Want SEO Web Design Success? Try these WordPress Plug-Ins

November 3, 2011 - Posted in Web Design - Permalink

WordPress is a popular blog and website platform.   And by incorporating the following easy-to-use but powerful WordPress SEO plug-ins in your SEO Web Design, you can make your blog or website stand out in search engine page results.

1. Google XML Sitemaps
One of the most useful plug-ins in the arsenal of WordPress is Google XML Sitemaps;  it is simply a very effective application . The good thing is that it is a fire-and-forget system; after installing the application in your website or blog, it does all the work automatically. Google XML Sitemaps help search engine index your website . When you add content to your site, make changes, or create custom URLs, the plug-in automatically sends signals to Google, Yahoo, and other search engines, enabling spiders to crawl over your pages.

2. All in One SEO
By installing this plug-in, you will be able to automatically generate titles and meta tags for your website. In addition, it detects duplicate content and helps you avoid them. Just like Google XML Sitemaps, this is a fire-and-forget plug-in. Thus, it is an ideal SEO tool for beginners.

3. SEOPressor
SEOPressor is simple to use: just type the keyword or phrase you are targeting to rank. SEOPressor then presents a score for your post or page. The plug-in also shows you your keyword density; informs you if you lack any H1, H2, or H3 tags; automatically bolds, underlines, or italicizes your keyword, or put ALT tags to your images.

4. SEO SearchTerms Tagging
SEO SearchTerms Tagging is an application that enhances your site’s ranking by linking your site’s incoming search terms on all pages or posts . For instance, when a viewer searches for the term “mountaineering backpacks,” the SEO SearchTerms automatically creates a link for that keyword and interlinks your pages.You also have the option to put these terms on your site’s sidebar .

5. Sitemap Generator
A sitemap allows spiders to crawl over the inner pages of your website. The Sitemap Generator creates a sitemap for your site on a Web page of your choice.   The plug-in is very flexible and is filled with customizable options such as support for multi-level categories and pages, support for permalinks, page exclusion, display choice, and more. Best of all, it allows you to link to your XML sitemap.

If you do not know how to set up or use the plug-ins, consider availing of the assistance of a reputable solutions provider that offers search engine optimization services.

Effects of Google +1 Button App on Online Businesses

July 17, 2011 - Posted in SMB - Permalink

The Google +1 button app is another creation of Google that is set to revolutionize online businesses. Although still at its infancy, the app has been welcomed by mainly small online business owners who may be running their businesses on a tight budget. The app is said to be Google’s version of facebook “like” program, of which it can also be installed on websites and blogs. In addition, the app is built to affect search results, ad campaigns, click through rates (CTR), and ultimately the success of your online business.

Before making use of it you need to have a Google public profile. This helps you to connect with all your friends on Google networks like Gtalk, Buzz, and Gmail. Once you click on the +1 button on a site or blog, your recommendation for the content becomes accessible to all in your Google network. What this means is that they will be able to see all the pages you recommended; especially if your profile is set on public view. Secondly, for any search result or ad you +1, your contacts on the network will see same recommendation from you if they searched for a related term.
The button is going to bring a lot of rewards for online businesses as people tend to follow recommendations from trusted friends and relations than those from strangers. Before now, people relied solely on reviews done by others online before they make purchases. Sometimes it is hard to conclude with all these reviews since some are sponsored by the product company. But that is going to be a thing of the past with the arrival of the +1 button. Sale of products and services is going to skyrocket as time to make decisions will be drastically cut short. And the button will provide you with free adverts from those recommending to those on their contact circle.

But a word of caution is that you need to do your home work properly. Your website must look professional, and must be filled with contents worth recommending to others. Remember, just a click on the button can expose your site to a thousand persons or more. This means that it has the power of affecting the CTR of your site. In addition, ad campaigns with more +1 recommendation are likely to be clicked than others with lesser number of recommendations.
The application is now gradually weaving itself into the mainstream of online marketing. Google is still cleaning the rough edges; but at the moment it is paying off real good. A recent research carried out by seoeffect proved that the button increased their page CTR by 20%. This is good news for online businesses. Endeavor to have the app installed conspicuously on your site so as to draw attention to it. You can go further by educating your subscribers on the need to participate by “+1ing” your articles or product page. As you combine this app with Facebook “like” program, you rest assured of a faster growth process in your business than you ever imagined. Get plugged.

Mobile Applications: The Wave Of The Future

April 2, 2011 - Posted in Mobile Applications - Permalink

Mobile applications, or apps for short are called by a variety of names. Smartphone apps, blackberry apps, Iphone apps: These are all the same thing. Different brands have different names. Mobile apps aren’t just for phones. Basically anything you can hold in your hand, an ipod, a tablet, all have thousands upon thousands of apps available for them.

So just what is a mobile application. Think of your PC. Have you ever downloaded and installed a piece of software to make your PC more efficient, or to allow you to do things with the PC you couldn’t do without the software? Most of us have. These are software applications.

A mobile application is just a piece of software you download and install to your smartphone, tablet, etc. These are designed to add functions to your phone, or tablet to make them more efficient. It allows you to do things quickly and easily, and there are so many things you can do.

Mobile apps let you play games, have GPS at your fingertips, allow you to synch data between devices. There are apps for cat lovers, dog lovers, and apps for keeping track of your favorite sport. There are apps that let you access all of your email accounts from one place. There’s even an app that lets you use your smartphone as a DVR remote control. Now you can record from anywhere.

Many mobile apps are free and many can also be purchased at various websites online. They’re inexpensive ways to increase your productivity and to just have fun. Many people design their own apps and then sell them through these stores. There are companies that let you come up with the idea and they produce the app. You don’t even need to know how to code.

It’s been said that mobile apps are sounding the death knell of the home PC. Desktops are a thing of the past. I don’t think I’d go that far. I think I’ll keep my desktop for a while.Still, you can do many things with a smart phone that you can do with a PC. You can browse the internet, you can find things online easily without resorting to the search engines. There’s one thing you can do with a smartphone you can’t do with a PC and that’s take it with you.

There future is looking good for mobile applications. More are developed and used everyday. They are especially popular among young people. Young people love to text message and this is a smartphone app. In fact this is probably the most popular smartphone app. Another popular application for young people are the email apps. Read your email on your phone.

So it would seem that mobile applications are the wave of the future. You can do so many things with your phones now that it’s almost unbelievable. It’s almost like carrying a personal assistant around in your pocket.

Business Websites: How Does Yours Measure Up?

March 14, 2011 - Posted in SMB, Web Design - Permalink

We’ve all seen them. The animated and flashing graphics. The banner ads stuck everywhere. The confusing mish mash of links so that we don’t know where to go. The confusing order process. Sites like these quickly make us move on.

What goes into a good appealing business website? The first thing to consider is your domain name. Forget cutesy, we want a name that will be easily remembered. The ideal domain name will simply be your business name. It’s always best to get a .com domain as people tend to automatically type .com into the address bar. This can be tricky, but not impossible.

Next you need hosting for your site. Don’t make the mistake of settling for cheap. Does the hosting company have a toll free service number available 24/7? Are the service people responsive and helpful? Does the hosting have all of the functions and services you need? These are the questions you need to ask yourself before you order hosting.

A good business website is appealing to the eye without being gaudy. Flashy animated graphics are rarely if ever used. Banner ads if used are keep to a minimum. Color scheme is important and should be carefully considered. The header should always be professionally designed. It should state clearly what the business is about. The header is you customers first impression of your business. Make sure it’s a good one.

The most important part of any business website is clear, consistent navigation. Customers should be able to see at a glance where they want to go and then get there in two or three clicks. Some business sites use silo navigation so that links appear only as needed. This cuts down on clutter and makes it easier to find things.

A good business website will have easily found Privacy and Term of Use pages. There will also be a Contact Us and a Site Map. The easier you make it for people to find what they need the more customers you will end up with.

It’s also very important to have an easily seen newsletter sign up form. You can offer an incentive for an email address. A discount coupon, an ebook, even a free sample of a product are good ways to get people to sign up. Once they sign up you have a list of potential customers to market to. Just be consistent in your mailings and the profits will come.

Now the big question. Do you build and maintain the site yourself, or do you hire it done? Do you have someone in your company who is a wiz at web design? Is yours a small company with limited financial resources? Paying a web designer to build and maintain your site can be an expensive proposition. It can also be far less stressful. If you have the finances this is the best way to go.

If you decide to go the do it yourself route learn the basics of HTML. It isn’t difficult and makes the task much easier. You’ll need a platform to build your site on. WordPress and Joomla are two good platforms to use. WordPress is easier for the beginner and many go this route.

For more information on how to best use technology and the web for your business visit http://www.technota.com.

Why Corporate Instant Messaging?

February 1, 2011 - Posted in IT Security, SMB - Permalink

Instant messaging platforms have been part of our personal communication mix for over a decade. The ease with which they allow us to stay connected with friends and family while sharing information at minimal cost is nothing short of amazing. This same convenience is sought by small and large businesses alike with regards to their internal communication.

Although the temptation is often there to use the same instant messaging platforms that we are familiar with in our personal communication for business use; special care and consideration should be given to your enterprise’s internal communication needs.

Enterprise level solutions for your company’s inter-office communications should be handled by a hosted service that is as convenient and reliable as it is secure. Just think for a moment about all of the confidential information that is conveyed between your employees during the course of a normal business day. Research data, sales figures and client information are but some of sensitive data that are routinely communicated. It is for this reason that any instant messaging solution for your business must reunite certain basic characteristics.

All communication should be encrypted over SSL/TLS. This is the same sort of encryption protocol that is used for online banking and shopping transactions. A corporate instant messaging system should also incorporate some degree of logging functionality. This safeguards the content of the communication on servers for a predetermined period of time in the event that reference must be made back to a specific line of communication at some point in the future. Of course, making certain that the system is in compliance with governmental guidelines, such as HIPAA, SAS70 and PCI standards, is also important.

Having a user-friendly corporate instant messaging system can greatly increase your company’s ease of communication and efficiency. In searching for a solution, however, do not allow yourself to overlook the fundamental requirements for such a system. Always keep in mind that the best instant messaging system will combine user-friendly operation, ease of implementation and maintenance along with top-notch security and compliance elements built in.

Do You Need a Fully Managed Support Service?

November 29, 2010 - Posted in IT Support - Permalink

We live, work and operate within a digital world. Everything and everyone uses computers and other technology. Things have developed so far, even in the last decade, which the setup, running and maintenance of even smaller companies is beyond the understanding of most technically minded people. The fact is that there are precious few employees sufficiently trained and experienced in the world of IT to be able to provide your business with anything like the support that it needs, whilst fulfilling a different role within your organisation.

You need a dedicated IT team, yet for most companies, the costs and administration involved with such a venture is too much to bear. To be exact, you need to outsource your fully managed IT support service.

An average employee today may be sufficiently capable of dealing with one crashed computer, but what if a network of computers fails? Correction of such problems is beyond almost anyone without high quality IT training.

But a fully managed IT support service can also help you when you are setting up and designing your IT system. You can liaise with the IT team in order to find the best solution for your business. The kind of insight from the technicians that work with these systems day in and day out can be invaluable.

So do you need a fully managed IT support service? Ask yourself this question – if your technology failed, if you were unable to have devices communicate with each other, how would your business cope? In this day and age, it only takes a small slip and you can lose your place in the market. With a fully managed IT support service, you can rest at ease knowing that you have 24/7 IT support for your business needs.

The Need for an Outstanding Website

November 27, 2010 - Posted in SMB, Web Design - Permalink

The internet has dramatically changed how we, as a society, do business. All businesses need to recognise that the goal posts have shifted in just the last few years. Today it is a businesses online presence that will make or break their success. The irony is that most businesses will only give fleeting thoughts to their website layout, whilst investing massive amounts of money (comparatively speaking) into their traditional store fronts. Websites are not only the future, but also the present, and any company that does not recognise this is holding themselves at a massive disadvantage in their chosen market place.

Designing a website involves taking into account many different factors and putting them together into the one design; it is a balancing act with incredibly high stakes for the client. Modern websites need to be simple to navigate and intuitive to use, whilst encouraging conversions or sales, all the while driving your brand home to the reader.

Consumers are so quick to judge today, that if your website is in anyway unclear or fuzzy on how they are to navigate or purchase a product from you that they will abandon your site in favour of a competitor. So your site needs to be sleek and clear. It needs to be obvious how a reader navigate and use your site and services. You cannot afford to be unclear. You also cannot afford for your brand to be tarnished in any way – your site needs to be the very embodiment of your branding. Failure to get these aspects spot on and it could cost your company dearly.

Given what is at stake, it is incredible to think how many companies outsource their websites to just about any low bidder. For modern companies, everything rides on the success of their website. Surely only the most professional of website designersand builders should be employed for this work.

Why Small and Medium Companies Need a Professional Backup Service

November 23, 2010 - Posted in Data Backup, SMB - Permalink

We live and work in the age of the paper free office environment, where keeping all records on paper in large and bulky filing cabinets is a thing of the past. These days are gone as computers have taken over with digital hard drives replacing these archaic filing systems.

This is a great day and age for the environment as less and less trees are being felled to keep up with office paper demands, and a great day for offices as they no longer need to be filled with filing systems.

But the paper free office carries with it its own risks. Corrupt files, electromagnetic pulses, virus infections and user error can all destroy companies’ records. Imagine for a moment that your business lost all of its records in a heartbeat. How would you cope? What would you do? All of your clients details, all of their pending orders, all of your cash flow information lost and gone forever – how would you react? This is the nightmare that keeps small to medium business managers and owners up at night in panic.

But did you know that this worry need not be a concern? There are companies that can provide full back up programs and disaster management packages that save your records should the unthinkable happen.

This is a form of insurance that everyone need take out, as failure to protect and back up your details can be devastating and even fatal on a business, especially in the current economical climate.

Services can be offered that will back up your content and files at set intervals. So you can perform monthly backups or a backup every minute. The choice is up to you – does your data update so frequently that it requires an up to the minute back up, or is a weekly or monthly back up sufficient for your requirements? Its important not to pay too much or for services that you do not need, but its also important to ensure that should disaster strike, all the information that you require is backed up and available for you to implement at a moments notice.

Are Mobile Applications a Flash in the Pan?

November 18, 2010 - Posted in Mobile Applications - Permalink

Isn’t it funny how no one really talked about mobile applications for all the years that they have been around, until Apple launched their iPhone, and suddenly the world is paying attention to them. Mobile applications have come out of the technological wilderness to suddenly become the must have tool for every business. But are mobile applications worth the time and the effort and the expense to produce and market? Or is the concept of the mobile phone application simply a flash in the pan – here today but sadly gone tomorrow?

Given the sudden nature that they became the talk of the town, it is easy to assume that mobile applications are just a passing fad, and that in ten years time we will all be able to sit back and laugh about how we all tried to create mobile applications to promote and endorse our businesses. But that does not look to be the way of the future.

The future looks bright for mobile applications. The advent of the tablet PC has created a new category of device, one that is truly mobile in the same way as a phone, but with much of the functionality of a net book. These devices look set to be the portable devices of the future, and they look set to demand a whole new generation of mobile applications.

Mobile applications are no longer the domain of cell phones, as tablets become more and more in vogue, they will take over the mobile application market. Given this, it is fair to say that mobile applications will be here to stay for some time, although probably not in the form that we have seen historically.

If you think you might be sitting on the “next big thing”, take advantage of a free consultation with Technota to explore your options.

The Fundamental Importance of Website Development

November 17, 2010 - Posted in SMB, Web Design - Permalink

Website development is essential for any company or organisation in this day and age. The truth is that the internet has changed the way that every business should operate. Those that do not change will be left behind. Websites today are the new shop fronts. Where as in years gone by, the traditional store front was the focal point of a business, today the website is very much at the coalface of business. It is because of this that website development is key to the success of any business today.

If a company has a website, and it looks like it was created by an amateur then this will reflect badly on the business. People will make snap judgements about the business based on the look and feel of the website, so it is important that your website makes itself very clear who it is looking to appeal to. If there is one unforgiveable crime in website development it is mediocrity. A forgettable website will not appeal to anyone, and you will not be able to design a website that appeals to everyone. Your intention with your website development should be to so aim your website at your target audience that it alienates most other groups. This may sound counter intuitive, but it is only in developing your website in this way that you will make it crystal clear to your target audience that you are on their wave length.

Website development is something that every group and every organisation needs to take very seriously. The internet is not going anywhere, and those that do not step up to the plate will be left by the side of the road.

To learn more about how proper website development can help your business, please visit us at www.technota.com.

« Older Entries