MIND Development & Design

New Year’s Resolution: I Will Care

Marqeteer — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:17:20 +0000

Ok, we know it’s not the New Year yet and resolutions don’t really matter unless they’re serious commitments, but we have a New Year’s Resolution challenge for you and your business.

Look at how your business is represented online through your web development and web design strategy and make this simple commitment: I Will Care.

I Will Care enough to put thought into my website and how it represents my business online.

I Will Care that my website doesn’t look or feel like an afterthought.

I Will Care enough to put some of my own thought, time and energy into my website so it truly represents me and my business.

I Will Care to envision my website as an interactive forum with legitimate, current and valuable information people can use because I know this is what will create the “top of mind awareness” that I need.

I Will Care to seek out legitimate SEO and Internet marketing and NOT seek out the magic pills that tell me what I want to hear but ultimately don’t deliver.

I Will Care enough to be patient with my SEO if I’m just starting with it and active with my SEO to be sure it remains Google-friendly.

I Will Care enough to work with my web development and web design team on creative and valid new material to keep my site fresh.

Your site will be as successful as you want it to be…and that requires your input because no one knows your business better than you. Communicate clearly with your development and design team and with your SEO/Internet marketing specialist, as this connection is what results in the best and most powerful websites online:)

All Fingers Point to Your Website…Are You Ready?

Marqeteer — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:44:28 +0000

Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and accomplishing little or nothing in terms of tangible results with your web development and web design efforts?

The old adage of keeping it simple is the key. All roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website.

The ultimate goal is to earn a higher ranking in the search engines through both onsite and offsite SEO (search engine optimization).

And that’s where it gets confusing, thanks to the myriad “solutions” available online and the unfortunate promises they make in their sales pitches.

Always remember: The purpose of your website is two main things: get people to call you or get people into your business/on an appointment with you. It’s really that simple.

So where does all of this SEO crap fit into the picture? Your onsite SEO ensures that all of your titling and content contains the proper key words and phrasing in the proper amount. Too much can kill your ranking. The right words have to be balanced with the right presentation so people will like what they see when they find you and, thus, stay longer.

Your offsite SEO is mostly links back to your website. Yep, you want a whole bunch of fingers pointing to your website because that tells Google that you’re both relevant and popular. Links can come from a variety of sources, and making comments on other relevant blogs is a good place to start.

Each comment you make is a link back to your site. Now, that being said, make sure your comments are relevant and add to the conversation. ”This was a nice post” or “You have really made a good point here” (or any of the other lame generic comments you’ve undoubtedly seen) are both thoughtless and worthless. Compliments only count when they’re followed by thoughtful comments that add to the conversation.

Guest blogging is another great way to generate links. Think of some of your favorite blogs and contact the owners. Simply ask if they accept guest blog articles. Some do and some don’t, so find the ones that do and get writing:) It not only gets you more links to your site, it exposes you to an entirely new audience as well.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a presence in social media forums for both linking and interaction with your target audience.

And if you remember nothing else from reading this, remember that all roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website. You want a lot of fingers pointing at you so you’ll be noticed.

Just make sure you have the right web development and web design team to create the kind of site people will truly like when they discover it.

Get a Google +1 Button On Your Website, Yo. Word.

Marqeteer — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:48:12 +0000

No doubt many of you have seen the little Google +1 button (shown to your right in loving enlargement) on websites and blogs you have visited. Some of you understand it and some of you may think it’s one more distraction.

Two words with regard to your website: Get One.

It’s an important part of your long term plan for web development and web design.

In an age of Internet marketing/viral marketing becoming marketing on steroids, Google put in their two cents…which is worth WAY more than two measly cents to your business. The Google +1 button sits there next to the Facebook “like” button, Digg button, StumbleUpon button and whatever other social media sharing buttons are on a web page. All of those buttons are very valuable in getting your website viewed by a much wider audience and building your following online. The Google +1 button might just be the most valuable of all, as it can affect where you appear in the search engine results of people who click on it.

The way it works is when a visitor has a Google account and clicks on the +1, it will give them a little message that says “You publicly +1′d this as (their name here).” From that point forward, whenever they do a search for your kind of business you will rank higher in their search because they publicly +1′d your site. Basically, Google takes the fact that they gave your site (or a page on your site) a “thumbs up” in the Google platform and factors that into the algorithm of their personal search.

More and more, this kind of “personalized” searching is becoming the norm. It only figures that Google will work their own offerings (i.e. Google Places, Google Plus) into the algorithms and reward those of us who are smart enough to use them. Google is by far the largest search engine with 75% – 80% market share. Don’t take that lightly.

Get the button, and if you don’t know how your web development and web design team should be able to easily take care of it for you:)

Thanksgiving Turkey and Keyword Stuffing

Marqeteer — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:11:03 +0000

The evolution of SEO in the effectiveness of your web development and web design efforts changes weekly if not daily. For every legitimate method of being found online, there are a zillion people to abuse it to the point where Google reduces its value in their algorithms.

Incidentally, what makes “zillion” such a great number is that it’s an arbitrary number to which anyone can assign any value. Gotta love it:)

Anyway, one of the big culprits we deal with today is “key word stuffing.” That’s basically cramming (stuffing) as many key words into the copy on your pages as possible and cramming as many key words into links, etc. that you possibly can. This is the kind of behavior that makes your site look and read spammy, yet why do so many people still use these tactics?

Simple: Desperation and/or impatience. The key to using key words in your SEO is moderation, not stuffing. There should be no more than a 3% saturation of any key word phrase on any page of your website. Links to your site are also now more effective if they contain your name or your brand name rather than key words in the links. This is due to the abuse of key word “link wheels,” which are basically a series of sites set up which link to each other and then link back to one central site.

Be consistent with your blogging efforts, content management and site updates and exercise reasonable moderation in using keywords in your SEO efforts. It’s excess that leads to the constant changes, such as the Panda Google updates, which are specifically designed to eliminate the effectiveness of spammy behavior in both on and offsite SEO. If you go overboard with any method, you are basically contributing to that method being rendered ineffective in the long run.

The analogy I like to draw is the cornerback Lester Hayes of the Oakland Raiders in the 70′s and early 80′s. Back then, players used a sticky resin called “Stick ‘Um” on their hands to help with their grip on the ball. Used in reasonable moderation, this substance was legal. Hayes, however, pushed it to the limit in the 1980 NFL season. He smeared it on his hands, jersey, pants, shoes, helmet…anywhere the ball would potentially touch (see the picture to the left). In 1980 he was one interception short of the all-time season record with 13, while an additional 4 were called back because of penalties. Teammates even joked that the reason he got all those interceptions was StickUm …because if the ball even touched his hand he’d hang on.

By the 1981 season, Stick Um was outlawed (and still is) in what is known as the Lester Hayes Rule. Can you imagine what the league would look like if this was still allowed? Ridiculous.

That is what continues to happen with the evolution of online marketing and search engines. People take legitimate, legal methods and go overboard to the point where search engines have to step in and do their job: Create and maintain a level playing field for all.

Search engines continue to evolve and those changes occur almost daily. For example, those meta tags that were once pretty valuable on your site are now not indexed the way they once were. Why? Because the search engines became wise to the fact that people are key-word-stuffing their metatags…so they have devalued those tags in indexing. Is this permanent? Probably not. These things go in cycles and in time, metatags will cycle around to more valuable indexing again.

In the meantime, like our parents told us (but we didn’t wanna listen)…practice moderation. At least with your SEO:)

Anybody Remember Ishtar? A Great Internet Marketing Lesson Can Be Learned From It

Marqeteer — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:29:22 +0000

Do any of you remember the 1987 comedy film Ishtar? Most of you probably don’t, but many of you are probably rolling your eyes because it is notorious for being one of the absolute biggest box office flops in movie history.

$55 million dollar budget.
$14 million dollar take at the box office.
You do the math.

So what in the world does a movie from before the Internet age have to do with your web development and web design? Well, our friend Mark Boyd – aka Marqeteer – is just strange enough to track down a movie like this and draw an analogy. While reading this analogy, remind yourself of how quickly viral marketing spreads online – especially if the news is negative – and you will see the correlation.

Ishtar was pretty much doomed as soon as it hit theaters. It ranked #1 its first weekend with a fairly modest take and fell rather quickly due to a merciless barrage of negative reviews, all fueled by negative commentary about the ridiculous budget, infighting, actor/director clashes and other things that had nothing to do with watching the movie itself. The negative word spread and colored people’s perception of the movie without them even seeing it.

If you were to ask someone today if they were familiar with Ishtar, there will be those who say yes. Of the people who say “yes” only a small portion of them have actually seen the movie. Most of those who haven’t seen it will undoubtedly be familiar with the negativity surrounding Ishtar…and maybe even offer an opinion, however uneducated. However uneducated those opinions were, they led to the movie being so badly reviewed that it’s not even available on DVD here in the US.

Which means people will give opinions even though they have no first hand knowledge about something. How you present yourself online and communicate through your website speaks to people either positively or negatively. Whatever reaction you get from people will be spread quickly through their circles of friends. These people are then likely to offer opinions to others…sometimes without having visited your site themselves (i.e. Ishtar).

Obviously, you can’t please all of the people all of the time…but you CAN put thought into your content, your pictures and your overall presentation that will be inviting to people and create more positive buzz.

Don’t make your website too nice or milquetoast…let your personality, humour, creativity and opinions shine. It humanizes you to visitors and leaves either a positive or negative opinion with them. This opinion will be spread by both those who know and don’t know. Heck, look at the layout of the MIND website. Think we like rock n roll and retro pictures? Hell yeah! That’s us. We love it and, fortunately, people love us for it.

What do you love? Remember, people will love you for it.

As long as it’s not Hot Fudge Love…

How Is Your Website’s Onsite SEO?

Marqeteer — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:01:25 +0000

We’re about a third of the way through the last quarter of the year (how ’bout THEM fractions?) and now is a great time to take an inventory of your website’s SEO. Much of your SEO actually occurs offsite through link building. However, if your foundation on your site is not solid and well thought out, you’re just spinning your wheels.

Work with your web development and web design team on these things and your search engine ranking will improve. Not overnight, but you will build a solid foundation that will make your offsite SEO that much more effective.

Titling: The title of your web page appears in search engine results as a link to that page. It should not be more than 60 characters long, as most search engines (especially Google) won’t index past 60 characters, including spaces. The title should use relevant key words.

Meta Description: This tells searchers the purpose of your site…basically what it’s all about. It usually appears below the title in search results and helps people decide if your site interests them enough to visit. Your meta description should generally be no longer than 150 characters, including spaces, and should contain the most important keywords for your website. Search engines will read 200 – 250 characters, but only the first 150 are displayed. “Trim the fat” when you write your meta description and keep it relevant, using keywords your potential clients/customers are using to search. Admittedly, Meta Tags aren’t heavy in SEO weight but they ARE part of an overall SEO picture and certainly help in describing your site.

Content: Content is king, linking is queen. You’ve heard it before. We’ve said it many times. Since we’re talking about your onsite SEO, we’re talking about your website content. Is your content relevant? Is it genuinely helpful and not just an afterthought? Most importantly, is it engaging? What style or flair do you bring to your website’s content?

Remember, there’s no magic pill. It’s a growing process. Start with your onsite SEO and make sure your content is engaging. Who cares if someone finds your site if the content is lackluster? That just means they won’t return and will tell their friends not to go there, either. Follow the simple guidelines above and you will be on your way to better online optimization for your website.

How Current Is Your Web Team

MIND — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:03:47 +0000

As people move towards a more web-based life you find that many tips and ideas are still spread by the most common way; word of mouth. Only this time “word of mouth” is actually something that is posted or shared on a social network and not at the water cooler. As a Web Development Company that handles Web Design in Lancaster we often browse message boards like ones found on LinkedIn and Facebook. What we read sometime, however, is a little scary and somewhat demonstrates how word of mouth can sometimes be a detriment rather than a benefit.

Many companies tout their experience on their sites. “We’ve been designing websites since 19 something and something”… “1,000 years of experience from immortal website designers”! All kinds of grand claims… heck, even we do it! There is nothing wrong with that, however, there is something to be said about staying current. Sure, you’re company has been around for years — does your website show that? How many sites have you been to that say, “Designing Websites for 15 Years” and their site LOOKS 15 years old? How many times do you click on a portfolio link and see the same basic design elements repeated over and over? What about the site that takes for god-awfully-long to load and then it’s just a big picture with a couple links? This is the problem with being an old web designer.

How does one avoid this problem? Answer: you must stay current!

Web design and web development are two ares where technology constantly changes the landscape. Specifically for development; newer updated codes and scripts allow you to do more with less strain on browsers. Are you one of those people who “needs Flash” on their website? Did you know you can do the same effects with just a script? You’d also save space making the site load faster AND it could potentially still be searchable where Flash is not. In order to keep going in this business you need to know what people want and how to best deliver it to them. With new scripts and programs coming out everyday it’s important to keep up — and keep on it! Web design typically follows trends but one trend that will never cease is clean design. A few years ago grungy graphics and websites were cool. A few years before that flash and shockwave were the rage. Before that there were animated GIFs and scrolling text… They all have their place in time however these trends are well passed their prime and probably should be put away with other childish things

In short, you can tout your web presence and your experience all you want. However, if your website is out-dated, old, or just doesn’t work right — how does that make you as a company look? How current is your web team?

Google +: Here We Go Again…

Marqeteer — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:28:10 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, Google has recently launched Google+, their social networking site that is trying to succeed where previous efforts have failed.

You remember…Google Buzz and Google Wave?

Yyyyyeah, they didn’t work out so well for Google. Truth is, Facebook has really become to social networks what Google is to search engines, which is a hard thing for even Google to compete with. To you and most business people trying to make the best use of their web development and web design efforts, the main question is what features does Google+ have that Facebook doesn’t?

More importantly, do those features really matter to you and your business enough for you to add yet another social media forum to your network?

Here are some of the new features that are getting some buzz:

Hangouts: Probably the biggest element Google+ has that Facebook doesn’t is a feature called “Hangouts” that gives users a way to join group video chats. It’s basically a chat room with video. Any user can create a Hangout and others can then join. As well as video chatting, users can also watch YouTube videos as a group.

Sparks: Sparks is the Google+ newsfeed, and it’s different from the Facebook news feed in that it’s focused on specific topics and on news: you won’t find information on where your friend was today or what they had for dinner, but you will find highlights from blogs, newspapers, and other media outlets sorted by topic.

What Strangers Are Saying: Whereas on Facebook the only posts and status updates that appear in your news feed come from people you’re friends with, Google+ lets you see posts and updates from people you aren’t yet following, but who are following you. You can follow them if you choose by putting them into one of your “circles”.

Chat with Strangers: Facebook Chat requires you to be friends with someone before you can chat with them. Google Hangouts, for better or for worse, are much more open: up to ten people can join a Hangout video chat, and they need not be in each others’ Circles to do so. Maybe nothing negative will come of this, but you’ve got to admit Google is taking a risk with a really loaded Pandora’s Box here.

So what’s the bottom line?

Bottom line is that yes…there is another social media forum to be considered for your Internet marketing and web development/web design efforts. Is it absolutely necessary? Functionally speaking, probably not, but the initial word is that you will do well to have a presence on Google Plus and the Google+ box (the equivalent of the Facebook “like” box) on your website will help you greatly in the search engines.

Simple Ideas Are Sometimes Most Effective

Marqeteer — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:14:17 +0000

It’s amazing, isn’t it? There are practically no boundaries for visual expression in web development and web design online. Virtually any idea can be illustrated in painful detail with today’s computer graphics programs and the experts who use them.

Hollywood movies now contain more computer animation sequences than ever, and impossible scenarios can be brought to light. In our “bigger, better, faster, more” society, good ideas are beaten to death and capabilities such as the computer graphics are taken to sometimes ludicrous extremes.

And then it reaches a point of overkill wherein it’s not so special anymore. Wherein the point becomes so overstated that to stand out you could simply dress your business up like the old black-and-white “generic” products of the 1980′s.

Sometimes simple is simply better and more effective. And more memorable. Look at Apple’s logo. Or State Farm’s. Simple and memorable.

The picture above is a brilliant example of a simple idea that is simply allowed to breathe. And when you think about it, the idea is simple…the most powerful ideas usually are.

The mind is a powerful device. How are you using your mind when it comes to your website? Are you merely sticking with the tried (tired) and true? Or…are you using your imagination to really communicate with your clients and potential clients? The right web development and web design team can make these ideas shine.

Click on the image above to see the full-size picture and really see what’s going on. Ingenious

Let’s Talk Traditional Marketing

Marqeteer — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:20:00 +0000

Rock and Roll Is DEAD!

How many times over the history of rock and roll have these words been spoken or printed when some new trend comes along. In the end, it’s the trend that dies while rock continues to roll. Rock and Roll has continued to evolve and expand by incorporating the good characteristics of trends. Meanwhile, naysayers continue to look for the next hot trend.

What does this have to do with traditional marketing or Internet marketing or your web development and web design efforts? A lot.

Internet marketing and social media marketing are here to stay and truly are both the present AND the future. However, don’t believe it when anyone tells you that traditional marketing is dead. If that’s true, then apparently no one has told McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, or any of the myriad mega-companies still spending millions upon millions on print, radio and TV advertising. Granted, even they are spending less than in the past, but it still amounts to mega-bucks.

The key is how they are using their traditional marketing and what you can learn from that for your business. Traditional marketing serves one key purpose in today’s business world…to drive traffic to your website. Look at the big companies and their traditional marketing…their website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. all figure prominently in their commercials and print advertising.

Sure there are scenarios, depending on your product or service, where you want people to contact you directly or come to your office or store, but the reality of today’s marketing is that people want to learn more about what you have to offer…on their own time and at their own convenience. This is where your web development and web design efforts factor in heavily.

If you don’t have a proper foundation online, your traditional marketing is not going to be very effective. Make sure you have a website that is well thought-out, truly informative and easy to navigate. You also need to have a presence on Yelp! and other online forums that not only provide information on your business, but also provide links to your website which help with your search engine ranking.

With the proper online foundation in place, your traditional marketing can continue to be effective and work in synergy with your Internet marketing.

MIND Development & Design

New Year’s Resolution: I Will Care

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All Fingers Point to Your Website…Are You Ready?

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Get a Google +1 Button On Your Website, Yo. Word.

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Thanksgiving Turkey and Keyword Stuffing

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Anybody Remember Ishtar? A Great Internet Marketing Lesson Can Be Learned From It

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How Is Your Website’s Onsite SEO?

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How Current Is Your Web Team

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Google +: Here We Go Again…

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Simple Ideas Are Sometimes Most Effective

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