Website Design & Search Engines

Would you like a simple way to see how your business is listed at Google, Yahoo, and other top local search engines?

Each of the search engines have their own “online yellow pages.” If you simply take the time to update your business profile - add information about your services, hours of operation, add a photo or video to your profile - you will improve your ranking and more folks will find you…

Keep in mind:

New research shows that 77% of US adults use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services. ~ Kelsey Group

For a free and easy tool to see how your business profiles are doing on the major search engines, go to: www.getlisted.org

A topic I recently covered with my Your Marketing Academy members is Local Keyword Research.

I wanted them to generate a list of keywords that people would be typing into google (and the other search engines…) to find their website…

Today I came across a blog post that offers some great resources to get this job done.

Check out the post from SubmitYourArticle.com here

A lot of small business owners don’t know how Google makes their money.

Seth had a post today about Google AdWords - it’s a nice overview, using some good examples and may shed some light on how advertising on Google works - and how Google continues to grow!

Small business owners looking to reach their local market can generate cost effective leads and new business by advertising on Google. Contact us and we’ll explain your options and how it all works.

See Seth’s post here.

A lot of my clients use Outlook to check and manage their e-mail. It’s a great program, but has a couple limitations…let’s say you need the following:

1. Ability to check e-mail from Home Computer.

2. Ability to check e-mail from any computer in the world.

3. Ability to check e-mail from your Palm or Blackberry.

The limitation with normal Outlook is that you can do 1. and 3., but not 2.

Hunt Hosting (Your Marketing Guy’s sister company) can offer a great solution to this common problem. Contact us for more details.

Is your domain name yourbusiness.com? If so – good for you! .com is the most recognized and number one choice for your website’s domain name.

If you have the .com, I’d also recommend you pick up yourbusiness.net.

The last thing you want is a competitor to grab a domain name that is very similar to yours.

For another $20/year you can register the .net and forward it to your .com website.

Protect your business name – register the .net.

(You may also consider registering yourbusiness.org and yourbusiness.biz…if you own them, no one can grab them…)

Is your phone number the primary way customers contact you?

If so - don’t hide it on your website! Put it in the top, right corner of EVERY page.

Don’t make your visitors search for your phone number…make it easy for them to call you.

Quick Books does a great job of this. Their number is in the top, right corner and they invite people to call.

This is a simple tip to increase the leads you are generating from your website.

Hunt Hosting (Your Marketing Guy’s sister company) recently completed a website design project for Barb Niles, the owner of the Montessori Children’s House in Kenosha, WI. Barb found us via a referral from another Hunt Hosting client and has been a pleasure to work with.

You can view her new website here:
www.mchkenosha.org

The Montessori Children’s House is a Primary classroom, for children between the ages of three to six. Their website features their tuition rates, philosophy, photo gallery and makes the case for why parents should choose their school over a traditional school.

The website also features a password protected area where parents can access event dates and information, phone numbers and more.

Barb has been using her new website as a marketing tool. In the past, she would talk with interested parents over the phone and then mail literature to them. Now she points them directly to her website where the parents are able to get instant information. Her existing parents have enjoyed using the password protected parents area to keep informed of upcoming events and general information.

We’d like to thank Lora Lehman of On Demand Apparel & Accessories for referring Barb to us!

A business brain I learn a lot from is John Jantsch who runs Duct Tape Marketing.  Quick side note - it’s important to learn from experts in your field. Read their books, blogs, articles…if you are fortunate - talk with them. Don’t sit back and be content with what you know…learn more.

Anyway - back to this blog post, John Jantsch wrote a blog post titled “Question Everything.”  Here’s an excerpt:

Here’s my best advice for making sure that your marketing materials hit the logical and emotional mark. Every time a prospect or client asks a question, write it down. Collect these questions on an ongoing basis, make every sales person note the questions they receive. In a very short period of time you will see patterns develop. If you are getting some of the same questions over and over again you can bet that your marketing materials need to address the answer to those questions.

The questions our prospects ask are often clues to what matters to them. So, forget about the new shiny features of your gizmo and address what’s really on their mind. Do it now, because some of your prospects won’t think to actually ask, they’ll just move on.

A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on your website is a no brainer. Website visitors can cruise from your website to three competitors sites in a matter of a few clicks. Make sure your website is answering their questions and helping them move towards the action of calling you, filling out a form, or buying from you. A quality FAQ page that answers their questions helps them feel more comfortable working with you.

One blog that I consistantly read is Greg Sterling’s blog about Local Online Marketing.

Back in August he wrote this post. Here are some exerpts from it:

Nobody these days would argue that local businesses don’t need a web presence. And probably no small business would argue against the value or importance of online marketing as a general proposition. But getting from those ideas to actual execution is quite another matter.

It’s incredibly painful to try and get a professional, reasonably customized site up and running if you want anything that is slightly unique.

As with online marketing, there are few places to get objective education or advice about what you need and the best provider to meet those needs.

I’ll leave you with this…

I understand, have seen and agree with his frustrations and have spent several years shaping Hunt Hosting (Your Marketing Guy’s sister company) into being a great solution to these commonly held small business frustrations.

Greg Sterling - please read this post and if you are still having troubles, contact me and let me rid you of your frustration…

Hunt Hosting’s (Your Marketing Guy’s sister company) most common Website Hosting plan comes with the following:

Who knows what the heck that means? Anyone? Anyone?

To the average small business owner or internet user, that number doesn’t mean squat. This post is an effort to explain this very common website hosting term: DISK SPACE.

Disk Space

First, a more technical definition: Disk Space is a measure of how much space your e-mail and website occupies. It is usually measured in MB (megabytes). A MB is a million bytes of information - typically, one byte can represent one letter or number. Another measurement you may see used is the KB (kilobyte) - which is a thousand bytes.

For Example:

A small text only email might occupy just a few KB of storage space whereas a large email with attachments, such as a video or MP3 file, might take up several MB.

The typical website page occupies 5-10 KB of storage space.

Another Example:

You have a large glass jar. You start filling that jar with sugar. Eventually that jar will fill up and you’ll run out of room.

That same example in relation to website hosting disk space:

You have a fixed amount of disk space. You start filling up that disk space with website files and e-mail. Eventually that disk space will fill up and you’ll run out of room.

Again, the common Hunt Hosting plan offers 300 MB of Disk Space. That offers plenty of room for your website files as well as a lot of e-mail. We monitor our clients’ disk space usage and if they are ever nearing capacity, we make adjustments to ensure that they’ll have disk space available.

Just like high school algebra, you’ll probably never have to know or use this information, but for some savvy web users, the explanation above answers a lingering question.

Source: Some of the information in this post was taken from this link.