Posts Tagged ‘WordPress’

Top 5 Reasons Why Proprietary Websites are Bad News for You

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Proprietary Websites

Proprietary websites are everywhere; they offer cheap website designs and often, cheap hosting as well.  However, there are free or open source options that provide much better benefits. There are a multitude of issues that come with this type of website platform – our top 5 are below:

  1. Limited Design & Branding Options
  2. No Ownership or Flexibility
  3. No SEO Options
  4. No Search Engine Respect
  5. No Support

1. Limited Design & Branding Options

You are limited to the color palates, lay out templates, and widgets that they have available.

There are thousands of websites out there – and probably hundreds of businesses that do something similar to yours. So how do you stand out? Being online is important – including social media (but we’ve gone over that before); however, it doesn’t help to distinguish yourself when your website looks like everyone else’s. Your business is unique in some way, shape or form – show that to your clients!

2. No Ownership or Flexibility

You do not own your proprietary website – the creator does. If you want to move your site or use a different designer, you have to start from scratch. This is frustrating and costly as the services you have already paid for basically disappear and are wasted. You cannot take it with you when you leave – and if something happens to the business that created your proprietary website – you lose everything.

3. No SEO Options

Most websites are being created so people (clients or customers) can find them and buy the service or product you sell. The way a website is found by most people is through searching.  We enter keywords or terms we think apply to our topic and a list of relevant websites is returned to us.  These keywords or terms are coded into the back end of every webpage. Without them, your website can only be found by someone who has the exact address – so they already know you and your website.

These proprietary websites often have no way for you to set up your SEO (search engine optimization), which means no one will find your website unless you tell them how to get there. No searches will return your company and your website is pretty much useless for bringing in new clients.

4. No Search Engine Respect

If, by some miracle, your proprietary website has a special upgrade or ‘pro plan’ that will give you SEO options (for a price), you need to know one last thing: Search Engines can tell who built your website, and they don’t love proprietary site builders. If your search engine doesn’t respect your website, you are not likely to end up at the top of your target client’s search results; which means unhappiness for your business rather than increased sales and a bright new outlook on the future growth of your company and cash flow.

5. No Support

Let’s face it – things go wrong- and when they do, a great portion of our satisfaction with a service is the ability of the offender to make it right again.  Most of these proprietary websites have clunky forms, round-a-bout ways to contact them, or no human response whatsoever. When your company reputation or your personal one depends on how you respond, you need to know that you have fast, reliable support available.  This is usually not the case with a proprietary website – if you can find a way to contact them, they are not usually very efficient and an emergency on your part does not an emergency on their part make.

Our Recommendations

We have been designing and developing websites for many years – and we have learned that open source platforms are the most user-friendly, wholly owned, SEO ready, massively supported and unique option for websites today.

Platforms like WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal make creating a customized, branded experience for your customers a simple, straight forward, and effective process for your business.

Call us today at 775-322-3663 to learn more about how Integris Marketing can help your website work for you!

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Posted in Local SEO, SEO, web design, Website Copywriting, Website Design, WordPress | 23 Comments »

Update Your Website Frequently the Easy Way

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Relevance in Search Results

When you use a search engine, like Google, you are looking for the match to the keywords you type in that are most relevant.  This means they may have a local aspect if you are searching for restaraunts or movie theatres, as well as a date.  Most of the time when we search for something, we want the most up to date results. If we are asking about information on movie times, we want them in a chronological order – with the most recent events first.

The Google Algorithm

Google is not only aware of this need, but they have worked out several updates to their algorithm that will impact the results returned based on the data stored about the pages – including dates.  So what does this mean and why do you care?

A Common Problem

Here at Integris Marketing, we have several inquiries each week about how to show up at the top of the search engine results page.  There are several things that can help, but we found this blog from Entrepreneur.com that covers an online strategy which we often promote ourselves as a continuing solution for keeping your website up to date and in the recent search engine results – a blog.

The Solution

Having a blog ensures that your website will be considered ‘updated’ each time you create and publish a post.  This won’t solve all your problems, because it is important to have highly searched and relevant keywords set up in the meta fields for each of your website pages, but that is simple SEO and is fairly static.  The solution with blogs is that Google will notice that you are updating and posting new information on your site, and as the blog describes, those that are not posting new content on their website will be left off the search engine results pages more and more in the future.

Additional Benefits of Blogging

This will not only give you the benefits of updating your website each time you post something, but it can also increase the engagement of your audience. You want to gain more customers, but with a good blog you can also build brand loyal customers, who trust you for pertinent information.  Blogging can be easy and is often free, depending on the platform you use, so don’t delay – start your blog today!

 

If you would like customized help with setting up a blog and even finding content for your blog, please contact us today at 775.322.3663 or toll free at 1.800.233.0239!

 

LINK: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220662 blog post about increased need for blogs on websites in order to be found by search engines

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Posted in In-Bound Links, Online Marketing, Social Media, Website Copywriting, WordPress | 22 Comments »

Your Blog is in Trouble!!

Friday, July 8th, 2011

What Makes a Great Blog?

Several things have to come together to truly wow an audience. According to some gurus in Cindy King’s blog post today “21 Dangerous Blogging Mistakes (and how to fix them)”, there are quite a few things that can make or break your blog.

Blogging Mistakes

We all make them at one time or another. Maybe we were in a hurry and our quality slipped, maybe we were too busy and our frequency dropped. As long as these things we call life happen only once in a while, that is fine. When it becomes par for the course – your blog is in trouble.

Balancing Quality and Quantity

According to Jay Baer (@jaybaer), “balancing the need to be consistently publishing and the need for consistent quality is the key to successful long-term blogging.” We would add that it is important that both your quality and your frequency of posting matches the target audience you have. If you have a company that is in the fast track industry of trading or finances – especially in these times – you might need to post more frequently than someone in a lagging industry field.

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

We hear it all the time, but the truth is keywords get you found. You cannot have a successful blog when no one is reading it. This is the point that Rich Brooks (@therichbrooks) makes in his contribution to Cindy King’s article. A good blogger understands the “need to write keyword-rich posts with persuasive, compelling titles that will be read, linked to and shared on social media sites”, which increases the idea of being found. It isn’t just about keywords, but also about grabbing attention with a title, AND sharing and linking to social media sites. In this case, you need the whole package – sole focus on one area will leave a gap that cannot be bridged.

Planning

Don’t underestimate the need to schedule yourself the time and focus to really generate an interesting, engaging and informative blog post. As Dag Holmboe (@dagh) states himself, “A good, in-depth blog post takes time to research, write and edit.” What more can we say? This is not a five minute post – you must craft the message and the way it will be delivered.

Cater to Your Audience

It is extremely important, as we discussed earlier, to know your target audience. It is only through knowing them, that you can effectively tailor your content, style, medium, and media to their needs. As Jim Lodico (@jlcommunication) explains, “if it isn’t of value to your audience, your audience won’t read it”. Well put!

Build Community

True engagement is not built overnight – like a community it has to be formed and tended through multiple interactions that consistently reinforce the needs of the community. We completely agree with Carla Dewing (@CarlaDewing), “The fastest way to build a community online is to share information”!! Community is created by giving help (sharing) when those in your community (your target audience) are in need and you have the information (content) that can help them.

For more information and tips on blogging, check out Social Media Examiner online!  They have fantastic articles that we use ourselves all the time.

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Posted in Blog Design, Inspiration, Social Media, WordPress | No Comments »

WordPress Blog Design-Help Your Reno (Local) SEO

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Hey Reno Businesses… Want a Cool WordPress Blog Design?

Who doesn’t… but what you need to know is that having a “cool blog design” is no longer enough.

An Optimized WordPress Blog Design needs to capture visitors, show value, sell products or services, capture leads and keep up with the latest web technologies.

In the old days of the web… having a website… any website, whether a traditional static website filled with words, or a site of pretty pictures or even Flash animations was enough. It had the “wow” factor… All just because you had the site.

No more… Websites have become a very sophisticated platforms that are an important part of the promotional and marketing effort. The artifacts of yesteryear,  such as the notoriously expensive, sales-rep hyped, and ineffective Yellow Page Ads or other less-than-targeted marketing vehicles and publications are becoming increasingly less effective. This is especially true for businesses who are forward thinking in their promotional approach, or have more sophisticated audiences they need to communicate with.

What’s the solution? First let’s look at what a website needs to do and fast-forward to today’s website demands before we decide.

  1. A website needs to be able to be found by people who are searching for your product or service (Think Search Engine Optimized or Local SEO)
  2. Once they see your listing on Google (Hopefully first the page of Google or other search engine) it needs to be somewhat compelling in order for people to click on the link
  3. The website needs to be inviting once they get there and give them relevant options for interaction, sales or sign-ups
  4. Convey a sense of credibility and sophistication
  5. Provide a comfortable experience that delivers value
  6. Has ways for you to engage and track visitors

A tall order for any website no matter how big your budget is. Once you start considering the cost of website design, maintenance, updating and modification, content generation, software upgrades and you have the potential for a hornet’s nest of expense, complexity and less than optimal results.

Enter the Humble WordPress Blogging Platform

The coolest, least expensive, most powerful, and highly customizable blog design platform that any business could hope for.

WordPress levels the playing field of the World Wide Web. The technology that WordPress uses, used to cost 10’s of thousands of dollars. But thanks to the WordPress and the Open Source community that supports it, WordPress has made the old expensive web paradigm a thing of the past. The powerful technology that is built into WordPress is free! And the plug-ins that support it… they are free too or are offered at a very low or modest cost.

A well executed WordPress Blog Design is the answer for what small businesses need to succeed on the web whether the need is superior design, uber-optimized SEO, or super-charged local search engine optimization.

In short, a well executed and well designed WordPress Blog embodies what the internet was designed for… optimized search engine results through relevant content generation.

If you need more information about how a WordPress Blog Design can help your business, you can give us a call (775.322.3663). But watch out, we love WordPress, so don’t be surprised if we talk your ear off.

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Posted in Blog Design, Local SEO, SEO, Uncategorized, web design, WordPress | 3 Comments »

Reno Marketing Tips (My Top 10 Favorites)

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Reno is a Fabulous Place for Marketing and Promotion!

The local Reno Business Climate is great place for getting connected to people as well as potential customers and clients

There are so many talented Reno-based Marketing Professionals here in the Truckee Meadows and Lake Tahoe Area, it is enough to make your head spin! Every day I read about the successes, the insights and the fantastic creative ideas that pour out from this community of local marketing and design professionals. It is truly awe-inspiring, and just like the “Energizer Bunny®”*… It just keeps going!

And with all that professional-marketing-horsepower, there are some things, and themes that just keep coming up over and over that are particularly helpful to local Reno area business owners. And while not every Reno Business is the same, there are certain things that most of them can do to promote themselves locally, that and are tried-and-true marketing and publicity opportunities, and are proven processes that work for the local audience. Why do they work? Because we all live, eat and breath here… right here in this valley and the surrounding mountains. So people we meet become the friends we make and are often the same as the future business partners we engage.

Here are my top 10 Reno Marketing Tips that won’t cost much except for time and maybe some membership or entry fees:

  1. Networking in Reno Rocks! (This town has so many networking opportunities, it could easily be a full-time job attending them all! Try out the local Sparks Chamber, Reno Sparks Chamber, BizTalk Blender, American Marketing Association Meetings, LeTip, BNI, eWomen, etc… all are great and very active with lots of opportunities for connecting. And there are lots of local trade shows too to attend!)
  2. Get Involved with Social Media: Share ideas, join the conversation… it can be overwhelming and even addictive, but taken in moderation there is lots to be gained in knowledge and even promotion opportunities.
  3. Give or Attend Marketing Talks and Classes (or other relevant topics of interest to you)
  4. Start a Blog (Let the world know about your local Reno business and what you can deliver)
  5. Write Local Press Releases (Tell the world about your successes)
  6. Write Local and Relevant Articles (Talk about your area of expertise. Become the “known” local expert… lots of people have!
  7. Collaborate with other businesses for joint promotions or marketing brainstorming.. heck, you can even start your own Mastermind Marketing Group or Professional Trade Group
  8. Ask for Referrals (Ask your friends, clients and peers… don’t go overboard, but do ask! Incentive Programs for the referral are a nice touch too.)
  9. Be Helpful… Whenever you meeting a potential customer or client, offer something. A referral to information, a resource for them, relevant news, a good book or even a place to have lunch. See how you can give before you ask for something. (Pick a local charity, serve on the board, volunteer, donate time and/or money, help plan and coordinate events.)
  10. Show Up! No one will know of you unless you get out there and get seen. That goes for for any marketing or promotional effort. Hiding under the rock or “being too busy to promote your business” will only bite you in the rear end in the long run and won’t contribute to your success and certainly won’t help people understand how wonderful you are or the expertise you can offer.

Now go forth and market, meet, greet, and enjoy your new friends you will meet along the way!

If you want more marketing tips, local networking tips or even have some tips you want to share… give us a call (775.322.3663) or send us an email… We’d love to hear from you.

(*The “Energizer”, “Energizer Bunny” design, card graphics and shape, and other marks are trademarks of Energizer. <see energizer.com>

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Posted in Business Networking, Online Advertising In Reno, Online Marketing, PR, Reno Marketing Meanderings, Social Media, WordPress | No Comments »

Reno Businesses Can Dominate Local Search Engine Results (Part 6 of 6 – Conclusion)

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Part 6 of 6 – Reno SEO Expert* Shares Some Phase 1 “Secrets of Local Google Dominance”

It’s Not That Hard If You Understand a Few Basic SEO Ingredients

The Conclusion to the 5 Most Important Tips for the Do-It-Yourself SEO-preneur or Small Business Owner

  • For this mini-article, we will look at 5 areas of basic SEO concepts (Conclusion below: ). These are important to business who wants a local, top-performing search engine presence. By faithfully following this approach you will improve your Search Engine Rankings giving you superior Local Search Engine Results.

The final Tips and Summary: Top Ranking Search Engine Results Are What You Want

There are lots of SEO tips and tools to keep everything moving forward for real-world and effective search engine ranking results.

If you can incorporate these basic principles I have outlined in the previous blog posts, build on them over time, consistently implement the strategies (schedule it), and use the Right SEO Technology and you will achieve Dominance in the Local Search Engine Results.

I have seen these principles prove themselves time and again and am amazed at how fast local businesses can get to the first page of Google by following the tips I outlined. Often within 1,2 or 3 months for some basic keywords. Then just use the formula for other keywords and over time you will climb the ranks.

As my final piece of “Great SEO Tips for Small Businesses” I give you the following list of more actionable items.

  • Register with local search engines, local directories and social media portals (Think Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Ask, Local.com and TrueLocal and many others. They all want your info so they can give the best results to the people who use their service and so they can sell more advertising!) Also be sure to use Craig’s list, Insdier pages and many other local sales and review directories.
  • Put your business name and local terms in you page titles — (not non-descript terms such as “Home page”,  “About”, “Welcome” , etc. My example is Integris Marketing | Reno Marketing Firm | Reno Graphic Design
  • Now do the same thing with your HI and H2 tags (especially using the local terms)
  • Then do the same thing with your body copy (more local terms with the service or product offered)
  • Put a Google or Yahoo or Mapquest generated map on your website with your street address… really super for local search results (just go to Google maps
  • How’s your InfoUSA listing? Or Dun & Bradstreet? Go check to make sure they are current and have your correct address, web link, etc.
  • Local News? Well you can’t compete with local papers or local info or entertainment portals, but you can add local content that is relevant to your business or your favorite causes. If you have a local mailing address where your business lives.. add that too! (On every page is a great way to go)
  • I’ve said it before and I will say it again and again.. Add a blog (One that you control on your web domain and where you can 100% control all page content. So stay away from the free blogs…even blogger)
  • Get “Local Inbound Links”! Search engines are using this kind of ranking criteria as an ever-more important element in local search results. So get into “legitimate” local directories in every way you can… Make sure they don’t just list your web site but also link with keywords for services you offer if you can.

OK… so that should be enough for most local businesses to cling to the top of the local search results. Want more success? Get your Google, Yahoo and Bing business listings, run some online display ads and you will have 3 or more places where you show up on the first page of Google… not bad for a small business these days, especially considering that over 65% of buyers look for local resources online (and some say the number is as high as 90% of all buyers use online search for local results).

*Reno SEO Expert. A paid professional who can provide measurable results and demonstrate ROI for promised SEO services and also be able to share success stories for past clients they have worked with.

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Posted in Local SEO, Online Advertising In Reno, Online Marketing, SEO, Social Media, WordPress | 73 Comments »

Reno Businesses Can Dominate Local Search Engine Results (Part 3 of 6)

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Part 3 of 6 – Reno SEO Expert* Shares Some Phase 1 “Secrets of Local Google Dominance”

It’s Not That Hard If You Understand a Few Basic SEO Ingredients

The 5 Most Important Tips for the Do-It-Yourself SEO-preneur or Small Business Owner

For this mini-article, we will look at 5 areas of basic SEO concepts. These are important to business who wants a local, top-performing search engine presence. By faithfully following this approach you will improve your Search Engine Rankings giving you superior Local Search Engine Results.

Tip 2 of 5) SEO Strategy:

The BEST and LOWEST COST SEO Technology for Small Businesses

In a word: WordPress. Our website is built on it (and so is this blog) and as of this writing (March 8, 2010) we are at 38 days of being live and we are quickly eclipsing several local firms who have been around for years. And if we can do this so can you! We went from no-where’s-ville to actually getting page 1 Google ranking for several primary and secondary keyword phrases… And we are just getting started.

Why WordPress? Because it works. Not only as a base package but also because there are a slew of 3rd party plugins that will Super-charge your Local SEO Performance unlike those low-cost “website builders” or “website generators” out there with all sorts of marketing hype attached to them. The problem is they all stink from the perspective of SEO (IMHO). They just under-deliver when it comes to SEO because they are not built on a strong understanding of what it takes to succeed with top-ranking SEO Performance.

But just because WordPress is “Free”, be sure to NOT use the “free WordPress themes” out there, but instead, opt for professional themes that are designed to be optimized for SEO. These are built with better code and also don’t have the built-in back-links to nefarious websites that can get you black-listed in Google (Not a good thing). Also be sure to include a solid set of 3rd party plug-ins or choose a WordPress template  that is already set up to optimize your site for the leading search engines, most notably, Google and Bing.

And remember, search engines are the friend of local businesses and should be apart of your online marketing strategy, no matter if you are in Reno, Sparks, Tahoe or New York City. Most people use the internet to find local businesses they can buy from.

So whether you are on a budget and just getting started, or if you are an established business with a strong website, WordPress, if set-up and managed consistently, can help you with your local search engine rankings. I like to think of blogs, and in particular, WordPress Blogs, as today’s digital business card for your growing enterprise.

Coming next: “Knowledge, Research & Curiosity: Learn about your competitors”. Date for next post will be March 10, 2010

*Reno SEO Expert. A paid professional who can provide measurable results and demonstrate ROI for promised SEO services and also be able to share success stories for past clients they have worked with.

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Posted in Local SEO, Online Marketing, SEO, WordPress | 22 Comments »

It Takes a Team to Build a Website

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Building Your Own Website?

It’s not for the faint-of-heart…

I love the small business owner who wants to make their own website… So courageous! And perhaps a bit shortsighted.

But then again, we all have to start somewhere.

I must admit in the early days (with one or two days of hair-pulling way back in the exciting days of 1994-1995ish when the web was oh so young and small) I thought that I could probably learn to code a website myself…

Soon though I was asking “But why should I? I don’t really like this coding part… It never looks like what my vision is”. My brain just seemed to be wired in a different way and I realized right away I needed help.. or if you will, a team to help me.

And so began my journey into the realm of team interaction to build projects for myself, clients, friends and family.

Does anyone ever really build their own website anymore really?

Take this site.. even at first simplistic overview. This humble website has taken 7 people to make it happen and get it to the current state of soft launch.

  1. Creative Director & Designer & Writer (Yours truly, Blair O’Neil)
  2. Another writer & editor (Judith Harlan)
  3. Yet another editor, collaborator and vision holder (Jenna O’Neil)
  4. System administrators (Melissa W. & Jenna)
  5. IT & Server Manager (Ken Williams)
  6. A project manager and Google Adwords promoter and SEO-minded individual (Stephen R.).
  7. And of course the critical job of HTML coder and WordPress expert (John Schroedel).

Plus website bells and whistles – Time for research!

And even though we had the team and the vision, we still needed the right technology that fit that our needs and vision.

Enter the dreaded “Time for research” black hole.

Now we have to find, evaluate and integrate all the other software and plugins that need to installed linked and configured… Things that do email, that stop spammers, that help with SEO, that organize content, display portfolios and that are helpful for gathering information about site visitors, linking to social media and other sites… plus the various forms for questions, RFQs and Referrals. Then there are the site visitors and friends that are more than happy to give advice (thank you very much!) that allows us to evolve, have fun and still provide good value to our treasured clients.

And for lots of businesses it doesn’t stop there. You need database connections, ads, live-feed data streams, video feeds, live chat modules, e-commerce, appointment setting software integration, calendars and on and on. And it just keeps getting more and more complex as the days roll by.

I think that if you begin to total everything up you end up with a huge pool of people that are indirectly involved.. likely thousands… and we are just getting started!

So does it take a team to build a website?

Well I say “YES” if you are truly serious about the well-crafted message, the integrated design, adherence to your brand and integration with best practices for SEO.

But can you do it yourself? You bet you can. Lots of people do. It’s just that very few of them do it successfully. (But if you are a business owner why are you working on your own website instead of making sales? Do you know what your high payoff activities really are? What really brings the cash in the door? Sounds like another post in the making. For now just check out these local Reno/Sparks Sales and Business Consulting resources that might be able to help you with this… Sales Class, Sales Training Information & Consulting, Business Consulting that Actually Works!)

But if you are going to do this yourself I have one word of advice: “WordPress” (Because it will grow with you and you can grow with it. It’s not too hard, it’s a low cost item, relatively easy to deploy and gives you access to some of the best web technology on the planet… but’s that another blog post or so)

So if you think you can build a website yourself—All I can say is good luck and be sure to send me an email when you’re done.

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Posted in Design Meanderings, Website Design, WordPress | 24 Comments »

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