Website Blog

Optimizing Google+Local (Google My Business).....

February 22nd, 2014

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....

More Information on Back Links......

February 1st, 2014

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.....

Google's New Algo and How It Affects You.....

March 21st, 2015

Google is rolling out a new ranking factor for mobile. On April 21st, 2015 Google is adding an algorithm to it's mobile ranking system that will benefit any website that is "mobile friendly". Google realizes that more and more people are searching the web with their mobile phones and tablets so Google wants every (or the most possible) website to be mobile friendly.

What does mobile friendly mean? It means that when people search and find a website on their mobile phones, the website will "fit" into the screen size. Google realizes that people will scroll up and down on their phones to peruse a website but they don't like to scroll side to side. Traditional websites were sized to fit the desktop. They didn't fit the screen size of tablets and mobile phones.

In recent years webmasters have started to install a mobile friendly template onto their sites so that when people found them on their phones, the site would "fit" within the parameters of the phone screen size. One drawback to this solution was that the mobile template (the overall look of the website) was, in many instances, different than the main website itself.

So webmasters started looking for a different solution. What they came up with (and what Google prefers) was a responsive style website. What needed to be done was somehow the website itself would have to realize what device was trying to access it's files and then present the website in a manner that was consistent with the device itself. In general, this is how it's done. Within the core coding of the website itself, code would be imputed that would control the way the website was presented on the end users device. So, for example, if someone on a cell phone was trying to find LMS Website Services, then the site would realize "Hey, a cell phone user is trying to load me". This would trigger the code behind the scenes and the website would reconfigure itself and move certain elements around so that they fit the mobile phone screen size in a pleasing manner. No scrolling side to side. No small text to try and read. The text would re size itself also to make it more readable on the smaller screens.

In the past, a website that was not mobile friendly would rank just as high as a site that was mobile friendly but as of April 21st, that will not be the case. Google wants all websites to be mobile friendly and they will rank (and show in search results) mobile friendly sites higher (everything else considered being the same). Google's intent, in my opinion, is in the end to only present mobile friendly sites in their search results. They want the user experience to be enhanced and a non mobile friendly website showing on a mobile phone is, in their opinion, not a good user experience. So now that mobile friendly appears in Google's algorithm (affecting page rank and position in search results), this would be an important time to reconfigure your website to be mobile friendly if it isn't already.

So, is your website mobile friendly? If not, your position in Google's search results is going to be adversely affected. As the times change, Google changes so we must change. Get your website mobile friendly. It's important!

Nuff said eh..........

Keeping It Simple Yo.....

January 10th, 2014

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?