Website Design, Phoenix AZ
Web Hosting – Expensive Does Not Equal Quality
Web hosting is paying a company to store all of your website files on a server, making sure that your website is live on the internet continuously.
Hosting prices vary widely, and there are a multitude of companies offering these services.
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Best Website Service follows these 5 principles of website design:1) Marketing Focus & Purpose
2) Design & Layout: Keep It Simple
3) Do Not Make Your Visitors Work (too hard)
4) SEO: If You Build It (properly), They Will Come
5) Build Your Website for the Long Term
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How to Deliver a Powerful Marketing Message
with Your Website
Do you want to turn prospects in to customers on your website? Do you want to stand out from the crowd? Then, say something important to your audience.
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When you hire a web designer to create or manage your website, be very careful when searching the internet. Many small website companies go out of business and leave their clients without the information or accessibility they need to manage their website for the long term.
Other web designers hold their clients hostage by not providing them ownership and access to their domain name and hosting service.
We’ve heard of cases where clients were paying extremely high monthly subscription or hosting fees to keep their website live. In other cases, clients paid a company to design their website and the project was never completed.
Make Sure You Hire a Web Design Company with the following:
A) What is Search Engine Optimization?
Optimization is the process of improving the volume of traffic to a web site delivered by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and MSN).
Google, MSN, Bing, and Yahoo dominate, with a combined market share of over 90% for search engines. Google dominates, being used for over 70% of internet searches.
The higher your website ranks on a search engine, the more searchers will visit your site. The goal of optimizing is to make your site more visible to the search engines and climb the rankings.
When your website is completed, it should be submitted to all the major search engines. You only need search engine submission once. There is no need to pay extortionate monthly fees to search engine experts. You should be wary of services charging a monthly subscription for search engine submission. We have seen clients paying hundreds of dollars for unnecessary “search engine submission” services.
Most good search engines, such as Google and Yahoo (Bing), will regularly visit your site and “cache” (store) your files. Once your website is listed, it will remain listed unless you violate any of the search engine’s policies.
It is important to remember that your site’s ranking will vary from day to day. We have seen a site, ranking in the top 10 Google results, suddenly drop down to a lower ranking and then moved back into the top 10 rankings within a few weeks.
Once your site is ‘live’ you may start receiving lots of email or phone calls from “SEO” or marketing firms making attractive promises to get your site to page 1 of Google in search results. BE WARY of this type of marketing. Much of this is questionable, some are scams. You don’t have to pay extortionate monthly fees to search engine experts. There are many simple SEO techniques you can do yourself that will get you a far better result in the long term.
Find out more about SEO Services . . .
B) How to optimize your website (to improve your search engine ranking)
1) Use minimal graphics, ideally a maximum of 1-2 per page.
Search engines read text, not graphics, so the best way to achieve ranking for your search terms is to limit the graphics included on each web page.
Search engines read the words (text) on your web pages – they are looking for the authority on a given subject. The more that your can show on your website that you are knowledgeable and reputable about your subject matter, the better your chances of ranking highly.
2) Do not use flash imagery.
Search engines (like Google) cannot read text that you place in a ‘flash’ file, so it can hinder your ranking. Graphics are distracting to visitors and placing only one or two photos or graphics on a web page makes your content more appealing to read.
3) Do not “stuff” your pages with your keywords.
If you overload your content with your keywords, the search engines may penalize you for having your keyword phrases. The words should not make up more than 5% of your content.
4) Include keyword terms in the design in 8 places:
Submitting your website to the major search engines is extremely important.
However, your site will not rank at all if it is not built to incorporate keyword phrases in the following 8 areas:
4.1) Your domain name (URL)
Ideally, your website domain name should contain keywords that you want your website to be found with.
For instance, you may want to be found by Google as a Financial Advisor in Burnaby, BC. Instead of using your personal or company name, you will be more likely to rank in Google searches by using those keywords in your domain name. Example: FinancialAdvisorBurnabyBC.ca
4.2) Page Titles
Each page of your website should have a page title containing relevant key words. Those keywords should pertain to the content on the web page.
4.3) Page Description
Your website “description” is important, and should be between 14-26 words in length. This descriptive ‘meta tag’ belongs in the header section of your html code. This is the description that search engines will display in their search results.
4.4) Put keyword phrases first as text on the page, headers, paragraphs.
Use a “header tag” (H1, H2 tags) for primary keyword phrases on a page or for title tags on links. A title tag is the words that you see if you scroll your mouse over a certain links possessing a title tag. You should only place a title tag containing your keywords on just one or two links. If you include more than this, you could be penalized by Google for “keyword stuffing”.
For example, the title tag is a property of a hyperlink: title=”Learn about how a Financial Planner can help you in Vancouver BC Canada”>How Can a Financial Planner Help Me?
4.5) Use bold, underlined text and link keyword phrases within your site to other pages.
4.6) Use keywords in ALT (image title) tags.
4.7) Include keyword phrases in your page content.
You should be careful that the keywords make up no more than 5% of your total words. If you use too high a density, your site can be penalized for what is called “keyword stuffing.” It is recommended to have between 300-500 words of content on each page.
4.8) Put keywords in meta tags.
Keyword meta tags are included within the header section of your html code. This is where keywords relevant to page content should be inserted. Use no more than seven strong keywords per page. Google does not pay attention to these meta tags but some other search engines will recognize them.
5) What you can do to help your website gain ranking
5.1) Register your website domain name for 5 to 10 years
Many website owners register their website domain name for only one year and then renewal their registration annually. Registering your domain name for 5 to 10 years can help your ranking. Search engines give your website extra points for having a domain that is registered for a longer period of time. What they see is that your website – domain name is going to be around for a while.
5.2) Increase traffic to your website
There is risk inherent with having a website (potential hacking). Clients are strongly advised to take the following precautions to ensure the security of their website:
SECURE YOUR WEBSITE:
SECURE YOUR COMPUTER
What’s important about blogging?
Blogging will help drive repeat visitors to your site and sell you and your product/service, if you remember these two concepts:
1 – your blog posts provide valuable and helpful ideas to your audience
2 – your blog posts establish you as an expert in your field
How to Easily Generate Content for Your Blog
A) Identify your big topic (your company / industry / area of expertise)
B) List the sub-topics (these become your blog “Categories”: (what are all the products or services you provide, or ideas related to your big topic?)
C) For EVERY SUB-TOPIC, write a list of:
10 FAQs (what do people FREQUENTLY ASK about this product)
10 SAQs (what SHOULD people ASK about this product)
5 Problems customers face that this product/service can solve
Congratulations! You have just created a list of 25 blog post ideas for each of your sub-topics!
Next Steps:
1 – Once you have a list of blog sub-topics (you can write your list in Excel, so you can sort and organize your topics), write a list of keyword phrases relevant to each sub-topic (these become blog titles). You may want to research the keywords that your prospective visitors search for on the internet. For more information on keyword phrases and titling your blog posts, see this article, How to Write a Blog Title
2– Commit to writing 1 or 2 blog posts every week. Your blog posts do not have to be lengthy. 200-300 words is sufficient. If you have lengthy article, break it in to small sub-topics.
5 elements to include in your blog
1) strong title with a keyword phrase
2) relevant content that includes your keyword phrase (200-300 words is sufficient)
3) call to action: The “call to action” tells your reader what to do next. Is there one action that you want your reader to take next after reading your post?
Examples of a “call to action”
– buy your product or service
– join your mailing list (email opt-in form)
– buy a product you promote as an affiliate (laws require you disclose your relationship if you promote a product or sell it as an affiliate on your blog)
– click on adsense advertising (be careful here, you are not permitted to ask the visitor to click on an ad)
– contact you by phone or email
– filling out a survey or form
– lead the person back in to the main pages of your site
4) Signature: Include your name. Either type it at the bottom of your blog post, or scan your signature and insert the image of it at the bottom of each post to add a personal touch.
5) P.S. Include a PS… marketers use this as a chance to make an important point. Studies show people often scan an article, so the PS is the last message they will see when reading your post.
Happy Blogging!
Vicki
A Mobile Responsive design or Mobile Website is one that is optimized for viewing on any size screen, whether it is a PC, notebook or iPad, and Smart Phones.
Recent studies through Google, and other Tech savvy companies have reached these conclusions:
When doing an SEO campaign there are many methods and techniques SEO experts employ. These techniques will fall within “white hat” (approved of by search engines) and “black hat” methods (not approved by search engines). Black hat methods are techniques employed to trick the search engines and to gain fast results or ranking. These results however, are short-lived and can often get your site banned from the search engines.
White Hat vs Black Hat SEO
White hat SEO strategies follow ethical business practices and are approved of by search engines. They build trust and respect in your business. You’re developing a brand online, and by developing valuable and relevant content for visitors and prospective customers, you will improve your ranking and credibility with both people and search engines overtime. True web marketing takes a lot of time and work – by people, not automated tools or fast and quick “fixes” promised by many unscrupulous SEO firms you’ll find online.
Black hat SEO techniques are commonly employed by unethical SEO companies. They are designed to get you fast results – and get the SEO company fast and easy money. They usually promise you results in 30-60 days (because that is possible when using these techniques). But they are not around to take responsibility when your site is banned from search engines, or when your site disappears in the ranking a few weeks after your SEO campaign ends. These black hat SEO companies make big and bold claims, with vague lists of techniques they will use to “SEO” your site. One of these is by stating they will create 1000 or more “links” to your site every month.
If you want to know if these are legitimate “links”, ask your SEO company to show you the links they are producing (they often will state that they can’t do this, that it’s “proprietary information”). What are they doing then? They are either not doing anything at all, or they are paying a low wage worker in Asia to deliver hundreds of comments to blogs with a link to your site (spamming). The comments are typical one or two line, “I like your site” type of comments. Once those comments are identified by the receiver as spam, or denied, or the blog post gets archived, your link disappears.
While producing 1000 links fast may sound great and just might increase your website rank fast — you run the risk of being identified by search engines as a site that is generating spam. And these techniques are very short-lived. You can’t maintain ranking in search engines using these types of tactics. By the time your site has disappeared from the rankings, your SEO company has also disappeared. Or, they’ll tell you to sign up for a new contract (pay them again). They’ll employ the same techniques until your site is eventually discovered by search engines as using black hat techniques. Search engines are continually improving their algorithms so they can identify websites that attempt to trick them, and they ban or penalize those sites. Once banned, you’ll most likely have to abandon that domain name and start over.
Stay away from SEO companies that offer:
Good SEO strategies are employed over a longer period of time.
The best SEO techniques to use, which will help you achieve long –lasted results, include:
Why every business should have a website:
A website is much like a resume for your business. It can tell your visitors all about your business, products, services, how long you’ve been in business, the experience you have with the products or service you are offering. You can show off your work, show your client testimonials, and lists ways that your potential customers can contact you in order to do business with your company and much more.
Here are just a few reasons why it is important to have a website for your business.
1. Marketing
The internet is the single biggest tool for marketing your business. Flyers and brochures tend to be thrown away as quickly as they are received. People looking for services or products do research online, by either business searching, or product comparisons, before they purchase. So it is important to not only have a website, but to have a elegant, professional looking website that attracts and keeps your visitors on your website longer than 7 seconds.
The average attention span of a visitor on any website is 7 seconds. If you have a website you need to have an attractive website that grabs the attention to the customer. You have to have a clear call to action, on the home page. A call to action is what you want visitors to do when they arrive on your site. Call, email, purchase products etc.
2. Your Online Brochure
Companies spend millions designing, printing and distributing brochures and flyers. You can skip that when you have a website, it is your digital brochure/flyer. Potential customers can find you and your products online.
3. Obtaining Customers
More than 2 billion people use the internet every day, and 90% of those have purchased and/or contacted an online business in the last 12 months. When you don’t have a website your business is missing out on potential customers that are using internet as their source for finding companies that they plan to contract with or purchase from.
Here you will find more interesting numbers on internet usage:
http://www.thecultureist.com/2013/05/09/how-many-people-use-the-internet-more-than-2-billion-infographic/
4. Influence Your Potential Customers/Investors
By educating consumers about your products and/or services you have to offer online you may be able to influence them in purchasing your services/products. Or if you have investor opportunities within your company they will most likely learn a lot about the business from your website, making their decision to invest that much easier.
5. Showcase Your Products/Services
You can show your products and or services that you offer through your website. You can also have people sign up or contact you through your website to obtain services or purchase products, and receive payment. –Depending on your business you may not need to pay rent on a retail shop or rent booths at trade shows etc.
6. Ratings: Reviews & Testimonials
Your potential customers can see what others are saying about your business. You can put up all your testimonials from your customers, have links for them to review your company on other social networks, such as Yelp, Merchant Circle, Facebook and more.
7. Business is Open 24/7
Your website is available 24/7, no employees needed…..your customers can purchase, contract services etc. anytime day or night even while you are sleeping. They can contact you via email or by form letting you know when you arrive at work the next morning that they would like more information or to contract with your business.
8. Business Value of Your Business
The perceived value of a business without a website can be lower in your potential customers eyes. When networking, or using personal connections people want to see the website to get a better feel for who they are referring their clients, friends and family to. Without it most people don’t necessarily feel comfort in referring a business they know nothing about. In some aspects it can help when applying for grants, loans or line of credit from banks.
9. News and Updates (Communication)
When you blog on your website, you can display articles, update customers with information that is important or news about your business or let your customers know about the latest products, offers, promotions, discounts, events etc.
10. Customer Support
You can add an FAQ section to your website that allows your customers to troubleshoot or find information that will assist them.
11. Email to match your dot com name or company name.
Such as: vf@bestwebsiteservice.com emails ending in aol.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. tend not to be very professional looking. And maybe overlooked when people are expecting an email from your business.
Read more: Article by Tim W. Knox, for Entrepreneur http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/65204#ixzz2fw6PC9ZQ
