Web Savvy Marketers

Join us at the CT Women’s Conference

ImagineFor the past two years, Web Savvy Marketers has worked with the Connecticut Women’s Alliance to plan and sponsor their events.  On April 25, the CWA will present it’s premier event, the Connecticut Women’s Conference.

With our guiding theme, “Imagine…”, we’ve planned a day to inspire and empower your imagination at the conference this year.  We have workshops designed to quench your thirst for knowledge in finance, spirituality, business, wellness, and global awareness. We’re excited to have Deborah Rodriguez, author of “A Cup of Friendship” and “The Kabul Beauty School” as our keynote speaker. Kay Wilson and her expert panel plan to discuss Spiritual, Physical and Mental empowerment. Jaclyn Vocell, a nationally recognized women’s life coach, motivational speaker, business and sports team life coach and leader, who empowers women and teams across the United States to live in victory, will keep the program going as our Master of Ceremonies.

Like last year, we’ve put together an eclectic and interesting group of vendors and exhibitors. Plus we’ll have some perennial favorites (Ben & Jerry’s) and some new surprises (Laugh Yoga) to make the day fun and festive.

Beth and I are pleased to work for and sponsor the CWA and we’re excited to be a part of this event and hope that many of you will join us at the conference. Today is the final day for Early Bird pricing ($119), so register today to save $30.  

We hope to see you there!

 

Thank you Google and Bing for validating my SEO viewpoint

SEO VoodooFor several years now, I’ve rebelled against SEO Voodoo.

What I mean by SEO Voodoo is the process of hyper-focusing on optimizing your website to the detriment of building a good website.  Folks get so caught up in the SEO hype—keywords, link building and so on that they forget that good content will cause people to naturally link to your website and will include the keywords that apply to your material.

Instead,  I’ve promoted the concept that a well-designed website with well-crafted, informative content is a far better investment than spending time and money on voodoo search engine optimization.  At times, I’ve had clients look at me as if I had two heads. Sadly, in some cases they’ve gone out and hired someone else to do the voodoo.

That’s not to say that I dismiss SEO concepts.  I employ practical SEO principles as I build and maintain  websites. I believe in classic html SEO practices like creating relevant unique page titles, using heading tags to highlight topics of the website,  and I believe in cross-promoting your business and website online with social media sites and e-mail marketing.  As a practice I create 301 redirects if I redesign a site and the urls change.

But I’ve never bought  into the practices of “guaranteed” SEO tactics — you know — things like cramming keywords into your content, artificially creating links and some of the other crazy ideas the SEO specialists recommend to my clients.

Some SEO tactics, like keyword cramming, are kind of like a guy stuffing a sock in his pants. It might entice some visitors, but they’re disappointed when they get there.

I guess I figured the search engines were smarter than that or maybe I just figured it was more important to create a website that focused on your user’s experience.  You know, spend time to create useful content that might actually sell your product or service?

It seems, Google and Bing might agree with me. Last week, Matt Cutts from Google and Duane Forrester from Bing had a conversation at SXSW about SEO.  You can listen to to their conversation here.  Among some of their points (paraphrased):

  • over-optimization is a problem that can reduce the relevancy of search results and Google is trying to solve the problem
  • if you’re not engaged socially, you’re missing the boat
  • algorithms are not static—many variables affect search results
  • search engines try to do what’s best for their constituents – the searchers
  • spend less  time on building artificial links and more time on creating news or content that other sources will pick up
  • instead of trying to beat your competitors at the SEO game, offer more compelling content than your competitors
  • don’t buy links, instead:
    1. work on social media
    2. on becoming an authority in your industry
    3. if someone is doing an article on you, ask for a link

So take the advise of some of the search engine pros and focus on creating good content for your website; it may serve you better than SEO voodoo.

Related blog posts:

 

 

Inspiration & Ideas From the Twitter Feed

Cruising through my Twitter feed last night and I came across this inspiring infographic – 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content.

Who doesn’t need inspiration occasionally? I know I do. It’s been some time since I posted any content let alone compelling  content to my blog.  Lacking time to nurture inspiration this week, I decided to  simply post @copybloggers infographic for now so I can refer to it for inspiration when time allows. I believe that makes this post a combination of #1 (using content from other blogs), #2 (group brainstorming via Twitter) and #5 (guest post).

Thank you @copyblogger for allowing me to use this infographic on my blog and to @MichelleShaeffr for retweeting it so I came across it in the feed.

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content - Infographic
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Avoid copyright infringement or it will cost you…

Just because you can search Google Images or other photography sites and find images online that might look good on your website, doesn’t mean you have the rights to use them on your website.

I’ve run into clients and prospects  who are under the misguided assumption that images on the web are free for the taking.  Not so.  In fact, if the stock photography companies find that your site is using pirated images you could be fined hundreds or thousands of dollars. And they will find you.  I’ve had clients who have loaded images onto their website (that were unknowingly pirated from an online source) and eventually they get a call from Comstock or some other Stock photo house demanding payment for the use of their image.

Always make sure that you have the right to use images that you place  on your website (or any marketing materials).  There are many royalty free stock photos you can purchase for use on your website for fairly low cost.  IStockphoto.com is one that we use frequently to purchase stock photography.

Music is another component that people like to pirate.  It is not legal to use a song you’ve purchased and downloaded onto your IPod as background music for a video you post to YouTube.  Sorry.  SoundDogs.com is a good source for music and sound effects.

I don’t have to tell anyone that it’s plagiarism to copy text from another site.  Do I?

Holiday Shopping Suggestions – Supporting Small Business Cyber Shops

The holiday shopping season kicked off with some distasteful Black Friday incidents last week.  Hearing about these unsavory incidents makes me glad I’ve never bothered with  Black Friday,  I’m more of a Cyber Monday kind of gal, and I  support Small Business Saturday. I think it’s important to support your local small businesses including brick and mortar and online stores.

Although the big kick-off shopping weekend is over, I’m sure there’s more shopping to be done.  If you prefer to avoid the mall hubbub and feel like staying home in your jammies and doing some on-line shopping this holiday season, here’s a list of clients who are small business owners that sell or show products online.  They’re all reputable honest people with great products.  The * indicates you may need to call to purchase.

Art

Astrology Calendar & Services

Books

Food & Beverage

Health & Fitness

Jewelry

Motorcycle & Auto Accessories

Travel Services

Museum Store

And Finally, Santa Claus

Happy Holidays!

My Secret Weapon – Google and an unknown 13-year old

Today I had a unusual call from a long-time client. (I promised not to reveal her name).   She apologized for calling me because the problem had nothing to do with her website or her online marketing but she was extremely disoriented because her computer screen had flipped upside down.

I laughed.

“How did that happen?” I asked and then I chuckled some more.

Apparently my client  had accidentally hit the combination of keys that’s the shortcut for flipping your display.  Yeah, that’s a handy shortcut. Thank you Microsoft.

“It’s not funny,” she said. “Not only is the screen upside down, but the mouse is backwards”.

I laughed again.  “Did you try turning the mouse upside down?” I asked.

Meanwhile, while poking fun at my client I did a quick Google search for “upside down display screen”  and I quickly found a forum where others had run into the problem.  Scanning the forum I saw one that  began with “I’m 13 years old and I have the answer to the problem…”

The 13-year old recommended going to the display settings where you will find the option to flip your screen.   Who knew?  I’m 53 years old and I didn’t know that option existed, but Google and the 13-year old kid made me look like a hero.  Thank you Google and unknown 13-year old (you little smartie-pants).

SEO is Not a Silver Bullet to Sales

This morning I came across a post offering the top things not to do when optimizing your site for Google search.  See “Search engine optimization Elite Review On Google Prime ten NoNo’s”  The points are all valid and a well optimized site should follow all the rules if they want to have their site rank as high as possible.  The problem I see with many customers is their laser-sharp focus on getting a good search engine rank  while neglecting other marketing and possibly even the website itself.

This hyper-focus may have been enhanced by the glut of SEO experts telling people how vital SEO is to their success.  But, web site owners would be wise to remember that the only thing good SEO will do is have your site show up in a site search.  It’s not a silver bullet to sales.  It will only improve the odds or bringing customers to your website.  After that it’s up to you and your website to impress potential customers with amazing content–content that’s current, clear, accurate, informative, and attractively designed.

So while you’re reviewing SEO strategies (because I’m not discounting the effectiveness of a well-optimized site at getting people to the door) don’t forget to review your website.  The stuff that customer’s actually see is as important as a good SEO strategy.   Here’s a brief checklist of things you should be looking at:

  1. Is it clear (to the layperson) within seconds of landing on any page in your website what you’re selling?
  2. Is your phone number visible? On every page?
  3. Do you give people a reason to call you?  Do you clearly state benefits of doing business with you?
  4. Is your navigation easy to follow?
  5. Are your markets clearing defined.  Do you provide market specific content for different market segments?
  6. Do you update your content with current information?
  7. Does your site design look professional?  Does it look current or dated?  Does it show well on mobile devices?
  8. Is your site design (colors, typography, logos, images)  consistent with your brand?
  9. If you have a shopping cart, is the cart secure? Are products clearly displayed and identified?
  10. Are customer service policies, shipping methods, return policies, privacy policies in place.
  11. Do you provide a physical location and multiple ways for people to contact you?
  12. Are you using social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others that are appropriate for your markets?

Always focus on building a website that benefits your clients and potential clients.  If you keep that in mind as you optimize your site and your content you may find that customers are not only finding you, but they’re also buying from you.  And that’s really the ultimate goal isn’t it?

What I learned from Twitter this morning

It’s 6:49 am and I’ve been scanning my Twitter feed with CNN on the TV in the background.

I use Twitter to primarily follow web designers, application developers and SEO experts, with a small dose of news sources and random other hobbies and interests.  By scanning through my Twitter feed I learn of new tools and techniques in my industry.

Here’s what I’ve learned from Twitter:

  1. From @smashingmag: How other digital designers are using Fireworks – (one of my favorite tools).  In reviewing this post I realize there are techniques I can try that will make me more efficient in my daily workflow.  The post also made me want to upgrade to CS5.
  2. 10 reasons why business card size matters.  Some interesting design samples — it’s always inspirational to look at other designer’s work.
  3. From @1stwebdesigner: 10 tips for designing better infographics.  Insights into making a better bar graphes, pie charts, etc.  Some good pointers.
  4. From @catswhocode a Black Cat Rescue Shelter in the Boston area.  Black cats are less likely to be adopted.  People are weird.  Beautiful black cat featured available for adoption. Hope he finds a good home.
  5. From @ZarkoCompare – Link building guide from the Bliss SEO blog.  (Found the color scheme of the website hard to read)
  6. From @Biz: Large, slow moving plane video. (okay this one was a waste of time)
  7. From @CNN: Senate blocks vote on jobs bill
  8. From @CNNMoney: Foreign buyers scooping up US homes.

Here’s what been on TV this morning:

Gadhafi’s dead, Gadhafi’s Dead, Gadhafi’s dead… Jackson’s doc on trial.  7 billionth baby

Who do you follow?  What’s in your Twitter feed?

Blithering passwords

I imagine when the dementia starts to set in a few years down the road, I’ll just start blithering passwords. It seems everything I do is password related. Email, Twitter, Facebook, online accounts, pin numbers. Sometimes it gets to be too much, and like most people, I occasionally get a little lazy and use a weak password.

Earlier this week, I realized that someone was posting as me on my Twitter account. Unfortunately, instead of posting valuable information, they were posting links to material I didn’t want to promote, so I deleted their posts and changed my password. And hopefully anyone who follows my Twitter account didn’t really think I was promoting get-rich work-at-home schemes. The incident forced me to re-evaluate my password strategy. So now, my passwords are longer and have more *&%^ characters and will be changed more often.  Below are some other practices I will follow and recommend.

Five best password practices

  1. Change your passwords often.
  2. Make them hard to guess.  Use at least 8 characters in your password.  Don’t use words or names, use a nonsensical set of characters
  3. Make them hard to find.  If you must record them (and you will unless you have a better memory than most)  put them in a secure location — not on a sticky note on your computer monitor.  If you store them electronically on your computer — make sure they are not accessible.  Lock them up whether paper or electronic based.
  4. Don’t use the same password on all your accounts.
  5. Don’t share your password with other people.  Don’t email your password.  If you must have your password emailed to you because you forgot it, change it as soon as you log in.

 

A Control Freak Learns to Delegate


Carolyn Griswold, Henry Liss, Beth Devine at CT Business Expo
Carolyn, Henry & Beth at CT Business Expo

I’ve never thought of myself as a control freak but for most of the past 10 + years I’ve pretty much ran the show as the solopreneur of cgwebhelp. That means I created designs, wrote code, managed web hosting, talked to customers, troubleshot problems, marketed the business, quoted jobs, paid the bills and sent the invoices.  But in the last year or so, and especially since partnering with Beth to form Web Savvy Marketers things have changed and I don’t have to do everything anymore. It’s a luxury… and a challenge.

It’s a complete luxury to have partnered with Beth.  She freakishly loves to do the stuff I hate to do and hates to do the stuff I like to do.  She loves to make sales calls!  Who loves to do that?  She likes to write quotes.  What’s that about? She’s also nicer to the customers than I am. That should be good for business. I like to write code and troubleshoot problems…Beth, not so much. It’s a business marriage made in heaven.

In fact, partnering with Beth has created the need for us to bring on more help in order for us to keep up with the workload.  Quite the feat in these questionable times.

I’m now delegating the technical stuff–my stuff–the designing and coding. Therein lies the challenge.  I find myself  hesitating to delegate the choice technical jobs to our able assistants and sub-contractors.   Will I lose my identity?  Maybe they won’t need me anymore?  Wow, sounds kind of insecure.

Will insecurity stagnate the business or will rationality reign over growth?

My friend Henry brought up the book The E-Myth Revisited recently.  For those of you unfamiliar with the book it’s about how most people who start small businesses, start from the area of their technical expertise.  They’re good at baking pies, carpentry, or building websites, but they have no concept of running a business. So eventually they wear themselves out by trying to be the technician while running the business.  I realized that I, like most small businesses, came from a place of technical expertise.  I liked building websites.  So I started a website business.

Northern Pike caught on Cedar Lake, Annandale, MN

Fortunately, I really do like running the business as much as building the websites, so I’ve done alright.  But there comes a point in time where there are only so many hours in a day.  Delegation has to happen if you want the business to grow. So although I occasionally have trouble letting go of the technical stuff, I know that I must override my technician’s insecurities and let go, move forward  and delegate. And I’ve found  that when I let go and delegate…the job might be done better that I would have done it!  Isn’t that great?

So while David writes code and sets up websites; while Iris updates websites; while Henry programs web applications; while Jonathan and Sue design; and while Nancy writes copy, Beth and I get to create a business. And fish. It’s a wonderful life.

In June, the team made it possible for me to take a leisurely fishing trip.   Thank you Beth, Iris, Nancy, Sue, David, Henry, Jonathan and to everyone else who made it possible!

 

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