The Leading Edge of Business Website Design

Business Website Design in 2013

Published on December 8, 2012 by: James H. Hobson

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Now is the time to propel your business ahead on search engines! Offense wins the game, right? While most businesses are laying low you can gain ground by taking the bold steps of doing a total revamp of your online precense. This article will speak to persons who understand that simply "having a website" does not mean that your business is on the same level as a competitor. So now you are (or should be) wondering what are some of the differences?

It All Starts With Business Knowledge

Web Designer Experience

Have you met with a website designer that raves about "cool stuff" they can do for your website? And do they get that deer in the headlights look when you start discussing your market, competition, buying process or buying cycle, and core business needs? This is because they lack real world business experience. They've probably never worked as a manager, much less an owner, in a B2B or industrial company. They've never had to prepare a formal bid for an RFQ or RFP, never dealt with production schedules or project management, and never developed a business plan, sales forecasts or operations budgets. They can however, buy a Wordpress template and add the pictures and text content that YOU write for them. It's no wonder that so many business websites do little more than exist - these business websites are made by people you might not hire to work in your back room. Business experience matters.

Technical Capabilities

I'll be quick to admit that platforms like Wordpress can be a great solution for some business websites . . . the simple ones anyway. When you hire a website designer you need to consider their technical capabilities with specific regard for their ability to handle your needs in a customized and relevant manner. Worpress designers rely on plug-ins and usually can't deliver when you need critical development features and internet marketing services.

Website design is a professional skill that requires knowledge of user preferences, color theory, search engine algorithms, traditional marketing concepts and more. Believing that simply buying a template, and adding some text and a few photos will deliver success is a huge mistake.

In the recent past the internet has served as a great tool to get a business found by more potential customers, and get the business found in new areas. Now, online users are expecting to be able to do more than find your brochure website. The ready-to-buy users want interactivity and the ability to control the website experience. The modern user wants to buy online, download brochures, access forms, view GOOD photos of products, and get detailed information. Additionally they are accessing websites from desktop computers and mobile devices. Can your website guy handle all of this? Do they have the technical design ad development skills to make your company more successful now and moving forward?

2013 Website Trends

It's all too easy to say "I've got a website and it's fine". But is it really okay? What criteria are you using to make this assessment? In 2012 Google changed their search engine algorithm over 100 times - did you adjust your website to leverage these opportunities? Is your website designed to take advantage of large monitor screens AND able to render well on mobile devices, smart phones and tablets? Has your website company discussed with you responsive website design, SVG content or app development? If not, you are leaving the door wide open for a competitor to advance far ahead of you. Is looking through their dust the view you want or one your business can afford? It's time to be aggressive and take the action that can protect your bottom line.

How Good Is The Information You Receive?

If you live in a relatively small market you probably have a somewhat small pool of website design companies and fewer website developers or internet marketing companies. This invariably means that the knowledge base is weak and behind the curve when compared to large market service companies. By reaching outside of your local market you have the opportunity to engage professional expertise and technical skills that will devastate your competitors now and for quite some time. Additionally you can hire a company that is not working with your competitors.

Unless you live and do business in a major market, the leading edge of website design and internet marketing is probably hidden from view. In 2013 do you want more of the same or an opportunity to gain ground on your competition?

Top 10 SEO Mistakes in 2013

Is Your SEO Company Competent?

Published on October 18, 2012 by: James H. Hobson

Search Engine Optimization, SEO, is as relevant and useful as ever. What you need to know is that the best SEO practices for 2013 will be substantially different than in 2012 or before. Search engine algorithms changed dramatically in 2012 and the older ways of SEO can now cause extreme ranking losses. It is vital for every business owner to know the Top 10 SEO Mistakes in 2013.

Who Does Your SEO Work?

The issue of who does your SEO work, and their level of expertise has never been more important than now. To cite an example, in 2012 Google sent almost 1,000,000 notices to website owners concerning bad SEO that was going to harm their rankings. These messages were sent to only website owners using Webmaster Tools, so obviously these types of problems are very widespread.

You need to learn how to evaluate your SEO provider to avoid search engine problems and confirm that only good, safe SEO work is being done on your website.

A Top 10 List of SEO Mistakes in 2013

There are far more than 10 items that can harm your SEO efforts. Many of these are very technical issues, and some have generally been out of practice for many years. Our top ten list includes issues that are common to do-it-yourself types and the average web design company or freelancer. Here are our Top 10 Bad SEO Practices:

• Ignoring Webmaster Tools: Google Webmaster Tools is a free product and an invaluable tool for helping you to manage your website in a Google friendly way. If your SEO company has failed to implement this for you they are not worth whatever you are paying them. Being able to affect page settings, verify your site on Google, and measure key performance metrics are very important. You need to be using Google Webmaster Tools.
• Chaotic Site Architecture: Many websites are created without adequate strategic site architecture planning. Your site should have a logical page flow (navigation). Top level pages should be more general with lower level pages providing more and specific details. Intrasite, page-to-page, linking should be limited to related content. A content silo methodology is often a very good strategy. In 2013 you should eliminate low quality pages (use 301's!) and add richer content.
• Using Low Quality Content: If your site has very little content, text that is more sales pitch than factual information, has spelling or grammar errors, or is poorly structured your site is going to suffer ranking losses. Your site should use well structured content that informs users. Use shorter statements and don't engage in keyword stuffing or blatant attempts to affect search engines.
• Using Duplicate Content: Under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act your site can be totally banned in search engines if you hav palgiarized content. Even innocent instances of duplicate content can cause multi-page ranking losses. An example of innocent duplicate content is very common on e-commerce sites. Iamgine every dealer of a product uses same product description provided by the manufacturer - this is duplicate content in the eyes of a search engine. Plagiarism was not committed but nonetheless the site gets penalized. You can visit Copyscape to see if your website pages have duplicate content issues.
• Keeping Sitewide Links: You should immediately eliminate sitewide links! Obviously this does not apply to your site navigation, although navigation link structure is another important aspect of SEO work. The types of sitewide links to drop are the redundant links often found in website footers or sidebars. Social media links may get a pass if you use them above the footer and the socail media pages are actively maintained.
• Long Page Load Times: Page load times have become another key factor in search engine algorithms. This matter is complicated by the need to load quickly on both desktop PC's and mobile devices. Eliminating Flash content, optimizing image files and streamlining code are easy ways to reduce page load times. Creating a mobile website design is strongly recommended because mobile use in many areas represents over 30% of searches.
• Bad Inbound Linking: Bad link building is perhaps the number one problem with ranking problems today. Link building needs to be very controlled and paced with an eye on domain diversity, link velocity and natural anchor text. Any SEO company using blog wheels, link farms, mass link building services and article spinning is on a path to extreme and perhaps permanent ranking losses. If your SEO provider is continuing to stress link building as a top tactic you need to drop them without delay!
• Too Many Outbound Links: Google looks at your outbound link quantity and evaluates the sites to which you link. You should not use Adsense on your site, link to affilliate programs or any type of spammy, low quality content sites. Any outbound links should go to only sites with definite value for your site visitor.
• Bad Page Titles and Descriptions: First, each page needs a unique page title and description. Your title tage should be 70 characters or less, and your description tag should be 150 characters or less. Keyword stuffing is an absolute no-no.
• Ignoring Social Media: Search engine algorithms now measure social signals when ranking websites. Social media has become a critical tool for brand development, content marketing and lead generation. Business owners who say "our customers are not on social media" are missing the big picture and lack proper understanding on SEO in 2013. At a minimum you need business pages on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. It is absolutely critical to create complete pages and integrate them into your online footprint.

The Benfefits of Better SEO

Improving on-page SEO will improve your search engine rankings. Higher rankings means more traffic. Improving your content improves user engagement and icrease on-page conversions. All of this means that applying new best SEO practices will improve your lead generation and branding. Inversely, allowing your website ranking to plummet will relegate your website to virtually an online brochure that few people will see.

SEO has changed and internet useage continues to climb. To improve your situation, make certain that you are not making mistakes in your SEO work, and get in touch with a SEO company to make your site ready for 2013.