Time and time again, clients begin the web design conversation with “Once my website is up I want to be on the first page of Google…” Unfortunately, everyone else wants the same thing, so the competition for the first page of Google can be fierce.

Consider these statistics-

• Over 80% of the people searching for just about any product or service are using the Internet
• Over 80% of the people searching on the Internet are using Google
• About 90% of the searchers never leave the first page of a search.

These factors combined add up to one conclusion: getting your site to appear on to the first page of Google is both hugely beneficial and highly necessary for your business. But getting on page one doesn’t just happen by putting up a website.

Google uses fairly complex software programs, called algorithms, to determine where your website ranks for a keyword search. These algorithms basically compare your website against all of the other websites on the Internet competing for the same keywords. They then rank all of the sites based on a variety of factors.

I believe it is crucial to have an idea what these factors are in order to have any success in getting your website optimized.

Of course, Google doesn’t actually advertise what these factors are–their algorithms are kept secret. But many of the factors have become common knowledge.

Here is a list of some of the known factors:

• Integrating your keyword phrases into the text of your website along with the meta tags (HTML) in your website
• Adding Headline tags to the keywords in your website
• The quantity of content on your website
• The quality of content on your website relative to your keywords
• The age of your domain name
• Integrating keywords into your domain name
• Dynamic Content- Keeping your website content updated regularly
• The number of websites that link back to your website- also known as Link Popularity

The good news is that almost all of the factors listed above, referred to as ‘on-site’ optimization factors, can generally be controlled directly by you when building and updating your website.

The only exception is the final factor, Link Popularity, which requires the cooperation of other websites. This is referred to as an ‘off-site’ optimization factor. This process of building your in-bound links is known as ‘Link Building,’ and it is among the top reasons someone would hire an SEO consultant.

Getting your website to rank optimally in Google and other search engines doesn’t happen overnight. And if you don’t pay any attention to it, it probably won’t happen at all.

Focusing on your ranking can be a huge benefit to your business. Take the time to learn about this process, and you’ll have taken a big step toward creating a profitable web presence for the long haul.

Mikel Bruce
Tinyfrog Technologies

San Diego Web Design

www.tinyfrog.com

I have heard similar comments from others on numerous occasions, and find that I make decisions in the same way. Of course, the quality of a website doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the size, quality, or professionalism of a company. But in today’s market it is perceived to be one of the most important aspects in communicating that a company is in fact strong and professional.

The reason is that over 80% of the people searching for any service or product are now using the web. We have trained ourselves to judge a business by the quality of what we see first- which in most cases is the website.

This being said a company can actually create a perception of a large, successful and professional business by setting up a website that presents those attributes.

Because everyone has different tastes, your website may not please every person, every time. But there are certain standards to keep in mind, which will allow you to create a positive perception and avoid a negative one.

1. Avoid too much flash on your website- A flash photo slideshow, if done well, can enhance the appearance of your website; too much flash animation can be a distraction.
2. Remember white space- Try to avoid too much color. It’s best to have your primary text over a white background. Also avoid too much color in your fonts-stick with a black font with a single color for headline text. White looks clean; too much color can be a distraction.
3. Avoid the build-your-own website programs- You get what you pay. The cheap or free website programs usually result in cheap-looking website. Because these programs expect non-designers to design a website, they end up looking home-built rather than professional.
4. Use a Central Navigation System- Try to avoid multiple navigation systems or menus on your website. A single, strategically placed menu that is located on the same place on every page is very important. There is nothing more frustrating than getting lost in a website trying to find a page you were at previously. If you have a lot of pages use a drop down menu.
5. Avoid using too much text on your website- Your website is not a salesperson and is not designed to sell your service. Many people try to give as much information as possible about their service or product. Unless you have an e-commerce site, your website should focus on providing just enough information to get someone to contact you. The attention span of the average user is extremely short and in many cases if you have a lot of text they probably won’t read any of it.
6. Incorporate an educational portal- Keeping the information limited is very important for the majority of the site- but some people will visit your website for information and in many cases the people that re-visit your site will come back for new information. Designate one area on your site for information such as articles, white papers, etc… A blog is a great place to archive this information. The search engines also appreciate a site with a lot of information that gets updated regularly.
7. A picture is worth 1000 words- Each picture that you put on your site will speak volumes about the web page it’s on. Try to use professional images whenever possible. Stock images can be a great substitute and can be very inexpensive (check out www.istockphoto.com). Like text, pictures should be used sparingly- a good rule of thumb is one picture per page unless it’s a photo gallery or bio page.
8. Consider a copywriter- The quality of your text is as important as the quantity. To cut costs, you can write the content and hire a copywriter to review and edit that content. At the very least get a copywriter to review the text on your home page.
9. Prominent Contact Page- As was mentioned, the primary goal for most websites is to get someone to contact you. It’s surprising to see how many websites that don’t have contact pages placed on their main menus. On your contact page make it as easy as possible for people to contact you by using a contact submission form.
10. Professional Logo- On many websites the weak link is the logo. Don’t cut corners with the logo, but do keep the logo very simple. Think about how simple the logos are for most large corporations. Consider a stylized text logo with a very simple image that integrates well with the text. Tie your primary colors into the logo and match the colors of your website with those on your logo.

Your website is the first thing that most of your prospective clients will see, so it’s crucial to put your best foot forward. You may have to invest significant time, money and resources to drive traffic to your website- so take full advantage of every visit!

Mikel Bruce
Tinyfrog Technologies

San Diego Web Design

www.tinyfrog.com

Getting leads isn’t always easy. Whether they are gained through your website, your own personal efforts or through referrals, leads can seem elusive. But without them, your business will stagnate. In every business, each existing client first began as a lead or a prospect.

Have you ever taken the time to determine how many leads that you need in order to survive? What about the number of actual clients you need in order to survive?

Knowing these numbers is absolutely crucial; falling short on either account can be a very unpleasant experience.

Another important figure is your closing ratio—the percentage of your leads that get converted into paying clients. If you need 25 clients a month, and you average 1000 leads per month, you would need a closing ratio of 2.5% to meet your goal.

The typical business owner, when facing financial trouble, will focus their resources on gaining more leads. And while gaining new leads is important, it is not nearly as important, efficient or effective as focusing on the leads you already have.

You may not know that, on average, it takes 7 contacts to convert a lead or prospect into a client. However, most people give up after only 2 attempts! With this approach, you will lose the game before it’s really over.

Follow-up is the most important part of the marketing process. Yet this is the area that most people ignore. Why? Many people worry that they will come across as bugging a prospect— and nobody wants to do that.

Yet all we really need to do is to change our mind-sets from bugging prospects to giving them the opportunities to do business with us. The rewards could be huge, allowing you to consistently secure more clients with less effort and lower costs.

This can be achieved in three steps:

Remember, marketing is really a numbers game, and you need to play to win. The best way to hit high numbers is to stay in constant contact with the best prospects of all: the ones you already have.

1. Create some type of database that keeps track of your prospects. This should include the information exchanged when you contacted them, and when you would like to contact them next. I HIGHLY recommend investing in a Client Relationship Management program (CRM) such as SalesForce (www.salesforce.com)
2. Contact your prospects at least once a month for a minimum of 7 attempts.
3. Add their emails addresses to your email newsletter list so that you can stay in front of them that way.

Mikel Bruce
Tiny Frog Technologies
San Diego Web Design
www.TinyFrog.com
888-282-7818

Blogs have built-in content-management-systems so the Blog owner can easily update the Blog and add content in the form of Blog entries. Unlike a typical website where new content gets added infrequently, with a blog, one can add new content on a regular basis. Website content that changes frequently, also known as dynamic content, is one of the major variables that Google and other search engines use in their algorithms when ranking websites.

In addition to dynamic content, the quantity of content also plays a major role in search engine ranking. Blogs are designed to automatically archive past entries so that the Blog owner can easily add new entries. This cumulative content will continually improve a Blogs relationship with the search engines.

One of the biggest mistakes that most Blog owners make is to set up a Blog separate from and not integrated into their website. Integrating a Blog into a website takes more time and effort and typically requires a web programmer but it is totally worth the effort since the Blog will then enhance the websites credibility with the search engines.

By building your Blog directly into your site, it will have the same look and feel as your website- As people visit your Blog they will then have instant access to the rest of the information on your website. If your blog is separate from your website, and just links to your website, you lose these benefits.

One caution is not to use a Blog as your main website – It typically doesn’t have the same aesthetics and may turn off some of your website visitors.

Mikel Bruce
Tiny Frog Technologies
San Diego Web Design & SEO
www.tinyfrog.com
888-282-7818

On a psychological level many people tend to re-evaluate their lives, their businesses, and their priorities and can get a renewed sense of enthusiasm toward change.

This is a great time for businesses to improve their visibility in their markets as much as possible.

The Internet and your web presence are both very important factors in establishing a connection with your potential clients during this time of year

Here are a few tips to help leverage the Internet, your website and other marketing techniques to become more visible in order to tap into ‘New Years Resolutions’:

1. New Year’s Resolution Special- Incorporating an end-of-year or New Year special sounds pretty basic but a lot of business owners tend to neglect such offerings. Be sure to promote this offer actively and to add it to a prominent place on the home page of your website.
2. Incentive Based E-Newsletter Opt-In- One great goal for your business in the New Year would be to grow your email marketing database. The quickest way to do this is by adding an email opt-in form to your website and to offer some type of e-gift such as an e-manual or e-book as an incentive when someone signs up. This offer should be linked in through an auto-responder so that it is totally automated and should tie in with an email service provider.
3. Value-Added Membership Service- Start the year by offering your existing and new clients a free membership service as a value-added component of your business. Adding a web-based membership service that ties into your website is fairly basic- as simple as adding a password protected area where clients can log-in to access proprietary information such as videos, articles, e-books, e-manuals, or any other type of educational information related to your service.
4. Commitment to Follow-up- Every lead that comes in through your website should be treated like gold. The only thing that you can convert into a sale is a lead. Statistically it takes on average 7 contacts to convert a prospect to a client and most people give up after 2. The easiest way to work hard vs. smart is by PRO-ACTIVELY following up on the leads that come in. A great investment in the New Year would be a Client Relationship Management Program (CRM). A CRM is a service designed to give you the tools to track and manage your prospecting follow-up process. The most important part of the sales process is follow up and a lack of follow up is the most common place that energy and momentum are leaked.
5. Holiday Wishes email blast- It may be too late this year but during the holiday season next year, take a few moments to put together an email to everyone in your email database wishing them a Happy Holidays. This is a great way to connect with everyone you know and to let them know you are thinking of them without asking for anything.

Mikel Bruce
Tiny Frog Technologies
San Diego Web Design & SEO
www.tinyfrog.com
888-282-7818

There are tactics that require little effort and that can be incorporated pretty quickly to drive traffic to your site.

• Consider adding your domain name to your phone message.
• Leave your domain name as part of a message that you leave for others.
• Add your domain name to the signature in your email.
• Pass out your business card to EVERYONE that you meet.
• Send out regular e-newsletters – instead of having the content for the newsletter in the email just add a very short summary and a link to a page on your site that contains the newsletter. You may want to consider archiving your newsletters on a Blog like this article.
• Use an email address that reflects your domain name. For example, if your domain name is www.mywebsite.com use an address such as bob@mywebsite.com. Each time someone sees your email address you will in essence be promoting your domain name.
• Set up accounts with as many directories that you can find that are related to your business. Many of the listings are free and allow you to create a profile with your domain name.
• Be sure to choose a domain name that is short, memorable, easy to say, easy to spell, and is relative to your business name.

These simple techniques should complement any web marketing and search engine optimization techniques that you are currently using.

When it comes to driving traffic to your website, consider the hub and spoke analogy. If your website is the hub and the more spokes you have leading to the hub, the stronger the structure of the wheel.

Mikel Bruce
Tiny Frog Technologies
San Diego Web Design & SEO
888-282-7818
www.tinyfrog.com

Here are some basic tips to keep in mind when creating the copy for your website:

• Don’t exceed 500 words per page and try to keep it at 300 or less. If you have more copy than that for a certain page break up the copy into several pages. Use Drop down links for sub-pages when possible.
• Try to target 2-3 keywords per page and each page should have separate keywords. These keywords should also be in your meta-tags and in the URL if possible.
• Integrate a Blog into your site and archive Blog pages with content that will be interesting from an educational perspective. This will allure visitors back to your site and the search engines will appreciate all of the new Blog pages created with new Blog posts. Try to post info at least a few times a month and sprinkle keywords into these pages.
• Make sure to include the name(s) of the towns, cities, countries that you target in your text and in your meta-tags so the search engines know your geographical focus. The more specific you are, the less competition you will have when it comes to targeting keywords.
• Make sure that your designer is choosing a font for your text that is browser compliant. Some fonts are not viewable in certain browsers.
• Hire a copywriter that specializes in web copy to at least review your text. It is an important investment.
• Try to have some type of Call-to-Action built into the copy of your main pages that encourages the visitor to do something. Some examples are: Opt-in to a newsletter, links to pages to make purchases, limited time discount…

Remember that you have about 30 seconds (or less) to engage a visitor with the message on your site- make the text very simple and concise, and use short paragraphs.

Remember that in most cases your website copy is not designed to sell your service but to entice your visitor to contact you. Selling a service is the last stage of the sales process and in most cases should be done either face-to-face or over the phone.

Use the copy on your site to highlight your USP or Unique Selling Proposition. Your USP describes what sets you apart from your competition.

Mikel Bruce
Tinyfrog Technologies
San Diego Web Design & SEO

The one thing that seems to separate them from the rest is that they are extremely proactive and strategic in the area of business development. Contrary to many small business owners that are almost frozen from fear.

The opportunities arise when business owners that are used to sitting back and waiting for business come to them, start to proactively market their business – and end up generating more business than they ever had before.

The opportunities are compounded by the fact that there is less competition during a recession since more and more companies are closing their doors. A recession acts as a weeding process in the business world.

In many cases the strong businesses survive recessions and recessions also have the potential to make businesses strong. That strength isn’t necessarily based on your skills and abilities or even in the quality of your service or product- but the strength is derived from the practice of putting yourself out there- often in ways that are uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Many consider this to be a universal law – that when energy is expressed in an area that there is a return on that investment of energy.

If you find that your business is struggling this would be a perfect time to incorporate at least one new proactive marketing technique. Here are some ideas that you could incorporate immediately:

1. Develop a Strong Referral Program- Many companies get the majority of their clients from referrals. You can bet that that they don’t just sit back and wait for their clients to refer them. They ask… Getting in the habit of regularly asking for referrals is the best way to get referrals. If you can go a step further and incentivize those that refer you, it will most likely be even more effective.
2. Presentations- One of the more uncomfortable ways to put yourself out there is by going to organizations and corporations to give presentations on a educational topics relative to your product or service. That being said, it is usually only uncomfortable for the first few times and then the discomfort is replaced by the rewarding experience that it was masking. If you put together an enticing topic you will be surprised at how many organizations will be willing to give you access to their members/employees/clients in order to present – A great way to have direct exposure to large numbers.
3. Join a Networking Group- There is tremendous power in numbers and it is not always what you know, but who you know…
4. Email Marketing- Email marketing is probably one of the most cost effective forms of marketing ever. You could send out thousands of emails directly to your prospects for less than $50. It is amazing that more people don’t do it… Email Marketing and sending out email newsletters is an incredible way to get yourself in front of your prospects on a regular basis to brand your business.
5. Follow Up- It takes on average 7 contacts to convert a prospect into a client and most people give up after only 1 or 2 attempts. It’s no wonder that most small business owners are struggling to get business. Especially now, each business lead you receive is like gold. A prospective client is the only thing in the world that you can convert into a client. As a responsible business owner, it is your responsibility to follow up with your prospects regularly, to build credibility and to educate them on what you offer.

Now is not the time to sit back and wait for business to come to you. Consumers are much less likely to look for and find you, but it does not mean that there is no need for your product or service. It is a matter of timing and if you are not in front of your client at the right time it will probably be a missed opportunity.

Mikel Bruce
Tinyfrog Technologies
San Diego Web Design & SEO