You launch a new small business website, and a year later you're scratching your head wondering why the Brinks truck doesn't show up each day with a delivery. Overall you are competing with billions of web pages for attention, and if you search Google for a generic phrase that describes what you do, you may be hard pressed to find your website listed anywhere in the top 50 pages. Anything less than pages 1 to 5 could mean you will never be found by new prospects.

Consider for a moment that Google is the dominant search engine and offers significant potential for driving traffic to your small business website. In addition, they offer free tools for small business website owners that deserve your attention. Visit the About Google Directory of Services to see the range of free promotional tools for consideration.

Will using these tools make you a Google insider and part of the Google family? No. A paid service like advertising with Google does not mean your website will be favored in search results. Favoritism would violate Google ethics and neutrality. However, these tools do provide valuable means of promoting your website if you take proactive steps to increase the importance of your website with topical fresh content added often.

In particular, review the section "For Website Owners" and check the links for Advertising, Business Solutions, Webmaster Central, and Submit your content to Google.

As just one example, some of my blog posts get traffic within hours of posting instead of days or weeks. You cannot launch your small business website and wait for the Brinks truck. A static site with stale content that does not change is like a dusty attic for a brick and mortar store. Attracting visitors including search engines requires new content added on a regular basis.

The Google tools can help. For advice on fresh content, you may want to download my free seo reports in pdf here to learn about free do-it-yourself methods to promote your small business website. There is no requirement for registration or revealing an email address. SEO, or search engine optimization, and keeping your site updated can make a significant difference in your online success.



TAGS: advice small business advice seo search engine optimization website advice

Labels: advice, seo, websites

                       

When typing text content in HTML for your small business website, or any site, my advice is using the word "and" instead of the symbol "&" unless that is specifically part of the official name for your company. Certainly many attorney and other partner type company names will use ampersand.

The ampersand is a special reserved code character in HTML and must be coded as "&" to properly display on a page, and to avoid confusion. Otherwise, if you simply use the character "&" it will display on the page, however each occurence is an HTML code error.

The goal in any site should be zero, or near zero code errors. If you hand code your HTML you can eliminate each "&" error by following this advice. Using "and" instead of "&" will make your content more literal for readers and search engines, as well.



TAGS: advice small business advice website design website advice html tips

Labels: advice, general, websites

                       

Soon after the launch of their new custom website, customer Adams Florida Services chose to have an optional custom integrated blog added to their online home. The custom blog matches the main site color scheme, and will provide advice for Orlando area lawn care, landscaping, and pressure washing services and tips for their visitors and clients throughout Central Florida.

Their first post promises future advice including before and after photographs to demonstrate the difference that professional lawn service and landscape design can do to enhance the look and value of residential and commercial property.

The new blogger custom template design features matching graphics to the main site, 12 major social bookmark service chicklets, and preloaded labels. Blog designs from the Small Business Resource Center include a 15 page tutorial with illustrated step by step instructions for creating posts and publishing.

Readers may be interested in learning about the search engine optimization value of blogging for small business website promotion and download the series of free pdf seo reports here.



TAGS: blog blog template seo search engine optimization small business services custom blogger template

Labels: blogger, launch, seo, templates, websites

                       

Every small business owner wants page one results in the search engines. Beware who you trust selling maps to this pot of gold. Search engine optimization and page one results can be costly, and some consultants will take your money even when it's impossible. Here's another recent scenario from my email inbox with a lesson for small business owners.

After the launch of the Elite Villas vacation rental site and blog earlier this week, a new prospect in the same business with a villa to rent inquired about having me create a custom website. The main concern was making search engine page one results with a brand new site. Page one in search engines doesn't happen overnight, so here is an excerpt from my emailed reply.

Your main concern, or expectation for page one results, cannot be promised based on just the website design. Here is an explanation:

There are designers who will take your money promising page one search results. Most are either liars or very expensive. Some are both. A search in Google for "Orlando vacation rental" returns 22 million results, so with 10 per page, there are 2.2 million pages in Google with that search phrase. Add "villas" to the end and it's still 2 million pages of competition that you need to defeat in the battle of results. Perhaps, and just maybe, it can be done for yours. The investment is significant, so I urge caution dealing with any designer who makes a promise of page one, especially if they guarantee immediate results.

How sites are indexed by the search engines depends on confidential search algorithms that are tweaked and changed often. Algorithm changes can always be used to explain why efforts failed getting your website to page one. The lie ends when they explain why you are not entitled to a refund because the effort was made yet results were out of their control. I can cite clients who came to me after spending $1000's for promises without being told how it would be done, and then they were left without recourse when seo and page one efforts failed.

Top results in any of the 3 major search engines are given to sites that are 1) online longer, 2) trusted sites, 3) authority sites, 4) larger sites, and 5) sites that add fresh content often. Anyone willing to take your money for a page one guarantee needs to explain how they will meet those 5 requirements. The age of your site cannot be accelerated, so immediate results are impossible because the first requirement of being "online longer" simply takes time.

Consider expectations when launching your first website. My designs are optimized for visitors and search engines, yet I never promise results beyond a favorable design. Too many other factors including items 1-5 above will affect how well and how soon your new website shines.

Page one in Google, Yahoo, and MSN can be done. It takes time and depends on more than the code in your new small business website. I have 100 screen shots of my site performance as evidence with Google page one for very generic phrases. You may want to download my series of free pdf reports for search engine optimization here to learn about the value of adding fresh content often to your small business website.

Finally, study the 5 points in the list above and consider how you will continue to promote your website after it's online. Page one results are not dependent on just the code. If that's your goal, be prepared to invest time and effort with do-it-yourself website promotion.



TAGS: advice small business advice custom website design website advice search engine optimization seo

Labels: advice, general, websites

                       

The truth about the secret of small business success online is there is no secret, and it is not really elusive. After receiving an inquiry for my opinion about an internet marketing opportunity for informational products, excerpts of the reply seemed appropriate for my small business readers. In effect my reply stated the "secret" should not be characterized as elusive because the key to success online is hard work, commit your life to what you offer, invest a lot of sweat equity including writing to promote, and perseverance.

If you are looking to expand into new income streams with an online business, especially handling informational products like ebooks, consider my reply to the question about the internet marketing opportunity. You may want to add planning to your overall strategy.

Tactical activity (day to day) in any business brings in revenue. The strategic activities (long term goals) are often the most painful because there's no immediate return on investment, or ROI. Too many online entrepreneurs are looking for instant gratification with get rich quick schemes. These opportunities are rare and therefore elusive.

The investment in strategic time must be analyzed and perhaps adjusted constantly because if results appear minimal, most people give up and refocus on the tactical revenue generating tasks. They don't realize the truth pointed out earlier "The secret is hard work, commit your life to what you offer, invest a lot of sweat equity including writing to promote, and perseverance."

When planning your small business website and online business, you cannot be good at just one of these 4, or just 2-3. The elusive secret to success online is hard work, commitment, promotional effort, and perseverance. Don't overlook planning.



TAGS: advice small business advice online success business strategy

Labels: advice, general, websites

                       

The next free pdf download in my series of search engine optimization reports is available. Unlike some free reports, you do not have to register or provide an email address to download any of these free SEO advice reports.



Enjoy the "Article Writing Top Resources" PDF report and learn the process for submitting articles to article directories to gain backlinks to your website. This is #3 in the series of 6 Do-It-Yourself Website Promotion reports for small business owners.

Content includes bonus information with an overview of the SEO value of writing articles, a tutorial for overcoming writer's block, plus a list of my Top 50 Article Directories.



TAGS: advice reports seo search engine optimization free download small business advice

Labels: advice, articles, seo, tutorials

                       

Another custom website in xhtml with css launched this week. Elite Villas Florida is a holiday and vacation rental property management company, and their specialty is luxury private homes for short term rental near Orlando and the surrounding area. The website is interactive to allow convenient online reservations and secure payment options once guest requests are confirmed.



All of the rental villas are within minutes of Disney World's Magic Kingdom and other major Central Florida tourist attractions. A photo gallery of each property displays key amenities with links to custom maps. The maps are specific to that villa with detailed turn-by-turn directions to Disney, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, and Kennedy Space Center.

Finally, the site includes an integrated blog with a custom blogger template and offers travel advice for Central Florida tourists. The owner of Elite Villas Florida is British born, and although many of the customers are from the United Kingdom, guests include USA and other international tourists, also.



TAGS: website launch custom website design small business services blog template

Labels: launch, websites

                       

I've written another published article with advice for small business owners and it contains pointers for ensuring control of your www domain name. View the full article entitled Out of Control WWW Domains to learn how two unwary website owners incorrectly thought they owned their domains.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

In both cases the client paid for their domain. In the first instance the registrar simply registered the new domain in their company name, not the client's. In the more recent situation, my client bought a business and the previous owner did not take action to transfer the registrant information. Each relationship deteriorated to the point where the clients felt compelled to register another domain, and fortunately the productivity of each business site was insignificant, so the downside of letting it go was minimal.

Unhappier endings to hostile relationships have occurred. The article includes comments on a case that was out of control resulting in the website going offline, and the true owner could not regain control for more than a year. If you have any doubts about who controls your domain, you may want to read my article about WhoIs here.



TAGS: advice articles small business advice websites advice articles website domains

Labels: advice, articles, websites

                       

Another custom designed website in xhtml with css was launched over the weekend for Adams Lawn Service of Davenport Florida. Adams provides lawn care, landscaping, and pressure washing services for your home or business in the Orlando Florida and surrounding communities including Kissimmee, St Cloud, Davenport, Lake Nona, Narcoossee, Orange County, Osceola County, and Polk County.



The site features an example of their lawn service fleet with a new truck and trailer on the home page. The positive first impression should help their credibility as a top service provider of residential and commercial services for your lawn care, landscape needs, and pressure washing. Unlike some companies, when you become an Adams customer no contract is required. You may view the Adams home service website here.

This latest custom website design complies with code standards per W3C for valid xhtml and css. In addition, the design meets accessiblity tests per WAI and Section 508 which means it provides easy access for persons with disabilities. Visitors may notice that some graphics on their website were featured earlier in design tutorials on this blog.



TAGS: small business services custom website xhtml design website design lawn services

Labels: launch, websites

                       

Do-it-yourself small business website designers are sometimes graphically challenged, and the pixel trash around logos or text in their GIF website graphics is not uncommon. This short tutorial for website design and online graphics is a lesson in overcoming that problem. There is an easy solution once you understand a technique called "error diffusion" for creating transparent graphics that blend into the background.

We've all seen examples of tiny jagged off color squares around the edge of logos or clipped photographs used for websites. First impressions are critical to keeping visitors interested in staying on your website. Taking care to create professional graphics without the pixelated trash may be the only difference between you and a competitor, and fixing the problem is not really difficult.

Here's a portion of a customer's logo done with and without error diffusion. Both graphics were created in Xara Xtreme which allows selecting error diffusion during the export to GIF process. The difference in quality is subtle yet obvious.



You will need a vector graphics software program. Some are expensive. Xara Xtreme is my choice for professional designs for print or online, and their program is perfect for novice designers or full time pros. The price starts at less than $100 and you may download a free 30 day trial of Xara Xtreme here. As your skills advance, you can use Xara to create animations and smooth flash graphics, also.

Error diffusion is an option for exporting graphics to GIF format that intentionally picks up a small amount of the background color so that the finished display is crisp and clear. The secret is placing the graphic over a block of color that will not be exported yet it is the same color as the background. This explains why the same logo shown above looks so much crisper when error diffusion is applied.

I recommend investing in a vector graphics program so you can create cleaner graphics to display online. The improved look in your website design could repay the modest software investment with just one decent sale of your products or service.



TAGS: advice artwork graphic artwork tutorials website design small business advice xara xtreme

Labels: advice, artwork, tutorials, websites

                       

The artwork in this custom door tag photo edit tutorial was created using Xara Xtreme, and illustrates how combining techniques allows designers to get some interesting special effects for printed marketing materials.

For this client a plain photograph of their truck and trailer was received after I designed their custom logo, and before the new logo was added to their fleet.

The vehicle is typical for their business which is lawn service, power washing, and landscaping. They were anxious to order a custom door tag immediately, and I suggested using this photo and letting me add the logo digitally.

Here's how the finished photo for the ad was designed with the final look displayed in the photo of the last step.

Step 1 - Original photo received from the client. A duplicate clone was created so I had two copies in Xara Xtreme.



Step 2 - Using one copy of the photo I precisely traced the truck and trailer to create a clipping mask, and removed all the background leaving the truck/trailer only.



Step 3 - Using the second original photo I applied a 20% blur so it would fade into the background when the clipped truck and trailer were added later.



Step 4 - Next, the logo vector art was imported and placed on the clipped art along with the phone number in several areas, and then the Xara handles were used to warp the perspective to match the photo for a more realistic look.



Step 5 - A 55 pixel wide portion of the entire left side of the blurred version of the photograph was removed to create an illusion and add a 3D effect when the final step was completed.



Step 6 - The clipped truck and trailer were placed precisely over the blurred version of the truck/trailer in the photo so the truck front protruded off the photo to the left and appears to be driving out of the photograph and onto the page.



The effect was a success and used immediately for the printed custom door tag, and will be incorporated into the custom website design next for a consistent look in print and online. Designing with Xara vector graphics software makes creating professional results so easy that I've been using their programs for almost 4 years.

Novice designers looking for a cost effective alternative to the $500 to $1000 software packages will appreciate the price of Xara Xtreme starting at just under $100USD. Download and try Xara Xtreme free for 30 days, and you're welcome to send me samples of your work, too!

You may want to view the complete custom door tag here to see how the photo was integrated into the advertising piece.



TAGS: artwork tutorial photo edits door tag design xara xtreme

Labels: advice, artwork, examples, photographs, tutorials

                       

Small business website owners unfamiliar with the terms cybersquatting and typosquatting should take a moment to learn a little about these subjects.

Registration of domain names for deceptive or unscrupulous reasons such as unfair trade practices or misuse of an established website based on a famous name may be covered by US federal law. If you feel that a person has in fact taken a domain name similar to your name in violation of this law, you may want to investigate the possible legal recourse available to you.

For website owners in the USA, the Truth in Domain Names Act, also called the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is explained eloquently at Wikipedia. Visit their site to learn about cybersquatting here, and while you're there check out typosquatting here.

Some cases with familiar famous names are presented. This is a good starting point for website owners to learn about the subtle difference between offensive practices and illegal activity before engaging in the services of legal counsel. The intent and content of the similar site is the real test that may affect your rights.

Wal-mart first registered their domain as walmart.com not realizing that dashes could be used in their domain name to match the formal corporate spelling. They immediately added wal-mart.com and eventually the misspelled version wallmart.com to redirect visitors to their official and correctly spelled commercial site.

These cybersquatting and typosquatting tips may not apply to your small business website, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of the activity just in case it eventually affects you.



TAGS: advice domain names domain registration cybersquatting typosquatting

Labels: advice, general, websites

                       

New websites should begin as an outline in a word processor, or try the good old fashioned pencil and paper. Planning the layout, navigation, and content of your site is really step one in the design process. I still encourage clients to consider their expectations for the performance of their websites, so this should be in the back of your mind as you create the outline.

Website design is a creative process and as such the look, feel, and content of any website will evolve. Adding content later will be easier if you plan ahead. You can document what you want in outline form. Here's an example of the initial redesign of my advice site for novice website design and graphic design students:

Main Menu

- Introduction
- Qualifications
- Examples
- Future Plans

Design

- Design Overview
- - - Website Design
- - - - - Basic Website Standards
- - - - - Features to Avoid
- - - - - Design Rules for SEO
- - - - - Your Website Visitors
- - - Graphic Design
- - - - - Artwork for Websites
- - - - - Artwork for Print

- Design Toolbox
- - - Software for Code
- - - - - GridinSoft NotePad Word Processor
- - - Software for Graphics
- - - - - Xara Xtreme for Custom Art
- - - Software for PDFs
- - - - - pdfFactory Pro to Create PDF Files

This includes the original content prior to the redesign, planned fresh content, and leaves the design flexible to add more in the future. As a designer, or client specifying a design, the whole website project will be easier to develop and complete on time by using this planning advice and design strategy.



TAGS: advice website design design strategy

Labels: advice, websites

                       

Graphic artists are welcome to download this custom door tag template created in Xara Xtreme (4Kb zip folder, right click and save target as). This is another in the series and it's the large standard half page size of 4.25 inch by 11.0 inch. No registration, email capture, or signup required. This download is another in my series of free resources to help individuals or small business owners with do-it-yourself custom artwork.

Short tutorial: The template is color coded to identify the safe area for text, the bleed area, and margins. Standard guidelines are in place for easier layout. You may use the entire area for the background, but limit text within the green safe area.

The red box in the template is the doorknob hole section and nothing significant like text or important photos should be placed here because they will be hidden once the door tag is placed on the customer's door knob. The dotted outline is the centered placement of the die cut for the hole, and most printers will slit the tag at a 45 degree angle to the edge.

Once you understand the safe area for text and other limitations you may want to remove all the reference colored blocks from the template to begin your design. Email me with any questions or requests for any special templates.



The above illustration is a reduced size low resolution version of a 2-sided full color door hanger artwork done for a landscaping, lawn care, and pressure washing service company in Orlando. The large blank area near the top is to accommodate the die cut 1.5 inch hole for the door knob and the 45 degree angle slit after printing.

The portion lost in the die cut explains why the top of the front and back do not have real content. One third will be cut out, but I chose to add color in what will be left in the finished door hanger.

Note: You may want to view the photo edit tutorial here to see how the truck and trailer effect was created.



TAGS: xara templates door tag door hanger free download xara xtreme

Labels: artwork, templates, tutorials

                       

The team at AT&T have put up a test site for the iPhone at iPhoneTester.com for the benefit of web developers to sample test their designs to simulate how well they display on the new Apple gizmo. For sites done in XHTML with CSS, which is my standard technique and the recommended method according to Apple, "the look" on the iPhone should be just fine.

The page features a graphic simulation of the iPhone with an open space for displaying content, and then an input box to enter your www domain name. After testing several sites, I'm satisfied the designs I've created don't fall apart. They do, however, require horizontal scrolling which is not the case for laptop or desktop models. The XHTML with CSS sites I have designed are flexible and stretch to fill the screen regardless of screen size without any horizontal scrolling.

The recommended browser on the AT&T site is Safari which some perceive as a distant 5th behind the other 4 major browsers, so it was a curious exercise and recommended standard. Sites in XHTML with CSS that do not use tables for layout tend to display very well on cell phone screens without scrolling, and I can't help but be disappointed by any design that has a "displays best on..." disclaimer.

Have fun and try your www domain on the iPhone Display Test Website here.



TAGS: iPhone simulator reviews website design

Labels: general, reviews, websites

                       

Two calls this week from clients prompted me to expand on previous advice about new domain names for small business owners. Here's an excerpt from my published article Choosing Small Business Website Names:

The real value in the name you choose from a search perspective is how easy it is to spell and remember. Of the two types of visitors to your site, the human visitors and search engines, the ability of a person to remember your domain name and spell it correctly to pass it on to others outweighs any SEO value. Search engines are robots and don't care.

Using words like "greatest", "best", or other exaggerated terms in your domain name is thought by some to be a disadvantage and penalized by search engines. Search algorithms change often and likewise that theory, and although you may not be penalized for using such words, consider the reaction of your human visitors. They may not stick around if they feel you boast without the content to back it up. For a serious small business commercial enterprise, my advice is avoiding adjectives in the domain name entirely.

You may want to read the full domain name advice article here. In addition to domain name selection, points are made about SEO, or search engine optimization, also.



TAGS: advice search engine optimization seo small business advice domain registration

Labels: advice, articles, seo, websites

                       

This lesson in photo edits and creating custom graphics using Xara Xtreme includes a bonus item. First let me explain how the first photo below was created from two photographs. The zoom function and tracing allows graphic artists to create some pretty cool effects.



The wooden seagull in our front yard was purchased by my wife because it was on sale for $1.00, and once it was planted I took the photo shown minus the real seagull. Using the photograph closeup (below) that I took on the Maine coast several years ago, I clipped and resized just the gull.



Tutorial: I outlined the seagull with the pen tool by zooming in 5x and using a contrasting line before converting it to the dotted red line shown. Once outlined I clipped the gull from the original photo and resized it to fit the fake graphic version. The background has transparency added to better illustrate the cropped portion.

What’s the bonus? My wife wanted the top photo saying it would be a cool wallpaper for the computer desktop, so I created a high resolution version. The free wallpaper includes more of the foreground for better proportions to stretch on your desktop. You may download the free seagull wallpaper here (right click and save target) to add this to your collection. The wallpaper is in a zipped folder, 677Kb.

Experiment in Xara Xtreme with a free 30 day trial and try clipping portions of photos as shown in this lesson. The technique works great for business cards, and most other printed marketing material.



TAGS: artwork photo edits xara xtreme free wallpaper

Labels: artwork, photographs, tutorials

                       

I successfully used the cms program Joomla to convert one of my older websites, www.coderepair.com. CMS software, which stands for contact management system, allows website owners to easily add content from a master control panel. The material at Code Repair was originally advice for fixing poorly coded websites, but it has now expanded to cover website design and graphic art design for novice beginners. The purpose is helping newcomers to design business or personal websites or custom graphic art with learn as you go resources.

CMS may not be the best choice for your first website if you're in a hurry to get online because of the technical aspects. For converting existing sites, salvaging your search engine ranking should be a priority. Each html file on my old site was renamed in the new design, so 301 redirects were implemented so any outstanding backlinks from other sites would forward automatically to the newly named pages. The suffix of the home page was (dot)html and changed to php, yet the page retained the Google pagerank, so the redirects worked.

The new look, color scheme, and layout are done. However the content still has a long way to go. Future additions may include lessons as well as an e-store with related information products for sale. If you, or someone you know, wants the opportunity to learn website design or advice for creating matching custom artwork please visit and bookmark the site.



TAGS: website design website redesign cms joomla

Labels: general, launch, websites