Maintaining Your Website Doesn’t Have to Cost a Fortune

“Cost of entry” is a concept that has killed millions of potential businesses before they were ever born.

It’s the idea that says starting up a new business — even something as simple as launching a web-based business — simply costs too much. And if you don’t have the initial capital, you can’t get into the game.

But technological advancements, increased competition for web-based services, and significantly lower start-up costs have essentially eliminated “cost of entry” as an obstacle for many potential business owners.

One-Time Charges

True, you probably will need to pay somebody to create a highly effective website for you. But the cost of designing and launching your own website usually is a one-time charge.

The way many web maintenance businesses keep their clients paying is by requiring a monthly subscription fee for services they don’t need and can’t use. Once your website is up and running, you generally don’t need to keep paying the graphic artist or web designer who created it.

While there are some minor recurring charges, such as web hosting, these can cost as little as $5 per month. So what exactly are you paying for?

Maintaining Your Website – Maintenance Fees

If you ask many unscrupulous web page providers, the answer is often “maintenance fees”.

But think about it: What maintenance does a website actually need? If it was properly designed and fully functional in the first place, it should run flawlessly starting from the very first day.

Even if you do want to upgrade your website, the content management system you use, such as WordPress, often will let you implement updates yourself with the click of a button at little or no cost.

Maintaining Your Website – Ask Questions

If the company you pay to manage your business website tries to sell you a maintenance package, try this experiment: Ask them to provide for you in writing exactly what they will do for the money.

Then search Google for those exact same services. Odds are, you will find easy, simple to use instructions for doing everything they are offering on your own, and for free.

With today’s technology, website maintenance doesn’t need to be complicated or difficult. In many cases, you can do it yourself.

Capture More Traffic with Geo-Specific Keywords

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Keywords are what search engines use to rank websites. They are specific words and phrases that best describe what a particular website is all about.

For example, if your website promotes your dry cleaning business, you want to include keywords such as “dry cleaning”, “clothes cleaning”, “one-hour dry cleaning”, and others.

Search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing, and most importantly Google will scan your website, using sophisticated algorithms to determine what keywords within the content of your site best describe what it is all about, and then rank your web page.

Then, when users of that particular search engine use it to look for business websites using those specific keywords, your page will show up on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for those specific keywords.

Capture More Traffic with Geo-Specific Keywords – Getting Ranked Higher

But think about how this works for a moment: Not many people are probably going to use their smartphone, tablet, or laptop to find a dry cleaner by typing in the keywords “dry cleaner”. That would probably give them results from all over the world!

Instead, they are much more likely to type in geo-specific keywords such as “Miami Dry Cleaner” or “Fort Lauderdale dry cleaner.” Or they would type in search words like “dry cleaners near me”.

Capture More Traffic with Geo-Specific Keywords – Make Your Content Geo-Specific

That’s why you want to be as geographically specific as possible in your website content. Rather than making your keywords “dry cleaner”, you want to include the state, city, or even neighborhood in which your business is located.

Including geo-specific keywords will help your web page show up on the SERP of prospective customers in your specific area.

And that makes perfect sense. After all, you don’t need to market to customers in another city or state. You want customers who are nearby right now.

Cross-Marketing on Your Website Can Boost Sales, Reputation

The objective of most business websites is to promote the product and services that the company offers, as well as reinforcing the brand the organization wants to establish.

But should you consider promoting other people’s businesses or other organizations on your website? Maybe.

Cross-Marketing on Your Website Can Boost Sales – Reciprocal Marketing

Reciprocal marketing is when you promote another person’s business or products on your website in exchange for their promoting yours on their web pages.

It simply requires entering into an agreement with another business in order to promote both businesses for the benefit of each other.

Obviously, you probably wouldn’t enter into an agreement with a direct competitor. But there may be products or services that complement yours that could be a perfect fit for reciprocal marketing.

For example, if you own a health spa you might enter a reciprocal agreement with a company that offers relaxing lotions or aromatic candles. That company would then promote your spa on their website.

Both businesses benefit because consumers who are interested in one type of product probably also would be interested in the other.

Cross-Marketing on Your Website Can Boost Sales – Community Outreach

Another related type of cross promotion on your website is community outreach. This is when you use your website to pledge your support for a local charity or cause you are passionate about.

For example, if your website promotes your local business, you might include a badge that supports a local charity such as the Ronald McDonald House. Or you could include a pink ribbon that signifies breast cancer awareness.

Community outreach has the dual benefit of supporting an important cause or charity while affiliating your business with doing good in your community.

Both cross promotion and community outreach don’t cost you anything more to do, but can bring additional sales and more customers to your business, as well as enhancing its reputation within the community.

SEO Basics That You Need to Know

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Now that digital marketing has been around for more than a decade, most people are familiar with the term “search engine optimization”, or SEO. Even if they don’t fully understand what it means.

SEO is critical to the success of your business website. Without SEO, it’s practically impossible to get your web pages ranked high on the most popular search engines.

And if your customers can’t find you, they can’t spend their money on the products and services you offer.

On-Page and Off-Page

Here’s something you probably didn’t know about SEO: There are actually two different types, on-page and off-page SEO.

On-page SEO includes the things you do within the content of your web page to improve its rankings. It includes things like including keywords in the optimal places.

Off-page SEO means doing things on other people’s sites to attract visitors to your pages. This includes things like participating in forums and promoting your web pages on social media.

SEO Basics – Page Titles Are Primary

If you do nothing else to promote your page, make sure your page title includes the optimal keywords that best describe the content you offer.

Search engines will look at all of your content when assigning a page ranking. But the element they look at first and give the most weight to is your page title.

The page title can be found at the very top of your browser on the tab. It’s also what pops up on Google when people search for sites like yours.

SEO Basics – Keep Meta Descriptions to 155 Characters

Like Twitter postings, meta descriptions for your web pages need to be limited to a certain number of characters, in this instance 155, including spaces.

Meta descriptions also need to be persuasive and compelling because these are what appear under your link on Google and other search engine results pages.

Use these SEO secrets to improve your page rankings and you should see an immediate improvement in your traffic flow.

Choosing a Domain Name for Your Website

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When creating a new website, one of the first decisions you need to make is what it’s going to be called. The domain name is going to be both the “official” name of your website on the internet as well as the address that people — or programs — are going to type in when they want to be directed to your web page.

So how does a website get a domain name that the rest of the world uses to find it?

Buying a Domain Name

Like anything else having to do with your business, if you want a domain name you have to buy it. Or more precisely, rent it.

In the same way that your home mailing address is different than anyone else’s, your domain name online also has to be unique.

Fortunately, the cost of registering a domain isn’t very high. It ranges from about $10 to $30 per year, depending on where you register it and how far in advance you are willing to pay. A domain name can be registered for one to ten years usually.

Where to Register Your Domain Name

When it comes to registering your domain name, there isn’t really any difference between any of the official registry sites. Typically, after your web address is registered, the place where you bought it doesn’t have much to do with maintaining it — other than possibly sending you a reminder when it’s due to expire.

There are many places that will register your web domain name. The most popular is probably GoDaddy.com, but there are many others.

Your best bet is to shop around. By spending just a few minutes comparing offers, you can save money on the cost and possibly negotiate additional services for the same money while you are at it. Many registries will give you a discount for registering more than one domain name, for example.

Set ‘SMART’ Goals for Your Business Website

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What do you hope to accomplish with your business website? Specifically?

Building and maintaining effective web pages isn’t cheap. While there are lots of ways to attract “free” traffic, in reality, the business owner typically pays hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to draw customers to their online business sites.

How can you tell if the investment is worth it? By having “SMART” goals for your business website.

Making Web Pages Worthwhile

“SMART” is an acronym that describes successful goal-setting. It stands for:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Agreed Upon
R – Realistic
T – Time-Based

These five criteria are an effective way to measure if the investment you make in your business’s online web pages is worth it.

Launching a website and then sitting back to wait to see what it will do isn’t a successful business plan. Instead, you need to have SMART goals for your website that tell you — in practical, black and white terms — if it is doing what you need it to do for your business.

The Measure of Success

Your goals need to be specific: How much traffic should your website be getting per day, per hour, or even per minute. It needs to bring in “$X” amount of additional revenue. And so on.

The objectives also need to be measurable. “I want people to enjoy my website” isn’t specific enough. “I want to receive 100 “Likes” per week on my Facebook page” is.

Creating unrealistic goals for your business’s online presence will only lead to disappointment. Instead, keep your goals attainable then consistently grow on your success week after week.

Finally, the goals you set for your online website, social media campaign, or other online enterprise need to be time-based. Open-ended goals aren’t measurable or specific enough.

Instead, using deadlines to motivate your and your team to success is a time-tested approach to achieving your objectives.

Website Development & Coding

If you have never worked with web design or page creation before, all the technical terms related to coding can seem a little bit intimidating.

Like anything else, however, once you start to work with a design program, it becomes quite instinctual. To help you get started here’s a breakdown of some of the most basic terms you will encounter once you get started.

What Is HTML?

One of the first terms you are likely to encounter is HTML, which is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language.

In layman’s terms, HTML is what provides the basic structure of websites. HTML is a markup language, rather than a programming language. That means it uses tags to identify content.

HRML is enhanced and modified by other technologies, such as CSS and JavaScript.

What Is CSS?

Okay, then. So what is CSS?

CSS is basically a list of rules that can assign different properties to HTML tags. These rules can be applied to individual tags, multiple tags, entire documents, or multiple documents.

In other words, CSS is what you use to control presentation, formatting, and layout.

Website Development & Coding – What is JavaScript?

The last term you need to know is JavaScript. No, it’s not something you read for a film while drinking a cup of coffee.

Instead, JavaScript is used to control the behavior of different elements on your web page. It’s a programming language that was first introduced in 1995, making it a relative newcomer to page design.

Today, however, JavaScript is supported by every major web browser and is used on nearly every website on the internet. It’s the language that allows web developers design sites that are interactive with the people who use them.

Most of the interactive elements on the web pages you visit are powered by JavaScript.

Now that you are familiar with these three important terms, web design should be less intimidating for you!

Customer Recognition Programs Pay Huge Dividends

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Have you ever had the experience of walking into a local store and having the proprietor come out and greet you by name? If so, it’s probably something you haven’t forgotten.

It’s also a huge motivator for you to return to that business again and again. Why? Because people have a natural desire to be recognized. It makes people feel special and is one of the simplest, fastest, and most affordable ways to build loyalty bond between your customers and your business, brand, and products.

Digitally Recognizing Your Customers

Every online business is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to capture a larger and larger market share. One of the best ways for your business to do this is to launch recognition programs for your existing customers.

While you may not be able to physically replicate the experience you had when you were recognized by the owner of a local business, there are many steps you can take to build those same kinds of positive emotions within your online customers.

For example, one simple way to do this is to remember the preferences of your customers who visited your business online. With just a few lines of code, you can capture your website visitor’s preferences and remind them of what they looked at the last time they visited your online store.

Customer Recognition Programs Pay Huge Dividends – we recommend customizations

Another effective way to interact with customers so that they feel recognized by your online business is to make personalized recommendations of products you think they might want.

Streaming video services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu already provide this service this for their subscribers, recommending TV shows and movies they think they might like based on what they watched in the past.

This type of affordable software is widely available for online businesses as well. By making recommendations to your customers about products or services you think they might enjoy, you can reinforce the loyalty bonds that are the key to repeat business.

Use the Web to Attract Customers to Your Florida Business

While the internet connects people worldwide, many local businesses are still very much dependent on local customers.

Attracting people in your area to your local business requires a technique called “Local SEO”. Basically, local SEO involves using specific geographically specific keywords to send traffic to your business website.

How to Use Local SEO on Your Website

Basically, local SEO works like this: If somebody goes online searching for a business like yours, they probably are going to use specific keywords.

For example, let’s say you own a dry cleaning business in Tampa. People looking for a local dry cleaning business who type in the keywords “dry cleaners” into their search engine probably would get results that include dry cleaning businesses all over the US, or even the world..

But if these same prospective customers type in the keywords “dry cleaners in Tampa”, they will get results that include only local dry cleaning businesses in Tampa, Florida.

Optimizing with Local SEO

How does that happen? Google, Bing, and the other big search engines scan and rank websites for specific keywords. When they find a web page for a local Tampa dry cleaners, they will include this in their rankings for those specific keywords.

But search engines will rank near the top of the search results those sites with the exact keywords “Tampa dry cleaners” in their headlines, subheads, first 100 words of the text, last 100 words of the text, photo descriptions, and other places.

That’s what local SEO means. By including geographically specific keywords in specific places in your web pages, you can get your web page ranked at or near the top of the list anybody gets when they type those keywords into the most popular search engines.

And given the fact that most people use their mobile devices to search for local businesses, local SEO is only going to become more important as time goes on.

Google Ads Industry Benchmarks

3 Simple Steps To Attracting The Best Clients

As marketing analysts we’re constantly thinking about the most optimal way to target our potential customers. With so many metrics to keep tabs on, figuring out whether or not you’re getting it right is often easier said than done.

To help shed some light on the situation, the folks at WordStream released a detailed new study on Google Ads industry metrics. The study reveals a ton of helpful industry-specific benchmarks for both search and display ads, including average clickthrough rate (CTR), average cost-per-click (CPC), average conversion rate (CVR), and average cost-per-action (CPA).