Keeping It Simple Yo.....

Keeping it simple. There are a lot of websites out there. Some are very complex and serve a certain purpose and some are very simple and serve their own purposes.

There are times when having a huge, complex website is a good thing. Some large companies have so much to say and provide for their intended audience that their sites must out of necessity be large and complex. They want to have everything on their website to serve their potential customers. Even though this is a good thing, these sites can be cumbersome and hard to navigate sometimes.

Most people just want to get on a site, find what they need and then get off. In these days of wanting everything now and wanting them fast, we must, as webmasters, take into account how the consumer uses these websites. I find myself researching things on the web and am amazed at how long it takes to accomplish this simple task.

I was looking into base layers the other day (something I can wear when it's cold and when I'm hiking) and by the time I was done, 2 hours had passed. I couldn't believe how long it took just to look into which type of base layer was the best and why. How much they cost and was the price of the higher end base layers worth the additional money or should I just go with a mid grade base layer and save the money. So many things to consider. My preference would have been to find out all these things is less than 2 hours. Maybe something like 10 minutes would have been nice.

So the question arises. Why would it take so long for such a small task? I found websites that I thought would give me information that I was looking for but found that they didn't really help me. It took me a while to find the correct website that gave me the answers I was looking for. This is what Google is striving for. To present relevant websites to people that are searching for certain things. So that they don't have to take 2 hours to find everything they want on the web.

So one of our strategies here at LMS Website Services is to keep it simple. Most of the websites we build are simple and to the point. Presenting the critical information to the consumer while resisting the urge to complicate things with a lot of worthless content.

Remember, most people don't want to spend 2 hours on the Internet looking for what they want. They want to get on, find what they want and get off. So a simple, beautifully made and presented website has value to the customer and to Google. Don't forget, we have to please the customer and Google at the same time. After all, the customers won't find you if Google doesn't present you to them.

In summary, you should have a website that is simple enough so the customer can easily find what they want in a timely fashion. It should look great (simple doesn't mean it looks cheap or skimpy). The consumer will judge you and your company by the presentation of your website. Remember, your website is an extension of you. It represents you. It's the first impression a potential customer has of you (and we know what they say about first impressions). Your website should also present to Google what you are all about so they can present "you" via your website to your potential customers. Your homepage should have your company name and phone number in a prominent spot which is easily found by the customer. It should have the basics of what you do so the customer will know quickly whether you can be of service to them or not. If yes then they will normally continue to peruse your site for all of the pertinent information that they require.

The end result will be a call to you to inquire about your services and how you can be of help to them in their particular situation. And that's all good.....

Nuff said for now, eh?

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

Some Reasons for Having a Website.....

So what are the reasons you should have a website if you own your own business. Well there are plenty of good sound reasons to have a website so let's just name a few, eh?

1. You can have a website for marketing reasons. If you've ever paid for print advertising or yellow page ads then you know how expensive those types of marketing can be. They run into the thousands of dollars and once the ad is gone, it's gone. Now on your website, you can create an ad for a fraction of what the print ads will cost (and I mean a fraction). And once you've created a marketing page on your site, you can leave it there forever if you want to. It'll never "be gone" unless you want it to go away. For that matter, once a page is made, you can put it up on your site, then take it down and put it up again at a later date. It'll always be there (whether it's live on your website or not). It's not like print ads where they're here today and gone tomorrow (which means you have to get more bang for your buck while the print ad is running because like I said before, once it's gone, it's gone). And so is the money spent on the ad. So let's hope you got your money's worth with that print ad. Whereas the website ad will continue to draw customers for you for as long as you want it showing on your web site. Now that is a great value!

2. A website will not only draw you new customers but it will also substantiate your business. Lots of people won't use a business that doesn't have a website. They feel like: no website then the business maybe isn't legitimate or maybe a fly by night company. They just feel that if you have a website then maybe you'll be around for a while. They feel like the website is a permanent structure and makes you trustworthy to deal with. Trust me, this is how customers think. So having a website for your business is essential in most cases.

3. You can use your website to inform people and customers of what you have going on. Maybe you have a sale on a certain product that your supplier is closing out. Maybe they have a couple of water heaters they are closing out cheap. You can use your website to announce this "great deal" that you have and you just may find a customer that is looking for just what you have to offer. Somebody that would never have found you otherwise. Or you are offering a limited time deal on some sort of service. Like maybe offering furnace checkups at a discounted price in the fall. You know people are looking to get this done before the cold weather sets in and they will be looking (online of course) for deals on this service. They may as well find you (unless you don't have a website of course......) because then they won't find you!

4. Another reason for having a website is to let potential customers know about you and your services. Letting them know your hours of operation and if you have a store then letting them know how to get to your location. This is a place that you can let customers know how long you've been in business. You can put testimonials on your site letting customers know just how great you really are.

I can go on and on about why having a website is not only essential to any business in the 21st century but is cost effective, informational and another way for customers to get a hold of you. What are you waiting for?????

Nuff said.......

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

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