The Web Authority

If you’ve paid a bundle for your website you think you own it right? Well, what you think you own in reality may not be what you really own. Here’s a very short case study that you can learn from.

This client may or may not want to move their web host. The original web designer provides hosting services as well. The client called the web designer/host to ask what they own. They were told they own their website in entirety.

When the client asked for FTP access for me, they were told by the web designer/host that to do so would void any warranties they had for their website. When the client asked for the Dreamweaver website templates, HTML files, and Flash files including .fla Flash portfolio files, they were told that they could have the HTML files only, no Dreamweaver templates or .fla files - they did not own those items.

This means that the client owns a “picture” or non-editable version of their Flash portfolio, and that any other webmaster will have to defeat the Dreamweaver template code to do website updates taking more time. Any additions to the Flash portfolio will cause the portfolio to have to be redone from scratch or they are black mailed into going back to the original web designer for any future Flash portfolio updates.

So, clearly this client does not own their website. What is worse is that the web designer also registered the client’s domain name in their own business name [web designer's] and when the client pushed to have the domain changed to their own business, the web designer pushed back saying “you own it, why bother?”. With proof from a domain name review using WhoIs, the web designer then back pedaled and said “Yes, really legally, we own it, but we know it is yours.”

So what do you think you own that you may not own? Now’s the time to find out and correct that. I believe that each website owner should get what they pay for. Before the final deliverables of your website are completed, you should demand a disk of all native files (.psd files, .fla files, .flv files). You should demand that your domain is registered in your own name and that you are given all website and domain name control panel login URLs and passwords. You need to own out right and know how to manage your domain name and your web hosting account for possible future needs.

Situations with webmasters go bad. We have two right now that we are dealing with for clients. Things may be great right now, but if you have control on these important accounts and issues, you are in the driver’s seat and cannot be blackmailed for future business or made to feel that to move your account is simply too much trouble.

We’ve just started to write for two new blogs this past month and wanted to share them with you.

American Boom

This blog is a “must visit” blog. I think that you will find the content interesting and thought provoking. For this blog we are writing eight posts per week and are team blogging - meaning we have three writers working on the same blog. The topics are related to the economy, outsourcing of jobs, unemployment, why Americans don’t buy American, and a watch on key economic indicators.

Visit American Boom now!

Permanently Beautiful

This blog is the brainchild of permanent cosmetics expert Melany Whitney from the Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics. It provides a platform for information exchange on permanently tattooed eyebrows, eye liner, lips, and even scar camouflage. Melany is the preeminent professional in her industry and has been called “The Voice of Permanent Cosmetics”. With offices in New York City, New Jersey, and South Florida, this firm has a strong market presence. I think that you will find the information interesting and maybe something you’ve never known existed. Make sure when you visit the blog to take a side trip to her website to review the photo gallery, you just will not believe the before and after photos.

Visit Permanently Beautiful now!

What’s Obamacize? Well, I call it embracing the instrument of change and introducing technology that Obama used so effectively in his campaign for your personal use. Right now everyone wants to Obamasize their website. No, that does not mean putting up donation boxes, posting flags, or showing political messages but people do want to use technology in a exciting new ways.

So how can you embrace change the same way and Obamasize your website? Here are a few tips:

1. Get going with Twitter. Then use Twitter Feed to show your Twitter news on your blog and website. The big key is to make your Twitter posts witty, short, and interesting. Don’t Twitter about what you are eating for lunch. Obama used Twitter effectively for his campaign and you can use Twitter to move your business forward just as easily.

2. Get going with Facebook and LinkedIn. Well, Obama did not use LinkedIn, but man did he use Facebook effectively for his campaign. You can too! With an aggressive friend addition program and interaction with this fun social networking tool, you to can add your Facebook badges on your blog or website. Get connected with prospects, business associates, and clients.

3. Change the home page of your website. Obama’s election brings in fresh winds of change for our country, why not take some time to embrace change in your own back yard by changing the images on your home page, add interactive elements, add a video? 

Okay, I have to say this one was a stretch, but you get the gist of it, now it’s your turn to coin an Obama  phrase of what you will be doing to Obamacize your website, blog or life now that change is on the way. Just click comments below and let me know what you are going to Obamacize.

Many small business owners ask me “Do I have good website traffic?” “How does my site compare with others?” “How can I get my website to generate more business for me?”.

The reality is that a website with under 10 pages of content that promotes a service or consultant will typically receive anywhere from 10 to 30 unique visits a day. Based on what I have seen, this is about what you can expect in regards to traffic. So how do you get more and how do you get your website to start generating leads?

For small websites, this is my advice:

1. Get blogging now! A site your size, to become competitive, needs to grow, and needs to have a regular content addition program. Blogging is absolutely the easiest way to do this. If you don’t want to blog yourself, you can hire us to blog for you, we are experts at it.

2. Don’t waste your time and money right now on website optimization. Unless you are in a niche market or provide a desired but unique item or service that does not have much web competition, your website can simply not compete and place at that size organically on the search engines. That doesn’t mean that you should not be doing other things for organic placement, but I do not recommend hiring us or another firm for search engine optimization at this point in your growth.

3. Get going with Google AdWords. You can drive qualified targeted traffic to your website and really get good results with AdWords. I recommend a minimum budget of $500 for clicks for the first 30 days. Get a good account manager to set up your account so you hit the ground running. You will most likely also have to invest in account management fees and should most likely plan on purchasing time to create targeted website-matching landing pages for your ad groups for the very best results. We do this too, so make sure to check out our Google AdWords services before you ask anyone else to help you. We’ll take good care of you and be good stewards of your click budget.

4. Start getting links to build organic position and traffic over time with feature articles and white papers. Using article directory syndication sites, you can post a well written article with a link in your author bio back to your website. The more people who choose to pick up your article for their own use from the syndication site, the more links you’ll get back to your website helping your search engine placement. Make sure your articles appeal to a very wide range and do not just speak about your product. What you are really looking for is wide syndication and the link back to you so focus on business, real estate or health issues and articles for the widest distribution. We can write articles for you if you desire. You should review some that we have written recently as examples of how to appeal to a broad audience even if you are not going to use our services.

5. Do a press release once a month and generate links and traffic with your news spin. Another way to build buzz, but particularly how to build more traffic and more one way inbound links is by writing press releases and using PRWeb as your distribution vehicle. You’ll get great exposure and excellent staying power as sites pick up your news and links. I recommend the Search Engine Optimization level. Distribution at this level is $200 (plus you’ll pay about $175 for us to write your press release), but the exposure is excellent and much better than the cheapest level.

Even if you decide to do these items yourself or decide to hire another firm to do them for you, know that these five tips do work to help build your website, create your unique web authority, and help to improve your organic search placement.  The key to remember when it comes to a website is, just because you build it, does not mean that they will come to visit it. You need to be proactive and aggressive to build your authority and web visibility position to put your website to work for you as a lead generating machine.

Writing quality web content is a craft. I tell website owners that readers have the “Burger King syndrome” - they want it (content) their way right away. When it comes to website content, you need to deliver the “goods” quickly, succinctly, and in a winning way.

Short and sweet is best and so is get to the point, but don’t get too carried away keeping your content short especially on the home page. You’ve got to have enough content to build a great keyword density on your top performing words to get traction in the organic search results.

The web is scanning medium. You should write for the web differently than you do for the print medium. Make sure to use headings and sub headings to break up your content. Make sure to use bullets, lists, and tables to direct the user to other pages or sections. Use anchor text to deep link keywords on products or services to help search engines travel deep into your inside web content.

I don’t recommend bolding keywords or phrases as this may encourage readers not to read your page content at all, but Yahoo and MSN do more heavily weight bolded words in their organic algorithm and you may be an extra boost on those engines if your top keywords or phrases are bolded. Google used to do the same, but does not take into account bolded words at this time. Not all websites are candidates for using bolding as a technique for organic placement it may impact the appearance and readability of the page.

Keeping your font size small also encourages reading versus scanning of your content page. But don’t work to defeat usability by keeping your reader from being able to increase the size of the font using tools and text size with their browser. It is best to have your font be set in percentages. My favorite for a typical size is 85% which is about 10 pixels or 10 pts.

The best home page for a website gives an overview of services and products and deep links in the content to important web sections. Ideally it should be more than 300 words long and less than 800 words long.