As a thirty something I will begin my search on the web.  I will not pull the Yellow Book out of the junk drawer in the house. (Everyone has a junk drawer and at the bottom, anchoring the drawer is an old Yellow Pages.) I will not drive around looking for a dentist. I will not go to the yellow book website and search on their site. What I will do is type in my browser (Chrome)  ”dentist + my location” and start the search.

Here are 5 Reasons Why your small business should have a website

People are using the web to search out information more than ever

A recent study conducted by Pew Internet – of the Pew Research Center – examined which activities dominate American Internet usage. The survey found 92% of online adults use search engines, and 59% use search engines daily.  Use of search engines matches up almost perfectly with use of email platforms. (http://njimedia.com/search-is-still-king-pew-internet-survey-part-1/)

You don’t have to have a degree in statistics to see that 92% is a high number. You want to make sure that you are competing for some of that 92%. As I mentioned above, the days of having people only look in the yellow pages to  find your business are gone. You have to make sure that your business is as available to as many people as possible. People of all ages are using the internet to find your business and to see if your business is worth checking out.

“Come In, Yes We’re Open”

Another benefit of having a website is that it is a marketing tool that never turns off. Your site is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. People can visit your business when they want to and are not turned off by a “We are closed” sign. When some business look at a website they are usually turned off by the initial cost. The old “Well, I could do that myself, how hard could it be” thoughts start to bubble up.

Although, when you view it as a marketing tool that you don’t have to print, hand out, or move mountains to have a new sentence added, the cost even out pretty quickly. Having a website is much more flexible than only using print media. With that being said it is important to update the site when you can with new events, images, or testimonials. You don’t want your website to look like 1995 in 2012. With CMS platforms like WordPress updating your site by yourself is quick and easy.

Allowing potential clients to see the business before calling

Another benefit to a website is that it allows visitors to check out your business before calling or visiting. They can learn where you are located, your working hours, any specials you are having, pictures of the store, etc. In my case I wanted to know if they performed crowns and how liberal they are with the laughing gas . By having a website it will also keep down the phone calls or emails about basic information. I.E., Can you fix a tooth with a crown?

When taking a trip away from home I bet the first thing you do is go online to see if there are pictures of the hotel, what services they provide, or to see if you can bring “Binky” the gerbil. This goes the same for a business. If potential visitors are more comfortable and familiar with your business before stepping in the door that is a good thing. It starts building trust before they even step in the store.

Social Media Interaction..Facebook, Twitter, Oh My!

Social Media. Unless you have been living on the moon you know your business needs to have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. So, I’m not going to go into all that but Social Media does allow you to interact with your customers and potential customers on an on going basis. Communicating with your customers is important because it makes them feel important. If they feel like they can relate to you or ask you a question they will most likely value your business. It will show that you are an expert in the field and can be relied upon for quality services.

SEO – Three letters that make a huge difference

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way in which you market your website on the web. You want customers to know that your business exists and what it can do.

By creating optimized content, building relevant links and creating a brand that customers want to engage with, you set yourself up as an authority in the eyes of the search engine and increase your chances of appearing for the right queries Lisa Barone

As I mentioned earlier people are going to the internet first to search out your business. For example, if you had a bakery in Lansing and people were looking online for a bakery you would want to be on that list…right? You would assume people would search “bakeries in Lansing” and you would want to be at the top of the list.

This is an entrepreneurial age and there are numerous businesses providing the same services as you. It’s important to have as many ways to showcase your business as possible and having a website will do that.

Reference from article quote: Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc.

Here is a brief paragraph from the article:

“Panda, also known as Farmer, was this update that Google came out with in March of this year, of 2011, that rejiggered a bunch of search results and pushed a lot of websites down in the rankings, pushed some websites up in the rankings, and people have been concerned about it ever since. It has actually had several updates and new versions of that implementation and algorithm come out. A lot of people have all these questions like, “Ah, what’s going on around Panda?” There have been some great blog posts on SEOmoz talking about some of the technical aspects. But I want to discuss in this Whiteboard Friday some of the philosophical and theoretical aspects and how Google Panda really changes the way a lot of us need to approach SEO.”

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-panda-update-changed-seo-best-practices-forever-whiteboard-friday

With so much misinformation out there, along with a lack of knowledge about how SEO works, you could end up getting your website banned from the search engines. Learn how to avoid common mistakes with these 10 simple do’s and don’ts.

10. Don’t Use Flash for SEO.

Flash websites are very eye-catching but search engines cannot read or index this type of content. If it is impossible to avoid a Flash-centric website and you need search engines to index it, you will have to offer an html version too. Search engines don’t like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

9. Don’t Use too Much JavaScript.

Searchbots are not designed to read and understand JavaScript code. If a website contains a few lines of text in the JavaScript code, chances are that searchbots will ignore the entire block of code along with the text. This is true in the case of JavaScript menus. Try to keep the use of JavaScript to a minimum. Alternatively, create an external JavaScript file if it is unavoidable.

8. Do Implement a Robots.txt File.

The primary purpose for using a robots.txt file is to gain complete control over the data indexed by the searchbots. Implement a Robots.txt file only when you want to prevent unwanted web pages from being indexed. A robots.txt file is always placed in the root folder of the website where the searchbots can access it easily.

7. Do Target the Correct Keywords.

Targeting the wrong keywords is a common mistake many optimizers make and even worse – veteran SEO professionals do it. Marketers select keywords that they think are explanatory of their website but the average searcher does not think in those same keyword terms. Picking the right keywords can increase or decrease traffic to your SEO campaign. A first-class keyword suggestion aid, for example the Google search-based keyword tool will help you find keywords that are appropriate for your site.

6. Do Include Long Tail Keywords.

With a million websites competing for short tail keywords, it can take more than 6 months to rank in the top 20 for a competitive keyword. In this case, long tail keywords come in handy. Long tail keywords are more specific and can contain the name of a specific product, brand or city. Ranking for long tail keywords is comparatively easier and the rate of conversion is better than that of short tail keywords. Do include keywords in the title tags.

5. Do Maintain a Uniform URL Structure.

If your website is dynamic, then you need to modify the URL structure of the web pages. This maintains uniformity and helps searchbots to understand which page it is indexing. It is very easy to maintain the URL structure in dynamic websites. Blogging platforms like WordPress provide an option for permalinks. Customized dynamic websites can use URL rewrite in the .htaccess file for the same.

4. Don’t Link to Low Quality Websites.

Link building is a very crucial aspect of search engine optimization. Search engines consider the number of incoming links to a website as an indication of their popularity and give them priority rankings. Many beginners fail to realize that it is links from authoritative and quality websites that are important and they mistakenly link to low quality websites for higher rankings. This tactic can cause the credibility of the website to go down with search engines and in some cases, the website may get banned.

3. Do Perform Competitive Intelligence.

Before starting your search engine optimization program, visit the competing websites in the top results. Research these types of questions:

A. How many websites are competing for the same keyword? B. How old are the websites in top search engine results pages? C. How many back links do the top ranking websites list? D. What type of social media is used by the competing sites?

2. Do Take Advantage of Google Analytics.

2009 was the year when web analytics gained momentum. Google Analytics came up with advanced metrics and intelligence report features which revolutionized free analytics tools. Companies realized the benefits of using web analytics tools to extract their relevant data. Implement Google Analytics to analyze data and build a 2010 plan to increase traffic and rates of conversion.

1. Do Create Fresh Content.

Search engines are famous for penalizing a website for publishing duplicate content. With plagiarism on the rise and availability of content checking tools such as Copyscape, marketers have become more cautious. Yahoo is considered to be among the harshest of all the search engines with regard to this penalty. Add fresh content to your website to help build visitor interest and credibility with the search engines.

These 10 simple do’s and don’ts can help you to avoid making potentially dangerous seo mistakes and ensure your site is indexed and boost rankings.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1994.shtml

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1428570_4.html
Web usability covers a broad range of areas but generally it focuses on ensuring you keep visitors on your website and help them achieve their goals. In many cases you can make improvements to your site by adding or altering content, and in other cases a web designer may be needed to make technical changes.

Often a small number of seemingly insignificant changes can collectively improve the experience of a user. For instance, by removing any annoying or frustrating feature from the path of a visitor, they are less likely to leave your site and visit your competitors site instead. Do you really want to lose potential sales to your competitors?

It is a good idea to put together a web usability checklist so you can tick off each item before the
website design is finalized and the site goes live.

Items on such a checklist are wide and varied but these are the absolute basics:

Navigation

Each page should have the same navigation (menu) otherwise visitors will get confused and won’t know how to get back to where they came from on your site. Make sure you include a link to your Home page in case visitors entered your site via an internal page.

Content

Clear and simple is best. Small bullet-pointed paragraphs with visible headings make it easier for your visitor to find what they are looking for. Emphasise important text by using, for example, a different font or colour. Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to bold and capitalise sentences as you will give the
impression of SHOUTING. Write for your visitor so try to avoid jargon and marketing text.

Links

Are links in context i.e. do you have some text before the link explaining where it is leading to. All links should be obvious, preferably underlined and changing colour once clicked on. Above all, make sure your links are not broken.

Branding

Ensure your brand is consistent throughout the site. This not only means placing your logo in the same place on every page (usually the top left) but keeping all fonts and colours consistent. Page layout should be consistent as well. Visitors should not be left wondering if they have gone to another site by mistake when they click on another page. This is one of the main elements of the website design.

Contact

It is surprising how many websites do not make the contact information more obvious. Do not make it hard for people to contact you. By all means have a contact enquiry form but also display your telephone number as not everyone will want to fill in a form to get in touch with you.

As mentioned above, these really are the basics of website usability but it is surprising how often these are overlooked during the process of website design.

Statistics prove that the percentage of getting a click to your website keeps on reducing as the searcher moves down the result pages on a Search Engine.

What does a SEO friendly content have?

• Uniqueness
• Appropriate Language
• Relevancy
• Descriptiveness
• Scanable & Skimmable structure – Lists or Bullet form
• Presented in Q/A format
• Powerful Keywords and their placement
• Structured Flow
• Proofread for any mistakes

SEO friendly content does not mean that you start writing for search engines. Write content that search engines would adore automatically. The first and most important rule of content writing strategy is to write for visitors and not for search engines. Search engines ultimate goal is to provide their users with the unique and most relevant content. They will prefer your content if it is written for users.

It is not a coincidence that writing strategy for good contents makes for SEO as well.

Uniqueness:

Name a subject and you will find it on web, so dig deep and write something that you own. Something that makes you stand out of the regular web shops.

Appropriate Language:

Write in the language of your prospect. The language determines the kind of visitor your site will attract. If you are writing for Business owners who are generally non-technical, write in plain business language. It is always easy to write if you know your readers.

Relevancy:

Write what is relevant to your topic and business. Search engines have their own algorithm to check the relevancy of the content. Please avoid playing around with search engines. Even if you get successful in bringing few visitors to your site and they find the content irrelevant to their search, they will immediately bounce out of the site.

Descriptiveness:

Descriptive here does not mean to start writing stories. Describe your services or products in an informative manner. Try to display important information with a link to the detailed information. This could give you an extra edge over your competitor

Scanable & Skimmable:

Most of the web users do not read they just scan the web. Research shows that visitors read about 20% of content on a webpage. Write content which is easily scanable by readers. Some points to be kept in mind are-
• Use of font color which is easy to the eyes
• Variable Eye catching font sizes
• Use list or bullets instead of paragraphs to improve recall value
• Use of Headers and sub headers – can create interest

Presented in Q/A format:

Present your content in a form of questions and answers. Most of the websites miss this opportunity to answer reader’s question and they land up increasing their bounce rate. This can be best done by addressing the user’s pain with a simple yet effective answer.

Powerful Keywords and their placement:

Keywords play an important role in SEO strategy. Do not just sprinkle your keywords into the content rather build it around the selected keywords and phrases. The denser the keywords towards the top, the better they are. Use of synonyms is good, however, try them a little lower on your web page.

Structured Flow:

It is very important to flow your visitors in a desired manner. Do not leave them to search their way. Guide them with doorways. Do linking within your content that makes the visitor flow with the content. This is called Flow design.

Proofread:

Do proofreading to give an additional support to all your writing and SEO efforts. The spelling and grammar errors make your content look unprofessional.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1941.shtml
by: Neil Paige

If you want people to buy, you have to ask for the sale. Really, it is that simple. Yet it is impossible to tell you how many ads, web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc, are floating around out there that is not asking.

So, what is a call to action? It is telling people what action you wish them to take. Typical calls to action include:

Hurry in today.

Click here now.

Nothing terribly sexy, However, if you are looking to see an expansion in your buyers, leads, revenue, etc, this is an important component. However, you may be thinking, is it obvious? Why else would you be running advertisements if you did not want people to pay for what you are selling? It is true, people do
know, if they stop to think about it, that you would possibly like them to buy from you.

However, the misfortunate fact is your potential customers are not going to spend that time thinking about it. People have too many things happening in their lives that to spend that time and energy on your business.

If they do read your ad or promotional material and it does not contain a call to action, they will likely mention, “Oh, that’s nice” and go on to the next thing.

In addition, even though they were interested in buying your offerings, they may not know what their next step should be. Do they choose the phone? In fact, if they do not know what they should be doing, chances are they will not do anything at all. Therefore, you require saying your potential customers what you deserve them to do. Remember, people are full of activity, and if you do not provide a serious
business, they possibly will not do business with you at all.

So, back to the above call to actions. Did you notice they all had something in common? The word “now” or, in the case of the first one, “today”. If people think they can purchase from you anytime, they will mention, “oh, I can do this later.” In fact, later rarely comes. You require giving them a circumstance to purchase from you right now, while they are interested. Adding the “now” or some other urgency or scarcity method, maybe a limited time offer or few copies left statement is a great alternative to push people into doing what you deserve them to do right now and not later.

While we are on the topic of calls to action, think about one other kind of advertising campaign where you rarely see calls to action. These are called branding campaigns. Normally, huge corporations like MacDonald’s, Nike, Starbucks, and Target show them on national television. In those instances, the businesses are building a brand that will cause you to think of their business first when you are interested in buying their products. For example, when you are hungry, you think of MacDonald. If you require new athletic shoes, you think of Nike, and if you are dying for that cup of Joe, you will think of Starbucks, etc.

While there is nothing wrong with branding campaigns, they are tougher to track than campaigns with a special call to action, Sale ends Saturday, call before Friday to receive your free gift, etc. Those campaigns are also call direct response because you are asking the purchaser to respond literally. Direct response campaigns could be test, so you have a good idea what is employ and what is not, and can tweak the campaign accordingly. In addition, if the campaign does not require getting a salesperson involved, i.e. if the call to action is for the purchaser to whip out his wallet right there, the campaign will just run itself, and make cash all by itself.

You are require to do more than add a call to action to have a potent direct response campaign, but that does not negate the power a call to action can bring to your campaigns. Branding campaigns are closely impossible to test, track and tweak. They either appear to work or do not appear to work. In addition, if they do not appear to work, it is very complicated to start tweaking to improve the response rate.

However, branding is yet very, very important. As a business proprietary, you require a good brand and you require communicating that brand successfully. In fact, occasionally it produces sense to run a branding campaign. However for most cases is to mix branding and direct response. Your brand is communicating clearly in your ads and promotional materials, but you also exploit some direct response formulas at the same time. If nothing else, make sure you do not forget the call to action.

Want to include a call to action in your promotional materials but do not know where to start? Here is an easy systematic formula:

1. Understand your aspiration for the ad or promotional material. Why are you running this ad, establishing this web site, printing this brochure? Is it to produce leads?

3. That is it, that is your call to action. Whatever the result you wish for the campaign is what you have to be asking people to do.