Increase Your Small Business Internet Presence
I’ve been telling people there are five important things that Google looks for with regards to where they put company’s in their organic or native search results area. One of the five things is that your company needs to be bigger on the Internet than just your Website. At that point people go.. huh???
So I try to clarify and say that you need, as a business owner, to have as many links as you can to your Website anywhere you can find on the Internet. People than say… Ok Chris, how do I do that??
I then rattle off a litany of locations that businesses can put links to their sites. LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Merchant Circle, etc, etc, etc.
But darn it, people still want more places. LOL! I then tell them to go to Google and type in what their business does and see what comes up. There’s always lots of directories where they can list themselves. But then they ask.. well, what else can I do? LOL, still more you ask……
Well here’s a new one that I just learned the other day (thank you Diane Stewart with www.colorsenseconsulting.com ) Diane in her day to day activities is out reading tons of blogs. What she now does is comment on the blogs she reads and puts a link back to her Web site. Wow!!! What a great idea!
Google loves the technology behind blogs and finds blog entries easy to read. So if you’re out there reading blog posts (Like this one… 
Write a comment and put a link back to your business Website in that comment. If the comment is relevant to the post and not just a blatant sales pitch for your company, it might actually get accepted. AND, tada… you have just increased the size of your business on the Internet with a link back to your business Website.
Chris Nastav
Free Workshop – How to Make Google Love Your Website
Come join us Friday, July 29th, 8 a.m. for a FREE one hour workshop on how to make Google love your Website.
Ever wonder….
- What it takes to get your Website to show up on the first page of Google?
- How much does it costs?
- How long does it take to get there?
What’s the difference between Pay-Per-Click and SEO?- How do I get my company on the local places map?
- Why are so many companies calling me with SEO services?
- How to keep up with all the changes Google is constantly making to their algorithms?
All these questions, AND more, will be answered in this FREE one hour workshop. Light breakfast provided.
Date: Friday, July 29th
Location: M&I Bank, 6333 Long, Shawnee, Kansas 66216
Time: 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Cost: FREE
Hippo Eats Dwarf – Amazing Story
This story first appeared in 1999 and has since been widely spread across the Internet. If you want to read more about this fabulous farce check it out on snopes.com
For those of you a bit less gullable than I (I believed it at first), there are things you can do to your business Website that can help people believe you are the real deal, or more importantly, they should trust you enough to contact you?
Here are five things you can do to add instant credibility to your company Website.
1. Put a testimonial on the home page of your site. A testimonial with an actual First and Last name associated with it is even better.
2. Credibility icons. Do you have “current” certifications hanging on the wall in your office or lobby? Put those symbols on your home page.
3. Change the date at the bottom of your Website from 2002 to 2011 (We have a piece of code that we put on the Websites we develop that does it automatically). Believe or not people actually will evaluate your company site based on that date.
4. Update your event calendar. LOL, I’ve seen sites just this month with “coming soon” events in March 2005.
5. Coupons with current expiration dates. Coupons themselves are great credibility icons. Coupons say you’re established enough to offer a good deal!
So while you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet (poor Od), do what you can to make your Website credible to potential customers.
Chris Nastav
A Relatively Inexpensive Way to Drive Traffic to Your Website and Get Leads
I tell people all the time that one of the things that Google really likes is a busy Website site.
The more traffic your Website gets, the better it will do in the search result areas.
A relatively inexpensive way to get traffic to your Website is to just pay for it.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO be using Facebook as a social tool to do this. I rarely, if ever, use Facebook, but what I’m am doing is running an ad in Facebook and getting tons of traffic to my Website.
It works exactly like Pay-Per-Click in Google, with one very cool difference. I can target an age range of who sees my ad. Right now I have it set up so my ad only shows up in a 25 mile radius around a zip code. But, it also only shows up if you are between the ages of 37 to 65. (Sorry young entrepreneurs but I get too much irrelevant use of my ad if I lower the age bracket)
Anyway, what’s really amazing is that I pay $6 a day for my ad to show up on the right side of the screen, and in the 3 months that I’ve been running the ad, its shown up 1,300,000 times (yes that’s one million three hundred thousand times). It’s been clicked 450 times.
Oh, and yes it has been beneficial for me. – - – Right now I’m getting about 5 leads a week since I started running my ad.
One thing people tell me all the time is that they love the educational nature of my newsletters but then they ask, do you do this stuff? Like Facebook ads? The answer is… Of course!. It’s not that hard to set up Facebook advertising. The biggest decision you would have to make is your daily budget. Again, I’m doing $6 a day for my business, you can do more or less depending on how much traffic you want to your Web site.
Please feel free to call me or email if have any questions about the processes mentioned above or if you would like us to set it up for you. (913) 908-5642
Chris Nastav
913-908-5642
KC Web Specialists, LLC.
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet.
www.kcwebspecialists.com
Article Published In KC Small Business Magazine
Yeah, I’m now published. LOL!. Ok, so it’s just a local business magazine. At least it’s a start. Check out my recent article in in the January online issue of KC Small Business.
Chris Nastav
Google Has Changed Again! Why?????
Well folks, looks like Google has decided to tinker around with their search results screen. Again!!!
Apparently they are not making enough money (all employees got a 10% raise and $1,000 bonus). What they felt they needed to do was make the sponsored link or Pay Per Click areas even more prominently displayed.
Before The Change
After The Change
What’s interesting is that Google didn’t actually give the ads more space. But, what they did was move the local business map to the right side of the screen and make the map addresses look more like Pay Per Click Ads.
So now, instead of the consumer ignoring the top of the page ads and possibly the map, Google has made the local map links blend in more with the top of the page sponsored links. I’m thinking they want us to click the ads more.
The regular organic results are now actually even farther down the bottom of the first page in Google and most have been shoved to the second page.
Google swears in their blogs and forums that the organic search results are most important to showing up in the local business maps. All of this is still shaking out in the Web development community as we struggle to get our hands on this latest and “greatest” change from Google.
I should have a lot more on this by this upcoming Friday, November 19th, at the KC SHBC Expo in downtown Olathe, where I will be speaking about how to make Google love your Website.
Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC. http://www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet (913) 908.5642
Rude Smart Phone Social Media Behavior
Here’s a very brief story from CNN that got me thinking about how inappropriate many people have become with their phones and texting or tweeting. Please, if this article describes you, stop!!!
 |
By Doug Gross, CNN
October 22, 2010 8:11 a.m. EDT |
|
Waiting for the Next Big Thing
A first cousin of the Social Situation Drop-out, the Next Big Thing isn’t actually using their phone while you’re hanging out. At least not all the time.
But it’s never quite put away either. The phone sits face-up on the table or bar, within arms’ length, and this digitally distracted type is always glancing down at it, ready to snatch it up the next time a text, call or e-mail pops up.
Translation: “Sure, I’m hanging out with you. But I live in constant hope that the next tweet I get will be more interesting.”
What do you think?
Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC. http://www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet (913) 908.5642
About KC Web Specialists
-
- KC Web Specialists Web Site In Kansas City and other cities KC Web Specialists offers SEO, Search Engine Optimization. New Web Site Development, Design, Strategy, Search Engine Marketing, Hosting, and Email Solutions for Kansas City Companies and Others Across the United States.
Post Dates
May 2012 M T W T F S S « Aug 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Archives
-
- August 2011 (1)
- July 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (1)
- February 2011 (1)
- January 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- November 2010 (1)
- October 2010 (2)
- September 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (2)
- May 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (3)
- February 2010 (3)
- January 2010 (3)
- December 2009 (4)
- November 2009 (3)
- October 2009 (4)
- September 2009 (2)
