If You’re Not Mobile Ready – You’re Unprepared

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Brenda Simon

The prediction has been in the air for years. But now the stats show that people are searching on the their phones and growing speeds, with no sign of slowing down. While 71% of businesses see the mobile value 78% of businesses are not mobile ready. It’s a great advantage to go mobile right now and stay ahead of your competition. While many business owners cite cost as an issue most businesses have seen a decline in advertising expenses with the demise of yellow page phone books. Recognizing a website is now the cornerstone of any and all advertising the shift is beginning. While pay-per-click is still scary to most business owners investing in your organic website structure is building on solid ground.

Recent changes make your Google+ page more helpful to your business. Google used to display about 7 local businesses in its “maps” section on search results. That number will now be cut to 3 as Google gives more preference to its Google+ pages. Google set guidelines to optimize the business pages. Take advantage of it – give Google what it wants, don’t be the business that ignores helpful suggestions from Google. Too busy to handle this yourself? Inquire about my Webmaster Services.

If your business is service related make the most of your images. If your site is more than a few years old at that time keeping images small was the best strategy for user friendly load time on each page. Now there are many ways to showcase your work with much larger sized images – still optimizing for download speed. There are many options to make your photos interactive (click to enlarge). Read more.

It’s your website – your business online – grow it, make it shine – freshen it – make it work for you.

How to Get More Organic Traffic to Your Website

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Brenda Simon

Looking for More Organic Traffic?

There has been so much about social media for years. You don’t need it all — be selective in the platforms you devote time and resources toward. Most of the major players are image oriented. Facebook favors image and video posts/shares. Instagram, Pinterest, etc. are all about photos. Google+ absorbed Google Maps a few years back. When your Google Map appears next to your website in a search result get your photos in front of potential clients.

Local directories often appear at the top of a search result. Make sure your listings are filled out and the information is accurate. It doesn’t matter how people find your website – directories are a great connection to your site.

Ready for a video? Use YouTube – it has become its own search engine. Vimeo and others are great, but if you’re stretched for time YouTube is “the one”. Your YouTube channel has lots of opportunities for SEO – make use of it – get out ahead of your competitors.

Guest blogging, forum commenting and press releases are great opportunities, but not simple activities. These require the most time.
http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingfaqs/f/GuestBlogFAQ.htm

Get reviews. Online reviews help drive your website. When people are talking about your business search engines are taking note.

Email marketing is on the rise effectively. If you haven’t already – build a mailing list. Keep your business in front of your existing clients and engage with them via a newsletter, or a coupon/discount periodic email. People are opening more of their emails on their phones and tablets.

Promote your website offline at networking events, on print materials, and giving presentations is a good way to increase branded searches.

About links – it doesn’t matter how much this has been spammed year after year – links to your website, from your website and within your website remain a solid organic strategy which plays into your organic website strength.

Add to your website – keep it fresh looking, adding new content and updating photos. Avoid bounce rates – which means someone landed on your site and quickly left–this is one more thing“Google is watching” when determining which site to deliver in a search.

https://www.brendasimon.com/blog/why-should-i-redesign-my-website-2/

Why Should I Redesign My Website?

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Brenda Simon

There comes a time when your website needs to be redesigned. This usually involves multiple factors. Code has changed substantially in the past 3 years which provides more options for your website, and certainly better performance within browsers. Leaner code means a faster download which is something Google favors in page ranking. Websites benefit from a fresh view. Look it over and discuss with your designer what elements can be improved upon, enhanced, things which are obsolete and how to optimize the space to lead the visitor through the website, while keeping navigation ease a priority. A mobile presence is critical: whether a free-standing, side by side site or a responsive website (requiring a makeover of your old site) you can’t ignore mobile users.

website in need of a redesign

This site served well for its time, when monitors were smaller, dial-up connections were still around, images needed to be as small as possible, beveled buttons and gradients were trendy and 800 pixels was the maximum width the W3 consortium recommended. Enter the fun. Now browsers and monitors span much wider screens, large optimized images are easily handled by browsers and bandwidth. And the most fun of all, design has changed using a much broader palette of colors: beautiful bold, flat colors which let the design breathe and make the web page less cluttered while still offering the same key points, call to actions and copy. Visual matters in marketing. A website redesign will keep your website ahead of your competition whose sites may be tired and sagging. A fresh looking website represents your business well to visitors. It’s your first impression to potential clients – make the best of it.

Auto Shop Website Redesigned

Email Marketing

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Brenda Simon

Google AdWords campaign can be a bit scary for the novice business owner. These need to be monitored and tracked to see if the results are new clients to your business.

My client base is service oriented from auto repair shops to veterinarians. The ones using pay per click campaigns are finding the calls increasing, but the price shoppers’ phone calls are consuming a lot of time and are showing no return. For the business owner with no staff this presents an issue of not getting back to the work of the day.

I am seeing a huge interest in email marketing for the very purpose of referrals. Specialized services like transmission repair are not an often repeated service. But for the business owner a satisfied, trusting client is the ideal person to refer a like-minded friend or family member. Where service industries used to have loyal clients trends now are to price shop everything.

Begin to collect email addresses from your clients. Develop a newsletter. Auto mechanics keep on top of vehicle recalls. Veterinarians can remind of “flea season” as we move into summer. Giving advice from your profession has value. Become a trusted source via email and ask for referrals. If you want to include an incentive to your existing client AND the referee it’s even more attractive. Most of us are happy to recommend a business we have a great relationship with.

And always put “review us” icons at the bottom of each email. Reviews help drive websites!

Website Marketing

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Brenda Simon

Your website has become the cornerstone of your business. All roads of marketing point to your domain.

It’s not uncommon to want a new look for your website. A “refresh” can be the solution. Change photos, add a JavaScript slide show, update the page content and a critical step: review the SEO. Google changes rules more than 500 times in a year.

Thinking about blogging? A blog is a huge asset to driving your website. You know your business, who better to write short articles and post periodically? Sites adding new relevant content are seen as reliable and this, in turn, improves your rankings. A blog on your website is an easy way to add regular content while expanding your web presence. Give me a call if you have any questions. ph 909.595.0610

It’s hard to ignore the usefulness of “going mobile”. Our phones have created a new market place for businesses.

Your mobile website needs to feature the most important aspects of your desktop website in the most user friendly way with quick download time. Equally important is giving the user a quick way to view your full website and avoid a frustrated user experience.

Give me a call if you have any questions. ph 909.595.0610

Your online reputation is part of your internet presence. It’s an opportunity to engage with customers via websites they trust to to be accurate.

You may get negative reviews, but you can turn this into a positive, by addressing any issues. The fact your business has responded to a negative review often is the tipping point for a potential customer. It’s an opportunity to build customer confidence in you and your company.

I have created Webmaster Services to help you fine tune your online presence to make it a more effective marketing tool. Give me a call for more details, or read online.

Online Advertising Marketers

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Brenda Simon

With online advertising marketers soliciting your ad dollars things get confusing quickly. It’s a lot of information to absorb and digest. My biggest concern is ad campaigns including a “new”, “second” or “mirror” website. Your website is the cornerstone of your business online. It has never been more critical to know the value of your website, your domain name. All marketing needs to point to this very website-your domain name. Everything pointing to it helps drive traffic to your site, and that’s the goal. All your advertising needs to be directed to your website. You are then in control.

This second website benefits the advertiser seller, typically giving them a tracking phone number – so they can report to you, which sounds good. But the same can be accomplished by pointing to your website with your phone number, (Google AdWords do this very thing). They simply give code to you to place on your website. This hands the control back to you.

As I’ve mentioned before, having a duplicate website (“mirror”, “second”) is NOT a good thing. Google made this clear a year ago when it began penalizing and banning duplicate content. Even if the content is not exactly duplicated the more one site looks similar to another – the less Google gives weight to it, thus effecting how it returns your site in searches. Currently one client has a second website and both this mirrored site and his true website are suffering in Google’s ranking.

Perhaps the simplest way to view advertising online is to ask: Is it strengthening YOUR website?

Webmaster Services

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Brenda Simon

As a response to many recent inquiries, I am now offering a new monthly program for Webmaster Services.

Every second, over 4,500 searches are performed across the Internet. With that in mind, it’s critical that you are able to be found by those customers seeking your expertise.

This is not a lock-you-in 12 month program as many large companies are offering. It does not include a new website, to which these large companies direct these organic services and any new traffic (and not your existing “true” website) – which means once you cancel – it all goes away. My program directs everything to your website. If you decide to cancel – what you have paid for stays in place supporting your website. This is a critical difference. For large companies it is about their control over your product. My offer is to support and drive your website – keeping YOU in control of your online presence.

I’ve priced my package at a competitive rate and I will continue to give you the same personal service I offered when we created your website.

I’ve outlined some of the components of Webmaster Services on my website to help you understand their relevance. Please call me with any questions. I look forward to working with you to build a stronger online presence.

Victory Baptist Church, NH

Reviews, Yelp, Google, Yahoo

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Brenda Simon

Online reviews drive websites. This is such good news for website owners: clients who are happy can make a difference in your business.

But how to get reviews: ask. Attach a note/flyer to every invoice leaving your shop asking for a review. Begin by asking clients to use their favorite review source (such as Yelp!) or ask them to find you on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Bing Maps, Facebook – any place your business is listed. Put buttons on your website with a direct link to your Google Maps/Places Yahoo, Yelp and other directory listings. Make it easy for your clients. If they are not computer savvy – ask them to email or hand write it for you – and post on your website. They will enjoy being part of the Internet, and sincere testimonials are wonderful additions to your website. All this can be simply put in a note/flyer to hand out with invoices. Include an email address – if you have a web designer send these to him/her.

You may never have heard of Yelp.com but they have been an online business directory for years. In the past year Yelp! has moved ahead of the pack in delivering reviews along side your Google Places/Maps listing – this is where the “driving” comes into the picture. The more reviews – the better for your website. Even bad reviews count – so far Google can count, but doesn’t have an opinion :)

What to do about bad reviews? Address them. See where they came from – if from Yelp – create a yelp account and go to your listing and respond to the complaint. Don’t get angry – represent yourself well, and that stance alone will go a long way in representing your side of the equation. Some of my clients have no invoice from a complainer…state that: “We cannot find a record of your visit to our business, perhaps you have confused us with another business?” The public knowsthere are customers who will never be happy – so don’t feel badly if you cannot resolve a bad review. Addressing it is the critical step to take.

If the review contains foul language you can report to Google and it will be removed.

It is good to get people talking about your business and happy customers like to help and point others to your business…engage!

Drive Your Website

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Brenda Simon

This really surprised me. Google has always ranked sites according to the frequency of changes. This is why a blog is a great tool to help drive your website.

A recent study shows that most small businesses update their websites monthly. The study goes on to say as few as 5 updates a month can dramatically increase web traffic by 300%. That’s the stat: 300%. Pretty impressive! Little cost-huge impact.

Keep your website working for you. It needs refreshing.

If your website is truly an online brochure you send clients to visit and you don’t need any new traffic you can leave it stagnant. If you are trying to pick up new online clients refresh your content. Factor it into your advertising plan and let it work for you.

My website is launched: Now What?

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Brenda Simon

Creating your first website is often a major step. But once it is launched: now what?

A website needs to be driven. As a small business owner your time is limited and driving a website CAN consume a lot of time. My objective is to help steer you to the most effective and time efficient ways to accomplish this.

The internet changes so frequently. What worked 5 years ago no longer will net the same results. This can easily frustrates website owners.

When I launched my site 10 years ago there were so few sites (in comparison to today) you could upload your site and eventually search engines found it and all was fine. People found you. Now?

Driving your website needs attention. There are simple things to do and longer strategies. I hope to help you make choices for your website, and keep it simple.

Custom Web Designer

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