When you use Alco Web Design’s writing services, you can be sure that your visitors will be glued to your website & they will continue coming back for more. The simple fact of marketing is that your customer has to be convinced that he/she really wants the product or service that you are selling. When you have relevant, correctly-positioned and effective content, you will find that your visitors keep returning to your website.

Things to Focus On
Consumers have to be persuaded in a gentle manner to buy your products and content has the power to do that. Some things that are important to keep in mind with content marketing:

• The selling aspect should be persistent but subtle 
• The content on your site should be informative & relevant 
• It should be simple to understand with no jargon
• The matter should be shareable which helps in Search Engine Optimization
• It should have the right Calls to Action which increases traffic and translates into higher sales 
• The web content should be updated on a regular basis and the SEO strategy should be revisited too. It’s very simple- no visitor wants to revisit a site and read the same old content every single time

The Right Mix
Sure, website content is largely text, but the way in which it is used can be the one factor that makes or breaks the visibility of your business in the internet space.  This also means, you need a good web designing company who also handles content, to keep updating your site and ensure that it has up-to-date and optimized content.

This will lend credibility to your website, give your business a boost, keep it in view of search engines and help in adding to your sales efforts.  For the best website design and  content writing services, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

When any person who is looking for a product or service  on the internet, types in a keyword, have you noticed how some popular searches show up on the first page and more often than not, those are the sites you will visit. The higher a website on a search engine page, the greater the amount of traffic it gets.  So how can you reach those heights of search engine popularity? 

The All-Important Aspect
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the secret. If you have an online presence and want visitors to be attracted to it, you will have to ensure that it is optimized correctly. Though SEO is something you will be able to handle yourself, the entire process can be quite complicated. In addition, the SEO requirements keep changing based on what search engines like Google and Bing are looking for. This makes it all–important for your SEO professional to make strategic changes to the solutions they have provided. 

Benefits of SEO

• User Experience- A well optimized site improves the user experience as it makes the site more user-friendly and this provides short-term & long-term benefits 
• Attract Customers- The minute your site is optimized well, your ranking on search engines will increase. This will attract more customers and increase conversions too 
• Expand your Reach- The minute you have an effective SEO strategy, it will help you get customers from other areas. If you want to target a local audience, you  can use Local SEO techniques to ensure  that the traffic is coming from the surrounding areas
• Brand Awareness- When you get top position on SERP’s, the brand awareness about your company also increases. Typically, people will be more attracted to a brand that has a stronger online presence and this is something you can achieve with SEO 

These are just a few of the benefits of having a good SEO strategy in place. But it is even more important to have a credible and well-established SEO company working on this aspect. For more information about how Search Engine Optimization works, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

Getting Better Ranking
For example, if you have a site that sells cell phone accessories, then inbound links from articles like “The latest cell phone accessories for youngsters” should have some key phrases like “sleek leather covers” or “Trendy cell phone covers for girls” etc. Here are some simple link-building SEO pointers. This will help in getting your website a better ranking: 

• Relevance- The website that holds your link has to be “relevant” with reference to its topic or theme, to the service or product that your site deals with 
• Quality- The actual quality of the site which is linking back to yours is crucial. It is best to focus on linking quality sites and do not get tempted to  link-up too many sites that are low relevance
• Credibility- The links that come to site should be of a high quality. This simply means that the links should not be coming in from irrelevant sites like gambling/ adult sites 
• Page Rank- The site that links back to yours should ideally have a page rank above 2 or 3. A higher ranking will add credibility to your site 
• Website Age- The age of the sites that link to your business site should be a minimum of 2-3 years
• Do Follow Links- This means your webmaster will ensure that the links on the website will be able to pass on “link juice” to other sites
• Anchor Text- Ensure that your content has the right anchor text. For e.g.- in a cell phone accessories website, instead of having a link that says “ click here”, it’s MUCH better to have some text like “popular cell phone accessories”

In addition to all these factors, make sure that the link is also positioned high up on any page and that the content surrounding it is relevant to your business. Links from social media should come in from sites like Twitter and Facebook. For the perfect website optimization and linking solutions contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com. 

Talk about current trends brings to the fore the aspect of the fast pace at which smartphones and other mobile devices are now being used to source information and search for products and services. This fact is very important from the viewpoint of online marketing. 

The “Where” Factor
Marketing is a lot of positioning a product or service in the right manner; but it is also a lot of reaching out to customers, where they are going to be. In this case, that “where” are their mobile devices. It’s important to ensure that your business website is mobile responsive. This means that the look of the site will remain unaltered regardless of the device that it is being viewed on. There will be no warp and no loss of resolution and the site will be visible on a mobile phone screen, as well as it is on a desktop screen. 

Improving Customer Experience
In effect, this improves the customer experience. It goes without saying that if a user is looking for a particular product or service and finds it difficult to look for it on your site; they will immediately go to another site. Enhancing the user experience is about ensuring that customers are able to get all the information they are looking for in a user-friendly manner. At the end of the day, online marketing is about making an impact and that is exactly what Responsive Web Design helps you do. 

Users do not want to be shackled to a PC any longer- they want to surf the Internet and buy and order products while they are on the move. The minute you reach out to these customers in the zone that they want to be in, it gives your online sales effort a distinct boost. This is the impact of Responsive Website design.

Being the Change
This is something your Web Designer will be able to help you with. It increases your conversions, improves your Return on Investment and adds to your bottom line. When it comes to online marketing strategy, do not leave any stone unturned. For more information about Responsive Web Design, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

​Creating an impactful website is not child’s play and there are a number of aspects that have to be taken into consideration. Take a look at how you can get your web page layouts right.

By Alain Houle, Alco Web Design LLC

• ​Simplicity- This is probably one of the most important aspects of Web design. Your site should be easy to read. Simply put, this means that the background colors and text have to be chosen with great care. Do not use jarring backgrounds as this will only obscure the text. The colors that are used should also be easy to read. Use a good font size and avoid using all capitalized letters. Ensure that the content is left-aligned, has a proper header and sub-headings where required. Use bullet points where applicable. 
• Navigation- All graphic images like tabs and buttons should be labeled clearly and reading them should be easy. All the special effects and textures on your page should be picked very carefully and the navigation should be seamless and simple. The link colors that you use should also be familiar. All the content on your site should be positioned in such a way that a user will find the information they are looking for – in 3 clicks. 
• Consistency- This is a crucial factor and you must ensure that the web design, layout and the labeling is very consistent across the sire. This adds a very professional look. For example- if you have used drop shadows along the bullet points on one web page, use the same for bullet points across the site. This consistency should be carried through in the typefaces, the main text as well as all the headings and sub headings.  
• Special Effects- These can be created with the use of graphics and themes. Just as these should be colorful, interesting and relevant, it is important that they should not be overdone. Flash animations can sometimes get very distracting and so can too many moving effects.  

Subtle Impact 
All-in-all, make an effort to give your web pages a very cohesive look. Let there be no jagged edges, no stilted navigation and no sudden pop-up graphics and effects. There are times when you will be able to make the biggest impact with simplicity and subtlety. Incorporate your ideas and insights but be objective while creating your site. After all, it is your online face. For more information, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

The Local SEO Strategy
Many small business owners believe that having a website is enough- but very frankly, it’s not to get your website on top of the Google search results. If you are a niche business that caters to local customers in your town, city or region, the SEO strategies you follow will be very different from the ones that are followed by global corporations who also deal with international customers. This is what will help:

• Local Maps- A large number of people now use Google, Apple map and Bing technology to look for local businesses. Having good pictures, reviews and content from customers is one way of ensuring that you are noticed. All of this should also have all the relevant keywords placed in it
• Indexing- It is important that your site be indexed on local search engines. This step is one that comes before ranking 
• Ranking- Your sites will have to be ranked locally. Keywords that are specific to your community is what comes next. These should be targeted based on geography
• Common Local Searches- Your business should be listed in applications like Facebook, Foursquare and CitySearch. When any prospective customer looks for your product/service via their mobile phone, your business will show up there
• Keyword Optimization- It is important to maintain a balance between the service/product you are selling, the target location and the keywords that are used on your site
• Local Directory Listing- Your website should feature on all the local website directories which are specific to your product/service
• Social Media- These sites are a great way of getting more local visibility and they offer Local SEO
• Google Analytics- This is a vital point and installing Analytics on your business website helps you make smart marketing decisions and will help you strategize from a local marketing perspective

We can help in all kinds of smart, intuitive and innovative web design and Local SEO strategies and you will notice the boost it gives all your online marketing initiatives.  Contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com to understand how we can help you with Website Design and online marketing. 

The Crucial Move
The truth is that an SEO strategy, no matter how strong, will work only in conjunction with a few other things- Google AdWords being a key player in attracting the RIGHT kind of traffic to your site. AdWords or Pay Per Click (PPC) are crucial in getting a good flow of qualified customers to your site. AdWords work in a very simple way. When a user types any word or phrase in the Google search filed, it is an indication that they are looking for something specific.

How You Benefit
If you create a PPC campaign that targets those specific keywords and those ads show up at the opportune moment, you have a qualified customer and a potential sale. AdWords have many benefits such as:

Settings Change- You have the functionality to switch these AdWords on and off, as you require them. This is a great function especially if you want to launch a special time-sensitive offer.

Budget Flexibility- The system allows you to alter your budget and the changes take place the very same day. You can cut down spending on a slow day and up it when you want to.

Measurability- When you set a certain marketing strategy for your website, you also have the functionality to see the exact number of people who have actually clicked on your ad and can also follow their actions on your site.

Transparency- This medium provides you with a lot of transparency and you can effectively track conversion and calculate the cost per conversion. This helps you measure your ROI in quite an accurate manner, as well as your actual profit.

Despite all this functionality, you have to keep in mind that no huge changes are going to take place overnight. It’s also important to ask your online marketing professional about adding Google Analytics to AdWords. This will give your effort the boost it needs and slowly but surely you will start seeing tangible results.

You struggle with your website ROI? Alco Web Design specializes in SEO services for small business owners of the Appleton Fox Valley area. We are there to help, contact us or call us at (920) 850-4642. We will get back to you promptly.

The Benefits

• Targeted Exposure- In order to make significant online sales, every business has to get a sufficient amount of exposure. Just having an online presence is not sufficient and guest blogging is one of the methods of getting that attention.
• Qualified Traffic- The quality of traffic to your site increases when you have good guest-posts on it. You are able to leverage the existing loyal follower-base from other blogs and then direct them to your own blogs.
• Credibility- It’s very easy for any business on the internet to claim that they are experts as there really is no strong method of validating that claim. But the minute you have some authoritative guest posts on your site, it automatically increases your credibility as these blogs act like an endorsement.
• Networking Channel- Guest blogging is a great way of connecting with influential people in your field like industry experts, entrepreneurs and decision makers.
• Link-Building- Though this is not the primary function of guest blogging, it is the best way of bringing all those valuable links to your site and making visitors sit up and notice you. It’s a great way to impress Google as well.
• Social Networking- Most blogs share their content with their respective social media followers. Automatically, all the people who are following those blogs on the various social networks also get notifications about your posts.

We Handle it All
All of this simply means that guest blogging opens up a treasure house of new business opportunities for you. Alco Web Design knows and recognizes that it is very difficult for you to keep track of activities such as these, and we help with handling all guest blogging activities on your website. For more information, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

Quality Falls Victim to Quantity
Typically, any website that had a lot of incoming links would have a higher ranking in comparison to a rival website that had fewer rankings and many businesses would approach SEO companies with these link building requests.  The latter  would go all out and have a flood of backlinks leading to their client’s sites and everything seemed to work well at that point of time. But most SEO companies also just focused on building links without checking on their relevance or quality.

There was a time when Google did not care too much if a Dentist’s site had a self-storage or home improvement company link leading back to it. But then Google changed. In 2011, it introduced its Panda update and later in 2012, the Penguin update was released. With these updates, the focus shifted from quantity to the quality of links. Panda hounded the sites that had bad links and Penguin followed in hot pursuit. Very soon, many websites saw that their rankings were dipping and so were the traffic and their revenues.

The Bad Link Haunting
The fact of the matter is that even some bad content or links that have been built a number of years ago, can come back to haunt you now. If that has happened to your site, one way of recreating your credibility is to identify those bad links and eliminate them. If Google hasn’t penalized you yet, consider yourself lucky but don’t sit pretty.

Do not wait for bad links harm your website and do nor risk getting banned. Contact Alco Web Design and we will go through all the backlinks to your site with a fine-toothed comb, clean them out and ensure that these bad links don’t mar the credibility of your business. We can also help in building relevant and valid backlinks to your site. For more information, you can contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

But things have now changed and a larger number of people are veering towards online searches when they want to look for a specific product or service. This is where local business listings come into the picture and we help a number of clients with this medium. It has a number of benefits for small businesses:

• Easy Search- When you categorize your business in the appropriate niche, it will show up in the search results when someone searches for a product/service. This is a great way of ensuring that prospective customers in the locality are able to access your information easily.
• Offers & Promotions- You are also able to quickly advertise any new offers or promotions via local business listings. They can be changed/updated very conveniently and you can also customize them very easily.
• Mobile Phone Access- Increasingly, the trend is that people look for information via their mobile phones, when they are on the move. The minute you advertise in local business listings, it opens up that particular set of customers to you as well.
• Versatility- You are also able to display videos and photos and make your ads more effective, in the simplest of ways. Local business listings also give you more ad space compared to Printed Pages.
• Cost Efficient- Displaying your ad on local business listings is very cost-efficient in comparison to print advertisements. The latter can cost thousands of dollars while the former will cost only a fraction of that amount. This, in combination with the flexibility that the medium provides you, in terms of being able to alter the information- is definitely a high ROI.

Overcome the Challenges
Operating a small business profitably in the current market scenario where the competition is very high is quite a difficult task. The key to increasing sales and improving your bottom line lies in adopting smart online marketing strategy and advertising your business in local online directories is one of the best methods of achieving this. For more information about local business listings, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

But it also has many other benefits and when we handle online marketing or web design for any of our clients, we ensure that the best techniques are used.  Take a look at the benefits of link building:

• Boost Search Engine Rankings- Surveys have proved that almost 7% of consumer sales take place online & an amazing 89% of the online purchases are affected by online research. The Inbound links to your site impacts the position of your website on the search engine results pages.
• Direct visitors To Website- Having quality links attracts real people to your website and placing those links on quality sites is also important. This can go a long way in improving the traffic to your site and this also increases the chances of conversion.
• Adding Credibility- Regardless of which market you are in, there are a number of websites that will be similar to yours in terms of the services/products that are on offer. But when you ensure that your links are placed on various sites, it automatically positions you as a leader in that space. It adds to your credibility and gives you an upper hand against your rivals. 
• Attracting More Quality Links- At the outset, a new site finds it difficult to get links and it is important to get some early successes & build momentum. Once you do this consistently, you will notice that getting quality links is not that difficult any longer.  Once other sites recognize you as a market leader, they will want to link to you.

High Value Marketing Tool
What is even more important is that link building is a very effective marketing tool. Unlike advertisements, high quality links will bring in traffic to your site very consistently, and their influence will be evident for numerous years. Google as well as other search engines always take the age of the link into consideration.

Keep in mind that anyone who links to you has done so because they see value in you and your business and this becomes a very strong selling point for your business. Let Alco Web Design help you with link building for your site. For more information, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

A press release, also called a news release, is a short article that is written in a very factual way. The idea also is to avoid sales or advertising language. This may include announcements about new product/ services releases, expansions, new offices, team members or charitable contributions. As a matter of fact, there are an endless number of topics for press releases.

Free Publicity
Press releases are very inexpensive to prepare & distribute in comparison to the price of print/ online advertising and the former also provide you with comprehensive coverage. Whenever members of the news media write any news story based on your company’s press release, it automatically generates free publicity for your company. If the reporters find that release newsworthy, your story can also show up in numerous new publications. It can also get carried on the major networks and talk shows.

The Benefits
The press release medium is a very flexible one. If you are looking to publicize only in the local markets, we at Alco Web Design can create copy that is directed at local publications. On the other hand, if you are looking for global publicity, that is possible too.  There is also a constant demand for new angles and information for news stories. Press releases can help your website and business as they are:

• Low cost
• Provide higher visibility for your company
• Attract new customers
• Attract new investors
• You get free publicity

Adding Credibility
Whenever the media/ bloggers write about your company’s news release, the completely free publicity that is generated provides more credibility & value to your company which is one of the major benefits. From the stand-point of a consumer, editors who have reported on your company’s news release are considered to be disinterested parties. This means that they cover your announcement based on public demand for useful and relevant information.

This kind of 3rd-party credibility provides a boost to news stories that any kind of paid advertising will not be able to provide. In short, press releases are a form of very effective indirect marketing. For additional details about how press releases can help your website, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

Google Webmaster is different in that an advanced search expert can get a completely new perspective on strategizing and evaluating search efforts. Here is what it can do for you:

For the Sake of SEO
Google Webmaster Tools are crucial for any kind of strong SEO effort. They help you in looking at your website in the manner that Google sees it and you get a lot of insights into the pages that have been indexed on your website, the links that are leading to it and the popular keywords that you need to use and a lot more. Here are 5 main indicators that you should be looking at in it:

• Query- This gives you all the details about which keywords your website is currently being ranked for. It helps you understand whether the keywords that you are using are working or not. You can use this feature to add a boost to all the relevant keywords by linking or additional content optimization.
• Impressions: If you are curious about knowing about the number of people who are viewing your website for a particular keyword search, this feature will tell you that. It helps you validate the value of the keywords you are using.
• Clicks: Of all the people who are looking at your website, you also need to know exactly how many are clicking. This information tells you exactly how many viewers are taking action & clicking on the search result.
• CTR: The click-through rate is the actual percentage of people who are clicking on your site in the search results. If the click-through rates on your site are low, look at how you can alter the Meta description for that particular page.
• Average Position: This metric tells you exactly where your website ranks for every keyword. Since a large percentage of the traffic goes to the sites in the top-2 positions for a particular term, it is helpful to see how you are performing and how it is impacting traffic to your site.

Google Webmaster Tools helps you understand what is getting indexed, what is being linked, and what is getting traffic. It’s an excellent tool for optimizing Search Engine Marketing efforts. For additional details about Google Webmaster Tools, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

Having fantastic graphics and a very attractive site is all important but it takes much more than that to keep visitors glued to your site. The minute they find that your site has very relevant and engaging content; they will come back for more. Some types of web content are:

Article Writing
Article writing is a very impactful tool in online marketing. It can add to the popularity of your site. The articles should be relevant, crisp and well-written. Effective and optimized content helps in:

• Adding an interesting perspective to your website
• Offering fast  results
• Generating backlinks & traffic
• Promoting the products & services that your company offers
• Adding weightage to your website
• Giving your business’ online marketing efforts a definite edge

Blog Content Writing
The only way to draw more traffic is to have relevant SEO content. Blogging has also gained a lot in popularity and is a part of web content. Most sites have blog sections with interesting information. It benefits your business in numerous ways as it:

• Gives your site the required exposure
• Creates awareness about your services and business
• Generates website traffic
• Helps in  conversions

Linkbait
Linkbait is web content writing that is specifically designed to attract numerous links to your website. Some of these write-ups may be designed for well-known bloggers, certain social news/ bookmarking sites. You should use content to tell your visitors more about your work and business. It encourages them to stick around and look at your site in more detail.

It also helps in effectively establishing your company as an authority in the field. Apart from attracting customers, web content helps in earning you valuable links from many potential customers. Use your website smartly and understand that it is an important tool for boosting your visibility and improving the profitability of your business. For additional details about website content, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

One of the most notable features of this service is its ability to actually flag some pages as “goals”. This function is very useful in Internet marketing. Irrespective of what the purpose of your website is, Google Analytics will help in making it better.

The Benefits
One of the simplest methods of finding out if a site is doing well, is to track the number of visitors. Though this information is valuable, it does not really tell us anything about what your visitors are navigating when they visit your site. But Google Analytics helps in numerous ways and has some distinct advantages:

• Flexible Reporting- It provides account holders with data in the form of customizable reports. These reports can be set up in such a way that they will collect as well as deliver data based on various individual analytics aspects such as visitors or conversions. It monitors reports and also alerts the user whenever there are any significant changes in activity.
• User Friendly- Not every website manager is super tech-savvy. Google Analytics is easy to use and designed with a very simple interface. There are also numerous online educational resources that users can learn from. For those who want added functionality, the system offers pivot tables and other complex tools that can be used effectively for more in-depth analysis.
• ROI Tracking- Google Analytics helps you interact in a better way with your customers and you can also track the results of any existing campaigns you might have launched. The data that is collected from the system tells the website owners what their visitors are looking for and what they are navigating on the site. Businesses can use this information to make design changes and make navigation simpler.
• Price- This is one major advantage of Google Analytics- it’s free for subscribers who have below 5M page views every month. There is no restriction on the number of pageviews for users who have Google Adwords accounts.

Google Analytics is online analyzing made easy. It’s a great way to keep track of how your business is doing and in developing new website marketing, SEO and search engine marketing strategies. For additional details about Google Analytics, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

There are numerous strategies that can be used by companies who want to use website marketing to extend their reach and increase sales.

Common Methods
The most common methods of online marketing are Search Engine Marketing, paid advertising, E-publishing and networking. Let’s take a look at the different types of marketing and how they work.  Search engines work best when a website is indexed well.  The page rank that your website receives will decide where it is placed on search results. A higher page rank means more website traffic. Getting that high page rank is all important when it comes to visibility on the internet and your chances of being found by your targeted customers. I have outlined these methods for you:

• E-Publishing- It’s not so easy to get that high listing and it can also be a very expensive and time consuming affair. This is where SEO comes into the picture. E-publishing is somewhat like traditional print media but in this case, you are placing your ad on the internet and your company website is in effect that ad. You should also send out periodic newsletters to customers and the content on your site should be written and optimized well.
• Networking- This is about building online contacts & business relationships. You can sign up for new groups, email or sales discussions. Regular and consistent participation helps in building a reputation which is a big part of marketing.
• ​Paid advertising- In this kind of advertising, you purchase a banner ad on any high-traffic website of your choice. When a visitor to the site clicks on your ad, he/she gets directed to your website which can turn into a potential sale.

Consistency counts
There are numerous other mediums of internet marketing but these are the most basic. Understanding and mastering these is the best way to get started and it will give your business that head start it needs. Your online presence and your marketing efforts cannot be built in a day. Online marketing success is about using all the relevant methods and making a continuous and concerted effort.

For additional details about Internet marketing, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

The encrypted Google searches do not transfer the keyword data to websites. Thus, they now eliminate the ability for site owners to track users via their keyword searches. And so, has Google scrapped the Keyword Tool? Yes it has. But it’s not left users in the lurch. The company has replaced it with the Keyword Planner. This tool combines functionalities of the erstwhile Keyword Tool and that of the Traffic Estimator.

Now, users are required to create a Google Adwords account. This is just a one-time inconvenience for any Google advertiser and website marketing will now have to be tackled differently. The missing keyword data “not provided” will definitely impact online marketers.  It is a very effective indicator of what topics actually work and new topics can be uncovered.

There are certain impacts on Internet marketing. There will be no more keyword-specific website traffic. Keyword-specific trends cannot be tracked over time-by geography or seasonality. Marketers will no longer be able to iteratively optimize efforts based on the user content. It will not be possible to determine brand Vs. non-brand keywords mix, which is a reflection of impact of the other media-driving searches (earned, ads, owned, shared).Unless you are advertising with the Google’s AdWord program, the insight is now gone.

However, marketers do have some alternatives. They will be able to correlate the keyword content mapping & ranking of any page to the traffic of that page.  From the keyword glossary, it will be possible to map the keywords that are most relevant for the corresponding and optimized web pages. They can also check relative ranking of the keywords & pages and the organic referred-search traffic to those specific pages. They can line-up all the page metrics and get some idea about the search performance

However, all of this is based on the singular assumption that pages that are optimized for specific phrases, (with higher-ranking and higher traffic) are a result of attraction of those designated phrases. For additional details about Search Engine Marketing and SEO, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

But things have changed and now most successful websites will make an attempt to reach out to their visitors and generate business by using a number of Internet marketing techniques.

This is where the ubiquitous Blog comes on stage. Blog is essentially an acronym for Web-log and is like an online journal. Any posts that are added to the blog will be displayed in reverse-chronological order and a continuous “autobiography” of a website is created. A blog is a very important engine for attracting more Web traffic. Add a blog to your site, update it on a regular basis and it will instantaneously add an interest quotient to your website. First time visitors will find a reason to revisit it and slowly but surely the trickle of visitors to your site will turn into a flood.

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when you blog. I always suggest that a mechanism for comments be included. This is the best way to up your visitor’s level of loyalty and the “conversation” becomes an attraction point for visitors. The comments can also be used as feedback and they can give you some important pointers about how you can improve your site or the services and goods that you are selling. If you are able to use that effectively and create a stronger presentation, it will appeal to a larger audience and drive website traffic. Those who publish blogs will also frequently approach many other bloggers and will request for links.

Another effective tactic is to add a conduit toolbar. This is a teaser link or a widget that you can add to the toolbar- a click will lead them to your website. What is probably most important for website marketing is that you keep your blog fresh and updated. A moss-laden blog will get buried in the www while one that is updated regularly will continue to hog the spotlight. In my opinion, adding frequent, interesting and relevant blog content that is crisp and catchy is the way to keep drawing traffic to your website.

For additional details about website designing and SEO, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com or contact us.

This makes sense because people are more likely to be interested by fresh information than by older information.  The same goes for your website where frequent updates translate into a higher position (higher visibility) on the search engines search results.

The other reason to periodically update your website is that if you don’t get ahead of your competitors you will get behind.  Things change all the time on the internet and if you don’t improve your website your competitors will and eventually you will get so far behind that nobody will find your website.

How often should you update your website?  It depends about how competitive is your market and about how aggressive your competitors are.  In very competitive environments you might want to update your website every week or at least monthly.  A good idea is to use Google Analytics to monitor your traffic and take action if and when appropriate.  As a general rule I usually recommend small business owners to update their websites about twice a year.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or to visit my website (www.alcowebdesign.com) for more detail about small business website design and SEO.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

Research and identify keywords
A keyword is a word or short phrase that a person enters into a search engine when looking for something specific.  Selecting the right keywords will bring the right visitors to your website and it is the single most important step of your SEO effort.

In addition to the products and services you offer, think about the needs of your potential customers. If you are a chiropractor, “sport injuries” might be a good keyword.  If you are plumber, “how to fix a leaky faucet” might be a good keyword.

No matter how good your SEO expert is, he\she knows very little about your business. Your input is VERY critical to the success of your Search Engines Optimization.  Be EXTREMELY concerned about the results if you are not deeply involved with this process.

Establish keywords strategy
The purpose of this strategy is to determine what keyword(s) to use on what page of your website. Keep focus and avoid diluting your keywords by using a maximum of three keywords per page.  Existing web pages might need to be re-arranged and additional web pages might need to be created in order to efficiently use each of your keywords.

Work and rework the text of your text
Search engines will reward you for creating original and content rich web pages.  Keep your visitors in mind and rework the text of your pages to clearly and accurately describe your content ensuring that your keywords are used a few times and flow naturally through the text.  Increase your keywords concentration by eliminating non value added sections that does not use your keywords.  Search engines like fresh content, make periodic touchups.

Do not cheat
Search engines are pretty smart these days.  Focus on winning on the long run and expect your traffic to build up over time.  Webmasters who promise 1000’s new visitors overnight usually plainly lie or use questionable techniques that will get your website in trouble once they are exposed.  Refer to the Google Webmaster Guidelines for more details.
 
Please do not hesitate to contact me or to visit my website for more detail about small business Search Engines Optimization (SEO). 

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

Then I did some research.  Wordpress, as well as Joomla, Drupal, 1&1, Homestead, and many other website building tools are databases that use templates to display information in a web page format. A user friendly interface allows someone with limited technical skills to easily enter text, pictures, layouts, formatting, and all the information that needs to be displayed. At the end, the web pages do not really exist but are dynamically created “on the fly” from the database when pages are being visited. I have to admit, this is pretty clever and it certainly makes it very easy to create and modify web pages.

But if the pages do not exist and are created “on the fly”, how can Google and other search engines find them?  I did a fair amount of research on the internet (try “static URL vs dynamic URL”) and it looks like the Webmaster community is pretty divided on this topic. My understanding is that Google is making an effort, got better over the years, but still struggles with dynamic websites. Google is responsible for 70% of the internet traffic these days and making things difficult for Google is not a good idea…

All things being considered, it looks like the Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, 1&1, and Homestead of the world are great tools when there is no website budget at all or when large websites require frequent updates from multiple individuals. However, for the majority of small business owners, a good old fashion static website that Google will find and love is likely the best option. This is what I have been offering for years and I plan to continue to do so.  Here go my dreams of working less and making more money…

Two years ago it was my 25th year college reunion and I opened a Facebook account to be able to go to my reunion’s Facebook group page.  With Facebook we were able to share pictures and comments but because of the lack of built-in organization tools, our group’s page shortly became like a shoe box over filled with pictures and post-it notes that nobody has the courage to look at.  We also tried to use Facebook as a communication tool to coordinate the reunion but standard emails with a distribution list quickly proved to be far more efficient to communicate within the group.  Overall my Facebook group’s page was not bad but not great either.

Now that I had an account, I looked for Facebook friends.  It was pretty cool to hear about a few high school buddies that I had lost track of but I did not care much about what movie they recently watched or at what restaurant they like.  I did not feel like sharing that kind of information either, so I did not post much stuff and did not come back to my wall too often.  But since then Facebook drove me nuts by sending me emails every time my Facebook friends were doing something.  After a while I was able to close the gate but sneaky Facebook periodically changes the rules and finds new way to send me more unsolicited emails. I come to my wall about once a month and every time I go there I feel that I have lost an hour of my life.  Facebook wastes my time, invades my privacy, and crawls through my personal information like a virus. I have real friends that I talk to and do things with; I don’t need any Facebook friends.

I run a small website design business (www.alcowebdesign.com) and I thought that Facebook might be a great marketing tool that would bring me new business so I created a page for my business.  All my Facebook friends quickly liked it but nobody ever goes there; Millions of people “like” the Coca Cola Facebook page but don’t go there and don’t get thirsty for a Coke every time they go on Facebook.  I thought that my business Facebook page would at least help my Google ranking by adding an incoming link to my website but Google and Facebook are not exactly friends and Google does not index Facebook pages.  Maybe I simply don’t get it but to attract new business, maintaining a Facebook business page is not an efficient use of my time.

All that being said, I conclude that Facebook is not worth my time and I will shortly cancel my personal and business accounts.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

If you browse the web you will find many studies showing the market share of each of those search engines. The numbers vary a bit from study to study but the main take away is that Google is used for about two thirds of the US internet searches; this does not leave much for Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL. Since my customers deal with the realities of limited time and budget, I usually recommend them to optimize their website primarily for Google.

Many SEO companies offer Search Engines Optimization services. The waters of SEO are infested with sharks that use shortcuts designed to trick Google. This sometimes results in short term gains but will eventually get you in trouble when Google figures out you are cheating. Good, sustainable SEO is hard work and there is no free lunch. Get informed and be careful who you work with. Visit our blog to learn more about SEO and Search Engines Optimization.

SEO is a complex field and there is no one size fit all solution. We offer personalized services and you ALWAYS work directly with the owner. We offer the best value in small business SEO services in the Appleton Fox Valley. Please call 920-850-4642 or use the contact form to get started.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642
[email protected]

My most successful customers are those who work closely with me to design\optimize their websites and save their time and energy for free internet marketing.  Internet marketing is the art of turning your website into a powerful marketing tool. Many internet marketing techniques do not require any specific knowledge and can be implemented for free.  Here are a few ideas:

Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design or to visit our website if you have any questions about free internet marketing.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

Because of obvious screen size differences, conventional websites do not display well and are very difficult to use on a mobile device.  For that reason, many website owners are now creating mobile versions of their website where smart phones or mobile device users are automatically redirected to.  In most cases, mobile websites are kind of mini websites providing key information and inviting visitors to call for more details.

Alco Web Design provides website design and SEO services to small business owners interested by a professional and cost-effective presence on the web. We create clean, mobile ready, and Google friendly websites that meet the needs of small business owners.

Our websites are proudly crafted in Greenville Wisconsin and most of our customers are small business owners from the Appleton and surrounding North East Wisconsin communities. Our reputation is our most important asset. You can trust us to do the right things for your small business.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you have any questions about mobile websites.