Archive for April, 2010

“Hope springs eternal!”

I think that famous saying could be my thought for the week. That’s because, for the second time in just a few days, I’m excited to announce the successful completion and launch of a MaryDesigns website for a previous client. This time, it’s Christian Connection entertainment that’s making headlines.

Their site, which went live today at www.mychristianconnection.com, combines affordable food with out-of-this world Christian musical entertainment for believers in North Carolina. With live gospel, Christian comedy, karaoke, bible trivia, and even faith-based fundraising available, it’s no wonder Alan Bell (a blessing as both a client and a friend in his own right) has such big plans for the group. By combining his faith and energy with business savvy and entertainment know-how, he’s created something that’s going to be a unique experience on the Atlantic coast – I only wish I lived closer!

As a design project, Alan’s Christian Connection site was just as much fun as he is. It wasn’t easy to bring out the good-time atmosphere and tasty creations he’s known for, but the result is a high-energy layout that lets visitors know they’re in for a good time… not to mention an inspirational message. We’ve always been proud of our MaryDesigns Christian web design, and we’ll definitely be showing this one off for a while.

All of my gratitude and best wishes have to go to Alan as his site goes live. If it’s only half the hit he is, then we’ll be seeing a lot more of him soon.

It really must be getting to be Spring after all, because brand new websites are popping up all over the place – and in this case, a green one!

It was a little over a year ago when one of my favorite fun clients, Karyl Traeger, closed the doors on her charming Lafayette shop, The Green Door. As sorry as I was to see the store go away, losing such a fun customer made it even worse.  So it was with a great deal of excitement that I began work on a new site for Karyl recently…

I’m pleased to announce the launch of MarthaRose Gifts & Interiors! Located virtually at www.martha-rose.com, and in Delphi, Indiana  (20 minutes from her previous location) in the real world, this shop will be the perfect stop for unique merchandise and the finest home accessories you can find anywhere. The brick and mortar store officially opens mid-May.

As excited as I am about every site that goes live, I have to agree with Karyl that this one is a home run. By combining the upbeat nature of her personality with the high-class products her store offers, we came up with a design that Karyl loves and feels is off the chart! Of course, if you’re in the market for a quality web design for your small business, in Indiana or beyond, I hope you’ll contact us today.

Once more, please join me in welcoming Karyl and MarthaRose back to the world wide web! It’s always a pleasure working with her, and I know her newest venture is going to be a big hit!

The CPR Solution for Healthcare Providers

Ketchup never looks good on your scrubs, but when you’re shoveling fries into your mouth four at a time, those are the risks you take. In fact, I’m a lot more worried about choking… literally and figuratively. That’s because I’ve got just a few moments before I need to rush back to my department and renew my CPR certifications. Shouldn’t I have taken care of that weeks, or even months ago? Probably, but somewhere between 12 hour days and helping to save lives, I guess I didn’t manage to fit into the available testing time slots.

As the last of the fries makes their way into my mouth, I start to mouth a silent prayer – I need those credits and don’t want to lose my job just because I was too busy doing it…

And then, the phone snaps me back into reality, and away from my flashback. I answer it, but not before smiling to myself ever so slightly. Designing and coding websites as the owner of MaryDesigns might not always be easy, but it beats the stress of keeping up with continuing education in the medical field. After more than a dozen years as an X-ray technician, I remember vividly how hard it could be to find the time to stay current.
Maybe that’s why I’m especially proud to announce that one of my latest clients, The CPR Solution, have launched their website today. This company is truly a lifesaver in every sense of the word – they’re the CPR solution for healthcare providers – making it possible for everyone to learn CPR, not just doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals.

I hope you’ll join me in congratulating The CPR Solution and check out their website at www.thecprsolution.com.

“Are we there yet?”

This phrase isn’t only well known to parents; those of us who work with search engine optimization hear different versions of it quite a bit. That’s because SEO is like physical exercise – everybody wants to see results today, but few of us have the discipline to work out consistently for months on end.

So, like technological personal trainers, web designers constantly strive to motivate clients to keep up their crunches and push-ups, usually in the form of fresh content and site updates. All the while, though, the question keeps coming at us: why does this have to take so long?

The short answer has to do with software. Simply put, Google and the other search engines use millions of tiny, automated programs that scour the Internet day and night looking for words and phrases that match what searchers type in. So, not only do you have to add new material to your website, but you also have to wait for one of these “spiders” to find and index the new pages before they can have any effect. On top of that, most engines place more weight on older sites and those that regularly update, meaning that there’s always a bit of a lag and that consistency – not just volume – figure in overtime.

For a longer and more complete answer, though, we have to think a bit about what matters to searchers in the first place. What people are looking for isn’t keywords – it’s answers and information that help them solve life’s problems. To build up stock of that information takes time and attention; you can’t simply throw together a few words and expect that readers are going to respond.

Additionally, the specific phrases and ideas that people care about (or that you want to offer) change pretty frequently. What was hot last month isn’t such a big deal today. In order to stay at the front of the search listings, business owners need to anticipate these trends, or at least keep up with them. Otherwise, you can quickly find that traffic to your site falls off a cliff once a new product, idea, or innovation takes hold. It takes a steady stream of fresh content to stay ahead of the pack, and you’d better believe that there are always a handful of new businesses chasing you.

Remember, search engine optimization is a bit like starting a spin class – it’s going to take a little bit of time to get the results you want, but not nearly as long as you’d think. As long as you can stick to a routine of adding fresh, quality content and updates at regular intervals, you’ll stop wondering why SEO takes so long, and start marveling at how it works so well.

At least once a week, a client comes to me looking for the “magic bullet” of search engine optimization. They want to know, once and for all, the secret to getting atop the Google, Yahoo, and Bing listings for their best keywords. Sometimes, they even let me know that price isn’t an issue – they just want to do whatever it takes to make things happen now.

So, after a great amount of personal reflection and internal debate, I have decided to spill the beans. Here, after all these years, is the secret to getting great SEO results quickly: First, you make a sweep of your small business website, being sure to optimize all of the basics like page titles, embedded tags, and other technical details. Then, you generate a lot of high-quality, keyword-rich content and post it to your site and blog regularly. And finally, you work tirelessly to generate dozens, or even hundreds, of inbound links to your site from other reputable, well-known sources.

Once you’ve completed all that, all you have to do is keep doing all of the above until it slowly but surely works.

“Wait,” I can hear you saying, “that doesn’t sound all that fast at all… In fact, it doesn’t even sound like that much of a secret.” Well, you’ve got me there. But unfortunately, those are the steps that you – or any other business owner – has to take if you’re going to be assured of climbing up the search engine rankings. There are no shortcuts, and there is no magic bullet. You can spend a small fortune with dozens of gurus and experts, but it’s always going to come back to time and effort. The best that I or anyone else can do for you is to find the right keywords, keep you on schedule, and do what we can to stop the process from becoming any longer or more tedious than it already is.

Naturally, this advice comes as quite a disappointment to many business owners – especially those who have recently launched online businesses. Some of them refuse to believe it all, which leads them to write very big checks to people with questionable credentials. That’s not to say that there aren’t some great SEO professionals out there, because there certainly are. But for 95% of the small businesses jockeying for position on the major search engines, the best course of action is to get started and keep moving forward. Sooner or later, the rest will take care of itself.

Improved search engine rankings can be a huge boost to your business, bringing you hundreds or thousands of new leads and customers every year. But to enjoy those benefits, you’re going to need some knowledgeable assistance and a healthy amount of patience. There is no search engine magic bullet to speed up the process, but if you take the time to do it the right way, the results are worth the wait.