Website Fuel - Teaching SEO to New Zealand Business Owners

Is your business website marketing strategy accessible to mobile users, do you need to rethink it?

2011-08-28T20:31:00.001+12:00

Have you wondered how much emphasis you should put on the Mobile accessibility of your Website marketing campaigns? Bryan Rieger and the folks at Yiibu put together an excellent presentation called “Rethinking the Mobile Web: a pragmatic look at creating an accessible and inclusive mobile experience” which, for many business owners, does just that… Makes you rethink the mobile web. To some degree it might leave the humble business owner in a state of “OMG just when i thought I had started getting a handle on my SEO and SMM I now have to think about Mobile Web”

The takeaway I guess from all this is that while you may not end up spending a lot of time, money and effort on developing your mobile friendly side to everything web you do there is a need to at least consider the ramifications of not doing anything. How many of your potential customer group would likely use the mobile web to discover your business? Whether it is looking up your address and contact details from smartphone apps like Yellow Pages, searching for your location via Google Maps or simply product or service discovery using a search engine on their iPhone, Android or other smart phone.

It is important that every New Zealand business owner with a website that is designed to promote their business online gives some level of consideration to how accessible they are outside of traditional platforms such as Mac and PC desktops and laptops. It may be that you decide not to do anything to become more accessible but at least it will be a strategic decision not a “I don’t know what I don’t know” omission.

Admittedly this may leave you feeling a little overwhelmed but that’s where professionals like myself, WebsiteFuel and other marketing companies come in. Ask the company that looks after your marketing to sit down with you, go through your marketing strategies and look at how & to what degree mobile accessibility fits your business.

“Want to have a chat about where Mobile Accessibility fits within your online marketing strategies?

Call WebsiteFuel at SOHO on 07 849 0289 or email info@sohotech.co.nz“

Email Newsletters are Useless

2011-04-21T09:27:00.001+12:00

Email newsletters to clients can also be a very powerful and effective form of marketing in your business when done right with the right tools and strategy.

There are three fundamental concepts towards creating an effective email newsletter which, when used correctly, can greatly benefit the reason you spent the time to write the email in the first place. After all do we not all want some level of ROI on time or money spent in our marketing efforts?

Firstly there is the system you use to create and send your email, don’t, and I cannot stress this enough, use Outlook for creating your email marketing campaigns. Why? Well the answer is simple; you cannot measure the effectiveness of it. A good email marketing platform will enable you to tap into very useful analytics around who read, who forwarded, who visited your website, Tweeted etc… Additionally with the Electronic Communications act it is very hard to be compliant.

Secondly it’s all about content, both the guts of it as well as how it is presented as this is a reflection of your business. With regards to content, while some times simply providing a specials email is sufficient to your marketing plan, some degree of personalisation both by addressing the recipient by name saying gidday and signing off as yourself can have advantages in how well the reader engages with you. After all we all like feeling special… Likewise presentation is so important, not to the degree that you either have to spend oodles of money getting a professional designer to create some awe inspiring piece of content for you each month nor the requirement of spending countless hours on it getting it just right. More that you use a nice easy to read font with defined headings and throw in some graphics (keeping them proportionally sized to retain a consistent feel) to liven up your email. A simple email newsletter that is pleasant to read will often have more impact than something convoluted with a stream of colours and different fonts. We’re all busy folks let’s make it easy to digest your newsletter.

Lastly, and this for me is a biggie, once your client has finished reading your email what do you want him or her to do? Do you want them to delete it and go on to the next email in their inbox or would you like them to take some action to engage with your company? Commonly called a “Call to Action” no piece of marketing should be without it and your email newsletters are no different. From call now to refer a friend, enter this competition and Tweet This, Read the article online or sign up for this the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Email marketing done right can be a fantastic tool for ensuring the “Client Nurturing” aspect of your marketing campaign works effectively. Use a professional email marketing platform, write great content and give your readers something to do.

via Posterize

Ten Tips for Business Blogging

2011-04-14T21:12:00.001+12:00

If you want to get found online a business blog is a great way to produce fresh content to improve your search engine rankings. A blog for your business can develop a relationship with your customers as well as generating new sales leads.

1. You probably blog without knowing it

I see a lot of websites who regularly publish news and information on their website to keep customers informed of what’s going on. This is essentially great blog content and can be the foundation for the blogging aspect of your website marketing campaign.

2. What can you blog about?

Think about the things that happen in your business every day that you naturally tell people about. New products, industry innovations, events and awards, PR, articles written about your business, new staff, old staff, great staff, customer testimonials, common problems customers face and how to solve them. Every week there is bound to be something in your business that you could write about.

3. Don’t be a sales person

Rather than push your products or services engage your customers by giving them an insight into your business, the people in it and your expertise in the industry. Entertain, educate and inform your readers. If you write about your products or services then try talking about how they solve a problem.

4. Research

Don’t be afraid to check other successful blogs in your industry including those overseas to get some ideas on how to promote your business. Analyse your keywords, see what your competitors are doing and do it better.

5. Know your audience

Who are your customers, what will they want to hear about and what will make them keep coming back to your website to read your blog? Blogging does take some effort so it is important not to waste it. Often finding a small niche within your industry can create a significant difference if you are in a highly competitive online arena.

6. Design Less

Try not to get too bogged down with the design of your blog. Use your logo and brand colours with one of the pre designed templates. Blogs are about content, the look of your blog helps but your first focus should be on generating content.

7. Optimise

Use the right blogging platform so you can optimise each post with keywords and descriptions. Having a blog hosted on your domain rather than a free blog often provides better options for optimising your blog for search engines. Blogging to nobody soon becomes tedious so if you don’t get found it will be hard to stay motivated.

8. Promote

Marketing is about coverage and blogs are no different. Think of your blog as your own PR central. With all that valuable content, re distribute it across the web to places such as Twitter, Facebook, news and article sites and LinkedIn. If you post a PowerPoint presentation, pdf or Word document consider posting to SlideShare.

9. Capture, Convert and Nurture

There’s generally one primary reason a business will start a blog; to make more sales. Give your readers something to do once they have read your blog. This could be as simple as subscribe to your blog feed, signup for your email newsletter, register to download something, register to receive specials via email and so on. The key here is to capture the reader to become a lead by inviting them to give you some contact details. It’s your job then to convert them into a customer and you will only do this if you nurture your leads through the process.

10. Don’t give up to quickly

Give yourself at least 6 months before deciding on whether a blog is working for your business. Establishing a new blog can be hard as it has little or no content when you start so there’s not a lot to attract existing customers or to reach out to potential new readers. After 6 months you will have a good amount of content and a better idea of how it is performing as an additional sales and PR tool.

TIP:
Have a strategy for your blog so that you have a clear objective of what results you need to measure. Know who you are blogging to, why you are blogging, and what the measurable goal is for your blog to determine its success.

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Accountants on London helping local Waikato businesses

2010-11-10T11:47:00.001+13:00

Local Accounting firm, Accountants on London have just announced a new initiative to help local Waikato SME business owners promote themselves in this on-going tough economic climate.

“Hosted on London” is the name of this business community initiative, which simply put, provides board-room facilities for small workshops and seminars to local business owners.

The concept is to assist local business’ by providing this fabulous facility at little or no cost.

Hosted on London’s new initiative is called “Free 4 Free.”

Jane Evans, one of the directors at Accountants on London says, "We’d like to give back to and support our local community therefore if a local business owner wants to put on a free workshop or seminar for their existing or prospective clients and use Hosted on London to do it, then we'll cover the cost and let them use our boardroom for free".

Alternatively, if the workshop being held has a registration cost to its participants, then there is a nominal cost to hire the boardroom.

The most dynamic part of this initiative is that this offer is available to any Waikato SME business owner – meaning you don’t even have to be a client of the firm!

Hosted on London is located at Accountants on London, which is on the ground floor of the Vazey Child building at the river end of London Street. The room can hold up to 15 people comfortably and comes fully equipped with white-board, tea/coffee making facilities and data-show projector, making it the ideal environment to host a small workshop or seminar.

Business owners interested in having their workshop or seminar at Hosted on London should contact Jenny Cross the Business Manager on 07 838 0119 or by emailing jenny@aol.org.nz.

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Use your iPad to play video and music files from your computer

2010-10-04T09:15:00.001+13:00

I love a multimedia enabled house and StreamToMe just adds that extra layer of coolness for your iPad. I use StreamToMe on my iPad in my gym to keep me entertained while on the bike, it's a good way to stay on it for a decent amount of time without getting bored looking at the wall for an hour.

The StreamToMe app was very easy to setup and even though the tech specs recommend a Core Due Processor I am running it on a fairly old P4 3.2Ghz processor and its fine albeit a little slow strating the "on the fly" conversion and the limiting of resoltuion to 480p. If you have a fast computer you can stream at 720p which does make a difference.

Music streams nice and fast even with a large library and unlike some streaming apps it will play the entire album when clicking on a song. Additional to browsing a music folder iTunes integration is setup by default and loads all your iTunes playlists, although you do need to restart the streaming server on your PC if you want to update your playlists.

All in all I found that this was a pretty robust and stable way to deliver music and movies to my iPad. For $4.19 it is a must have for anyone who has an iPad and a music or movie collection on their PC or Mac. note for this review I was streaming my personal family movies.

You can get StreamToMe for the iPad from StreamToMe and the Windows or Mac ServeToMe app from Projects With Love

Overview:

The StreamToMe application lets you use your iPhone or iPod Touch to play video and music files — in a wide variety of formats without prior conversion — streamed directly over WiFi from your Mac or PC. If you connect the video-out cable for iPhone/iPod, StreamToMe can play through your TV, turning your iPhone/iPod plus Mac/PC into a home media center.

Features:

	Files do not need to be pre-converted to an iPhone/iPod/iPad size or format — the ServeToMe application converts the files to an iPhone-friendly format on-the-fly, so a single touch will start playback in as little as 5 seconds. Play, pause or seek through the file as though it were converted and copied onto your iPhone/iPod/iPad.
	Can play a huge range of video and music formats including MP4, AVI, MOV, FLV, MPG, MKV, MP3, AAC, WMA and WMV formats.
	StreamToMe will work at DVD resolutions over local WiFi but can adjust the stream quality automatically to play smoothly from a remote WiFi or 3G location.
	The TV out cable is supported so you can connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to your TV to use your Mac or PC as a wireless streaming media center for your TV.
NEW!	New in version 2.0: Thumbnails for movies files, album artwork for music (including while playing), subtitles (SRT files, SSA files, embedded SSA in MKV files, MOV text tracks), continuous and random play modes (instead of single file at a time), sort options including folder flattening (view whole collection at once) and more!

Tech Requirements:

The StreamToMe application requires:

any iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch running iOS 3.0 or greater

Either:
- an Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 or greater
- or a Windows PC running Windows XP SP2 or greater (including Vista and Windows 7).
A 1.8Ghz Intel Core Duo or AMD Athlon II CPU or faster is required (must support SSE3). PowerPC Macs are not supported.

a WiFi or 3G network connection between your Mac and your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch

UPnP or NAT-PMP must be enabled on all routers for non-local access (remote WiFi or 3G)

A 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster is recommended for 480p and higher video resolutions.

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Hitting the Mark(et) with your online campaigns

2010-09-27T10:13:00.001+13:00

[caption id="attachment_345" align="alignleft" width="257" caption="Getting the right start for your campaign"][/caption]

So you are thinking about a specific campaign to attract new customers to your business through your website...

Where do you start?

Once you have clearly defined the goal into an easily understandable statement like "we want to get 15 new customers on board in two months because we have projects completing and need to get back to capacity" then it's time to give some thought to both what remarkable content needs to be generated and what online mediums would best suit the successful outcome of this campaign.

This is where knowing your target comes in because before getting all fired up and simply getting the campaign started we need to look at exactly who it is we are marketing to which will define the type of content and to a large extent the mediums to use. It's not really enough to simply say that "my target market is any small business in this particular area that requires a refined business plan and assistance in the implementation of that plan (let's use business planning and development as our core projects).

First of all to create content to that audience would inevitably miss the mark for a selection of that market and may hit the mark for others but the most likely outcome would be fairly diluted content that tries to fit all profiles but lacks the punch required for high level conversion later in the sales process. This is where creating a marketing persona can deliver real value both in generating a guideline for content and distribution channels as well as often providing a deeper insight into what your target market really looks like.

So let's say we are looking at delivering a service to clients that revolves around redefining business plans and delivering results through on-going coaching for a three month period, who is my target market and what sort of marketing persona could I create?

The first question would be what is the industry or business type, so in this case I will suggest businesses providing professional services to other businesses, perhaps in an environment where their clients are relatively high value and low turnover volume.

Now what age group am I going to look at for these business owners? Understanding that my business is about redefining business plans then my client age in the above industry would probably be under 38 from an assumption that established successful owners probably have a fairly robust plan. Additionally I might also assume that they are over 25 due to the nature of being a company who is dealing with high value clients may require the credibility of someone who has a proven track record.

So what are the frustrations of our potential client? Perhaps it's about being time poor, difficulty in client acquisition or a need for some solid on-going PR. And lastly what is their family situation? Are they married or single, in a relationship or have kids or a combination? For this group I am going to suggest in a relationship, possible married with a young family.

Now I have a real target to market to.
A 25-35 year old professional possibly with young children whose business has been operating for several years but is struggling to enjoy free time due to time spent finding new clients while working on existing projects because they don't have enough public exposure through PR.

This now starts to define the type of content you could create to this person because you probably have an idea of what would motivate this type of person. Additionally you would be able to gain some good insights as to what media channels this person consumes and what calls to action would drive this person to make a decision. All in all you now have a more robust framework to base your campaign on.

"While this is a quick hypothetical scenario there are more questions you can ask yourself of your marketing persona as well as some good resources on exploring this process further but even in it's most simplistic form as illustrated above it will provide a great deal of benefit towards the successful achievement of your campaign goal"

via Posterize

Google Apps update: Print your spreadsheets with more printing options

2010-09-20T14:13:00.001+12:00

via Google Apps blog
Thursday, September 16, 2010

With the power of the cloud, you have access to and can share your files from basically any device without needing to print out anything. We understand that there are occasions when you still need to print, however, and that’s why today we’re happy to announce two new features for printing: selection printing and gridless printing. These two new options allow you to not only customize your printouts, but also save ink in the process.

With selection printing you can print a highlighted section from your spreadsheet. The new option to not print the default gridlines is valuable if you’re trying to print a handout or trying to save ink. You can access these settings via File > Print.

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A new Twitter.com - New design, new features, new Twitter being rolled out

2010-09-16T07:46:00.001+12:00

Announcement from Twitter's Blog

Twitter is the best way to discover what’s new in your world. From football to film to philanthropy, people are using Twitter to discover what’s new about what they find interesting.

Twitter has always been about getting a lot in a little. The constraint of 140 characters drives conciseness and lets you quickly discover and share what's happening. Yet, we've learned something since starting Twitter—life doesn't always fit into 140 characters or less.

Today, we’re introducing a new, re-engineered Twitter.com that provides an easier, faster, and richer experience.

On the site, you’ll see the familiar timeline, yet underneath each Tweet is a handful of information, deeper context and even embedded media. Simply click on an individual Tweet and a details pane slides out on the right and reveals this content.

You can find out more about the enhancements on this information page. Here are some highlights:

* New design. The site has a cleaner timeline and a rich details pane that instantly adds more impact to individual Tweets while still maintaining the simplicity of the timeline. And, experience infinite scroll -- you no longer have to click “more” to view additional Tweets.
* Media. Now, it’s easy to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, thanks to partnerships with DailyBooth, DeviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube.
* Related content. When you click a Tweet, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, you may see: replies, other Tweets by that user, a map of where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, and more.
* Mini profiles. Click a username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.

These changes will roll out as a preview over the next several weeks starting with a very small percentage of registered accounts tonight. During the preview, you'll be able to switch back and forth so you have time to grow accustomed to the way things work. Eventually, everyone will have the updated version of Twitter.com. We are incredibly proud of the work the Twitter web team has accomplished. We hope you are too!

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Karma CRM - Customer Relationship Management Reincarnated

2010-09-16T07:45:00.001+12:00

Simple Contact Management

Karma makes it easy to maintain and update a large contact database. Use our advanced tagging and filtering features to ensure easy access to everyone in your list. They have also made it easy to import contacts from other systems such as HighRise and Freshbooks. Karma CRM is currently FREE but will be introducing paid plans later this year.

Integrate Your Emails

Now you can anchor all your e-mail accounts to one place. Each account will have a unique KarmaCRM dropbox. Simply BCC, CC or e-mail this address directly when you correspond with a client and Karma will attach that e-mail with the correct contact’s file. If there’s no record for the contact, Karma will automatically create a new file.

Manage Your Sales Process

Each sales process is different. With Karma, you can define your own sales stages and organize your contacts according to your unique sales process.

Track Deals & Proposals

Never miss another proposal deadline. Karma helps you close the deal successfully by keeping track of deadlines associated with each of your contacts. By keeping you updated on all the sales in your pipeline, Karma helps you be proactive with your contacts.

Keeping it Simple

One thing that impressed me about Karma CRM was the lack of "Required Fields" allowing you to simply enter what information you require to get the data into your CRM. You can easily go back and update it later.

Plays well with Others

Freshbooks

If you have a Freshbooks account, you can import your contacts using an API key.

Highrise

Karma makes it easy to import all your data from Highrise without missing a beat. It takes a few minutes to import your entire Highrise account into Karma. This includes notes, emails, tasks, tags and contacts!

MailChimp

KarmaCRM integrates directly with MailChimp, a powerful, easy-to-use newsletter manager, that allows you to create e-mail lists and send information to selected contacts hassle-free.

Take a Tour of Karma CRM at http://www.karmacrm.com

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Sprout Social - Monitoring Social Network Strategies

2010-09-13T20:30:00.001+12:00

Heres a fantastic online application for managing your Social Media Strategy use of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare. I have been using it myself for about a month now and I cannot imagine not using it as it provides me with a great set of tools to not only measure how I engage with my followers but also some useful charts on the dashboard.

Heres the Feature Spin from www.SproutSocial.com

Social Media Dashboard

They've put all the information that matters in one, simple interface.

You'll have all the data you need to measure success and know exactly where to spend your time.

Brand Monitoring

Wherever there's conversation about your business across the web, they'll deliver it to you. Tweets, Reviews, Blog Posts, News - you're covered.

Find your Perfect Customers

SproutSocial crunches the data 24/7 to find you highly targeted prospective customers and influencers based on criteria you define.

Manage Contacts

All of your social media connections in one place, complete with history, notes, and more. It's never been this easy.

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Karma CRM FREE Beta - Customer Relationship Managements Reincarnated

2010-09-13T20:28:00.001+12:00

Simple Contact Management

Integrate Your Emails

Manage Your Sales Process

Each sales process is different. With Karma, you can define your own sales stages and organize your contacts according to your unique sales process.

Track Deals & Proposals

Keeping it Simple

Plays well with Others

Freshbooks

If you have a Freshbooks account, you can import your contacts using an API key.

Highrise

MailChimp

KarmaCRM integrates directly with MailChimp, a powerful, easy-to-use newsletter manager, that allows you to create e-mail lists and send information to selected contacts hassle-free.

Take a Tour of Karma CRM at http://www.karmacrm.com

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Nexus One Android phone - the weekend tour

2010-08-25T07:39:00.001+12:00

I was given a Google Android phone the Nexus One from Digital Mobile corporate in Bryant Rd Hamilton to test over the weekend while I participated in the Auckland Google Barcamp. The guys over at Digital Mobile know I'm a bit of a Geek when it comes to tech toys so I happily agreed to write a review of my experience.

Having recently opened a new iPad and leaving the boxes on one of the desks in my office I was surprised at how well the Nexus One packaging melded with the Apple packaging. One thing Apple do well is stylishly clean packaging and it seems the Nexus hasn't missed that. I was lucky enough to be given the phone fully charged and as soon as I hopped into my car the first test was to pair it with my Parrot hands free. I actually got a call before starting this so while in the call I quickly found the speaker phone and just as quickly navigated to the Bluetooth settings and paired while still in the call, transferring it to hands free and able to start driving.

This experience of navigating my way round the Android OS was going to be a fairly common theme over the weekend as I put the phone through a few paces. I had heard about being able to use the Nexus as a portable wifi hotspot allowing me to share my 3G data connection with any device using wifi and have to say I was impressed at both how easy it was to setup but also the performance was flawless. The battery however took a real hammering so I quickly learnt to turn on the hotspot only when needed rather than leave it permanently on.

Unfortunately, even though the Google Barcamp was held at Vodafone (big thanks to Vodafone for providing the venue free of charge) there was no wifi. A couple of clicks on the Nexus and portable Wi-Fi was enabled. Another couple of clicks and it was protected providing me with my own personal wifi hotspot that went with me over the day with excellent coverage for my wifi iPad, I was even able to share it with someone else so they could check their email.

The purchase of the Wi-Fi iPad over the 3G version should be mentioned at this point. Personally I don't see any point in paying for two data connections when the iPad will connect via wifi; you just need the right devices to create portable hotspots while on the move. Being an iPhone fanatic I was prepared for the "No Tethering" response from Steve Jobs but there are always options and alternatives from portable hotspots to jail broken solutions.

Back to the Nexus I found the keys on the keyboard disconcertingly small but the response seemed to be accurate even if I didn't press bang on the middle. Like many things there are always a few device differences to get used to.

Twitter and Facebook out of the box as installed apps was a nice touch but the key was the unified messaging and centralised options for contacts. I haven't mentioned that I setup my Google Apps for our domain on the Nexus because the simplicity of it was such that it doesn't really need talking about. It really was that easy. Tap the Google button, enter credentials and go.

When setting up my contacts, Facebook and Twitter both offered to update my contacts with a variety of methods. Choosing not to add a thousand twitter contacts I opted for update existing contacts with information from Twitter followers and Facebook friends who already exist in your address book. It was almost like address book overload as I suddenly had contact information that I had never bothered to complete before and a lot of additional and updated information. That obviously synced to my Google Apps contacts so was a takeaway for me once giving the phone back to Charles.

All in all the Nexus One was an easy to use phone, nicely setup with a lot of very useful out of the box features. One of the big things I look for is "How easy would it be to adopt" one response; easy.

Would I recommend a Nexus One? Definitely, apart from the fact that it has all the required features to make it a useful mobile business device the portable hotspot is a real plus for those on the road.

Big thanks to Charles Farrar from Digital Mobiles' Hamilton Corporate store at Unit 1A, on the corner of Bryant/Te Rapa Roads in Hamilton.

Parting thought, this blog was written on an iPad with iPages using the docked keyboard and uploaded to my blog using the Nexus One as a Portable hotspot. Why... because I could.

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StartingPoint featured in Waikato Times Business News

2010-08-16T20:11:00.001+12:00

Webmaster gets on the case for small businesses

(via nicola Boyes - Waikato Times)

[caption id="attachment_308" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="HELPING HAND:"][/caption]

The large number of underperforming or even mis-spelt small-business websites prompted Russell Masters to set up a business, Starting Point, to help small businesses make the most of their sites.

Hamilton consultant Russell Masters has a theory. If a business had a sales person who was not selling, they would want to know why. Websites, he says, are no different.

His company, Starting Point, diagnoses website ills for small businesses, analysing the problem site, reviewing what needs fixing and then ringing in the changes. He decided to focus on small businesses because of the large number that failed to even maintain correct spelling on their sites, let alone manage their Google listings or understand search engine optimisation.

Websites were often a small business's main interface with the public but many did not have the budget to employ staff to manage their websites, he said. "Getting someone to manage your site can be upwards of $600 to $700 a month. It's a big ask for a small business to fit that into their budget."

Mr Masters established his main business, Spark Consulting, about five years ago after 10 years as an IT consultant. Starting Point is his new venture.

The analysis looks at marketing, search engine placement, spelling and user-friendly design with a program that is run over the site. "It will look at everything from spelling to headings and layout."

Mr Masters also offers courses in website marketing. "There are a lot of really generic courses out there. We will tailor something for each individual."

Among his clients are the Waikato Rugby Union and Sir George Seymour College. "We have, for the most part, a handful of select clients but we've decided we really should be looking at the small-business market.

"There are so many small businesses out there spending big money to have a site built and not seeing the results."

www.websitefuel.co.nz

(Original Article http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/4027789/Webmaster-gets-on-the-c...

by Nicola Boyes - Waikato Times

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Webmaster gets on the case for small businesses (via nicola Boyes - Waikato Times)

2010-08-16T19:28:00.001+12:00

HELPING HAND: The large number of underperforming or even mis-spelt small-business websites prompted Russell Masters to set up a business, Starting Point, to help small businesses make the most of their sites.

Hamilton consultant Russell Masters has a theory. If a business had a sales person who was not selling, they would want to know why. Websites, he says, are no different.

Mr Masters established his main business, Spark Consulting, about five years ago after 10 years as an IT consultant. Starting Point is his new venture.

Mr Masters also offers courses in website marketing. "There are a lot of really generic courses out there. We will tailor something for each individual."

"There are so many small businesses out there spending big money to have a site built and not seeing the results."

www.websitefuel.co.nz

(Original Article http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/4027789/Webmaster-gets-on-the-c...

by Nicola Boyes - Waikato Times

Can Customers Find you in Google?

2010-08-06T15:06:00.001+12:00

Does your website make sales or generate enquiries?

If your salesperson wasn't selling you would find out why and then look at what needed to be done. Your website is the same.

Analyse

Put your website to the test with StartingPoint (our unique website analysis)

· We run over 20 tests on every page of your website.

· Identify problems that prevent good search engine ranking.

· Highlight the areas to work on with our unique scoring system.

· Help you understand what makes your website tick.

Review

Focus on what needs attention

With your StartingPoint analysis report you can focus on the areas that need attention using our unique scoring system.

Implement

You know what’s holding you back, let’s fix it

Now that you know where to focus your attention it’s time to get your hands dirty and start making some changes.

Website Fuel training (Optional)

Want to learn how to do SEO (search engine optimisation) yourself? I can teach you one on one the fundamental SEO strategies for your website.

· How much is this going to cost me?

o StartingPoint costs $195 – Training is an optional extra.

o Want to get StartingPoint for FREE? We’ll pay you $60 for every 3 successful referrals to StartingPoint …easy

· How do I get my report?

o All reports are available online in your private dashboard.

· Can I run a report on my competitors?

o Sure, you can even see side by side scoring.

Find your StartingPoint Now

Email – startingpoint@websitefuel.co.nz
or Call – 07 9811 037

Web – www.websitefuel.co.nz

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Doing the basics in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to promote your website

2010-08-04T23:11:00.001+12:00

So you’ve got a website…

Websites, not unlike retail shop fronts, need to be placed in high traffic areas to gain walk in customers browsing for the products or services that you sell. Is your website in the equivalent of a busy shopping mall or is it stuck out in the middle of the Urewera National Park where only the brave few may stumble upon it?

If you have invested time and money in creating a potential online sales tool otherwise known as a website then you owe it to yourself to try and make that investment work for you. I know for a fact that any business owner who spends money on a marketing activity which yields little or no return will quickly move away from such a an exercise. Yet so many New Zealand Businesses have websites which as a sales and marketing tool do very little to add to their bottom line.

If you have a website for your business then you need to promote it online and the methods in how that is done are not out of reach for even the smallest business. Promoting your website in search engines initially requires search engine optimization (SEO) and done right will definitely help you gain more online visibility, generate more visitors and ultimately sales.

When we talk about SEO it is predominantly categorised into two parts.

· On-page optimization (Stuff that is done on your website)

· Off-page optimization (Stuff that is done outside of your website)

A combination of on-page and off-page optimization is essential as they are synchronistic parts of the overall search engine optimisation strategy.

In general, on-page optimization on-page optimization refers to the factors which can be controlled by changing coding and text of your webpage or website. On-Page Optimisation is directly related to the content and structure of the website.

On-page optimization is broken down as follows:

Keyword Analysis:

Keywords are your key indicators of what words are people searching in relation to your industry, products or services and how many people search for those in New Zealand. Many businesses claim to rank number 1 in Google for a particular keyword or words but get few visitors. More often than not the primary reason is because nobody searches for that keyword. Ranking #1 in Google is of little value unless what you rank #1 in Google for is a keyword or words that lots of people are searching for frequently.

Title tag Optimization

The Title Tag is an HTML code that shows the words that appear in the Title bar at the top of web browser. Title Tag is an important Tag amongst other SEO options. It communicates the theme of the webpage for human and search engines gather information about website.

Meta tags Optimization

Meta tags are generally design for the help of search engines to know what their site was about. In all Meta tags, Meta description tags are still in use. This tag is an HTML code that allows you to give a short and brief outline of your web page content.

Modifying Headings

Heading tags (H1 through to H6) are given more weight by search engines than regular body text. So we should use them wisely to strengthen the page's overall keyword theme. Among all heading tags H1 tag is the most important. It should be placed at the top of content so that visitors can easily understand what the content of the page is about.

Image Optimization

Images play major role for attracting visitors. Website is having eye catchy images help to increasing visitor's attention to your website. But many search engines including Google, Yahoo and Bing are unable to read images. So we need to put alternate text for image. Also reduce image size so web page can easily load.

Content Optimization

Well optimized content always help your web site to get top position in Search engines. Content is the king. Every search-engine spider always tries to store as much as new content in their database. So use wisely your targeted keywords in content.

Internal Linking

If you do it then right internal linking can improve your website usability. By linking to relevant content to your readers so it becomes more effective than your main navigation.

The above gives you a brief idea the about importance of on-page optimization in SEO. Optimize your website properly and enjoy top ranking in search engines.

“Do you want to optimise your site to rank better in Google?”

Call Russell today on 07 9811 037 or email russell@teamspark.co.nz

Understanding SEO wesbite basics for New Zealand small to medium business

2010-05-04T23:18:00.001+12:00

Clients have often asked for some clarity around what is SEO and why is it important to my website? As a business owner of website you need to at least understand the fundamentals of SEO even if it is just to ensure that you have an idea of both what you are paying an expert to do as well as being able to check to some degree the effectiveness of SEO on your website.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation and quite simply it is about ensuring that various elements on each page of your website an links to your website from other websites do their job in telling a search engine what your website is about as well as what any particular page is about.SEO is broken down into two primary components; On-Page Optimisation (stuff that happens directly on your website) and Off-Page Optimisation (stuff that happens outside of your website but affects your website such as links to a page within your site). This article is dealing with the On-Page factors.

Search engines such as Google have a business model and that is to provide a customer (someone searching Google) with most relevant website relative to what they keyword they have typed into the search bar. The relevance has to take in several factors; the most obvious being direct relevance from the keyword to the content of the top most ranked website but there are also factors such as "is the query potentially a retail based search or an information based search"or "what are the geographical limitations of the search request". For example if I typed into Google Ray ban information I get one set of results whereas if I type in Ray ban sunglasses I get a distinctly different set of results.

When looking at doing SEO for your business website this is something you need to take into account. Could potential customers searching for my product be looking for information first or are they more likely to be direct to retail customers. Will there be emphasis on my geographical location and should I include that in my keywords.

SEO starts off with some strategic decisions around factors such as what is my goal when a visitor hits my site, who is my target market, how do they purchase, will they research my product/service first, do I want to target specific locations. Questions like this will ten lead you into understanding what keywords are going to be researched to drive traffic to your website and achieve the goals set out for your online business model.

This is where the physical aspect of SEO starts or what we call "On Page Optimisation" so called because we are going to take each individual page and ensure that both the visible and invisible elements are optimised correctly to ensure that we providing a clear message to search engines on what our site is all about.

Note: Without doing SEO search engines will still rank you but the difference is that they will rank you on what they interpret your site to be about. Depending on how you have organically laid out your site and the text you have used Google will make assumptions based on what it finds in the Titles and text and may get it wrong.

On Page Optimisation starts with keyword analysis to decide what keywords relevant to your business, product or service are most commonly used by people searching online. For example if you have a service called telescheduling which is your cleverly branded version of telemarketing you may well rank number 1 in Google for it but after doing some keyword research you may also find that there have been no search requests in the last 12 months for that term simply because it is not a common term that people would use when looking for outbound call centres.

Armed with a good set of keywords the On-Page Optimisation process continues with looking at both the visible (stuff visitors & Google see) and the invisible (stuff Google sees) elements and ensuring that they are well crafted into page titles, headings and descriptions. I say well crafted because we need to understand that not only are we telling search engines what our site is about but we are also selling a click to our site to real people. If our title (the blue text in a Google Search Result is something like "RayBan, Ray-ban sunglasses, Sunglasses, Buy Sunglasses" it is not really as compelling a title to a potential customer as "Designer Glasses - Discounts available on Ray Ban Sunglasses".

This is a time consuming process as there are an absolute bare minimum of six factors being; titles, descriptions, heading, content, alt tags and internal links and this is for each page. There are some automated software programs available and my only advice there is to stay away from them There is no alternative to the human creation of well crafted elements on your website. Remember, Google wants you to be naturally good not artificially ok.

We have a motto in the office "Analyse, Review and Implement" then rinse and repeat. What this means is that before going all gang busters on SEO strategies you need to first analyse your site and review its current effectiveness in search engines, what elements are missing from pages within your site and what is already ok. Only then will you have a clear understanding of what and where to implement. Once you have been through the On-Page SEO process (this may be in a months time) you need to analyse again and review those factors to see if there is anything else which needs implementing.

On-Page factors are absolutely crucial to setting the foundation to be searchable in Google but even though they are both a critical element and can be very time consuming they only represent approx 25% of the SEO value in how Google ranks your site in importance (According to Hubspot Inbound Marketing Professionals) the other 75% is inbound links to your website from other websites.

In Summary SEO is the critical foundation towards being indexed relevantly by search engines. Other marketing efforts will help drive the On-Page SEO effectiveness through the organic building of relevant inbound links from other websites, blogs, social media, article sites and directories.

Russell Masters
trainer at websitefuel
mobile | 021 332 404
office | 07 9811 037
emailme | russell@teamspark.co.nz
visitme | www.websitefuel.co.nz