Why you NEED a blog on your website

Over the past month or so, we have had several clients come to us seeking advice about "How can I get found on the search engines?"  Our answer has consistently been - "Start a blog".

Why is a blog so important? There are several reasons why blogs are great, but really we want to focus on the most important one, which answers the question of how to get found by Google:

Blogs are the most cost effective way to improve the search engine rankings of your website.

First of all, let's clear up what we mean by a "blog". Basically a blog is just an informational website or part of a website consisting of different posts, or articles.

Usually a blog allows for users to leave comments, and that's a great feature but for our purposes not completely necessary (although, again - a very nice feature).

Content is King

Secondly, let me explain what the number one ingredient is to making your website appear on the first page of Google: content. The text, verbiage, wording, words, etc. on your page is what Google craves. If the words on your webpage are crumbs, Google is like a hungry puppy dog searching the floor for every dropped morsel it can find. If your website doesn't have very many crumbs...Google will quickly move on to the NEXT website.

The reason we recommend blogs so often is that they provide that content for search engines like Google. Particularly if you are a small business or non-profit, you probably need more content for your website. Many of our clients have 5 - 10 page websites, yet their competition on the internet has websites with 30 - 50 pages. Not exactly an even playing field when it comes to who is going to appear higher up on Google.

So what do you put on your blog? The simple answer is anything remotely related to your industry.

Let's think about what the goal is first and then work backwards. We want to feed Google words. More precisely, we want to feed Google keywords that relate to our business.  If you do web design, lawn care, or hair cuts you want to feed Google the keywords "web design", "lawn care", and "hair cuts", respectively.

Any topic you can think of that will naturally include those keywords is what you're looking for.

It will take time. Even if you only write once every other month, you're still adding valuable content to your website. But for many small businesses it's the best and most cost effective way to improve your search engine rankings.

I launched my website...now what?

Creating a brand new website for your business is a big accomplishment. There are countless hours that go into designing, coding, reviewing, testing, and publishing a website. However once the website is launched, what do you do next?

Here are the top 7 things you should remember to do AFTER your website is launched.

1. Promote it

It's really easy to forget to promote your website. Make sure to put your web address on business cards, brochures, signs, etc. Also send out an email blast and Facebook post announcing that you have a new website and people should check it out.

It's also a good idea to give people another reason to go to your website, such as offering web-only specials or coupons. People love to get a good deal, and once they've visited your site it will be easier to get them to return.

2. Check your statistics.

Early on, you can expect to see small amounts of traffic to your brand new website.  Make sure that you check your website hits about once a week or so, especially early on, just to see what pages are getting hits, where your visitors are coming from, how long they're staying on each page, etc.

You'll also want to make adjustments based on your findings. For example, if your "About Us" page is getting a fair amount of visitors, but no one is staying on the page for more than a couple seconds, maybe you should consider sprucing up the content to make it more interesting, or adding some pictures.

3. See where you land in the search engine rankings.

Where your website appears in the search engines is extremely important. Everyone wants to be on the top of page #1, but that isn't easy.

There are a large number of keywords that you can type into Google to find your website. For example, an easy one is your company name: "Fresh Look Web Design". Or you can do a more general search: "web design". Or general term + geographic location: "hampton virginia web design".

We recommend checking your position in the search engine rankings every couple months at the least, to see where you appear. This is particularly important if you are actively trying to improve your position in the search engines. Which leads us to our next topic...

4. Improve your search engine ranking.

This could be a whole series of articles by itself, but we'll direct you to our SEO Checklist if you want to get some general ideas for improving your ranking. The idea we want to get across in this article however is that it's an ongoing process that continues long after you launch your site. You have to work at it, because your competition is doing the same.

5. Add new information

Sometimes it's hard to remember to post things to your website. Think about all the information you share on a regular basis: event information, newsletters, special offers, board meeting announcements, etc. As you go through the day to day business, make sure to put this information on the website.

6. Remove outdated information

This is so easy to forget, however it's important to do. You do not want outdated information on your website. Sometimes it helps to have an archive section where you intentionally put old info, and that's fine. But you don't want your users to see you promoting an event that is 2 months old...it just doesn't reflect too well on your business. Try to remove outdated information promptly.

7. Be patient

A website is not like a microwave that will just zap your business into success. It's more like a really great recipe that will in time produce a delicious meal - if you put forth the effort. Be patient while you're making your website work...keep up with it, update it, check the status and try new things. In time it will turn into something delicious!

Should I bother setting up a Facebook business page?

Is it worth it to create a Facebook page for your business? My answer is always yes. Here's why:

1. Risk vs. reward. What's the risk? 1 or 2 hours of your time that ends up being wasted. What's the reward? 1 or 2 hours of your time that gets a few referrals.

2. I say 1 or 2 hours...to really have an awesome Facebook page you should spend more time on it to maximize it's potential. But you don't have to. Maybe you just want to put in a small investment of time to get it going...that's totally fine.

3. Even if you get no referrals, having a Facebook business page makes you look legit. If you're a start-up this is especially important.

4. If you don't have a website yet you absolutely need a Facebook page. The point is that you need SOMETHING on the internet for people to find information on you. A website is the best way, but a Facebook page is a good (cheap) way also.

5. You're not just reaching your friends, but also the friends of your friends. Your reach can get pretty big if you can get people to interact with your page.

6. Even if you also have a website, a Facebook business page will help let people know what's going on with your business. Lots of people spend lots of time on Facebook.

7. Your website and Facebook page can work together. Check out our article on Facebook's "Like" button.

8. If you have the right business, a Facebook page can be HUGE. Some good "Facebook page friendly" industries are:

• photography (people love to share pictures on Facebook)
• dining (people love to talk about food on Facebook)
• tourism
• anything with a cause - politics, breast cancer, etc. Stuff that people like to talk about or share stories

Hopefully we've convinced you that a Facebook page has the potential to help your business. Let us know if you need help getting started. Good luck!

3 Keys to Effective Websites

Anyone who has a website wants to make it as effective as possible. This means generating new business, keeping current business, selling products, etc. So how do we make our websites effective?

1. Professional, stunning, beautiful design

A great looking website will add loads of credibility to your business. On the flip side, there's nothing worse than a shoddy, homemade looking website which reflects poorly on the business. Your website has to LOOK really good.

2. User friendly design

Not only must your website look really good, but it needs to be easy to use. "Intuitive" is always the word that we use in the industry. Here's some important things your website should do when someone pulls it up for the first time:

• Load quickly


• Make it easy for the user to know what to do through call to action buttons


• VERY easy to contact business (either by phone number at the top or lead form on home page)


• No errors in functionality or content


• Easy to click from page to page

Even if your website looks great, if users get frustrated by it then it won't be effective.

3. Search engine friendly

Search engines offer nearly unlimited potential to your website traffic. A site we launched recently is now receiving almost 90% of it's total traffic through the search engines. If your website isn't getting any traffic through search engines than something needs to be fixed.

There are a lot of things you can do to get more search engine traffic even without hiring a professional, providing you can edit your own website. The most important way (and least technical), is adding more content to your website. So if your business is lawn care, write a page that talks about how to get your grass to grow in the fall. Search engines love that type of thing.

A few other ways to make your website more search engine friendly are:

• Using text instead of images


• Having descriptive title tags


• Linking to your site from social media


• Putting important keywords in your main header (h1) tag

If you want to read about some more SEO tips in detail you can read our Easy SEO Checklist article.

We hope these 3 Keys to Effective Websites help you and your business. The important thing is to remember to evaluate your website regularly on all three aspects. It takes worth but it's worth it!