Watch video clips from the 2010 Social Media Discussion Panel. Honest transparency with Value!

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• Question 17

Think about what type of company you are comfortable working with before you meet with them. If they give an answer outside of your comfort level tell them immediately. Some businesses don’t mind working with startups or individuals with lesser experience if the price is right. Everyone has to start somewhere, but if this is a risk you are not willing to take just tell the developer.

2 ) Can I see current online examples of your work? Website Designs, Email Marketing Campaigns, Social Media Marketing Setup and Management…etc

This is a must have for any developer. Make sure they have actual websites you can review on your own computer at any time you want. Avoid designers that only show you their work in other formats besides online such as printed collateral. Most developers will be happy to meet with you and review their current and past client work.  

3 ) What other services can you provide?

You never know what other services they may be able to provide unless you ask. It is often easier on you and can build a stronger brand identity if one company or designer can handle multiple aspects of your marketing. Ask them about direct marketing, email marketing, and natural search optimization services.

4 ) Do you have testimonials from other clients?

Reputable designers and developers will happily provide a list of satisfied clients, both past and present. Ask for a list of references to contact direct for a follow up.

5 ) I have a budget. Can I see examples of your work that fall within specific price ranges?

The developer should be able to supply a range of web design examples and online campaigns that where developed within general price ranges or tiers. This will also give you a perspective of the value of the end product being developed for you and your business. You can also request quotes from multiple developers to see a general average in pricing, but beware that the cheapest price might not be your best solution – reason why you ask for examples, testimonials…etc.

6 ) Do you register domain names and provide hosting?

Ask very specific questions about where the site will be hosted. In my professional opinion, host with a third party and keep all information in your name or your businesses name. Do not let a developer register your domain name or hosting in their name. All of that information is the property of you and your business and should always remain that way. Reputable third party hosts include: GoDaddy, Dreamhost, Bluehost, Rackspace…etc.

7 ) What is your process for designing and developing a website?

A well outlined plan or process ensures you and your vendor know each other’s respective roles in the design and development of your website. It also will help you gauge their level of experience. Beware of developers who do not deliver a timeline for milestones during the development phase. Ask your developer to sit down and review the proposed process and ask any questions that are unclear.

8 ) What programming languages and development tools do you use?

Even though you may not care about the answer to this question, it is important information for you to know. At the very least they should be able to hand code html. Other acceptable languages are PHP, ASP, XHTML, CSS, AJAX and javascript.

9 ) What is the change process after the website is finished?

At some point your website, no matter how great it is, will need some changes or updates made. Find out what the process is for having these changes made. One way to avoid having to work with your vendor for content updates is to see if they will implement a content management system on your website.

10 ) Who owns the finished product at the end of the contract?

There is only one acceptable answer here. No matter what, the client owns the website including all graphics and content. The only exception is if your website uses a content management system. Often the CMS is outlined in your contract with the vendor as belonging to the vendor as their intellectual property.

1. Express who you are: A new backdrop can really help people understand who you are as a business and an individual. I use my background to display my business but I also ‘sprinkle’ in a few things about me personally… for example, my love for cooking, my passion for outdoor photography and how all of those things tie back into who I am as a business and a business owner.

2. Additional contact: It’s an easy way to add additional information that you might not be able to plug into your 160 character bio.

3. What’s your brand: Having your contact information, your face, or additional bio information within your background is a common practice. It helps potential followers understand what you do, why you are someone people should follow and how to contact you direct.

4. Why not… it’s fun: It’s really another platform to show off your creativity and style. I use Twitter to showcase more I Love Nevada photography. I change the background images out once every couple of weeks to keep it fresh and entertaining. Follow me on Twitter.

To learn more about how to design and setup a custom Twitter background, give me a call at 626-8330.

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

• Walk to Washington
• Joint Use
• American Red Cross Online Disaster News Portal
• Philadelphia Neighborhoods
• Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands
• BigGovHealth
• More 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.

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

1. Google
   Local Business Listings
   http://www.google.com/local/add
2. Yahoo
   Local Listings
   http://listings.local.yahoo.com
3. Bing
   Local Business Listings
   https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
4. Yelp
   Real People. Real Reviews.
   http://www.yelp.com
5. City Search
   Local Business Listings
   http://www.citysearch.com
6. Merchant Circle
   Free Online Advertising
   http://www.merchantcircle.com
7. topix
   Local Business Listings
   http://www.topix.com

In the Reno/Sparks area a house might set you back $50,000 or $3 million. Just as a website from a Reno/Sparks web design agency might cost you $500 or $30,000. Do you want to live in a one bedroom apartment in a less-than-desirable part of town or do you want the sprawling estate in the foothills? Do you want a cookie-cutter template site or a robust custom web application? Plywood or hard wood floors? Iframes or AJAX? I could go on this way all day, but you get the point.

The beautiful (and the frustrating) thing many people fail to understand about the web is it’s flexibility. If you only have a $500 budget there are ways to get a website started for you. However, you need to be realistic about your expectations. You wouldn’t expect a $50,000 house to have marble floors, so don’t expect your $500 website to process online orders.

Your Website Should Cost Nothing

All that being said, a website should not cost you anything. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing. Your website should help you generate revenue or in some way get a return, therefore it is not a cost – it is an asset. If your website costs you money then your web designer or developer has done something wrong.  Yes, you will be required to invest something up front for this asset. Usually this investment will come in the form of time and/or money. If your website is a money pit with no discernible return on your investment it is time to ditch your designer. If you’re working alone stop trying to do it yourself and seek professional help.

Just like all your assets, your website will require maintenance to maintain and even improve it’s value. So make sure you are taking care of your website and are not neglecting it to the point where it becomes a liability. Once it becomes a liability then it will cost you money to bring it back to the point of being a valuable asset and this is always more expensive than maintaining it’s value.

Just remember, like most things in life, with your website and online marketing you get what you pay for.

Cornerstone Blogs

For many businesses blogging has become the cornerstone of their web marketing efforts, a way to disseminate information and reach their target demographic/potential client base in a new way. It allows for dialogue with their clients, albeit still in a top down fashion. The business pushes content down and the masses respond. They could respond in many ways including comments, linkbacks or tweets and retweets. Many businesses use it as a test bed for customer service and/or marketing messages, but there is one overriding characteristic of these blogs. They all add value to the company’s brand image by being useful and providing quality information to their users.

At Westward Strategy we strive to add value every single time we post something. Sure, sometimes we post our own business successes, but more often than not we post the successes of our clients over our own successes. We do research and find supporting and/or opposing arguments to the topic we are writing on. We even publish articles that could be useful to anyone looking for search optimization or web design resources. And we do all of it with the readers/users of our site at the forefront of our minds. If you’re shopping around for a web design firm we hope you can use and/or educate yourself a little bit more with our “10 Questions You Should Ask a Prospective Web Design Company“. It does not matter if you choose to contact us about your project or not.

Now I know what you are saying…

“Chris, if a company uses a blog to publish quality content and that in turn garners more market share and value for the company, isn’t that self-serving?”

The answer – sure, in a way. The difference is cornerstone blogs focus on the customer first and the business second.

Self-serving Blogs

The other type of blog is the self-serving blog. The blog that gets added to an existing website and updated maybe once a month with posts that read something like this:

Reno Car Wash has the best reno car washes in Reno. We use only the best car wash soap and reno car wash equipment at Reno Car Wash. You should stop by Reno Car Wash and see our brand new car wash equipment and get a car wash from Reno Car Wash while you’re there!

Or even worse, they look like this with a bazillion links in them:

Reno Car Wash has the best reno car washes in Reno. We use only the best car wash soap and reno car wash equipment at Reno Car Wash. You should stop by Reno Car Wash and see our brand new car wash equipment and get a car wash from Reno Car Wash while you’re there!

Ok, that may be a little exaggerated, but trust me it’s not by much. It should be painfully obvious, like a frying pan to the skull cap, what the difference is between a cornerstone blog and self-serving blog. Sure the self-serving blog will manage to get information to the user that may be of some use, but really is that the way you talk to your customers? Is that the way you should talk to your customers? The answer to both is NO.

Self-serving blogs are like cheap furniture. They may have a nice wood veneer, but one scratch will reveal the shoddy construction and cheap materials underneath that thin cover. At that point it doesn’t matter what you put into the blog, you or your company will be seen in a not-so-friendly light.

So, the question is, why do you blog? Are you adding value for your clients, customers and website users? Are you helping educate them? Are you freely giving information and knowledge? Or are you posting for your own perceived benefit? Are you blogging to dominate the search results? (See SEO Myth: Blogging Means Top Rankings) Are you adding value or just creating white noise?

Why do you blog?

1 ) How long have you been in business?

Think about what type of company you are comfortable working with before you meet with them. If they give an answer outside of your comfort level tell them immediately. Some businesses don’t mind working with startups or individuals with lesser experience if the price is right. Everyone has to start somewhere, but if this is a risk you are not willing to take just tell the SEO company upfront. This is critical when you look at SEO because if the SEO company or consultant you hire makes a mistake it could cost you a lot in the long run in terms of sales, exposure on the web, and traffic.

2 ) Can I see examples of your work?

Most SEO companies will have some form of case study to explain what they did on a particular project and what the end result was.

3 ) Do you have testimonials from other clients?

Good companies will happily provide a list of satisfied clients, both past and present. We even make them publicly available on our website.

4 ) What is the experience level of your team?

While almost every company has a few noobs (pronounced newbies) there should be some senior members on the team. Again, this is a comfort level thing on your part. Don’t get caught up in sales pitches and listen to your instincts here. As explained above there are some risks with working with an unexperienced SEO consultant, but there could be great rewards as well. Someone who is hungry to prove their talents and earn that experience may be a better fit for your company, but they also may require more oversight on your part.

5 ) What techniques do you use to help my website perform better?

Notice I didn’t say, “what is your technique to achieve better rankings?” Rankings are just a means to an end. Yes, they can be a critical evaluation tool, but at the end of the day you want to know if those rankings are bringing in dollars to the bottom line. It doesn’t matter if your website ranks #1 for “buy blue widgets  in Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky” (yes, Monkeys Eyebrow is a real place). If that term does not bring you one new customer, then the SEO company hasn’t done their job. Don’t expect full disclosure of all aspects of all their techniques, but they should be able to explain in plain english what they plan to do.

6 ) What is your process for search engine optimization?

A well outlined plan or SEO process ensures you and your vendor know each other’s respective roles in the SEO process. It also will help you gauge their level of experience. Beware of companies that don’t have a plan! Don’t expect full disclosure of all aspects of their process, but they should be able to explain in plain english what they plan to do.

7 ) Will you make changes to my website?

If you get any answer other than yes, you can end the interview right there. I would question their practices if they plan to never make any changes to your site.

8 ) When will I see results?

Reputable SEO companies that are playing by the rules will be able to give you an answer to this question without a problem. SEO companies that are using questionable techniques may not be able to answer this question.

9 ) What other services can you provide?

Companies that only focus on SEO are becoming few and far between. Modern SEO requires a good understanding of user behavior performance, web design, and general marketing principles. Many SEO companies also offer PPC advertising management services for search engine marketing.

10) Who owns the work in the end?

There is only one acceptable answer here. No matter what, the client owns the website including all graphics and content. The only exception is if your website uses a content management system. Often the CMS is outlined in your contract with the vendor as belonging to the vendor as their intellectual property. If they say you will lose rankings immediately when you stop paying them, then I hate to say you’ve been duped into paying for placement by nothing more than a swindler. Remove their access to your site and go look for a reputable SEO company.

Rand’s article raises some valid points about the SEO industry. Now that other forms of advertising and sales channels have slipped up a bit due to their high costs or lower ROI, online marketing – including SEO, is taking more of the marketing budget pie in a lot of corporate environments. Internal marketing departments and external marketing agencies are having to prove their worth more, now that budgets are getting stretched and squeezed to their fullest. If a channel isn’t accountable for spending vs. sales then the likelihood that it will survive this downturn is unlikely.

Also, SEO is coming out of the shadows. As myths get debunked and education is expanded to business owners and marketers, true SEO is gaining ground as a viable marketing initiative. Of course there are still gamers, hacks and snake oil salesmen out there and until our industry grows up a lot more and sets some standards the fight will rage on between white hat and black hat SEO.

On the other side of the fence Ms. Callow discusses the benefits of search marketing or PPC advertising. Which is one arena where we have seen tremendous growth in the last several months. Of course a majority of this growth can be attributed to the holiday season, as we handle pay per click advertising for several online retailers. However it is not just retailers looking to leverage this channel over traditional advertising – many of our b2b customers have been asking about it as well. I believe Ms. Callow nails the reasoning for this perfectly in her article.

Often marketers are attracted to PPC advertising due to its inherent benefits such as advanced targeting, accountability and cost effectiveness. With PPC advertising you can start or stop ads at any time, run them only when you know people will be looking for your product or service, target by geographic region (down to the city level) and attract customers using their nomenclature at the exact instance of their interest and query. With advanced web analytics you can track click to conversion metrics to further account for each dollar spent vs. each dollar generated.

There is also a “safe” factor to PPC advertising. Marketers know that they can invest a minimal amount upfront and give it a test run. If they feel it is not working for them they can stop all ads and outgoing costs instantly or they can retool ads and spend more time doing keyword research to find better converting terms. Right now these are especially attractive features.

Don’t Stop at SEO and PPC Advertising

The only thing both of these articles are missing is any mention of other online marketing initiatives, like permission based email marketing. Email marketing is still a tremendous way to market on a very cost effective platform. It literally costs pennies, and in most cases fractions of pennies, to leverage an internal customer or lead list that may be gathering dust and turn it into a powerful customer relationship management channel and sales tool.

So if you are not already involved in online marketing, you better get your move on! You are already losing ground, market share and revenue to your competitors if you are not actively working the online channel. In all market conditions it is a powerful marketing tool, but especially during an economic downturn.

Titles

Hello my name is Fred and there’s nothing unique about me.  Would you be interested in hiring me?  Seems like the job interview from hell.  The funny thing is many websites have this same mentality in regards to title tags.  Titles are the first glimpse of a page users have with your site.  When a user bookmarks a page, the title is what is saved in the bookmarks folder.  Could you be missing conversions simply because your titles are not unique with your site’s main keywords?

Google recommends using accurate, unique and brief titles for each and every page on your site.  This is simple SEO at its finest, but quite often gets overlooked or forgotten about.  The title is valuable real estate for your site and as such should be effectively communicating the topic of the page.   All search engine queries that have keywords in your title will be bolded, instantly encouraging eyes of searchers towards your listing.

Descriptions

The meta description tag gives search engines a glimpse or summary of what the page is about.  Google recommends accurate and unique phrases that inform and interest users.  In essence, your site’s description is a brief piece of marketing copy that can make or break someone clicking on to your site.  There are many worst practice scenarios that seem to come up over and over again and should be avoided:

• duplicate descriptions across a website
• copying the title tag into the description tag
• stuffing the description tag with a list of keywords
• using a description that is not compelling marketing copy and lacks uniqueness

URL Structure

Hello, my name is Fredrif-06390p=12.  What’s your name?

Who’s going to remember Fredrif-06390p=12 and what makes him unique?  No one.  In the same sense your  website’s URL structure plays an important role in best practices SEO.  Google recommends using a URL structure that uses keywords from that specific page.  In addition, from a usability standpoint, a nice looking URL structure will make it easier for others to remember pages from your site.  Google also recommends having one URL for one unique page.  Many sites have duplicate pages with different URLs causing a duplicate content issue.  Set up a 301 redirect to solve this problem and clear any duplicate content issues.

Navigation

Your site’s navigation should be both intuitive and user-friendly.  Visitors on your site should find it easy to navigate to the page they are looking for.  Google recommends:

• text-based navigation
• properly formatted site-maps
• useful 404 pages

Content

The brunt of your site lies within its content.  It’s the reason that someone visits your site.  Google’s guide has quite a bit of good information on this subject.  Here are some of the key take-aways:

• make effective use of heading tags
• make text easy to read, staying organized on the topic
• use relevant language with keywords that users are searching for
• keep anchor text intuitive and relevant
• name images in a more intuitive way