Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are the actions you can take that will help your potential customers find you when they use things like Google to search for a product or service. Now more than ever having proper website SEO is vital for any business, any business that wants to be found on the internet that is.
Google (Google is so dominant in the search space that it should be your primary focus) like all other search engines, works on indexing the content of websites, more specifically the text. Therefore when a person does a search, the string of words entered in the search field is compared with the content of all indexed websites on the world wide web. The most relevant and closest to having content matching what was searched shows on the top of the list of the search results page.
SEO Guidelines
It sounds simple but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Google tries hard to bring the most relevant results to the user, their primary objective is to serve the Google search customer - not the business or web site owner. Having said that, Google is well aware that without websites their search tool is nonexistent, therefore they provide guidelines and best practices for optimizing your website to ensure you are found.
Content is King for SEO
Google puts a lot of emphasis on quality content. Original well written content will rise to the top, add keywords (the terms people will use to search for you) in the proper headings and/or body content and your website is further improving its chances of being easily found.
Links are endorsements for your site
Google's search algorithm is a tight kept secret, and it is modified on a regular basis. Just to keep at bay all the people trying to reverse engineer it so they can gain an advantage. The algorithm takes into account the content of a website (as I mentioned above) but also the links from other websites to the pages of your website. Google actually considers these links back to your sites as "votes" for the quality of you content. Social sharing of your content through tweets or Facebook also reinforce the credibility of your site in Googles "eyes".
Blogging - Your SEO partner
Blogging can be one of the most powerful ways to improve your SEO and increase your page rank (how high up the search results page your site will land). Stats show that sites with blogs often have 55% more traffic than sites without blogs. Google loves blogs because it means new content to crawl. And if you create blog content that uses your keywords (naturally, don't over do it or you will get punished by Google) and is well written and engaging, people will link to and share your content all contributing to making your site what Google considers relevant.
Google + and Google Place for localized search
Eager to be found by local customers? Then take the time to set up a Google + account and register your site with Google Places, it will help contribute to the relevancy of your site. Local search works great when people search for a service within a city or region. It takes only a few minutes to add your business address to Google Places. Google confirms addresses by mailing you a postcard to that address with a PIN number to confirm the right location of your business.
Mobile sites help with mobile searches
More and more people are using smart phones to do web searches (often for local businesses). And as mentioned above, Google is all about giving their users what they want and on a mobile devise that is content that is optimized for the small screen. Having a mobile friendly web site will improve your sites mobile search ranking.
Don't forget to submit your XML site map
One of the most basic things that can be done to ensure your site is indexed by Google is to submit your XML site map to Google. And be sure to do a separate version for your mobile site too. We have written about how to do this in past posts and Google's Web Master's Tools also include great info.
This post only scratches the surface of SEO - there is so much more you could learn online and there are also some great partners you could hire to help you with SEO. A word of caution, there are also a lot of SEO scams out there and you need to be wary of anyone who makes guarantees of number one rankings.
Here at Your Web Department we are constantly working to improve our SEO ranking, we use Google analytics (Read this post for more information on Google Analytics: Your business website just went live? Time to set up Google Analytics and start tracking its traffic) to see what terms are working for us and help us focus our efforts and we are constantly working to create good relevant content to meet our customer's needs. Our system is built for SEO and we even have a basic SEO package to help you get started.
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
There are many ways to make your business website more appealing. Image galleries used to require Flash or complicated programming, but you can now easily add them to your website without much effort.
They can be used to display events, depict relevant projects, add movement to a page. They can be static slideshows, interactive lightboxes and more.
Here are a few recent examples of image galleries being used by actual Your Web Department clients:
You can also use image galleries to to provide multiple views of products or real estate properties. Here's an example from a client utilizing YWD's Real Estate tool:
Setting up an image gallery is easy in YWD. You simply add the images to the Assets Manager, and create the gallery using YWD’s Image Gallery tool by selecting which images you want it to have. You then add the gallery to the page and select the display options.
YWD offers several gallery styles, each with its own features. There’s even a gesture-based gallery that’s perfect for the mobile version of your website.
For more information on YWD’s Image Gallery tool including examples of each style, visit this section of the YWD online Help so you can do it yourself.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Many of us would like to have things handed to us on a silver plater. We'd all like things to be easier. Easier to build the business, easier to get the cash that's owed to you and easier in general. But there are those of us out there who like a challenge. I'm thinking of the type of person who is handed the shampoo or breakfast cereal account at an ad agency and loves the idea of differentiating their product with only a clever slogan or sexy packaging.
Then all they have to do is come up with the brilliant campaign, spend a million dollars on the ad and many more millions promoting it through appropriate media. See, easy. Once again, something that us small business owners just don't have the free cash to do. You will notice a pattern over several of my business postings- the lack of money thing, which is also a lack of time thing, lack of focus thing, etc.
What it all comes down to is that you really have to decide what your business is. And by that I don't mean that brilliant widget you've been flogging. What I mean, is your business also about raising capital? Is it about being sold? There are many reasons for having a business. There are tons of small companies that start up near Google for the sole purpose of hopefully being noticed and then bought. How gauche you say?
The widget you are selling could just be the conduit towards this end goal. Therefore your website should not be directed towards the widget customer alone, it needs to be end-goal friendly, also. Mining websites do this overtly. On one hand they have info on their mines and their great people but have a very clear button that says, "Investor Relations". This isn't the best example because most mining companies are public and do need to get information out to investors, but what they really want is NEW investors. That's their market. Gold is not what they want. They want new investors.
If you're an entrepreneur looking for investment money then you will find out very quickly that you will be spending more time trying to find investors than actually running your business as they are two separate and hugely time-consuming activities. But if you are in pursuit of such things then you need to make sure your website serves the needs of your intended audience.
I'd like to add a shout-out to my business partner, Flavio, who's Thursday blog post was brilliant. http://bit.ly/114Z5AI
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
This past week: A lot of talk about Apple and how their stock price tumbled even though they posted their biggest quarter earnings ever. Apparently this wasn't enough for Wall Street, and investors started to move away from Apple creating a 12.4% price drop. On a more entertaining note; Jobs and Wozniak will be at Macworld, well not really, Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad portraying Jobs and Wozniak will be there in character promoting the new Steve Jobs movie. This should be interesting for Mac fans and I'm sure Apple is not all that worried about the stock price lost, they have over $130 billion in cash stocked up. As a small business we can can only dream of having that amount of money to play around with, but that is Apple, the iconic brand that produces beautiful innovating products that you learn to love. For the rest of us we need to work it everyday trying to find a better angle or just being more effective at what we do. This week's tweet roundup is all about helping the small business maximize their online marketing efforts.
Remember that software doesn't make you a video editor> How to Use Web Video to Win Business and Wow Customers
Most smart phones can shoot HD quality videos, making it very easy for everyone to become a videographer. This raw footage needs to be edited before it is published, this article give the steps on how to do all these things. Try it out, but if you need a good video for your business soon I recommend getting professional help. Like I said, having a HD video capable phone and editing software doesn't make you a professional video editor.
You heard MySpace relaunched-> Getting Started With the New Myspace: What Businesses Need to Know
This is the third launch of MySpace, this time it seems that it could create more signups to the social service. Although it is a music centric network certain business types could find a good fit on this new social network.
Social media sharing everywhere-> Ways To Integrate Social Media With Email
Email marketing is very powerful these days; with regulation and clear opt in and unsubscribe policies the spam label has given way to audiences that want to get your newsletter or news digest. It is only obvious that you would want your readership to share the contents of your emails with their friends.
It does!-> Social media can boost the bottom line
We had this discussion at one of our internal meetings; the fact is that social media sharing of pages and/or blog posts helps your business's website traffic. Not only by the people creating referral traffic from the networks where these links have been shared, but also by helping your search result page position. They add an extra boost to your website SEO.
Good idea to harness Google Analytics tracking power-> Analytics For The New Social Media Manager
Tracking your efforts is feedback for you to measure and guide you on the right path. This post shows a good way to track your referral traffic from the different social networks.
But the article is not RT @erineverPeople are mobile Your website should be too
This happens to me quite often: I'm reading different post on my phone using my favourite aggregator app Flipboard when I come across an interesting post only to find that the link leads me to a page that is not mobile friendly. I don't even bother anymore, I move to the next post. This article is an example of this situation and ironically it is about having your website mobile friendly.
Next Friday I'll have another round up, in the meantime you can follow me and YWD on the networks below:
Don't have a Your Web Department website? Get started now, don't pay until you go live. www.yourwebdepartment.com
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
In 2012, instead of coming up with new answers, we changed the questions. We seriously asked ourselves “Who really needs us?”. We then investigated the ways in which we could actually help them.
We used to think that all businesses wanted a system in which they could create their websites by themselves. That’s true for some (including several of our clients) but what many really need is someone to help them do it. And frankly, more often than not, someone to just go ahead an do it for (or rather, with) them.
From that epiphany was born LiveBuild, where we build your business website – sharing all our years of strategy, marketing and design insights – while the you watches from your computer, make suggestions, etc. It’s taking off.
There is an alternative to good service: it’s called “kick-ass” service
Good features are cool and we have lots of them, but what people really want is someone on the other end that understands them and is able to help. Our team is small and we’re not perfect but we go the extra mile to solve our clients' problems. Really, we have an extraordinary bunch of people here working hard and long hours to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Whether it’s a small business having difficulties with their domain registrar or a designer who needs help designing a website for their own client using our platform, I can honestly say we care and try to do our best. And it’s starting to show, we get lots of positive feedback and word of mouth is making a difference.
No silver bullet
Social media is no panacea, yet it’s important. Let’s say you’re a professional runner; you need good running shoes. If yours are much heavier than your competitors and have a hole at the bottom you may still win, but it’s unlikely. Conversely, having the best running shoes in the world won’t make you beat Usain Bolt in the 100m dash.
But we decided to use our social media “shoes” more effectively since early in 2012, and have been following up on that ever since. By tweating and FB-ing about things that we believe matter to businesses and designers, we started to interact more frequently with them. By blogging more consistently we forced ourselves to research and be more up to date with the issues that are important not just for us but to our clients as well.
But that’s not enough. We also invested a lot of time in making our product and the services we provide much better and easier to use. By introducing YWD Looks we were able to significantly speed up the process of creating a professionally-designed website. By adding new tools to our Content Management System – Google Maps, Real Estate, 301 Redirects and many others – we made our CMS much more robust. And by being proactive in terms of our mobile-optimized offering we were able to satisfy an important need of our clients.
We are our clients
Your Web Department itself is a small company. We’ve been in business for a few years now and have many clients, and their numbers are growing. But we face competition, just like our clients do. We live in difficult economic times, and we understand how important it is for us that our clients succeed. And I hope they realize that too.
Honestly, there’s no better reward in our business when, through the website they have with us, clients are able to achieve their goals. Or when a designer gets new clients for themselves (and in many cases make a living) because they’re using our platform.
This happened several times in 2012 and we hope will happen even more in 2013.
And how about you?
I’d love to know from you – whether you’re one of our clients or not – if you think we’re on the right track. Visit our public website at www.yourwebdepartment.com and let us know if you like our message, our brand, our service. Please feel free to share your own stories here. And best of luck for you and your business in 2013!
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Continuing with the series "Your Successful Business Website" this week, we focus on a key element of your website, the Blog. Why is it a key element? Because your business blog should be central to your marketing strategy, it is here where you own your business message and put to rest any doubts about what you are offering. It is also the place where you can make announcements, place videos and pictures of your customers, your services and members of your team. Every business website should have a blog with regular posts. A blog brings so many benefits to you business that it is really hard to argue against having one.
Benefits of Business Blogs
Websites with blogs generate 55% more traffic
Data shows that web sites with blogs generate 55% more web traffic than sites without. When you blog regularly you generate more content and more links, which ultimately enables you to build your reputation and increase brand recognition as well as produce better search results and ultimately more traffic to your site.
Blogging and Social Sharing improve search ranking
Each time you create a blog post, you create another opportunity to share your content with social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (add ones you like). Each share means links back to your site. This growth in inbound links is something that search engines interpret as credibility and ultimately helps with your search ranking.
Blogs build reputation and brand awareness
Chances are you are an expert in what you do and that is why you do what you do - so why not talk about what you already know and love? It is the engaging content - the story about the small farm where you source the meat for your restaurant, or the expert advice you share about how to get a new job, or even the story that inspired you to start your business - that people will read and share. It is these stories and how they are shared that over time help you build up your unique brand and your reputation.
Blogging builds your client base
Blogging enables us to explain how our business or product work in more detail or how it relates to a specific client need - in some cases enabling business owners to expand how even they thought their product could be used. Like the natural soap maker whose customer discovered the product cleared up her eczema.
Blogging helps you control the conversation
Blogs at their best generate discussion. And as the business owner and the blogger you can control the direction of the conversation by starting the conversation and using a blog entry to clarify misinformation. If you blog please enable comments and be sure to respond to those who take the time to reach out to you in the form of a comment.
While there are many platforms that you can chose for your blog (Your Web Department included) the one thing you need to make sure of is that your blog and your website share the same domain. This will help tremendously on the SEO part.
Once you have your business blog going you need to post on a regular basis. The responsibility of creating blog content can be shared with multiple contributors (team members of you business) you can even invite guest bloggers (a client perhaps). But regularity is very important so your audience knows when to expect you next post. RSS feed and email subscriptions are great tools for sharing your blog content with your audience. And most blogs platforms have these, YWD included.
For help on how to get you start your blog the right way; our reoccurring guest blogger PIlar Galiana wrote this seven part series "Your Guide to starting a blog the right way". Each post is full tips and advice on how to go about creating and managing a successful blog. I highly recommend them.
Are you a YWD client - remember if you have any questions you can always reach us at support[at]yourwebdepartment.com with this request and we will show you how.
New to YWD and interested in seeing a demo of our product. You can Get Started and not pay until you go live, or try a LiveBuild session
Have a specific question about blogging? Please feel free to leave a comment below.
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
Google (Google is so dominant in the search space that it should be your primary focus) like all other search engines, works on indexing the content of websites, more specifically the text. Therefore when a person does a search, the string of words entered in the search field is compared with the content of all indexed websites on the world wide web. The most relevant and closest to having content matching what was searched shows on the top of the list of the search results page.
Many of us would like to have things handed to us on a silver plater. We'd all like things to be easier. Easier to build the business, easier to get the cash that's owed to you and easier in general. But there are those of us out there who like a challenge. I'm thinking of the type of person who is handed the shampoo or breakfast cereal account at an ad agency and loves the idea of differentiating their product with only a clever slogan or sexy packaging.
Continuing with the series "Your Successful Business Website" this week, we focus on a key element of your website, the Blog. Why is it a key element? Because your business blog should be central to your marketing strategy, it is here where you own your business message and put to rest any doubts about what you are offering. It is also the place where you can make announcements, place videos and pictures of your customers, your services and members of your team. Every business website should have a blog with regular posts. A blog brings so many benefits to you business that it is really hard to argue against having one.
YWD™ Referral Program
YWD™ Search Engine Optimization
VIDEOit