Small Business Design Resources

Quick Tip: Create a 301 Redirect for Your Website

A 301 redirect is basically telling the search engines that the page that you’re looking for does not exist and seamlessly directs the user to the page they should look at instead. The most common use of a 301 redirect is for directing the search engines from a domain name that starts without the WWW to one that starts with WWW or vise versa. For search engines a website that starts with WWW and the same one that starts with out the WWW are essentially two different websites. So for example if your website is www.websiteaddress.com but a user types in websiteaddress.com , the search engines will rank the two addresses separately even though they’re the same website. To eliminate this issue make sure you create a 301 redirect (ask your hosting provider to do it for you). So when the 301 redirect is set, anyone who types in websiteaddress.com they will automatically be redirected to www.websiteaddress.com and that’s what search engines like to see.

Understanding and Improving Google PageRank

There’s no question that having your small business website on the first page of Google results is good for traffic. Google has been used for more than 70% of U.S. Internet searches so far in 2010, making it by far the Internet’s most used search engine. One reason Google is so popular is that Internet searchers trust the results it returns. Google’s method for putting together a list of great search results relies heavily on PageRank (PR), a number from 0-10 that reflects a web page’s importance. Average PageRank is 3-5; a PageRank of 6-7 is considered extremely good. Only a few elite websites have PageRanks of 8 or above, and only Google and a handful of others have PageRanks of 10. PageRank is a logarithmic calculation, meaning that each level is harder to reach than the last. For example, moving from PR 2 to PR 3 is easier than moving from PR 3 to PR 4. It also means that a PageRank of 4 is more than twice as good as a PageRank of 2.

The formula for calculating PageRank is patented and a closely guarded secret; according to Google, PageRank is determined by looking at more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. But even though you can’t know all the details of Google’s formula, there are some things you can do to increase your PageRank.

1. Inbound Links
   The most important factor in determining PageRank is the number of high-quality websites that link to your webpage. Think of it as a voting system: when one page links to another page, Google considers that a vote for the other page. The more votes a page gets, the more important that page must be and the higher its PageRank. Votes from more important pages are considered more important, meaning that a link to your site from a page with a high PageRank will increase your PageRank more than a link from a page with low PageRank. Links from sites that have content related to your website’s content are also more valuable than links from unrelated websites.
2. Internal Linking and Structure
   How you structure your website is important to maximizing PageRank. Here are a few tips:
   • Make sure your website has a clear hierarchy and important links are made up of text rather than images.
   • Don’t let the structure of your website get too “deep”; having to follow several links in order to get to a page from your site’s homepage generally decreases that page’s PageRank.
   • Make sure every page is linked to by at least one text link, and avoid dangling links (links to pages that don’t contain any links themselves).
   • Include a site map that links to your website’s important pages.
   • Don’t put too many links on any one page.
3. Quality Content
   Having a lot of interlinked pages is good for PageRank, but only if the content on each page is original and useful. Good website content will encourage other websites to link to your pages (see Tip #1), and Google penalizes websites for containing content that is duplicated elsewhere on the Internet.
4. Use SEO Techniques
   Don’t forget to optimize for your target keywords, so Google knows what your website is about. Good Search Engine Optimization is key to improving your search engine ranking and is a factor that Google takes into consideration when calculating PageRank.

Following these tips should improve your Google PageRank, but be prepared to wait a few weeks before you see results–with the millions of websites on the Internet, it will take time for Google to reevaluate your website.

Quick Tip: Add Customer Reviews to Boost SEO Rank

Customer reviews or testimonials when written directly on your website can increase your SEO rank. This is because reviews are generally considered as content and usually will include keywords that are associated with your company/products/services. Content with targeted keywords are always a plus with the search engines.

How To Effectively Use Twitter For Business

Many small businesses have been resisting Twitter for a long time now, but the reality is that more and more of your customers are using Twitter – and so should you. A basic rule of marketing says that you need to be where your customers and prospects are. If your prospects are using Twitter, and your competitors are using Twitter, then NOT using Twitter could turn out to be a costly business mistake.

To properly use Twitter for business, you need to start by shaking the notion that Twitter is “stupid,” that you “don’t get it” and that it’s basically a huge waste of time. Twitter need not waste your time at all. In fact, most businesses spend about ten minutes per day twittering. A selective, disciplined use of social media in general and of Twitter in particular works beautifully for small businesses that can’t afford to hire someone to tweet all day for them. Ten minutes per day is all it takes to connect with prospects and to build your brand on Twitter.

Five Useful Tips for Using Twitter for Business

1. Add a personal touch. A cold corporate account is a turnoff – even if your customers are businesses too. Your tweets should include company news and info of course, but you should also have conversations – real conversations with followers. Many businesses add the name of the person who tweets for them to their bio as another great way to be more personal.

2. Use Twitter Search. One of the most important uses of Twitter for businesses is to respond to customer issues. Use Twitter Search to find out who’s mentioning your company on Twitter, and respond as necessary.

3. Don’t be too pushy. Tweets about your products are fine, but you should also tweet general industry news and links, retweet (which basically means repeat to others) what others are saying, ask and answer questions. If all your tweets are promoting your company and your products, you are not using Twitter properly.

4. Twitter is a great platform for promoting your blog posts. When you do, it’s a good idea to add a personal touch by introducing the topic, or asking a question about it, then providing a link to the blog post. Tweets that simply say “New blog post,” then give a link to the post don’t normally generate a lot of responses, because they’re not very interesting!

5. Be generous. Don’t promote just yourself. Promote others too, link to them, and be nice. There’s no need to promote direct competitors (although following them if they follow back and congratulating them on successes is good manners), but do make it a point to be generous with anyone who is not in direct competition to your business.

Above all, don’t be afraid of Twitter! Many small business owners worry about wasting entire days on Twitter and especially about the possibility of Twitter backfiring if used by customers to criticize them. But Twitter only wastes your time if you let it, and although it CAN be used to criticize your company, it can also be used by you to promptly respond to criticism, provide excellent customer service publicly, make things right for your customers and make your brand even stronger.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 10 Newbie Twitter Mistakes Made By Businesses (socialmediatoday.com)
• Strategies for Effective Twitter Marketing (lazerpromotions.com)
• My Twitter Resources Library (angelamaiers.com)

Quick Tip: Avoid Flash Intros

Flash intros or some times referred to as splash pages can be pretty, but have more negative impact rather than positive. Flash intros take a long time to load, are not search engine friendly and mostly they don’t really add any value to your users experience. Most people will either skip the intro or leave your website because they don’t have time to sit through it. Learn more about What is Flash and is it suitable for your business?

Targeting Local Traffic

The Internet is truly a global phenomenon, allowing you to connect with customers all over the world. With a business website, you aren’t limited to local traffic the way you are with only a brick-and-mortar location. That is a huge business advantage, but it can leave you wondering how to build your local presence on such a global platform. Luckily, there are several excellent resources available to help you target local traffic.

Yelp.com is a website where customers can search for local businesses and leave reviews of their experiences, and it also offers a number of free tools for small business owners. If you haven’t already, check Yelp to see if your business is listed; if it isn’t, you can list it for free. If it is listed, claim your page to take advantage of all that Yelp.com offers small business owners: communicate with your customers by responding to their reviews, promote discounts and special events, check the amount of traffic your Yelp business page receives, recommend other businesses, and provide detailed information about your business–including your website address. With more than 26 million visitors in December 2009, Yelp.com is a great way to connect with local traffic.

Google’s Local Business Center offers small business owners the opportunity to customize their listing on Google and Google Maps, with options like adding pictures, coupons, business hours, and more. You can also see behind-the-scenes information to find out things like who’s searching for you and what search terms they’re using to find you. You can even see where driving directions requests originate, so you will know where your visitors are coming from and whether you’re targeting local traffic.

The social networking phenomenon Twitter is another way to stay connected with your local customers, and Twitter is beginning to cater to small business owners. It’s a quick and immediate way to communicate with customers, see what people are saying about your business, and build relationships with customers and other businesses. Put a Twitter badge on your website and begin following local individuals and businesses, and before you know it you’ll have followers of your own. One of the really cool things about Twitter is that your conversations with customers are publicly visible and searchable, meaning they often attract attention from other Twitterers in the same locale or with similar interests.

Facebook, which began as a social networking site exclusively for college students, has expanded dramatically and now offers great opportunities for small businesses. When you create a free business page on Facebook, anyone can become a fan of your page and suggest that others do the same. You can provide detailed information on your profile (including your website address), post business updates, make photo albums, and converse with your fans. Facebook users can search business pages by location, and many are thrilled when they can become fans of their favorite local businesses. And since their friends can see what businesses they’re fans of, your local exposure increases exponentially with every fan you acquire.

These are four great websites that offer free ways to connect with local customers. They will help you target local traffic, learn about your customers, and provide your small business with a strong local presence even on the global Internet.

Quick Tip: How to Make a Banner Clickable

To make any image such as a banner clickable you will need to add HTML code to that image.

Here’s an example code that you can use:
<a href=”http://www.designleap.net”><img src=”image_name.jpg”></a>
replace www.designleap.net with any website where you want the image to link to
replace image_name.jpg with your image name (if your image is in a subfolder make sure you include the correct location)

Keeping An Eye on the Competition

In order to keep your small business practices up-to-date, it’s important to keep an eye on the competition. You’ll learn what the latest trends are, find out what’s working and what’s not, and remain responsive to what your customers want and expect from businesses like yours. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to learn about your competitors.

It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s important to learn as much as you can about how your visitors browse your website. If most of your visitors leave before making a purchase, you can bet that there are competing sites that they find easier to use. ClickTale is a great tool that lets you see exactly how visitors use your site, so you can pinpoint what is working and what is not. Looking at visitor browsing patterns will show you what visitors want and expect to see on your site–not only will this help you make changes to retain your visitors, it will also provide important clues about what competitors’ websites offer.

Analyzing your website’s statistics and the behavior of your visitors is an essential part of staying competitive, but what about the people who aren’t visiting your site? Some of your potential customers are visiting competing sites instead, and services like Compete.com can help you discover why. Compete offers access to multiple ways to analyze your competition. You can learn what keywords your competitors are optimizing for, see their site traffic history and other competitive analytics, compare your search marketing performance, and learn which sites on the Internet excel in ways you’re trying to emulate.

You should also take advantage of services like Google Alerts, which will deliver the latest news on your competitors straight to your email inbox. Set up an alert for any topic you wish to monitor–like the name of your competitor’s business, product, or targeted keywords–and keep up-to-date on the latest Internet buzz.

Checking out your competitors’ social media presence is another way to learn about them and how they’re using this newer marketing tool. Look to see if your competitors have Facebook or Twitter profiles and what they’re doing with them. If they have a lot of followers and good interaction with them, that’s a sign that they’ve found an effective way to attract your target audience. Also try searching for their website’s URL on bookmarking sites like delicious.com and Digg.com–you can find out who’s bookmarking and recommending your competitors sites and what tags they are using to identify them.

Quick Tip: Update Your Website Often

Updating your website often keeps your website fresh in search engines. When I say update I’m not talking about a constant redesign, I’m referring to content. Search engines love text, so the more often your website has fresh content for them to scan, the more “points” your website gets for being an up-to-date source for visitors. The best way to add content to your website is by publishing articles on your blog of course. Learn more about What is Blogging.

Make the Most of Your Small Business Advertising Dollars

Advertising can be expensive, and it can also be ineffective–as a small business owner, you want to be absolutely sure that you don’t combine those two and end up spending a lot on advertising only to see a minimal (or negative) return on investment. Luckily, the rise of the Internet has resulted in many low-cost advertising options that are perfect for small business owners.

What’s on the top of our list for the best return on investment? A professional business website. These days a website is indispensable for any small business; while potential customers once consulted the Yellow Pages to find you, the Internet is now their first–and often only–stop. Many small business owners attempt a do-it-yourself website without realizing that professionals specializing in small business design are an excellent return on investment. Think of it as the difference between a single-line listing in the phone book and a full-page, color ad. Which business is going to get noticed? The one whose website looks professional, is on the first page of search engine results, and provides useful content. Investing in a professional with expertise in small business design can help you achieve that, and will quickly pay for itself.

But don’t stop at a website–there are other ways to harness the advertising power of the Internet. Word of mouth has always been one of the most cost-effective forms of advertisement, and social networking sites are the new word of mouth. These sites are reaching more people than ever and are usually free to join. Maintaining a business profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites is an inexpensive way to build an Internet presence and keep your customers up-to-date. You can even create your own television-style ads and post them on Youtube for free. Feature them on your website and your Facebook page and you might be the next viral video phenomenon! In addition to creating your own profile, connect with other people and businesses whose followers are likely to be interested in your product or services. Become visible to their followers by commenting on their profiles or blogs and leaving a link to your website.

Placing ads on the Internet can also be a good investment if you choose their location and style carefully. Choose which websites to advertise on by keeping your target audience in mind–just like with physical signage, you want to place your ads in locations that potential customers frequent. Finding the most effective placement is easy with sites like BuySellAds.com, which will help you find a target website or blog for your ads or offer advertising space on your own website. The best way to maximize your advertising dollars using Internet advertising is to start small and take advantage of the statistics available to you. There are a variety of tools available that will help you determine where your website traffic is coming from, which customers are buying what, and which ads are most effective. A lot of these tools are free, but staying on top of your Internet advertising statistics does require an investment of your time. However, it’s one that’s well worth it–you can learn what advertising methods work for you before you invest significant money.

Finally, advertising to your current customers is always a good idea. Connect with them via social networking sites, send them a monthly newsletter updating them about your business, and keep your website updated with fresh content, deals and information of interest to them. If you haven’t already, start building an email list for email marketing. Your customers are already interested in you and your business, so you know that you’re reaching a receptive audience. Cultivating their interest will encourage them to be repeat customers and make them more likely to recommend you to their friends.