Choosing a web designer that suits the needs of your business is a crucial part of creating a successful website.

One of the most important things to look for is a designer that takes the time to get to know your business. A big part of our website design process is learning. You need to provide your designer with all of your marketing materials– brochures, flyers, logos, etc.

You also want a web designer that is receptive to criticism and willing to take your input into consideration. Your site needs to be uniquely YOU; it is an important extension of your business. We always tell our clients that we are building THEIR website. So if they don’t like something about the designs we come up with, they should say so. We aren’t here to get our egos fed; we are here to design a website that is going to help your business succeed.

As far as experience levels, you want a designer that has experience with…
- Web design. You want to go with an experienced firm because they know the whole process, and they understand important things like website usability standards and cross-browser compatibility.
-Programming. If you want any kind of interactive quality to your site like forms or administrative back-ends, you you’ll need a web designer with experience in a web programming language such as PHP or ASP.
-Graphic design. Typically, you have web designers that are good at programming and web designers that are good at graphic design. It is rare to find one person that is superior at both so make sure you go with a company that has a programmer and graphic designer. Because building your website is an important part of building your brand, you also need someone who understands formats that are not just web-based so that they can convert the look for your current materials to your website or vice versa.
-Search engine optimization. A lot of web designers don’t design with the search engines in mind. But it will save you lot of aggravation when you are trying to market your site if you have a designer that understands SEO best practices. Sites that are too graphically intense or all flash tend to not rank well in search engines. So unless you are a high profile business that has already built their brand like Chanel, you will need someone who understands how to get you to rank for keywords in your target area. You may have a really cool-looking design but what good is your website if no one can find it?

If you are interested in hiring a web designer to build your company’s website or just to improve it, mention this blog entry and get a free web consultation when you contact us!

Goebel Media Group has an exciting new client– Christopher Macken Concepts. We are thrilled to be managing his web presence and much of his marketing. The current site is a work in progress and will be added to in the near future. More about this exciting client to come…

About Christopher Macken
Christopher Macken has taken the beauty industry by storm. Blazing a path through Miami, Orlando, and much of the southeast, his long list of distinguished clients travel from all over and he travels to them, allowing everyone to experience having their own personal, celebrity stylist.  Having trained under some of the best in the business and boasting a lustrous decade long career, Christopher has developed his own brand of  high end, high quality cosmetics and skin care products.

I wouldn’t base any SEO or internet marketing campaign only around website directories, but there are some essential directories that I think every business website should be listed in.   These are all free directories that are pretty simple to get listed in.  I have included my favorites below:

-DMOZ - Great directory, but it takes a long time to get listed.
-Jayde - Very quick and easy submission process
-Kudzu - Instant approval
-Merchant Circle -Instant approval and very quick indexing in Google.
-Yelp - Based around user reviews
-Turnpike -Simple design but a good free directory
-Little Web Directory - Easy and fast submission process

It is important to understand the basics of search, including the difference between paid and unpaid search, before starting any SEO campaign, especially a campaign that has both paid and unpaid elements.

Terminology To Know:
Organic: Un-paid search results
PPC: Pay-per click
SERPS: Search engine results page

Pay-Per Click Results:
PPC results are advertisements.  If you run a PPC campaign, you pay everytime a user clicks your ad and follows it to your website.  You usually choose relevant search terms to bid on, and your ad is displayed when a user searchs that term within Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. PPC results are displayed above and to the right of organic listings in both Yahoo and Google.  Google calls these ’sponsored links’ while Yahoo uses the term ’sponsored results’.

Organic Results:
Organic listings are un-paid results that are typically displayed in the main column of the serps.  These results are ranked by a number of factors used to determine their relevance to the search term.  Some of these factors include: keyword density, title tag relevance, incoming links, Google Page Rank and meta tags.  Organic results can contain map results, product results, blog results and video results.

The Above Image Shows How Google Displays Organic & PPC Results

What is email marketing?
Email marketing is an inexpensive way to connect with your current customers by sending news and special offers via email to customers who opt in.   It is a great way to keep your company on the minds of people who have purchased your products and services in the past and bring them back for a repeat sale.  It is also possible to gain new customers through email marketing because if your recipients know someone who would be intersted in your email, they will forward it to their family and friends.Why use email marketing?
-It is less expensive then comparable forms of marketing.
-It is typically easier to get a repeat customer than a new customer.
-Email marketing can have a viral effect.
-Your customers want to know what is happening with your company.

 What should your emails contain?
This really depends on the nature of your business, but typically e-newsletters contain company news, special events at your location, educational information, information about new products or services and/or special offers.

How to get started:
-Start collecting the email addresses of interested customers today.
-Create ways to collect email addresses (postcards, forms on your website, guestbook in store).
-Give us a call at (770) 786-1455 for more information