It is important that you bloggers out there are aware of what you need to do to make sure your blog is seen by as many of the right sort of people as possible ( your target market ). Don’t assume that your blog software is doing the job automatically, it most likely is not and your website traffic will suffer as a result, for more on this check out this great article…. http://blog.cre8asite.net/bwelford/2008/03/write-seo-titles-for-high-rankings/

The first instance was of a quite professional looking website promoting a product i’m very interested in purchasing. I fired off two emails via email links on the contacts page of the website, with absolutely no response at all. But worse still, I tried to find a phone number, so that I could call them instead and guess what? No contact phone numbers on the website ANYWHERE.

I was determined to get more info about this product, so I did some research and managed to get a message to the website owner, via the website design company who created the website for him. He’s interested in doing business but his website is not doing the job for him!

The second instance is a local business association website with an email link on their contacts page. I fired off an enquiry about membership, using said link, only to have the email bounce back to me. This website did at least have a phone number I could call when the email failed.

If you have paid good money to have website created and even more good money, on a monthly / quarterly or annual basis, to have it hosted, it’s CRAZY to have contact details / links on your website which are out of date or not working.

The WHOLE POINT of having a website is to help promote your business and generate enquiries, isn’t it? So, when was the last time you went to your website to check if all the contact details / forms etc are correct and working? It only takes a few minutes, but it can mean the difference between getting a good ROI on your website investment and the whole thing being a complete waste of money!

There are some good pointers in this WebproNews article…

http://archive.webpronews.com/2007a/0830.html 

Many website owners spend a LOT of money on so called ‘SEO experts’ some with good results, many with poor results. The simple fact of the matter is that the SEO landscape is changing constantly, to the point where what was good SEO last year can actually penalize your site this year. So what SHOULD a website owner do to ensure the best possible position on the SERP’s for her keywords?

Here’s some great advice from well known SEO expert  Jill Whalen of highrankings.com

Over the last 3-4 years i’ve been using and recommending a number of CMS type packages which would, in theory, allow my technically challenged clients to do their own page editing. Of the FREE packages Mambo / Joomla has been a constant contender for attention, but i’ve always thought that it is a little too Geeky for most of my small business clients, still too complicated for all but the most technically orientated of them.
I came across WordPress a couple of years ago, but never gave it much thought as a CMS package because I was under the impression it was software you used if you wanted to set up a Blog. But I was wrong in my assumption, sure Wordpress is one of the best Blog software packages around, but it turns out there’s a LOT more to it than that.

A little while ago I read an article which sang the praises of WordPress as a CMS package, so I thought i’d best check it out and created this website on a domain my business has owned for some time. My conclusion, WOW….

• it is very easy to use even for the most technically challenged
• it has plugins which allow for just about every requirement of a small business website, shopping cart, forms, tables etc etc.
• it has LOTS of very professional looking templates available, which can be quite easily modified ( although I must admit modifying a template does require a little more techiness ;-}
• it is search engine friendly, as long as you remember to set the right Permalink options when setting up your website
• itis FREE software which can be easily installed either manually or via Fantastico which is available through cPanel with our website hosting packages

I am now convinced that Wordpress is THE best option for most small business websites. If you aren’t using it you should give it some serious consideration. If you want to find out more about how to get it installed on your domain contact me.

Social networking is what we do on MySpace, Digg and Facebook and if you want to learn what Facebook is all about read this post on Jeremiah’s Web-Strategist.com blog

Ways To Improve Your Blog
By Rohit Bhargava from SohoDay

Blogs are an evolution, and keeping it up is a big commitment….read more

Website owners who use webmail accounts @hotmail.com or @gmail.com or, even worse email accounts thru their ISP.

If you have a domain name, and a hosting account for it, there are lots of reasons why you need to use your own domain email ie you@yourdomain.com.

One of the most compelling reasons is professionalism. IMO it looks slightly sus when someone, trying to sell me something via their website uses an email address other than one @theirdomain.com …..

TRUST is a MAJOR success / failure factor when trying to sell products or services online. Far more people walk out of an online store without buying, than from a bricks and mortar store, and one of the main reasons is lack of TRUST. It’s a lot more difficult to build enough trust to get a sale when your visitors are not able to see how substantial your business is. So don’t undermine the trust you do build up, with a professional looking website, by looking like someone who may not be around tomorrow because you don’t use you@yourdomain.com as your email.

Another reason to use your domain email, especially if you are currently using an ISP email address such as youraddress@aol.com or youraddress@aapt.com, is that if you ever want to change ISP’s it’s a huge hassle having to change your email address. Use you@yourdomain.com as your email address and you are free to move from one ISP to another at the drop of a hat.

SEO happens ON and TO your website, it involves……

• making the construction and layout of your website as search engine friendly as possible
• identifying your target market and the keywords / search terms they use to find products or services like yours
• incorporating those keywords into the copy on the pages of your website in a manner which is readable and compelling to your visitors
• continually adding to and updating the copy on your pages.

If you want help to make sure your new, or current, website is fully optimised for top SE rankings, contact us for a quote or to discuss your options.

PPC happens offsite. It too requires a commitment of time, or the use of specialist SEM firms, to make it successful and profitable. At the very least you will need to open an account with Google Adwords, then go thru the process of bidding on your target market’s keywords / search terms (you’ll know what these are if you’ve already done your homework for your SEO. If not, and you need to know how to do this, check this post out).

The best thing about PPC advertising is that you can limit your spend whilst you are experimenting with it. And you can experiment with great feedback, because PPC ads are easy to track for results.

If you want great FREE advice to help you with your PPC campaigns consider hosting your website with us, click here for more info, you’ll also get access to free expert advice in all other areas of website management.