TechTidBit - Tips and advice for small business computing - Tech Experts™ - Monroe Michigan

Brought to you by Tech Experts™

Websites

Web Advertising Tips To Increase Traffic And Leads

A great way to get your small business name out there is to advertise on the web. If you already have a website, there are many things you can do to increase traffic to your site.

The number one key for people to find your website is to have great keywords on your site so that search engines such as Google and Yahoo will see your website. The purpose is so that anyone online can open the search engine and type in some keywords and your website will be listed. The better the match and the more people that click on your website will determine how high you will rank on the search engines.

Every chance you get online, list your website address. When you print out documents to give to customers or business cards make sure to include your web address. Even online, when signing up for a forum or sending a email, make sure you include your website.

You can also create a blog on your website to post articles related to your business. This will help people using search engines looking for something related to your business to be able to find your website. Some people think it is very expensive to create a blog but you can actually find free blogs online and then point your website in the direction of these blogs.

Posting coupons on your website will help attract people too. There is nothing more appealing to customers than saving money.  This will get the customers wanting to check your site frequently just to see the new sales or coupons you’re posting.

Sending e-mails to customers can also help advertise. This will keep your customers up to date on whats new with your business and any other information you would like them to know. Also most people now days have e-mail addresses and spend at least a few hours a week sending and receiving e-mails. Make sure you only send e-mails to people who have given you permission; otherwise, you’re spamming.

Take advantage of free classified ads online. Just like in the newspaper, websites such as Yahoo have classified ads that anyone can post to and their business will be listed.

Create a banner for your website and post it on banner exchange websites. These websites have you put one of their advertisements on your site in exchange for them advertsing your banner on thousands of other websites.

Microsoft Teams With Nasa On World Wide Telescope

In an effort to catch up with Google, Microsoft has signed an agreement to make planetary images and other data available to the public.  This will all be made possible thanks to the World Wide Telescope.  Also known as WWT, the computer software program allows end users to view high detailed satellite imagery, photography, and interactive 3-D models outer space.

Microsoft is getting the bulk of its images from The Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, (MRO) NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, (LRO) as well as ten other earth bound telescopes.

World Wide Telescope is currently offering five main modes.  The modes are sky, earth, planets, panoramas, and solar system.  The planets mode actually allows users to view 3-D models of celestial bodies like our moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and four of Jupiter’s larger moons; bringing a virtual observatory directly to your desktop or laptop computers.

Microsoft and NASA will be working toward providing tools for real-time weather visualizations and forecasting.  The space shuttle launch pad, and other facilities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be available along with high resolution 3-D maps of the moon, sun, stars, Earth, Mars, and more to come.
Real time tracking of the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttles will be available later this year.

Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California will be responsible for the processing and hosting of more than 100 terabytes (TB) of data.  That’s enough to fill over 20,000 DVDs!

NASA intends to deliver a huge amount of upgrades to the WWT project in the Fall of 2009, as surface data of our solar systems become more and more popular, while Earth bound data is losing its excitement.

World Wide Telescope is a free download available to all users at www.worldwidetelescope.org.

The home page provides links to interactive tours that walk you through the software, and show you the ins and outs of navigating your way around the program.

There are also video/audio guided tours made by astrophysicists such as Dr. Alyssa Goodman of the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. WWT allows users to create their own tours containing music, voice overs, and much more.

A web based version is available for those who don’t want to download and install the software on your local system, but the web client version does not have the full functionality of the software, but it sure is a great way to take a test drive across the universe.

What To Look For When Choosing Your Web Host

Anyone that has looked in to setting up a website knows that there is just more than saying, “I want a website.”

First, you must decide what type of website you want for your business. For instance, do you need a portal for customers to login and buy merchandise or check for new information regarding an invoice? That kind of website is called a dynamic website because the information keeps changing and usually requires lots of time from the webmaster to keep the website managed.

Then there are the websites that just act like a billboard to help promote your business to people. These sites will usually include a lot of the sales and marketing information from your company’s brochures.

The next step, after deciding what type of website your company needs, is choosing a domain name. This can be the trickiest part of putting your company online. Domain names are the “real estate” of the Internet – you can’t publish a website without a domain name. And, the reason I say it is tricky is that most of the good names are already registered.

Tech Experts can help you in choosing a good domain name, and register it for you as part of your hosting service. A tip, though: Make sure your domain name ends in “.com” – any of the other domain endings, like “.biz” and even “.net” are like the second class citizens of the Internet.

Here are some things to consider when you’re choosing a hosting company.

Reliability
Reliability is one of the most important factors in web hosting. If the hosting company doesn’t have great reliability you can find yourself losing lots of customers because of downtime. Most companies will advertise 99% uptime which is good but a better hosting company will offer a refund in time or in cash for downtime if they go under 99%.

Location
Location is another factor to consider. If your website is hosted in another country you will find that people will have a very slow response from the website due to the time it takes for the information to transfer to the destination. When choosing the location, try to stick with one in the same country as your target audience.

Data transfer speed
Data transfer speed refers to how quickly pages load and the rate at which other information on your Web site is accessed by visitors. Ask about data transfer statistics, and have the company show you how the speed they provide will be adequate for your needs.

Hard drive space
Hard drive space is something that is closely related to data transfer. Most businesses won’t need more than 10mb of storage space for their website, but be sure you have the option to increase space if needed. If you plan to store users and picture on the website you will need to plan in the future to have extra hard drive space. You’ll use more bandwidth as your visitor counts goes up.

The control panel
The control panel for a web site is where you go to make minor administrative changes to the site. For example, you would use the control panel to add new e-mail users to your service. Make sure the company you select has an easy to use control panel.

E-mail service
E-mail service is the next consideration. Some hosting companies provide email support and will allow you to create 1 or even unlimited amount of email accounts. Email accounts are usually always setup through the control panel you have chosen to use. You will want to make sure that the hosting company provides spam filtering services, too. The last thing you want to do is spend your time deleting hundreds of junk mails.

If you keep these things in mind, you’ll have an idea what you need and you will be able to start comparing web hosting providers. Here is my advice: Always remember, you get what you pay for. Do not expect a $5/month provider to have better support compared to a company like Tech Experts that charges a fair price and provides you with excellent service.

If you have questions about web hosting or having a web site set up for your company, please e-mail me at cbogedain@expertsmi.com.

 

Secrets About your Customers Hidden In your Company’s Website Reports

No matter who hosts your website, it’s almost certain that you have website traffic reporting. These reports can tell you a LOT about your customer and who is visiting your web site IF you know how to read them. Here’s a quick less on how to decipher them…

Hits V. Unique Visitors
Its’ been said that “hits” is short for “How Idiots Track Sales.” That’s because “Total Hits” is a deceptive number: it counts every single graphics file, style sheet, and script a visitor pulls for each page. A single visitor on a single page could easily pull a dozen files or more.

The only number you should watch is “unique visitors” or “unique referrers.” This is your best indicator of how many individual people are actually visiting your site.

If your number of unique visitors is extremely low, you’re probably not marketing your website properly; but it could also be a sign of a technical issue. Occasionally a site is so far off the beaten path that it’s never been indexed by the search engines. Sites built in Flash or that use images instead of text are also difficult for search engines to index and, therefore, will get very low rankings and traffic.

Browsers
Your reports should give you a list of web browsers your clients are using when coming to your site. Most people use a recent version of Internet Explorer, but you may also see Firefox, Safari, or older versions of IE. Bottom line, you need to make sure your site works in all the browsers being used by your visitors.

Exit Page
Have you ever heard the term “website conversion?” It’s a measure of whether a visitor has done what you wanted them to do on your site. A conversion can be a purchase, an enrollment to your company’s e-zine, or a completed “contact us” form.

If the most popular exit pages correspond to your conversion pages, congratulations! If not, take a closer look. Why are people leaving? There may be a technical issue, a bad headline (or no headline), no offer, slow-loading graphics, or confusing copy. Something on this page is making your visitors leave abruptly.

Maybe it’s not clear where they should go next, or how to find out what they need to know. A few departures are expected, but if there’s a trend, you must address it. Experiment with various headlines, offers and designs until you find something more successful.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases
Keywords and keyword phrases are a list of words people type into search engines to find you.

This is very important information to have because it will allow you to further optimize your website to attract customers AND help you when using pay-per-click search engine marketing.

Browse this list regularly. If the words and phrases are not ones aligned with what you sell or whom you sell to, try changing the content on your site to be more targeted and specific.

Errors
Check out the error list from time to time to make sure you aren’t experiencing any technical issues. The most frequent error you’ll find is a “404” code, which means “document not found”—also known as broken links.

Broken links are caused by deleted pages, new page names, or links to other sites that may no longer exist. These errors should be corrected to keep your site current.

Another good tip is to have a custom “404” page that shows up instead of the stock standard “file not found” page that contains your company name, phone number, and a way to report the problem. Your web master can set this up for you.

How To Instantly Do Any Job Faster With FREE Done-For-You Templates

Are you tired of always having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to a new form, project or newsletter? Using templates can really speed up any job.

At Microsoft’s website:
http://office.microsoft.com/templates
you can search and download hundreds of free templates ranging from inventory sheets, time sheets, to business cards and envelopes. There’s even templates for fax cover sheets, proposals, memos, meeting agendas, outlines, and client proposals.

You can even find newsletter templates just like the one you are reading!

If you are just getting started with a web site for your business, and would like to use web site templates, check out:
http://www.templatemonster.com
where you can search through hundreds of web site templates by style or category.

You have the option to buy a copy for as little as $62, or buy a “unique” copy for $2,500+.
What’s the difference? A unique copy removes the template from their library so no one else can purchase that template. The downside is that others BEFORE you have downloaded it, and they still get to legally use their copy.

Plus, you’ll need help from a web designer to post the site and make it work. The upside is that you can get GREAT design ideas for nothing, or shortcut the number of billable hours your web designer has to spend on creating a template from scratch.

Going On A Trip?

Here Are 4 Websites You Should Visit!

  • The U.S. Department of Transportation (www.dot.gov) offers airline, highway and rail safety information.
  • The Transportation Security Administration (www.tsa.gov) has advice on
    safe travel by air, land and sea. For example, they post tips on
    dealing with airline security checks.
  • The U.S. State Department (www.state.gov/travel) provides information
    on what to do before, during and when you return from a trip overseas.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/travel)
    Don’t come home sick! This site offers health-related travel
    information.

What Is A Website Certificate, And Why Is It Important?

If you ever make purchases online, you must know how to quickly determine if the website you are about to buy from is secure.

A secure connection is an encrypted exchange of information between the website you are visiting and the browser you are using. Encryption of data is simply a process of converting the information you type in (your name, address, and credit card number) into an unreadable format that only the receiving website can decipher.

Encryption is done through a document the website provides called a website certificate. When you send information to the website, it is encrypted at your computer and decrypted at the website to prevent hackers from intervening and stealing your credit card information.

So how do you know if a site has a certificate and a secure connection? There are two things to look for. Just note that these two checks only apply to the web page where you actually enter your credit card information, NOT the entire site itself.

Once you are on the actual order page, look for a tiny yellow padlock in the bottom right corner of your web browser. Depending on your browser version, the Security Status bar may be located on the top of the browser and to the right of the Address bar. The padlock should be closed (locked).

Next, look at the actual URL. It should begin with “https” rather than the standard “http.” If you are on a website and you see these two things, the site will have a certificate.

Another way you can view a site’s certificate is through your browser’s menu options. In Internet Explorer, go to File, Properties and then click on the Certificates button. The same dialogue box will then come up for you.

If you ever get a warning that there is a problem with the website’s certificate, it could be due to a number of problems such as the names on the certificates don’t match up with the website or the certificate has expired.

If this happens, you may want to call the company and place your order by phone rather than going through their website.

Finally, make sure you check out every company’s Privacy Policy. Even if they have a secure checkout process, they could give or sell your information to third party companies.

How To Make Your Business Website Pop!

5 Simple Tips Explain How To Distinguish Your Business Online

Untangling the mystery of the World Wide Web can be a lot like walking into quicksand: The more you get into it, the harder it is to get where you want.

Credit the sheer number of sites that populate the Web, creating clutter that makes it hard for small businesses to distinguish themselves.

Ultimately, it’s the business owners who devote time to their websites that reap the greatest rewards online.

Business websites are a lot like a car: If you don’t put gas in it and get regular oil changes, it won’t perform for you. The same goes for the Web, where sites that aren’t useful or current do little good for their owners.

One way to maximize your Web investment is through a process known as “search engine optimization” or SEO. This combines design elements, text, and keywords to ensure that the site gets the best recognition from the major search engines.

To maximize their SEO strategies, companies should define their niche market, then decide how they want that customer base to find them on the Internet.

Since it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish yourself online, here are five tips to make a splash on the Web:

1: Wow them from the first page. First impressions mean everything on the Web, so your site’s front page must shine in order to be effective.

A company’s front page should forgo bandwidth-heavy graphics and instead feature a bulleted list of services and a simple, readily accessible way to contact the company for an estimate or more information.

Subsequent pages can showcase your portfolio, testimonials from satisfied customers, and links to free e-newsletters.

2: Make it user-friendly. It’s age-old advice, but companies still aren’t adhering. Ease of use equates to both a pleasant visiting experience and marketing effectiveness. Use clear language, useful links, and navigation bars to steer customers in the right direction.

3: Make them eager to return soon. Attracting visitors is important, but persuading them to return is even more important.

Create long-term online customers by incorporating relevant self-assessment tests, surveys, and other tools with related products and services your business provides. This ensures an educational, interactive experience for the client and is a great marketing tool for your company.

Start with a simple biweekly newsletter, a blog, or a chat forum on a topic of interest to your customers.

4: Get back to basics. Browse through a few sites and you’ll quickly discover that accessing basic information can be a challenge.

To make sure your visitors don’t get turned off by poor navigation, broken links, and irrelevant information, be sure to give them a clear explanation of your product or service, making sure to highlight exactly what makes your firm and its offerings unique.

5: Give them the royal treatment. When designing your site, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What do they want to see or know? What format most suitably presents this information? How can you keep them interested and make the experience fun?

Six More Super Effective Search Engine Optimization Tips

Here are six additional search engine optimization strategies you can start today to bring more traffic to your business website:

1. Include only the most important, meaningful keywords in your site’s title tag or the title that appears in the bar at the top of the web page.

2. Make sure your site includes as much information as possible, preferably 250 words on each page.

3. Spend the time necessary to know the keywords your prospective clients use to find your firm and its products/services.

4. Don’t try to trick the search engines by loading your site with irrelevant keywords that have nothing to do with your business.

5. Don’t allow your most important keywords to be contained in graphics. Try substituting formatted HTML text for graphics.

6. Citation mapping, the number of links that point to your Website, is critical to all search engines when assigning ranking.

Use as many relevant quality links as possible that point to your site, to guarantee top placement.