Category: Tips

Posted on

Five Website Killers

There are many things that you can do to benefit your website, but have you thought about the things that can kill your website? Here are my five top website killers – things you clearly should stay clear of doing to get good organic search engine placement and impress viewers.

  1. Don’t build your website all in Flash. It looks cool, but search engines cannot catalog the information contained in .swf files or for that matter .flv files. Google has just announced in early August that it is working with Adobe to try to rectify this problem, but that doesn’t help you now.
  2. Don’t ever steal your content from another website. You need unique content, don’t scrape someone else’s site. Not only will Google penalize you for duplicate content but you may get sued for copyright infringement. You can’t use the content even if you give credit – that’s still infringing.
  3. Don’t test your website in Firefox. If you don’t check, you won’t know and you really should. Firefox is an important browser and the browser of choice for nearly 25% of the browsing readers. If you don’t look good in IE AND Firefox, you may alienate a large part of your readers.
  4. Don’t make your web page layout too big. Although there are actually still some people surfing the web with 800 by 600 pixel resolution, the bulk of people are at 1024 pixels wide and larger. For my own site, still nearly 30% of my viewers are at 1024 pixels wide. Make sure you have website statistics that track this and then make sure to design your site to accommodate this important segment and not alienate viewers by having scroll bars at the bottom for 1024 pixel resolution viewers.
  5. Don’t use webmaster tools. Google, Yahoo and MSN have webmaster tools, make sure you are using them so you will know how the various search engines see your website. If you have problems, these tools can be invaluable in order to diagnose problems.
Posted on

Move Forward or Die – What to Embrace to Grow Your Business?

Even I get fatigued with staying on top of my business for the Web. It’s hard work to blog, write a newsletter, stay up-to-date in your field, tweak your website for organic placement, and manage your pay per click program on top of your regular business maintenance issues like billing, selling, and then actually doing the work you get paid for. But, if you don’t stay on top of your game, moving forward constantly, you WILL die. Well, not literally, but figuratively your business will, really. You must constantly be moving forward to stay “in the game” to win new clients for your business.

Too often businesses forget that to grow that they must be looking for new ways to reach out to prospects and clients. You simply cannot grow your business by being static or doing the same old things. Being a successful business person is all about being dynamic. That means actively growing your business, looking for new opportunities, and stretching to reach more people on the Web in new ways. Same old same old will not cut it in today’s competitive environment.

So what are the new things you can and should embrace to help grow your business and win new customers? Here are my top five web recommendations:

  1. Start blogging – there are too many benefits that you get from blogging to not be doing it now!
  2. Consider a monthly e-newsletter – keep your name in front of prospects with well written pieces and make sure to archive old newsletters on your website.
  3. Make sure you are using pay per click advertising – but only supplement your business by targeting the keywords where you cannot place organically. Your budget doesn’t need to be big, but consistently work on keeping your name in the marketplace in front of prospects and customers.
  4. Watch industry forums and post comments on the top forums and blogs making sure to link back to your own website. Choose websites that have “extreme authority”. In my industry for example, I routinely post on the Google Search blog, Microsoft’s adCenter and other top search blogs, and other industry expert’s blogs. Always post insightful commentary never spam. Google usually picks up these comments as links back to your website and they can really work for you to build authority and traffic.
  5. Start now with a syndicated article program. Hire a ghost writer to research and write articles for you. Post at least one a month for six to twelve months to build authority for your business and to get new one way in bound links to your website. This strategy does work, and can really help to improve your organic placement. Archive the articles back on your own website. Make sure you write to cater to a broad audience, don’t just write for others in your trade, try to write for the broadest appeal and largest syndication possible.

If you are not moving forward aggressively to build your brand through my five easy steps you should take a careful look to see if you need to resurrect your business plan for growth. Remember if you are not moving forward your business will die!

Posted on

The Five Deadliest Things You Do To Your Blog

Mind you I have learned these from experience both from long-term personal blogging and ghost blogging; here are five things you definitely DO NOT want to do on your blog.

  1. Never talk about real-world customers. Never if you change their names and circumstances. They will see themselves in your blog post and be angry. Don’t risk the bad blood.
  2. Never trash competitors or a product. Blog posts are forever, you can do a review and present pros and cons, but trashing is simply crossing that line of providing information. Being vindictive in a blog post can get you sued. Don’t waste time doing it, vent to your friends.
  3. Don’t stray from your main topic. If you are blogging for business stay tuned to that topic and your readership. If you start offering toe nail care tips when you should be talking about Internet marketing you will definitely turn off your readers. You can digress once or twice but get in the habit of digressing and readers will chop you.
  4. Don’t make your blog post a dissertation. Shorter is better, but not too short. My guideline is about 250 words on one thread. Need more space, break the thought up into parts.
  5. Don’t get hung up on comments or lack thereof. People do read your blog. If you are not getting comments or feed subscribers this does not mean that people are not reading. Still only 7% of all readers will be getting your news via feed technology. Just a few will choose to get your blog posts by email if you have this set up on Feedburner and your blog. Most will actually bookmark your blog’s home page and visit using a browser.

I’m sure I have more deadly blog crashers, but this post is getting long so that’ll be another post. :0)