Doing small business together

Keep It Fresh! Being a small business owner typically leaves us with very little extra time. So the thought of having an employee that works for you 24/7 - namely your website, is a nice welcome relief. And it may be tempting to leave that employee alone to do it's work. But even the best of employees need some maintenance. Neglecting the upkeep of your website can be detrimental to your Google ranking. Google is constantly seeking the best, the hippest, and the freshest content to deliver to it's searchers. Websites that are stale or simply have no new content will start to drop in ranking. Here are few quick ways to keep your website updated with fresh content: Start a Blog Exquisite Pixel Designs software utilizes blogger.com, which works with your gmail account. Simply log into your gmail account and go to blogger.com to start your blog. Then get started by writing about things your website visitors would find valuable. Be sure to include photos (...

 What is SEO exactly? Say you own the cutest shop in the world. You sell amazing items, it's decorated perfectly. There's just one nuance..you're situated on a mountain top all by yourself, and nobody knows you're there. Having the flashiest, coolest looking website means nothing if nobody can find you. That's where SEO comes in. SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a combination of embedding keywords, sprinkling keywords throughout your content, adding alt text to your images, adding the correct kind of description and titles, and submitting your website to major search engines along with a few other things. Most of SEO is the job of your web designer. Once you get a website, it should take roughly 3-6 months from time of launch and submission for it to be indexed by search bots. In other words, give your website at least this amount of time for it to come up in web searches. Does this mean in 6 months your website will be listed in spo...

GET YOUR BUSINESS LISTED The days when you call up your local phone book to get your business listed are just about over. Very few, people actually still do this. And that, of course, is because we now live in a digital world. We actually still had our other business listed in the old school yellow pages for a while, but after tracking where our calls were coming from, it was clear that, for the price we paid, it simply wasn't worth it. There are too many free ways to get your business out there, and they should really be taken advantage of! It takes a little time to set up, but consider it an investment. Free business listing sites increase your company’s online exposure and help improve your local search ranking results in major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.  This post will be your resource/checklist for getting your new business AND new business's website in the free listing websites available. Getting your business and website listed is imp...

Don't DIY when it comes to website building. Make sure you do some research first! Here we've compiled a list of the reviews from some of the top DIY software companies out there.  You're welcome. The first one is Wix .  One of the main things that makes Wix a poor choice is that they use Flash in their website builders and as a result, get poor SEO results, and slow loading times. Another complaint is their overall look is just not really professional.  Also, they may start off as "FREE" but you will find that you need to upgrade at some point, and apparently, they're not cheap. Nothing like surprise costs to bum your day out! Especially after you're somewhat committed due to the time you've invested in building the site.  You're also going to see a trend with the reviews I'm going to post in their lack of good, available customer service. This seems to be the case with these large companies. "Wi...

A website isn't doing much good for you if it's not being found in search engines. As the person who's NOT handling the back-end of your own website, there are still things that you can do to help your website rank higher. It's important to work at competing and doing what you can to get your website to rank higher in searches along with working with your web designer. Here are a few quick pointers that you can do to help accomplish this. 1)  Get Listed First of all make sure all of your social media avenues list your website, and also make sure you have your Google Business listing up-to-date and with your current web address. There are other free listing avenues as well such as  yp.com , and  manta , yelp and many others. Look into all of the free listing sites, create your listing and put your website link on all of them.  Use whatever social media avenues you have chosen to your advantage. Keep them fresh, fun and relevant.  Read more on Social ...

This may come as a surprise to people,  but your website shouldn't really be all about you. When somebody comes to visit your website, typically, it's because they have a problem, and they're trying to see if your company can solve it for them. But they don't want you to be the hero, THEY want to be the hero of their own story. So it's your job, as a business owner, and a website owner, to be their guide in making THEM the hero. So how do we, as business owners and website owners do this? In Donald Miller's 5 minute marketing makeover  he shows you the common mistakes people make when creating their website, and how to make your site over so that your potential customer becomes engaged and interested in what it is you're offering. The first few seconds someone lands on your website are the most crucial. Needless to say, the part above the fold (before there is any scrolling) needs to clearly and concisely speak to your customer exactly ...

If you're considering a do-it-yourself website builder for your small business website you may want to think again.  Sure, the television commercials and radio ads make it sound easy and cost effective, but the truth is that most site builders are difficult to use, require a lot of time, lack essential features your small business needs and have hidden fees that add up quick. Also, if you don't know what you're doing with SEO, your website will be pointless as no one will be able to find it. Don't Do IT! Here's the deal: Just because you CAN cut your own hair, doesn't mean you should. And just because you CAN build your own website, doesn't mean you should. There is a reason we leave certain things to the professionals.  What defines a "professional" A professional web designer understands what works in web design. They have studied what audiences will be looking for. When a person lands on your website, the first few seconds are t...