Search

Our own Troy Tudor recently gave a presentation to the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce about social networking.  Some of his points included:

• Anyone with a message can and should use social networking to spread the word.

• It’s like Business After Hours Online.

• Allows a more personal relationship with customers.   People can see the human side of the organization. Turn friends into customers & customers into friends.

• Low to no cost to reach potential & existing customers with your message.

• Can be used to drive traffic to your website aiding in SEO.

If the video does not play, please click here.

Social Networking from Jason Crowson on Vimeo.

The simple answer to this question is: as often as you have solid, relevant content.

The more complicated answer involves taking a good, long look at the industry your site is a part of. If your site becomes outdated, customers immediately wonder if you're still in business. If the information in your field is constantly changing and evolving, like with the financial sector or technology, you will want to update your content to reflect the latest changes. That could be every day, if there is enough to write about. On the other hand, if your website is purely to inform the community around you of your presence (think doctors, banks, etc.) then you might not have to update as frequently - once every month should be more than adequate.

That being said, it's important to remember that updates for your site should be well thought out and planned in advance. Your website should be consistent and familiar to visitors (and search engines!), so constant layout or navigation changes might confuse your users. Have all of your new text and images ready to go all at once, to avoid "breaking" portions of your site, or forcing your users to see "under construction" or "coming soon" pages.

Why is it important to keep your site maintained with new and fresh content? Simple - search engines, like your human readers, enjoy and value fresh content and will keep an eye on your site more regularly if there are consistent updates. You will know it's time to update your site when you release a new product, make staffing changes, change or add locations, or change the pricing on products or services, just to name a few.

A few ideas on how to add extra content without crowding your site:

Add a calendar of events for your company or the community.

Add a blog to announce any major developments or partnerships in your business, or even to brag about a recent job you've completed.

Add a few testimonials from your customers. This is great for two different reasons. One: your customers will write this for you, and two: it shows potential clients how you do business and instills a sense of trust immediately.

Remember - search engines don't read your site like human visitors. Robots scan the text of your site for words and phrases, and the more relevant keywords your site contains, the higher on the search results page you'll be. We can help you keep your site updated with a variety of SEO plans. Contact us today.

With blogging and microblogging becoming huge mainstream forces for news, many people are realizing that they want a website. People in business realize they need one. The "sticker shock" of how much a well-planned, custom designed and custom programmed website is often sends people searching the internet for a cheaper alternative. There are thousands of sites that offer free templates, free code, free hosting -- and anything else you might need to set up your own website! Free is a magical word. The question that inevitably follows is, "why should I pay when I can get it for free?"

Free Designs

Free designs are all around the web. No HTML skills? Don't have a copy of Photoshop? A free template looks like the easy way to a website. A few questions to ask yourself: how many other people are currently using the same free design you've chosen? How "generic" does the design look? Will the template design make your company stand out and be memorable from all the millions of other websites on the internet?

On the technical side, template designs are often coded poorly and using outdated languages and standards. These templates are full of badly formed HTML, and are often bloated with excess code that causes every page to render more slowly than it should. These issues will make Search Engine Optimization (SEO) extremely difficult for your site, and end up costing you lots of time trying to fix the outdated code.

Free Hosting

Free web hosting is never really "free." Most free hosting is supported by advertisements placed on your site, by the hosting company. If you wanted to try to monetize your site with your own advertising, forget it. Most free hosts don't allow that as part of their terms of service to you, the end user. In fact, you will have very little say over what is placed on your pages, since pop-up ads and flashing glitter banners are common among free hosts. If you want to have those eyesores removed, the hosting company will offer to move you to a paid hosting plan.

Another limitation to free hosting is the lack of space available for your site. This problem is twofold: first, the amount of space allotted for your actual website files and images (storage), and second, the amount of computing power it takes for the host to display your webpage to a user (bandwidth or transfer). If your site spikes in popularity, is linked by a bigger site, or you just have a big flood of page views, your free host will often suspend your account for exceeding the monthly ration of bandwidth. If the server hosting your site goes down unexpectedly, rest assured that the hosting company will address the free accounts and their issues last, and often without any email or telephone support.

Free Content

Free content is advertised to many businesses, offering a copy and paste alternative to sitting down and writing informative text about your company and services. First of all, if the text is free and available for you to copy and paste into your site, that means many people are already using the same text. The content on your website will look like keyword stuffing or so vague it could describe any company or any service.

As a business owner, the main point of having a website is to promote yourself and your services, in hopes that your visitors will be converted to customers. A website is your company identity online, and customers need to have faith in you to use your service or buy your product. Think for a moment about the kind of trust that a poorly-planned website instills in your customers. Would you buy anything from a company who's web address was yoursite.555-best-free-hosts.com?