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Tag Archives: Small Business Websites
Sep
23
23
Search engine ranking is an intricate process. Search engines rate your small business website on a number of factors in order to assign it a rank among your competition. Every business wants to rank on page 1 of the organic search engine results, but less actually know how it happens.
There are a number of elements to be considered by businesses for search engine ranking. The following section discusses these elements briefly.
Where to Start?
95% of all searches go to three major search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo and of that 80% use Google directly. So, a small business website can start with submitting its URL to these big players.
How Do Search Engines Read Websites?
Search engines read your website either through the automated spiders or crawlers they run or through search engine directories. Search engine spiders read the links on your site and record your website into their database, based on the keywords in your content, so that the next time a searcher tries to look for a certain keyword, your website appears in search results. The more popular and relevant the links you have on your website and to and from your wbesite, the better the rank your small business website will have and appear higher in the results pages.
Jul
24
24
Category: Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Small Business Websites, Website Design
… to modify or build according to individual or personal specifications or preference.
TEM∙PLATE – anything that determines or serves as a pattern; a model; an electronic file with a predesigned format and structure ready to be filled in
When you hear the word ‘customize’ do you immediately envision lots of money leaving your bank account as an expense, whether you’re customizing a kitchen, car or a website? Sure you do! That word scares people.
When you hear the word ‘template’ do you immediately think of easy to do and change while saving a ton of money, but sacrificing your vision and uniqueness? Of course!
Why customize anything? Customization takes place because we are all unique and we all have our own ideas. We all want something different. Something we can call our own. Something we are proud of. That’s why we customize our kitchens, cars and websites. So people can respect and admire the time, energy and hard work that went into the project. We all want to standout from the crowd and what better way to do it than to customize something you own!
Jul
22
22
Category: Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, SEO Web Design, Small Business Websites, Website Design
When I speak with prospective clients or even curious business professionals, the most common questions I get asked is: “How can I buy a website?” In the past, there were three basic options in building a website – buy a template website from one of the many providers available, hire a professional design company to build a custom site or design one yourself using one of the several software programs available on the market.
For most small-medium business owners, building their own site is not a viable option due to the time and money that needs to be invested. For years, the choice between template and custom sites was difficult. You wanted your site to look special, but you also needed to get it up and running quickly. Template sites could be created in less than a week, but “Bob’s” HVAC company site might look the exact same as “Susan’s” bakery site. Custom sites were expensive and took a long time to build, but looked great and functioned extremely well. Today, the gap between the two is shrinking.
Jul
13
13
Category: Small Business Marketing, Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Small Business, Small Business Websites, Website Design
Just about every employee of any business has a 2 x 3.5in card lying in a drawer, hiding in a wallet, lost in a briefcase, placed in a holder at the front desk, etc… I know too many friends who have full-time jobs, but don’t have a business card. Now why is that? Scores of people believe only the sales teams; marketing teams and the owners should have cards. How ignorant!
Business cards are often one of the most underutilized tools in one’s marketing. Use the front and back of your business card to gain full benefit. Depending on your market you can put some very valuable information on the back such as a sports schedule, emergency numbers, or special dates people want to remember.
Creatively distribute your card. When you eat out you can leave one with the tip or ask if you can place some near the register. If you borrow a library book, use one as a book mark and leave it in a page upon return. Hand them to clerks in stores who may know other people who could use your product or service.
Jul
5
5
Category: Website Design, Website Development
Tagged Akron, Cleveland, SEO Web Design, Small Business Websites, Website Design
I often get asked, “What’s the difference between a custom website and a template website?” The answer is tougher to explain than it sounds.
Before starting in the web industry, I never knew there were custom websites and template websites. I was under the impression a website was a website and that was that… boy was I wrong!
Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s for each type of website.
Template Website Pro’s:
- takes less money to build/develop
- takes less time to build/develop
- maintenance is low
Template Website Con’s:
- lacks a sense of personal style, uniqueness and vision
- mass produced, giving you a look which may be used by hundreds or thousands of other businesses out there
- monthly fees to pay for ownership, you don’t own the website
- when purchased over the internet, the sense of personal service disappears
- customization is limited because they are mass produced to appeal to everyone
- content limitations due to template format reduce the targeted content objectives
- poor search engine positioning because of the template limitations in structure
- produces less online lead generations due to template structure
Jun
29
29
Category: Facebook, Local Listings, Social Media Marketing, Website Design
Tagged Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Facebook, Local Listings, Small Business Websites, Social Media, Website Design
Has it ever happened to you that you have clicked a certain promotion or an ad on a social network, think Facebook or LinkedIn, only to be redirected to the company’s corporate website with nothing on it? Or a website with no mention of or relevance to the said social media campaign? Or worst of all, didn’t get re-directed to a website at all?
It is not so uncommon to come across social media campaigns having no link or relevance to a company’s corporate website. It is true that a promotional campaign is to increase Top of Mind Awareness but mere awareness will not do much for your brand or company if it starts and ends at the social network and does not lead the user anywhere. Think of a social networking site effort as a means to an end instead of an end itself. And the end should be quite obvious: Your Corporate Website.
If you do not integrate your social networking efforts with your corporate website, it will create the following situations for your business:
Jun
28
28
Once you have a prospective client through your website, the story has just started. Many small business owners have to struggle to convert leads received this way. Because if you are not able to convert these leads into customers, all your efforts regarding SEO and building website traffic will go down the drain. Here are the top 5 tips on how to convert more leads from your website.
1. Respond Promptly > First and foremost, respond to a query or a request for more information right away. When a prospective customer has provided their phone number, call them up immediately instead of waiting for the next day. If you are going to have the proposal or the solution they asked for later, call up to say that you have received the query and will revert by so and so date. Always prefer phone over email and email over delaying. Even after calling them, follow it up with an email acknowledging your phone call.
2. Make them Feel Welcome > Make them feel welcomed to your small business website and then later by you when you contact them. Always make it a point to make them feel listened to. Ask for what they need and listen carefully.
Jun
21
21
John has a small business and wants to create a web presence with a website targeted towards his audience. He has already set aside budget for getting a web design for his site and some basic content. While he knows that SEO is another area he will have to invest in but has keep it for later. Sounds like a familiar course of action? Would you think he does this so that he doesn’t have to spend a lot on his website upfront? Not a great strategy!
Many website owners consider web design as a primary expense for getting their websites up and running, while keep SEO in the ‘things to do later’ basket. While this strategy may prove to save some bucks in the short run, it will not continue to do so in the long run. The point these business owners miss is that when they eventually go for SEO, it will still cost them a certain amount, which will often be more than what it would have cost them if they have gotten it as a bundle package with web designing services. However, this is not where the damage ends. Do you know that you can also improve your website traffic if you approach SEO and web designing services as a bundle? Here is how.
Jun
16
16
Page speed is not only an important factor in search engine ranking of websites, but it also directly affects your visitors. With the advent of high speed broadband, nobody likes to spend a lot of time waiting for web pages to load. That is why optimizing page speed is something you should closely look into. That is because you don’t want to blow your hard earned search engine optimization rankings by having a website with that take all eternity to get loaded.
Here are some tips for web developers to optimize the speed of their web pages.
Use Effective Page Speed Tools: Use tools that can really help you with the task of improving your page speed. These include YSlow and Page Speed plugins. Tools will make your life easier and improve your page speed.
Minimize CSS Files: The website styling CSS files are one area that is often overlooked, yet one that directly affect your web page speed. Keep in mind that every comma, space, line break or code comment you use, increase the file size. So be sure to minimize your files.
Jun
5
5
With good web design, visitors should be able to quickly understand what they are looking at on a webpage without thinking about it.
At Whiteboard we follow the 12 second rule. Within 12 seconds of a unique site visitor (someone visiting the website for the first time) seeing your website, they should be able to absorb who you are and what you do. This exercise of attracting people right from the start along with simple, easy to understand navigation entices those visitors to ultimately contact our clients if there is a fit to do business.
Simplicity should act as a guide in all Web-based communication. Consider the following
tips:
- Pick one navigation scheme, and use it throughout the site.
- Make sure you think of your website visitors.
- Consider how people are interacting with the site… What information are they looking for most frequently? Can they find it easily?
- Keep navigation items to a minimum.
In all electronic communications from your website to email newsletters, the reader should immediately recognize the company, who they are, what they do and why. Make sure your business logo is large enough to see/read, but not overwhelming to the page layout. Display it prominently at the top of each webpage and newsletters.
