If you have a business or organization, you already know that being “found” in Google is critical. Did you know that in March 2010, Facebook  exceeded Google in the amount of usage? That is an incredible fact! Google remains the number one search tool, but Facebook accomplishes things that Google cannot. Facebook builds upon your existing networks of friends and acquaintances.

1. Use Facebook to develop relationships in your network. Facebook is all about “making connections” with those who are your friends and those who are interested in your business.
2. Place ALL pertinent contact information in your profile. As you would with a website, make sure you include your website address and phone numbers. Unfortunately, there is no place to put your email on the page. 🙁
3. Create interesting notes for your Facebook page. Much like the popular personal quizzes, take an opportunity to post notes of interest.
4. Use your status to give valuable information. You can use your status to link to your latest blog posting, latest events and projects.
5. Post pictures. Give a “face” to your organization! Let people see who you are and what you are doing!
6. Relationships over sales pitches. Remember, people like to connect with other people on the basis of interesting and helpful information. Sales information is absolutely important. However, if you ONLY have sales pitches, you are not engaging with your fans. There is a comment feature for your statuses. Write your status to encourage comments.
7. Use your logo or identity as your image. This reinforces your branding.
8. Create a Page to embed your status feeds on your website. Choose a Page over a Group.¹ If you intend your page to be long-term, then a page allows for more long-term advantages.
9. Promote your Facebook presence through your website, business cards and overall advertising material. Above (in point 5), I already noted the advantages of using Facebook to promote your website. Use your current advertising to promote your Facebook page.
10. Above all, if you are going to have a presence in Facebook, do not let it go stale. Keep it fun and interesting! Let’s face it, if something does not interest you, you will not keep doing it. Let your creative side show!

Now that I have written the “top 10 ways to use Facebook,” I see that I need to take my own advice!!!

Connect with Evmikna Graphics on Facebook here! http://www.facebook.com/evmikna?ref=ts

In the movie, “Field of Dreams,” the statement is made that if a baseball field was built, people would come. That fictional movie’s axiom does not hold true for websites. As a website development company, we have fierce competition. Steady, ongoing, consistent work is needed to capture important niches. As the owner of a website, you realize that this is true of your own niche. People know that the internet is not going away so they are vying for the top spots in the search engine results. Anyone who wants to retain their market share for their products/services will quickly see the need for a website. However, many people unfortunately have the false impression that “if they build it, they will come.”

Myth 1: If I build a website, I will get visitors.

We have been building websites since 1997. It used to be that all you needed to do was put content on a site and you could easily rank it if you did some minor things. The competition was not there and the search engines were not as intuitive as they are today. Google, the “Mother of all Search Engines” serves up the best results because it is interested in giving the best sites prominence. You can no longer simply just build a site and move on. You need to make your site the best, authoritative source of information for your niche. That requires an intentional pursuit.

Myth 2: If I build a nice looking website, I will get visitors.

As a graphic designer, I wish this was true. While good design is important, poorly developed sites frequently populate the best results in Google. When you search for sites, they all look the same: they have a title, 250 character description and URL. People are visiting your site, not because they see its design, but its description. A nice looking website DOES help people stick around and glean information from your site. So, focus on both, clean and informative.

Myth 3: I am not able to get decent rankings, therefore I will not get visitors.

Let’s consider an opposing idea. Many people think it is too difficult and too late to have an effective website. Every week I sit down with current and new clients to discuss various niches. I am amazed at the fertile, pristine, untouched ground available. The internet is big enough for all of us and there are plenty of gold mine niches.

Summary: If you have a website, it takes a consistent, dedicated effort to promote a site. Simply building a site and letting it go “stale” is a waste of time, effort and money. Don’t let the fictional axiom “build it and they will come” set the wrong expectations. Rather, commit yourself to the axiom, “Build it AND PROMOTE it, THEN they will come!”

If only Google would remain static! It is always morphing…it makes our job strategically interesting as we are having to morph right along with it. In the last couple of months, Google has made some important changes related to your local listing. Below is a Google Local Listing.

Since 2008

Google introduced local listings with a map to the left and businesses to the right. These are commonly called the 10 pack. It gets that name from the fact that the top ten businesses in the local region are listed. In some cases there are 3 packs.

When Google started using these listings, it showed the top ten businesses located in the geographic center of town. (See A) We are on the edge of town, therefore, our listing was considerably down the list. This was a frustration. At that time, all we could do is get ourselves above the 10 pack or just below it. (See B) Well, the frustration is gone 🙂

Since June 2009

The 10-pack has changed! As you notice from the above graphic, we are now letter B. We are the second listing. What you should note is that there are at least 4 other website design companies in Davison, Michigan that are closer to the geographic center of town. Yet, we are ahead of them. We don’t really mind being listed #2. Why? Because at the time of this posting, we have 11 reviews. Those reviews get us traffic.

Enough Said Publicly

Okay, we don’t want to publicly say anything more. We are leaders in this region for Search Engine optimization and our competitors want our information. There are a number of factors that Google considers today. If you are not in the 10 pack, and are currently one of our clients, contact us today for a free strategy to improve your listing. If you are not currently one of our clients, we will schedule a meeting for a nominal fee which can be converted into the over all charge if you want us to do the work.

We want to highlight two words that get people to the top of the search engines and make your website profitable—Consistent and Intentional Promotion.

With every website, we do the right things to make sure that your website has potential to be found in the search engines. From the menu coding to on-page content, we build potential into every website. The days of simply building a website correctly and getting results are nearly gone. It used to be that all you did was put content on your site and you are done. However, with the competition on the WWW, more must happen to get your site to the top of the search engines and to see results. You need to be consistent and intentional if you want your website to produce results.

Consistent Website Promotion

Consistency is the key to success in nearly every area of life. Failing to be consistent only leads to frustration and eventual failure. In the world of website promotion, Google (et al) take into account freshness. If you are consistently adding new information to your site, you will see results. Also, consistently building links to your site through other websites, blogs and forums are the keys to success.

Intentional Website Promotion

When you have a plan for promoting your website, you will do more than the one who sporadically adds information. Consider your website as an ongoing experiment. We have over 100 clients and a number of our own personal websites. Through this vast experimentation, we are finding a number of ways to intentionally promote your site. We have clients that secure articles written from their own clients. Another has 10 years worth of print articles in their filing cabinets. Getting this content on their own site is intentional. Why not consider writing a “Top 10” list for your own website. We have and we get traffic directly to that page.

Summary

Every industry can benefit from a consistent and intentional promotion of their website. If your website has become “stale” let us work with you to find ways to freshen it up. If you are beginning a website, keep in mind that if you want your website to be a top producer, it will be a continual project, not simply a one month endeavor.

The latest “buzz” is LocalAdLinkUSA. It is a MLM designed to build a network of people that sell the product, LocalAdLink. Unlike search engine marketing, LocalAdLink is expensive and will not perform as the hype suggests.

What is LocalAdLink?

Most simply, LocalAdLink is a directory of businesses. When you use LocalAdLink, you can find local businesses that advertise through LocalAdLink. It is a new directory introduced in late 2007. This is why it is not a good bargain…

LocalAdLink is more expensive than having your own website. To have your own page in LocalAdLink, you will pay at least $49.95 a month for the smallest package to $200 a month for the premium package. Each business has its own page with a map, a place for information and reviews. Google already provides this as a free service AND will give you local search coverage. If you were to hire a website developer to create a simple web page, such as you will get from LocalAdLink, you will pay a one-time fee of around $500 ($60 every year after for hosting). With the smallest package from LocalAdLink, you will spend $600 for a page, each year!

LocalAdLink has vague language which causes their network marketers to misunderstand what they are selling. LocalAdLink says “…business clients rotate in top positions throughout LocalAdLink’s distribution of partnering sites such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace, BOOMj and hundreds more.” What are these “top positions?" LocalAdLink says that they will get you a “top position” in Google. They can do so through the “sponsored links.” Sponsored links are the yellow rectangular boxes. LocalAdLink simply purchases a few clicks to get you into Google’s rectangular Ad box. They are simply selling you some Google AdWords. So, when they say they are getting you into distribution with partnering sites, they are doing so primarily through Google AdWords. LocalAdLink may get you search engine results in the main part of Google, but their pages are designed to give you the most minimal ability to gain that position. If you want to rank for local terms, you can do that for free through Google. Or, you can build your own website and perform some Search Engine Optimization to get ahead of everyone else.

LocalAdLink will not get you the traffic, and business, you expect. It is universally known that Google (Yahoo & MSN) are the places to go to find information. Having based their business model on Google AdWords, LocalAdLink will, at best, get you only 10% of what you could get with your own website or Google local listing.

LocalAdLink is based on an early 1990s approach to internet marketing. In the ‘90s, most people went to DMOZ to search through lists of businesses to find information. When Google came out in 1997, it changed the way searching is done. Very few people use, and will use, LocalAdLink for searching for businesses. People use Google, Yahoo and MSN to find their information. YellowPages.com and MerchantCircle have millions more businesses in their directory. You can get a page through them. The downside is, even with the popularity, you will get virtually no traffic through these kinds of directories.

As a MLM, LocalAdLink is Designed Primarily for Expanding Their Network, not Your Business

On the testimonial pages provided to LocalAdLink marketers, it is obvious that LocalAdLink is primarily important to the one selling the services, not the end-user, you! The popularity of LocalAdLink is not in that it brings clients to your business. The popularity is found among those selling the product. notice the testimonials below. They do not speak of the quality of service for you, the customer.

After working as an engineer where I oversaw the development of the newest and fastest microchips in the world, I decided I was missing out on some of the important things in life. I chose to become a full time LocalAdLink Independent Sales Representative. Not only have my wife and I opened a great business opportunity, but I’ve been able to spend the important hours with my sons that I had been missing. Tucker A.

I think the key to success is to be honest, sincere and have a real desire to help people. After you begin to do that your business just grows. One person tells another, and you build your business. We owe it to people to share the LocalAdLink opportunity with them. Nanette G.

The LocalAdLink compensation plan is very clear about what we earn. People have to just DO IT. Get out on the street, talk to the people, explain the business, and you will see the results. Zoila A.

We try to provide the service our downline members need. Then these people have success and take good care of their LocalAdLink customers and build for the future. Jean A.

Compare the above testimonials with the ones on our homepage. You will then see the difference…

Here is the Webpage LocalAdLink Provides

Pictures say a thousand words. Here is one business’ webpage. Can you find the business?

Notice that the business “Sal’s Smokehouse & Pizza” is pushed far below LocalAdLink’s own advertising. Again, LocalAdLink is primarily about LocalAdLink, not your business as this screenshot demonstrates.

How to Get Local Results for FAR LESS Money than LocalAdLink

LocalAdLink’s markets the idea that local results are best for local companies. If you don’t have the ability to go global, we agree. However, LocalAdLink is not a good choice. As we mentioned above, Google offers Local Results for free. LocalAdLink cannot and will never be able to supercede Google’s local results. Consider the search below:

Not only are we the first result in the “Top Ten” local business results, we are the first organic position.

Consider another result. Dunckel Veterinarian Hospital currently has a page through LocalAdLink. When searching for their site “veterinarian Davison Michigan”, we do not find LocalAdLink ANYWHERE! ¹

So, with all of the hype and marketing pitches of LocalAdLink, this veterinary hospital is doing well on its own…without the help of LocalAdLink.

We are professional search engine experts. Let us help you “cut through” the LocalAdLink hype and get you real results!

I Can Rank You #1 in Google for "Leprechaun Freckles!!!!"

Website designers often find that they rank well for various words and phrases in Google and the other search engines. Unfortunately, this gives typical website designers a false assurance in their abilities. They think they are able to rank websites for all kinds of important terms. I have seen website designers promise their clients that they could rank for competitive real estate, industrial, financial, legal and medical terms. I have clients that have suffered from these unrealistic expectations promised by their web people.

The problem is it only takes a title on a web page and some terms in the content to rank for many words and phrases. It that is all that is done, 99.99999% of these phrases are worthless. Leprechaun Freckles is a worthless phrase. It does not bring ANY traffic. No one searches for "leprechaun freckles." There is no competition for the term.

We do not want you to rank for terms that will not bring a lot of relevant traffic. We will research with you to find the best terms according to your niches. Our clients are educated and know how to build businesses through the search engines.

The next time you hear a website developer tell you that they rank people on the first page of Google, ask them "For what terms and do those terms bring traffic?" Anyone can rank for "Leprechaun Freckles!"

Robot Friendly? What is a robot and why should I make my website friendly to him?

Robots (also called spiders) are programs developed by Google and other search engine companies which visit your website daily and gather information from your site. These are welcome guests and must have access to your site if you want to appear well in the search engines.

Not all websites are robot-friendly. How is that? The worst websites are those which do not have any content at all. They may appear to have content (in images), but there is no actual text on the page. Some of these websites are nicely designed and have text in the graphics. However, robots are not human and cannot read text in graphics. See this nicely designed site. It only has text in the pictures. If you were a robot, you would see nothing! That is unfortunate.

We have clients that used to have websites such as these. They paid good money for a nicely designed site, only to have it never do anything in the search engines. We are able to take sites like the one above and maintain the design, yet give the robots some content that they can read.

What about Content?

Your first page is most important. If you prevent robots from getting to the content on your first page or your first page has content, but the menu is all images, you are asking for trouble.

First, is your site made in such a way that your main content is not on the first page? Have you heard of a “splash” page? It is either a graphic animation or timed initial page that lacks in content. Here is an example of a site with a splash page. Notice that after 5 seconds, the initial page goes to the most content-oriented page. While this is not the worst example, it is not good. The robots do not wait 5 seconds. They will either travel through the links on the first page or bounce right off the site. The only thing salvaging this site is that they have a link to the home page on their splash page.

Second, I find home pages with decent content. However, the links to internal pages are all graphics or complicated scripts. Robots cannot follow graphics and still stumble through the scripts. Here is a website that virtually blocks the robots from crawling into the internal pages. These things are not always noticeable to those who do not know coding. However, a webmaster should be able to identify them. In this particular example. The look can remain exactly the same if they just used some robot-friendly coding for their links.

Third, do you have a lot of content on your site? Many people do not like to see content on their site. Many people devour the content and will read through it all. From the statistics/analytics that I have seen, most people spend at least 3-4 minutes reading through the material. Do not be afraid of content. It is the ONLY way you will get good rankings and tons of traffic. One of my favorite examples of a site which has tons of traffic and is one of the most prominent dating sites is www.match.com. When you go to their site, you will see primarily graphics. Scroll down the page. Notice the content? This is huge!

Let’s visit another highly competitive website, www.myweddingfavors.com. Scroll down their page. Look at all of the links to all of the internal pages. This site is HUGE on content.

Content is for your visitors first, robots second!

Let’s face it, robots do not purchase your products. They simply crawl your content. The more content you have, the more traffic you will gain. Give the robots plenty of content. However, when you write your content, do so in a way that it sells your product or gives your visitors the information they seek. So, when you have content on your site, think about your visitors then the robots.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) does not need to be complicated. Here is an Interview with my 11 year old daughter.

RSS Feeds: What are they and how do I use them?

RSS feeds have been around since 1999! However, don’t feel like you have been “out of the loop” too badly. RSS feeds became popular in 2006. If you are not familiar with RSS feeds, then this will open up a whole new side of the web!

Why Should You Use RSS feeds?

Good, informational websites are updated often. When a website updates or adds new information, you often have to hunt for the information. Why not have that information delivered to you the moment it is posted? Enter RSS feeds.

You can set up multiple RSS feeds and view them all. All of the current, updated information is sent to you automatically. Simply scroll down your RSS reader and click on articles that interest you. When you click on an article, you are sent to that website to the exact article.

How Do You View RSS Feeds?

Not every website has RSS feeds. This website has one. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, you will notice the orange button is lit up. If you use FireFox, the icon is at the end of the field where you type in web addresses.

So, how do you use RSS Feeds?

1) If you have Outlook 2007. The latest version of Outlook is set up with a RSS feed folder where you can set up a feed in the same way you set up an email folder.
2) Google Reader. If you use iGoogle for your homepage, you can include a list of your favorite RSS feeds on your homepage.
3) For more information on setting up a RSS feed, see this article.

Understanding Your Google Analytics Report