Web Savvy Marketers

Time to sweep out the digital dust bunnies?

Just like your house, every so often it’s a good idea to go through your web site, sweep out the corners and get rid of the dust bunnies.   I’m talking digital dust bunnies – those bits of material that meant something once but are no longer connected to anything tangible.  They come in the form of broken links and dated information.

Broken links are frustrating for your site visitors and they can hurt your search engine rank.  So take the time to ensure that all you links work.  You can check them manually, but if you have more than a few pages that can get tedious fast, so use one of the online link checking resources. There are many online.  Google “website link checker” or try this handy tool  – http://validator.w3.org/checklink.

The web is an ever-changing dynamic place so if you haven’t checked your links lately, you may be surprised to find that the great resource your site linked to no longer exists at the address in your link.

As far as the dated information, I don’t know of a tool to check for it, but you know if your website has old information.   Make sure your website isn’t promoting events that have passed or services you no longer offer.  Outdated websites may leave people with the impression that your business is as neglected as your website.

Do you know where your domain is registered?

“Do you know where your children are?”   Do you remember that PSA that used to run in the evenings?  As a web developer whose seen some unfortunate clients lose their domains or get scammed out of some cash, I’ll ask “Do you know where your domain is registered?”

It’s important to know where your domain is registered and to monitor the contact information on the domain to ensure that you retain control.  In many cases your domain name is closely tied to your brand so you should be very protective of maintaining that domain.   I’ve seen customer’s lose  domain names because they changed their e-mail address and didn’t receive the renewal information.  And I’ve seen domains transferred to different regsitries in response to unscrupulous sales techniques.

Most domain registries handle renewals with automatic credit card billing and e-mail notices.  If your credit card expires and the e-mail on account with the domain registry is no longer in effect the domain will expire and you may lose your domain permanently if the problem is not caught in time.  Make sure you keep your contact information current and do not ignore renewal notices from your domain registrar.

There are a few unscrupulous domain registry companies out there whose practice is to send transfer solicitations that look like domain renewal invoices to domain owners.  Domain owners sometimes miss the text that says that by sending a check it authorizes them to transfer the domain to their company. And since the domain owner doesn’t remember who is their domain registrar, they assume the invoice is legitimate and they pay the bill.  The company doesn’t transfer ownership–you’ll still own the domain–but why change your domain registration company and pay a higher rate in the process?

In closing, if you don’t know where your domain is registered,  find out now, before it’s too late.

What is Website Optimization and Why do I Care?

This is a question that I’ve received on more than one occasion. Anyone who has a website should care about website optimization. If you have a website, odds are you’ve spent time and money to create it. So what is it doing for you? Too many people create a site and do nothing to drive traffic to their site, then, wonder why business hasn’t improved. In traditional terms, you can create the most beautiful advertisement, however, if you never place it where it can be seen, it’s useless. It’s the same for websites. That is where website optimization comes in. It’s the practice of driving traffic to your website. There are several ways to do this.

The first way to drive traffic to your site is to ensure that your site can be found. This is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. By including meta tags and descriptions as well as improving the content of your site, you can improve the organic search-ability of your site so that people can find you. This is a long-term investment that pays off in gradual increments. Over time, search engine optimization will help improve your search engine rank and make it easier for potential customers to find your site.

The second way to improve your website optimization is a traditional pay-per-click program. These are the ads that show up in the right hand column of a Google search. The nice thing about these ads, as the name says, you only pay for those searches that actually click through to your site. This program is intended to drive unknown prospects to your site.

A third method of website optimization is called e-marketing. This includes creating an e-newsletter campaign and/or blog to help educate your customers. It is a good way to ensure that you have a consistent presence with your existing customers and known prospects. It will remind them that you’re out there and in some cases, depending on the article, educate them about capabilities you have that they may not know about or have forgotten.

The final form of website optimization is inclusion of RSS feeds to your website to pull the latest news from a blog into your site. This can help to keep your site updated with little effort. This will also help your search engine optimization and gives users a reason to go back to your site more frequently as they’ll know that you have updated information.

Basically, website optimization is a means to get your site working for you. Years ago, when people created or changed their website, they would let everyone they knew know about it. We’ve gotten away from that practice. Website optimization takes the best of those practices and incorporates them into a program that will make your website work for you.

WebSavvyMarketers.com launched

Last week a collaborative team of Web Savvy Marketers launched the new blog WebSavvyMarketers.com.  The team is made up of Rahna Barthelmess, Nancy Simonds, Beth Devine and me.  Our goal is to explore and discuss the numerous online marketing options availabe for businesses today.  Each of us operates our own marketing and web related business yet we all have different specialties.  Check out websavvymarketers.com and feel free to comment and ask questions.

Mary’s Place launched

Marysplacect.orgFriday we launched the redesigned website for Mary’s Place, A Center for Grieving Children in Windsor, CT.  I designed the original Mary’s Place website in 2003. After six years it was time for a fresh look.  We incorporated video and some flash slideshows into the new design in addition to making it easier for people to donate directly through the website and through Amazon.com  and IGive.com affiliations.  Check out Marysplacect.org

Let’s talk passion

WebSavvyMarketers is a group of four marketing professionals who have joined together to explore and comment on digital and on-line marketing.  We each have a unique passion that drives our individual careers and as savvy marketers we recognize the power of strategic alliance and collaboration.  Meet the WebSavvyMarketers.  

Rahna Barthelmess, who jumped in with the 1st post on the blog, has a passion for marketing. She’s helped  large corporations and small companies navigate the digital marketing world with up to date, and effective online strategies.   She’s focused and energetic about her passion. Tap into her energy here and through her website beacon-marketing.com.

Nancy Simonds loves to proofread.  Isn’t that an unusual passion?  In a world where the practice of texting has developed a new lexicon and threatens the art of a complete sentence, we need people like Nancy.  Although Nancy has helped develop web content for many business websites, she would probably be the first to admit that blogging, facebook, and twitter are a bit, shall we say, beyond her comfort zone.  But exploring new worlds is part of being a websavvymarketer and I think Nancy’s perspective on this “new world” will bring comfort to those of you who might  find some of the new technologies overwhelming.  More about Nancy at simonds.com

Have you ever met anyone who loves to cold call? Meet Beth Devine.  I swear, her passion for cold calling, could possibly be an addiction.   What’s her perspective?  How does a cold calling addict become a websavvymarketer?  Stay tuned.  By the way, Beth also creates multi-media sales CD’s and tradeshow presentations.  and recently has begun to work with me on SEO projects.   More at devinesolutionsinteractive.com,

And finally, who am I and what’s my passion?  I’m Carolyn Griswold and have a passion for the web and for building websites.  I love the technology that is ever evolving.  I love the immediacy of the web.  I love the interactivity, the functionality, the design, the language and the art.  I love to explore the web and as I explore I plan to use this space to share ways to become a web savvy marketer.   More at cgwebhelp.com

10-Point Search Engine Optimization Checklist

Can your potential customers find you when they do an Internet search? In other words, is your web site optimized for search engine indexing? Use this checklist to evaluate your web site for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

  1. Have you developed a key word list that contains words and phrases that describe your product or service?
  2. Does each page on your web site have a keyword-rich page title that accurately describes the content on that page?
  3. Does each page on your web site have a meta description tag that clearly describes the content on that page in one or two sentences?
  4. Do you use keywords within the content on your pages?
  5. Do you use keyword-rich alt tags for each image on every page?
  6. Do you use keywords in text links on your site?
  7. Do you update your site on a regular basis?
  8. Do you take advantage of industry- or regional-specific on-line directories to list your business, with a link to your web site?
  9. Do you use on-line PR services to submit articles related to your business that link to your web site?
  10. Do you have a blog, or participate in forums, blogs or on-line business networking services like Linked In, Facebook or Plaxo?

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