Arizonans for Obama

The Arizonans for Obama website was a great pleasure for me to put together and manage.  The website includes extensive use of Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Translator and Flickr photos to help display information about the Obama Bus Tour stops throughout Arizona.  More to come! Visit the Arizonans for Obama Bus Tour website.

Get Your Website Noticed

I recently had a client tell me she was giving up on her Internet business because no one was commenting on her articles after 3 months.  This came as a suprise to me, and it made me realize that many people don’t fully understand how the Internet works. 

Building your website is really just the first step in a long process of building an online business.  Don’t expect someone to build your website, put it on the Internet and receive instant success.  It takes a lot of time, effort and patience to build a successful online business, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

How the Internet works

When you first launch your small business website, it’s like an undiscovered island, in the middle of a huge ocean–no one knows it’s there.  So while technichally  your site is on the Internet as soon as it’s uploaded to your hosting site, that doesn’t mean you’re connected to the millions of people surfing the Net.  For that to happen, you need to do a few things.

How to get your website noticed

Unlike an island, that just has to sit there, you have some other options for working with your website.  Here are just a few.

1. Add your website to directories - Directories are the easiest way for small business websites to go from isolation to people know they’re there.  Not all directories are worth joining, and many are not worth paying for, but there are many good, free directories that can help improve your visibility on the Internet
2. Write articles for ezines - There are many websites out there that will publish your articles for free with a link back to your site. Then, in addition, other people can republish those articles to their site as long as they include a link back to your site.  So you provide free content, and they provide you with visibility.  It’s a win/win in many situations.  Just be aware that once you release an article to an ezine, it’s now open for anyone to reprint, so the unique value of that article goes way down.  So don’t put up your best content–save that to add to your own website.
3. Join a forum - Every time you post on most forums, you can leave a signature with a link to your website.   It helps to contribute helpful information on forums related to your business niche
4. Comment of other people’s websites - Every time you leave a comment on a blog or other website, you usually get a chance to include your website url.  It’s even better if you can comment on websites and blogs that are related to your site’s theme
5. Write quality content - Continue to write quality content on a regular schedule.  As you add more articles to your site, search engines will start to pick you up more in search results and more visitors will come to your island…I mean website
6. Request link exchanges - Offering to link to another website in exchange for them linking to your site is a great way to improve your visibility on the Internet, and bring in some traffic to your small business website. 
7. Be patient - After 3 months, you’re probably just starting to get enough content to be picked up by search engines.  Don’t quit now! Keep at it for at least a year, maybe longer.

How long will it take to see results?

I have a website that ranks #1 for many meditation keywords on Google.  These pages bring in thousands of visitors every month.  I followed all the advice I’m offering here, and it took me over a year to do it.  I followed the simple formula of continuing to add new content to my website every week, exchanging a few links, commenting on other sites, and participating in forums.  And yes, being very patient.

For you, it may take more or less time to get things rolling with your website. But the key is: (and you know this), don’t give up too soon!  The truth is, unless you have tons of money for advertsing, things move very slowly on the Internet.  3 month simply isn’t enough time to see if something is working.  If you’re truly working hard on your website and doing the things I recommended in this article, then I would give it at least a year, and more if you’re not working on your website consistently.

Choosing how to use your website to promote your business

This process isn’t for everyone.  I had this conversation with my client before I built her site, and we discussed it again after 3 monts when she wanted to quit.  When she fully realized how much work her website was going to be, she just wasn’t interested in doing what it took to market it online.  And that’s understandable.  It is a lot of work and I hope you don’t underestimate that.  If the process I explained to you isn’t appealing, then don’t do it.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a website…

If you don’t want to do all the work of promoting your website online, you can still use your website to promote your business as a marketing tool.  If your business thrives on personal interaction, then you don’t necessarily need the search engines to bring visitors to your website–you can do that!  When you talk to potential clients about your business, and offer them a business card with your website on it, you’re doing what search engines do–you’re driving traffic to your website.  And you’re website can house helpful information for your potential clients to make informed decisions about purchasing your services.

Ultimately, my client decided to use her website as a marketing tool, instead of trying to build her small business through online marketing and search engine traffic.

Back Up Your Website

Backing up your files

The first part of backing up your website is backing up your website folders and files. The easiest way I know how to do this is using an FTP client to log on to your server, and download the files onto your local computer.

Not sure how to do this? Here’s some simple steps.

1. Download and install an FTP client such as Filezilla or SmartFTP or Fetch if your on a Mac
2. Log in to your hosting account and find your FTP login information.  If you can’t find it, you may need to contact technical support at your hosting company to obtain your FTP username and password
3. Open your FTP client and login to your website server using your FTP login information
4. Dowload all the files in the public or www folder on your server onto your computer
5. Be careful not to accidentally delete any files or folders!

If all of this is confusing, consider hiring a professional to do this work for you.  If you alredy have a web designer, they could do this for you and put the files on disk so you have a copy of your website files.

Backing up your Database

Whether you’re using WordPress to run your website, or some other CMS, if you’re using a database to store your data, it’s very important that you periodically back up your database.

This can be very daunting task for some people. However, here is a simple and easy WordPress Database Backup Walkthrough. This page provides instructions on how to back up your database using phpmyadmin (a database program used by many hosts). There are also instructions for using Straight MySQL Commands, as well as MySQL Administrator to back up your database.

It’s important to note that this process can be very dangerous.  If you execute the wrong command, or push the wrong button, you could erase your website data.  Therefore, if you don’t have any experience with this process, consider hiring a professional to do the work for you.

If you’re using WordPress, there are several plugins including WP-DB-Backup, that help make backing up your database easier.

Contact me if you’d like help backing up your website or if you need assistance with other web projects, or if you have questions about this information.

Desert Sands Acupuncture and Oriental Therapy

Desert Sands provides acupuncture and Oriental therapy in Tucson Arizona.  The site follows a typical layout for a pracitioner of alternative medicine, with pages outlining information about the practice, the healing space, rates, and healing modalities used.  It also has a newsletter page, photo gallery and event calendar.  This website with designed using Wordpress as a content management system (CMS).  Visit Desert Sands Acupuncture and Oriental Therapy in Tucson Arizona.

Add Your Business to Google’s Local Business Center

Adding your business to Google’s Local Business Center is a smart marketing idea.  If you do a Google search using your location and the type of business (for example: Tucson Web Design), you’ll see that Google has implemented the first organic search result to come from local business results and Google maps.  What does this mean?  Two things:

1. Google is moving toward more relevant search results by adding a local component to their search results.
2. If your business is not listed with Google’s Local Business Center, it should be.

Google gives you lots of options for adding your business to its Local Business Center, including adding your basic business information, adding your business to categories, adding a link to your website, displaying payment options, uploading photos and videos about your business, and adding coupons.

With all the options available, you can basically create a mini site about your business, giving potential customers a lot of information about what you provide.

Here’s instructions for adding your business to Google Maps.

Next Page »