This is usually one of the first questions that I ask a potential client before starting to work on their site. I am still surprised by how many people don’t have any idea.
They know they should have a site because “it’s the thing to do” or “because everyone else has one” or they have “heard of people getting rich through their sites”
If you are just looking for people to read your site to learn more about you (a brochure on the web) that’s fine, but for a website to be truly effective I believe it should inspire the visitor to take an action. It could be to buy your product or service, but it could also be to sign up for your newsletter or even to give you a phone call.
The most important thing that you as a site owner need to decide before you do anything else is, what do you want your visitors to do? What do you want your site to do? If you don’t know what you want your visitors to do on your site how can you expect them to know?
Here are some ideas by Kimberly Krause Berg writing on the Search Engine Guide site. Her article is called “I’ve Come to Your Web Site To Do Nothing”.
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Hundreds of Free Old Time Radio Shows!
Fun to listen to.
I read on Matt Cutts blog that Vanessa Fox has decided to leave Google. That doesn’t happen too often.
She is going to Zillow. I haven’t heard of Zillow before so I asked my two clients who are agents what they know about them. They both said the same thing that their listings were inaccurate. I don’t know if Vanessa can help with this problem, but it looks like they are committed to making this site work.
I have been thinking some site like this will come along and take over because when I first started working for Mark he introduced me to his boss who owned the agency ERA Showcase Homes.
That’s where I learned about the MLS (multi listing service). From what I could find most web designers don’t like it very much because it a mixed bag of systems that don’t work very well together. There is a plugin for the open source program Open Realty that works for some systems, but I found the system here in Pittsburgh to be overly complicated and passed on the job.
The way the MLS system works is that the realty companies and agents give them the data on their listings and the MLS sells it back to them and makes them follow very strict regulations.
I remember thinking at the time “That’s not how the Internet works, someone is going to do this better. It will easier to use and will be free.”
Who knows maybe it will be zillow?
I have a page on my site with some of my favorite new sites that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of things that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these sites, they all look good, and are clear and easy to use. They don’t use Flash at all or use it only when necessary and never for navigation. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of them are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called realizee. I really like all of the 3D and shadow effects and the bright opposite colors really stand out, although some visually handicapped visitors may have trouble with reading this.
I also really like how the center content column header, footer and background blends in to the rest of the page. I do think that there could have been some cool effects for the buttons, but overall I really like the look of this site.
My Google page rank recently which was OK for a year old site “4″ recently dropped to a big fat “0″.
I couldn’t think of what I did to incur their wrath and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I recently added a spam trap from the Project Honey Pot site. I followed their instructions to add links to the special page they give you to attract, log and out spammers. They give you links that won’t show up on your page for your human visitors, but will be able to be read and followed by the programs that spammers send out to collect email addresses from your website. They then give them fake email addresses and track their spam.
What didn’t occur to me until now (but should have) is that these kind of hidden links are looked upon by Google as some kind of a trick to improve your page rank and so your search engine position. I know this, but I was blinded by my do a good deed for the world ego trip.
I posted a question on their webmasters blog and even before they answer it I’m going to remove these links. I have also decided not to abandon Project Honey Pot and will simply add a small out of the way link to their page on my site and will continue to try to help them out.
There was an interesting post on Email Insider Blog recently about whether it is a good idea to offer an incentive to people to sign up for your newsletter. After all, newsletters can be one of the best and most cost effective methods of promoting your message.
There is always the spammers mentality that says if you send out enough mail eventually you get a response. Unfortunately it turns out that if you act like a spammer you will get labeled as one and it will get harder and harder to reach your good prospects.
This post says if you want a quality response use a quality list. People who have some interest in your message to begin with. Most people that only sign up to get a prize are not what you want on your list anyway. If you have an email campaign ongoing or plan to start one you should visit this post.
It seems that everyone is getting into the SEO business these days.
I do a good bit or research on the subject and try to give simple advice that can be used by most any webmaster to improve their search engine standings. The information that I provide you I believe to be accurate current and in your website’s best interest, but most of what I do is simple common sense stuff, I don’t consider myself an SEO guru by any means.
What worries me more and more is that almost every day I hear a new horror story about how businesses are wasting their money on practices that are either unethical, impractical, just plain wrong or all of these.
I find myself talking more about what to do to help your site with SEO, but in “9 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Choose That SEO Agency” by Annalisa Ballaira on the SiteProNews site there are 9 good things that you should definitely not do. There are many more than that, but this is a good start.
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
On MyEasyTV.com you can watch TV online for free! They have online News, Entertainment, Sports, Music, Movies, Information, Adult… TV channels. Watch TV in your browser.
There are over 320 channels to choose from!
There has always been a great debate about exactly how keywords should be used on your pages. Should I use them in my headlines and how many times should they be on a page? How many times does repeating your keyword on a page does it take before your page will be considered Spam?
When I’m writing a page I like to keep keywords in mind and sometimes have a list in front of me while I’m writing. Mostly though I write my page with my human visitor in mind and not the search engine spiders. After all getting people to my page is only half of the battle, you also have to provide them with something to attract and hold their interest.
Todays post is on the HighRanking site and is written by Karon Thackston. It’s called “What’s the Best Use of Keyphrases?” and it gives some interesting insights as to how the search engines “think” about this.
What would you do if you wanted to start a new website and had pretty much no money to do it with?
When I decided to begin this business that was pretty much my case. I thought at the time that I can try to work for myself and all that I really have to lose is my time (which I had plenty of at the time). While that was true and things have progressed at a slow pace. Not too steadily, but it has progressed. There were times when I questioned my methods, but never my decision.
There is a really cool post on seoish.com called “Got 100 dollars? 7 Experts share budget website marketing tips”. There is some really great advise for new site owners and old timers (one year) like me. Some of the best SEO tips that you will find anywhere.
