Some businesses communication may not reflect their work efforts, but to the customer, if it’s a sloppy conversation they will assume their work follows suit. Taking the time to strive for better contact with consumers will greatly improve repeat customers and better reviews. “Someone who takes the time to contact you and ask detailed questions is further along in the buying process and if you take the time to address their needs, you have a great shot at landing their business,” says Brian Phelps. Be quick to answer, and you will start seeing advancement with your customer base and sales in no time!

For more hints and tips on how to grow your business online, call or e-mail us today!

Search engines decide and choose original content that displays more relevancy to a given search query.  So, don’t copy or clone your content from other sources.

Now, that’s not to say having multiple domains is altogether bad–it depends on how you use them:

1. They are ideal for introducing a new service or product you are offering or want to test.  Just remember, no two websites should have the same or even slightly altered content, and there should separate optimization (SEO) for each one.

2. If you have multiple domains but no websites associated with them, at the very least, make sure your webmaster does a 301 redirect for each to your main website.

For more on the bad and good of multiple domains, visit seo.com.

Do you have multiple domains and need help managing them?  Give us a call or email us–we’ll get them and you on the right track!

Build and publish your own CMS (content management system) 3-page website, with our help, in one day in our studio!

The “Build Your Own Website Bootcamp” is perfect for organizations and small businesses just starting out, or others who’ve been wanting a simple website they can manage themselves, but can’t afford a custom site at this time.

In the bootcamp, we’ll help you build your website, and teach you how to add more pages, images and everything else you’ll need to know to manage and optimize it yourself.

Since this is something new we’re trying out, we’re only taking a few applicants for this first bootcamp, to be held sometime at the end of January or early February.  If interested, click here, and we’ll send you more details.
Cost – $500.00.

 SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the process that allows others to find you on the Internet, is easy to learn, but takes time to properly implement.  Here are a few tips:

1. Learn what keywords others are using to search with Google’s free keyword tool.  Enter words and phrases in the keyword tool that you would use if you were searching for your product or service yourself, and see what Google suggests.  If you do business primarily in the US, filter their keyword suggestions by “Local Monthly Searches”.
2. Create original content, using your best keywords.  Don’t copy and paste from someone else’s website, as search engines penalize websites that do this.
3. Use relevant keywords in all anchor text–the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink, such as this link to Smellycat Productions, a web design, video production company in Williamsburg VA.
4. Give visitors the opportunity to share your content by integrating social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc., into your website.  Make sure the icons of the social networks you use are easy to find and are on each page.
5. Use descriptive URLs for your pages.  For example the URL, www.example.com/page?id=500976875 obviously doesn’t tell search engines what the page is about.  A URL like http://smellycatproductions.com/blog/2011/google-launches-new-google-analytics/ is far more descriptive, and search engines will pick up on that.
6. Ask for reviews.  Invite clients and customers to give their opinion of you, your business on Google Places, Yelp!, Merchant Circle and other high-ranking websites and directories.  Make sure you add or claim and optimize your free listing on each site, first.
7. Update your website often.  Google and other search engines like web pages with fresh content and that are SEO friendly.  If you don’t have a CMS (content management system) website, the easiest way to keep your content fresh is to add a blog to your website and blog regularly.  Every time you make a new blog post (article), you are actually making a new web page!
8. Add your website to Google Webmaster Tools to check for problems such as the dreaded “404 page not found” error.  Use this free tool periodically to make sure your site is “hitting on all cylinders”.

SEO is not a mysterious process, but it does take time to do and involves much more than the few tips we gave you here.  If you need some guidance or just have questions, contact us or stop by our studio in the Williamsburg Outlet Mall and have a cup of coffee with us!

1. Use “hashtags” (#) to discover or create topics and conversations for your interests and your business.  When you find topics and news related to your business, join the conversation to build your online presence and “tribe” of followers.
2. Use the shortcut, @username, to contact people directly on Twitter, among other things.  This gives you the opportunity to personalize your message, and “soft sell” directly to individuals and businesses.  However, keep your messages relevant and DO NOT SPAM!  This is the quickest way to get booted off any social network.

Want to learn how to use Twitter and other social networks to help grow your business?  Email us or give us a call @ 757-250-3197, to “start the conversation”!

Watch this video on YouTube.

Google recently launched their newest version of Google Analytics.  This latest version offers better functionality, information and report performance such as:

• A completely redesigned, faster interface (read more).
• Multiple dashboards—build multiple custom dashboards to aggregate different statistics on their own page (read more).
• Event Goals! Track your PDF downloads as goals with events, or configure two minutes play time on a video as a goal.  Read Kayden’s great blog post on this feature.

• More powerful custom reports—you can pre-filter reports and build additional data views (read more).
• Migrating a custom report from the current Analytics version to the new version.

Some of the features on the old Analytics, such as the ability to email reports or export them to PDF are not currently available in this new version, but Google assures us that they will be coming very soon and we should watch their blog for updates.

Do you have Google Analytics or another web traffic analyzer and need help “decoding” the data and using it to maximize your website’s ROI?  Or would you like to learn how to add Google Analytics to your website?  Contact us and we’ll show you how!

Google produced this lovely Google Analytics Video:

At the bottom is a video we recorded and edited at a Do It Yourself Website Optimization Seminar we recently gave in Richmond for the Virginia Small Business Administration.  It’s a glimpse of what you can learn from our DIY workshop here locally in Williamsburg at Smellycat Productions in the Williamsburg Outlet Mall. Click Here to Sign Up for Our Next Workshop.

To help you set up your own Google+ Page for your business or organization, Google has created this handy guide.

To illustrate how Google+ Pages can be used to help small businesses, Google produced this lovely video:

Watch this video on YouTube.

If you need help with Google+ or any of your social media strategy or tactics, contact us!

However, not all SEO is equal.  SEO’s employing “black hat” techniques in an effort to increase a website’s rankings do more harm than good, and can result in a website getting kicked out or buried on Google and other search engines.  Here’s Matt, in his own words:

Watch this video on YouTube.