Become a Globally Recognized Avatar…
it’s time
Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?
Make one today. It’s as easy as 1-2-3
http://en.gravatar.com/
Small businesses and non-profits are beginning to realize that they don’t necessarily need a custom built CMS system to run their website. Why not use a state-of-the-art publishing platform that focuses on aesthetics, web standards and usability – and not to mention… it’s FREE?
Blog or use it as a Content Management System, WordPress is the next best cost effective web solution.
No need to purchase additional software, your site is accessible wherever there’s internet connectivity and most importantly, you own it. No monthly leasing payments.
There are also hundreds of Free and inexpensive WordPress Themes available to choose from that represent several business styles such as: Magazine Editorial, Corporate, and Creative, Retail, Technology, Nonprofit, entertainment and more. You can make simple changes to represent your brand and brand messaging without having a fully custom built website. Example: http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/
The WordPress administrative area is easy to use to make updates to both your posts and pages. Posts are listed in reverse chronological order and are also displayed in RSS feeds. Pages are static and not listed by date. Your navigation is typically referencing a static page; whereas your posts reference the latest information sorted by date.
WordPress also keeps costs of having a dynamic website minimal because of the long lists of plugins that are available to customize your needs. There are ecommerce plugins, fundraising plugins, social media plugins, All-in-One SEO plugins, sitemap plugins, gallery plugins, calendar plugins, event plugins and more. Example: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/browse/popular/.
Take a look at WordPress as a solution for your business or non-profit. View their Showcase and the many businesses and non-profits that are currently using WordPress as their choice for a publishing platform.
Non-profit Examples
You can download WordPress for free http://wordpress.org/download/.
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If you would like to learn more about WordPress as a solution for your Reno Business or Reno Non-profit, please give Westward Strategy a call at (775) 626-8330.
Free Tool Friday - Tools that Help Small Businesses Succeed
Promote your website automatically in Google | Yahoo | Bing and more… ExactFactor is an automated SEO service which promotes your site in search engines with no previous knowledge required. Three easy steps, and you can begin getting better search results, more traffic and more customers.
Ok, Please note that this is just a tool and that there is no guarantee that you will receive more customer BUT… what ExactFactor can do is give you some insight into what keywords and phrases you are ranking for and where exactly you fall in the results.
I receive a weekly keyword analysis report that has been automatically created for Westward Strategy. Keywords and phrases such as Reno Web Design, Reno Web Marketing and Reno Web Designer help me, the business owner, have a better understanding of how people are finding my business and more importantly how they aren’t.
See example below of part of the report you receive from ExactFactor.com.
| Keyword | Direction |
|---|---|
| nevada internet marketing |  |
| nevada seo | |
| nevada web design |  |
| nevada web designer | |
| nevada web marketing | |
| reno internet marketing | |
| reno seo | |
| reno seo agency | |
| reno web design | |
| reno web designer | |
GET YOUR GOOSE COOKED
Canadian Goose Potstickers
Don’t knock it till you try it. And once you try it… well, you’ll be hooked! We made 50 of these moist and flavorful Canadian Goose Potstickers and they were gone in a matter of minutes!
Get the recipe or sign up to recieve recipes on NevadaFoodies.com.
http://nevadafoodies.com/2010/02/canadian-goose-potstickers/
A Simple Way to De-furr Your Cat
How to Vacuum your furr ball!
So you have a new website… now what?
As a followup to the 12th step in the SEO Checklist for Your New Website, I recommend adding your site to the following 7 Free Business Listing Websites: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, City Search, Merchant Circle and Topix.
You will be asked to create a business profile allowing you to add a brief description of your business, a link to your website, your contact phone numbers, a contact person, your business logo, photographs highlighting your business, hours of operation as well as a few other business specifics.
7 Free Business Listing Websites
A checklist to use during the development process
Are you ready to build a website for your small business or for yourself? There are simple search engine optimization steps you should consider during the development process.
The following 12 step optimization checklist will bring you one step closer to maximizing your revenues with smart web design.
1.) Choose a domain name, that is a URL, that is descriptive of what your website will represent:
2.) Decide what keywords and/or phrase targets the visitors you are looking for, and that best describes what your business offers.
3.) Sub directory names using keywords or phrases should use hyphens in the url: http://url.com/descriptive-keyword/
4.) Title tags are the words that appear on site visitor’s browser tabs as they navigate through your site. Clearly define your title tags for each individual web page making sure that it is accurate and descriptive of the page’s content. Keep it 70 characters or less.
5.) The meta description is the primary source of information search engines review, and this is also the information that appears along with your site name in the search engine results. Clearly define your meta descriptions for each individual web page making sure that it too is accurate and descriptive of the page’s content. Keep it 155 characters or less
EXAMPLE: Keyword/Phrase Search Results
6.) Develop keyword rich content on all pages including the keyword and/or phrase within the content
7.) Use descriptive words for your navigation when it makes sense
8.) Name all images on website with descriptive image names:
9.) The title tags are the words that visitor’s click to reach the hyperlinks behind them. Add descriptive title tags to anchor links
10.) Setup Google Analytics and see who’s visiting your website and who’s giving you referral’s: http://www.google.com/analytics
11.) Create a sitemap and submit to Google Webmaster Tools and other search engines. The free tools give you a look under the hood at your website performance: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
12.) Add new website to local free business listings and other free directory sites
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Contributed by Kristy Crabtree
Westward Strategy & Design Group
How exciting to see one of our clients and one of our friends receive word today that the Food Network Show – Diners, Drive Ins and Dives (with Guy Fieri) will be filming The Gold ‘N Silver for one of their episodes in January!
Visit The Gold ‘N Silver today!
Thank you to all of my clients and friends for all of your support in 2009. This past year has continued to teach me more and more about life, people, friends, family and most importantly respecting and enjoying the time that we have each and every day.
I am truly looking forward to 2010. A new year that allows me to continue to help and support small businesses in our community. I’m looking forward to the new partnerships that I have created and looking forward to teaching in late Fall.
Good bye 2009 and Hello 2010. Looking forward to it!
Kristy Crabtree
Cheat sheets can be time and life savers. Even if you develop websites all the time there are probably more than a few html tags or CSS techniques that you forget on a regular basis. For me it’s the font-style property.
Even if you are a CSS and html rockstar (like yours truly!), it doesn’t hurt to have a few resources up your sleeve. Luckily for the purpose of this post, this Mega CSS Resource Roundup was just published this weekend. I can vouch for the quality of several of the CSS cheat sheets, the html entities resources and the layouts from Layout Gala. Also, if you haven’t been over to CSS Play you are missing out on an exceptional resource for all things CSS. You can also use the W3 Schools website as a quick reference for properties and all of their values – like the font-style property.
See you next week for another tidbit!
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Westward Strategy & Design Group, LLC. Reno web design agency. Kristy Crabtree Local: (775) 626-8330 |