One of the first responses we get when discussing Twitter with our clients is that they don’t know what Twitter is, or they don’t know very many people who actually use Twitter. That doesn’t mean there aren’t prospective “followers” and customers-to-be out there using Twitter, and in numbers that will likely surprise you. Will it take some time to build a followers list of any size? Yes. But, like the miners of the gold rush days, savvy Twitter users have learned that it pays to pan for those flecks of gold in those streams.

Before you start, it is important to remember this. First and foremost: DO NOT use Twitter only for pushing your products or services. Your tweets should add value to the conversations, needs, and lives of your followers and potential (those whom receive retweets, among others) followers.  If all you do is promote your products or services, you will only realize a small part of what Twitter can do for you.

Each tweet can be no more than 140 characters. You don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time writing them, but you should pay careful attention to what you write. As with anything, there can be unintended consequences if you write in haste or a poor state of mind. While forms of shorthand work for kids and others that live nearly exclusively in the texting world, I strongly believe, for business purposes, that you practice writing succinctly (admittedly, hard for me to do at times) so your message is clear. I am not saying to use abbreviations at all, just keep them, well, short.

One of the reasons I believe Twitter should be an integral part of any business’s online strategy, is that Twitter is viral. Tweet something worth retweeting (similar to email forwarding), and all of a sudden you have some potential new followers, as some of your followers retweet to their followers. Oh, and Google indexes “tweets,” so your well-written tweets can be found when people do a Google search for keywords you may have tweeted. Also, if any of your followers display their Twitter stream on their Facebook page, your tweets will show for all of their Facebook friends to see. Think branding, branding, branding. Are you feeling it?

So, how can Twitter help your business? In no particular order, consider the following.

• Customer Service
• Branding, branding, branding
• Answer common questions (even though the answers are on your website) about your products or services
• Build transparency and trust
• Announcements of specials or events
• Reward loyalty - send a coupon code that your followers can redeem in your store.
• Build credability - share tips and useful links to your website and other websites
• Your Twitter conversations add value to your brand, product, or service
• Adding a Voice to your business - people like to know there are actual people with whom to communicate

Are you struggling to keep fresh content on your website’s home page? Displaying your Tweets on your home page can help you with that!

So, how do you start? Create a pesonal Twitter account and follow some of the social media experts so you know what is going on in social media. After you gotten your feet wet with your personal Twitter account, jump in and create a Twitter account for your business, and tweet, tweet.

By the way, you may reach us on Twitter @webwisedesign. We would love to hear from you, and of course, we appreciate any followers at www.twitter.com/webwisedesign.

Need more convincing? Here are a couple of resources with a lot of good information for you. The first from Lisa Barone who does a really great job of listing ways to market and build your business. The second is from Twitter itself, and will help you get started. 80 Ways To Use Twitter As A SMB Owner and Twitter 101 for Business - A Special Guide

As always, we are happy to answer your questions. Leave a comment, or give us a call at 1-800-281-9993.

So you want your web pages to get found well, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money or time to make that happen? Well, look no further.

If you have a webmaster, provide him or her with a title for each of your pages. The “title” should use keywords  describing the content on the page (that is, keywords that potential visitors would search for hoping to find what you offer). Also provide your webmaster with a good headline (that is similar to, and contains the same keywords as the title) for each page. And of course you need some text describing what you offer. Obviously, that text should contain the same keywords near the start of the first paragraph. Your webmaster should be able to take it from there.

If you maintain your own website, then you should pay attention to this list.

1. Title tag
2. <meta> description tag
3. Page header <h1> tag
4. Well-written text

For those of you who don’t know what those four items are, I’ll describe them.

1. The <title> tag defines the title of the document.

The title element does the following:
Defines a title in the browser toolbar (displayed at the very top of your browser)
Provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites
Displays a title for the page in search-engine result

2. The <meta> description tag provides a description of the HTML document (your web page). The <meta> description will not be displayed on the page, but Google will display (most of the time) the information in search results, and just as, if not more, importantly uses it as one of the “signals” in determining how highly your page will rank.

3. The header <h1> tag contains the “headline” for the page (also used as a Google “signal”)

4. The first sentence of the first paragraph should contain the same keywords. (also used as a Google “signal”)

As I said, basic SEO is as simple as one, two, three….and four. Do remember to do them for each of your pages. Of course there is much more you could, and should, do. If your webmaster isn’t doing those basic four things for you, tell him you would like to pay him or her for doing so, as it does take some time to do it right. In this case a little time and or money spent will reward you with higher search rankings.

We always suggest to our new clients that they use Google AdWords to jump-start the new web presence. (It is also a good marketing tool for a redesigned website or doing a new product launch, among other things.)

An inexpensive Google AdWords campaign gets your name, along with a description you control, at or near the top of search results pages and can keep it there while your individual pages get indexed and, if they are created properly with good content, starting earning their way up the organic listing rankings in Google.

2. Use Twitter

We announce all new websites we launch for our clients. Those “tweets” show up in Google very quickly. In fact, it happens sometimes in seconds and always in a very few minutes. The URL in that tweet gets indexed as well. There is no waiting for Google to “discover” your website from a link on another website or from your sitemap.xml (ask your webmaster if you have a sitemap.xml). In the example, I did the search about 70 minutes after using Twitter to annouce the launch.

Even though we tweet about our client websites, we highly recommend that they, and others, use Twitter to get news of their website, not only to those in the Twitter universe, but to Google as well. It only takes a quick tweet and delivers a lot of benefit.

Summary: Google AdWords and Twitter, Two quick ways to jump-start your new website in Google search engine results pages.

Sometimes many people (including me now and then) over complicate things when starting to create or redesign websites. Most of us think about what we want our website to do for us, and that is only natural. While that may be natural, what we should be thinking about, is what our visitors (read: prospects and customers) want.  I know it is hard for some to accept, but if you give your visitors what they want, they’ll turn into customers that will help you achieve your goals.

Let’s talk about what your website visitors want in very simple terms.

• Who are you?
• What do you offer?
• Why are you different?
• Can I easily find details about your products or services?
• Why should I trust you?
• How do I order or contact you?

Think about your answers to those simple questions, and you will soon realize the answers are not as simple as the questions. Don’t let that discourage you. It is not that difficult, and it will surely be worth your time.

Before you start answering the questions, think about who you want your visitors to be. Who are you trying to attract to your website? Write a small paragraph answer for each of the questions. Read it over and think about how your prospective visitor will search for a business or organization with products or services like yours.

So, now you have some paragraphs of text, that may or may not look good to you. Don’t be frightened away. You have made a great first step. This is a good time to talk with a professional web design firm. I have nothing against a one-person shop. I was one for a short time fifteen years ago. There are a few great developers who “do it all.” The keywords are “few” and “great” for most geographical areas. Graphic design (specifically for the web), coding/programming, Search Engine Optimization aka SEO, and web presence marketing are, for the most part, very different elements of website development. Not many individuals are great at all of those elements.

Okay, I’ll shamelessly suggest you talk to us at WebWise Design & Marketing. We’ll help you take what you written and develop a plan for your new website. Then, we’ll design your website with your potential visitors in mind. Our extremely talented graphics designers will create custom graphics. Our highly skilled coders and programmers, will create the pages, adding the functionality that your audience requires and deserves. We’ll keep you involved along they way. We’ll talk with you about using social media and tools that may be right for you and your audience. Your site may very well need a blog. You also might augment  your online presence with a Facebook page, and/or a Twitter account. Of course, your website needs to be structured and coded properly so your information gets found readily on Google and other search engines. We’ll also talk with you about Google AdWords and other pay-per-click (PPC ) options, that will help you jump start a new or redesigned website. Those are only some of the services you get from a web design company that offers a full complement of services.

Bottom line: Start thinking in simple terms, get some of those thoughts and questions on paper, and contact an experienced and talented web design company. Call us today at 1-800-281-9993 or 1-608-822-3750 or use our contact form.

Since the “Sites with images” feature  has the potential to impact many of our clients and a lot of other website owners, I believe it is worth closer look. For those of you who rely on photos to help sell your product (and if you don’t do that, you should), it is definitely time to pay more attention to photo quality. Google understands that searchers like visuals. That is why the have options for maps, videos, sites with images,wonder wheel and more. Believe me as more and more users discover the “Sites with images” feature, that will be the only way they look at search results when searching for products, real estate property, homes and anything for they may hope to see a photo with the results. It will be the first filter applied to real estate searches.

The bottom line is — you need quality photos to compete on the web. Now I know some of you are saying to yourself, yeah, yeah I’ve heard you say that before. Well, there is a reason I preach quality photos. Website visitors like photos, and they LOVE quality photos. Now, I am not telling you to go out and buy the newest, digital camera with a dozen or more megapixels. I won’t get started on the “Megapixel Myth.” I’ll just let David Pogue tell/show you about it in this short video on the Megapixel Myth.

What sets great photos apart from those seen on many websites is photo composition and lighting. Of course, having camera with a good optical lens, sensor and circuitry, not to mention knowing how to use the camera settings, all factor into shooting really great photos. It is not enough to buy a good camera. You need to learn how to use your camera, and how to shoot great photos.

Here is an example of what was displayed when I searched for “southwest wi trout stream property.” (sans quotes) Google will display photos that are on the page visitors will see if they click. Great photos will make them click.

If you don’t have, or are not willing to spend, the time to learn, then you need to hire the best professional photographer your budget allows. Before hiring them ask to see examples of photos they have taken that are similar to what you need for your website. Whether it is your time or your professional’s time it will be some of the best time you can spend. It will reap benefits in the form of more visitors to your website, more page views, and visits of longer time on your site.

The quick and real summary: Professional quality photos will help you more than ever when searchers use Google’s Search Options “Sites with images” feature.

What is the impact? Well, searchers will easily be able to filter their search results in several different ways. Searchers should be able to see more relevant results by refining their search using one or more of the options in Google’s Search Options Column. For our website clients, it means your potential customers or visitors will be using more specific criteria to find your product or service. One of the options I believe will be used frequently is the “sites with images” filters. Quality photos on your website are more important than ever. I also believe “related searches” will be used frequently

There is much more that I could write about Google’s new user interface, but search guru Danny Sullivan wrote a great blog post detailing the features, so I am just going to send you to search engine land so you may read about it.

Here is Google’s official announcement. I’ll be following up with a post about the options I believe will impact our website clients the most..

On these pages and in countless recommendations to clients, we have, for years, stressed the importance of using the Google Maps Local Business Center (remember, we talked about using coupons, and Click-to-Call phone numbers) to take control of and optimize what Google displays next to a map when Google users do a search related to location (aka “geographically qualified search”) for your business or a product or service you may sell. As of April 20, 2010, the poorly-named Local Business Center is now named “Google Places.”

As usual for Google, the newly named Google Places comes with several new features. Unfortunately and as usual for Google, the search users and clients they serve in rural, lower-populated areas, cannot take advantage all of the new features. I understand the business decisions by Google to concentrate where they get the most return by targeting large population areas with the most potential customers. That said, I sometimes wonder if some of the people at Google don’t overlook that many areas with small populations and what they have to offer are destinations for those in metropolitan areas. I digress.

Some of the newest Google Places features:

Service areas: You can now show which geographic areas you serve. And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private.

Others include:

• A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. (Select cities are the keywords here, so this won’t be available to many.)
• Business photo shoots: In addition to uploading their own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business. (Again, select cities are the keywords here.)
• Customized QR codes
• Favorite Places:

You may read all about it here in Google Pages announcement.

The bottomline is that you should, as before, enhance your listing with the map when it is displayed in Google’s SERPs. Now it is easier and you can do much more with your new Google Places page.

If you haven’t taken advantage of this, all it costs is a little time, and you will get start getting more self-qualified traffic from searches related to location. Sign up today!

Creating a custom website with CMS features allows any designated person to edit or update content on a website using a WYSIWYG editor (similar to what you have with MS Word and other word processors). The CMS will let you edit or add text, photos, and allow you to upload and link to Video, PDF files and other files. Please note a “Content” Management System, is not a “design” or “layout” system. You will be able to format text and align photos, videos, and some images, but cannot easily change the layout or design. Those types of things will, in most cases, still have to be done by your webmaster.

Making the decision whether to have a CMS website or not is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Let’s talk about some of things you should consider.

Creating a custom website with CMS features so anyone can edit the “content” takes more time to create than creating a static website using XHTML and CSS that someone with those skills and the software can easily update. Depending on the amount of content (text & photos), complexity, and features, it may cost anywhere from 20% to 40% more to create a website with CMS features, than to create one that looks identical and has the same features for the website visitors, but does not have CMS capabilities.

So, initially, your new or redesigned website will, in most cases, cost more to create with a CMS.

What else should you consider when deciding if you should have a CMS website? Updating frequency should be a factor. If you update your website weekly, then you will likely save some money if you have a website created that has CMS features. If you update monthly, whether you will save money depends on the type and number of updates, and how much time you spend making those updates. In practically every case, your webmaster will be able to make the updates for you considerably more quickly than you will. If you only update your site a couple of times a year or quarterly, there rarely is an advantage in having a CMS and doing your own updates.

How frequently you will actually update your website is a big factor in deciding. I say actually, because we have nearly 15 years of experience that shows us that people do not update their content anywhere nearly as often as they say/think they will, or should.

You may or may not know that creating a CMS system involves installing software on a web server and a database server. Your web pages are created on the fly from the content stored in a database, and “published” using templates that have been created. Why do you need to know this stuff? Well, database software and the code used to access the database is is more vulnerable to attacks by hackers than a “static” website. Fortunately, the providers of the software regularly release security and bug-fix updates that have to be applied to your CMS system. Unfortunately, that takes time and costs money.

While you won’t be paying for maintaining the content, you will have to pay for periodic security and software updates.

Are those the only additional costs for a CMS website? For most circumstances, they are the only additional out-of-pocket expenses. The indirect costs can sneak up on you later.

All of the custom websites we create, including CMS enabled websites, have many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features, coding and linking techniques built in, and the copywriting has been edited to be search engine friendly. Not everyone that creates websites does that. Many companies charge you later for SEO. When we perform updates for our clients, we use the same skills we use when we create the website including the SEO skills.

What does that mean to you if you have a CMS website? Well, if you know how to write a Google-friendly “Title,” and META Description, and you use the correct number of characters and positioning of keywords in those two critical places, then you will have a good start to updating correctly so your pages continue to get found well in Google and other search engines. Of course, you really should know about the proper usage of the “H1″ tag, and the “ALT” attribute for photos or other images you may change. The same goes for putting a “Title” (which is different than the aforementioned “Title”) in the links (including keywords) that you should have on your page, which should be used to link to an internal page featuring keywords for one of your products or services. Of course, you really need to pay attention to the content to make sure it does include the keywords you hope to be found for. If the search terms are not on the page, that page won’t get found for those search terms. Actually, there is more, but you get the idea.

In other words, while it is relatively easy to make updates using a CMS, it is not as easy to do it well without spending a fair amount of time learning some copywriting and SEO skills, and then applying those skills as you update your content. Oh, and if you don’t have an eye for good typography and design, you may mix too many different fonts, type sizes, or choose text colors that don’t go well with the color scheme of your website. If the updates are done poorly, your website will not look professional. It will not only not look as good as it should, your website won’t get found as well as you would like, because you lack the SEO skills.

How much money a poorly maintained CMS website could cost you is open for conjecture.

The good news is a CMS does not have to cost you additional money after it has been launched just because you aren’t a webmaster. With some SEO training and support from us at WebWise Design & Marketing, you will be able to use your custom CMS website relatively easily and effectively.

Of course, as with a lot of issues having or not having a CMS is not a black or white issue, nor does one solution work for every situation. The fact that we create custom websites allows us to help you decide  the best solution for you. For some clients we recommend a hybrid website that has blog that has CMS features allowing you to regularly write your own articles and upload photos or videos. A website with a “What’s New” area that is updated regularly would be a good example.

The bottom line is deciding to have a CMS website or not, should be made only after talking with your webmaster about your goals, objectives, and the available options.  Of course, I recommend contacting WebWise Design & Marketing to have that discussion.

Many times, when people using their mobile devices search for local businesses, they are looking for phone numbers, not just addresses. Well, don’t disappoint them, When they are looking for a restaurant or a business, serve up a phone number where they can “Click-to-Call.” Don’t lose that opportunity to talk with them!

Google says, “you can make it even easier for potential customers to reach you by adding a location-specific business phone number in ads that appear on mobile devices with full internet browsers. Users can click the number to call you just as easily as clicking to visit your website. And, since ads can be served based on user location, a potential customer will see — and can click to call — the phone number of your store location that’s nearest to them, not one that’s across town.”

You may display the phone number from your Google Maps Local Business (If you have been reading this blog, you know we feel you should have a Google Maps Local Business listing.) listing by linking to that account. Additionally, you may manually enter a display phone number in your AdWords account.

Customers will not only be able to click (or push) on the number to call, you will be able to track the calls in your AdWords account. Please remember these will only show on mobile devices with full internet browsers, not all cell phones.

Jump over to the Google Inside AdWords to read how to track your callers, and more details about Click-to-Call.

According to Google, “Advertisers who participated in the beta trial have seen improved click-through rates. Plus, many advertisers received more visits to their websites in addition to incremental phone calls.”

If you are thinking this would be great for ads other than local ad delivery, well Google thinks so as well. A few days ago they rolled out their “Enhanced click-to-call phone numbers.” To display your national business phone number on mobile devices with full browsers, follow the two steps listed in this Inside AdWords post.

Just a few clicks on your part, will have self-qualified, potential customers clicking to call you!

With the proliferation of smartphones (I love my Droid Eris.), more of your customers and prospective customers are viewing your websites from a mobile device. Take advantage of it.

If you use coupons in print advertising, you certainly know their effectiveness. Google’s “mobile coupons” have all the same advantages with much less hassle. And, it’s not as likely that you’ll forget your phone as you do the paper coupons as you hurry out the door.

Simple to use, and another way to get customers in the door!