Website Blog

Is Having a Website Enough?

July 21st, 2015

When you start a new business, you will need a website. A company website will accomplish much. It provides legitimacy and vital information about your company. I'm always astounded when potential clients say that they don't need a company website. Everybody, and I mean everybody, goes on the Internet to find anything and everything these days. If you're not there then you're missing out!

So, is a website enough? Just build it and they will come? Well, not likely. You will need a website that can be "Found on the Internet"!

Do you know what it takes to rank higher in Google's search rankings? What about optimizing meta tags, description tags, title tags? What about the importance of site speed? Do you even know how to test for site speed? Is your site mobile ready? What about citations? Do you have any?

These are all very important facets of your online presence. Having a website is extremely important. What you do with it is just as important. Are you using your website to bring in new business? How about leveraging your Facebook page with the home page of your company website. Are you adding fresh new content to your website?

So many things to know. So many things to do. Just keeping up with all of Google's new algorithms can be a full time job.

Having a company website is a great start. But after all, it is just a start.......

This is the start of a new series of articles that I am writing about companies online presence and continued interaction with consumers and potential clients on Internet related services.

More to come!

Nuff said for now......

Get Found Locally

December 3rd, 2013

Have you ever searched for a local company and get confused by the myriad of search results that show up? There was a time when you could search online and your results would generate local business's for you to contact.

Now, when  you search, the first page of Google may only have 1 or 2 local business websites that will show up. The large online directories have been dominating search results in a way that can be annoying when you are just trying to find a local company to do business with.

A typical page in Google's search results will yield three main areas. The top area (and side area) is the paid ad area, then the main content area and within the main content area you will have the third area which is Google+ Local.

Typically, the top and side paid area will be shaded slightly so that you can tell that it's the paid area (even though it can be hard to see sometimes. You really have to look close to see it). This is Google's way of generating money for itself by selling these placement ads that will insure that your website is at the top of Google. This can be a relatively inexpensive way to be found up high on Google but the costs can add up quickly if you don't monitor your activity. (Google does allow you to set your daily spending limits but sometimes just one click can use up your daily allowance which means you are done for that day and your website will not show up again until the next day). This is one way to be found on the first page of Google but not the best way! People tend to distrust those paid ads (since they are paid after all and haven't worked or earned their way to the front page of Google by their relevancy!!).

So, being found organically is by far the best way (and normally the cheapest way in the long run). SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the term used for the work that is done to increase your website's relevancy which will in turn get it climbing up the search result's ladder. The main content area will be the organic search results (I will speak more on this at a later date).

Today we focus on Google+ Local. The local search result area. Google will find your website and display it here if the address for your company is physically located in the city which was searched for. For example: if someone searches for "website creation company highland mi". Then hopefully every website creation company that has their physical address in Highland Michigan will be listed in the "Local" area in the search results that are displayed.

Ideally you would like to get listed first in this partitioned area. Good optimization of your Google+Local listing will get you listed first or at least up high on this list (it is not alphabetical). There are a number of things you can do to optimize your Google+Local area.

Search Results Getting Squeezed

August 27th, 2016

It's getting harder and harder for your local website to be found on the first page of Google search results. That's by design (by Google). Google makes money by people paying them for pay per click advertising. Google doesn't make a penny when your website is found on their first page organically. So of course Google is trying to minify the effects of local SEO.

The first page of Google is broken up into 3 distinct category areas. The top is reserved for people who pay for their ads to show (pay per click or Adwords advertising). The middle section is reserved for local listings and the last part is reserved for organic listings. At least that's how it used to be.

What Google has done is shrink the local listings and shrink the organic listings. Google local listings used to have 7 offerings with a link to open a larger local listings page. Now Google has shrunk that down to 3 local listings. So it's important to optimize your Google my Business page so you can hopefully show in these top three listings and show on the front page. There is also talk of shrinking this again to 2 local listings. Geez.

Organic search results have also been shrunk. In the old (and I mean old) days you would show up on the front page of Google as long as you were in the top 10 or so in your field. Now when you search for a local company you will find the search results are crammed with links to other links. For example, let's say you want to find a plumber in Leonard, MI. I actually have a plumbing site I've designed for a plumber in Leonard MI. Addison Plumbing of Leonard MI. When you do a search you will find Addison Plumbing but you will also find (cluttering up the page, I might add) listings for Yp.com, Angies list, Service Magic (Now Home Advisor.......and look for all of the complaints there, geez) and a bunch of other directories. So, instead of showing you a whole page of plumbers that service the Leonard, MI area you might get two plumbing sites and everything else will be directories and the like. So now you must be in the top two or three search results to even show up on the first page of Google search results.

Also, Google is showing ads on the right side of the first page and, if you can believe it, they are showing MORE pay per click ads/sites on the bottom of the page now too. Unbelievable.

I have found that I can do most everything I need to do to show up first in organic results (and most of the websites I manage do show up on the first page of Google multiple times) but still not show ahead of websites that really aren't as relevant to the search inquiry.....

Google provides a great service to people in that they show search results for your inquiry but they don't make any money from organic or local listings so of course Google is going to start shrinking those areas and increasing the amount of space given to "paid" listings. This makes economic sense for them but does not service the Internet community as a whole.

Now, if Google could just strip away all of the directories that are listed on the first page and mainly show websites that are most relevant to a local search then the results would still be good quality. But with all of the ads and directories that show up on the first page of Google, it makes it almost (and I do mean almost, not entirely) useless. (Useless might be a strong term, maybe just low quality.....). Just my informed opinion.

Facebook Integration.....

November 15th, 2014

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.

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.....