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How to Get Leads from Contacts

Chris Darling — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:51 +0000

Your website is a great way to market your skills or products, but how do you turn visitors into potential customers? Hint: your best leads are people who contact you. By increasing the number of contacts you receive, you earn leads who you can potentially convert into customers.

Khoa Bui wrote a great article for Entrepreneur titled Making the Most of ‘Contact Us’ to Gather Leads that explains why businesses need to do more than just list their contact information if they want to truly generate leads. Bui offers invaluable information on where to include your contact information on your website and how you can use a call to action or incentive to get more people to supply you with their contact information. The article also has good advice for how to keep people on your website as long as possible and why it is important to thank them after they contact you.

Making the Most of ‘Contact Us’ to Gather Leads provides readers with advice that’s easy to implement. Bui’s advice is simple and direct. If you are not getting enough leads from your website, read this article to learn techniques that will produce results.

Tips for Avoiding Google Panda Penalties

Chris Darling — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:00:55 +0000

Google added the Panda (or Farmer) update to their algorithm reduce the SERPs (search engine results page) position of content farms, which they consider to be websites with a high amount of content that has little value to users. Google’s changes don’t just affect large sites like those owned by Demand Media. If you are trying to get found, but you have designed your site in a way that Google deems as having thin content, your website could drop on SERPs as well.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers, of SEOmoz, wrote an excellent article titled Fat Pandas and Thin Content that gives readers seven scenarios that could cause Google to lowers your ranking. Meyers also provides solutions for these problems as well. Many of the problems that Meyers writes about, such as having too many ads on one page, are issues that have never been a problem before.

Unless you are extremely familiar with all the changes made by Google’s Panda update, Fat Pandas and Thin Content is necessary reading. This is one of Google’s biggest algorithm changes within the past year and you may not even be aware your website has problems. Protect your SEO investment by not letting your website get Panda-slapped.

The Best WordPress Security Tip

Chris Darling — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:00:16 +0000

Before you build a WordPress website, or if you already have a WordPress powered website, you need to consider how you’re going to keep it safe from hackers. According to Dave Clements’ article, How To Change Your WordPress Database Prefix, “…WordPress powers about an eighth of the world’s websites…” That makes WordPress sites a very popular target for hackers.

As Clements points out, one of the easiest ways hackers can get into your WordPress site is by attacking your database. By default, all WordPress databases start with “wp_” as the prefix. If you don’t change the default prefix, hackers can easily determine where your database information is stored. Unless you make regular backups, which you really should do anyway, it can be very difficult to restore your site after it has been hacked.

How To Change Your WordPress Database Prefix provides step-by-step instructions for changing your database’s prefix, including infographics. The article also shows exactly what you have to do to reconfigure WordPress to read from the renamed database file. Clements’ advice is easy to follow and it could make the key difference between your site getting hacked or not getting hacked.

Website Marketing Advice That Works

Chris Darling — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:00:29 +0000

If you find yourself struggling to market your skills, you need to first evaluate whether or not your website is search engine friendly, then look at other things you can do to generate traffic. On-page SEO is not enough by itself, off-page SEO should be 80% of the effort you spend marketing your website.

SEO + SEM + SMO = ROI by Augustine Fou explains how search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media optimization can be used to together to provide the best return on investment. Fou breaks each acronym into separate categories and gives advice on how to approach each of them. Do-it-yourself online marketing is difficult, but Fou’s useful tips will help save you from wasting time and money.

Whether you’re a novice, or a marketing pro, Fou’s SEO + SEM + SMO = ROI provides valuable information on how important these popular acronyms are and how you can use them to your advantage.

The Best Link Building Strategies

Chris Darling — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:00:21 +0000

If SEO is a car, then links are the fuel that gets you where you want to go. If your web site to get found, you need enough quality links to boost your position on search engine result pages. As search engine algorithms have changed over the years, the need to build many different types of links has increased. A great example of this is the rise of social media, which was nearly non-existent in 2002, but is now an important factor in page ranking.

The Ultimate Guide to Link Building in 2011 by Maria Walters is exactly as advertised. Walters provides a comprehensive overview of what type of you links you should be building and how you should build them. The article also discusses other marketing strategies, both online and offline that you can use to generate traffic to your website. The author touches on almost everything you need to know about off-page optimization.

If you are looking to take your website to the next level, spend some time reading The Ultimate Guide to Link Building in 2011. Walters gives readers a practicable roadmap to success as well a checklist of what you need to do for your SEO.

How Review Sites Can Help or Hurt Your Business

Chris Darling — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:00:42 +0000

A great website for your local business is a great starting point, but it is only part of what will help you generate sales online. In 20 User Review Websites Critical to Small Business, the author states, “According to an internal analysis of small business search results, Marchex – a provider of small business marketing products – found that more than 80 percent of results did not point to the websites of those businesses. Instead, they pointed to social network results and consumer reviews.”

What does this mean for your business’s website? It means that people are more likely to see reviews and social media comments before they actually visit your website. It is important to manage your company’s reputation and know what people are saying online about your business.

How your website is built is only 20% of your SEO, the other 80% is the off-page optimization that affects how potential customers view your business. 20 User Review Websites Critical to Small Business is the list of important websites you should be monitoring. If you want your website to truly shine on search engine result pages, you need to routinely check for blemishes.

How Easy Is It To Use WordPress?

Chris Darling — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Are you looking for a way to create a customized website easily? The good news is that it is easier than many people realize.

Kyle Zipp wrote a post titled Getting Started With WordPress that serves as a great introduction to WordPress and links to help you start building your website. As Zipp says, “With its user-friendly Dashboard, and fully customizable features, WordPress is one of the greatest tools a website owner could ask for. When planning for user friendly features, a wise colleague of mine once said ‘Think of your Mom, is this something she would be able to use?’ and I know firsthand that when using WordPress, the answer is yes. WordPress was created for anyone and everyone to use.”

Getting Started With WordPress is necessary reading for anyone who is considering building their own website, but isn’t sure how to get started. If you are looking to build an attractive, easy to manage site you should read the article to see if WordPress is the solution you are looking for.

Get More Leads Now!

Chris Darling — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:00:36 +0000

Is your website not generating a great visitor to customer conversion ratio? Do you need a website that works for your business? Well, Dianna Huff’s Blog has some easy improvements you can make in a recent article titled, 57 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Website.

Dianna Huff has compiled tips from industry leaders such as, Rachel Cunliffe, Derek Edmond, Chris Jaeger, Stephanie Tilton and Jill Whalen as well as some of her own advice to get new business from your website. Many of the tips presented in the article are easy to implement and will produce results in a relatively short amount of time. Huff breaks the tips down into four main categories: Design, Navigation, SEO and Content. Each section is equally important for painting a complete portrait of success for your business’s website.

57 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Website is a list of business boosting advice that many novices don’t know and some things even SEO experts may forget to implement. Whether you are managing your own site, or you have someone do it for you, this article has good advice for making sure your website appeals to customers.

On-Page SEO is Like Your Toes

Chris Darling — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Why Your Website On Page SEO is Like Your Toes

Small businesses are always trying to find ways to market their website on a shoestring, cut corners, or follow the advice of well-meaning associates. But sometimes cutting corners will cost you much more in the long run.

SEO with your online business website is as important as your feet are to walking.

On-page SEO is as important to your website as your toes are to your feet.

On-page SEO only accounts for 20% of your effective overall search engine optimization strategy. Yes, that is a small portion but it should not be neglected. Your toes account for a small percentage of your feet but if they are missing or not working as they should, your walking ability will suffer.

Still, I see so many small business try to save money on their website development and neglect to find a qualified SEO professional to take care of this critical 20% piece of their online marketing strategy. They effectively cut their toes off of their feet and awhile later wonder why they haven’t gotten as far as their competition.

True, on page SEO is not equivalent to brain surgery. It is possible to spend time researching for yourself how to best implement on page factors and improve your website rankings to support your greater goal. If you have the time, go for it. Just be aware that there is a lot of misleading information out there.

A word of caution… any technique that seems to be the “Holy Grail” of SEO is likely to either:

Be completely ineffective and waste of time & money, or…
Get your site penalized by search engines.

Everyone has encountered that situation or opportunity that seemed too good to be true. Well, the same principle applies to search engine optimization. So, before you go cutting off your toes with your SEO, get yourself educated. Your website is part of your online business. It is an investment in your business. Invest in some good SEO so your website can do the job it is meant to do!

If you need to hire a professional SEO provider and don’t know where to start I recommend reading this article on 13 Questions to Ask an SEO Consultant. It’s a good one!

If you find this information helpful share it with others!

If you would like to contribute, leave a comment below.

Why You Should Avoid Free WordPress Themes

Chris Darling — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:00:55 +0000

Siobhan Ambrose wrote a great post for WPMU.org titled Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else. If you are looking to build a WordPress website, Ambrose provides detailed evidence proving that using themes from websites that you find through search engines is a bad idea.

Armed with the common keywords “free wordpress themes”, Ambrose ran a search through Google and tested free themes from the first 10 listings in Google’s search results. It is worth noting that Ambrose tested these sites locally using a software program called Xampp in order to avoid uploading any malicious code to any of her own sites. Out of the top 10 websites, the only one Ambrose felt 100% secure recommending was WordPress.org.

It is tempting to try to save money by downloading a free WordPress theme instead of purchasing a premium theme. However, before you start searching Google and downloading themes, read Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else to understand why this approach may be a lot more trouble than it’s worth.