The first thing that you have to understand about Google is that the site is primarily based on keywords, both in the main text of the page as well as text that’s imbedded it what is called the meta portion of your page, the area that isn’t visible to anyone but programmers and search engines.  The idea is to put accurate and unique keywords in your page so that when Google is searching, your site pops up.  So in the content of your page, make sure you include key words and phrases that reference your business or your location of both.  For example, Systemtek uses the phrase “Naperville Web Design” in numerous location because it maximizes our presence.  Potential customers often search for the type of business they are looking for as well as the area that they live in, so always be very specific when it comes to keywords and phrases.  List specific services and products that you provide.  Make sure you cover all your bases.  You want to make sure that a customer will see that you indeed provide what they are looking for.

One important thing to remember is that Google may go on keywords, but it also is designed to protect users from spam.  When you are considering the content for your page, don’t overuse the keywords.  A good rule of thumb is that for every 400 words on the page, 1-2% should be keywords.  This will ensure that you have the necessary means for being found in Google, but your page isn’t so oversaturated in keywords that Google will consider you spam and block you.  So be careful and have an even hand when it comes to including keywords.

Another tool at your disposal to move you up in the Google rankings is links.  On your page, link to other pages.  If you have a blog, link to it.  If you have a partner with a website, link to it and have them link to you.  Links provide more content for Google to read, and well named links are even better.  Rather than saying “Click HERE for more tips,” you would want to say “More SEO Tips and Tricks.”  That link does double duty, since it is both a link AND a key phrase for the business.  The more, well-named links, the better.

The last tip today is to get your site listed on online directories.  Do a little research on your own and find out if there are directories for business like yours.  Often you’ll find that there are places that will list your site for free or ask only that you put an icon on your page that will link back to the main site.  There are a lot of options to explore.  Just make sure you choose the right directory.  Again, do your research and make sure you’re not going to be balled up with a bunch of spam companies.  The name of the game is caution and care when it comes to SEO.

There are a lot of little things you can do to move your business up in the Google rankings.  The three we listed here are the biggest, and if you follow these directions you’ll see your page start climbing.  It takes some time, so be patient.  Just remember to keep everything well organized and don’t overuse the keywords, links, and directories and over time your business will show up in the first page when you Google yourself.

1. What can testimonials do for me?

Testimonials are a great way to spread the word about your business. The content comes from consumers, rather than the business itself, so there isn’t an implied bias. Potential customers can read the testimonials and see how like-minded consumers felt about the service or product you provided. Testimonials are a way to promote yourself without having to promote yourself.

2. How do I get testimonials?

There are a number of ways to get testimonials from customers. The simplest way is to just ask them. Many happy customers are more than willing to put down their satisfaction in writing. If you don’t want to come right out and ask for a glowing review, you can ask customers to complete satisfaction surveys. These are a little less invasive, as you aren’t specifically asking them to write a paragraph about your company, only to rate their satisfaction and write something only if they care to. You can also check online review sites, like Google reviews or Yelp. You may find that people have already written a testimonial without you even having to ask them.

On a side note, don’t offer incentives for customers to give good reviews. They will feel forced and insincere. Instead, if a customer gives you a good review, send them a coupon or another promotional item as a thank you after the fact.

3. What do I do with the testimonial now that I have it?

Display it! If you have a website, put it on the homepage. If you have the means, have an entire page on your website dedicated to testimonials. They are an invaluable resource to you and your company. You can also post them on your Facebook page, put them on print advertising. Use them in any way you see fit.  For an example of how to present testimonials, check out Systemtek’s testimonial page here.

At this point, it’s necessary to talk about some of the unwritten rules of testimonials. As we said before, you don’t want your testimonials to sound insincere. So make sure you pick just the right examples to display. You want them to be positive, but if they are too over the top, they won’t be believable and potential customers will think you wrote them yourself.

Also, don’t edit testimonials too much. You can run into the problem of a prior customer reading what they wrote and getting upset because you cut out some possibly negative things. If you aren’t sure if you’ve edited it too much, don’t use it. And don’t ever write a fake testimonial yourself. They will come across as fake and that’s not good for you. Finally, give credit to the customer, with their permission of course. If you don’t have written permission, maintain their anonymity by only using their initials and not giving their location or business. You don’t want to get in trouble because you used someone’s words without their consent.

Testimonials can do a lot of work for you if you use them right. Follow the tips we’ve outlined above to maximize the usefulness of them and grow your business. Just remember to be ethical.

The initial contact your customer is going to have with your business will most likely be on a search engine.  A potential customer will search the internet for a particular service, and you obviously want your business to be near the top.  Customers are much more likely to visit a site that is in the top five on a search than one that may be buried further down the list.  So making sure that your website has good placement in an engine is imperative.  Search engine optimization companies specialize in helping businesses customize their website in order to give them better positioning on search engine results.  So enlisting the help of an SEO company can help drive more business.  Additionally, your company name, as well as additional information that pops up on a search will help business.  Make sure that your site has key words attached to the site name so that potential customers know that your business specializes in what they are looking for. 

Once a possible customer clicks on your link, the first thing they will see is the homepage.  This is going to be their first real experience with your company, so it’s important that the homepage is a good representation of not only your company, but of your target customer.  Make sure that the site content reflects what you want your customer to think of your company.  Have an image in mind of your company, whether it’s sleek and stylish or warm and inviting, and have a website that reflects that image.  Like a good first sentence in a book, a good homepage will keep the viewer interested and will compel them to stay and explore. 

Finally, in addition to the layout and theme of the homepage, make sure to keep the first site current.  Whether it be through a daily message and weekly blog or monthly specials, it’s important for customers to know that you are maintaining the site.  Like a rundown store front, an unmaintained homepage gives potential customers the impression of a faltering business.  Show your presence to your customers so they know that you care as much about the appearance of your company and website as you will about their business.

You can never make another first impression, so make sure it’s a good one.  From search engine results to image to upkeep, a potential customer is going to judge your business on the first few clicks into your site, so make sure that those few clicks are memorable.  It will help drive business and keep people coming back for more.

Are you a mortgage broker, lawyer, financial advisor or a plumber? Did you know a service business can significantly increase leads and customer loyalty by an effective website? Does your service business website generate leads and bring customers? If not, I’ll explain what went wrong.

1. Your website does not look professional

Your homepage is the first impression of your business that you give to your potential customers online. One main reason people visit a service business website, is to see if the company is trustworthy. According to a 2006 web user survey, 60% of people don’t trust businesses with poorly designed websites. If you give wrong the impression to your potential customers, they will leave and visit your competitor’s website. A professional look and feel gives your potential customers assurance of your credibility. Once a visitor opens your site, your business is judged for better or worse. What impression does your website give?

2. Your website contents are out of date

When did you last modify your website content? Is your website still advertising last year’s events? How efficiently does your homepage flow into your detailed service pages? How effectively do you introduce your services on your web pages?

When your potential clients visit your website, they are expecting to find answers for their questions. If you give them outdated information or fail to express your service details effectively, you can’t expect leads from them. You may also give a poor impression of your business.

3. You didn’t market your website

Unlike your actual business building, your website may not be visible to your customers. You may have heard about search engine marketing and website optimization. If you are not a computer geek or don’t have time to learn about HTML, try to focus on off-line marketing. Try to put your website address on every possible marketing collateral, such as your business cards and direct mail.

4. Your website doesn’t encourage visitors to take action

Action could be a call for free consultation, signing up for a newsletter or sending an e-mail to request a quote. If you have a great looking website with useful content for website visitors, you should try to convert them into customers. Try to put action items on every page with some urgency. People usually don’t react when there is no urgency.

5. You never measure the effectiveness

Do you know how many leads are generated through your website? And how many leads turn into real customers? If you know how effective your website is, you can enhance your website to improve in the future.

Impress your visitors with a positive and professional business image. Even if they don t become your customers right away, impressed visitors can soon become your customers.

Then you definitely want to check this out: To add a real talking character on your web site and let him speaks for you!  It is the REAL PERSON that you are trying to attract so putting a real person on your web does make people feel refreshing and treated!

Check out our latest web site feature: Live web spokesperson that could let your web talk and sell product for you! Check us out if you would like your web site stands out and significantly increase your sales!

Having a real person walk onto your website is a new and powerful way to motivate your customers to take action. Using an Online Virtual Spokesperson on your website allows you to: introduce your home page, spice up your FAQ, guide traffic, drive call to action on lead forms, and create landing pages and tutorials. Tailor your message any way you want.

This type of online video advertising is also known as a Spokesperson Video, Virtual Spokesperson, Web Commercials, Video Salesperson, Internet Spokesperson and Web Spokesperson  just to name a few that will bring your website to life! Now you can have your own Spokesperson just like TV that represents your company’s website, products and services by capturing your visitor’s attention, delivering professional dialogue and turning them into paying customers. Imagine having a company website spokesperson 24/7 that Greets, Informs and Sell your products/services to visitors right from the website.

Get More Visitors!

Now that you have a great new web design for your company, you want to make sure people are actually visiting it. There are many ways to attract people to your website besides waiting on your search engine optimization efforts to bring you to the top of Google. Depending on your business, some methods of bringing more visitors to your website might be better than others. Here are a few ways we recommend driving more traffic to your website.

Social Media

The verdict is out: you need to be involved in the social media community! Remember, your goal with social media should be to get people to visit your actual website. By getting involved in the conversation on sites like Twitter and Facebook, you can discuss relevant information with people and start to develop groups that all share the same interest. Getting involved may take some time, but social media will only help your business as much as you let it. Facebook also has advertising functions that might allow your company the right exposure. It all depends on the market you are trying to attract and how many of them are using Facebook.

Blog

By having a blog for your company and updating it frequently, your website will have new, fresh content that the search engines like to see. Maybe more importantly though, you are sharing valuable information with people out there that you want to visit your website. You should also find other people’s blogs that have relevant information for your company. By following them, you will learn more useful tips and stay on top of the latest trends. It is a good idea to post comments on other blogs too, because that will get you involved in the conversation and help you grow valuable relationships. Some blogs even allow you to leave a link going back to your main website. Make sure your comments are of value though, because writing “Great post!” will not make people want to click on the link you provided for your website.

Google Adwords

Google is a powerful way to attract people to your website, even if your SEO doesn’t have you at the top of the keyword search results. By setting up Adwords for your company, you have the freedom to list your online advertisements how you want to. Your ad will appear at the top or the side of the search results page, in the area that says “Sponsored Links”. Adwords allows you to customize the ad, pay as much as you want to each month and make your advertisements appear for the keywords that you want. By using these targeted keywords, you can run very cost effective advertising online.

Other ways to get involved in online conversations and develop groups of people to communicate with include online article submitting sites like ezine.com, press releases and forums. There are a lot of people blogging and communicating on forums online. Start out by finding a few that are worth following and try adding a couple each week. By staying in contact with more and more people, you can watch the number of visitors to your site grow.

Lancome on Facebook

Unlike groups, Facebook fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed (important for reputaion management, for example). They are great ways to promote yourself to the general public.

Facebook Pages are different than profiles. You have a profile for you, Jane Doe, but your business can’t have a profile — it can have a Page. A Page is a place to house all the pertinent information about your company. They’re so useful because you can include everything that relates to your business in one place with a built-in potential audience:

Here’s the #1 reason to have your own Facebook Page (as well as your own Profile):

More people can find out about your business because your Page gets indexed and is searchable inside and outside of Facebook.

Other reasons include:

* Because the number of Fans you can have is unlimited (whereas the Friend limit is 5,000).
* Activity on your Page helps increase what I call “viral visibility” on Facebook.
* You can establish your brand even further.

To create your Page scroll to the foot of any Facebook web page and click on Advertising, then click the button to Create Facebook Page.

Or, watch this video introduction then read the instructions below to get going with your Facebook Page!

The Latest Business Social Media

We know social media takes a lot of time to stay on top of, but if you’re running your business and are using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn already, you’ll probably want to check these two out for the next step in your social media campaign. Our professional web design company is benefiting from more than just the basic social networking sites.

4. Biznik

Biznik.com is a fast-growing online community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to connecting and helping each other.

Why Use it:

• NOT “another LinkedIn clone”.Biznik is for people who are building real businesses, not looking for their next job.
• It’s for sharing ideas, not posting your resume. It’s the place where real conversations about small business and entrepreneurship are taking place.
• Local, face-to-face meeting to build real, lasting business relationships.

5.Google Connect

Here we talk about tons of different social networks, aiming in one single goal the to rank our web sites better in Google or to get more effective traffic from Google. What if Google itself is developing a social network? Although started low-key and only connected very limited web sites, you won’t be regret that you have read this post today!

Check out how Google Connect works below:

Credit: Social Orgs, Nan Ke

“More time is now spent on social networking than on e-mail…..The rapidly evolving world of social networks and blogs has officially grown up.Yesterday(Sep 16th), Facebook just claimed that it has 300 million active monthly users globally, and is getting 3 million new users every WEEK.

One of the most valuable aspects of social media for business is the ability to learn more about our business partners, clients, and prospects from a “personal” perspective.  After all, social networking is all about building “relationships.”  Just as early CRM programs encouraged us to capture things like clients’ favorite sports, theatre interests, family info, etc., those personal elements are now freely available and readily broadcast.

There are thousands of social media out there. So what and where to start? Here our Naperville web design company has listed 5 social networks that would bring most boost to your businesses , within which the last 2 are especially for business users.

1.Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read each other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Why is it important?

• Communicate information about the company via a profile along with capability of using logo in each individual message (Tweet)
• Send messages instantaneously about new product development, events, and any significant news within the company
• Establish two way communication with any clients or customers or the general public in a new way

2. Linked In

The purpose of Linkedin is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

What can it do?

• Set up organizational profile to establish company presence
• Create personal profile to establish identity
• Industry issues can be discussed to gain recognition and involvement of individual company represented
• Can join related groups to establish and grow relationships and find new business contacts

3.Facebook

In Facebook users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.  Company and organizational profiles can also be established.

Why use it?

• Increases awareness of companies and individuals
• Can create company profile to establish organizational presence
• Communicate with individuals and company at all levels
• Creates a place to become fans of the company and can get targeted messages

continued: 5 Most Useful Social Media for Small Business (2)

Bing to Power Yahoo Search

With the search engine and search advertising partnership in the works between Yahoo! and Microsoft, how much will your website have to adapt to a growing number of users trying to find you on something other than Google? Yahoo will soon incorporate Microsoft’s Bing technology as its default search engine, giving the pair almost 30% market share in US searches versus Google’s 65%.

So what does this mean for the effort you’ve put into making sure your creative web design stays on top of the search results? With Bing taking over Yahoo Search, it is going to be important for webmasters to be aware of the importance of Bing in the future. While optimizing for Bing is generally a good idea anyway, those who see a good deal of traffic from Yahoo! are going to have to make sure they pay attention to their Bing results now. Once the switch comes next year, your Yahoo Search results aren’t going to matter as much as your Bing ones.

The differences between ranking well in Google and in Bing are luckily not too far apart, but there are a few things that Bing holds more important. Domain age seems to play a stronger role in the search results for Bing, as well as the amount of text on your website. Unlike Google however, blogs linked to your website aren’t quite as important as on Google.

For all the concern over rankings out there and how to optimize for different search engines, it is important to remember that there are other aspects of bringing your company business through your website. Social media like Facebook and Twitter have been growing fast in the business world, and your company can draw in many visitors from these sites alone, without worrying about those people finding you on a search engine.