Ignite Your Site

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2010-04-27T19:29:00.001-04:00

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2010 Is Here and We're Still Going!

2010-01-09T09:15:00.002-05:00

Well you've probably noticed we haven't been posting much the past few months, and we do apologize for that. 2009 as you probably know was a rough year for most, and we certainly were no stranger to that effect. However, it's a new year and we're still kicking and ready to make it one of the best years yet.

We already have some nice projects in the pipeline and are making plans to start getting more leads coming through the door. With that in mind we'd like to take a few minutes to remind everyone what Ignite Media is all about.

Ignite is a small freelance website design and development company focusing on building search engine friendly websites for small and medium businesses. We've been in the field for over 20 years combined, and have worked with companies in every industry from retail to industrial. We take the time to listen to your needs and really get to know what it is you are looking for in an online presence.

We're not a full time shop, and we're honest about that. We put in the hours needed to make sure each and every project is built beyond your expectations. However, to keep costs down and overhead low we are based on a freelance model. What does this mean for you? Well you may have to leave us a voice-mail or send us an email but we'll get back to you. You may find that we like to talk a little after regular business hours, but we will communicate. We've worked on sites for large and small customers and there have been no complaints up to now about our schedule being an issue.

We're living in a new world. One that operates outside of the old style 9-5 but yet still works effectively and efficiently. Don't be afraid to try us out, we promise you won't be disappointed and better yet, we can almost guarantee you'll be please with our customer service and high quality design.

Here's to a new year, and a new start for everyone. May we all be healthy and prosperous for the year to come.

Website Usability

2009-10-06T08:46:00.007-04:00

Well it's been a little while, but we're still here I promise. This week we're at SMX East 2009 in NYC. So far the event has been great, and the sessions very informative. One of the sessions we attended was about website usability I thought it would be good to touch on this point.

Website Usability
Everyone knows that a website is only good if the user can actually use it the way it was intended. What people don't always know is how to figure out whether the site is usable or not. When it comes down to it there are really two models for measuring the usability of a website. 1) is a reactive approach 2) is a proactive approach.

Reactive Usability
Now some might thing this term sounds somewhat negative. However, reactive usability is a great thing and is based on real world information. Reactive Usability is using data from tools such as Google Analytics, Urchin, Email Blasts etc to learn what is working and what isn't. Based on this data you then go and make changes or updates to your website/email campaign or other online media. Reactive usability testing and updating is probably the most widely used method (in my opinion).

Proactive Usability
This type of testing is as the name suggests, something that is planned to test the usability of your site or online media. You might do A/B testing, multivarient testing, discussion groups or user surveys. These tests allow you to plan what it is you want to be testing and get data specific to either confirm or reject a certain hypothesis. This type of testing is a bit more time consuming, but can give you extremely valuable data about a given variable.

What You Should Be Doing
At the end of the day, you need to take into account your users and constantly be testing and reviewing your data to ensure your online medium is working the way it should. Any testing is better than no testing was the big takeaway here.

Remember: Your website only works if your users say it does

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Should every website be SEO'd (search engine optimized)?

2009-07-18T09:46:00.003-04:00

Just recently I was reading a post on SEOMoz, "Naivete & Misconceptions Still Prevalent Attitudes Towards SEO", and I commented about whether every website should really be optimized for the search engines. It may sound like an odd question coming from a company that helps companies optimize and build optimized websites, but it's one that we feel is important.

Are there websites that just shouldn't be optimized?
I think the answer for this is very simple - YES. Let me explain that a little. When it comes to business websites, for the most part they should be built well and optimized to gain the most exposure possible. However, what about the "business" websites that are really just fronts for other things.

One of the best examples I can think of would be affiliate marketing websites. Now I realize this is a large industry, but are these sites really helping anyone? An affiliate website by its nature is really just a middle man. Sure, it can be lucrative for the person(s) running it, but does it provide value to the website searcher? I would venture to guess that most if not all don't provide anymore value then if the visitor was brought to the source from the start.

So do white hat SEO's have an obligation to stop optimizing these sites?
I think we do. If we are calling ourselves White Hat SEO's and truly believe that the content that should be at the top of the search engines should be relevant and quality, then affiliate sites should be dropped to the bottom of the list. Other than creating some income for the middle man, I don't see how these types of sites provide value to people searching the web.

I believe that part of the reason the SEO industry has a bad reputation in the eyes of many is because we seem to be OK with optimizing any website. Just like lawyers have a bad wrap for defending even the most lowly people, SEO's are often too eager to get a project rather than stand by their principals.

Don't the search engines have a part in this also?
Now, it may seem like I'm being overly harsh on SEO's, and I know that there are many SEO's who do have very high standards and don't take these projects. For those that stand by their principles I commend you. For those that don't really care, I think the search engines should start playing a larger role in keeping these types of sites from ranking well. The search engines seem to be smart enough now to determine if a site is an affiliate marketer or not, so why are they still allowing them to rank well (sometimes better then the source)?

Remember: What you do speaks much louder then what you say.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Planning and budgeting for a website...

2009-06-23T20:00:00.006-04:00

As a web development company we are asked the same questions many times over about websites. However, there is one thing that always comes up and that is "how much does it cost?". It's probably one of the easiest to answer, and hardest for clients to comprehend! Everyone wants an exact answer, even before they've put much thought into what kind of website they want. So this post is intended to help people get a more accurate answer based on their website project.

Planning out your website
You may not think that there is very much to plan, but you'd be wrong. Building your website is probably one of the most important things you'll do for your business, outside of closing a sale. A website today is no longer a luxury it's a must have. Without a website, you are like a car salesman with no cars to sell. So planning your website is more important then it has ever been.

The first step is to decide what it is that you want your website to accomplish. Are you looking for a website that is purely informational, or one that sells products, or rather one that is more of a sell sheet of your company that gets visitors to contact you? Once you have this figured out, things start to lay themselves out a little more.

If you are creating a website that sells products online, you now know that you have to think about what type of shopping experience you want your customers to have. What extras you think would add to their shopping experience like email a friend, or save to favorites, etc. Each type of website will get you thinking about things that you should have in yours. A good thing to do is look at what other websites are doing and "borrow" ideas from them. Hey, if it's working for another site why not have it on yours? Don't go crazy with extras, but be sure you really think and plan out what your site will have and do.

This plan doesn't need to be an exact step by step process of how the website will function. Rather, this should be more of a bulleted list of things you would like to have on the site. You can break it out into Must Have Pages, Must Have Features and Would be Nice Pages and Would be Nice Features.

Budgeting for your website
The next thing to do after you've really thought about and planned out your ideas about the website, is to setup a budget. Figure out what it is that you can realistically afford to pay for your new website. Obviously the more you have the more robust your website will be able to be. That doesn't mean that a less expensive site won't be effective, it just means that it may not do as much as another site.

When you are budgeting, remember that a website is meant to be your 24 hour a day, 7 day a week sales person. It is always out there for people to view and contact you from. So with that in mind, would you pay a sales person $500 for the year? It's not that you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a website, but $2,000-$8,000 for a good website should not sound unreasonable. The more features and pages you want, the more money you should expect to budget.

The final step in planning and budgeting
Once you've made your plan, and figured out your budget it's time to get some quotes. This is important because now that you have a good idea of your plan, and how much you can afford you can feel more confident in receiving practical quotes from vendors. Don't be afraid to let them know up front that you have X amount in your budget for the website, and you'd like them to give you options based on leaving out certain things from your plan to play with the pricing. So for example they might come back to you and say for your plan as noted it would be $X, but if you left A and B out until a later phase, it would be $X. Then it's time to pick your vendor and build your website!

Remember: The more prepared you are, the more realistic the quotes will be and the more likely the end product will match your desires.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Is traditional SEO worth it anymore?

2009-06-12T17:42:00.002-04:00

I'm currently in the process of reading a book about Google Adwords entitled "Winning Results with Google Adwords" by Andrew Goodman. One of the things that came up in the start of the book was whether SEO, the traditional one site method, is worth the investment.

Is SEO worth the money?
Now I'd be inclined to say yes, but I'm going to hesitate there. SEO has become such a large industry that it would be hard to give a sweeping answer either way. When speaking of SEO there are the traditional on site methods such as keyword optimization, copy optimization, title tags, etc. Then there are the off site factors like link building and social media generation.

As the book notes, some if not all of the practices of traditional SEO could really fall under good usability. These are things that you would want to do regardless of whether the search engines existed or not. Having a good title tag that describes your page is just smart no matter what effect it has, and the same goes for page content and calls to action.

So what part of SEO is worth the money?
There definitely is value in "SEO" which should probably be referred to as SEM or search engine marketing, or website marketing to be more precise. Building good quality content and distributing it to note worthy blogs is a great resource for driving traffic to your website and hopefully boosting sales. The same can be said for twittering or having a facebook page. These are all resources that without some know-how can be a little overwhelming to tackle.

Then what is the answer, is SEO worth it?
I think we need to stop thinking of SEO as "being #1 on the search engines". We need to start looking at SEO as a form of marketing, just as it was meant to be. Sure going through the site is a good idea to make sure it's up to par, but if you are paying a company a monthly budget to "maintain your SEO" you are wasting your money (that is unless they are maintaining your PPC campaign, doing link building, twittering, etc). But if all they are doing is generating a report that shows you where you are ranking and "tweaking" your site accordingly, please stop the contract you are getting very little if anything in return.

Your monthly payments should be going towards services that you can track and monitor and can see what type of ROI your are getting. Link building for example can be directly tracked and monitored with a variety of tools. Your SEO/SEM expert can show you what they've done and how that has impacted your traffic and hopefully sales.

Remember: You get what you pay for, and if you are paying for "maintenance" you might want to figure out what is being maintained.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

We're back!

2009-06-07T08:52:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the time away from the blog folks. We had a large project in-house that was taking up a lot of time amongst the entire staff, and unfortunately the blog entries suffered because of it. However, we're happy to say that starting this week we're back to the normal schedule and plan to have regular blog posts out each week.

We're also working on some updates for the website portfolio so we can show you some of the work we've been doing.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding during the past month or so, and we look forward to providng you with some thought provoking, informative blog posts and also look forward to your comments.

Thanks,
Ignite Media

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

What's in an email address?

2009-04-17T08:35:00.002-04:00

This may sound like an odd topic, but I think it's an important one to discuss. Email is one of the most common and most used forms of communication today. So the question that comes up is, why would you not want to show your brand through your email address? Some of you have just read that and probably don't understand what that means. That's what I hope to make clear in this post.

Your email address says a lot about you:
Most of us have seen an email address that really stands out, or one that just doesn't make any sense. We also tend to remember people's email addresses just as we used to remember people's phone numbers (you know before cell phones made that habit die off!!). So why would you not want to make sure your website address is part of your email address?

Here's an example, I can have any email address that I want for this new company that I'm going to work for. The choices I've narrowed down to are myname@aol.com or myname@acmecorp.com. A bit more info before you make your decision. The company name is Acme Corporation, and the website address is www.acmecorp.com. Have you figured out where I'm going with this now?

Why would you ever choose @aol, or @hotmail, or @gmail if you have the option of having something @yourcompanywebsite? Branding is more then just having a logo, a slogan and a website. Branding is carried through everything and although it may seem unimportant, your email address looks a lot more professional and legitimate if it matches the rest of your branding.

Should I never use those other email services?
Absolutely not. Those other services are great for personal use. I have a gmail account, and I love it, but I don't use it for my business email address (I may use it to collect my business email, but my email address for work is myname@ignite-media.com). Keeping your personal emails separate from your work emails is something I strongly believe in, and keeps clients/customers/vendors, etc from having your personal email address and your friends/family from having your work email address.

How do I get an email address that's the same as my website?
As long as you own the domain name (ie: acmecorp.com) you can have email at that domain. So you can create email addresses for anything@acmecorp.com. Your web hosting company should be able to set this up for you, and/or walk you through how you would go about setting it up yourself.

Remember: An email address is more then just an email address, it's another part of your branding strategy!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Building Your Website - It's Like Building a House!

2009-04-10T14:26:00.009-04:00

OK, so you are never going to go out and purchase a truck load of lumber for your website, but you'd be surprised how many similarities there really are. This post is a way of showing how involved, what seems like a simple website, can really be. Too often we hear "oh I could do that", and "if I had the time I'd just build it myself". Although we love to hear this (insert sarcasm here), we want to be sure you fully understand what is involved in building a good website.

The research and planning, that's right we call it that too!

Before you go to your architect to start your blueprints, you usually sit down and think about what you want to build, where and what your budget is. With a website, you also need to start with this stage. This includes, but is not limited to, market research, competitor research, keyword analysis and research, and budgeting.

The blueprint, or as we call it the site map:

That's right a good website has a plan, just like a house. You wouldn't build a house without a plan would you? So why would you consider building a website without a plan? The site map ensures that your website has all the pages, functions, and structure that it needs to be effective. It takes into account the keyword research and budgeting that you worked out in the first phase. There will be revisions, adjustments and compromises made and the final site map will be the guideline for the development of the website.

Building the foundation - setting up the template/CSS files:

To ensure your house is sound and stable you have to be sure to build a foundation that can support the current and possible expansion of your house. A website needs to be built on a foundation the same way. Ensuring that the template and/or CSS file is well structured and allows for easy expansion is important. Chances are your website will grow and you don't want to have to completely rebuild when that time comes.

The framework - the design and pages:

Now that a stable foundation is setup, the rest of the site can now be built. The design and the pages can be constructed atop that foundation. Just like with a house, you can take the cheap, fast and easy way and slap the walls and doors up quickly and without much thought. However, the better choice is to ensure the design and pages are constructed as effectively as possible. Ensuring each page is search engine friendly and user friendly from the beginning will save a lot of hassle down the road.

Finishing Touches:

Making sure you put all the finishing touches on your house will ensure it looks and feels like a complete product. A website may not have hardware to hang, or molding to finish, but reviewing the site to ensure calls to action are in the right place, the copy is optimized and everything works as designed is integral to having an effective website.

Ongoing Maintenance:

Just because you've built it doesn't mean it's done. That's right just like with your house, your website will require ongoing updates, maintenance and enhancements. Keeping your site fresh will ensure that the site is working as hard for you as you did in putting it together.

Remember: You probably can do it yourself, but would you trust the plumber to fix your car?

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Why would I hire a consultant?

2009-03-25T07:54:00.004-04:00

Many companies that we've worked with have utilized a consultant to help them with their current project (ie: website, optimization, marketing campaign, etc.). So why would you need a consultant if you have hired a firm to do the project? Doesn't having multiple groups of people on one project make for more confusion? Not if you hire the right consultant.

So why hire a consultant?
Well, a good consultant will make your life as a business owner a little easier. They will do the due diligence that you may not have time to do. They will have the knowledge that you may not have on a particular subject. They will be like an extension of your company that can help make your vision a reality.

Are all consultants the same?
No, all consultants are definitely not the same. Typically a consultant will specialize in a particular field/area. For example you might find one consultant is experienced in the IT side of things, while another consultant specializes in business software to streamline processes. They know how things work in that field, and can help create a plan of action and/or find vendors to implement those plans.

Make sure all parties know who makes the final decision.
Over the years we have worked with several companies that have hired consultants at the same time. The situations that worked well were the ones where both companies were told what the situation was and who has final say. Both parties also respect the other party and take into consideration their thoughts and ideas.

The times that consulting didn't work, was when the consultant or the firm were in there to run their own agenda. They feel that the other party is the competition and that they are in constant threat of being kicked off the project. The project ultimately ends in failure (even if it was fully completed).

Remember: Bringing in the experts can help make the end product that much better.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Does your marketing message POP?

2009-03-13T10:33:00.003-04:00

It's not enough to just say "we're the best", or "your leading supplier" anymore. Sure those statements make you seem like the authority but what company isn't saying that? You need to make your message bold, and different. You want people to say "oh that's clever" or "cool, you've got my attention".

How do I make my marketing message POP?
It's time to start thinking a little outside the box. Think of the most unique thing about your company, product, service etc. Now take that a start to think of ways in which you could slightly embellish that. We're not talking about totally exaggerating, but a slight expansion of the facts is fine. For example if you sell green products and the most unique thing is that you sell them from a solar powered house, why not use "Buy from a the first solar powered store, and be truly green!". OK, so you aren't really sure if you are the first, but who else is going to know? You don't necessarily have to be the first person to do something, you just have to be the first person to say you are doing it.

Should I concentrate on just one marketing message?
At first I would say start with one and target the market that fits that message. Once you have your feet wet and have a better idea of how to make a more powerful message then you can create one for each target market or segment. So if you are selling green products you might target one message at the residential user, while targeting another message at the janitorial industry.

Do I have to hire a marketing team to figure out the right marketing message?
NO! I know this may sound odd coming from a company that does online marketing, but in the economy we are in I think it's important to save where you can. Marketing messages are nothing more then brain storming and good ideas. Gather some or all of your staff and setup a brainstorming session. Explain what the goal is, who the target market is and then start writing down every idea (even the ones that might seem silly) that comes up. Usually a large white-board works so people can start seeing the ideas and spinning off new ideas based on what they see.

Remember: Marketing isn't about being the best, it's more about being the most clever!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Just because you own the business, does that mean you should run it?

2009-03-02T08:42:00.002-05:00

I often think to myself, why are there so many businesses that just can't seem to grow? What makes some businesses successful and what makes others simply fail, or stay stagnant? Then it hit me, maybe it's not the business (at least not all the time), maybe its how the business is run, or who the business is run by.

"It was my idea, shouldn't I be the one to run it?"
Not necessarily, is probably the easiest answer to this questions. Sure, you thought of the idea and without you the business may never have formed, but that doesn't necessarily mean you are the best person to be running it. Lets say for a minute that your background is in graphic design. You have perfected your art, and are very well respected in your field. You've decided that it's time to branch out on your own and start your own company, offering some unique services. As a graphic artist, do you think you have the mindset for the business side of things? Are you going to be OK with hours of number crunching, proposal writing, business calls, and everything else that comes with the non-creative side of doing business? Probably not.

It's OK to admit your "weaknesses"!
Understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are, is the first step in building a good structure for your business. If you don't have the business mind, then maybe you need to think about bringing on someone who does. You aren't giving up control of your company, you are making your company stronger. Now you can continue to concentrate on the creative side of the business, and can rest assured the business side of your business is being handled.

Just because you aren't handling all aspects of the business yourself, doesn't mean it's any less your business. It just means you have enough understanding of what will make your business more successful for the long haul. You may end up bringing in even more people to help out with things like book-keeping, human resources, etc. Just take a minute and think about large organizations. The CEO probably doesn't know even half of what goes on in the company on a day to day basis, but he gets overview reports to make sure things are moving in the right direction and relies on lower level management to enforce the rest. There's no reason you can't do what you do best, while leaving the business stuff to the business people and having them update you regularly. It's control, without having to control every little thing.

Delegating helps expansion
Once you've figured out how to successfully delegate responsibilities you can more easily figure out ways to expand and grow your company. With delegation you've allowed yourself the availability to explore things that may not have been possible if you were wearing all the hats. You may it some road blocks, and some managers who didn't see your vision, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't delegate it just means you need to better screen your next candidate. Nothings perfect, but knowing one person can't do it all will make your life a lot easier and hopefully more successful.

Remember: Just because you don't run it, doesn't mean you don't control it.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Do you really know your clients?

2009-02-23T11:00:00.006-05:00

It may sound like kind of an odd question, but think about it. Do you really know your customer? Do you know what they need, how they need it and how often? Do you know who they deal with, who their competition is, how much their profit margin is, etc? Without the answers to most, if not all of these questions and others how can you really provide a "service" to your client?

Get to know your customer - no really get to know them:
Most people think that getting to know their customer means knowing their name when they call, and what their favorite baseball team is (or insert any sport). Sure, this is a start, but you need to take the person out of the equation and think about the company as a whole. Just knowing Joe/Mary the sales person and what they like won't give you long term investment in that company.

You need to do your research, ask the tough questions and understand what it is you can do for your client in order to really provide them with a solution and not just another product or service. Lets face it, you aren't the only one they can go to and if Acme Corp down the street starts selling for less then you what stops them from going? If you've proven your worth and given them a solution, the thought won't even cross their mind to move away.

But I don't have the time to do the research!
Do you have the time to find a new client when they go away? Do you have the time to invest on competing with other quotes when they start shopping around? You need to make the time and invest into your clients, just as they are investing in you. If you personally don't have the time, then get one of your best employees, or hire a person you know can take on the task and inform you. Sure it may cost you a little, but in the long run you'll be able to sit down with the president of that company and tell them "they can't offer what I can, and I'm not just talking about my products and services".

It's not just about price - despite what you might think!
Even with online shopping so easy and competition becoming tighter and tighter, service, quality and attention to detail are important. Think about the last time you had a nice experience with a company and really felt like they paid attention to you. You probably told a few people about it and were somewhat surprised and pleased with the experience. So why not give that to your clients, and make sure you understand their needs and wants. That could mean the difference between competing with the competition and out performing the competition.

Remember: Quantity is only as good as the quality that's being produced

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Avoid Poor Contact List Managment

2009-02-16T09:14:00.005-05:00

Have you ever received an email or postcard and thought to yourself. "why would I be getting this"? It's something that I've noticed more and more of lately and felt it was something worth addressing. Email list/contact list management is extremely important, especially when doing any type of mass emailing or mailing.

Grouping your contacts:
It's extremely important when you are running a business that you group your contact lists. Make sure that your customers are in one list, your vendors in another, and your family and friends in yet another. You don't want to be sending sales emails to vendors and funny jokes to customers. The best and probably easiest way to do this is to group your contacts by well defined roles such as customers, vendors, friends, wholesale, etc.

Segmenting your groups:
Now that you have your groups you'll want to look at those groups to see if they can be further segmented. For example if you have a group called customers you may need to further define those customers by type. Lets say you are a sporting goods store you may segment them into indoor, outdoor, male sports, female sports, water, hiking, biking, etc. It's not that people can't be in more then one group but you don't want people in groups they aren't interested in.

Why go through the hassle?
Why not? By grouping and segmenting your contacts you are giving yourself a better chance of matching your emailing/mailing message to the correct person. Now that you have the right message in front of the right person you stand a better chance of converting that person into a repeat customer. Think about it, if you are really into fishing and you get an email talking about the 50% off sale for all fishing gear aren't you at least somewhat interested in what they are offering? I would be. Now think about the opposite, if you get an email about swimming gear and you don't like to swim, that message is completely lost on you.

Won't it take forever to group my contacts?
It may not be a 5 minute process, but after you have the initial grouping done moving forward should be fairly painless. You can also utilize mass emailing programs that allow your visitors to select what information (group) they want to receive.

It's about good customer relations:
Grouping and segmenting your contacts is another way of making sure you are serving your customers in the best possible way. You aren't hassling them with information that doesn't make sense to them, and you make them feel like you really understand their interests.

Remember: It's about providing relevant information to customers, not bombarding them with offers they'll never use.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Is FREE now a four letter word?

2009-02-09T15:21:00.006-05:00

Have all of the uses of the word FREE started to make it sound more and more like a four letter word? Have we been bombarded with so many offers that this once alluring word is now a warning sign? Wary buyers are now more than ever skeptical of even the most honest deal and unfortunately one word has become the victim. So what do you do about this and how do you still give away something for "free" without using the word?

Let people see the value in "FREE"!
Since you can't just market your item as free, you need to give it some form of value. So for example instead of writing a headline such as "Free widget with the purchase of another", try something like "Get more value with the purchase of your next widget". So now it's not that you are getting something for nothing, you are getting more for your money. With a simple change of language, you have made people think differently about your "FREE" item.

It comes down to a matter of semantics. People have been programmed to think that anything "FREE" must be cheap and worthless. You have to let them see the light, by rethinking your approach, even if it's just a simple altering of language.

What if it's just one item I'm giving away?
OK, so you only have the one item and you are giving it away for free to a certain number of people or to a certain demographic. How do you combat the negative "FREE" connotation? You can try demonstrating it and leaving "samples" for people to take. Remember, just because it doesn't say free doesn't mean people don't understand what you mean. Sample is a word that has become almost a synonym for free; use it to your advantage.

Put time and money into your free item/service:
If you want people to feel that the item/service that you are giving away for free is valuable, you have to make it look like you took the time to give it value. You know when something was done on a whim and when something was taken seriously and had a lot of thought and effort put into it. Just because you aren't making immediate money doesn't mean you shouldn't spend a little to make things "pop".

Remember: Choose your words wisely and you can get people to think about something in a whole new way.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Simply Business On the Web - Part 3

2009-02-05T07:52:00.006-05:00

Here are a few more tips from the Simply Business series. The idea behind this series is to help you realize that even the small things matter, and sometimes we overlook the things that seem like everyone just knew.

Discounts are not just a sales tactic:
Discounts are great and can come in a variety of different formats. You can offer coupons, referral savings, buy-one-get-one, purchase amount discounts and so much more. A discount is more then just a way of increasing sales though, it's also a way of retaining customers. Lets take for example that customer who just bought from you. They could have bought from anyone, but they decided to buy from your store for a reason. So why not give them another reason to come back next time? Put a 10% discount card in their package, or send them a free gift and put a note in there saying "thank you for your purchase, we appreciate you choosing us, and look forward to serving you in the future". With that simple gesture you most likely have made a customer for life (or at least a long time to come), and it cost you very little in the grand scheme of things.

Employees are just as important as customers and sales:
Too many times employers take their employees for granted. Many employees feel under valued and over worked. Typically when employees start to feel this way they also start to become less productive and more annoyed with their job, which reflects on their interactions with clients and co-workers. Now you may be thinking that you run an online store and no-one notices, but you'd be surprised how much "attitude" can carry through over the phone or in an email. Treating your employees with the respect and appreciation they deserve is important. After all, if they weren't there doing their job who would be?

You do not know everything and that's a good thing:
Many business owners think that they know it all, and have seen everything the business world has to throw at them. Guess what, you don't know it all and you certainly haven't seen everything, but that's not a bad thing. Being able to realize that you don't know everything opens you up to a world of possibilities and understanding that there are things out there that you haven't seen keeps your business agile. Think of any sports team that starts to get comfortable with winning. They think they are going to win all the time, and can't be beat; "they've seen it all". Then it happens, the underdog who's lost every other game they've played comes into town and wins, beating the undefeated team. The team that keeps on their toes and realizes they can lose will be open to new tactics and the possibility that something new might be thrown at them.

Remember: You can learn just as much if not more from your failures as you can from your successes. The key is to make sure you implement what you've learned and don't repeat it.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization
Website Packages Now Available!

Website Packages Now Available!

2009-01-30T14:05:00.002-05:00

Are you on a budget and can't seem to find a development firm that will give you a great website and keep it within a certain budget? Well Ignite Media realizes the tough times we are all living in and has put together some budget conscious website packages. We have everything from a starter package up to a fully integrated ecommerce package.

What do I get with my website package?
Depending on package you choose you can get a basic 5 page website with a custom design or a 20 page ecommerce website with a custom design. The key here is CUSTOM DESIGN. That's right, we're not making you choose from a set of templates that we through your logo into. No, we're designing and building a website that carries your company colors, look, and feel throughout.

How many website packages do you have?
There are three different standard website packages to choose from and three different ecommerce packages to choose from. We've done our best to put together packages that are both budget friendly and accommodating to the various sizes and needs of all our potential clients.

Do I have to choose a package with Ignite now?
Absolutely not. Our website packages are meant for those people who know exactly what they want and what they are willing to spend for it. If you are looking for a custom solution that doesn't fit within any of our solutions, we'd be more then happy to discuss your project more in depth to give you a custom proposal based on your needs. We don't believe in a one solution fits all approach, which is the reason for the variety of packages as well as our custom solutions.

How do I get started?
Simply go to our website packages page on the Ignite Media site and choose which direction is best for you - Standard Websites or eCommerce Websites. Once you decide you'll be provided with a variety of packages each of which has more information available by clicking on learn more within each box.

Remember: Just because the economy is rough it doesn't mean there is not a solution out there for you.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

What is your website worth?

2009-01-27T08:07:00.004-05:00

Almost daily the question is asked of us "how much do you charge for a website?". To which our answer is always "it depends on what you want". After a few minutes of us explaining how it all depends, the potential client usually understands that just throwing a number out there won't be of much use to them and we need to be more specific on the scope of the project before we can say "your website will be...". However, lately I've been wondering if the question that they should be asking is "what would a website be worth to me?".

What would a website be worth to you?
Rather then thinking about the cost that you have to pay for your website, perhaps you should be thinking about what your website will do for you once it is built. For instance if you build a website and within the first year that website brings in $20,000 of new business, then isn't your website worth $20,000 at least? So the price quote you got for $5000 is only a quarter of what your website is worth. If you had an employee that brought in 4 times what you paid them would they be worth the cost? I certainly would think so, and I'd probably even give that person a raise.

How do I know my website will be worth anything?
You don't know for sure what your website will or will not bring in, but chances are if you skimp on the development costs the return will be less. Think of your website like a house, if you do an addition and you use the cheapest material and cheapest labor chances are you won't be very happy with the end result and people who come see the house probably won't be very impressed. You also won't get as much when you go to sell the house because the inspector will notice the imperfections. A website is no different. You have visitors coming to your "house" (website) everyday and if your developer didn't understand usability then you'll have some very disappointed visitors, which could result in lost/unseen business.

So do I go with the most expensive developer every time?
Absolutely not. What you do need to do is make sure you are comparing apples to apples. The page counts, what platforms they are programming on, what you are and are not getting with your contract, etc. You also want to be sure you see samples of previous work and call a few of the portfolio clients they have. Don't ask for a referral you can call because they will always give you the best client they have. Call any one of the samples in their portfolio and get the raw reaction from the client.

So what is a good price?
It all depends on what you are getting and what you expect to get. $5000 might be cheap if you are getting a lot for it and feel confident your site will be built to convert visitors into leads/clients. $5000 might be expensive if you don't have the confidence in your developer. Knowing what you are getting is key and working with a company you feel comfortable with and can freely express how you feel about certain things, and answers all your questions is very important.

Remember: A websites value is based on what it does for the business, not on how much it cost to build.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Simply Business on the Web – Part 2

2009-01-19T10:50:00.001-05:00

The often overlooked parts of business via the internet

As promised, here are a few more simply business tips/suggestions that can make the difference between a successful online presence and one that’s just there.

Online or Offline, it’s about building relationships.
Whether you have a business that is solely online or is half off and half online, you need to concentrate on building relationships. Those relationships should be with everyone from your visitors, customers, vendors, etc. Anyone that you have regular contact with is someone that can be beneficial to you. Take for example your vendors. If you get to know them, treat them like you would your employees and let them know you value the business relationship you may find that you start getting better deals, faster delivery of goods, etc. This can also be true with your existing clients or potential clients. Making them feel like you really understand their needs will let them feel more comfortable doing business with you and allow them to feel confident in referring other people to you.

An online store (ecommerce) doesn’t run itself.
Many people think that as soon as their online store is setup, the money just starts flowing in and they never have to do anything. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. An online store takes just as much time and dedication to maintain and grow as a brick and mortar store does. Some people might even suggest that it takes more time. With an online store you have to make sure inventory is correct, prices are adjusted, messages are updated based on store conditions, etc. The more time and thought you put into your store, the better chance that your store will be successful.

Requiring people to login is like having an open house but keeping the door locked!
There are times when a login is necessary, but many times website owners just don’t know when that time is. If you have sensitive information that you need to share with a select group of people, or you have different levels of pricing based on whether the client is wholesale or not then it makes sense. Ecommerce stores also make sense (after they’ve placed an order, or added things to a cart) to have login so people can check their order history, delivery status, etc. On the other hand, a login screen just to capture your visitor’s information is a poor tactic. People expect to get information on the web without having to give-up their identity. By making people register/login to your site just to get general information you are in effect telling them “come here to get good info” and then shutting the door in their face. They’ll hit that back button and be off to your competitor’s site where the information is available without any hassle.

More simply business to come. If you have any to share please feel free to list them in the comments below.

Remember: Do to your site, what you’d want to experience on others.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Simply Business on the Web – Part 1

2009-01-12T09:08:00.002-05:00

The often overlooked parts of business via the internet
There are thousands if not millions of books, articles, reports and more out there about business and all the tips, tricks and pitfalls. There is even information about business on the web and how to “become a master of the internet” through your website. For the most part the books, articles and information that are out there are useful in some way to someone. But what about the simple stuff? What about the things that people just assume you know, and skip over to avoid “wasting space”, or time writing it out? What about the things that just happen in the “real-world” but need to be thought about when conducting business online? Hopefully the following will help those who need a reminder of the “simple” side of business, specifically on the web.

Your site is for your visitors, not for you!
How many times have you heard yourself saying, “I think this should be here”, or “I like this information there” or “I like the website the way it is, let’s keep it”. Where did the “I” come from in all of these sentences? Are you the one looking at your site on a daily basis? Are you the one looking to your website for your product information? Are you the one ordering your products/services from your website? Probably not, so why are you making the decisions about what happens? I mean ultimately it is your decision, but shouldn’t there be a basis behind that decision? Remember, that your visitors will ultimately determine what works and what doesn’t, so listen to them by looking at your website analytics, asking those clients that you speak with about what they do and don’t like, etc. Then based on that information you can make an informed decision that takes the “I” out of it.

An email isn’t just a note, it’s a contact/lead:
Have you ever pushed aside an email because you didn’t have time and ultimately never got back to it? Would you do that to a potential client if they were standing in front of you? I would hope not, and the same should be true for your emails. I realize you can’t answer every single email as soon as it comes in, but you can schedule time to answer them. Set aside an hour or two each day (even if it means coming in early or leaving late or doing it during lunch) to respond to all the client emails that came in. You never know which one of those could be your next big order. If your goal is to increase business, then every missed opportunity means another day until that goal is reached.

The quote isn’t the end of the line:
So you sent out that quote to the potential new business lead. Now what? Have you set a plan to follow up with them? You have to remember that the person you are sending the quote to has a job also, and just because you sent the quote doesn’t mean they will read it right away. By setting up a reminder or schedule to follow up, you are in effect reminding your client that they have the quote and should let you know if they are interested.

We hope you got something out of this as there will be more simple business to come, so please check back soon.

Remember: It’s not that it’s hard it just takes discipline

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Set Goals for Your Website...

2009-01-05T08:35:00.002-05:00

Everyday we set goals for all kinds of things regarding our business. We set sales goals, production goals, employee goals, management goals, etc. The one place that people seem to leave out is their website. Why not set a goal for your website? It's known as the 24/7 salesman after all.

What type of goal would I set for a website?
It could be anything really. Perhaps your site is an ecommerce site, then a financial goal might be appropriate. For example by March 1 of 2009 you want the site to generate 1000 orders (or more if you are a larger company with more traffic). If your site is more informational and less sales oriented then set a conversion goal. For example by March 1 of 2009 you want to get 50 new sales leads (conversions).

Setting goals for your website makes it even more a part of your everyday business. It makes you realize that you have to treat your website like you would any other employee. If it's under performing things need to be adjusted. If it's just not working out it gets fired and a new one replaces it. The best part is, if it's working well you don't need to give it a bonus or increase it's salary, you just make sure you keep paying attention to it.

How do I set these goals for my website?
The best place to start is in the past. What did your website do for you last year or last month? Figure out as much statistical information about the past performance of your website as you can and set goals from there. Remember to be realistic about it though. If your website only brought in 5 sales leads last month, setting a goal for 25 leads might be a bit of a stretch. It would be much better to set the goal at 8 or 10 for this month and if you go over it's just an added perk.

The point of these goals is not to set the bar so high it's unreachable, but rather to hit your goals as often as possible. You also don't want to set the bar too low, then it just becomes something to check off each time. Each of these smaller goals should lead to a much larger end of the year or quarter goal as well. By setting the smaller goals you then won't feel overwhelmed by putting one very large goal on the board that just seems daunting to hit.

When should I start my goals?
Yesterday! OK, so that's not possible, but you should start planning and setting your goals as soon as possible. The longer you wait the harder it is going to be to reach your goals. Remember, don't try to tackle everything at once either. Start with one part of your site, or one area of your business and only after you've reached a few of those goals start going after other areas.

Remember: Your website is like an employee, some work and some don't, don't hold on to the dead weight.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Happy Holidays To Everyone

2008-12-22T16:19:00.004-05:00

Ignite Media would like to say thank you for a great 2008 and wishes each and everyone a very Happy Holiday season and a prosperous new year.

In the new year we expect to continue building out our website to provide our visitors with as much detailed information as possible. Also, keep an eye out for new offerings for everyone from the smallest to the largest website owner.

Thanks again, and see you in '09!

The Ignite Media Team,
Ignite Your Site

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

A picture is worth 1000 words; Or is it?

2008-12-01T10:32:00.006-05:00

The saying goes that "a picture is worth a 1000 words", but is that really the case? Do pictures really give everyone and everything the understanding that you are trying to convey? Or are we betting on the fact that we understand the image, than everyone else must? Lets take a minute to discuss how images can sometimes be less effective then some properly used words.

What the search engines see, isn't what you do...
When you look at a website you see text and images arranged in some fashion so as to look appealing. There is a header, a logo, some navigation links a paragraph and maybe a photo along with contact information at the bottom.

What the search engines see on the other hand is code and text. That picture that is taking up your entire site, they don't even know what is just that it looks something like this to them '< src = "images/image.jpg">' - not exactly the pretty picture you were seeing right? The search engines see numbers, symbols and letters which makes up the display that you as the user sees on the front end. So although images are good when used in the right places, they can be harming your ability to be seen by the search engines.

It's not always as apparent as you might think...
Another common mistake that people make is using representative images in place of something more direct. Take for example the bulls eye that is often used in marketing when you are trying to convey that "we hit the mark". Sure most people might get that one, but what if they don't? Is it really worth the cute image to sacrifice a few people understanding the message?

Everything has a time and a place - images included...
Images are great for logos, product shots, demonstrations, etc. I'm not so sure that images are great for relaying an important marketing message, unless used in conjunction with words/phrases. Don't just put the picture of a black sheep among white ones, put a message on it that says "Ever want to stand out from the crowd?". Now they are associating the meaning with the message.

Remember: You can never be too straight forward when it comes to marketing.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Black Friday, Cyber Monday - It's that time of year again!

2008-11-24T13:03:00.003-05:00

With the economy slowing to a crawl, and businesses desperately looking to increase profits, the holiday season is now upon us. The unofficial start to the holiday shopping season is black Friday and for some retailers it couldn't come any quicker.

What does this all mean for my business?
It's time to start dishing out the deals. Whether you are a small mom and pop shop or a fortune 500, this is the time to offer deals to your customers. They are expecting it and will demand it in some cases. So why not make everyone happy and come up with a great deal for the holidays? Or better yet come up with a limited time offer for this coming weekend?

What better way to attract interest then making something available for a short period of time? The urge to have something before it is gone, is usually enough to fill a store, or at the very least have people talking about it.

How do I get the word out?
Email blasts and banners on your website are probably two of the easiest and fastest ways to notify people. Email blasts work great for getting your existing customers back to the store, and banner ads will ensure that any new visitors are aware of the great deals as well.

If you don't have a large following yet you can always pay to advertise. The quickest way to get going is usually pay-per-click through Google Adwords or any of the other PPC companies. It's relatively quick and easy to have some ads setup and running within a few hours. This is great for the last minute planner who needs to get the word out quick.

But what do I have to offer?
What don't you have to offer. Whether it's a product or a service that your company provides you have deals that can be made. Lets say you are a chimney cleaning business, why not offer 1 free cleaning with the scheduling of a regular cleaning by December 1st? If you have products you can always offer buy 1 and get one half off, or free or whatever works best for your business model.

Free shipping is always a great way to give your customers a little treat. Many times shipping is what people look at as a deciding factor in where they will purchase their items. So why not take that factor and make it void, offering free shipping might drive more traffic then you originally thought.

Remember: It's not about the quantity, but rather the quality of the discount!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

A Question A Day - Will Bring Visitors?

2008-11-20T07:58:00.004-05:00

How many times have you gone to a search engine and typed in a question? I know I do it all the time. The search engines have almost become like a "customer service representative" for the internet. You type your question and they come back with a list of places that might work for you. So why not use this to your advantage on your own website?

Become the answer they are looking for:
Why not create pages based around different questions. For example if you own a website that sells clothes for children and in your brick-and-mortar store you hear the question "What does 2T and 3T really mean in terms of size", why not create a page explaining the T system of sizing? You've now answered not only your existing customers questions but you have the chance of being found by people who may never have heard of you before.

What if I can't think of the questions:
Without a doubt there are questions in your industry, it's just a matter of finding the most valuable ones to be answered. There are new tools being offered by some companies such as WordTracker that allow you to see some of the questions people have typed into the search engines. This is extremely helpful because these questions were actually asked on a search engine, not something made-up, or guessed at. Take a few of these and there you go, some new content to add to the site.

Do I just add the pages, where do they go?
The best place to put these pages would be in a support area of your site. Even if you have to create one and it looks small at first, over time it will grow. One section could be commonly asked questions, another could be white paper downloads on your products, etc. Creating a section like this on your site is giving your visitors a resource to keep coming back to and to tell other people about. They don't have to buy anything to browse it and feel like they are getting the world.

Remember: Sometimes it's about answering the question before providing the need.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Local SEO - Targeting Your Neighborhood

2008-11-03T13:07:00.004-05:00

Many companies think that SEO is only for the large corporations that have offices and customers nation and world wide. This however, is not the case. SEO is for every company and/or website, it's just a matter of how you go about optimizing your site.

Home Grown SEO
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website for local phrases. So if you have a website that deals with plumbing for your local area and some of the surrounding areas, local SEO is perfect for you. You aren't going to travel to California for a plumbing job (unless the client was picking up all the costs!), so you want to target people in your area.'

The best and most effective way to target local searchers would be to use your town, city, state names throughout the site. So instead of just saying Plumbing Services, you might change that to Reno Plumbing Services, or perhaps, Reno Nevada Plumbing Services.

Don't forget the phone number and zip code
Another way to get people to your site based on local searches is to be sure you have your phone number listed on your site in text. Many times people who are looking for local businesses online will search with the area code as a prefix or suffix to the search (ie: plumbing services + 203). This goes for zip codes as well.

Just think about the different ways in which you signify a local business and chances are you will have another way to optimize your website for local searches.

Remember: When writing copy for your website, or building out the template be sure you have your local phrases worked in, without being annoying about it!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Website Usability - Is Your Site Making the Grade?

2008-10-30T08:42:00.006-04:00

A website is about more than just displaying your product or service information. A website is an experience that directly relates to your business and reputation. Last post we spoke about your home page and how important it is to make a great first impression. This post we expand on that and explain how that impression needs to extend beyond home page.

Navigation is key
Navigation is the most important part of a website. It is how your visitors get from one place to another. Think of your navigation as your street map or directions from old aunt sally! How annoyed are you when those directions or that map aren't easy to read or to follow? I know I get steaming mad when I'm told to make a right, only to realize they meant to say left.

So why put your visitors through that same type of turmoil? Your navigation needs to be visible and easy to follow. You shouldn't mix in company links with product and service links, and you shouldn't have more than 2 sets of navigation if possible (ie: Top Bar Nav, and Side Bar Nav). Many times people think if they give people 20 different navigation options they will be able to more easily find the page, but what you wind up doing is confusing the visitor into wondering if all of the links go to the same or different places.

Page Content and Page Structure
After you have successfully navigated your visitors to the correct page, the structure and content on those pages is just as important as how they got there. How you order the content in a page can directly relate to the number of conversions you make. For example if you have site where you sell roller blades and you get to a product page for a particular pair of blades, a visitor should be shown an image, short description, price, colors, etc and a buy now button. If instead they are shown paragraphs and paragraphs of information, and the very last thing on the page is the buy-now, you can bet that your conversion ratio is going to be pretty low.

Content as mentioned above is also very important. With that roller blade website example from above, the overview should be brief but highlight the key reasons that pair of blades is the right choice. For those visitors that might be more interested in the in-depth information you provide that but either further down on the page, or on a "more-details" page/tab. With this approach you are giving all your visitors what they want.

Clear conversion method
You've now effectively navigated your visitors to the correct spot and have the content and the structure of each page just right. What's next? Well what are you hoping your visitor will do? Do you want them to email you, send you a request for quote form, purchase an item, or pick up the phone and call you? Before you can decide on which conversion method to use, you have to answer that question; visitors aren't mind readers and without a clear way to finalize their process they may just hit the back button and be gone forever.

Once you've made the decision of how you want to have your visitors contact you, its time to implement it. You want to remember while you are configuring your site for the final conversion, you need to make it clear and easy for your visitors. Put the 800# large on the page if you want them to call you; make a nice "email us now" button that stands out if email is what you prefer; ensure your "buy-now" button is prominent on the page if purchasing is your method. Just keep in mind, if it is confusing for you, how do you expect your visitors to figure it out?

Remember: Usability is about your visitors, if you make it easy they will come!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

It's Your Home Page, Not Your Company Profile Page!

2008-10-27T09:21:00.002-04:00

That's right, your home page is not a place to be presenting your company history or your company philosophy. Your home page needs to be as direct and to the point as possible, but not about who you are, rather about what you offer and why you are better.

The home page is like the cover of a book
Would you pick up a book if the cover was a diatribe about the author? Would you even look twice if the cover looked more overwhelming then you had time for? The answer is probably no, or at least I hope so, otherwise you have a lot of time on your hands!

The cover of a book usually has a very catchy title, the authors name, and most times a picture to give you some insight as to what it is all about. You may also see a brief intro like "the best thriller novel you'll ever read". Within a few seconds you are able to get a sense for what that book is about and whether it will suite your reading needs. It's not until the inside or back cover that you get a bio of the author.

What should my home page be then?
It should be that intro that serves to quickly and effectively inform your visitors of whether they are at the right place or not. Take for example the website image below, the first thing you notice is the company logo is in the top left corner (A). This allows you to see if this is the right company and/or what company website you are at. The second thing you notice is a brief intro of what the company does and what products/services they offer (B). After that you see a group of content buckets (C) that represent important areas of the website. Content buckets are meant to guide visitors to the most important areas of the website, cutting down on search time. Along the left side you have the product/service navigation (D) which allows visitors to dig more deeply into the area of the site that interests them. And last but certainly not least there is a clearly visible call to action (E).

Within seconds a visitor has been able to identify, understand and assess the site and the company. They know right away whether the site will offer what they want.

KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid.
As with most things, the best approach is to keep things simple and straight forward. Don't add more then you have to, just get your message across and let the rest of the site handle the "fluff". Keeping it simple is something that is truly under-rated especially when it comes to websites, but you'll learn in time that some of the most simple sites are the most effective.

Remember: You're selling your products/services not your company history.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Website Analytics – Beyond the Dashboard

2008-10-22T18:01:00.008-04:00

**PLEASE NOTE: This is not meant to be an in-depth analysis of Google Analytics, but rather a basic overview of what people can find if they dig a little and start using their analytics program past the dashboard. We’ll be giving an overview of the various sections and how it might help you with your overall marketing efforts.

More often than not when speaking with clients and or potential clients about their analytics they often only refer to a few things, visitors, hits, and/or keywords. This leads me to believe that many companies don’t ever look past the dashboard of their analytics program. They don’t dig down to really see what is going on with their website. In this post, I’m going to do my best to explain the various areas of Google Analytics and what it can show you as a client. We use Google Analytics as an example because most people can relate, and if you don’t have a GA account, your analytics program most likely has similar areas (dive in and you’ll be surprised by what you find!).

*All images are screen shots are courtesy of Google Analytics - https://www.google.com/analytics - all data has been removed to protect the site being analyzed.

Below we will show you some of the different areas available via the left navigation bar of Google Analytics, as well as giving some insight as to what you can find within that particular area and how it might be useful to you and your organizations marketing efforts. Please keep in mind that there are many other ways in which the different areas can be useful to you, but our examples will help those who have never look into them.

Visitors Section:
In this section you will find another dashboard that gives you an overview of data from the different areas dealing with visitors.

Benchmarking – In this area you can compare your sites that are relatively the same size as yours. You can also select which industry category your site falls under so you get an even better idea of how your site stacks up. This is a great way to see how well your site is performing compared to the rest of the industry in a broad view.

Map Overlay – This area lets you see what countries/regions your website visitors are coming from. It even shows you on a colored scale, which countries are referring more visitors than others. It may not seem important at first, but if you have a campaign targeting Europe, you could look here quickly and see whether or not it’s working (generally speaking).

New vs Returning – Here you can see what percentages of visitors are new versus visitors that have come back to your site after already having visited you at least once. Again his is great to look and to get a quick view of whether your site is gaining any new potential customers/clients.

Languages – Just what you thought it would be, this area gives you an idea of what languages the people who visited your site spoke. So let’s say you have been debating whether or not to have different translated version of your site. You can quickly come up with a priority list of which languages you should concentrate on and in what order.

Visitor Trending – This area is packed full of information. You can see how many of your visitors are unique each day, how many page views each visitor had, what your bounce rate is, how much time the average visitor spent on the site, etc. The usefulness of this data is endless, you can easily see whether you are keeping visitors at the site long enough to make a purchasing decision, or whether your site is “stickie” by seeing how high your bounce rate is.

Visitor Loyalty – Want to know how many times repeat visitors are coming to your site? You can get the breakdown of what percentage of visitors came back once, as opposed to two or three times or more. If you have a social networking community this would be extremely important information to have, as you certainly want to have your return rate as high as possible to keep the community active.

There are other areas in this section (Browser Capabilities and Network Properties) that get into the more technical aspects of your website. For example what browsers visitors are using to see your site. This would help your web designer when considering what to implement and how to test the site. Since this post is geared more towards the average company owner, we’ll stick to the areas that will have the most value to you (not that it’s not valuable information, but chances are you aren’t coding your own site!)

Traffic Sources Section:
In this section you will find another dashboard that gives you an overview of data from the different areas dealing with where your traffic is coming from.

Direct Traffic – Here you can see the number of visits that you received by the visitor typing in your website address directly into the address bar of the browser. This is a good indicator of how memorable your website address is.

Referring Sites – These reports let you quickly and easily see what sites your visitors were at that linked them over to your site. Knowing where your visitors are coming from can give you some great insight on whether that link you got on a related site was worth it or not.
Search Engines – As you might guess this section lets you see which search engines are referring traffic and how much. You may think that Google is the end all be all, but a quick look at this report can fill you in what other search engines matter to your visitors.
Keywords – Want to know what people actually typed in to find your website? You can, you just need to look here! That’s right, this area lets you see what your website visitors actually typed into the search engines to find you. Thinking of doing a PPC campaign, this is a great place to start when trying to figure out good keywords to use. A great post was recently written on the value of analytics and this section when doing keyword research by Unstuck Digital – Leveraging Analytics for Keyword Research.
Adwords – Do you currently have an Adwords campaign running? Great, you can track its effectiveness here. Drill down and see on a granular level what people did after clicking your ad.

Content Section:
In this section you will find another dashboard that gives you an overview of data from the different areas dealing with what content your visitors are seeing and going to.

Top Content – What content/pages are your visitors going to the most? Within this section you can see what content is most viewed. This is extremely valuable because if you know that a particular product page is getting most of the views, you might think of adding a call to action or reference link to other areas of the site or to order now!

Content Drilldown – What path did your visitors take once on the site? You can see that here, figure out which pages they viewed, and in what order they viewed them in. This helps in figuring out if the site you thought was intuitive really is as intuitive as you thought.

Top Landing Pages – The home page isn’t always the first page that website visitors see! That’s right, you read that correctly. Search engines try to provide the page that matches the closest with the search that was performed, so now you’ll know what pages are matching those searches.

Top Exit Pages – Just as important as the landing pages are the exit pages. What pages are people leaving your site at? Let’s say you run an ecommerce store and aren’t getting the number of orders you think you should be. One look at this could tell you that a majority of your visitors are leaving at the check-out first step. Now you can look and see why that might be.
Site Overlay – Ever wondered what buttons on a particular page are being used most often? Well now you can, this section lets you see the number of clicks on any linked part of that page whether they be navigation links, body text links, etc. Thought everyone would click the big red buy now button but they aren’t? Try it in a new spot and watch to see what happens, or change the color and see the effect.\

Now these sections are not the only ones in Google Analytics but if the dashboard was your main information source before, just going into these three main areas will give you a whole new wealth of knowledge about your site and visitors. You don’t have to be a ‘computer geek’ to understand the information either. Even having the most basic understanding will help you in conversing with your marketing team.

Remember: Knowledge is power, and analytics is powerful knowledge.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

3 Types of Contact Forms and When to Use Them

2008-10-20T08:48:00.006-04:00

Contact forms are on almost every website that you go to. Sometimes they are long and drawn out, other times they are short sweet and to the point. Although many of us may not love the long drawn out ones, there are times when each is appropriate. When you break it all down there are three basic varieties of contact forms 1) In Depth 2) General Information 3) Quick Contact. The trick is knowing when to use which form.

In Depth Contact Forms:
These forms are the ones where you are asked for everything but what the first word you said as a child! Seriously, they are very specific about what information they are asking for and are usually at least 15-20 questions long. At first thought this may seem like a complete waste, and that no-one would ever fill out a form this long.

In depth contact forms are good for a variety of applications such as on a real-estate site, an insurance site, or even a medical site. On each of these sites the company needs to know as much information as they can in order to assist you as quickly and efficiently as possible. The one thing that you want to make sure of when using a form that involves gathering some highly personal information (such as social security numbers), is to have the information collected in a secure database that can only be accessed through an administrative area requiring you to login.

A poor use of an in depth contact form would be on an ecommerce website. You don't need a persons social security number, age, or date of birth (typically) in order to sell someone a product. Using this type of form on a "simple" site can have some pretty devastating effects on you conversion rate.

General Information Contact Forms:
These types of forms are probably the most common type of form seen around the internet. They typically ask for the basic information such as name, tel, fax, email, comments, etc. They are usually only 3-8 questions long and take very little time to fill out and submit.

A great place for these types of forms is on any website where you are looking to have people get in touch with you for general inquires. For example on a website that sells bikes you may want a general contact form for people who have questions about parts, style bikes, etc. This allows a website visitor an easy to use option to contact you and give you some information on what they are looking for without having to pick-up the phone. These types of forms can generally be sent via email, and don't usually require a secure area to be stored in as nothing personal is really being sent.

A poor use of a general contact form would be on a car insurance website where you want to provide customers a way of requesting an insurance quote. These types of forms usually do not request enough information to give any type of valuable quote to a customer.

Quick Contact, Contact Forms:
These are the short, sweet and to the point forms. They generally only require an email address, name and description, sometimes a phone number also. These are great for visitors who know your company, know your site and just want to quickly reach out to you for a question or for you to get back in touch with them.

These forms are great to use in conjunction with a full contact us form page. You can use these quick forms throughout the site as they take up very little room and provide a great call to action area. For visitors that need more in-depth information they can easily click the contact us button where a more general or in depth form will await them.

Remember: Providing the right means of contact can mean the difference between a visitor and a client.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Don't underestimate your visitors

2008-10-16T06:55:00.003-04:00

All websites are built for a reason, and that's to have visitors be able to see it and hopefully contact you. Why then do we underestimate how smart these visitors are? Time and time again I've heard web designers, SEOs and other marketers say "but our visitors won't get that". I think that what we are forgetting who those visitors are.

Website visitors aren't just computer-illiterate users!
I know it may be hard to believe, but people who visit your website may have actually used another website before! They may have even been on other computers too! OK, enough with the sarcasm, but I honestly think that we sometimes think our website visitors are coming to our website on their first day of using a computer. But lets stop for a minute and think about who those visitors might be.

Lets say that you own an electronics store, and you sell everything from laptops to flat panel TVs on your website. Now lets consider who typically is buying these things. They are usually pretty tech savvy people, and if they aren't their friend or relative is who is helping them purchase the item. Those tech savvy users like to know the details of what makes that particular digital camera work, they want to know about the mega-pixals, zoom ratio, etc. So it would be smart of you as the store owner to provide that information.

Now what about a more simple product like clothing. Well that visitor could be anyone, but lets narrow this down a bit to baby clothing. Your typical shopper is going to be the mother/father or relative. You can bet that the expecting mother wants to know what the article of clothing was made out of, how it washes, and if it has been fire tested. So again, why not give them this information?

Too quickly, we dumb things down:
It seems that we are often times overly concerned with saving time, and dumbing things down. These things certainly have their place, for instance in an emergency you don't want an exit sign that gives every turn; rather a sign with an arrow that leads to the next sign with an arrow is much quicker and more efficient. But the last time I checked, we aren't looking for our visitors to find the quickest way out.

Providing a valuable product along with relevant information, even if it seems like "the visitor won't read it", is important. Sure, not everyone who comes to your website is going to read it, but some people will. For those people that want the information your site has just stood out from the crowd. You've provided that visitor not only with the information they were looking for but the trust that they can count on you to educate and inform them on what they are purchasing.

Quality is more important than brevity:
I would much rather have quality information that happens to be a little on the lengthy side in terms of information then have a site that is so brief on information it doesn't answer all of the visitors questions. You have to remember, these people are purchasing something from you that they could purchase somewhere else if they don't feel like you've satisfied their need, so make sure you are providing as much information as possible, not just the shortest amount of information.

Remember: You are a visitor at other sites, do you like being treated like a toddler? Probably not, so why treat your visitors that way?

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Trust and Marketing - Shouldn't You Trust Your Firm?

2008-10-09T07:24:00.002-04:00

This past week one of our clients explained to me "we work with you because we trust you and you explain everything to us". I couldn't have been more elated when she said that, it is everything that Ignite Media was founded on. Trust and education are two very important qualities when it comes to any business relationship.

What does trust have to do with it?
What doesn't trust have to do with it? If your clients trust you, then you have clients for life, if they are suspicious of you then they are always watching what you are doing wondering if it is the right thing. It's never a good thing when someone is constantly looking over your shoulder to see if you've screwed up, and it certainly isn't a good thing when your clients are doing it.

How do I build trust?
Be Honest and Educate! That's it, if you can do those two things, 9 times out of 10 you will have a customer for life. So many companies out there are afraid of being honest, and telling their client exactly what they are doing. "We might give away the family secret", or "what if they don't want to hear the truth", are two things that cross the minds of those businesses that don't believe in being honest or educating their clients.

Yes, there are times when your client probably will not want to hear the truth, but in the long run you'll both be much better off that they know. They won't have any reason to think that you are playing games with them and you won't have any reason to be worried that they might find out something down the road. The air is clear, the discussions can continue on and most likely the working relationship will be stronger for it.

What do you mean educate?
You don't have to sit down and teach them every aspect of your business, but you should explain to them what you are doing for them. Let them in on your process and why you do things the way you do. I'd even suggest going as far as writing it all out for them and letting them see that you do indeed have a method. "But what if they show that to the competitor"? Do you really think your competitor doesn't know how you do things? Just think about the last employ that left your company, do you think they've never told anyone about how things are done at ACME corporation?

An educated client is a better client because now they are part of the process. They understand what it is they are getting and why you have to do things before other things. They start to realize that the money they are spending is being used in the right ways and that they can feel confident going back to their board members, or partners and explaining what is going on and what will happen next.

For the most part there are no family secrets. I mean you don't want to publish what you are doing for each of your clients online, but as far as a process goes and your methods there's nothing secret about it. Chances are you are just one of 100's of companies that do the same thing, but what makes you different is that you don't hide what you are doing for your client! Now doesn't that sound like a great conversation point with your next potential client?!

Remember: "If you give a man a fish he will have a single meal. If you teach him how to fish, he will eat for life" - Kuan-tzu

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Clients, Visitors, Customers - Whatever you call them, they come first!

2008-10-02T08:01:00.003-04:00

I just finished reading a really interesting blog post entitled "The Power of Accidental SEO: A Case Study", which tells about a women who was so into her business that SEO was something that happened because of her, not by her. I encourage you to click the link and take a read, it will be well worth it I promise.

So what does "the accidental SEO" mean to you?
At the very least it should show you that although SEO is important, what is more important is that you engage your customers/clients/visitors. Having a site just because it's what you needed, or running a blog because it's what everyone else is doing will greatly decrease your chances for success.

We at Ignite realize that not everything can be done through passion and pure love, but there needs to be at least a little of each in order for other people to 'buy-in" and take hold of what you are presenting. Whether it be through writing, talking, or actions people can tell if you are really into what you are presenting.

Should I stop my SEO than?
No, and I'm not just saying that because it's a service we offer. If I thought SEO had lost its luster I would stop offering it as a service and make sure I preached to all my clients that they didn't need it anymore, but as of right now that is not the case. SEO is important and will help, but you the client also need to get involved and give your site/blog/article something extra, something that makes people realize you really do understand their needs and care about what they want/need.

Remember: SEO is not the cure-all, it's merely one of the ingredients in a well thought out marketing plan.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development

Make the Holidays Bright.

2008-09-25T07:53:00.002-04:00

That's right, we are just around the corner from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. The scary part is, the economy isn't looking too favorably on having a good financial holiday season though. So what is a business, whether it be online or off, to do to make things the best they can be?

Marketing Starts Now!
That's right, and some may argue the train should have already left the station for your marketing. Make sure you are in front of the people you want shopping from you as often as you can be. Go out and purchase banner ads, advertise on the radio, put an ad in a magazine or two, get an article in the paper, etc. Just remember to be smart, don't pay for ad space that you feel is too expensive, remember the company you are buying the ad from is probably not doing well either so you might have some room to bargain.

You can never market enough, especially when the economy is not in your favor. The more people know about you, and the more they see your name the better chance you stand of having them stop at your store. Don't give them any reason to look for another source, be in their face without being too annoying (yes it's a fine line, but you know when you've gone too far, just be smart about it.).

Smart Pricing
Smart pricing is pricing your products so you still make a profit, but you look like a better bargain then your competitor. Sometimes taking less profit can actually increase sales and increase your bottom line. If you are working on 50% mark-ups, why not cut that down to 40% or 35% if you can afford it? You don't want to undersell your items, but you also don't want to be the most expensive shop in town.

Good Customer Service = Referrals
This may seem like a given, but it's one of the most important things. Make sure that anyone and everyone who has contact with a customer from your company (whether it be phone, email, face-to-face) does it in a positive way. One bad experience from a customer can equate to many lost sales from people they know. On the other hand, a truly positive experience will most likely have that customer coming back and usually they'll tell or bring a friend.

Remember: Just because the economy is slow, doesn't mean you should be.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development

Pay Per Click - Is it right for me?

2008-09-18T08:50:00.002-04:00

I'm often presented with the question "Is Pay-Per-Click really worth it?". Surprisingly the answer is both yes and no (it's never easy is it?!!).

Why is it both you may ask? Well for the simple reason that depending on what you are referring to, it may or may not be worth the time, cost, effort, etc. Lets take for instance a highly popular term like cars. Lets say you are the number one car distributor in your area. I would say in this case, it may be worth it to use PPC to come up when people search for general terms like car dealership, new cars, cars for sale, best cars, used cars, and more. The reason being, those are typically highly competitive terms and would be extremely hard to get natural rankings for with the top 2-3 pages. So using PPC will allow you the opportunity to have a presence closer to the top of the search engines (depending on your budget of course!).

On the other hand if you are trying to be visible for a phrase such as "used red corvettes in dayton", you may stand a very good chance of being found close to the top of the search results. Why? Well if you do the simple process of adding a couple of pages about "used red corvettes in dayton" and the years you carry, you most likely will have no problem showing up under this term in the top search engines, without having to pay. That's right I said without having to pay.

Pay per click is a highly effective tool when used appropriately and in conjunction with a well planned, and thought out natural search engine campaign. It takes a little time and evaluation of results to perfect your campaigns, but it will be well worth the effort in the end.

Remember: Think. Plan. Promote.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development

Networking - time to go offline!

2008-09-15T08:46:00.002-04:00

Real life networking is something that many people have given up over the years because they feel that being online, and in social networks is more than enough. Perhaps in some cases this can be true, but for most of us, a little networking every now and then could do wonders.

Where can I go for networking?
Anywhere really. Try going down to your local coffee shop, or newspaper stand and chat up some people. It doesn't always have to be a formal networking event, just make sure you aren't that weird guy who everyone runs away from!

There are also speed networking events, which are just like speed dating events where you meet with a dozen or so people for a few minutes at a time. This is a great scenario because you get a chance to meet more people in less time than a traditional networking event such as a social. It also gets those shy people to feel more at ease in a one on one discussion environment.

What am I looking to gain from a networking event?
That really depends on you. Some people are happy to walk away with a half dozen new business cards, while others will be happy with a new lead or agreement with one of the other attendees. Before you go to the event be sure you know what you want to get out of it. If you just show up and say "I wonder what will happen", you will never know if it as worth going or not.

On the other hand if you decide before you get to the event that you want to get 5 business cards to follow up with, than you have a definable goal. You will know at the end of the night just by looking at the cards if you achieved your goal and if the event was worth attending.

What type of business is networking for?
Any business really. Whether you are selling widgets at a town store front or working as a B2B business, networking never hurts. You may meet someone who knows people that would love your product, or that you can team up with to sell things together. There are really no limits to what you might find when you get out there and start talking to people.

Remember: Its not always just about your product or service, but also about who you know and meet.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development

Content Editing vs Content Management

2008-09-11T07:38:00.002-04:00

Many people think that content editing is the same thing as content management. In the very simplest of terms I guess they can be considered correct, but when you really look at the two there are real differences. At Ignite we feel it is important that you know what the differences are, so you know what you are getting as an end product.

Content Editing
This is when you are able to edit the text and possibly pictures within the body of a page. You usually have little or no control over the navigation, page design, or any other major functions of the website.

The best example of this would be Macromedia's (Adobe's) product Contribute. Contribute allows web designers the ability to give their client accessibility to update content within the page or pages that they grant permissions for.

This is a great tool for the casual client who really only wants to change or add some text every now and then and has little else to update or modify on the site. It's not good however for someone who needs to add pages, content, modules, etc to the site at any given time.

Content Management:
This is a much more robust system that allows control of pretty much every aspect of the website, or as much control as the administrator will allow for each user. Some popular content management solutions are DotNetNuke, Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, TypePad, and others. These systems are extremely robust and feature rich applications that give website owners the ability to create new pages, add modules, update content, allow users to register, and much more.

You are actually able to 'manage' your website from an administrative backend. Unlike with the content editing tools, there is an administrator that can set permissions for viewing certain pages, delete or modify registered users, and a variety of other things.

Which is better Content Editing or Content Management:
It really all depends on what you are looking to do. As mentioned earlier if you are just looking to make some small text updates to existing pages then content editing is probably more than enough for you. However, if you really want to have full control and be able to expand as needed content management is the direction you should be looking.

Remember: Don't always assume you are getting something, make sure you know you are getting it.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development

If I had the time I'd create my own website...

2008-09-09T08:22:00.002-04:00

This is probably one of the most common phrases that I hear in this industry. We get a call from a small or medium size business owner and they "know" they can build their own website, but just don't have the time. They go on and on about how they "know" what it's all about and how they have done websites in the past, etc, etc. Now even if you do know how to build your own website, is it really the best use of your time and are you sure you are building it correctly?

Let the experts do it, that's why they are called experts:
Just imagine if I walked into your office and wanted you to design a building for me (assuming you are an architect in this case) and I blurted out the phrase "Well, I'd draw up the plans myself but I just don't have the time". What would your reaction be? I would assume you would most likely be offended and then think to yourself, where does this guy get off? You've spent years getting your degree to become an architect and then I walk in and make it sound like anyone who has half a brain could do the job.

Experts are experts because they have spent a lot of time and effort learning their craft. They've studied the various techniques, aligned themselves with other people who know the industry just as well if not better. They could give you a history lesson on what their industry is all about. This same thing holds true for "real" web designers and programmers. It's not something they do because it's easy, it's something they do because they have a passion for it and have honed their craft to be as good as they can be.

Would it really be cost effective for you to build your own site?
Another aspect to think about is what are you giving up to take the time out of your day and build your own website? Chances are the opportunity cost of building it yourself are far too great. While you are busy building the website your day to day tasks are going unanswered. That means that potential contract for thousands of dollars will go unanswered and pass you by.

You also have to think about what impact not having someone who knows the ins and outs of website design build your site could have on the final product. Have you kept up to date on what the search engines are looking for? Have you studied the latest CSS methods that are being employed? Do you know how to code that contact form so it gets delivered without much spam being delivered as well? I would assume the answer to the majority of these questions would be No.

You wouldn't have your maintenance man come in and do your book keeping so why would you use anyone but a design company to build your website?

Remember: It's not always better if you do it yourself.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Google Launches Google Chrome

2008-09-04T07:47:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday Google launched it's latest project Google Chrome. Google Chrome is the newest browser to hit the market and comes to the plate ready to play ball. Rethinking the entire browser setup, Google has put together what they hope will be a whole new way of viewing the web and launching applications online.

Is it really all it's hyped up to be?
Some may say no, but there are a great deal of tech-heads that say yes, this is that and much more. Google has really thought about stability, privacy, and the future of websites. Not only can you drag the tabs and create new browser "windows", but you can finally see what services are being run by each tab, just like you can see what services on running on Windows.

Should I drop Firefox and IE?
Being that each browser has its own special quirks when viewing web pages and not everyone is going to switch over to Chrome, I don't think leaving IE and Firefox completely is a good idea. Google Chrome should be another tool used to surf the web. Some of the downsides to Chrome is that even though it has many new features that the others don't, it currently doesn't support all the old features from Firefox.

Where I can get Google Chrome?
As with most Google projects, they have a site dedicated to Chrome:
http://www.google.com/chrome

They have also put together a very well written, although long, comic book that explains all the things Chrome was built to do. After reading through the book it really helped clear up why Google decided to get into the browser industry.

Remember: It's not necessarily the silver bullet, but it may prove to be the start to a whole new way of surfing.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Expectations and Communication - It's Key

2008-09-01T08:17:00.001-04:00

Everyone has had that experience. The one where you have an image in your head of how you want your website to look, but for some reason just can't explain it. Then when you see what the designer presents, it's not on the mark and you get extremely frustrated. You blame the designer for not being artistic enough, or not helping you with your idea. But wait, is it really their fault?

Lets step back for a minute and think about this in a different view. Take a brand new house for instance, one that's not even built yet. You know what you want and you know where you want it, but you just don't know how to tell the architect your vision. So do you think you are going to get the house you want? Probably not.

I know it can be hard, but you need to figure out a way to express your image to the designer (or architect in the above example). This is the reason most designers will ask if you have certain sites you like, colors you prefer, styles that excite you, or something to that effect. It's not because they want to copy another site, but rather they want to know if blue will make you happy or really pisses you off. They want to know if Flash is what you really want, but didn't know it was called that.

Communication is key. Ask as many questions as you can think of before having the designer start designing your website. Also, make sure you answer as many questions as the designer needs to ask you. It takes work, and not just on the designers end to create a final product that everyone can be happy with.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Ignite has a home on Facebook

2008-08-28T07:57:00.002-04:00

That's right, Ignite Media has started a Facebook profile! Although a work in progress, we invite you to a take a look and share with your friends. Check back often as we plan to keep updating and sharing information from our new page as well.

What do plan for the Facebook page?
We plan to keep the page updated with news and events related to not only what Ignite is doing but also what is going on in the search engine community. We invite you to share your thoughts and contribute to the page in anyway you feel comfortable.

Should we be on Facebook too?
Facebook is a great marketing tool if you plan to stay on top of it. With social networking sites like Facebook you have to keep things fresh and up to date otherwise the interest from viewers will fade away. Social media is all about what's going on now, not what happened 3 months ago.

How do I get started on Facebook?
You can either go to www.facebook.com and read the tutorials and articles about starting a personal profile or business page, or you can give Ignite a call and we'd be happy to discuss and work with you to get started on Facebook.

Remember: Networking and socializing are the new forms of marketing.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

What web based business should I start that will make money?

2008-08-25T08:44:00.003-04:00

This post is for people who are currently looking to "break into" a web based business. Over the years I've come across many people who have asked the question "what's the most profitable web based business to be in?". The first answer that comes to mind is "if I knew that do you think I'd be doing this?". However, I usually catch myself before that comes out and I explain to them that there is no silver bullet.

Don't you just build the site and make the money?
Many people are under the impression that it is as easy as just putting up a website. As soon as you go online your orders will start rolling in. Unfortunately, this is where many people get into trouble. The website takes longer then they expected, the costs are higher than they originally anticipated and the site goes up and no one is going to it.

Just like with a brick and mortar store it doesn't just happen over night. No matter how many stories you've heard about the guy who is rich from the internet, it just simply is not that easy. I don't want to stop anyone from trying, I simply want to make sure you are completely aware of what goes into a web based business.

The website
For some reason people think that building a website is easy. That if they had a little time on their hands they could just as easily put one together. To some extent this is true, but will that site be any good? What if you decided that building a house was easy and you put yours together, do you think it will last very long? Are you an electrician, plumber, contractor, and architect? If not, you probably wouldn't attempt this. So why then would you attempt to put a website together when you more then likely do not know the first thing about the mechanics of a website?

It may seem like a cliche, or overused advice, but let the professionals do what the professionals do. You know the business you are doing and you wouldn't think twice about having someone from another profession come in and run your business, so why would you want to take over building a website?

Marketing for your website
So now you have the website, it's all built, and by a professional web developer who took the time to ensure it is SEO and user friendly. What do you do now? Now it's time to market the site. You have to let people know that your website exists. There are hundreds if not thousands of ways to do this. You can advertise in the yellow pages (online and offline), submit your site to various directories, get into Pay-Per-Click marketing, request inbound links to your site, send out a press release, and so much more.

Staying up to date with your website
Even after you have built the site, marketed it, and have customers coming in you need to make sure you are staying on top of the site. If you sell a tangible product you want to make sure you are updating your inventory and/or product information. You want to post specials and send out newsletters letting your customers know what is going on. Just like with that brick and mortar store, you have to make sure you are keeping and attracting the attention of your customers.

Remember: A website is more then just a page online, it's a business just like any other store.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Remembering the people!

2008-08-21T08:19:00.003-04:00

I recently read a really good blog post over at SEOMoz entitled "Social Media is People". The post was written by 'feedthebot', who is pretty active at SEOMoz and who's writing style is fun and easy to read and understand.

The whole point of the post is to remind people that at the end of the day any marketing efforts, especially social media marketing in this case, is not about what you have where and how many but rather who you know and how you can reach out to those you do not know yet. The people, real true life, flesh and blood people are the reason we build websites and communities, not to obtain tons of links.

As marketers and business owners we often forget what the true objective is, and are always trying to keep up with our competition. We're so worried about being on this directory and that directory and having this new thing added to our site and that other thing taken off that we lose sight of what is really important - THE PEOPLE!

I encourage you to read this post by 'feedthebot' and really take to heart what he is saying. We have to start thinking about who we want at our site and how we can get our name and site information in front of them, rather than just worrying about being on various sites and hoping that the right people see it.

Remember: Going back to the basics isn't always a bad thing.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Ignite Gives Back!

2008-08-14T08:47:00.003-04:00

Ignite Media has started a new innitiative to give back to those in need or less fortunate. Ignite Gives Back, is our program to donate 1%* of all sales to a deserving charity. "Every little bit helps" is what we strongly believe and we feel confident that the money we donate will help, if even in the smallest way.

There is no deadline, we will be doing this for as long as we can. Any project that comes through our doors will be helping a charity. The only thing that will change is the charity that we send to. Every couple of months we will decide on a new deserving charity so we can help as many as possible.

Do you have a specific charity in mind? We'd love to hear your thoughts on a deserving charity so we can put it on our list of ones to donate to. There are hundreds of thousands of deserving charties and we want to help out as best we can. If you recommend a charity please give us as much information as possible (name, website, cause, etc) so we can be sure if we do decide to donate to that charity that it goes to the correct place.

Remember: Even a penny can go a long way; yes even in today's economy!

*URL Registration and website hosting are the only two services that will not be part of the Ignite Gives Back program

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Build, Review, Adjust, Review again...

2008-08-11T09:15:00.002-04:00

A website is not a static thing. A website is something that should be changing on a regular basis, but not just because you feel like changing it. Those changes should be made on visitor behavior and/or new product/service announcements.

Changing based on visitor behavior
Website analytics are an extremely useful tool when it comes to figuring out what your website visitors are doing. However, the process shouldn't just stop at seeing what they are doing. You need to make sure you are adjusting your site accordingly. Lets say that your visitors are all coming to your home page and from there only 25% are moving further into the site. It's time to review and revise the home page so you can increase your conversion rate to interior pages.

What good is a site if the only page people go to is the home page? Chances are the home page is just the tip of the iceberg of what you offer, and those visitors are missing a great deal of information. It's time to make a change, and be sure when you do make the change you consult some clients and people who may not know your site well to see if the change is effective.

Other changes
A change isn't always because of visitor behavior but also because of new product or service information. If you have a new product coming out or that just came out, you want to be sure you promote that as much as possible. Put a nice area on the home page, or in the news section. Just be sure that it's visible and draws people's attention.

Remember: Change is a good thing, when done correctly.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Website Testing, Testing, and more Testing...

2008-08-07T09:15:00.003-04:00

A website is something that is constantly being updated and modified, so why shouldn't you constantly be testing it? There is nothing worse then hearing from a visitor or client that something on your site not working correctly. You want to be sure you find those "faults" first, not last.

What's so bad about a little error?
How little is the error? That's usually a question that doesn't have such a definitive answer. The error may seem little to you, but you may not know about the handful of visitors that left your site because of it. Perhaps those visitors were ready to order, or make a call but got frustrated, that's not a good thing for your bottom line. So that little error is now a very big error.

How do I catch everything?
You may not be able to catch everything, but you can certainly do things to help catch a majority of things. One very important practice would be to surf your website once or twice a day (at the beginning and end of the work day). Try different paths and make sure you can always get around and back to where you came from. Another approach would be to randomly have your employees surf the site. Just shoot John an email on Tuesday that says, "before the end of the day I would appreciate it if you could surf through our website as if you were a customer to make sure you don't run across any errors. Please inform me as soon as you have completed your surfing and whether you found anything or not." This approach gives you a fresh set of eyes that may catch something you wouldn't have.

Testing may lead to something new
During the course of your testing you may think of things, or your employees may think of things that will help to improve the site. It doesn't always have to be that something is wrong, but it could be that something could be a little bit better.

Remember: What may seem insignificant to one person, may be extremely significant to someone else.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Is Cuil really cool?

2008-07-31T09:28:00.003-04:00

Cuil, the new search engine that has set its radar on Google, is ready to play, but is it really ready to compete? After many months/years of development and some very experienced engineers and owners at the helm, will Cuil really be able to take on the king of the web, Google?

A slow trot out of the gate:
Unfortunately, on the day of the official launch Cuil was anything but raring to go. Because of the overwhelming media response and thus increased traffic, the servers started to buckle under the strain. Searches were taking forever if happening at all, and people were becoming very annoyed at the newbie. After some time, and increased capacity they servers were back up and running and searches started to work a bit more smoothly.

Will they withstand the test of Google?
Although not really the Google killer some had hoped for, I think that Cuil can make it's mark in some small way. They haven't revolutionized search like Google did back in the 90's but they have changed things up a bit. For example, the layout of the search results page is much different. Rather then the phonebook style listing of Google, Yahoo! and MSN, Cuil took the approach of a "magazines style layout". Interestingly this changes the whole ranking focus from being in the top 3 to something a bit more obscure. It's not clear as to whether they are considering the top 3 across or the top 3 down as the "top".

How were the searches?
This area is where they seem to be lacking the quality of data. They say they have more indexed pages then Google, but their algorithm seems to be a little skewed. Searches for local keywords bring up some rather random results and alternate suggestions. Perhaps it was just another early glitch that will be worked out, but hopefully they work it out soon.

Recommend, or stay away?
It certainly is not something that we will be jumping over to in full force with here at Ignite, but we will be keeping an eye on them. They may not be the Google killers, but they may produce some interesting attraction down the road.

Remember: sometimes even a little change can make you think of things in a whole new light.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

White Hat vs Black Hat and what about the Grey?

2008-07-28T08:35:00.002-04:00

There are thousands of methods that search engine optimization and internet marketing specialists will use to help get a site ranked well. Anything from content building, link building and keyword stuffing, to viral marketing, guest blogging, and various others. So which methods are better then others, and which ones are considered black hat and white hat?

White Hat Methods:
I like to think of these methods as the methods that would be used if you didn't have to worry about the search engines. What I mean is that if you asked yourself "If I didn't have to worry at all about ranking, would I do what I'm about to try?", would you still do it? If the answer is no then it clearly is not White Hat.

Content building, link building (for the most part), code structuring, etc, are all mostly White Hat techniques. They can take longer to have an effect, but over the long run your site will be better off for trying these methods.

Black Hat Methods:
Pretty much the opposite of White Hat, Black Hat is anything you can do to get your site ranked well regardless of whether it is ethical or legal in the eyes of the search engines. Spamming blog and or forum posts with links back to your site, stuffing keywords in every possible place, cloaking your domain, etc.

Black Hat techniques can give you good results in the short term, but over time can prove to hurt your site overall. There have been instances of sites being delisted in the search engines for using such techniques, which obviously is the exact opposite effect that was intended.

The Grey Area:
As with anything in life, there is always a grey area. This area is where White meets Black and the line is blurred as to how ethical an action is. For example, buying links for inbound linking campaigns is often frowned upon by the search engines, but what if the link is for a reputable association but they just so happen to charge for them? It's hard to say what to do in cases like this. The link itself is probably very valuable but there is a chance the search engines will not look so kindly on it. My suggestion would be to ask yourself "Will the link benefit a user who clicks on it?". If the answer is yes then proceed, if the answer is maybe or no, I would tend to say don't even consider it.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race:
Although it may seem like an old, over used cliche, it is indeed true. Long terms internet marketing takes time, and over time your hard work and effort will pay off and those people who have employed Black Hat techniques will have to continually look over their shoulder to see if their site is still listed.

Remember: It's not about quantity, it's about quality.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

International Marketing Tips

2008-07-24T08:54:00.003-04:00

The smaller the world gets, the easier it has become to do business overseas. Marketing your product overseas however, is not as easy as it may seem. Here are a few basic tips to help you when considering your venture into the international market.

Not everyone speaks English!
That's right, believe it or not, not everyone in the world speaks English. Although your product is made in the USA and you currently market it using the English language, you will have to seriously consider having everything translated. How frustrated would you be if you saw an add for a product/service you were interested in only to get to their website and see that it is in a language you don't understand?

Translations aren't always created equal
Just as in the English language, not all words translate clearly. Another thing to remember is that there are many different dialects for some languages, such as Spanish. You want to be sure to have someone who is native to that region either translate or proof read the translations so you can be sure you are not offending anyone.

Meaning is everything
Always be sure to see what your slogan means when translated. Most of us remember the story about the car company that had a slogan that translated into "doesn't run" (or something like that). You certainly don't want to be marketing your product only to realize that people are interpreting it as a negative thing.

Take the trip, see the people
There is no replacement for a first hand experience. Actually taking the time to visit the places that you are going to be marketing in and speaking with the local people can give you great insight. What you may once have thought about a particular destination based on what someone told you may not be true at all.

Remember: Do your homework, and you'll find it will pay off later.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Summer Slowdown Leads to Fall Pickup...

2008-07-21T16:41:00.002-04:00

Many companies see a slowdown in orders, production, etc during the summer months. It is typically the time of year when people take extended vacations, plants close and companies are working shorter days. Who wants to think about the fall during this time?

You should! That's right, you need to think about the fall during this time. Marketing now is the perfect time to grab those customers that will start turning up the pace come fall. Make sure you are the one they remember when they need what you do. Don't be left in someone elses dust because you decided to slow down everything during the summer.

How do I market to them now?
Anyway you can really! Send them an email blast, mail out postcards, put a special on your website. Anything and everything you can think of would be a good idea. How about a special promotion where if they order by August 31st they get a special discount? This helps get orders in for the summer as well as increasing production for the fall. People love to save money and if you give them savings they will most likely respond well to them.

Don't let the summer slip away.
Now is the time to act, not tomorrow, not next month. The summer goes by very quickly so you don't want to be standing there on September 1st wondering where all your orders are. Also, don't panic if you don't hear a response right away, it is the summer after all and they may call in September asking if they can get that deal - go ahead, give it to them, what do you have to lose but the customer if you don't!

Remember: The early bird gets the worm - it's not just a clever cliche.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

A saturated market, is it worth it to get in?

2008-07-17T06:30:00.002-04:00

Most people would immediately tell you to stay away from a saturated market. There is usually very little room for profit, and the daily grind of trying to compete for every dollar can get tiring. You also have to be very creative in your marketing and always try to stay one step ahead of your competitors. However, if you have a unique angle or niche within that market, why not go for it?

A niche within a niche
Lets say for a minute that you are about to get into the computer market. This is a very tough industry as most of the big players dominate the field and it leaves very little room for anyone else to make headway. But what if you had a niche within this arena? Your first niche might be that you only sell laptops, so that cuts your competition down a bit. Now the real fun starts. Your niche within a niche for laptops could be "biodegradable packing and refurbished machines". You now can play up the going green concept and let people feel good about buying from you.

Your service can outweigh your product
Many people think that it's all about marketing the product. If the customer doesn't know about every detail and each product you sell, how else are they going to chose you? Well, there are times when the product comes second, and the service or extra care is what really makes the sale. For example the biodegradable packaging mentioned above could be the most important thing to someone who is extremely environmentally aware. They know they can get a laptop from just about a million places, but you offer something that others don't, peace of mind when it comes to the earth.

Bring on the competition
So the next time you or someone else is thinking about getting into a so called "saturated market", consider what you or they will need to do to differentiate the company. Sometimes it can be as simple as your packaging other times it might need to be something radically different. Each market and company is different and thinking outside the box is always helpful.

Remember: Everyone has products or services, you need to have a differentiator.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Should I build multiple websites to attract more customers?

2008-07-14T08:43:00.002-04:00

Many people are under the impression that building out several websites for the same product/service will give them a better chance on the search engines. They think that even if the sites have the same content, there are more of them for the search engines to find and in turn they can get more listings. Unfortunately this is rarely the case.

The search engines are looking for sites with unique and authoritative content. When they find several sites that are the same they will most likely either list only one of the sites and/or none of the sites, or list all of them but deep within the search results. So you have effectively devalued your sites, which is exactly what you were trying not to do.

Build "IT" and they will come
The saying is not "Build them and they will come", or "Build many and they will come", it's Build IT and they will come. That's right, build one very well written, well constructed website that concentrates on gaining as many authoritative inbound links as possible. It may take some time to gain the traffic you are looking for, but this approach will always win out in the long run.

Link building is better for one
Another drawback to building many websites for the same service/product is that when you start acquiring inbound links, what site do you point them to? You'll be hard pressed to find authoritative sites that will link to all of your websites if they are all the same thing. They know the value of the link they are giving you and they want to be sure they won't see any backlash from sending people your way.

How do I keep up with it all
One last thing that you should consider is that having multiple websites means you have to keep up with multiple websites. That price change for all your products now has to be done in more than one place. That new product that is coming out next month has to be added to all your sites. After a while this could prove to be a pretty daunting and annoying task. One site, means one update, one addition and better quality control.

Remember: More isn't always better.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Lively - Is Google on to Something?

2008-07-10T06:23:00.002-04:00

Google just announced this week the launch of it's new 3D chat software called Lively. Still in beta mode, but ready for the public to try out, Lively seems to bring chatting to another level. Is this the way of the future or just a cool new toy from Google?

Many are saying that Lively is merely a half step to Second Life, but without all the controls and number of people. Lively allows you to create your own "rooms" and avatars and then chat with up to 20 people at a time. The chat windows actually show up as speech bubbles like you would see in a comic book sketch, so it is as if your avatar is really talking (to a degree!). You can also put your "room" on your website or blog so people can join your chat as they wish.

Is there any business use for this?
For right now it seems a little too animated to have very much business use. Certain fields may find this to be a unique way of communicating with the visitors on their website/blog. For example someone who has a website selling children's toys could put this on their site and it might fit in nicely with their theme.

For the everyday business person, I think this is a long way off from going main stream. It is also one of the few, if any, Google products that you actually have to download and install software on your computer in order to use. This could leave some people leery, and keep them away at least until it comes out of the beta stage.

So for now we suggest you take a look, maybe even try it out, and if you feel it fits into your website theme you might even want to test it on a page or two of your site.

Remember: New tools are great, but they aren't for everyone.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Flash and the Search Engines - Update!

2008-07-07T09:26:00.003-04:00

For as long as Flash has been around, trying to have a website built using this technology be seen in the search engines has been a tremendously difficult if not impossible task. The search engines have had no way of reading any of the text or links within a Flash movie and therefore have found little content when going to these sites. That is until now!

Adobe announced last week it that it is working very closely with both Google and Yahoo! to figure out a way to make their product more search engine friendly. It will probably be a while before we see any major changes in the way of listings, but it certainly does create some excitement. Flash websites being indexed is a major step and one that will help industries known for using Flash such as the music and entertainment industry.

There is a lot of speculation as to what they will be able to make open to the search engines, how they will link to specific areas of a movie, how much will they rely on certain tags or coding, etc. Until Google, Yahoo! and Adobe hash out all the details, all of this will remain speculation for now.

So should I start building my all Flash website?
Even with this new development, we hold strong it saying that Flash is a very useful and powerful application when used for the application. A website that is trying to sell hardware with very spec heavy information should probably stick with HTML/ASP/PHP, etc. Using Flash for banners to promote a certain product or service is always great.

When we decide if Flash is right for a website we usually look at two factors: 1) What industry is the website being built for? 2) What is the goal of the website? The answers to these two questions will typically tell us if Flash would be appropriate or not.

Remember: Always keep the end user in mind; after all they could be your client one day!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Show your visitors some fireworks!

2008-07-03T07:04:00.002-04:00

I don't mean literally put some corny fireworks animation on your home page. What I mean is give them a deal, start a promotion, have a weekend long sale, etc. The holidays often times are looked at as dead business days because everyone is out celebrating. With a sale or discount of some kind the holidays can be a cash cow for some!

Recurring customers get even more!
What better way to drum up business than to offer an even better deal to people who have ordered in the past week/month/year? If you can figure out a way to give these people an added incentive to shop, you may find that business picks up even more then anticipated.

Leave no stone unturned
A sale or discount can be to anyone for anything. New sign ups can get a different discount then someone who just wants to purchase without signing up. If they buy more than one of a certain item they can get a special deal. There are tons of ways to give your shoppers a little something extra, and the holidays aren't the only times either.

Shoppers love deals and the more they feel that you are open and willing to give them a deal the more likely they are to come and shop with you.

Happy 4th of July and we at Ignite hope you have a profitable holiday weekend!

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Meta Tags - Which ones should we use?

2008-06-30T09:37:00.005-04:00

There often isn't a week that goes by that I get asked about keyword tags and how important they are, or whether they should use a variety of other meta tags to help the search engines index their site. Everyone wants to know which meta tags are the ones that are most important and which ones they can ignore.

It's all in the title
The answer, well it isn't exactly black and white. However, it is widely agreed that the most important tag, as of right now is the title tag. This tag should be written in such a way as to have your most important keyword/phrase included and it should be straight to the point. The title tag should also be unique for each page. For example, your products page should have a title geared towards your products while your company history page should have a title that relates to the history page. If someone only saw the title tag for each page they should be able to get a good idea of what that page will be about.

A good description always helps
Another tag that is important, but not for the reasons you may think is the description tag. This tag is invisible to the front-end user (unless you view source), but the search engines will use this tag to display as your search engine result listings. They generally speaking do not use this tag as a factor in your rankings, but it will give them some idea of what you feel the page is about. As with the title tag, this should be unique for each page.

Keywords aren't the key anymore
There was a time when the keyword meta tag was one of the most important tags on your website. Any word/phrase you put in there was a possible word/phrase that you would show up in in the search engines. Put them in there more then once, and you stood an even better chance. However, today this tag is seldom used by the search engines if at all. More often then not this tag is used for spam purposes and the search engines have decided not to even think about using it as a ranking factor.

The never ending list of meta tags
There are many, many meta tags that can be used within a page. However, most of them serve little to no purpose for the search engines. When you try to put all of these tags into each page you are making the search engines work harder to get to what is most important which is the content of the website. Ignite suggests that you stick to the basics. Make sure you have unique title tags, unique description tags, and if you have to you can use the keyword tags but make sure not to stuff them full of keyword phrases.

Remember: Less is often more, especially when it comes to placing keyword/phrases in meta tags.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

How do I get my keywords into my content?

2008-06-26T08:14:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest problems I've come across in this field is that too many times people are more concerned with making sure they have a specific keyword/phrase in their site then they are about what the content is really saying. They want to get that word/phrase in there as many times as possible without looking spammy and they could care less how well the content is put together.

The problem with this approach, other than the fact that it makes for very hard to read copy, is that you are focusing on a very small percentage of your potential traffic. Not everyone uses the word/phrase that you have chosen. Sure the keyword research shows that a good majority of the people searching for your product/service will use that phrase, but what about the rest? You certainly don't want to blow off potential visitors.

Write for your clients - not at them
When you are putting the copy together for your site you want to first write it the way you would if you were writing a letter directly to a new customer. Forget about getting certain words/phrases in there; just make sure your message is clear and to the point. Once you've done this then you can go back and see where it's appropriate to substitute one word/phrase for another. Once you've done that go back and read what you've just written to make sure it still is clear and to the point. You should be able to hand that to anyone have them read it and they should be able to explain back to you in their own words exactly what you were talking about; if they can't do that than its back to the drawing board.

Write to educate then to sell
You have to remember, the reason the internet was created was for a means to share information and research. People still use the internet to educate themselves and research what they ultimately want to purchase. When you are writing your copy remember that you want to be sure to give them enough information to make an informed decision and then you want to pitch them the sale. You can't expect that someone will buy from you just because you are selling what they want.

Remember: Copy is the foundation; if it's cracked the whole thing will come tumbling down one day.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Guest blogging; Should we allow it on our blog?

2008-06-23T08:14:00.005-04:00

Guest blogging has become more and more popular over the months/years since blogging has really taken off. Guest blogging is allowing/asking/accepting someone to write a blog entry on your blog. It allows the guest blogger to spread their name and usually link back to their own site/blog and also gives your blog some fresh content written from a new viewpoint.

Should we allow guest blogging on our blog?
Most times there is no harm in allowing a guest blogger to write an entry in your blog. You just want to be sure that you read the entry prior to posting it live and get a sense for what the topic will be prior to accepting the offer, or asking another writer to post.

Guest blogging can be a great way to draw a new audience. Many times the guest blogger will refer to their post on your blog at their own site. This of course starts drawing traffic to your blog and hopefully to the rest of your site as well.

Just because you have a guest blogger does not mean they should write about whatever they want. Their entry should be in line with the theme/concept of your blog. So if you're blog is about wine tasting and wineries an appropriate guest blogger might be another wine aficionado talking about their wine tours.

How do we get a guest blogger?
Sometimes they will hunt you out and ask you, but more then likely you'll have to do a little asking yourself. Find a blog you like, or a friend that you know and ask them if they would be interested. Remember you can offer them a link to their website/blog. Try not to pay someone to write on your blog. Why you may ask, because you want their entry to be as honest and genuine as possible. You want them to write an entry because they want too not because they are getting paid to do so.

You may also want to consider offering to guest blog for someone else. This is a great way of getting your name and site out there, as you will most likely get a link back as well.

Remember: Networking is more then just handing out business cards, it's a whole new game with the internet.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Should we have a slogan?

2008-06-19T07:35:00.003-04:00

There's a lot to be said for a well written, well marketed slogan. Just think about some of the great ones "Reach out and touch someone", "Drivers wanted", "Have it your way", "Don't leave home without it", "The quicker picker upper", etc. All you have to do is say these lines and people will typically know what product you are referring to.

A really good slogan will not only be catchy but it will also relate to what you do. "The quicker picker upper" is a perfect example. Paper towels are meant to pick up spills and the quicker the better. So not only do you have a catchy slogan, but you are telling people what your product/service does all at once.

How do we come up with a slogan?
It's certainly not as easy as it may seem. A good slogan requires thought, research (to make sure no one else is using that line), and creativity. Take for example our slogan "Ignite Your Site™". We wanted to incorporate our name and also that we build websites that will help increase business. Typically someone who is having a good streak, or doing really well at something is considered to be "on fire". So we took all of that and come up with "Ignite Your Site™".

There are companies out there that specialize in slogan development. There are also freelancers that you can hire temporarily to help bring in some fresh, creative ideas.

What do we do once we have a slogan?
Very simply, start using it everywhere. Put it on your packaging if you have it, your business cards, your stationary, etc. Make sure everyone in your office knows what the slogan is, and knows the reasoning behind it. It's important to have company buy-in with the slogan. You certainly don't want one of your employees on the phone telling someone about the slogan and then snickering about it with them.

Your slogan can and should become synonymous with everything your company does. Are you attending a trade show, or hosting an event? Your slogan should be incorporated as much as possible (without going overboard).

Remember: A slogan can be like a salesperson, the more people know it the more it will help sell your products/services.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Memory vs Hard Drive - What's the difference?

2008-06-16T08:32:00.004-04:00

OK, I'll admit this is probably a little off topic, but I get asked this question all the time. If I get a bigger hard drive will my computer go faster? Or, I have a lot of memory but I can't save any more files to my hard drive, what's going on?

I guess having used and worked on computers since middle school has made me oblivious to the fact that this stuff is not just common knowledge. There are people who really do not understand what the difference between a hard drive and memory is. So I've decided to see if I can help explain this a little better. The reason this has come up this week is because my father and I were having this discussion over the weekend and I didn't feel like I was explaining it as clearly as possible. So I thought about what I could relate it to that most people would understand. So here goes...

Lets think about your car for a minute. You have a gas tank and you have a battery right? OK, your gas tank holds the fuel for the car and stores that fuel until it is called on to run the car. The battery is used for things like the lights, radio, locks, horn etc. The battery doesn't hold anything but a charge that is used when needed.

Think of your hard drive as the gas tank for your computer. You can fill up the hard drive with files that when needed are called on and can be worked with. Unlike a car you can put the files back that you've just used, where as the gas is gone, but you get the idea. Now the memory for your computer is like the battery. It doesn't store anything it just holds the "charge" that is used when the computer needs to run or think about programs. The larger the memory the faster or more efficient your computer is able to run.

So when you are looking to purchase a new computer for yourself or the office remember that the larger the number is for the memory the more efficiently your computer can run, and the larger the hard drive is the more files you can store on the computer. Hopefully this will help at least one or two people.

Remember: You store stuff on your hard drive and you pull power from your memory.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Making a negative a postive!

2008-06-12T07:56:00.004-04:00

In today's economy there is a lot to look at in a negative light. Gas prices are through the roof, the economy is struggling to stay afloat, unemployment is on the rise, and businesses are starting to see a slow down. So what is positive about all of this?

It's what you make it out to be
It's very easy to sit back and complain about how bad things are, and most likely you will probably find a few people to join you in that discussion. However, it takes a motivated and passionate person to find the silver lining and use it to their advantage.

Lets take the gas prices for a minute. The price of gas is increasing across the country and around the world, so how can we spin this to be a positive? Well lets say you are a company that is able to allow your employees to work from home. You can send out an email about how "You're going green one step at a time" and talk about how this will help keep costs to your customers down and quality up. You've now let your customers know that you are a forward thinking company that cares not only about themselves but about the customer as well.

What if my customers are having a tougher time economically then we are?
Offer a discount. When you know your customers are trying to cut costs and save money wherever they can, make sure you are working with them to do this. Get on the phone, have a discussion and let them know you want to help them make it through this tough time. Sure you may not make as much on your markup, but you've just kept a good client and chances are when times get better they'll remember what you did for them.

There's nothing that says you have to charge more just to stay afloat. Sometimes cutting your profit margin, or offering your products/services a little differently can actually increase business, or at the very least keep things steady.

Remember: Work with your customers and you may find that things will start working for you.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Standing Out from the Crowd

2008-06-09T07:59:00.002-04:00

I've recently been reading a book entitled "The Big Moo", odd name but very good read. The book is all about being remarkable, not just ordinary or good, but truly remarkable. It is actually a collection of thoughts/ideas/stories from some very powerful and successful business people.

So how do I make my website stand out from the crowd?
There are many ways, you just have to put the same energy you had when starting the company into differentiating your company. It's not good enough anymore do just do sales, or specials, you have to really connect with your clients. You have to make them feel like they are getting more then just a product or service they are getting an experience.

The internet has made everything easy to get and at the cheapest price, but yet there are still people selling things for top dollar. How is this possible? Well more then likely they are not selling on price but rather something even less tangible. Perhaps they are selling on the craftsmanship, the quality, the durability, the personal service, etc. Whatever it is, they know they have it and they cherish it, and therefore draw in the customers.

Where do I start?
Where ever you feel you can be most inspired to be creative. Take a day off, go on a company trip, have a brainstorming session. Whatever it is that you do doesn't matter as long as you are thinking differently then you normally do and you are seeing things in a new light. It's easy to become stagnant and run the same rat-race every day, but it takes a true innovator to really break the mold once in a while.

Do I have to do it on my own?
Are you kidding? Absolutely not, bring as many people as you need. Other people will help you to realize things you never saw or thought of before. The best people to have around are people that you know do things differently then you. These people will let you see another angle that was always there but just never calling out to you.

Start today, take some time to brainstorm, or have a company lunch where everyone shares a thought about what they would like to do with the company. You'll be surprised with what you might discover from your very own employees.

Remember: It's not about gimmicks, it's about connections. Connect with your clients like no-one else is.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

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Too much copy or too little; What's right?

2008-06-05T09:58:00.003-04:00

As we all know content (copy) is king, but do we all know how much is too much or too little? Does a paragraph work, or should it be 4 paragraphs? Do bullets have the same impact as sentences? There are hundreds of questions like these that come to mind when writing copy for your website.

So how much copy is enough?
That really all depends on what you are writing and for who. If your topic is structural engineering then you will probably have more than just a paragraph and some bullets. On the other hand if your topic is selling a new product, a great intro sentence or two and bulleted feature list might just be the key to more sales.

There is no definitive answer to what is right for your site. You want to be sure that you provide enough content for your website visitors to make an informed decision without inundating them with information that might be better served as a downloadable PDF.

Is there such thing as too little copy?
Yes, generally speaking if you can take someone who has no idea what you sell and have them read the copy for one of your pages and they know what it is you are selling after reading it, you have enough copy. If they are more confused or are left asking more questions then the copy is either not enough or not written clearly enough.

It is important to know that when you are writing people will read it. There is a popular saying that "no one reads on the internet" and frankly I just don't buy it. Sure, maybe they don't read as much on the interent, but they are reading something. This should be your call to create copy that is concise, powerful and informative all at the same time. Not an easy task, but one that will ultimately give your site that leg up you are looking for.

Remember: It's not about the quantity but rather the quality.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

How can specialization help a website?

2008-06-02T08:24:00.005-04:00

When you specialize in something you become not only good at it, but most likely great. You know your product/service inside and out and eventually you've seen almost anything and everything that could happen. Specializing also gives you an edge over your competitors because while they may "do it all", you "do it right!".

How does specialization translate to your website?
Very simply put, it gives your website that same advantage. Think about all the sites that you have been to, and think about the ones you would go to in order to make sure you got just the right product for your situation. Chances are that site was specializing in that area. They had all the information you needed, just the right products and their staff and/or website could answer any question you had.

Are there any other benefits of having a specialized website?
Absolutely. Sites that specialize in one area stand a much better chance of being seen as an authority on that subject. For example, if you had a shop that was all about car stereos and only car stereos you stand a better chance of being found under that then the site that also sells car seat covers, windshield wipers, etc. This is because your pages and your entire site are structured around a very specific, defined set of keywords.

What if I can't specialize my site?
Just because your company/business is not specialized doesn't mean your website can't be. You have several options here, you can create separate websites for each of your divisions or better yet you can create sub-domains for each of your divisions. This way you can drive people directly into whichever sub-domain is appropriate for them and still gain the benefits of a larger more content rich website.

Remember: You don't have to necessarily be specialized for your site(s) to appear that way.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Can I redesign my site without losing my rankings?

2008-05-29T07:24:00.003-04:00

It's a common question among people who so badly want a newer looking website, but don't want to lose the great search engine visibility that they are seeing. How much is too much, and if it drops will it ever come back?

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that anyone can make you as to whether your rankings will go up, down, or remain the same. However if things are done correctly you can certainly minimize the risk of them going down.

Keep File Names the Same:
You need to make sure that you keep the file names the same where possible. So for example if you have a page for products and the file name is products.htm you want to be sure that you keep this file name. If for some reason you can not keep the file name products.htm, then you want to be sure you can use 301 redirects before you start changing the names. 301 redirects are a search engine friendly way of telling the robots that the page that used to be called products.htm is now called cleaning-products.htm.

Keep Title Tags the Same:
Just like the file names you want to be sure that you keep the title tags of your current pages intact. The slightest change could make the spiders give your page a different "score" for their listings. Of course it could turn out to be a good thing if your visibility and rankings increase, however you may not want to take that risk.

Keep the Content to Same:
Whenever possible you want to try and keep the main content on each page the same or increased. For example if you have a page for widgets and it has 3 paragraphs of information about your widgets you want to try and keep that info intact. Reducing it or removing it will make the search engines look at that page again and decide if it is as relevant as it was before.

Always have a Sitemap:
A sitemap is important because it is a page with links to all the pages on your website. When the search engines crawl your site and find this page they can easily see all the pages that are available for them to crawl. There is no hard evidence that this helps your search engine visibility but it certainly can't hurt.

These are just a few tips to help improve your chances of redesigning your website without haring your search engine visibility.

Remember: Change can be a good thing, but there is such thing as too much change.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Should we hire an Inhouse SEO/M or Outsource?

2008-05-28T08:01:00.004-04:00

Choosing whether or not to go with an in-house or outsourced SEO/M can be somewhat agonizing for many companies. There are many things to consider when going with either option, and each has its own set of pros and cons. And believe it or not, just because we offer these services here at Ignite Media, we don’t always believer outsourcing is the right choice.

In-House SEO/M
The biggest thing to consider when thinking about bringing your internet marketing in-house is not how much it will cost, but rather how many people you will need. The immediate thought might be that only one person is needed, and in some cases that might be correct. However, for larger companies you may need an internet marketing team. Not every SEO/M is good at all phases of the marketing.

The challenge with finding the right person(s) is knowing enough to know whether they will be effective for your company. This can be tough because most likely the reason you need an SEO/M is because you don’t know enough about this subject.

Outsourcing SEO/M
This should also should to be completely decided on price. You need to make sure that the company you are going to use will really give your company the best possible change to gain more traffic to your website. As we all know, more traffic means more chance for conversions.

It’s not always easy to tell the difference between each SEO/M company, but the biggest sign will be if you go to them and say you want this to happen they come back to you and say ok but you really should be doing this or that. You don’t want a company that is just going to do what you tell them you want, after all they are supposed to be the experts here right? You wouldn't go to your accountant and tell them how they would best do their job on your account would you?

How do we decide?
Unfortunately there is no easy answer, but if you do your homework and you carefully consider your options you should be ok. Don’t be afraid to get on some SEO forums and ask them if the have heard of the companies you are considering or what questions you might want to ask a possible in-house candidate.

Remember: Don’t be afraid to change companies or employees if they aren't taking you in the right direction.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Is Email Marketing Effective?

2008-05-22T09:22:00.003-04:00

Email marketing can be one of the most effective marketing campaigns that your company does. You have a captive audience that most likely has expressed an interest in your products/services before. With email marketing you are connecting to the people who want to hear from you and hopefully attracting them to purchase from you again. However there is always a right and a wrong way to do things.

How is email marketing done wrong?
Maybe wrong isn't the correct word, but not effective. One of the biggest things that I hear from clients is "Can't you just buy a list that we can email to?", and I always say "Yes, if you want to be seen as spamming and annoying!". Even if that list is suited just for you, the chances of you seeing a good response is not good. The people on that list don't know who you are, don't have any brand recall of your company, and may or may not be interested in your products/services.

Another area that tends to be a problem is the frequency of the emails. Many customers want to send out emails everyday, or every hour (ok, maybe not that often). Lets think about this for a second. How many times have you received the same email day after day after day? How many times did you just hit the delete button or the opt-out link because you were tired of seeing the emailing? I would venture to guess that is what most people will do, I know I do.

So how is email marketing done right?
Ok, again probably should use the term more effective rather then right. The most effective email campaigns are going to be those sent to people who have subscribed to your list. These people have expressed an interest in your products/services. They know what they want and they know your company already. The chances of them reading your email and taking action are much higher then that of a "cold lead".

There are some really good companies out there that offer great email marketing tools. One of them is Constant Contact. They have been around for a while and have made their product easy to use, and feature rich. When you send out a campaign using Constant Contact you can get a real time look at who has opened it, who click the links inside and who opted out. With this information you can see how effective your emailing is.

Another way to increase the effectiveness of your emailings is to specialize them. For example, lets say that you run a home goods store and you have departments for Lawn & Garden, Kitchen, Painting, and Bathroom. You can create groups within many email marketing programs so when your website visitors sign-up for your emailings they can tell you exactly what they want to get information on. You now have an even more qualified contact. This person has told you exactly what they want to possibly purchase in the future, so you can send them and all the other people in that group an email specific to that department.

Email marketing is only as effective as the time you put into it. Make sure you have a qualified list and you know what they want to get information on and your email campaigns will be very effective.

Remember: Marketing TO THEM not AT THEM.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

We started a blog, now what?

2008-05-19T10:55:00.004-04:00

Many people are under the misconception that starting a blog will automatically increase the amount of traffic coming to your site. Wrong! A blog takes time, content and links in order to really start driving traffic. It could be weeks to months before your first reader comes along.

So what do I do to get more blog readers?
There are lots of things you can do to get more blog readers. The most important thing above all else though is to ensure that you are writing quality content. Content that means something to your target audience and isn't just a link to another post you've read, or a short one paragraph post. If you want to attract readers, you have to give them something to read!

Another good way to attract readers is to see if you can get a guest blog writer to write a post or two for you. This person should be someone who has something of value to bring to your readers (or potential readers). For example if you have a blog about surf boards and surfing you wouldn't want to get a guest writer on there talking about the newest computer software. However, you might very well want a guest writer who will write something about the ocean and the scientific aspect of the tides. This may not seem relevant to a surfing website at first, but surfers live by the tides and if they know a little more about how they react to certain things then they'll probably get some better surfing days.

How long should I wait for visitors to my blog before I give up?
That question is up to you. My feeling is that if you have something worth reading and you enjoy writing it, keep going. Even if you aren't getting tons and tons of visitors from your blog postings, you are creating new content and sharing your thoughts on your industry.

I often refer to a blog as an "online diary". It's a place that the blog author writes his/her thoughts, critiques, ideas, issues, etc on his/her industry or passion. Would you stop writing in your diary (or journal for you masculine guys), if you knew no one was ever going to read it? Then why stop writing your blog?

What if I run out of topics to blog about?
Then you aren't thinking creatively enough. There are a thousand different things you can talk about within any field. I promise you, if you asked a colleague or friend what they would want to know about your industry you would get some very interesting post ideas.

To use the surfing reference again, you don't just have to talk about surf boards and pro surfers. You can talk about the technology of the surfing industry, the locations of the surf events, etc. All you have to do is take a step back and think about your industry on a little bit broader view.

Remember: Write because you have something to say, not because you want to drive more traffic.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

A referral is great - but your actions speak louder!

2008-05-15T09:59:00.003-04:00

This may seem a little off the beaten path today, but I assure you it most certainly has to do with marketing and your business. Have you ever been referred to someone by someone else? Usually if you have the person who gave you the information spoke very highly about that company and/or person. With this referral comes a certain expectation that you will be satisfied at the very least if not amazed with the service or product they provide.

When the referral works out everyone is happy. The person that made the reference is praised, the company or person they sent you to is looked at like gods and you are extremely happy. So what happens when the referral goes wrong? What happens when you get to that company/person and they disappoint you so much so that you will never go back to them again nor send anyone else there? The chain is broken and that business has just lost not only a possible client, but their respect and possibly other business as a result.

Here's a perfect example of how things can go horribly wrong. You get a referral from a friend about this great therapist who has done wonders for them and is the nicest person they have ever met. So you give them a shot, you call and make the appointment and are all pumped up about this. You think, this time it is really going to work, they are going to be able to help you figure out what is going on and hopefully move on with things. You get to the appointment and the doctor can barely remember your name during the visit, pays no attention to the things you are telling them and seems to have a diagnosis before you even walked through the door. To say the least you are disappointed, and when you are done you never want to see him or any other therapist again.

In the scenario above, this therapist has tarnished his/her reputation. Will they go out of business because of this? Probably not. Will they lose a lot of their existing clients? Probably not. But they will lose future clients and have most certainly lost you as a client. Not only that, but now they have someone walking around talking about their horrible experience and every time naming that therapist. Not something any business would want, especially a business that deals so directly with its clients.

So how do you make a referral work for your business every time?
It is as simple as this - Customer Service, we are in business to service the customer. Sure you want to make money, but without your customers what business will you have left? Every client that walks through the door, or picks up the phone and calls you should be treated as if they are the only client you have and will ever have. They should feel like you are really listening to them (because you should be) and they should feel like their project/situation/issue is unique and you will treat it as such.

In the age of the internet, people too often think that the quick down and dirty approach is what everyone wants. Well as a business owner, and a client I can tell you personally that I want to be treated with respect and given the attention I deserve. I don't mind spending a few extra minutes on the phone to discuss my project with a vendor if I know that those extra minutes are being spent well and the company is really taking my thoughts and concerns into account.

You have to treat your clients with the same respect you expect to receive as a client to another business.

Remember: Your company is only as good as its last interaction with a client.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Which meta tags do I use and which should I not?

2008-05-12T08:49:00.002-04:00

There is a constant debate over which meta tags the search engines use when considering listing a certain page in their results pages. So how do you know who you should listen to and who you should ignore? Well that is not so easy, because no-one except the engineers working for the search engines know what they are looking for or not.

So what do I do with my meta tags?
Our suggestion is to use what you feel is necessary to define that page. The reason that meta tags became such a problem was because people were "stuffing" them with "keywords". What this means is if you were selling red cars your meta tags would only say red cars, red cars, red cars, etc. Although for a while this worked, it is now considered SPAM to "stuff" meta tags and/or page content.

A meta tag should be used for the purpose they were created. For example the eta description tags are just that; a description of what that page is about in 2-3 sentences. This is not a place to pitch your product or service and not a place to use your keywords as every other word. Should you use keywords at all in there? Yes, whenever it makes sense to do so you should use your keywords/phrases, but make sure it makes sense to the people who will be reading it (yes people do read the things you write on your website, it's not all just the search engines).

What happens if I use a meta tag that the search engines don't use?
As long as you aren't spamming or stuffing your meta tags then there should never be a problem. If they don't use that tag, then you just did a little extra work. Better yet, you may have done something before you had to! What I mean by that is the search engines are constantly changing what they look at to list a website, and there may come a time when that meta tag they aren't using now will actually be used. So you've just covered your bases.

Remember: Create for your visitors not for the search engines!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

SEO Rules - Do they exist?

2008-05-08T10:10:00.004-04:00

There are no hard and fast rules of SEO (search engine optimization). There are many people who believe that they have a pretty good idea, by testing and researching, of what the search engines are looking for from a good website, but only the search engine algorithm creators really know. This research and testing has lead to some industry accepted best practice guidelines, but in reality if the algorithm changes, these guidelines will have to as well.

Does this mean we shouldn't SEO our site?
Absolutely not! A well optimized website will most often do much better then a website that is created without the guidelines and best practices of SEO and usability. SEO should be done as naturally as possible. A good SEO'd website in our humble opinion should go through at least 5 things:

Keyword research: the agency you hire should do their homework and find out as best as possible what phrases people are actually using to find your products/services.

Site Review/Usability Review: an objective review of your current site, or a solid plan before starting a new site is key. You need to know that the efforts you put into optimizing your site will stand the best chance of succeeding and good website that is usable is the only way that is possible.

Natural Inclusion of Phrases: the list of phrases that you choose to optimize your site should be naturally worked into the site. Ideally there would be a page for each phrase. If this is not the case, don't just use the phrases anywhere. Really put some thought into how those phrases are used and be sure that when a visitor reads that page it still makes sense.

Quality Content: your website needs to have quality content. Quantity is good, but quality is better. You and eight other people could be selling lounge chairs, but if your content is better, more informative and keyword rich, you will stand a better chance of not only being found but keeping that visitor and converting.

Good Code and Structure: You might have the best content in the world and from a visitors perspective the most usable site, but if the spiders cannot get through the code to get to that content, you will have a hard time being found in the search engines. Good, clean code will go a long way in making sure you stand the best possible chance of being indexed.

There are many more things that are important (right now) to optimizing a website, but these are some of the very basics that should be kept in mind. Just because you don't know how to optimize your website doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to ask the "experts" working on your site if they've done their job thoroughly.

Remember: When having your site optimized ask yourself this "If I didn't have to worry about the search engines would I take that approach?", if the answer is no then don't do it.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

SEO or SEM - What to do?

2008-05-05T09:46:00.004-04:00

There are two terms that people sometimes get confused, SEO and SEM. SEO is search engine optimization and SEM is search engine marketing. From someone outside of the field they may seem identical, and in some respects they are. They are both focused on getting and converting website visitors into customers.

So what is the difference and which is better?
The answer to that is not nearly as simple. It really isn't a matter of doing one over other, but rather one before the other. SEO as noted above is search engine optimization. This is the process of taking a website and making it as optimized for the search engines as possible. For example this would include creating keyword rich and powerful title tags, enhancing and/or cleaning up the code of a website, and many other things. This is extremely important to ensure that the search engines will be able to quickly and easily index your website for the appropriate phrases.

Recently there has been a lot of debate over whether or not SEO is an ongoing process or a one time thing. At Ignite we feel that for the most part this is a one time thing. We optimize your site for the phrases we are targeting and let the search engine spiders have at it. If the company changes it's focus, or things change with the search engines then more optimization may be needed. Usability and traffic analysis are often clumped in with SEO, but these are really subsets of SEM and website development in our eyes.

SEM on the other hand, is search engine marketing. This is the process of marketing your website to the internet and trying to drive as much targeted traffic as possible. This includes but is not limited to inbound link building, social media marketing, email blast creation and more. For the most part this can be thought of as any means by which you use to drive more and better traffic to your website.

So which comes first, SEO or SEM?
SEO would ideally come first. You have to make sure that your website is optimized for what you are going to be marketing it for. For example if you are selling bicycle and bicycle parts and your page about seats had a poorly phrases title tag and the code was a mess you certainly would not want to be sending the search engines there. Along with SEO you want to make sure to perform some usability tests as well. After these two things have been done then you can start with your SEM campaigns. This approach will ensure that the traffic you are sending the the site will have the best possible chance of converting.

Remember, you aren't just sending the search engines to your site, you are sending people and people will be the ones to decide if you are successful or not.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Quality first.

2008-05-01T14:36:00.003-04:00

It seems that today people are most concerned with being found in the search engines, and getting the highest ranking possible. The problem that I have noticed though, is that the site that they want to send thousands of visitors to is second rate at best. I don't mean the design, although a good design doesn't hurt, I mean the quality of the content.

The internet was founded and created to share information. People seem to have forgotten this over the course of the years. Information is what the entire internet is made up of and quality information will stand the test of time.

Think for a minute about Microsoft. Imagine they built their website with very little information and took very little time to get quality content on their website. Do you think that developers would even consider going their again in the future? Probably not. Your website should be thought of in the same way. What is the point in sending visitors to a site with poor or no information?

Stop and ask yourself, after you have the first draft of your website, whether you would stay at a site like yours. Be critical because you can be sure that your website visitors are going to be. Don't be afraid to say "this is crap, we need to start over". A website is more then just some text on a page with your phone number. A website is a sales person, a point of reference and the image that you are portraying about your company.

Remember, if you are going to take the time to drive the horse to water, you better make sure the water is there.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Multiple divisions, how many websites?

2008-04-29T08:05:00.003-04:00

As companies become larger, often times they start to break down into divisions. For example a furniture company many break down into two general divisions such as commercial and residential. They may also break down further into sections such as bathroom, living room, etc. The question is, do you create different sites for these different divisions?

Now there is no hard and fast rule for this, but at Ignite we would tend to lean towards the answer NO and/or probably not. We realize this doesn't sound very convincing but let us explain. In the case of the furniture company our answer would almost always be hard no. A company like this will benefit from having all avenues available on one site. The cross selling potential far outweighs any reasons you may have been thinking to have more then one site.

How does it affect the search engines?
Of course there are search engine reasons why one site is also beneficial. With one website you are able to concentrate your marketing efforts on that site and that site alone. You don't have to decide when you are requesting a link which site you should point it to. Also, the amount of content on your site will be far greater which will allow the search engine spiders to index more.

Won't it get confusing?
A large site can get confusing if not planned out properly. However, a large site can be as easy to navigate as a small site if some thought and planning is put into it. Take that furniture company again, their home page can be setup to drive people into either the commercial or residential sections of their site, which would have the same effect as two sites would. Once the visitor is in that section you can break down further into the different categories and also allow them at anytime to jump over to the other section.

There are times when more then one site makes sense. If you have multiple businesses that really do not have anything to do with each other, or you are testing the effectiveness of one site over another. However, for most businesses having one website is better for your customers and the search engines if built correctly.

Remember to plan before you build, otherwise plan to rebuild!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Planning a website for visitors and search engines

2008-04-24T08:03:00.002-04:00

When planning out a website you want to be sure to focus on your audience. This may seem like pretty logical statement, but what happens when your audience is in two very different groups? Even more compounding is when one of those groups isn't actually human, but rather a robot! That's right I said a robot, as in a search engine robot that will crawl your website to see if they should index and rank your site for any phrases.

Many people in my opinion make the mistake of "optimizing their sites for Google", rather then creating a website for their potential and desired customers. What good is having #1 rankings in Google for a particular phrase if when you get that traffic to your site they don't understand and cannot intuitively navigate your website? You've now lead a horse to a dried up river bed, at this point even if you could force it to drink there is no water left!

I do not mean to suggest that you should completely ignore the search engines, especially not Google. What I do mean is put them in priority order. Make sure that your number one concern is your website visitor. Ultimately these are the people who will become your customers/clients and will pay the bills so to speak. The search engines comes second, but not a very distant second.

A rule of thumb that we like to go by at Ignite Media is that if it comes down to being either more visitor friendly then search engine friendly, the tie should always go to the visitor. Perhaps with a little creative thinking you could accommodate both, but if that has been thought through always let the visitor have the best experience.

Remember, search engines are a means to an end, which is your website, not the other way around.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Is a blog right for my site?

2008-04-21T08:36:00.003-04:00

Blogging over the years has become more and more popular and businesses are starting to wonder if they should be in on the "trend". There are many interesting and informative blogs out there, but there are just as many uninteresting and, dare I say, useless blogs out there. You want to be sure you are one of the interesting and/or informative blogs.

You also want to be sure you have the time to dedicate to a blog. It's not an 8 hour a day project, but it does take some time and a regular routine. Blogging needs to be done on a set schedule, ideally 2 to 3 times a week or more. People who subscribe to blogs want to be updated regularly and they will move on to the next one if you are constantly delayed or not posting at all.

Many companies think that they are not in an industry where a blog would be useful, but this is where thinking outside the box will come in handy. Take for example a company that does fish hooks. This is their sole business and they make every type and style of fish hook, but nothing else. At first you would think that a blog for this would quickly become dry and the writer would run out of things to blog about. Who says you have to only write about fish-hooks? Your blog can be about anything to do with your industry, just because this company only makes fish hooks doesn't mean they don't know anything else about fishing.

That same company could have a post about the top 10 spots they love to fish, or the fish you will find in their local area. You need fish hooks to fish and you'll likely want to know where to go fishing so it all ties in. You could even write about local fishing events or fishing excursions that you and your employees have gone to or on.

Now there is a limit to how far outside the box you want to go. For example you wouldn't want to start writing about the car show or the local town fair, as this might annoy some readers. You want to be sure you can always relate your story back to your main idea which in this case is fishing and your fish hooks.

A blog might not be right for everyone, but anyone who is interested and can set aside the time on a regular basis should give it a shot. Just remember, always think of your readers and how it relates back to the purpose of your blog.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Email Blasts - Do they work?

2008-04-17T09:29:00.004-04:00

Email blasts are usually thought of in one of two ways. 1) A great marketing approach that is easy to implement and measure results or 2) Spam that people think of as a headache!

Sure, email blasts are certainly both of these things, but you ideally want people to think of your email blast as the first not the second. Done correctly email blasts can keep your customers informed and help increase business while not annoying them.

5 suggestions to keep in mind when sending an email blast:

1) Short and sweet:
Email blasts should not be filled with text about your company or anything else for that matter. They should be straight forward and to the point of the special or deal that you are pushing at that time.

2) Use a service:
DO NOT try sending out an email blast from Outlook or another email program on your own machine. Typically when you are sending out email blasts they are to more then 10 or 20 people and this can be caught in spam if not done correctly. Services such as Constant Contact are great for sending them

3) Light on the graphics:
With spam filters checking very little bit of an email these days you don't want to leave any room for error here. Images can be good, but should be used sparingly with an email. You also do not want to rely on the image being your entire message. Text is best with email, images should only be used to support, not to convey!

4) Stick to one or two offerings:
Don't fill your email with tons of savings and offerings. One or two really good specials will be more appealing. This way the email is focused and you can even segment your customers to those who have bought this type of item before.

5) Follow the Can Spam Act:
Using a service as mentioned above will most likely keep you in compliance with this act. You have to make sure people have the option to OPT-OUT and that they wanted the email to begin with. You will usually see a better response with people who wanted your email anyway.

There are certainly more things you can think about when sending an email blast, but these should get you going in the right direction.

Remember, think of how you receive emails and what you open and what you don't.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

A case study for knowing your audience

2008-04-14T08:01:00.003-04:00

Last week I read a very interesting blog post at SEOMoz. The post was titled "Colloquial Copy: When Perfect is Wrong" and was written by jkellygarrett. It is one of the most interesting and educational posts that I have read to date at this site, and most of their posts are very interesting and educational.

The post talks about jkellygarrett's brother who is in the long haul trucking business and was upset that he couldn't find a website that used to be extremely helpful for his travels. With some creative searching they were able to eventually find the site again and realized something very important. The site was SEO'd but for the wrong audience! Seems a bit like an oxymoron, that you could SEO a site for the wrong audience but indeed you can.

Instead of thinking like a trucker the company or person that did the SEO for the site was thinking and writing like you and I would write. What they must not have realized was that truckers have their own language of sorts. This language carriers over to the internet when they are doing a Google search, and they aren't about to start using other words to find what they want.

So what does this tell us? Well for one thing you have to know your audience. You have to know where they come from, how they speak, what they want, and how they search to get what they want. It's not enough to do keyword research and get a list back that tells what words the search engines find relevant for that group. It's not enough to look at statistical data. You have to realize that perhaps the group you are optimizing the site for is too small to show any relevance on those statistics or keyword lists.

In this case truckers are a group of their own. They use a different language to communicate and they probably use the internet a little differently then you and I. To optimize this site to it's fullest potential the company should have taken the time to really get to know the industry as much as possible. Then they might have realized that the direction they were thinking of going would have lead the site to a dead-end.

Remember, your audience is your customer, don't leave them out in the dark.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

I want a full Flash website!

2008-04-11T08:52:00.002-04:00

This is the phrase that a web site design company that also does internet marketing hates to hear! Sure, Flash is great and makes your sit interesting, but what about the search engines and being indexed by them? What about the load time and the intro player that will cause many people to hit the back button on the browser, never to be seen or heard from again?

Flash is a very good application and used appropriately it can be a very powerful application. A website selling products should in most cases not be doing a full Flash website. A website promoting a rock band might be ok with a full Flash site, but not if they want to be found in the search engines any time soon!

The problem with Flash is that as of today there is no way for the search engine spiders to crawl through a Flash website to see what it is all about. A Flash website is like a movie when it comes to the search engines. For the most part it sees a page that calls a file (SWF file in most cases) and that file is unreadable to the spiders.

Flash can be effective if used appropriately though. For example a website that is built in HTML using style sheets that also has a small Flash banner with a marketing message is effective. The visitor is not required to wait for the movie to load to read everything else on the page and doesn’t have to hit “Skip Intro” in order to see the rest of your website.

Remember, when it comes to Flash less really is more!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Couldn't I just do it myself?

2008-04-07T10:29:00.004-04:00

Of course you can. You can build your own website, do your own marketing, write your own email campaigns, setup your own server, host your own site, and more. You can do everything; but should you? Probably not!

We all work in a particular business. We all have a particular job. There is a reason why the mechanic is not building your website and the fruit stand carrying ignitions. The reason is, they don't know what each other knows about the business they are in. This may seem like a simple concept when talking about tangible products, but for some reason people seem to forget this when it comes to the internet.

Everyone seems to think they are a web designer, and everyone seems to know how to market themselves on the web. At Ignite we won't stop you from trying it, but we certainly will be here when that doesn't work out the way you had hoped. What we do is not rocket science and we don't kid ourselves into thinking it is. But what we do does require skills and knowledge and what we do is not just something we play around with. There are many things that we've learned over the years that can't be taught without experience.

We realize you want to understand what it is we do, and we will be more then happy to explain it to you. We are not looking to keep information from you, or make you think it is some hidden secret. But what we do want you to know is that although it can be done by yourself, it probably is not going to be done as thoroughly and with the depth of knowledge as ourselves or any other professional in the industry.

You certainly wouldn't walk into your accountants office and tell him you can do your own business taxes this year. So why do that with your website which could help to drive business further up?

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Content is King. But who's job is it to get the content?

2008-04-03T09:17:00.004-04:00

We have all heard the saying that "Content is King" when it comes to building a website and marketing it for the search engines. It makes perfect sense, the search engines index content and if you have more content on your site then you have a better chance of showing up for specific terms/phrases. But who's job should it be to get that content together?

I believe it should be a joint effort from someone that works for the company and the optimziation/marketing company that has been hired. This approach will ensure that you are building content that is relevant to the company at hand. Yes content is king, but relevant content is the supreme ruler!

Why a joint effort?
Who knows more about your business then people who work for you? Yes a search engine marketer should be able to pull information and learn about your company, but they still will not know everything. An employee can tell the search engine marketer what differntiates you from your competitor, a new product/service that is coming down the line, the largest segment of your business, and so much more. Why leave it to the search engine marketer to guess at these things when you could have more impactful content by providing them with this information?

Once that information is given to the search engine marketer then they can work their magic. They should be able to sell that product/service, and make it interesting to read about. They should be able to create keyword/phrase specific pages and sections of the website.

Remember, good content is only as good as the source from which it came. If you leave it all up to your search engine marketing company you may not be as happy as you would be if you worked with them to build out that content.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

How do I choose a good web site design company?

2008-03-31T08:44:00.005-04:00

Every talks about choosing the right SEO company but very few people talk about the right web site design/development company. Choosing the right web site company is arguably as important if not more important than choosing the right SEO company.

That seems like a bold statement to make, but if you think about it your web site is your foundation. If you are building a house and the foundation crew is not good at what they do, the rest of the house is structurally weak. The same holds true for your web site, if you are doing SEO but the web site is not built properly your SEO is limited in it's effectiveness.

So what makes a good web site company? I think as a company you should ask the following questions and expect to get something close to the following answers:

Q - Do you have examples of your work?
A - (Some design companies do not have a portfolio online but they should be able to show you examples by emailing or telling you the links to the sites that they have created.)

Q - Do you design using CSS?
A - Yes, we design using CSS as it is very important to keep the code of the site as clean as possible.

Q - Is your CSS design tableless?
A - As much as possible, there are certain times when tables are needed, but we try to use 100% CSS layout as much as we can.

Q - Are you using prebuilt templates?
A - (This answer will depend on the company you are going to, some are very upfront about using them. You want to be sure if they are that the templates are SEO friendly).

Q - Is the site mine when it is done being paid for?
A - Yes, after the site is built and paid in full you are able to take the files and move the site to wherever you feel comfortable hosting it.

These are a few simple questions that should help to make sure the web site design company you are using will be beneficial for your end product. You want to be sure that the company is not using all images to create your website and/or using Flash when it is not needed. Images and Flash are useful and graphically pleasing but they have their place.

Think of your website as that extra sales person. You want to be sure you are hiring the best possible candidate for the job and therefore the company building the site should be the best possible company for the job.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Is SEO worth it?

2008-03-27T10:05:00.002-04:00

I was recently reading through some posts that were listed at Sphinn and came across one titled "What A Waste...Oh The SEO!!", in which they talk about how AMEX has decided to take the stance that SEO is a big scam. This brings to the forefront the question that many people often ask "Is SEO worth it?"

The answer to this is no as simple as one might think, in my humble opinion. You can not simple just say yes it is worth it, because as you can read in the above mentioned blog, there are times when SEO is simply not worth it. Whether you are being taken advantage of or the SEO you have hired just doesn't know enough, this scenario would yield the answer that NO it is not worth it.

However, if you have someone like Julie Joyce running your SEO campaign then I would have to say that YES SEO is worth it. A person like Julie will work as hard as they can to drive as much traffic to your site as possible while at all times keeping the best interest of your company in mind. This mentality is exactly what we preach and practice here at Ignite Media and commend Julie for conducting herself like this.

We realize that honest, hard working people are not always the easiest to come by. There are plenty of SEO companies out there who only care about the money they are getting for the "service" they are providing you and not about your success at all. As with any other purchase or contract in your life/business you need to know who you are getting involved with. Ask them for references, results, and/or an easy opt-out clause of the contract.

SEO can be worth it, and should be worth it, you just have to make sure you know who you are dealing with and that they are truly WORKING FOR YOU and not WORKING YOU FOR YOUR MONEY!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Beyond Your Website...

2008-03-24T08:23:00.003-04:00

Internet Marketing should go well beyond your website. There are various ways to promote your company using the internet without them ever having to have gone to your website. Below are a few ways that you probably have heard of, but just never tried and we urge you to try:

Blog Writing

Ok so this one is usually connected with your website, but people will find your blog in various ways. If your blog is run by blogger you will/can show up in their blog lists. People can also subscribe to your RSS feed, and therefore not have to go back to your website or blog unless something interesting peaks their curiosity.

Press Releases

The days of contacting hundreds of editors and trying to find their correct phone number are over. Today there are few sites that you can submit your press release too and they will do the syndication for you. Sure they cost a little money, but your time is cut down drastically so you can concentrate on your next task.

Email Blasts

You probably have a contact/client database somewhere. If you have email addresses in that list you can start an email blast campaign. We do not suggest that you use Outlook or any in house emailing program, but rather use an email blast service as they can provide statistics as well as keep you Anti-Spam compliant.

Link Building

Go out and find websites that would make sense to have a link to your website and maybe even you having a link to them. It can be an association, distributor, informational site, etc. As long as you can see a natural connection between the two sites then the link will be beneficial.

These are just a few ways that you can utilize the internet to help promote your company and website. If you stop to think beyond the confines of your website you may find there is a whole world of possibilities on the web.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Egg Hunt Anyone?

2008-03-21T10:59:00.002-04:00

Hopefully you answer no to this question! An egg hunt is great for little kids and parents around Easter time, but it's certainly not what you want people to think of when searching for something on your site. You don't want to make people run around your site looking for what they need; you want to make it readily available.

Multiple points of entry (MPoE), is the name of the game. Many times people say "why do you have a link to widgets in two places, isn't that redundant?". Yes it is, and for very good reason. Would you have noticed the link to widgets if it was only in one place and that one place was at the bottom of a list of other links? Probably not. Sure it may seem a little redundant, but wouldn't you rather be redundant and have people find what they want then be conservative and have them "hunt for eggs"?

Now don't get me wrong, I think that there is a fine line between being positively redundant and negatively redundant. You certainly do not want to start making every word in every sentence on your website a link. However, appropriately done, a little redundancy can be a positive thing.

Take for example www.target.com - they have multiple ways to get to the same thing. What they did however is use different wording each time. So if I wanted to get some bedding I can click on 'Bed and Bath' on the top nav bar, or 'Bedding' on the left nav bar, or further down there is 'Bed and Bath' as a text link on the left nav bar. Three ways on one page to get to the same area of the site, but it works and it doesn't feel like they are yelling at me to get there.

Take some time to look at your site. When you are on the home page specifically or any landing page you should have at least two ways to get to the same place (for the most important sections at least). Have one way be a nice navigation button/link and another be a content bucket or ad/button. I think you'll like the results you see.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Survey Your Customers

2008-03-17T14:25:00.002-04:00

I recently was speaking with a friend who works for a large marketing agency. She was telling me about how the company is very proactive about getting customers/clients feedback on the projects the company just completed for them. What a great concept, asking your customers before they have the chance to tell someone else!

What makes this approach so great? Well for starters you are getting first hand information from your clients on what they thought of how the project went. This allows the company to make an immediate change if necessary. All too often I find that companies wait until they hear a client had a bad experience from someone who overheard them, or who the client complained to. Why not give them a sounding board, especially one that you will hear?

How can we survey our customers?
It really isn't that hard. A simple postcard sized questionnaire/survey will do that trick. A few well thought out questions will get you some really good feedback. Keep the questions short and to the point, and make sure they will get you information that will be useful to evaluate.

Another approach is to try doing an auto emailing when a job is complete. The email can have a link/links to an area of your website that has a short survey. This can be even more useful then a hand written survey because the data is already electronic as soon as the person is done with the questionnaire.

There are a variety of different approaches you can take. The point is, do something! Getting feedback from your clients is vital to ensuring that your company will continue to grow. You cannot fix what you do not know is broken, and you will never know its broken unless someone tells you.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Know Your Own Website

2008-03-13T11:57:00.003-04:00

Have you ever been on a website, called up the company and asked them where something is? Or have you ever emailed a company because you couldn't find what you needed on their website, only to have them email you back and say "look on our website"?

Many times companies are not using or looking at their own website and therefore don't know what is there and what isn't. This can be incredibly frustrating from a customers view point. You need to know what you are putting out there for people to see and read.

There should be a system in place to have your website reviewed on a regular basis by as many people in the company as possible. This will ensure that all the information is there and it is in the right place. The ideal people to do this are the customer service people who are answering the phones, they know what people want and can tell management that something is missing and needs to be added.

You certainly would not put out a catalog before you reviewed and proofed it, so why would you not look at your website is available to anyone with an internet connection?

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

The Budget is Tight, Should Marketing Stop?

2008-03-10T08:14:00.004-04:00

Are you crazy? NO, marketing should increase! That's right, you should be marketing your company more then ever. People still need your services/products, but they just might not need as much of your services/products. That just means you have to find more people to buy from you then you did when times were good.

This is probably one of the biggest mistakes that companies make. They know they have to cut spending but they tend to look in the wrong direction. Marketing is what gets you new business and clients you may not have reached before. Marketing is what will keep your name fresh in the eyes of your existing clients.

You don't have to to crazy and spend way over your budgeted amount but you certainly should spend what your budget allows for. Get a new ad in a magazine, start up that PPC campaign, build that new section of your website, start that new email marketing campaign, and more. Let people know that you are out there.

How does this help me in the long run?
So now that you have decided marketing during the slow times is a good idea, you can look at what it will do for you down the road. When the economy starts to lift you will be that much further ahead of the competition (or what is left of your competition). With your continued marketing efforts you will most likely pick up new business and when your existing customers are ready to start spending more you will already have shown them that you are still around.

It may not be easy, and it may seem like an extra cost that you could save on right now, but if done right, marketing during the slow times can insure that your company goes on to do well during the good times.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Differentiate Your Business

2008-03-06T08:41:00.003-05:00

Make your business stand out from the crowd. Something every business owner knows they have to do, but most are not clear on how they can do it. It is easy to get stuck in the "bubble" of your industry and not see where your company can stand out from your competitors.

The answer can be as simple as a return policy or a shipping method that no one else in your field offers. Sometimes the smallest of things can mean a lot to the customer who is buying your goods or services. Free shipping is probably one of the most common ways to attract customers, but it certainly is not the only way.

A small baby equipment rental business in Canada (www.tinytravellers.ca) was recently discussing ways in which they can really give their clients that added value and get them to rent again. It didn't take long before the ideas started to take on a life of their own. Something as simple as giving a free gift with every rental such as a baby bib with their logo on it, or a child's toy again with their logo on it. For the small expense of printing these speciality items they will get some great reaction and most likely a large referral program by word of mouth (the best type of referral!).

You are probably thinking that it is easy to think of something for a baby website, but it can be that easy for any business. It just requires thinking about every part of your business, from the minute you say hello to that potential customer to the minute you get the final check for the product/service they purchased. Are there areas you should be giving out discount cards if something doesn't go right? Would a personal letter for each product shipped out give your customer a reason to speak highly about your business? There are thousands of things that can be done with any business.

A business that is looking to grow will do whatever it takes to get ahead. Sometimes that requires taking a step back and looking at the big picture. You can make your mark you just need to find a way to separate yourself from the crowd.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Knowing Your Audience...

2008-03-03T07:56:00.005-05:00

Everyone has heard this saying a million times "Know Your Audience", but it is probably one of the most important sayings in business. As a business owner, blog writer, employee, marketer, or any other job where you interact with customers you need to know who they are.

I don't mean you need to find out what type of food they like to eat, or what color is there favorite color. When they say "know your audience", they mean know what level and what style you are writing or speaking to them in. You never want to assume that whatever you write or say is coming across as clear as you may think it is.

Take for example a small mom and pop shop on main street USA. If they have a website for their childrens toy store and they write a weekly blog you would expect that the language would be simple, fun, and easy to read. You certainly would not want to read about the technical specifications of how each toy is put together (or at least most people wouldn't!). On the reverse side if you are a major manufacturer and your clients are engineers you would want to be sure to have technical information on how your product/service works.

Knowing your audience also helps with the search engines. The search engines pick up text from your website to display in their results page. If you are that mom and pop shop you would want to give searchers a good feeling from the moment they find out about your website (the search engine results). You only have one chance to make that first impression and every little bit counts.

Choosing your style is just that, your choice. With this blog, we have chosen to keep the style more casual and informative. Being a blog about marketing, business and internet related businesses we could certainly get into technical specifications of a website, or the statistical data about each and every market, but that is not the style we chose. You cannot please each and every visitor that will come to your blog, but you can please the type of visitor that you would like to get as a client. Sending people away isn't always a bad thing, especially if that visitor was not your ideal customer.

A good approach to take before ever writing your first word is to do some field research and see what else is out there. Take a look at the blogs and sites you like and don't like and see why it is you feel that way. Once you've done this, you should have a good idea of the style that will work for you and your business. Most importantly, have fun with it and the people reading will most likely come back to read more.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Networking as Advertising

2008-02-28T20:40:00.005-05:00

I often have clients and friends ask what the best form of advertising is. They want to know where they will get the best ROI for the least amount of money. Of course everyone wants to know this and it tends to be a little different for each business when you talk about traditional advertising mediums.

That being said, I firmly believe that there is one form of advertising that costs next to nothing and can be pretty fun and/or interesting for just about every industry. What is this advertising avenue you may ask? Well to put it very simply it's NETWORKING! You know, getting out there and meeting people in different organizations, groups, places, etc.

Now you may be thinking that this isn't really advertising, but I beg to differ. What better form of advertising is there then a real life conversation about you and your company? Who is there to better explain what you do then you?

I mentioned above that it is as close to free as you can probably get when it comes to advertising. Really all you need is a handful of business cards, which you can get 500 cards today for less then $50, and a place to go. Even if you have to throw in gas, dinner and some drinks you probably will only spend $100 for one night of what could be numerous valuable contacts.

With the craze of blogging today, networking can even be done from your own desk. Now you can't get much cheaper then that for advertising can you? Browse the internet for blogs or forums that relate to your business or industry and start posting. Now I say start posting, but I DO NOT mean start "spamming" the blogs and forums. Simply start engaging in conversation by commenting on someones blog, and give yourself a footer at the bottom of your comment that notes your website address, name, and company and you've just advertised for no cost and without being an annoyance to the site you are viewing.

With technology so readily available and the internet broadening everyone's horizons, there are thousands of ways to make yourself visible. It requires a little of your time and thought, but it doesn't have to be a hundred thousand dollar ad campaigns in a magazine to be effective. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising, so get out there and start talking!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Finding the Right Website Development & SEO Firm

2008-02-25T09:48:00.007-05:00

Finding the right website development and search engine optimization (SEO) firm can be hard. Often times they are two different companies as well. So how do you go about picking the right firm? This post will give you five ideas, tips and thoughts when considering which firm to go with.

#1 . Are they responsive?

This may sound like an odd question, but you will be surprised at how many companies are not. How quickly did they return your call/email when requesting information from them. How much time did they spend with you, before they rushed off to their next call or meeting? Be critical when selecting a firm. You want to find a company that you can create a long lasting relationship with.

#2. Do they have examples?

Examples of previous work that the firm has done will give you a good idea of what they might be able to do for you. You should note that past experience doesn't always mean future results for you. Whether you are having a new website built or starting up an internet marketing campaign, knowing what the company can do and has done is important. This doesn't mean you should ignore all of the new, smaller firms with less experience but it's another tool in your arsenal to ensure you are getting the best "bang for your buck"!

#3. Are they teaching you?

You might wonder why they should be teaching you. We're not talking about them sitting you down like a student and showing you step by step what they are doing. We are talking about explaining in clear and easily understandable terms what they will be doing and why and what effects it may have on your company and/or website. You wouldn't buy a car without the dealer telling you why this car is better then the older model or competitors model, would you

#4. What are you getting?

You might think to yourself, well I know what I'm getting. But do you? When you are signing up for that $5,000 website do you know how many pages you are getting, what is included in the hosting and whether they are writing the copy or are you? When you are signing up for that internet marketing campaign are they going to be giving you weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports? You want to be sure a clear outline of what the deliverables that you will be getting are. You wouldn't think about buying a house without knowing if the appliances you saw in there come with the house, so why take any chances on your website and/or marking plan?

#5. Will you have any say in what goes on?

Communication is key. A good internet marketing firm and/or website development company will involve you in almost every step of the process. You know your company best and your industry and it would be foolish to think that someone else could market your company without your input. Of course they should be able to understand what it is your company does and what differentiates you, but there will be areas that will need your input and approval. The most successful campaigns of any type require a lot of communication and whether yours is a small or large campaign it deserves that same attention.

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Remember, these are just some examples of what you should be looking for. You might find a company who only lacks in one area, or is just starting out in the field and they could be just the right fit. The one thing that holds true throughout is that you must do your homework and really know who it is you are going to be working with.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Welcome to the Ignite Your Site Blog

2008-02-22T13:42:00.002-05:00

Ignite Media wants to welcome you to our marketing blog, where you'll be able to read posts that deal with everything from website usability to best practices in search engine optimization and so much more!

The blog will be updated on a weekly basis, so be sure to stop back often and/or subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking the link on the right nav bar.

We welcome you to comment on any and all blog posts. Whether you agree, disagree or have additional information to add to the post, please take a minute to comment. We want this blog to be a place where everyone can come to learn and share.

Welcome and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
www.ignite-media.com
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization