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.

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

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/

Testimonials are and should be considered true marketing if they are written honestly, with real facts and the ability for new business to contact your references direct if needed. They provide the much-needed ‘proof’ for waivering prospects and can be used to convert more easily if given the ability and access.

It’s easy to sell myself and make the promise that I have your businesses best interest in the forefront of my mind but it can be an up hill battle to sing my own praises when I have competitors that might brow beat me simply by price.

Inorder to be able to compete in such a saturated and competitive marketplace here are four tips for how I make honest and competitive use of testimonials:

1) Westward doesn’t over-edit. Our testimonials work best when they are in real people language. The real written language helps our readers connect which demonstrates that we are an honest company looking out for our clients each and every day.

2) Westward uses testimonials that fit. We place appropriate testimonials along with a particular point that we are trying to make and back it up with facts. Call us on it if you want. We’d be happy to deliver the information.

3) Westward never fakes it. While testimonials are crucial, we don’t take the risk to fake them. We figured that most people have well-trained ‘this is a crock’ detector and they can smell a fake a mile away. If you would like a list of our references – contact me direct: info@westwardstrategy.com.

4) Westward always encourages specifics. Whether a client gives us a testimonial on their own or whether we ask them for one, we do ask our clients to be specific on how Westward helped them. Wouldn’t you want to know exactly what we did as far as specifics for the client rather than a bland – yeah Westward Strategy was great cause they just were!

Read ‘real‘ accounts of how Westward Strategy has been an asset to clients by visiting the testimonials page, my Linked in page or any of my local associations: Better Business Bureau, eWomen Network, Sparks Chamber of Commerce or the Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce.

NevadaFoodies.com

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

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:

• Your business name (ex. WestwardStrategy.com)
• Your first and last name (ex. KristyCrabtree.com) or
• Keyword specific phrase (ex. WestwardDesignGroup.com)

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.

• (Example 1) Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
• (Example 2) Brand Name | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keyword

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:

• (Example) chocolate-lab-running.jpg vs. img0893.jpg

9.) The title tags are the words that visitor’s click to reach the hyperlinks behind them. Add descriptive title tags to anchor links

• (Example) title=” Descriptive Title Tag” vs. title=”Click Here”

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

Visit The Gold ‘N Silver today!