Exton Website Designer

Website Design

Search Engine Optimization

Content Creation

Online Marketing

 

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Lots of parts and pieces, do you know how they all fit?

To build a website you need a domain name, an attractive design to keep the viewer interested, lots and lots of great content. this thing called "website hosting" and don't forget about email. How do you navigate it all?

Email, Domain Names, Hosting? Oh My!

The first question is do you really have the time and energy to spend learning how all this stuff works? Hiring a professional may be more costly but will get you going much quicker. Professionals have the experience to keep you from making big mistakes. Those mistakes I see often are allowing your domain name to expire, DNS settings incorrect or incomplete, websites getting hacked because of old software never getting updated, and the list goes on. 

Most new business owners will start off by creating an email account, separating their personal email from business. Sounds great, right? Not when it ends in @gmail.com, @aol.com, @yahoo.com or any other free personal email service provider. Have you ever received a business card from someone who's email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.? It just doesn't look professional and turns people off. Don't skimp out here, spend the few dollars a month to setup your email account so you look professional from the start.

Before you can setup your email you need a domain name. There are literally tens of thousands of domain registrars you can use to purchase a domain name. It seems there are more bad ones than good ones, and all they want to do is upsell you. This is one more reason to consult with a professional. Questions that come to mind are do you need hosting? How about an SSL certificate? How about the more expensive SSL certificate? What about premium DNS service? Most people have no idea what any of these things do but that doesn't stop the registrar from upselling you with a barage of addons every step of the way.

So, by now you've chosen a registrar, picked a domain name, and maybe even setup email service. Next step is a website. There are, once again, tens of thousands of website designers and cheapo websites that allow you to throw up a cookie-cutter website with the same text as the last 100 business owners who just wanted to throw up a website and say 'good enough' for now. Just gotta put up a website and money will roll in right? Wrong. Read on!

One Word: Content

Content will always set your website apart from the guy down the street. And when I say set you apart, I mean rank your website higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). You know, Google, Bing or Yahoo. I've seen many websites with horrible navigation far outrank their competitors with pixel perfect websites and lackluster terrible content. Search engines are businesses just like yours, they want happy customers. While they think they know what you need when you do a search, its not always the case, but they do their best to show the person searching the correct results so that people will come back and use their search engine again.

When I make recommendations for a client's pages on their website I make recommendations based on their business. If its a construction company then a portfolio section is a good way to display their work. If its a consulting business like mine having a services page would be a good idea. Those pages need to have a few photos and lots of descriptive text that talks about what they do and how they do it.

An about page is typically the second most trafficed page on the website, second only to the homepage, so its very important. I like to have photos of people whenever possible to help to connect the potential buyer with the business. Videos are also excellent tools to help you connect with a website viewer. More on that in another article.

I absolutely cannot stress enough how much a large amount of UNIQUE CONTENT can help to get your business off to the right start. A friend and local business owner consulted with me about how and what his website should look like as far as content is concerned. He's been in the pest control business for quite some time but he recently went out on his own in Chester County PA.

Ryan from Prudential Pest Solutions has dominated the local pest control market with the content he has created on his website. He went from just a few clients in Chester County to having 3 full time employees in just 2 years. We had a few brain storming sessions about how and what he should be writing, how often, etc. My recommendation for all small businesses is to put up at least one article per month, one per week is even better. Think of this, if you wrote one article per week you would have 52 new pages of content on your website by this time next year. That makes Google go Gaga over your website and they can't help but rank your site on the first page!

1000 words

I've found that hitting the 1000 word threshold consistently on page after page makes a big difference. It makes you think about what you are writing, how you are writing it, and how it can solve a problem for a potential buyer. A great example would be a portfolio page. While Google can recognize some parts of an image they definitely can't see it all. That's where descriptions come in: "what when where why and how". 

  • What is in the photo. Describe the overall scene, products used, and what was changed or upgraded to get to the final result.
  • When did you complete the project? Viewers like to see photos of recent work you have done.
  • Where is a huge part of local search. Don't be afraid to put as a part of the article "Malvern Pennsylvania Website Designer".
  • Why did the client want this done? 
  • How did you do the work? What steps did it take to finish?

I'd love to hear from you about your website design project, Contact Greg today!

Marketing Your Small Business in Chester County PA

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Power of the web

You can harness the power of the web for your clients, partners, or employees. Have us custom design an online collaboration space, Content Management System, Wiki, Blog, Photo gallery, or light ecommerce website to help your company be more efficient.

Email Newsletters

Email Newsletters can help increase your ROI. Easily and inexpensively send out daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever you need them. Send Greg an email to learn more.

Reporting

Reporting is very, very important to your online marketing efforts. It is the only way to make sure your web advertising dollars are being allocated to the right place. You might be spending $550 per month on online advertising, but are you getting a better ROI from Yellow Pages or from Google? Reporting from @Cazillo will give you the info you need.
256 Eagleview Blvd PMB 104
Exton, PA 19341