Don't need a website huh?

Don't Need A Website Huh?

It always amazes me when I run across somebody who has a small business or a local contractor and they feel like they have no need for a website. In this day and age, everybody is on the Internet for everything. Even they look on the web when they need something but still feel that they don't need a website.

Acquiring Customers

I have one local contractors who we built a website for and performed some basic SEO. He has told me that he gets approximately 2 or 3 calls per week from his site (and he hasn't even had his site for a year yet!) and is booked out over 4 months. He's looking to get a business loan so he can expand his business. He also told me that his site has paid for itself 50 times over.

Another customer of ours has told me that she has doubled her business in the first year that she had her website. Doubled!!

With these types of success stories, I am truly astounded when I run across somebody without a website and they have no interest in getting one. Don't they know that everybody that needs their services or products is buying from somebody that does have a website.

Nuff said.......

Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

Why Have a Site Map....

Having a site map for your website is a great idea.

There are two main reasons to have a site map. First, a site map helps visitors navigate around your website. They can pull up a static site map that is on your website and find where they want to go very easily. A static site map should be comprised of every area that is on your website so visitors can see the structure of your whole site on one page, right in front of them. Of course, the site map should be linked so the visitors can just click on the area that interests them and go right to the page.

Secondly, a site map that is a great way for Google and the other search engines to be able to index your site. Submitting a site map to Google will get you indexed faster. You won't have to wait for Google to stumble upon your site because you are letting Google know that you are there.

Site maps are a great idea and should be used for just about every site.




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

Facebook Integration

Adding a Facebook feed to your home page of your website is a good idea.

When you add a live Facebook feed to your home page you are creating fresh content for your website homepage every time you write on your wall on Facebook.

Facebook Integration is Good!

As you engage your fans and friends on Facebook you will be building your brand. As you build your brand, future customers will gravitate to your Facebook page and in turn will link to your Website. As you write content on your Facebook wall these will automatically feed into your website homepage. This creates a reciprocal back link that has good value. As people navigate from your Facebook page to your website and then navigate from your website to your Facebook page an invaluable give and take is created that hopefully will generate good traffic that Google will value. Google likes traffic flows so the more traffic that flows through your website and Facebook page the better.

Creating a Facebook feed on your homepage is creating a conduit for all of this Internet traffic. So consider the Facebook feed as a road well traveled between your website and your Facebook page.

Nuff said.....


Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www/lmswebsiteservices.com

SEO Huh Continued 3.....

SEO Huh Continued 3.....

So how do you acquire back links? Well these days you need to earn all of your back links. How do you do that?

Well, one way is to create a blog. Like this one. After all, you are the expert in your field, so who knows more about your business than you do? So you need to express yourself in a blog about your business. What do you think people would be interested in when it comes to your field of expertise? Are there things that somebody would find interesting?

People search all over the Internet for things that they find of interest. Things that they may need to learn about. I know I search Google every time I need some information about something. For example: I was looking into stand by generators. Now I really don't know much about stand by generators so I Googled it! Of the over 18 million results (really?) I of course clicked on the results that were mainly on the first page. If I didn't find what I was looking for I would head for the second page. That's about as far as I go. If I need more info, I will try a different search term and try again. So you see, it's imperative that you end up on the first page of Google's search results if you want to be found by your prospective customers.

Writing a blog about your specific business and then back linking to your site will create a couple of fresh, new back links for you. And the best SEO juice comes from when someone else finds your blog interesting and then links it to maybe their Facebook page, Pinterest Page, Twitter etc. When they link your blog or website to their Facebook page you now have a relevant and new back link! The more people that share your blog/ website, the more links your collect and the more relevant you end up to Google (and hence higher up the rankings you go). As you can see, this can balloon into a large collection of new back links for you as more and more people link you.

So you can see the importance of writing a blog. This is just one way of collecting back links. Another is when a company links your site from their website. And the more relevant the site the better. Also, if the linking company site is big in your particular industry, even better. For example: if I have a flooring site and Mohawk (a large flooring manufacturer) puts a link to my site (probably in their "find a dealer near you" area) then this creates the ideal back link. It's from a large respected company within the same field as my company. This will be a high quality back link and that's what Google is looking for more than lots of low quality back links (such as in the old days where you could buy back links to a large number of sites. Google will penalize you now for these).

Back links, high quality back links and lots of high quality back links. That's the formula for a successful SEO campaign. Nuff said for now......




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

SEO Huh? Continued 2

Getting found on Google's 1st page is most business owner's main goal. Because if you are found on the 1st page then why would your prospective customer have to go any further? After all, they've found what they were looking for. Your website. Right?

So how to "earn" your way onto Google's 1st page. We've been talking recently about what it takes for Google to put your website on it's first page. Hence, being found on the Internet!

Remember, Google's algorithms are what decide who and who is not on it's first page in search results. What are Google's algorithms you ask? Well they are a complex set of "rules" (called algorithms) that Google has defined which will decide if your website has "relevant" content to the searcher's request. In other words, when a person searches on the web for something specific, let's say a plumber in a certain city in a certain state, Google decides in the blink of an eye which websites are important to show for that particular search. How does Google decide which sites to show? Well that's a highly guarded state secret (or highly regarded Google secret) but we can ascertain some things that are important by listening to Google and what they consider important. Then we tweak our sites to match their criteria. Or at least try to read between the lines and optimize our sites accordingly.

We've discussed fresh new content being added to our sites on at least a weekly basis so when Google's crawl bots crawl our sites they will find new stuff! New stuff every week. New stuff for our searchers to find when they search the Internet. New stuff that makes our website exciting, relevant and interesting. Apparently Google thinks that new stuff on a website makes it more relevant to searchers. Of course our "new stuff" must have all of the optimized keywords stuffed in there, after all, how can Google know if all of this new stuff is relevant to searchers unless the wording reflects what the searcher is searching for, eh?

So, new content, new content, new content........Need I say more?

Ok.....some more. Another way to enhance the importance of your website to Google (and hence to your prospective customers) is to acquire back links. Back links tell Google that your site is important! That your site is relevant! That other people find your site important and relevant and so Google assumes it's important and relevant. For every back link you receive, Google takes it as a vote of confidence in your website. The more votes the better. Meaning, the more back links the better.......More on back links in our next blog post.......




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

SEO Huh? Continued

SEO has changed over time. SEO changes constantly. In fact SEO changes continually. Every month. What used to work doesn't anymore. Link exchanges can't be bought anymore (well, they can but really are worthless).

So what does Google want? Google wants to increase the quality of the user experience. They want the user to "want" to be on the web. To be surfing. In essence, to be on the web and see all of their ads which of course brings money in to Google. A little too much honesty, eh?

Well, you can't fight the Fed. Or Google for that matter. So we must play by their rules. They don't own the Internet but in reality, they own the Internet. What Google says goes.

So what does Google say? They want high quality, fresh, new content. They want people to be constantly exploring the Internet. They want business owners to "earn" their spot on the front page of their search results. No longer can you easily game the system to get on the front page of Google. Now it takes work from the business owner himself. You can't just pay a firm to do stuff to get you on the front page. You, the business owner, must supply relevant content to your own site. After all, how can an SEO firm understand your business. YOU are the expert in your field, not the SEO firm. So YOU must provide content, text and images that are relevant and new to the SEO firm who will then add them to your site.

This is very important stuff that should not be minimized or ignored by the site owner. Fresh, new and relevant information added to your site on a continuous basis. It takes commitment and time from the business owner themselves.

More to come......

Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

SEO Huh?

SEO. What does that stand for?

Most people probably have never heard of SEO? I know because when I bring it up to prospective clients I get a quizzical look. They just have never heard of SEO. For those of us in the website design business, SEO means everything.

Build it and they will come?

I've had people sign up for a website design and think the whole world will march to their doors. Like just
build it and they will come. How far from the truth is that really? I've built websites for people and when we launch it, the client will go online the same day and call me and wonder why when they search for themselves, they can't be found.......(Google has no idea they even exist at this point in time!).

Building a website is just the 1st step. It's like building a store on the corner of Google and Bing and then never, ever advertise or market the store. Then time goes by and they wonder why there isn't any business to speak of. Well, the fact is, people don't have any idea that the store is there. Unless you advertise your store, market your store, very few people will know you are there. It's the same for your website.

You can't just build a website and expect people to be able to find it. For that matter, what you really want is for Google and other search engines to find it. Because if Google finds your site then they will show it to people who are searching for your particular product or brand. So the whole idea is to let Google know that you are alive and well and living on the Internet (and are worthy of them showing your site to prospective customers).

So you must market your site! Advertise your site!

How can this be done? SEO. Or search engine optimization. This means you need to optimize your site so Google and the other search engines know about you and think highly of you (your website).

There are so many ways to do this. On site optimization, off site optimization and others. Most on site optimization can be done when your website is being designed. Anybody can build a website but not just anybody can build a high quality, optimized site from the inside out. Where when Google comes a crawlin' they find your site to be of high quality, worthy of high ranking and relevant to your potential clients searches. Because we all know that when we have a website, we want to be on the front page of the Google searches.

Nuff said for now...........more to come.........

Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

CMS Continued......

There are a lot of different Content Management Systems out there. Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal just to name a few. Available templates, themes and extensions allow the CMS to "extend" it's capabilities.

You can install picture galleries, Image sliders, Contact Forms, Social Media buttons, E-commerce solutions, Booking solutions, Calenders etc......there are so many extensions out there that can really enhance the functionality of your website.

Many people think that you are restricted to certain styles and colors when you have a site built with a CMS. While that can be somewhat true, you can custom code any of these sites to gain the look that you want. Most changes can be accomplished for a little extra money but still save thousands of dollars off the cost of having a custom web site built from scratch.

Plus, having a Content Management System allows you (the business owner) to create your own unique content without paying the webmaster to do it for you. For example: let's say that you own a restaurant and being a good restaurant owner, you would like to promote your daily food specials. A CMS allows you to go into your site and change the daily specials everyday. Having the freedom to change the daily specials yourself can add tremendous value to the SEO of your site along with the fact that your customers can go to your site everyday and look at the daily specials and decide if they want to come up to your restaurant for lunch or dinner. A CMS gives you this flexibility. You can change your own website without knowing any coding at all.

A CMS built web site can give you huge value going forward....




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
248-804-9744

Why CMS?

Why CMS?

CMS stands for content management system. It is a software based system for creating a website.You can either code a website from scratch or you can use a CMS.

Coding a website from scratch can be a very arduous and expensive way of creating a website. Everything must be coded from scratch. Whereas, a CMS created website you can leverage the structure of existing templates and the software core to have a jump start on the coding. You start from a base and customize from there.

CMS has allowed the website creation companies to be able to create affordable websites for smaller companies! No longer do websites cost 10's of thousands of dollars. You can have a very creatively designed website now for just hundreds of dollars.

Remember though, having a website and having a website that is "found on the Internet" are two different things. Anybody can make a website but not everybody makes websites with on-page SEO created right into structure of the website......

Click here for an example of a CMS created website

More to come.......


Jeffrey Dean
Owner of LMS Website Services
www.lmswebsiteservices.com
248-804-9744

Professional Looking Website VS Do it Yourself Website

Comparing a professionally built website with one of those "do it yourself" websites is a self serving subject. Since I create professional looking websites packed with good SEO juice, I'm probably biased!!! Well, not probably, I am biased. But for good reason....

There is a huge difference in a professionally created website. I will just give you some facts and let you decide for yourself.

In my experience, I can always tell when a "free" website was made by the owner of the company. (Free is really not always free in the end now are they?). Sites that you get "free" from like YP.com or ATT when you sign up for a listing (and here is where "free" is not really free since you are paying to be listed and your "free" website is included in there.....) are short on features. They look homemade. Kinda like when you look at someone's landscaping. You can always tell if the homeowner did it themselves or if they had a professional landscaping company with a landscape designer come out and do it for them. Same thing with a website.

Through the years I've looked at so many websites that you could tell were "home made". Now, is this really the impression you want to give your customers? Probably not......

A professional website looks professionally made. Your customers will go online and call you because your website says "professional company".

These particular types of websites (home made websites) are probably worth what was paid for....nothing!

Now some of the free online website creation services are much better than these "homemade" websites but are still, in the end, do it yourself websites. I will give them credit for appearances (which is important) but what about SEO (search engine optimization). They do have tools to use to help you in this but really, what do you know about SEO? With your limited knowledge of SEO do you really think you can get the results of a professional?

With Google constantly changing their algorithms how can you possibly know how to get yourself found on the Internet. And if you can't get found then what good is a website?

For example, there was a time that back links would give you great relevancy with Google and really kick start your ranking. The reasoning was, the more back links the higher the ranking. The higher the ranking, the higher you were found on Google (and let's be real, if you aren't on the first page of Google than you really aren't anywhere. And I know that the 2nd and 3rd pages are "good" too but most searchers don't even go that far). Well, now if you have too many "low quality" back links Google may even penalize your site and drop you completely off the radar (see my previous back link blog).

Have you ever heard of the Panda update? How about the Penguin? These are things a professional website creation company knows about and the average Joe doesn't. So there is incredible value in using a professional firm that can do the right thing for your company.

So if you are serious about getting into the 21st century with your marketing and you have a "homemade" website, you probably aren't getting the results that you anticipated. Creating a website built from the ground up with SEO in mind will be a great start towards your marketing goals.




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://lmswebsiteservices.com 

Is Your Website Mobile Optimized?

Mobile friendly websites........is your website Mobile friendly?  Because if not then your missing out on a very important aspect of Internet marketing.

First of all, Google wants your site mobile friendly.....need I say more? If Google wants your site mobile friendly then you should make your website mobile friendly. With so many people these days searching the web for just about everything, your website should show well on mobile devices.

People that search on the go (people on the road) want their information fast. They want convenience and speed. If your website loads slow or is not optimized for mobile then these people will go somewhere else. They want simple and fast (did I already say fast??). They don't want to have to search your website on a small screen that is hard to navigate on their mobile. Google knows this and is rewarding sites that are optimized for mobile (so they can enhance their users experience) and penalizing sites that are not mobile friendly.

Two ways to make your site mobile friendly. Either have a separate mobile site that links to your main site or have a responsive website design.

A separate site can be a simplified version of your main site. Something easily navigated with a link to your main site so people can go there if they want to.

A responsive website "responds" to the device used to find your site. If a tablet, then the website will adjust its size and rearrange its components to fit the screen size. If a mobile device, same thing. Your site will appear differently on a desktop, tablet or mobile but it will still be your main site. Google prefers this method. They want (as of now) responsive sites.

Ok, nuff said about mobile optimized sites for now......



Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://lmswebsiteservices.com 

Optimizing Google+Local Step 2

Okay, sorry about the long delay between posts but I've been slammed.

Step two of optimizing your Google+Local page. Once you've verified your listing on Google+Local, now you need to fill out all of your companies information. So enter in your company address, phone number, website URL (this is very important because if creates a quality back link to your site), hours you are open, a description of your products and services. Fill out everything you possibly can. The more thorough you are the better. Upload lots of pictures that show your company in a great light.

One of the most important things you can do is fill out the description portion of Google+Local. And when you do, you will need to fill it with all of the keywords that pertain to your company. Any keyword that you want to rank for and is prominent on your website should be optimized here. Just cram this description area with loads of keywords (how to find important keywords in your specific field is a subject for another day).

So, anywhere you can put in your keywords as you fill out your Google+Local form, should be taken advantage of.

Lastly, you should link your Google+Local page URL to your website. And vice versa. You will already have a back link to your site when you enter in your website address, so now you should add something to your website. For ex: On my site at LMS Website Services I have put the words "See our Google+Local page" and then linked it to the URL of my Google+Local page. So it links both ways.

Well, that's it. If you follow these procedures you will have gone a long way towards getting listed first in the Google+Local area of Google's search results.....



Jeff Dean
Owner of LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

Optimzing Google+Local

Optimizing Google+Local

Well Google has changed it's local search results from Google Places to Google+Local. This is Google's local directory. Kind of like it's yellow pages for all local business's. Being found in Google+Local is not hard.

Google will index your site and if your company is located in a certain city, let's say White Lake Michigan, then anybody searching for your type of business in White Lake, Michigan will show up in Google+Local.

Now here's the rub. Even though every business based in that city will be listed in Google+Local, not every business will be on page 1. Some will be pages back. Is that where you want your company to be?

Okay then, one thing you can do to be optimized on Google+Local and be found higher up in the rankings is to optimize your name and company description when you claim your company on Google+Local. Oh yes, I almost forgot, you will need to claim your listing so you can optimize it and manage it.

You will need a Google account and/or a gmail account. Once you have these you can go in and search for your company on Google maps (go to maps.google.com. Once there you can search for your company. In the search bar at the top, put in the name of your company and address or city where you are located so Google has some information about your company and will find the right one.

Once you do that you should see companies listed on the left side. Click on the "reviews" link for your business and that should take you into the listing. If that is your business you can scroll down and you will see a box that says "is this your business?" and "manage this page". Click on this link and claim your business.

You'll need to verify your business to prove that you are the owner. That's step one.....

More to come on the next step in optimizing your Google+Local page so you can be found on the top of the search results in the Google+Local area....




Jeff Dean
Owner of LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

More Stuff on Back Links

Okay. Naturally occurring back links. What are they??

Naturally occurring back links are the links to your site that other sites have mentioned (put in) in their blogs or on the websites (or many other places on the web for that matter). Gone are the days when you could put a "links" page on your site with lots and lots of links to other sites in exchange for them putting  a link to your website on their "links" page. This was called link exchanging or reciprocal links (which aren't all bad, more on this later).

Google sees a page full of just links to other sites as link farming and not a "vote" for that site. Google will penalize this practice if it becomes blatant enough.

Naturally occurring links happen, well, naturally. For example: Say we are a carpet retailer and we mention some of the carpet mills that we carry carpet from. It our content we "link" the name "Mohawk" to their website so customers can go to Mohawk's website to check out the newest styles, colors and trends. That would be a naturally occurring link and Google gives that link high value. In most cases anyways (we don't want to get into every aspect of linking because we could be here all day!!).

So, part of every business owners job is to try to have an ongoing link strategy that will help build their brand (like this blog is doing for us....lol).

Good back links are harder and harder to come by these days and gone are the days of buying low quality back links in bulk.

More to come.....


Jeff Dean
Owner of LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

Stuff About Back Links

Google likes back links. The more links you have from other sites that link to your site is a vote for your site. Google sees all the links that link to your website and they see that as a vote of confidence for your site. The more "votes" your site has, the more relevant Google finds your site. The more relevant your site, the more page rank. The more page rank, the higher you go in Google's search results. And that's what we all want don't we? To be found higher and higher on Google's search results.

If you can sift through all the directories on the first page of Google, you may be able to find some of the relevant sites that pertain to your search.

In my experience, the first page of Google search results is filled with directories such as: Yelp, YP.com, Angie's List, Manta, Merchant Circle etc. And it goes on and on. So every time you search, let's say for a retail carpet store, you will be inundated with directories and probably see about 2 actual carpet company websites on the first page (that is in the organic search results).

Why is this? Because the large directories have teams of SEO (search engine optimization) people constantly working on this aspect of their online marketing campaigns. And they have lots and lots of back links that link to their site.

SEO is a constantly evolving thing. And Google's algorithms keep constantly changing (for our good they say) so it's hard to always get and keep your website on the front page of Google.

Every back link you acquire will transform to a vote of confidence to Google. So getting back links (high quality links from high quality websites) is a highly desired thing. Do not under any circumstances partner with a company that promises lots of back links for a price. These will be low quality back links and Google will see through the strategy and penalize your site (this is a very bad thing).

Back links should happen naturally.

More soon........


Jeff Dean
LMS Website Services LLC
http://lmswebsiteservices.com