• Website promotion starts with website design: Your website needs to provide useful, original, and well organized information that people need, like, and want to go back to. Work and rework the content of your pages.
• Focus on giving: Visitors will come back to your website if it provides them with something useful and easy to find. Information, tips, and ideas are great and do not cost you much.
• Periodic content modifications: Give a reason to people to come back to your website. Create a newsletter, on-line promotions, discussion boards, games, create some hype!
• Publish articles: Publish quality informational articles to blogs or free electronic magazines such as EzineArticles.com and include links back to your website. People interested by your article will go to your website for more information and details.
• Good web page layout: Keeping your website layout simple and standard will help visitors finding what they need and they will thank you for that by coming back to your website.
• Email signatures: Email signatures are a few lines of text that automatically get attached to each email you send. Include your website name on those email signatures so everybody that you send emails to know about your website.
• Conventional mailing campaign: Contact your suppliers, customers, partners, retailers, etc. Offer them web only promotional items so they go to your website. Be careful: What works for conventional mailing programs does not always convert well to the Internet where unsolicited mail is often associated to junk and may project a negative image of your company.
• Local business listings: Small business listings are often available through the chamber of commerce, town hall, or other municipal and regional organizations. Most of these services are free. This is especially important for small companies that do most of their businesses locally. Get listed! (How to use the local search directories?)
• Classified ads: Write ads on free classified websites such as Backpage.com, Craigslist.org, and USFreeAds.com with links back to your website. Don't not expect massive results, but it is free.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you have any questions about how to build initial website traffic for free.

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

There are hundreds of local search directories and it is not practical to register your business to all of them so you should focus on the major ones.

• Note 1:  All of these directories will list your business for free but most of them will try to upsell you paid offerings. It is not clear what value you get for the additional money so I would stay with the free listing.
• Note 2:  Do not overlook other specialized search directories that may apply to specific businesses; dentists and lawyers are good examples. To find them, Google your keywords and city\town and see what comes up.
• Note 3:  Several of those local search directories will try to verify and validate your listing from multiple sources. Make sure your business information is consistent between your offline publications, your website, and the local search directories you sign up to.
• Note 4:  When updating your business listing, do not forget that you work with LOCAL search directories. Follow this link for more details on how to create successful local listings for your website.

Here is a list of the top local search directories: Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, SuperPages, YellowBook, YellowPages, Yelp, Citysearch, Merchant Circle, Topix, Insider Pages

Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you have any questions about how to use the local search directories.

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

This article provides free, simple, and comprehensive information, hints, tips, and tools that will allow you to create a successful website. If you have time to learn, this article will show you how to get the best of your website and how to run a successful internet business.

• Type of website: Take the time to clearly identify the purpose of your website. What is it for? Who is the audience? Do you want to keep in touch with existing customers, attract new ones, provide information, or sell on-line? What do you want to do? If it is not clear for you it won't be for your visitors.
• Web pages text: A useful and content rich website will convince your visitors about the seriousness of your business and will invite them to return to your website. Plan ahead and don't make your content an after fact. Work and rework the text of your web pages, especially your home page.
• What pages are needed:  Your main page will be used to provide a quick snap shot of your business and of your website. Your about us page will provide detailed information about your company, key individuals, etc. Your links page will link to partners, affiliate, or other resources. Your FAQ page will answer common questions. What other pages will you have?
• Good web page layout: Keeping your page layout consistent, simple, and standard will help visitors finding what they need and come back to your website. Think thoroughly about the navigation through your website. If you can, use a horizontal navigation menu and use the full width of the page for the content of your website. Keep it simple, make it easy.
• Overall look: What do you want your website to look like? Is there something on the Internet you like or don't like? What colors do you want to use? How do big companies with unlimited budgets do? How do your competitors do? Be careful, copying the work of others is illegal. What can you do better?
• Pictures, logos, and artwork: Find pictures, logos, and artwork for your web pages. Save time and money by scanning printed documents you might already have. Use a digital camera and take your own pictures. Many websites including Microsoft offers great royalty free pictures.
• Proofing everything, take your time: Your website affects the image you project. Typos and careless mistakes immediately label you as sloppy and unprofessional. Pricing errors might be costly. Click on every button and double check everything. Make sure everything is perfect and fully functional prior to go live.
• Your website designer knows very little about your business: Are you working with somebody on your website design project? No matter how good your website designer is, he or she knows very little about your business. Your input is VERY critical to the success of your website. Be EXTREMELY concerned about the results if you are not deeply involved with the design of your website.
• Provide constructive feedback: Work closely with your web designer and play an active part in the review process. Be honest, clear, and specific. Make suggestions, be picky: This is your business, your website.
• Domain name and hosting: Get your hosting and domain name registration from a reliable quality provider. These days, small business packages are available for less than $25 per year. Shop around.
• ​Building website traffic: Congratulation, you are on-line. This is a very important first step but now you need visitors. Good news, several traffic building techniques are very simple and can be implemented for free.

​Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you have any questions about how to create a successful small business website.

• Header:  Every page of your website must let your visitors know that they are at your website.  Here you have your logo, banner, business name, etc.
• Navigation bar area:  The navigation bar helps your visitors finding their way through your website. Side navigation bars support an unlimited number of items while horizontal navigation bars leave more width for the content of your web pages.  Think your navigation system thoroughly to make it simple, efficient, and to minimize the number of clicks required to navigate through your website.
• Footer:  Every page must let your visitors know who you are and how to contact you.
• Main content area:  The main content area is what your visitors actually come to see.  A useful and content rich website will convince your visitors about the seriousness of your business and will invite them to return to your website.  Plan ahead and don't make your content an after fact.
• Background and colors:  The newspaper industry figured out a long time ago that black letters on white paper are easy to read.  Other dark font and light background combinations could work but are always harder to work with.  Stay away from dark backgrounds.
• Pictures, logos, and artwork:  Use pictures, logos, and artwork to differentiate your website.  Save time and money by reusing or scanning printed documents you might already have.  Use a digital camera and take your own pictures.  Many websites, including Microsoft, offer great royalty free pictures.
• Flash animations:  Flash technology is sometimes used to create animations or sounds effects.  While it can sometimes be cool, some people (like me) find it extremely annoying:  They take time to download and are a distraction.
• Outbound links:  They are cool but do not help you.  You worked hard to get visitors to your website and the last thing you want is to lose them through outbound links.  At a minimum, make sure outbound links open up a new window so your web pages are still opened.
• Page width:  The look of a web page might change slightly on different computers.  I usually use a narrower fixed width page that will look good for the majority of my visitors and print well on a regular 8½" X 11" sheet of paper.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you have any questions about how to create a successful web page layout.

Google will bring visitors to your website but ultimately your website has a sales pitch to deliver. Here is how to turn visitors into customers:

• Content, content, content:  A useful and content rich website will convince your visitors about the seriousness of your business. Plan ahead and don't make your content an afterthought. Work and rework the text of your pages.
• Products and service:  Provide information about your products and services, your intended market, the benefits to your customers, and on what differentiates you from the competition. Be concise but provide options for more detailed information. When possible, make this information printable so it can be shared or used later. Provide a phone number or an email address for personalized service.
• Experience and expertise: There is no personal contact on the internet and your expertise is often what differentiates you from the competition. People trust experts. Make sure your visitors know about your expertise and about your willingness to help them.
• Testimonials and success stories: With the Internet, your potential customers will also find your competitors. Potential customers look for help and value. If you have proven success stories, you already have a head start. Provide testimonials, success stories, or case studies that are easy to read and can be verified.
• About us, biographies, and team pages: Give people an insight into who you are. Use pictures, talk about yourself, your mission, the values of your company, and the reasons you started the business. Show your visitors that you are a real person, especially if you are targeting local customers.
• Verify your work and make it perfect:  Your website affects the image you project. Typos and careless mistakes immediately label you as sloppy and unprofessional. Make sure everything is perfect and fully functional prior to go live.

Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you need any help turning you visitors into customers.

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

Mobile devices are amazing little computers capable to access conventional websites.  But because of the small screen size, the text is usually hard to read, the buttons are too small to be usable, and the layout does not look quite right.  Also, the mobile devices struggle downloading large images to the point that they slow down drastically and sometimes freeze up.

To ensure universal access to their website, smart business owners are now creating mobile versions of it.  In most cases, the mobile version is no more than a summary of the main website providing key information and inviting visitors to call for additional details.  Mobile users are automatically directed to the mobile website and everybody else keeps on accessing the conventional website.

Google recently launched GoMo that automatically creates a mobile version of your website.  It is a pretty impressive tool but professional looking results usually require customization.  Please do not hesitate to contact Alco Web Design if you need any help with your mobile website.

Google Places is the new name for Google Local. All Google search results are based on keywords but Google Places also uses geographic distance to list local businesses on top of the search results, just below the sponsored links. This area is prime real estate for any businesses interested by local sales.

Google Places is a free service; here is how to get a good ranking with Google Local search results.

MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE IS CONTENT RICH AND GOOGLE FRIENDLY

CREATE YOUR GOOGLE PLACES LISTING (http://www.google.com/places/)

BUILD TRUST (Google Places will validate your listing from multiple sources, make sure your business information is consistent)

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

Nobody can guarantee top ranking with Google or with any search engines because of uncontrollable factors external to the website itself.  Examples are what other websites link to yours, what your competitors do, how the ranking is determined, etc. There are a lot of sharks out there that will gladly take your money and offer you a top 10 ranking guarantee but only with obscure keywords that nobody searches for and won't help your business.

At Alco Web Design we create Google friendly websites, help you choosing your keywords, analyze your web pages, recommend changes to maximize your ranking, and provide suggestions on how to make your website more attractive to Google.  We guarantee honest and professional website design and optimization work that maximizes your investment.

PS: As of today, my own website www.alcowebdesign.com ranks #3 on Google with “website design Appleton”.  Not bad!!!

​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.

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

​These days, Google is responsible for about 70% of the internet traffic. Google likes links and if you want visitors to your website you need to have plenty of incoming links pointing at your site. The best way to have incoming links to your website is to provide useful and original content that other website owners want to share with their visitors. Local organizations such as the chamber of commerce, library, civic clubs, etc. will be happy to link to your website if they feel it is useful to their members.

Another way to get incoming links to your website is to trade links with other website owners and this is where a reciprocal links page becomes handy. This process works great especially if the link exchange partners are related by businesses, geographical location, or other factor. Therefore, it is a good idea to contact your suppliers, customers, partners, non-competitive resources, etc., and get reciprocal links. Please note that these links are on your website so protect your image and be careful who you get associated with.

To make a long story short, having a links page is not necessary but it is strongly recommended.

​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.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or concerns about the performance of your website. We are not always around the phone, fill up the contact us form and we will get back to you promptly.

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

Houle, owner of Alco Web Design LLC, has been creating websites for small businesses for the past five years. He began to learn about the technology through his job at K-C and branched out to help others as a hobby. “I do it for fun and for entrepreneurship”, Houle said. “It’s nice to work for yourself”.

Houle has created websites for about 50 businesses located throughout the Fox Cities, Canada, and the US. His clients vary but include a jewelry maker, a domestic violence lawyer, a campground, and a company that manages retirement funds. A link to view the websites Houle has created is available at www.alcowebdesign.com.

Houle enjoys his business because it allows him to use his creativity. He also is constantly learning as technology changes. Last winter, he spent time researching the ins and outs of website promotion. To achieve maximum placement and exposure, Houle uses specific keywords to get websites to pop up high on the list in Google searches.

Houle recommends that all business owners have a website. “You can get a lot more business by spending your (advertisement) money on a website”, he said. “Everybody needs them now. It’s no different than having a business card.”

Alco Web Design at a glance:
Alco Web Design LLC
Owner\Webmaster: Alain Houle of Greenville Wisconsin
Phone: 920-850-4642
Website: www.alcowebdesign.com