Choosing the right keywords for SEO is essential, because the keywords associated with your website will determine which and how many Internet searchers will find it. You want to be sure that you’re optimizing for keywords that your target audience is searching on. This is where keyword research comes in. Here’s a quick overview of the best SEO keyword research tools available:
As a small business owner, you surely put a lot of thought into choosing the perfect name for your business. Now that you’ve decided to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by a small business website, you will need to purchase a unique domain name to serve as your business’s online presence. The obvious choice is yourbusinessname.com—but what do you do if someone already owns “your” domain name?
You basically have two options for securing a domain name that has already been purchased by someone else: Read more »
In order to publish your small business website to the Internet, you’ll need to choose a web hosting provider. There are many web hosts to choose from, with prices ranging from free ad-based hosting to expensive monthly fees. Choosing a provider can seem a bit overwhelming, but if you start by figuring out what you need to run the website you want, you’ll be able to evaluate different web hosts much more easily. We use Startlogic.com, which offers us exactly what we need to host Design Leap.
Think of choosing a web hosting provider for your website as choosing a hotel to stay at on vacation. Your website has to stay somewhere in order to have access to the Internet, but some hotels will be a better fit than others. Do you really need a huge suite with a minibar and 24 hour room service? Or will a single room and a continental breakfast serve your needs just fine?
I probably don’t need to tell you that starting an online store is a great way to supplement your income, and – overtime – to hopefully generate a full time income while working from home.
People have always been drawn to the idea of working from home and being their own boss. The best thing about an online store is that the risk is minimal – unlike a brick and mortar store, your initial investment can be very low.
I participate in few forums here and there and provide website critiques on numerous of them. There was one website critique request that came from a website designer that wanted some feedback on a recently completed flower shop website. I was very disappointed and a bit angry with the web designer, because the designer took advantage of a small business owner by promising to deliver a site that sells flowers, but the look and functionality of this flower site didn’t even come close. I of course dug a little deeper and found background information on the web designer, which led me to writing an article What to look for in a Web Designer.
There are tons of people claiming to be web designers, the following are specifics of what to look for and what to look out for when choosing a web designer to work on your business website.
Skills
The number one thing that you should look for in a web designer is for their web site. You can usually tell what skills they have by just looking at their own website. Some web designers make excuses that they’re so busy on client’s projects that they don’t have time to work on their own website. How can a web designer say that they can design your business website if they can’t make the time to design their own? If a web designer doesn’t have a website or has only one page that says, “coming soon”, LOOK OUT!
Have you been following the Celebrity Apprentice? On Season 8 Episode 6, the objective of the game was to create the best viral video. A viral video is one that is emailed from person to person, thus spreading the word about your product. In this case they were advertising laundry detergent. Before the dawn of the Internet, companies spent some percentage of their advertising and marketing dollars on TV, radio and magazine commercials and depended to some extent on “Word of Mouth” advertising. People use to say that if you impress a customer, they will tell 3 other customers and if you disappoint a customer, they will tell 10 other people. Businesses often used to, and still do today, offer additional discounts to existing customers when they bring in new customers. Word of Mouth advertising is a tried and trusted fundamental cornerstone of business marketing. Read more »
Having a way to measure your website’s success is very important for all businesses. Google Analytics is free and easy to use, but many small business owners have no idea on how to install it. Take a look at the video below that shows you how to install Google Analytics.
A lot of websites these days use blogging as a way to draw customers. Blogging means posting a fresh article to your site every day, every week, or at some other interval that makes sense to you. Blogs can be useful to customers who may check out your website regularly to find out new information related to your product, your service or your company. New customers may be led to your site using keyword searches or by following links from other sites that reference your site, or from links you embed in other articles on your website.
The primary purpose of a blog is to provide fresh content for your website to keep your customers coming back. They want to see what new products you are offering, hear what’s new in your company, and see what additional services are available. A blog is also a great way to add fresh content to your site to keep it at the top of the search engines.
Your website might be well implemented, have a nice easy flow, attractive color scheme and easy navigation, and your product might be the best gadget ever invented or the best service in the business. But if people can’t find you, they can’t buy from you. It’s that simple.
Search Engine Optimization refers to creating a site that is keyword rich. Keywords are the words that people type into their favorite search engine to find what they are looking for. For example, if your website sells shoes, you will want keywords such as shoes, pumps, high heels, loafers, patent leather, boots etc. More creative keywords or keyphrases might include descriptive phrases such as blue suede shoes, sexy 4 inch heels, pumps that are to die for, and so on. Most people post articles on their website to increase keyword density.