Website Development
It is essential that you take time to understand the effectiveness of correctly undertaken search engine optimization for your online marketing strategy as this will be the foundation on which you can attract a flood of targeted traffic to your website. As with everything, there are right and wrongs ways of doing this but if you are willing to take on the challenge, the results will be worth it.
Link building should form the basis for making your website popular in the eyes of the search engines. When other websites link to your website, the search engines take that as a vote for the relevancy, and more importantly, the quality of the content that it contains. But don’t be tempted to take shortcuts, using unethical means to increase the number of links back to your website too quickly. You could run the risk of being blacklisted by the search engines, thus wasting the time and effort that you put in to developing your online business.
Never forget that relevancy is very important when placing links. The value of a link is greatly enhanced if it is on a page containing content that is relevant to your website. When adding a link, always ensure you are placing it within the content of a page. A great example of this is a high ranking relevant forum within your niche. Make a comment on a thread or start a new one and ensure there is a link back to a specific page within your website where perhaps the reader can source further information. Note that the link should take the reader to more content and should not just be a link to a product.
Another simple SEO tip is to ensure that the link back to your website is from a site that is trusted, high ranking and complements your offering. So how do you do this? The wrong way is to ask “will you share a link with me?”. The answer will most likely be “no” but, if you offer original, exclusive and relevant content, then the other website owner may at least consider your request. Just remember, there is always a high demand for quality content from other website and blog owners and their sites can be a great source of targeted traffic for you.
Now here is a little comment about page rank. Why go to all the bother of undertaking this online business strategy if you are just wanting to get links from any website? The key point that you must focus on is to target websites that have a high page rank for particular keywords or keyword phrases. If you can get just one link pointing back from a high ranking website, then this will be far more valuable than having one hundred links back from a variety of websites that are of dubious value and quality. So the next time you see an offer to get thousands of links back to your website, ask yourself the question of where these links will be placed and what relevancy and value will they bring to your website.
A fourth SEO tip for your online business strategy is the use of anchor text. This is where you pick a keyword from the content that you have written related to the content subject and create a hyperlink back to your website or blog that includes that keyword. This link should be identified by the color blue and, when clicked on, take the reader to the page on your website that contains more relevant content. From there you can inform and educate further and perhaps provide a solution to the visitor in the form of a product or service.
The anchor text that you use should always appear natural in that it should flow when being read. There is nothing worse than well written content being interrupted by wrongly placed anchor text that has been squeezed in and which detracts from the natural reading flow. One point to note is that you should avoid using the same anchor text again and again because the search engines could well penalize you. An article you have written can be very well optimized if it has, say, no more than two anchor texts that read naturally with two similar but not exact keywords or phrases being used.
The four SEO backlink tips noted above should give you a competitive edge over the vast majority of other website owners in your niche. It may take some time and effort to implement them, but the rewards will be recognizable in terms of increased targeted traffic and a higher page ranking for your website or blog. The search engines will recognize the relevancy of your site for the keywords and phrases that you choose and this will be backed up by the valuable links, or votes, that are pointing back to yor site from other high ranking and relevant websites.
Who else wants to work from home online and have a successful internet business? Then start where Michael T started. Don’t miss out on the key knowledge to grow your niche online business to make profits. You will be shown exactly what and how to do it. Start now and claim your free Internet Marketing Insider’s Report today at www.infomarketingforyou.com/insidersreport.html
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com for MayonWebHosting’s Blog
Companies like Google, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, CitySearch and many others have made it easy and convenient for customers to share their thoughts with the world. And they’re not just talking about what they had for breakfast.
They’re telling the world what they think of Your Business.
Smart companies are using these online reviews to attract and keep more customers. Here are ten ways you can use Web 2.0 tactics to turn online reviews into more customers who keep coming back.
1. Respond to Every Review
Like emails and voice mails, online reviews are easy to ignore. Especially the icky ones. But don’t. Instead, think of your online reviews as conversation starters. Someone has reached out to you. And when a person speaks to you, it’s bad form to ignore them.
So, the polite thing to do is to respond.
Your response might be just to thank them. Or you might ask them further questions about their experience. Or maybe you share some details about the product or service they mention.
By engaging them you are affirming their choice to do business with you and developing a better relationship with them.
2. Always Thank People for Their Reviews
When a customer takes time to give you a review, they are going out of their way. So thank them for their time and effort (even if the review is negative). Remember, their review can be valuable information for you to improve your business. And it might help you attract more customers. Isn’t this worthy of thanks?
3. Wait Before You Respond to a Negative Review
You open your web browser. You check on the latest reviews of your business. What you see enrages you. Someone has done more than just taken you to task. They have flamed you (or so it feels).
So the urge is to fire back, let them have it. But don’t do it.
Step back from your computer or move on to something else. Do anything but do NOT respond right away. Let the message of the review simmer in your brain. When you come back later you’ll have a much more reasoned response. And it will serve you better in the long run.
4. Never Post (or have someone post) a Fake Review
Because the Internet appears to offer us such anonymity, some folks believe they can manufacture reviews to make their businesses look better.
Don’t do it. You’ll get caught.
Fake reviews take your eye off the ball. Your goal should be to give your customers such a great experience that they generously offer you wonderful reviews that encourage others to do business with you. That should take all your time and effort.
Fake reviews are simply a distraction that will not help your business.
5. Leverage the Power of an Apology
When someone has a bad experience at your business (no matter what the cause) the fastest road to a resolution is an apology.
Your apology does two things. It shows them you care. And it tells them you’re willing to take responsibility for a solution. And, because most employees and businesses don’t apologize (or don’t do it well) then your apology will stand out.
6. Never Threaten a Reviewer Online
No matter how angry you are at a review, don’t strike back by posting threatening or even hostile comments. Remember, the whole world can see what you post.
If you feel an online review is so awful it warrants legal action then take your concerns to the website where the review is posted. They have guidelines and terms of service that the reviewer might be violating.
Also, try to contact the reviewer privately through the website’s private messaging service if they have one. Or simply ask (in your online response) that they contact you privately so you might discuss a resolution.
7. Be Consistent
Your business should have a policy and procedures for handling complaints. If not, think about how you might respond to negative reviews in various situations. Do you offer a refund? Do you invite them back for a do over? Based on the type of complaint, what do you feel would be reasonable and effective in getting customers to come back?
Whatever you decide, be consistent about it. Because many of your responses will be online, other people will see them. Inconsistency might cause other customers to feel slighted.
8. Use Online Reviews to Improve Your Business
The best thing about reviews is they are feedback direct from the people who matter most: your customers. And as customers they know best what it’s like doing business with you. So take their feedback seriously and use it to improve how you do and what you do.
9. Keep Your Attitude and Message Positive at All Times
When you respond to an online review, your purpose is to improve your customer’s experience. If their review is positive, your response affirms that. It shows them they made the right choice doing business with you. If their review was negative, your response might help mitigate the damage to your reputation.
Either way you help improve their experience of being your customer. And you do that by always focusing on the positive.
10. Tell Them What to Expect
The ultimate way to get a steady flow of online reviews from your customers is to give them an experience they want to talk about. The best way to do this is by going beyond what they want and expect from you.
When you tell your customers what to expect (and this message is based on what they want and what you do well) then they have a ruler to measure you with. You’ve made it easy for them to define their customer experience. And you’ve made it easy for them to talk about it.
Because your message is based on what they want, it’s important and relevant to them.
Because it’s based on what you do well, it’s something you can deliver on.
This positions you to deliver an experience worth sharing. And with online review websites your customers now have an easy and
convenient way to share their experience with the world.
And that will drive even more customers to your business.
Kevin Stirtz is a local search marketing consultant. He is a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional and he specializes in local search optimization and online reviews to help local businesses attract and retain more customers. Kevin lives in the Twin Cities metro area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. Visit http://amazingserviceguy.com/ and http://websherpa.org/.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com for MayonWebHosting’s Blog
Continue reading about 10 Ways to Turn Online Reviews into More Loyal Customers
“Content is King! If you want a website to generate back-links and have quality content the search engines love, be sure to make it readable by both people and search engines. Search engines are working to give people quality results. Thus, they are looking for sites with quality content. So – by building site content for people, not only are you getting back to basics (information dissemination to people via the Internet), you are creating a site search engines will love. So, build sites for people – and the search engines will come.
When creating a new website or redesigning an existing site, there are four critical rules which should be followed to make the site effective, functional, loved by search engines – and successful.
1. Easy to Read
When building a website, the first thing you need to be sure of is that your website is easy to read. When you write content, remember that most web site visitors don’t read every word of a page – in fact, they only scan pages to find what they want.
Break up Your Content
Break up your pages and use headers between major ideas so people scanning your site can find what they want quickly. Use meaningful headers between each paragraph or major idea – this helps with SEO. Headers should be created with the H1 through H4 tags for SEO. Always use good writing structure. Additionally, avoid long paragraphs that run on. You should break up any long paragraphs.
Color and Fonts
To help readability, use high contrast colors between font and background. Black text against a white background may seem stark, but it is very readable. To make a website easy on the eyes, try an off-white background and a dark gray (almost black) text color.
Things to avoid with content color:
- Avoid vibrant background colors like purple or yellow. Such back colors make text difficult to read.
- Avoid using an image behind your text.
- Avoid using bright text colors on bright backgrounds.
Fonts Matter
One simple statement covers the font issue:
Simple fonts are the best; the more fancy the font, the harder it is to read.
Since many browsers only have the standard font set, use standard fonts. In reality, there is no “standard”, but there are certain fonts that are installed on most browsers. These include Arial, Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman. Your readers will see something different than you see if you use other fonts.
Standard Compliant Browser for Development
When developing and testing your site, use a Standards compliant browser like FireFox. If you develop your site to be standards compliant, it will work in most browsers, including MS Internet Explorer (IE). It is recommended that you test your site using the latest and last browser versions of IE (IE6 and IE7). To run multiple versions of IE on the same machine, TredoSoft.com has a free installer that will install multiple versions of IE. It works great!
Keywords in Content
Of course, when writing content, not only should it be formatted to be readable, but it must also be consumable by not only people, but by search engines. One way to make the subject of the content known to search engines is to use the keywords that people use to search for your site in your content. Be sure to use keywords in your header tags, your first paragraph and throughout your text. The keyword density should be between 4% and 7% – but any more than that could 1) be hard to read and still make sense and 2) be considered spam by search engines and banned. Keywords should also be used in your
TITLE tags and your Meta description.
2. Simplify Navigation
The menus and links make up the navigation that the visitor uses to get from page to page in a site. Always plan a site around how people will get from page to page. A visitor to your site should be able to get to what they want within three clicks of their mouse.
Multiple navigation points makes it easy to find things. Repeat the top menu and at the bottom. Also create a left or right menu.
Using links within your text to other areas on your site. You can create links so that they are good for search engine optimization (SEO). There are generally two ways to create links within your text:
- The wrong way: “For search engine optimization techniques, click here.”
- The right way: “Good techniques for search engine optimization are important to use.”
Using link text (anchor text) that describes what the link is about is the best way. Search engine web crawlers (programs that automatically index the contents of websites) visit your site, they “read” links. Spiders can index descriptive links into a subject or keyword category. Spiders have nothing to work with when reading a “click here” until it reaches the linked page.
This is Cross Linking – use it as much as possible when it makes sense to do so when writing your content.
3. Consistent Design
At most, one or two layouts should be used in your site design. As a reader browses your site, they should be able to get used to looking in the same place for your navigation, for your sub-navigation and for your content. That’s all there is to say about that.
4. Lower Page Weight is Better
Page weight is the total size of a page on your site in bytes – code, text and images. Your site’s page weight makes a big difference to your viewers. Lighter page weight is better for your readers because the page will download faster. The faster a page downloads, the faster they will get to the content.
What is Means to be Light
- No large images.
- Fewer images are better.
- Optimize images for the web at no more than 72 dpi
- Use as small an image dimension as possible for the given design.
- Use a table td bgcolor attribute or a background-color style attribute for solid color backgrounds.
- Make gradients horizontal or vertical (not diagonal) so that you can use a small image “strip” and repeat it.
How “Heavy” Should a Web Page be?
Certain studies show that 64K is a good maximum webpage size. 64K is a maximum, however it is still, in my opinion, really big! The smaller the page, the better. 25K is good, 15K is even better. There is a balance between design and function. It is a good idea to focus more on function.
Try putting pages on your web host server as you build your site so you can test it as you go. For pages online, you can test the page weight at www.quasarcr.com/pageweight/ to be sure you are on track.
Ways to make pages lighter:
- Use linked style sheets
- Use DIVs instead of TABLEs where possible
- Use simple repeating backgrounds for effect
Summary
Visitors to your website should be able to find what they are looking for within about three clicks. Search engines should be able to navigate easily through your site. Making a site easy to read with consistent page design, and easy to navigate will make it easy to find information. When people can find information, they are more likely to refer your site or link to it – which is exactly what you want to encourage. You will be on the way to building a readable and hopefully successful website that is loved by search engines if you follow these principals.
Author Bio
Nicholas LaPolla has been a web applications developer for 11 years. He created AcmeWebResources.com to help others build or improve, market, and monitize their websites with a focus on web design, website seo / internet marketing, and working to make money online.
This article courtesy of ArticleGeek.com for MayonWebHosting Blog
By: Pegasus
Internet technology has progressed by leaps and bounds resulting in number of websites being launched on the internet. When the website gets firmly established on the net your success is determined. Irrespective of the objectives of your website, it has to be maintained.
There are myriad reasons why the websites need to be maintained. Your website is your company’s profile on the net which helps in converting your site visitor into your customer. It is essential to maintain this profile on the net.
The websites are subjected to cyber crimes like phishing, spamming, spreading viruses, fooling around with people’s personal accounts etc. which are instigated by destructive hackers. In order to deal with these anti social elements maintaining the websites have become imperative. Company websites are generally maintained by their own IT department or EDP division. Some times the work is outsourced to companies who specialize in the domain of maintaining websites.
There are several factors that are considered while maintaining the website.
Website traffic:
To understand the popularity of your site it is necessary to analyze the site traffic. Site traffic relates to the hits received daily by your website from different sources. This report gives an in depth analyses of pages on your site that are more popular and also tells you about the sources from where it is being visited. Based on these reports the website can be refurbished ensuring apt site promotion.
Link Validation:
Link validation is the most common part of web maintenance regimen. This includes checking all the links on your website ensuring that they all are in working condition. Having dead links gives a bad impression to your site.
Revising Content:
Content on any website is updated on regular basis depending on the type of industry and variety of visitors. Details like new address, phone number etc are regularly updated irrespective of the industry type. A company needs to make these minor but important additions to their existing content. Generally article publishing sites add graphics to their websites.
Optimizing the Images:
Images make websites more attractive. However these images take up lot of space on the website. To ensure the image downloads faster on the visitors page maintenance is essential. Optimizing the images is highly necessary as it affects the loading speed and the performance of the website.
Link Popularity:
This is done by search engine optimization or SEO. SEO relates to exchanging links with other websites of related domain. Link popularity is measured on the basis of the incoming and outgoing links on your website. Greater the number of links on your website, higher is the page rank. Maintenance helps in make the website more search engine friendly.
Content Archival:
Article or newsletter websites are rich in content. These sites should a mechanism by which old content gets archived and is available on request. These websites have huge database of content which has to be managed accordingly. This is done through web site maintenance. However in this case people specializing in maintaining databases are required. This is highly significant and time consuming job profile of website maintenance.
Web Server Maintenance:
Server is the home of your website. Most of the companies have third party hosting their websites. The hosting company handles the technical maintenance of your company. The routine maintenance of your server includes monitoring disk space, data transfer and efficient performance. This type of maintenance is a regular affair and quite easy to undertake.
Changing Layouts:
Layout changing is not a normal routine of website maintenance. Layout changing includes changing the entire design and the structure of the website of either the homepage or any particular pages. They may include additional graphics, flash, images, content etc.
The objective of any company web site maintenance program is to keep the web site appealing, up-to-date and to attract and retain visitors. Company web site maintenance is a full-time and highly responsible job, especially for web sites that have constantly changing content. Also, being a very highly technical job, a lot of software tools have come up to automate the process, but the uniqueness of each web site does not aid the automation fully.
The focus of maintaining a website is to keep it looking fresh, up dated and appealing to its visitors. Maintaining a website is a highly serious business as you deal with a company’s entire persona on the net.
Author Bio
Pegasus InfoCorp (P) Limited (www.pegasusinfocorp.com) was formed with a single powerful belief among its two founders that the Internet could enhance and transform businesses in an amazing way. This belief continues to drive us towards our mission of helping discover and implement the best online strategy for businesses, institutions and professionals.
This article courtesy of ArticleGeek.com for MayonWebHosting Blog
If you are a business and expect to be taken seriously on the Internet, you need to shape up and project a professional image.
Please don’t think this is a request. This is a demand from the Ritalin-popping-immediate gratification-generation surfing the net (aka 95% of your potential customers).
I want to give you my money…
I want your products…
I want to trust you…
but, I’m afraid that is impossible now that I have seen your website.
Flashing sunshine and rainbows are pretty. As a matter of fact some of my most pleasant childhood memories involve sunshine and rainbows. Also, multi-colored colored text exclaiming “Welcome to my HoMe PaGe on the world-wide internetz!” makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
Will you be my friend?
No, scratch that, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit, but somehow I’ll get through this. “GULP”
I have put the sunshine and rainbows behind me and just as I am about to send my payment to you at “LetsGetItOn6969@example.com”, I think… Can I trust someone who uses an email address like that for their business transactions? Sure, my email address may be “EatinBaconNaked@whatever” but I am the customer, I can do that. Please for the love of all that is holy, just get an email address appropriate for business that is separate from your personal email.
And those animated icons that you send in your email, you know, the ones that make Outlook crash like it’s coming down off a Pop-tart induced sugar high? Yeah those, keep em’ coming.
Oh, and since I am your customer now, you have my permission to include me on your CC list of “friends” because I want to be in your life. OMG PONIES!!! ARE SOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!! ROFL.
While I’m on the subject, please learn the English language. I can’t seem to find a “Childish – to – English” translator on the web. So, for the remainder of our business transaction I am going to have to ask you to speak and write a language with actual words. Sure, I “LOL” all the time but really, when is the last time you seen anyone “ROFL” or “ROFLMAO”. Certainly, I would never “LMAO” when talking to one of my customers, but maybe I am just getting old…
BRB, I have to TMGARTF (Take my Geritol and read the funnies).
By the way, I enjoyed listening to the midi background music while I was browsing your website. Nothing gives me more confidence in you as a respectable business than an endlessly looping midi version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman.
FYI: Midis were cool for about three days in early 1994, and you missed the boat.
You should also know, some of the pages on your website won’t load in my browser. Is it possible that those pages don’t exist? Wait, what does that little sign say… “Please Excuse The Mess, This Website is Under Construction”. Don’t worry, I won’t mind the mess while your website is eternally under construction, I live in Michigan, I’m used to construction. I am also used to reading “Comic Sans” font in 48 pt type on an endlessly repeating 220 KB JPG background of clouds. That’s just what we do for fun here in Michigan in the two weeks every year when there are no beer tents to be found. We throw a little “Dom Casual” on some animated shooting stars when we want to mix it up a bit.
I remember how proud I was in explaining to girls how Netscape 3 was the first to support frames and how it was clearly superior to Internet Explorer. I died a little bit on the inside today when I somehow managed to find your website …and yes I was a lonely nerd, shut up.
Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeez…
FYI: Frames are generally considered a bad idea for more than a few reasons.
Accessibility – Frames are a nightmare for screen readers used by the visually impaired; however I suspect in the case of your website, they are the fortunate ones.
Search Engine Indexing – Search engines will want to index your pages that actually have text content, however, because of the frameset, your content pages probably don’t have any navigation links, thereby leading unlucky visitors in to sub-pages with no navigation.
Ah, but I forgot… you’re the “professional”. Let’s just make a flash intro page with a huge animation with little or no relevancy to your industry and a big link that says “CLICK HERE TO ENTER”. I guess that just fixes everything now doesn’t it? Better yet, why don’t you skip the enter link so we have to sit through your entire flash intro, that’s how to really impress your customers. Now, tell me, why doesn’t your website show up in the search engines? Must be some kind of conspiracy, yeah…
Is something following my cursor or is it my inner ninja just anticipating it’s every move? Scary.
I know there is a ninja/pirate joke in there somewhere but I’m too distracted by all the pretty colors.
Yes! I would like to set your website as my home page, thanks for reminding me! And, I would “Send this page to a Friend”, but all my friends are IRL (in real life).
Now, what was it you were selling?
Oh, I see, you’re a web developer. Well, isn’t everyone?
No, it’s all right, I’m not crying. I’m just allergic to Geocities.
Author Bio
The author is a full time Web Developer for WebDevelopmentQuote.com. For a free no obligation Web Development Quote, visit Web Development Quote – This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
This article courtesy of ArticleGeek.com for MayonWebHosting Blog
