Blog Feed: Getting More Customers from Your Web Site

5 Challenges with Offshore Development

Published on 2011-06-19 22:57:21

The world is getting smaller and it’s easier than ever to hire people from other countries. Websites like oDesk make it easy to find developers, Skype and email make it inexpensive to communicate and PayPal makes it convenient to pay them. So,

Everything You Do Is Marketing

Published on 2011-06-12 18:57:43

Most small businesses get by without putting very much deliberate thought into marketing. A lot of business owners will proudly proclaim that they don’t do any marketing; they get all of their business from referrals. This is definitely somethi

Case Study: Impulse Advanced Communications

Published on 2011-06-06 16:43:21

We recently launched a new site for Impulse Advanced Communications, a local voice and data services provider, and I thought it would be educational to review the project and look at the results of putting into practice all the things I’ve been

Customer Centric Marketing

Published on 2011-05-29 21:30:07

The first order of business in marketing (and in sales) should be to create a relationship with your prospective customers. If you can create a connection with them that enables them to begin to trust you, then you are on the way to getting a new cus

Market Testing & Validation

Published on 2011-05-22 22:24:27

When we sit down to develop a new website for a client, our conversation always begins with the goals of the company. Nine times out of ten, those are marketing and sales goals – they want to generate more leads and get more customers. As a res

6 Ways to Market Your Business on FaceBook

Published on 2011-05-08 13:49:02

FaceBook recently surpassed Google in terms of the average amount of time people spend on the site. Marketing your business on FaceBook is already a great way to get exposure and it will become more and more essential over time. Here are some tips on

Why Have a Blog?

Published on 2011-05-01 18:11:01

Clients regularly ask us whether they should have a blog or not. In general, my answer is yes, though there are some exceptions. Here’s why… Frankly, the biggest reason to have a blog for many businesses is for the SEO value. Search engines L

6 Tips to Successful Web Development Projects

Published on 2011-04-24 18:54:50

I’ve seen research that shows that more than 50% of development projects fail. Given the number of projects we inherit from other web developers due to unhappy customers, I would say the figure is at least that high. This doesn’t apply to

Why Web Development Projects Fail

Published on 2011-04-09 18:44:35

A story I hear far too often from prospects is that they just fired their previous web developer. You might think I like hearing this because it means our competitors are falling down which is good for us. I actually hate hearing this story. For one,

7 Steps To Better Email Newsletters

Published on 2011-04-03 15:27:35

If you want your email newsletter to be opened and read, follow these simple tips… Frequency of Emails. Current trends show that emailing between 1 and 3 times per month is the optimal number. Less than that, and you may lose opportunities. If

False Keyword Ranking in Google

Published on 2011-03-28 12:12:26

As part of our series on basic search engine optimization (SEO), let’s talk about how to measure your SEO efforts. A key metric is how you rank for each keyword you are targeting. Are you on the first page of search results? Are you in the top

Analyzing Site Traffic

Published on 2011-03-20 20:46:52

There are a number of tools you can use to analyze your web site’s traffic but they fall into two primary categories – Web based tools and Server based tools. What’s the difference and how can they affect your sites stats? Read on&#

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Published on 2011-03-07 02:00:30

Social Media experts will expound upon the virtues of Twitter in terms of your online marketing strategy. There is no doubt that Twitter can help expose your product or service to thousands of new prospects if you use it right. The question is, will

Social Media Marketing – LinkedIn

Published on 2011-02-28 21:10:25

Most articles on social media marketing start with a discussion of FaceBook and Twitter, however, I’m going to start with LinkedIn because I think it’s an often underestimated contributor to social traffic. For many small businesses, if y

The Biggest Lie in SEO

Published on 2011-02-20 13:11:20

Unfortunately, some SEO consultants are scammers or even worse, flat out liars. Search engine ranking can be so important to a business that some consultants have gone to great lengths, including doing things that are unethical, to get good rankings.

On-site SEO

Published on 2011-01-30 12:38:26

The next step in the Basic SEO Plan is to optimize the rest of the pages in your site. Utilizing your target keywords, you want to sprinkle them liberally around your site so that every page in your site contributes SEO value. These are very basic su

A Basic SEO Plan

Published on 2011-01-20 09:18:22

There are endless details and nuances to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but here is a basic plan that is easy to follow and WILL produce good results. With SEO, no single trick will guarantee results over time because the landscape is always chang

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics

Published on 2010-11-21 19:08:37

SEO is the art and science of getting your site ranked higher on search engines such as Google. I say “art and science” because while there is a lot of technical know-how to doing good SEO (science), there is also a lot that is unknown

Driving Traffic To Your Site

Published on 2010-11-02 16:45:40

Once you have a good converting site live - one that utilizes all the strategies that we’ve discussed so far - it’s time to start driving traffic to it. The primary ways of driving traffic are: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Testing Conversion Rates

Published on 2010-10-18 10:09:54

Virtually anything on your site can potentially affect your conversion rates. Different headlines, pictures, calls-to-action, etc., can all affect your conversion rates positively or negatively.  You have to start with your best guess

Measuring Conversion Rates

Published on 2010-10-15 09:52:13

In order to measure conversion rates, you need a type of conversion that is measurable online. Contact forms, email list sign-ups, and online sales are good examples of conversions that can easily be measured online because you can count the numbe

Good Calls to Action

Published on 2010-09-01 14:45:40

To get users to take action from your site, you first need to be very clear WHAT action you want them to take. Do you want to generate more calls? Or does your sales team get too many calls from people that aren’t good prospects and you woul

Website Intro Text Tips

Published on 2010-03-13 18:20:52

Great marketing copy inspires, motivates and almost compels users to take action. It does such a good job of talking to your customers core needs and concerns that they literally love you just for writing it and feel excited by the possibility tha

Your Website’s Intro Text

Published on 2010-02-16 22:50:10

The intro text on your site needs to immediately capture people's attention and give them a reason to read more. It shouldn't be a book, more like a sentence or two that pulls them in. The majority of visitors will take a quick look at you

Writing Compelling Content for Your Website

Published on 2010-02-15 09:18:21

Most of the clients we work with provide their own copy for their website although an increasing number are asking us to help write the text or are hiring other professional copywriters. If you are writing the content for your website, here are so

Increasing Your Online Credibility Part III

Published on 2010-02-10 19:42:51

Everyone says what they DO on their website. "We fix computers", "We sell homes", "We make BBQ sauce", etc. This is important - people need to know what you do or sell. However, it does little to increase your credibility. People know what you do, bu