ATILUS - Web Design | Internet Marketing

Three Sure Fire Tips, Growing a Business, Growing a Website

I blogged about the three things required for your website to be truly effective. In order to build a powerful web presence these are the three major items you must consider:

• Keyword Selection
• Search Optimized and User Friendly Web Site
• Links

(sounds easy doesn't it)

But I realized these are also applicable to general business growth and development. By keeping these three ideas in mind, at all times, not only will you grow your website you will also grow your business:

Keyword Selection

First, as business owners we must define our market and our services. Defining keywords runs parallel to this. Not only does keyword selection run smoother if your business has already thoroughly examined your key market, but through keyword research many companies are forced to further analyze their own services and markets. This process often highlights who EXACTLY you want to target. Your chosen target keywords are then analyzed for competitiveness against potential payout, much the same way traditional businesses analyze a market before jumping in.

Search Optimized, Easy to Use, Web Site

Do you have a nice brand, a logo, and an office location? Are your marketing materials and pamphlets attractive, easy to read or easy to reach? Do you have a lobby that has a friendly atmosphere - looks nice, smells great, and is easy to maneuver around? Your website should reflect your attention to detail and your commitment to your clients, products and services:

Websites the digital mirror of your company.

Maybe you have a lion you personally trained, wearing a solid gold necklace in the corner... that will grant all clients 3 wishes. It doesn't matter if your personal office is amazing, with a lion, fountains and marble tile. If your lobby has coffee stained walls and there is a huge hole in the floor, clients will probably not continue inside.

Additionally, if there is no sign outside the office, or no sign on the main road outside how will anyone find you?

A website is a reflection of your office and business. The easier you make it for people to get to you (web marketing) and the easier you make it for your visitors to get what they need (planned interface design and flow) the more visitors, leads and sales you will get.

Links

I've spoken often about the importance of links. Links are what drive the web and if you really want web traffic you need links. New website owners cringe when I talk about PageRank and LinkBait. The whole process can quickly get confusing and is muddled by often changing rules.

But, you'd be surprised to know you have already been doing link building for years. As a business owner you've probably attended many events for community and networking purposes. Are people happy with your services? Did your friendly staff provide an excellent product? "I heard someone talking about your restaurant yesterday."

Links are digital word of mouth.

...and search engines are powerful compilers of that word of mouth. As people talk about your business and services online, search engines begin to associate your website with the service or product discussed. Pretty soon, as people search for your service or product (or things related), they find your business.

In addition, the mere presence of your website on the top results of a Google or Yahoo search is an instant signifier that your business is legitimate and worthy - they're #1 for pete's sake on Google, they must be good! Alternatively, if a client is already doing business with you or considering doing business, your lack of a great search ranking may hurt or hinder your business.

So, keep these three things in mind:

• Keyword Selection - always concentrate on your target market
• Search Optimized and User Friendly Web Site - make things easy
• Links - build word of mouth

And you are sure to have a successful website and business!

The Importance of Standards-Based Web Design

What Are Standards?

The "standards" are a set of guidelines set aside by the W3C (world wide web consortium) that detail how certain technologies are to be implemented. They dictate the format and use of code to ensure compatibility across multiple platforms, software, devices (TV, PC, Cellphone, Windows, Mac). Web browsers used to abide by their own set of individual web rules (and some still do). You had to write different code in different ways across different browsers to achieve the same affect across multiple browsers/platforms. Rather than just writing one set of code, this multiple-code multiple-platform format was very frustrating as designers and web developers had to essentially create sseparate websites for every instance.

Why You Should Care?

Standards Website Save You Money

Current modern standards help save you money. When a web design company says they develop websites to standards using XHTML & CSS it means the site can (usually) be created quicker - and will absolutely lead to easier site wide updates (design or content). The separation of the different layers of a website means that every component can be accessed quickly leading to very fast updates.

Standards-Based Websites Make You Money

More often than not the goals you've set for your website is to have your visitors DO something. Do you want your visitors to sign up for a newsletter, purchase a product, or contact you regarding your service? Sure, but before they can do something, they must first find your site. How do people find your website? With Search Engines! A standards-based website will give you a HUGE advantage over your competition. Proponents of standards-based XHTML & CSS websites often neglect this big fact.

With proper coding your web design company takes out any road blocks in the search engine process, meaning your site can do well in the search engines. When you do well in the search engines it means people can find your website, contact you for your services or purchase your products. Unoptimized, non-standards websites often have images, and old code that impede the search engines' ability to get to your content.

MySpace Bad For Google

I was surfing the Internet this morning when I stumbled upon an old colleague's blog, Tropical Web Works. The posts, authored by Sonja Ray, haven't been updated in a little while, but there is still some great information buried within.

The post that most intrigued me was "Eight Tips Every Adwords Advertiser Should Know." It contained some great basic steps that every advertiser should follow including:

• Organization
• Opt-Out Content Network
• Exclude Myspace.com
• No Search Network

Exclude myspace?!

I had never heard that before. Although by default if you do opt-out of the content network you have no fear of being included on myspace, if you don't take this crucial step you may be included on Myspace. Why would anyone want to do this? Why would you want to take the time to alienate or eliminate a huge base of eyes to get your product in front of? Sonja makes a great point:

When myspace.com started carrying Google ads, thousands of advertisers were suddenly hit with huge advertising bills because of all the kids on myspace who click-click-click willy-nilly on everything they see, with no intention of buying anything

This seems to support our own observations. The advertising and medium must support the audience. Although Myspace is a great potential source for advertising (either with adwords or some other tool), its young, advertising savvy base is often not fooled or enticed by advertising, and, their familiarity with the system sometimes leads to them hurting advertisers (false clicks).

New Site Launched www.huntconstruction.com

http://www.huntconstruction.com

We are excited to release the website of our new client Hunt Construction, a premier Southwest Florida custom home builder and upscale commercial developer, to showcase their capabilities and commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.

Established in the mid-1980s by Florida native Steve Hunt, Hunt Construction has built one-of-a-kind homes and customized model homes in many Bonita Bay Group communities, including Bonita Bay, Shadow Wood at the Brooks and Mediterra, Bonita Bay's flagship development. Hunt's luxury homes are accented by signature features such as outdoor fireplaces, courtyards, billiard rooms, dramatic stepped ceilings, private gardens and koi ponds.
Hunt Construction's web site, makes it easy to navigate between residential and commercial projects and view a list of each.

Facebook Flyers Pro Cost Per Click

On Friday Facebook released an upgrade to their flyers system.

For those unfamiliar Facebook is the social platform (social networking tool) that is sweeping the online world. Created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Facebook is quickly approaching MySpace in size and users and is set to take over. It is growing at a phenomenal rate.

One of the nice features of Facebook is the ability for any user to advertise to their "network" easily and inexpensively. Their flyer system will allow a student or user of Facebook to easily blast a message or advertise an event in the form of a standard banner to the school or networks they desire. Until Friday these flyers were impression based (cost $ per the number of times they were seen by users).



Friday these flyers received a major update in the form of flyers pro. Now advertisers have the option of paying per click - a giant leap over cost per impression.

According to Facebook follower and online advertiser Willy Franzen, this new tool opens up a lot of possibilities:

...with the Facebook Flyers Pro option, I'm extremely excited about the prospects of advertising on Facebook. Beyond the fact that now you only have to pay for results, the platform allows for an impressive amount of targeting (by gender, relationship status, network/school, interests, age, etc).

As someone who has used the flyer advertising tool for both personal and professional purposes with limited results I hope this latest update will have an impact on a market segment that is easy to reach, but hard to break through. College students and other (generally younger) computer-savvy audiences are familiar with online advertising and although it is easy to get in front of them, it can be very difficult to get them to react.