Archive for December, 2009
Round Up of Low Cost Usability Tools
Posted on 30. Dec, 2009 by Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog.
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Lawn Care Marketing and Google 101
Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by Dave.
If you liked this post, please subscribe! You’ll be glad you did!
Last time I spoke to you about the importance of having a website for your lawn care business and also the importance having good and useful content, that is relevant to your niche, and useful to your visitors. We’ll talk more about that in a moment but now I would like to introduce you to a new video segment on the website called Lawn Care Marketing… Each week this new feature will feature a video screen cast with hands on tips to help you get more lawn care customers to your website.
In our first screen cast right here (Lawn Care Marketing On Page SEO Starting With the Title tag ) I go over a number of basic guidelines and best practices that will help you get more lawn customers by making your website more search engine and user friendly.
When you sit down at your computer and do a Google search, you’re almost instantly presented with a list of results from all over the web. How does Google find web pages matching your query, determine the order of search results, and most importantly, what can you do to ensure your page appears “above the fold” (the portion of the computer screen that you can see without scrolling down) or number one for their target keywords?
Do a quick search online and you’ll find no shortish of websites with all sorts of very long and drawn out discussions on search engine optimization, as that is such a broad term, but essentially what I want you to focus on first, and what I tell all my lawn care clients to focus on primarily is what’s called “on page” SEO. On page SEO consists of 3 basic elements.
Title tag, Description tag, and Header tag…
Of course there are a number of other SEO tactics one might employ to get more lawn care customers, such as web analytics, content creation, viral marketing etc, but none of these work better or, in my opinion, are more affective faster than on page SEO for local search engine marketing.
So, whether you’re running a small landscaping business, a handyman service or if you’re self employed contractor, these three very simple steps, when done properly, are essential to getting top listing on Google…
Watch the screen cast above to learn more about these basic guidelines , starting with the so, so, so important title tag…
Foamers is committed to helping our lawn care clients achieve the highest return on their investment. Should you wish to acquire more information about our landscaping template customization services simply get in touch and tell us what you think.
So there you have it, you now know one of the most important steps you need to take to start making your online business thrive. In the upcoming weeks we will be continuing this discussion, under the heading, lawn care marketing, and show you how you can launch your very own landscaping website and have it work for you 24/7.
If there’s anything you wish to add on the subject of lawn care marketing, questions, comments, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments and keep checking back for more updates. See you real soon!
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Inspirational Apple iPhone Artwork
Posted on 27. Dec, 2009 by Tony.
About a month ago, I created a post titled: Inspirational Artwork: Hugo Boss Fragrance. This post featured the famous Hugo Boss fragrance bottle infused with some great artwork. In today’s article we are featuring the ever popular Apple iPhone a...Continue Reading
Happy Holidays from Designrfix!
Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by Tony.
So the holidays are finally here. Time to take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle and spend valuable time with friends and family. We at Designrfix.com would like to wish all of our readers, followers, supporters and sponsors best wishes and h...Continue Reading
Helping webmasters from user to user
Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by John Mueller.
You have to have some kind of super-powers to keep up with all of the issues posted in our Webmaster Help Forum—that's why we call our Top Contributors the "Bionic Posters." They're able to leap through tall questions in a single bound, providing hel...Continue Reading
Beautifully Designed Holiday Wallpapers
Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by Tony.
With the holidays quickly approaching, most of us we are scrambling to decorate our homes and finding that perfect gift for our loved ones. Why not get into the Christmas spirit by decorating your desktops with these beautiful free wallpapers? Don̵...Continue Reading
Creative Ways to Increase Web Site Traffic
Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by AQ.
Creative Ways to Increase Web Site Traffic Any webmaster or website owner can tell it isn’t easy to increase web site traffic. For one, the competition is intense; your website is merely just one of the hundreds, probably even thousands, in the exact...Continue Reading
Free Gift Idea for the Usability Geek
Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog.
Optimal Workshop is offering to send free, "Jacob Nielsen approved" usability buttons to anywhere in the world. What better way to enhance the geek cred of that usability specialist in your life? I especially like the "What Would Jacob Do?" button. ...Continue Reading
Handling legitimate cross-domain content duplication
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by John Mueller.
Webmaster level: IntermediateWe've recently discussed several ways of handling duplicate content on a single website; today we'll look at ways of handling similar duplication across different websites, across different domains. For some sites, there ar...Continue Reading
How to Use Google Maps with WordPress Blogs: 5 Plugins to Get You Started
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Barbara Holbrook.
It wasn’t long ago that Mapquest was the only quality mapping tool online. Then, the rise of Google Maps, possibly the best and most sophisticated mapping tool available online. Google Maps inspired regular people to become cartographers — map...Continue Reading
Google Personalized Search: Part 2: How to Influence Google Personalized Search Results
Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by Gravity.
As of December 4, 2009, Google’s search results will never be the same. Seriously, they’ll never be the same, even from one computer to another. In our previous post, we discussed how Google personalized search will affect your business. N...Continue Reading
Make Your Landscaping Website Thrive – How?
Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by Dave.
By now, hopefully, most landscaping business owners know that its important for their business to have a real website, they know, or at the very least, they have a pretty good idea, of just how many people use the Internet in search for landscapers and local businesses in general. And I like to think that for the most part you’re probably already online, or your actively working towards getting that website.
Right?
However, for many the whole idea of doing a website, I suppose one could say, seems a bit simplistic – to think that all you need to do is build it and they will come, is really not the case – if you really want your new landscaping website to thrive, your going to have to try a little harder than that.
Maybe you’ve heard it said before, if you’ve read The 5 Pillars of Creating a Successful Website, you’ve read me talk about the importance of having good content, fresh content, regularly updated content etc, etc, etc…
And I frequently tell my clients that and the most popular response that I get is “But that sound like a lot of work…”, then there’s that small awkward pause, where I just want say, “You know what hard work is?”, instead I say, “Yes, it does require some effort”, and that’s true, that does equal work – “But!”
Its just as if you went and did a job, maybe you planted some trees, but your never showed the customer how to look after those trees – you never once return to see how the tree were doing, soon the trees began to rot, needless to say, that customer never calls you back again…
Similarly, your website visitors want to do business with someone they know and trust, they want to be informed, they want expert and authoritative advice from a reliable source – so if you want your landscaping website to thrive, you need to strive to be that voice.
Idle hands make a man poor…
Doesn’t matter whether your landscaper, or a broker, with just little bit of thought you can find stuff to write about – maybe it’s winter, why not give your customers some tips and ideas for the winter months – do a special promo or a giveaway, keep those doors of communication open, and fresh – remember, most website visitors don’t become customers on the first visit, but if you can keep reminding then, keep them interested and engaged, you have a better chance of winning their business in the future.
Everything you just read me say is very simple very easy to implement yet, for most landscaping company owners who have been in business for decades, venturing into the web may be an intimidating experience, or it may be that you are, as one client put it, not very computer orientated – that’s where we come in!
Foamers is committed to helping our clients achieve the highest return on their investment. Should you wish to acquire more information about our landscaping template customization services simply get in touch and tell us what you think.
So there you have it, you now know one of the most important steps you need to take to start making your online business thrive. In the upcoming weeks we will be continuing this discussion, under the heading, lawn care marketing, and show you how you can launch your very own landscaping website and have it work for you 24/7.
If there’s anything you wish to add on the subject of lawn care marketing, questions, comments, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments and keep checking back for more updates. See you real soon!
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Want Your Facebook Status Updates Indexed in Google? We Didn’t Think So.
Posted on 13. Dec, 2009 by Gradiva Couzin.
Any minute now Someday, Facebook status posts will begin to display within Google search results. Here are three simple steps to take control over your Facebook privacy settings. The default privacy settings on Facebook leave much of your information...Continue Reading
Google Personalized Search: Part 1: Personalized Search Will Affect Your Business
Posted on 11. Dec, 2009 by Gravity.
As of December 4, 2009, Google’s search results will never be the same. Seriously, they’ll never be the same, even from one computer to another. Google’s expanded personalized search is a game-changer in search engine design. It’...Continue Reading
SLV Rent web site
Posted on 11. Dec, 2009 by veerle@duoh.com.
Time for a bit of design background of this recent project we just launched. SLV Rent is a company specialized in sound, light, and vision. Duoh! also designed the logo, business cards, invoices, and advertisements for them. This project seemed the per...Continue Reading
What is The Single Most Important Online Marketing Tool You Absolutely Need to Have for Your Website?
Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Dave.
There is no doubt, being able to follow up with your prospects & customers is the single most important marketing tool you absolutely need to have in order to continue to grow and sustain your business.
To do that, and be affective at it, you need some sort of tool that allows you to organize and easily email your leads – where’s once text-based emails where consider the norm, and perhaps to this day you are still doing your marketing with basic text emails, there’s now a wealth of rich media, technology and functionality to consider.
One solution, which is what I use and recommend all my clients to use, is the help of something like CakeMail or add2it or PHPList, these tools really make it easy to send and manage your HTML messages. Phplist in particular is great because it has a built in WYSIWYG HTML editor that allows you to create and view your HTML message even before you send it out, plus it’s free! Other services such as CakeMail and the like, offer free newsletter templates you can edit.
Besides that, in our continuous effort to increase our level of service, Foamers now offers custom newsletter template design,(at just $179 a pop), in a number of custom styles such as…
CSS Left Frame LayoutThis is a two columns liquid layout with the left column being static, always in view.
CSS Right Frame Layout
This is a two columns liquid layout with the right column being static, always in view.
CSS Top Frame Layout
This is a two rows liquid layout with the top row being static, always in view.
CSS Bottom Frame Layout
This is a two rows liquid layout with the bottom row being static, always in view.
CSS Left and Right Frames Layout
This is a three columns liquid layout with the leftmost and rightmost columns being static, always in view.
Should you wish to acquire more information about our newsletter template customization services simply get in touch and tell us what you think.
In sum, them, while basic text email might be slightly less complicated to built, HTML formatted email can look just like a real web page, with everything from graphics to links, colorful fonts, interactive form, charts you name it. Combined, this allows you to follow-up and interact with your customer in a more professional and effective way.
The bottom line is that email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available for developing relationships with your customers – finally, the other thing you need to remember is that most website visitors don’t become customers on the first visit, but if you can keep them interested and engaged, you have a better chance of winning their business in the future. When it’s done well and with your customers in mind, Email Marketing is a powerful tool.
Finally, follow these five fundamental elements when designing your newsletter template.
1 – Always use absolute URLS for your graphics (ie http://foamers.net/blogger/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/layout.gif )
2 – Do not save your images as attachments (nobody in their right mind will ever open some strange attachment,) but store them on your web server so that they may display properly in the email.
3 – Send it to yourself before sending it to your subscriber list. And if possible send it to a buddy who has a different email program than you, to be sure most of your subscribers can read it on their computers.
4 – Once your satisfied, save it as a template. Then you can just open the template whenever you want to send html mail and most of the work will be done for you.
5 – If you still feel uncomfortable around HTML I highly recommend that you go on a multimedia or web design course just to get a feel for the fundamentals – and to pick the brains of other Internet entrepreneurs, which is always useful. One way to learn from us right here is simply to subscribe to this feed.
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Can Tiger Woods Help Market Your Business – A Conversation
Posted on 07. Dec, 2009 by AQ.
Last week I made a post about the possibility of using this whole Tiger Woods story to help you market your business. And as I expected, because it’s a pretty controversial topic, I received numerous responses and comments from both sides of th...Continue Reading
You Can’t Afford To Miss This!
Posted on 07. Dec, 2009 by Dave.
I was poking around today using CitySearch.com and Yelp.com, they’re both online directories that have detailed listings of gardeners, landscapers, and contractors in every major city in America. But as I am doing these searches, I’m seeing so many listings without a website link.
This is so ridiculous it’s mind boggling, why don’t they have a website? Your guess is as good as mine – there just so many important reasons to have your own website, yet, over 40% of small businesses do not. That figure is even scarier considering 82% of consumers turn to the search engines when finding a local business, compound that with the number of users accessing the web through handheld devices, the number of BlackBerry users alone is over 25 million – can you really afford to miss this?
One reason might be that you’re just confused about how to create an affective and affordable website for your small business, or perhaps you searching, but cant seem to find a designer who understands that their job is not just to create a website, but to help you make money. (That’s where We come in!)
Foamers is committed to helping our clients achieve the highest return on their investment. In addition our template customization services is always delivered on time and we make sure that you have the most standards compliant web sites possible.
Right now pick any template and the template is yours ABSOLUTELY FREE, PLUS another 20% off on our template customization services, all you have to do to get the discount and the FREE template, is order the customizations now!
You just ran out of excuses not to put up that website you been meaning to get around to doing. # Click here to view all Landscaping Website Templates
Should you wish to acquire more information about our template customization services simply get in touch and tell us what you think.
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Your site’s performance in Webmaster Tools
Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by John Mueller.
Webmaster level: IntermediateLet's take a quick look at the individual sections in the Google Webmaster Tools' Site Performance feature:Performance overviewThe performance overview shows a graph of the aggregated speed numbers for the website, based on...Continue Reading
The 5 Pillars of Creating a Successful Website
Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Dave.
1 – Stop Procrastinating
Many people simply spend too much time trying to make decisions about their website. While it is important to weigh your options carefully and make informed decisions, too much time spent wastefully trying to make a decision can cause a significant delay for a project.
So, what are you waiting for?
2 – Should I go Custom or choose a template?
Custom design evangelists often claim that the use of website templates only ensures that you have a design that looks just like someone else’s website. Primarily because website templates may be resold, they argue, web templates are not unique and may give your company an unprofessional, unpolished appearance, and that you should always opt for a custom site.
The truth, however, is that a good quality website template, in tandem with professional and affordable template customization, can provide you with a unique and high quality design at just a fraction of the cost of hiring someone else to do a custom design starting from scratch.
In fact, whether they tell you or not, just as a wise contractor makes good use of a blueprint to guide the construction of a building to its successful completion, every web designer also uses a template or basis as his or her guide in creating a unique and well-organized web site.
So right away, two clear advantages are time and money. Typically speaking it can take many days for a good designer to create a preliminary mockup of such quality.
Also, consider the time necessary to piece the original design into slices and the actual rendering of the design onto HTML and resources spent validating that code on all major browsers. The cost of which will most certainly be passed onto you, the client.
3 – Make some crucial decisions
Previously, most developers worked by a rule that you had about eight seconds to get the users attention once they accessed your site.
Today, the new rule is now four seconds.
Remember always: Have an undiluted clear-cut call to action. Don’t let them get distracted! Pages that have only one goal outperform the rest simply because of the fact that having two goals requires communicating two messages.
This is a really big deal, and something you should definitely take into consideration, especially if you’re seriously considering launching an online business.
Nevertheless, don’t just try to sale them something, without offering something that’s of value to them, but at the same time you have to find a valance – too many pages on the Web give great information, and then tail off, you have to have a clear call to action, and a basic system to move them through your pages and don’t use too many unnecessary graphics.
If it’s true that a picture speaks a thousand words, then it would be wise to assume that too many pictures can overlap a conversation, similarly, if you’re turned off by endless popups, grating audio and graphics that look like they’ve been lifted from the Vegas strip, then you shouldn’t expect your Web site visitors to react any differently.
4 – Optimize Your Template for Search Engines
Building a site with SEO in mind goes Hand-in-Hand with having a site that is user friendly too, in fact you can’t work towards the one without the other. Search engines love feeding web users lots of relevant content, so the more authoritative and relevant your content is, the more likely it will eventually be served. Consequently the better the users experience the better your Ranking. In other words, make pages for users, not for search engines.
First, take some simple steps to ensure that your site helps users find their content quickly and easily. For example, is your content organized in an easy-to-read hierarchical layout? Are you using HTML links on every page, and does each page provide internal links in the text to help the search engine crawler find its way around? Does your site offer a site map and do you include a link to the site map somewhere on each page? And last but certainly not least. Do your pages contain relevant information that clearly and accurately describe your content and is that text clear, crisp and legible?
Remember, optimizing your site structure has to be an integral part of the design process and must enhance the overall user experience. Furthermore, pages that are simple to navigate and don’t require much thinking on the end users part, will also be pages that are easy to crawl and index; that’s were we come in!
Foamers is committed to helping our clients achieve the highest return on their investment. And that includes adjusting your Website in order to improve its position in search results.
In reality, SEO is pretty simple, avoid using overzealous SEO practices and think about what’s best for the user. The ideal search engines and user friendly site is all about providing the user with content–rich relevant information and getting them to that information as soon and as easily as possible.
5 – Commit to Staying The Course
First and foremost, stay fresh! Having just a simple digital brochure (e.g. an online bulletin board of your services, contact page etc) simply doesn’t work anymore. Your site has to have regularly updated content. Nobody likes stale news; similarly, your sites content needs to stay fresh in order to continually hook and delight your primary audience.
Moreover as a publisher of information people will want to do business with you if they trust you and one of the best ways to build that trust is to provide the users with relevant clear authoritative content.
This involves coming up with a strategy to keep people coming back for the latest and greatest. For example, you could plan to keep up with the latest trends in the home load industry, such as mortgage rate trends, refinancing etc. Or you could feature relevant news articles, special promos, tips or tutorials and keep a regular publishing schedule (remember we’re talking long-term strategy here) so your subscribers will become used to hearing from you and, you’ll be able to gain their trust. So again, your site has to have regularly updated content.
So, be sure to follow these steps for a successful website and when you are deciding whether to to do it yourself our outsource the work, remember that as a small business owner, you should be spending most of your time running your operation, and not having to learn a new skill or new language – similarly, if you find basic word processor functions a challenge, have never uploaded an image from a digital camera to your computer or bought anything from a retail Web site, if you still haven’t set up that e-mail account you’ve been meaning to get to, it would be a very good idea to seek professional help.
Should you wish to acquire more information about our template customization services simply get in touch and tell us what you think.
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