if you had grabbed the razor yourself in the middle of the haircutting session.

In the same way, once we have a feel for what a client wants and needs from his or her website, sometimes it's best to let us take it from there.  We don't mind a little feedback here and there, just like your barber probably doesn't mind a request like, "How about a little more off the top?"  But just like you wouldn't grab your hairdresser's hands and guide them to each strand of hair that needs to be cut, sometimes it's a good idea to just let us do our thing.

After all, we have built over 600 websites for clients from all industries, and we haven't built a dud yet!

Trusting a web design team, or a hairdresser, can be a little tough, but in both cases, it's in your best interest to do so.  You want your website and your hair to be gorgeous, and both web designers and hairdressers have been trained to make their respective projects look great in the end.

The Four Unwritten Rules of Social Media

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
You could hire anyone to help your business with Social Media Marketing. And yeah, you could pay someone to get you eleventy-billion Twitter followers in three days. But that kind of sugary, substance free stuff is garbage. If you don't know how to talk to those followers, what good are they?

What you need to know first are the unwritten rules of social media…rules that separate businesses who have a bunch of Facebook fans from businesses who actually reach a bunch of fans.

1.  Be Transparent. Social Media is built on trust, and there's no quicker way to lose someone's trust than to keep secrets. Be open about your business (within limits, of course), and watch as the power of transparency works its magic.  Your fans and followers will feel more connected to your company if they feel like you’re giving them the inside info.
2. Be Passionate.  What do the most world leaders all have in common? They were all passionate about their causes. So if you're only going to work because it pays the bills, you're not the person who should be heading your company's social media initiatives.  If you don’t love your business, how are you going to get your Twitter followers pumped up about it?
3.  Be Enthusiastic. Would you believe me if I told you that the world is full of negative people? They're so common, most people who are trying to be happy learn to tune them out. But the enthusiastic people are like magnets.  And that's who you want running your social media.
4.  BE SOCIAL. This is the ultimate "No Duh" piece of advice. It ain't called 'social' media for nothing. You gotta get in there and mix it up, talk to some people, answer some questions, ask some of your own, and get to know the world.

Make That E-mail List Grow

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
We've talked before about how e-marketing campaigns can help drive traffic to your site.  But the reverse is true, too.  Your website can also include a short form that collects email addresses, which can build up your email list.  And when you have a strong list of email contacts, you have the potential for a lot of repeat visitors to your site - not to mention repeat business.

Of course, having a form on your website isn't going to do much unless you can get people to enter info into the form.  And, truthfully, there just aren't a lot of people out there who spend time browsing the web and generously inserting their contact information into forms out of the goodness of their hearts.  So if you want the form on your website to collect a lot of information, you have to give it a little incentive power.

People Will Do Anything for a Reward

Since people aren't likely to volunteer their e-mail address for no reason, it helps if you give them a little reward for providing their contact information. 

There's a huge difference between asking for someone's email address and asking for someone's email address so that you can send him a coupon.  Restaurants and department stores already use this technique to entice their patrons to fork over their email addresses, so go ahead and jump on the bandwagon.  And if your form-filler-outer uses the coupon, you not only have his email address, but you've also actually made a sale.

Besides a discount or coupon, another "reward" is good content, packaged in the form of an e-book or secret members-only article archives.  If someone has come to your site in search of information, the person might be willing to give out his or her email address as long as it opens the vault of information.  Of course, there are benefits to providing free information, too, so you might not want to hide away all of your factoids under lock and key.  But for businesses in some industries, reserving some information for members will get you new entries in your contact list.

Keep the Circle Spinning

Both your email list and your website are awesome tools that help the internet bring business to you.  So use your website to collect email addresses.  And use your email contacts to bring visitors to your site.  And as this cycle continues, you'll find your business spinning its way to more clients - and higher profits.

Pages vs. Profiles

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
Now that Facebook has swept the nation (and the world, for that matter), many folks have Facebook profiles.  They use these personal profiles to share everything from their political views to photos of bad decisions they made over the weekend.  And tons of people are having a grand old time reuniting with buddies from years past.

You may have heard that in addition to being a social media site where friends can connect, Facebook is also a website that’s great for businesses.  And that’s totally true.  So let’s talk a little bit about how business owners like you can best get started with Facebook.

Friends or Fans?

Facebook newbies who want to use the site for both business and pleasure sometimes confuse “profiles” with “pages.”  The truth is – you need both.  In order to become a member of the Facebook community, you have to register yourself as an individual – which will establish a “profile” for you.  That “profile” is going to allow you to post personal photos and messages as well as to connect with your acquaintances and relatives, who will be known in the Facebook world as your “friends.”

But once you have a Facebook profile, you’ll need to set up a “page” for your business.  “Pages” look a lot like profiles, but they are made especially for businesses, nonprofits, and the like.  By setting up a Facebook page, you are setting your business up as an entity separate from yourself.  Once your business has its own page, you can encourage your customers and employees to become “fans” of this page.  “Fans” of pages are the ones who will have access to all the content you post to your company’s page.

Secrets Facebook Can Tell You

As your business starts to develop a loyal group of Facebook page fans (likely existing or potential customers), Facebook will actually collect a lot of valuable information for you.  It can tell you, for instance, the male/female split in your group of fans, the distribution of fans in different age groups, and whether your fans have actively interacted with your page recently.  Data about your customer base is always awesome, so take advantage of Facebook’s detective work and use it to your advantage.

We hope to see your company’s face around the Facebook scene soon!

Are You LinkedIn?

Original Article from IntelliSites, the smart choice for web design (and SEO!)
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - search engines love links.  If you want your website to have a good ranking on the major search engines, then you want other websites out there to link back to your site.

But one thing we haven't talked about too much is the quality of the links.  The search engines take into consideration not only the number of links to your page that exist out there, but they also care which sites are doing the linking and how popular those sites are.

So the goal is not only to get a lot of other sites to link to yours, but to get popular sites to link to yours.

And thanks to sites like LinkedIn, this is easier than you might think.

Linking from LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals.  When you join, you get to set up a little profile page about yourself.  The difference between LinkedIn and some of the other social networking sites is that LinkedIn profiles are usually very business-oriented, listing people's educational background and work history rather than their favorite movies and photos of their pet chimpanzees.  Once you have your profile page set up, you can get in touch with other users (e.g. your colleagues and business associates), which results in a list of "connections."

LinkedIn is a cool site for you as an individual, but you can also use your membership in LinkedIn to boost your rankings for your business website.  If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can include a link to your company's website on that profile and encourage your "connections" to do the same.  Because LinkedIn is such a popular website, the links on profiles there are going to impress Google and Yahoo a lot more than many other links would, therefore helping out those search engine rankings.

Meet Alexa

Alexa.com is a website that makes a list of all the websites in the whole wide world in order of popularity.  A website's Alexa ranking tells you a lot about how popular it is and, therefore, how strong a link from that site would be.

If you check out the Alexa ranking for LinkedIn, you'll see that it's a really high quality site in terms of popularity.  As I'm writing this, it's ranked #29 in the world, and although the exact number changes often, LinkedIn is always on the short list of very popular sites.

Why Not Do Your Website a Favor?

So by signing up for LinkedIn and adding a link from your profile to your website, you are going to make your website look more favorable in the eyes of the search engines -- in a quick, painless, and FREE way.