Featured Website: DD-Talk.com
- Monday, February 23, 2009
DD-talk.com is a web-based application for speech language pathologists and behavior analysts to use for data collection and reporting of therapy progress. We designed the graphics and also built the application. The public portion of the website features trial signup, credit card processing for purchasing subscription and instructional videos. The private portion of the website features a data collection application, progress reporting and graphing component. There are multiple user levels to facilitate individual subscriptions as well as school systems who have multiple users. The program is currently being used by Collier County Public Schools.
Featured Website: Surface Consulting
- Friday, February 20, 2009
Today's featured website is surfaceconsulting.net. This website features flash albums displaying the client's custom surfaces as well as a web based backend that allows him to update news on his website. Additionally, there is a client area that enables Surface Consulting clients to login and follow the progress of their job.
Conversation with a Client About Social Networking
- Thursday, February 19, 2009
I have a client that I am working on search engine optimization for their website. They will not participate in any way, shape or form. They just want me to "do some stuff" and get them number one. So I am left writing some content (on a topic which I am not an expert), posting some stuff on their blog and trying to get some decent links into the site. I've done pretty well with this, but now they are asking me if I can do more on the social networking sites to promote them. Here is where I stand on that. For their project I have used social networking sites for the purpose of getting links where I know the no-follow tag is not being used. My mission there was not to promote them, but to get a link, plain and simple. If they truly want to use social media to promote themselves, I have tried to explain, it is not sufficient for me to hop on and "post some stuff" every once in a while. Social Networking is about relationships, not about posting and running. I feel like anything I'd post for them would be superficial anyway, which is fine if all you care about is getting a link, but not fine if you want to interact with real people. You can't fake it!
Salesperson or Teacher?
- Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Many of my clients are local small businesses that need an affordable website. They don't have the budget to hire separate firms to do web development, web marketing, PR etc. They look to me, the generalist, to educate them on things like usability, copywriting, SEO and the like. So for years I have either done it for them AFFORDABLY or taught them how to do it themselves. I have a heart of teacher anyway so it works out great. Most of my sales calls turn into a lesson. I have always said I am not a good salesperson. However I do close a high percentage of deals and I believe it is because I am willing to share my knowledge with anyone (sometimes until their eyes glaze over). I am also honest to a fault and one thing I could never do is take someone's money and build a website that I know in my heart will fail. I do everything in my power to give clients the tools they need to succeed.
What was the point of this post? I have no idea. I am just rambling I think. Maybe it is a public service announcement for all the used car salesman types out there to say "You don't have to be a pushy salesguy to do well. Just be honest and genuinely want to help people. Ummkay?".
Happy Birthday To Us: IntegrityNETworx Turns 7
- Friday, February 13, 2009
I can't believe our birthday came and went and I didn't even notice it. Unbelievable. I've been at this for 7 years!!! I started this company on February 1, 2002 and called it MB Designs of Florida. Since then we have changed our name, added an IT consulting division, a couple of employees and over a hundred happy clients. Happy Birthday IntegrityNETworx.
Wondering About Telephone Books
- Thursday, February 12, 2009
I was just wondering. Am I the only one that throws out the telephone book? I have a one inch ad right now for $8 a month through Dex. They offered and I figured what the heck. I remember when you had to take out a second mortgage on your house to afford a yellow page ad. They must be desperate now. Anyway I digress. Am I the only one that picks the book up from my front porch the day it gets delivered and deposits it directly into the trashcan (erg I mean recycle bin)? Since I'm an obsessive compulsive web user and web developer, I Google everything (and I do mean everything) so I don't need a phone book, but I don't know if I'm representative of the typical consumer. Regardless, I'm sure there are a lot of people just like me (well not JUST like me...I am a tiny bit eccentric) so that seems like a compelling enough reason for all small businesses to have a website.
Shameless plug, IntegrityNETworx is a Naples Web Design company, so give us a call. Hey this is MY BLOG!!! I can plug if I want to.
By the way, I just realized I've never even seen my one inch ad. LOL. I gotta see if I can borrow a phone book to look at it.
Featured Website: Greater Naples Leadership
- Wednesday, February 11, 2009
We redesigned Greater Naples Leadership's website recently. The website includes the following custom programming: Web based backend for updating photo galleries as well as the rotating flash photo slideshow, updateable member database, updateable news articles, page editor and calendar. The frontend includes a private intranet for members to login and view private calendars, page content and allows them to update their profile.
Promoting your local business on the web
- Tuesday, February 10, 2009
One thing I have noticed is that small businesses sell themselves short when it comes to using the internet to its fullest potential. Most know that they should have a website, but beyond that they do not know how to make it actually work for them.
Here are some ideas for promoting your small business on the web inexpensively:
First of all, I encourage you to read my post here about making your website search engine friendly.
Local Search Sites Be sure to add your business to the various map and local search sites. Search Engine Watch has a great list of places to add your business listing. Google for example displays these local map listings at the top of many of the search results pages.
Also some of these local sites allow reviews to be added to the listing. If you have many happy customers, encourage them to post a review on your behalf.
Social Media Myspace is for teenagers right? Well, yeah LOL. I agree there. However there are many other social networks that ARE appropriate for marketing your business.
LinkedIn.com - This is a professional social network. You can connect with other business people you know. The link shows up in search engines.
Facebook.com - Connect with friends old and new, business associates and acquaintances. Once you are a member you can add a page for your business and become a fan. Ask other friends to become a fan too and their friends will see it. You can also announce events to those you are connected to.
Twitter.com - Set up a profile on Twitter and "tweet" updates about yourself and your business. Then look for other local people to "follow". They might follow you back. Make a habit of regularly finding new local people to follow. If they follow you back they will begin seeing your updates. Also Naples Daily News and the Fort Myers News Press both have twitter accounts. If you follow them they will follow you back. Once sentence press release anyone?
YouTube.com - Add videos about your business. Post them to your other social network profiles. Local people may find them on YouTube directly or within video search results on the search engines.
Squidoo.com - Setup Squidoo lenses about your products. Sometimes these show up in search engine results. Link to your website from any lense you create.
Featured Website: Panther Home Inspection
- Monday, February 9, 2009
IntegrityNETworx just launched a new website for Panther Home Inspection at http://www.pantherhomeinspection.com.
Can Google predict a Naples real estate market turn around?
- Monday, February 2, 2009
I found this really cool new tool offered by Google called “Google Trends”. You can try it out here: http://www.google.com/trends. You type a popular phrase into the search box and it will return a graph that shows the search trend for that phrase since 2004. So I tried “Naples Real Estate” and I noticed that the graph shows a slight increase of searches in the past few months. It got me thinking. Is this a good indicator of things to come in our market? If people are starting to search online again for Naples Real Estate, then maybe that means there really is some pent up demand out there. Just a thought. I’m not a REALTOR® (I just play one on tv LOL) so I know nothing of what I speak.
Google can predict more or less traffic but they can't predict a true turn around in a market especially if it's seasonal like ours. For example, I've been following Naples Florida real estate web statistics for quite a few years now. We always see more traffic during season but more traffic doesn't always mean more sales or a long time turn around in the market. :)
Thanks Shannon and I am certainly no real estate expert. Not even close. Technically I posted that in June and I redated some of my posts recently..anyhoo...at the time I thought maybe "pent up demand" or something.
Ten Ways to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
- Sunday, February 1, 2009
I thought it would be a good idea to give some VERY BASIC pointers on improving your search engine rankings. It is important to note that there is no exact science to improving your rankings. There are only steps you can take to make your website “optimal” for search engine success. They call this search engine optimization or SEO for short.
As a small business in Naples, Florida you are probably feeling the crunch right now. So I believe now is a great time to find inexpensive ways to promote your business and your website. Performing SEO on your website is a great place to start.
So let’s get started with some basic search engine optimization tips!
Figure out what people are searching for. You can probably guess what your potential customers are searching for right? Not necessarily. You need to do some keyword research. Start by thinking about who your customers are. What words and phrases do they use to describe your products? They won’t necessarily know your industry lingo.
Brainstorm an initial list of phrases that you think your customers are using to find you. Then use free tools to research them further. Google has a great keyword tool found here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Write good copy. What is good SEO copy? Good SEO copy makes sense to humans and search engines. Write copy that explains your product, engages your site visitors and compels them to buy, but use your keyword phrases in the process. Don’t repeat your keyword phrases to the point where it sounds unnatural, but use them where it makes sense.
Help search engines find your pages. Create a site map. Think of this as a table of contents for your website. It can be helpful for human beings and search engines that become lost. List all the pages of your site as links with a description of what that page is.It is also a smart idea to have good internal link structure within your website. Utilize text navigation in your footer. Search engines might have trouble following fancy flash or javascript navigation, but if you include alternate text navigation then they can still find your other pages.
Compose good title tags. Most search engines will use your title tag and a few sentences from your page copy for display in the search results. They also look for keyword phrases in your title tags. The idea is to compose a title tag that is going to compel a searcher to click your listing and help your search engine rankings.
Our title tag is: Naples Web Design from $699 – Integrity Networx
We have used our keyword phrase “naples web design” and by mentioning $699 users might be intrigued enough to click through to our website.
Get some links. Search engines like to see other websites linking to yours. A website linking to yours is “casting a vote” for your website.
Therefore it is a good idea to have others link to you. Start with organizations you belong to. Do they have a member directory on their website? Make sure your link is there. Are there industry specific directories that you can be listed in online? Submit to those. You can submit your website to general directories. Some are free and others charge a fee. You can also exchange links with businesses that you partner with. For example: Realtors might exchange links with mortgage brokers, home inspectors and title companies. If you exchange links, make sure you do it with a reputable website that is truly going to be a helpful resource to your visitors.
Link building is a very broad topic and I have only briefly touched upon it in this post. So stay tuned for more link building discussions in later posts.
Optimize your links. Now that you are working on links, it is important that you know that search engines read the “anchor text” within a link. Anchor text is the text that appears in the underlined portion of a link. If your website is about “Naples Real Estate” and that is a phrase that you are targeting, then some of your inbound links (from other websites) should contain that phrase anchor text.
Search engines also read anchor text within your website. Let’s say you have a page featuring Naples condos and you have optimized that page for the phrase. On your home page you might mention that you specialize in Naples condos and then link to your condo page from within your page copy.
Start a blog. Blogs add useful content to your website and that will attract visitors and search engine spiders. Updating your blog regularly will bring search engine spiders back to your site frequently. Search engines love fresh content. Links from within your blog posts to other pages of your site can help the rankings of those pages as well. You can also optimize these links as described in item #6. Also, if other people find your blog posts useful, they will come back regularly to read your blog through an RSS feed (we’ll touch on that in a later post). Lastly, useful blog posts, can become viral (that’s a good thing). What that means is people will comment on their own blogs about your post, forward your post to friends and link to it. All of this will help your search engine rankings.
Submit an XML sitemap to the search engines. Submitting an XML sitemap will insure that the search engines know about your site and know about all the pages on your site and are able to index them. Once you’ve created your XML sitemap you will need to upload the file and submit to Google and Yahoo.
Beware of bad linking. With all of the talk about the importance of inbound links, you might be tempted to go out and indiscriminately get as many links as you can. If you decide to exchange links with a website, make sure that the website you will be linking to is something that will be a good resource for your website visitors. Additionally, make sure the page where your link will be placed is not filled with hundreds of other links that have nothing at all in common with your site. If you see links for questionable products (i.e. Viagra) then do not exchange links with the site. Also do not participate in linking schemes where you are promised hundreds or thousands of backlinks overnight. The search engines may penalize your website for this. The best practice for obtaining backlinks, is to slowly and steadily acquire high quality links from authoritative sources. See item 5 for more information.
