If you have a website and you are not getting as much traffic as you would like ask yourself if you have found your “Wow Factor”. I know this sounds pithy but think about it for a second. Why would someone choose to visit your website when chances are there are several dozen (or even hundreds) of other websites just like yours. What makes your site stand out?

Take a look at some of the more successful websites … what makes them successful? Take a few minutes and think about it. I’d like to hear from you … what is your wow factor? What is the wow factor of other websites?

Post in the comments below. Let’s learn from each other.

Posted: September 16th, 2009 under Web Design.
Comments: none

You have seen them … slick websites that are visually appealing but you don’t really know what the site is about. You’ve also seen sites that are not very visually appealing but you keep coming back over and over. What is more important … visual appeal or content appeal?

The visually perfect site might attract lots of attention because it is just pleasant to look at. But if the content is poor or low-quality will you keep coming back? If a site has a high level of quality information but is not as visually stunning will you keep coming back? I would argue that the site with the quality material is far better than the visually stunning site with poor quality.

You can of course have both, but if you have to have a site that is stunning visually make sure that your content is at the same level of attractiveness. Focus on quality and relevance and you will get many more visitors and potentially many more customers!

Posted: August 21st, 2009 under Web Design.
Comments: none

Their is probably nothing more frustrating for a potential client/customer than to come to your website and have difficulty finding what they want! Many times a company will offer many different services and will promote them all on their website. But this can be confusing. If you run a technology firm and do everything from websites to technical support and someone comes to your website (via Google for example) and all they see is services they are not interested in then they will probably hit the back button and go to the next company in the search results.

One possibility to solve this problem is to have more than one website. One site for each service, while more potentially more costly, can allow your customers to see exactly what they are looking for.

Another excellent option is to programatically design your website to “capture” the keywords that your web visitor used in Google and direct them to a specific section on your site. This option might be difficult if you are not a programmer, but many of the freely available CMS software (Wordpress for example) have plugins that do exactly this.

Do your homework, streamline your site to your visitors needs, and you will more than likely notice an increase in your business.

Posted: August 20th, 2009 under Web Design.
Comments: none

Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIN, YouTube … you have probably head of all these “Web 2.0″ sites and may even use them to keep in touch with friends or family, but have you thought of using them for your business? I deal with customers all the time who ask me about improving their website to drive more customers to their business, and while I highly suggest having a well designed and easy to use website, making use of Social Media can be more effective.

FaceBook or Twitter can be excellent tools to keep your clients/customers informed about your business. For example, if you own a tax service you can use FaceBook or Twitter to inform your clients about changes in tax law, pending tax payment due dates and more. This is not only a “service” to your clients but it also reminds them about your business. Your updates remind your clients about you and might even spark referrals.

LinkedIN is another great social media site that is designed for businesses. One excellent resource in LinkedIN is their answers and questions area. People ask questions about hundreds of business related topics that you as a member can answer. This again is not only a “service” that you can offer but it will also help establish you as the expert! If you answer their question effectively then their is a great possibility that they may use your services in the future.

Take advantage of these social media sites. Why reinvent the wheel?

Posted: July 15th, 2009 under Social Media.
Comments: none