Using Free Images and Photos on Your Website

May 18, 2012 Beth Devine

Why use images on your website? Does it help your readers or distract them? Here’s five solid reasons to include pictures. Information on where to find those invaluable free images and photos will follow next week.

1. Make your website memorable.

Do you recall infographics and its rightful claim to fame, namely, keeping the reader reading with interesting graphics? Pictures and images do the same thing, adding an element of visual appeal that mere text alone cannot do. Besides this, we remember pictures easier than we do words. Research on visual mnemonics shows us that we are capable of tremendous memory storage using images.

“Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”

2. Give your website personality.

Using pictures will help evoke an emotional response from readers. It allows people to remember you and want to build a relationship with you. Content alone is a strong tool in relationship building, but adding images, particularly personal ones, will make for happier browsers. Where possible use photos of your staff, your facility, your product, and your customers.

3. Boost your Search Engine Results

Using pictures will improve your search results in Google image searches. Not only should you pay attention to using the right keywords, be sure to use relevant images to increase your search rankings.

Is Your Website “Sticky”?

4. Keep your readers longer.

The first thing your reader will see is the image. A photo of a pygmy giraffe, for example, will make them curious and compel them to remain on your site longer. The last thing they see, if your content continues to appeal, will be the bottom of the page. Give your readers what they want so they’ll stick around longer.

Remember, always be sure to check the permissions for terms of use for every image. There may be exceptions or limitations.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/5548053540/

Kayak Fishing with Google Glasses

May 17, 2012 Beth Devine

Off topic or not, an occasional fish story makes it into this blog. Humor me. I like to fish.

Last Saturday, my husband Brent and I took the kayaks out to Mansfield Hollow for our first outing of the season. It was a beautiful day. As Brent parked the truck I headed out thinking I could catch the first fish of the season.

It was a slow start. I was casting a blue rooster tail spinner–still tied to the line from last fall. After a few casts I looked around at the spring colors of the landscape and realized it was more of a lime green yellow day, so I changed the lure to match the landscape. Fish can be very color sensitive.

The lure change worked. I caught a nice bass. He was hefty. I quickly released him to enjoy the spring colors. Then I caught two more fish. Were they crappies? I think so, but later when I met up with Brent I wasn’t really sure. I could have dug out my phone and snapped a photo before I released them. But you know, it’s hard to take a photo of a fish with a phone while you’re holding a rod and a fish with a hook in a kayak! There’s the hand shortage issue and the fear of losing your paddle. And fish slime on the phone.

Later, when Brent and I were discussing our catches over adult beverages, I said I should find a way to fashion a camera to my glasses so I could ID my fish later.

He said, “Google Glasses.”

And I’m the techno-geek in the family. I hadn’t heard much about Google Glasses. But seriously is it a cool idea or what?!

Sign me up Google. Once I load my Fish ID app and fish finder, I’ll be all set.

Connecticut Women’s Conference 2012

May 1, 2012 Beth Devine

The Web Savvy Table at the CT Women's Conference — The Fabulous “Table 6”

Have you heard the phrase “just show up”? We are told that by simply being there, we’re taking a significant step toward success. Last week at the annual Connecticut Women’s Conference presented by the CT Women’s Alliance, we discovered what else we can do to achieve our dreams and goals, and it involves doing something we alone hold the power to do. It means becoming a conscious creator. Ask yourself how you are going to show up. Think about what you want, name the feelings this brings, and then cancel any negative ones. Now, concentrate on the positive thoughts, and let it expand.

If you imagine empowerment, it becomes yours.

“We Are Spirits Having a Human Experience”

L. Kay Wilson, the conference moderator, opened by introducing this vision of empowerment, and it lifted and soared as each speaker shared their story and the know-how they acquired along the way. These women (and a few men!) developed that kernel of truth within themselves to create a working reality for their ambition. Judy Dworin shared how she reaches across prison walls to embolden the incarcerated with the Performance Project’s dance and theater, Thea Montañez recounted her humanitarian efforts in Haiti, and keynote speaker Deborah Rodriguez regaled us with her adventures in Afghanistan training women in the art of cosmetology.

All the speakers have this in common: They are reaching out to do the uncommon by serving the underserved.

Table 6 on Stage for Laughter Yoga – What a hoot!

Our inspiration continued beyond the narratives. We learned how to improve our breathing. We practiced visualization on our hands. (Did you know one is larger? Or so it seems…) We even practiced laugh yoga. Don’t laugh – or rather, yes, laugh! – it’s for real, and it’s for your wellbeing.

Happiness is Giving to the Universe

When you show up, how will you choose to proceed? Rodriguez’s life-changing decisions began with an injured iguana. Should she follow her convictions and save this creature, or should she turn her back on what she knew would continue to follow her? Your own “iguana moment” could be the thing that makes you go forward or remain stationary. When they refused to turn their back, each of the speakers brought a unique and healing design to the table.

Montañez reminds us that the very thing we need to heal will bring us happiness when we give it away. Where will you bring your happiness? I hope when you show up you will find it there.

Get Going With User-Friendly Data From Google Analytics

April 22, 2012 Beth Devine

Get your free road map with Google Analytics. Whether you want to identify a poor performing page, evaluate transactions and revenue, or establish objectives and goals, Google Analytics will chart your Web site visitor’s traffic patterns.

How Are You Tracking Your Traffic?

Do you wonder how effective your Web site is? What sort of traffic is traveling through your Web site portal? You don’t need a degree in statistics to track and analyze your data. It’s easy to get started. Simply insert the code from your Google Analytics account and into your content management system or blogging platform such as WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr. The system will update itself for each page you create. Custom-built sites will need manual code updates per page.

Who Are Your Customers?

Get to know your visitor’s navigation habits. How do they get to your site? What links do they click on? What search terms do they use? Which pages do they view and how do they enter and exit? You choose what information you want to track and customize your dashboard to display upfront the data of interest to you. With GA, your visitors will leave breadcrumbs of data from all referrers, including e-mail, search engines, links within PDF documents, display advertising, and pay-per-click networks.

What’s Happening on Your Site Right Now?

Ever been curious to know how many people are on your site, what their geographic location is, what traffic sources referred them, and what pages they are viewing in real time? Use this to determine how well a one-day promotion is doing, if new content is creating more traffic, and if a blog/social network post or tweet has any immediate effect on visits. With the speed of change today, assessing past performance alone isn’t always enough.

Google Gets Social

Which social media is beating the path to your Web site door? Your social media traffic won’t get lost with Google Analytics. You can follow your visitor’s social network path, the social media buttons being pushed (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), and what articles they’re sharing. You can even follow the URLs they share, and if they shared using a post, comment, or reshare.

Should you develop a Google Analytics addiction, look into the Google Analytics Application Gallery for the fix you need. But, please, don’t blame me.

Google image supplied by http://www.flickr.com/photos/khalidalbaih/6764585321/.

Introducing Rockin’ Kacee

April 20, 2012 Beth Devine

We’re excited to have Rockin’ Kacee Erhard blogging for us. Kacee will be blogging about any web related applications, marketing news and information that we think may benefit our client base. If you have any questions or topics you would like Kacee to research and write about, please leave a comment below. Kacee will write about anything you ask her to write about (within reason–she’s already covered pygmy giraffes).

Kacee says…

It’s a writing thing. And it’s dogged me like any hungry animal will do until it’s fed. So, I compose in my head the events of the day, words strewn in my mind’s eye in an almost obsessive compulsion. These crumbs, along with journaling, have kept the beasts at bay while raising a family, but the cracks in my exterior were beginning to grow. When my friend, Beth, suggested a writing proposition for Web Savvy Marketers, I instinctively turned to the hounds and offered myself up.

I’m Kacee Erhard, and I’m a compulsive writer. May these blogs be a source of information and good cheer.

Google Alerts Gives You the Latest Scoop

April 20, 2012 Beth Devine

Find out what they are saying about you. Your latest customer reviews, product name updates, and all the articles pertinent to your business can be sent to you on a daily basis, or even as it happens, directly to your email inbox. Equally interesting is what they are saying about your competitor, so stay abreast by tracking their mentions just like you’re following your own.

Stay Tuned In Without the Hassle of Searching

With Google Alerts you don’t need to search for this information the old-fashioned way, typing in the specific keywords every time your curiosity gets the best of you. Once you create an alert, Google will track the most recent updates on your topic and email you the results. By using those clever Google search tips from my earlier post, you can streamline your topics with effective Google search queries. Try out a keyword search and see what happens. You can refine or delete an alert at any time, and you can choose to have them come through an RSS feed as well. Pick your RSS reader, although Google will suggest their own Google Reader.

Bloggers Beware!

Create a Google Alert for your blog so you will know when you are mentioned by someone else. Do each of the following alerts: your first and last name (use quotes if you have a common name), your blog’s name (not URL), and nickname if you have one, including your Twitter username. Now you will see whenever your name or blog is mentioned, even when they don’t link to you.

There’s also a way to monitor incoming links to your site. Enter your URL like this: link:www.yourdomain.com. Use the exact post’s URL for tracking a particular post. Don’t forget to do the same with your competition’s URL! They could lead the way to some links you need to know about.

Those insufferable hackers won’t escape you any longer. Discover if your site has been hacked before your rankings plummet, thanks to the unseemly spam links the hackers insert. WordPress sites in particular are being attacked, and the attackers are filling them with links to offensive domains. Enter into your alerts: site:www.yourdomain.com viagria, OR cialis OR otherspamword. This is not 100% effective, nor is it a preventive tool, so be sure to keep your site updated with the latest version.

Have Some Fun With Your Favorite Topics

Don’t leave Google Alerts without having some fun. Follow the latest news story, your favorite author or actor, or latest DIY trend. Let your imagination get carried away! You can set up to 1000 alerts for your scoping pleasure by starting here, and if you don’t already have a Google account, go here. For a terrific step-by-step and a video tutorial, check out WebBizIdeas.com’s page. What are you waiting for?

Obscure Google Apps, Techniques and Tips

April 3, 2012 Beth Devine

Google as Goliath

Let’s explore Google, the search engine that has tipped the Internet scale to a Google-centric mentality with an estimated 900 million unique users every month, according to eBizMBA. Go ahead and “Google it,” and you’ll discover that there are well over 100 Google products and services. Some of the lesser known products include Google Transliteration, Google Fusion Tables, and Google Panoramio. Because they keep coming and going, there’s an aptly named Google Graveyard for those that get the axe. More widely known and used are Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube. Yes, YouTube has gone Google. With these three Google products, we can contact someone, locate them, and potentially publish their antics for the World Wide Web to see.

The helpful infographic primer on how to Google more effectively in my last blog is a good place to begin in using Google at its most basic. Just mastering the proper “operators” is a good Google 101 lesson.

Tips to Take With You

If you want to find pages with an exact phrase, put quotes around it (“cute pygmy giraffes“). Now, try leaving a word out of the quote (cute “pygmy giraffes”), and you will find pages that contain the word cute as well as the exact phrase “pygmy giraffes.” If you want to omit a word, put a dash sign before it (cute -pygmy giraffes), and you will find pages that contain the words cute and giraffes, but not pygmy. Use the tilde (~) to search for similar words. Type ~cute pygmy giraffes and return with words such as adorable and delightful. Use the “site:” operator to search only within a certain website. Search for site:websavvymarketers pygmy giraffes and find pygmy giraffes only within Web Savvy Marketers.

Whereas there are Google do’s, there is a definite Google don’t. This will be a difficult habit for some of us to break. Don’t ask Google questions. Instead, phrase your search in terms of the answer. For example, “Are pygmy giraffes real pets?” For this you could write intitle:pygmy to show only results with pygmy in the title, and use the star (*) to find the best matches for the word *giraffe, in case there are any unknown terms for this word. I tried pets intitle:pygmy *giraffe, and it worked, although it felt a bit like Neverland. If you truly believe, you just might find one.

This search with the star is called a wildcard, and is excellent for using when you are unsure of a particular word but know the rest, such as in a song lyric, a well-known quote, or verse. By the way, you can use more than one star in a search, just be sure to place a space between any consecutive stars. If it’s a definition you want, put define: in front of the word you are questioning, and save yourself a separate trip to the online dictionary.

CTRL + F, Anyone?

My favorite quick-search tip is the little-known command + F shortcut, or CTRL + F with PCs. Follow this with the word you’re searching for (see the box which appears in the screen’s bottom left), and every instance of this word will be highlighted on that particular web page or document. Need to make a calculation? Never mind opening a calculator application; simply type the equation into Google using +, -, *, /, and parentheses. Forgot your reading glasses? Increase the size of the document with command + or CTRL +. Using the CTRL – will reverse your changes.

Go ahead and Google. You know you want to.

Image: anankkml @ http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1674

Join us at the CT Women’s Conference

March 31, 2012 Beth Devine

For 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!

Infographics

March 26, 2012 Beth Devine

Infographics Goes Retro

The growing trend in infographics, due in part to the rise of the Internet and social marketing, has a historical component going back to the Egyptian’s astronomical tables of the 2nd century. Jump to the 1920s London, and data visualization is being used to regale the London Underground, enticing the erstwhile passenger to ride the Tube. Fast forward to the 21st century, where today’s buzzword encompasses the data-as-art phenomenon with modern-day information design gurus such as Edward Tufte to emblazon the way. Tufte’s vision of information graphics rests in creating order out of chaos, making sense out of the evidence, ascribing the multidimensional, dynamic world of information onto a static, flat surface.

2-D Captivity: A Prison Break

Escaping this “flatland,” a reference to Flatland, a 19th century book where two-dimensional life is the norm, is Tufte’s oft-used metaphor for the challenge faced when attempting to create an appealing and arresting presentation, whether it be for a company website, brand advertising, non-profit fundraising, or simply to promote corporate responsibility. In his books, Tufte documented what he believes are some of the best graphic illustrations, and include an 1869 map of Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia and the failure of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger launch.

Rich content, layers of detail, while maintaining simplicity and ease of navigation, are key elements in designing a successful infographic. Avoid what the “da Vinci of data” calls “chartjunk,” anything in the realm of graphic design that detracts from its informative function by diverting readers with needless ornamentation. Whereas he concedes there is such a thing as too much data – a recent estimate for the size of the Internet indicated over 5 billion gigabytes – Tufte does not believe in informational overload. Neither does the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) carry much weight with him; assume your audience is as smart as you are. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler, as Einstein reportedly said.

Infographics This

For a view of the varied infographics ascending the World Wide Web’s horizon, meander through the strange beauty of an artistic rendering of the history of the sci-fi genre. Learn how to use Google search more effectively; while geared toward the college student, its tips will benefit everyone. Participate in World Water Day 2012 and help raise funds and raise awareness through Facebook sharing (hurry, ends March 30!). And for some me time, Intel’s “What About Me” will create a social media profile in a flower-motif infographic. Beware of the “socially disruptive” narcissist!

We are in an age where information demands to be not simply read, but acutely seen. Our visual world has never been more stimulating in its two-dimensional form. Think video screen, computer monitor, or piece of paper. Add information, inspiration, and really thoughtful graphic design. The sky’s the limit, or, rather, the surface is.

Thank you Google and Bing for validating my SEO viewpoint

March 21, 2012 Beth Devine

For 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.

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