Tired Of Being Told You Need To Upgrade Your Website Hosting Package? Free Website Add-Ons We Know You're Gonna Love

Free And Easy To Obtain Website Add-Ons

My advice to new site owners is 

"Only upgrade if and when absolutely necessary."

In many cases and right out of the gate, many new website owners are forced to pay for upgraded hosting packages simply because they just don't know any better. As a designer having been faced this scenario on many occassions, I can tell you it's all about getting more money out of consumers who just don't know any better.

Most reputable web hosting companies already provide the basic site add-ons at no extra charge that include:

1. Auto Site Backup

2. 10 email accounts

3. Hosted Forums

4. Hosted Galleries

5. Hosted Blog

and Web Tools that require simple configuration and simple cut-and-paste scripts such as:

6. Web Directory

7. Web Polls

8. Tell-A-Friend

9. FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions)

10. Mailing Lists

11. Hit Counter

12. Email Forms

Admittedly with some of the above added site features you lack the freedom to blend these things in with the existing look you might desire, but just the same, they do serve their purpose, in most cases. As well, these companies like to add their "hosted by blah, blah, blah" where these scripts appear, and giving a less polished or professional appearance.

Here are some cool web site add-ons you can get absolutely free, that help improve viewer engagement and usability. I have, at some point used and tested most of these myself. 

Don't be fooled into believing you need to upgrade your hosting package only to find out that your initial site investment has doubled.

Here are some suggestions worth checking out.

Tested Quality Free Add-Ons

1. Blog Comments: Allowing site visitors to comment on your blog posts is a great way to       get valuable feedback, and allows your viewers to engage with each other. Used by many     site owners, Disqus allows you to build your personal online community, share your               comments, join other blog discussions,and  will even notify you when a comment is               posted or shared.

    More about Disqus here.

2. Live Chat Support: Tawk.to is a great option when you want to add a live help/chat             component to your site. It does allow for some customization to get the look and feel of         your existing site and has all the bells and whistles like chat history, multiple agent set-up,     visitor banning, aliases, and desktop notifications. The really great feature about this live       support add-on is that you can download and use it with their own apps for iPhone and         Android for those on the go.They even offer a wordpress plugin. Be careful that you or           another team member are available to offer support when required or you may damage         your online reputation.

    More about tawk.to here

3.  Password Protection: When you need to restrict access to important pages on your            website, such as customer invoices, easily add, edit, or delete users, customize your            login failure/error page to look and feel like your own site and even track how visitors are      using and/or abusing this feature. Bravenet offer a great option for such security because

     server side authentication occurs on their own servers and not yours , offering you added      piece of mind against potential hackers.

     More about Password Protect here

4.  Social Sharing: Addthis.com has made sharing your site content really easy by a simple      copy and paste code insertion. This social bar can be customised to suit your choice of        social networks and placed on your page in a variety of locations. Gain followers and get      content recommendations with this responsive tool. The beauty of this easy -to-instal            add-on is that it can save you valuable space on your actual web site for things you              might find more important like a "call to action,"subscriptions, discount offers,                        downloadable ePapers, and so on.

     More about Addthis here

5.  Site Control: Keeping visitors attention with on-screen announcement placed                        strategically can help keep visitors on your pages and increase viewer conversions by          offering a variety of subscriptions or opt-in forms, alerts, notifications, contact forms, and      social sharing options that can be placed strategically on any page, are fully                          customizable, and best of all, you receive a weekly report in your email inbox to keep you      up-to-date.

     More about GetSiteControl here

6. Wufoo Embeddable Forms: Wufoo's Form Builder provides the tools for anyone to             easily drag and drop an amazing form in just a few short minutes. You can help you               collect data without writing a single line of code. In escaping the complexities of creating a     database, you can easily customize your forms with a built-in theme designer for just             about anything. Use it for event planning, team memberships, payments, mailing                   lists, product order forms, and with smart captcha to prevent abuse. All of this within an         easy user management dashboard and real-time form analytics to see how well they're         performing.

    More about Wufoo Forms here   

7. Image Slideshow Widgets: SnapWidget for Instagram is great for adding slideshows           and image galleries to your site, is customizable, is responsive with share button for each     photo and supports usernames and hashtags. Another great one is the Flickr Slideshow       which allows you to easily create a custom flickr photo slideshow for your website or blog.     You can even insert optional tags for your images.

    More about SnapWidget here

    More about Flickr Slideshow here

8. Skype Call Button: Add a Skype button to your websites and let people get in touch with      just the click of a button. Whether they're on a computer or mobile, they will get through        with a voice call or an instant message.

     Get your Skype Call Button here

9. Twitter and Facebook Widgets: Embed your tweets, follow button, tweet button,                  timelines and video.  

     Like, share, and Send your FB content back to their own profile or timeline. You can also      embed your own posts and video player across all platforms - web, Android, and iOS.

     Get Twitter Widgets here

      Get Facebook Widgets here

10. Google translate: Do you have non-english speaking fans? Do you want non-english           speaking fans? Can’t hurt right? Google translate will help foreign speakers understand         your website with the click of a button. Note: It’s not perfect. A human translation will             always be better but it gets the job done.

      Add Google Translate here

11. Google Analytics: One of the greatest analytic web tools available is totally free.                 Monitor traffic, social engagement, search rankings, and more. All you have to do is               enter your Google Analytics ID on each page.

      Start your Google Analytics here

      I could carry on forever with this list forever and I'm pretty sure you too could add several great items to this list. But this is certainly a great start for any web design newbie without any coding knowledge. I haven't even touched upon the app world for those who strictly use mobile devices, and of course, this list would be endless. 

The trick here is find find a balance between website add-ons and your actual site content so as not to distract your viewers, make your life simpler, and still get the task at hand completed successfully.

Author: Brent Vanderham / CompuAssist

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Do You Really Believe That Web Design Is Dead? Here's hoping I Can Change Your Mind.

WEB DESIGN IS ALIVE AND WELL

One sure way to kill a long reputable industry and more importantly a livelihood is to make ridiculous statements towards the irrelevance of web design.

I can tell you one thing for sure, that it has become a fiercely competitive

industry divided into several decision-making factors, such as online design services versus traditional design, wordpress versus html, choosing which social media platforms best suit your needs, and so on.

No doubt, there is an awful lot more to consider today in deciding to create or improve a website, but one important factor that should not be overlooked is marketing strategy, something that is truly unique to every single business.

For now, I just want to focus this article on the relevance of web design and changing attitudes surrounding this whole paradigm.

WHY CAN'T WE JUST ALL GET ALONG?

We can get along just fine, so long as we just take the time to understand the challenges that lie ahead. Design is now replaced by experience and so, content plays a much greater role in captivating your audience. In order to understand exactly what is meant by this we need to divide and conquer, that is, take a closer look at the pros and cons of the web design industry as a whole. To be fair, I want to discuss some of the symptoms facing today's designers and and how better we can all coexist if we learn to accept and embrace the ever increasing tools and technologies available today.

Let's begin this discussion on a positive note.

ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF WEB DESIGN:

Keep in mind that when discussing all arguments for or against web design that clearly they often lack objectivity and balance, forcing our preference of one side of the argument over another.

No doubt a profound change has occurred in the way in which we design and build websites but, 

"what is needed is a middle ground in which we can evolve together as opposed to creating a division and uncertainty."

Web technologies are constantly evolving -  as I'm sure many of you would agree. With so many tools, libraries, methodologies, plug-ins, and techniques we learn to recognize that they're all very different and sometimes even contradictory. All created with good intentions and often serving their purpose quite well in specific situations - we can fix them, patch them, and provide solutions given the nature of open source.

This, to me, seems a more collaborative approach, and defintely more effective for the industry as a whole.

No one truly knows the uncertain direction of web design, but if we embrace this unpredictability and adopt a strategy to create more cohesive and consistent design systems these complexities will at least be more common and as such wider known. Problem solving is nothing new, in fact we do it every day making hundreds of decisions along the way. The dichotomy only exists in our subjective preferences, and seldom our objective reasoning.

Designers can still foster an open mind and creativity -  given the web's diversity and versatility if we're pragmatic. Yes, we need to stop thinking in absolutes, pros for one method and cons for another. No one method is right or wrong just as the web isn't black or white. We just need to work a little closer with our clients to find reasonable compromises in meeting their demands and their constraints. The tools we have at hand are neither good nor bad, they need to fit a context within which to engage users and provide necessary enhancement for better responsiveness when designing.

A shift from generic solutions like themes and using the same templates over and over again is a trend we need to steer clear of. What is needed is more storytelling, more personality, and more character. Users tend to crave good stories, good visuals, and more interesting layouts to make them more distinctive and stand out from the rest of the crowd. Keeping user experience in mind we just need to be a lot more experimental and creative.

We need to try harder to rid the web of bad design experiences -  leaving much work still to be done.Proclaiming to and believing our craft is dead is counter-productive, all that needs to be done is show what we're really capable of. To do this, our job, we just need to be more adaptable, more creative and less generic in order to progress and enhance user experiences. 

Don't let innovation and experimentation be obstacles to providing what we've been doing over the past years. Just remember your client approached you for all the right reasons and not the wrong ones - but keep in mind that not all designers are equal.

Not sure about you, but "all this just makes me want to work even harder."

ON THE DARKER SIDE OF WEB DESIGN:

It seems only fair that I discuss both sides of this design conflict. Web design, like any other craft or discipline, must adapt to an emerging combination of technical and cultural trends to encompass the need for a much broader approach.

Web design patterns are maturing.  The latest innovations like responsive design and parallax are already considered old and somewhat useless. User interface components and patterns lack any innovations as of late. While good for users and consistency in their daily use of the web, even conformity here is losing it's grip as we constantly seek new ways to enhance our checkout experiences, login procedures , and email list procurement methods. Creativity in these areas might prove more harmful than good.

Templates have made design a commodity of sorts since most web content is run by some sort of framework or service - Wordpress, Blogger, and Drupal just to name a few. These shortcuts allow for spending less time on the creation of a web site, and more time on content. Hence the term "content Is King." As a consequence of these frameworks and shortcuts, the abundance of free and paid templates allows for a professional looking design in a short period of time. Just add some branding customizations and just about anyone can have an inexpensive web site.

        My argument here is (1) people and businesses alike still value their leisure 

        time, (2)  the learning curve is still a bit too steep for beginners and (3) there 

        are critical hidden snippets of code not readily available to many beginners

        like sitemap.xml files, robots.txt files, and code necessary for search engines, 

        seo, and analytics. I've asked many a newbie designer who has used one of 

        the many online design services if they have included such files and they 

        suddenly are lost. So web designers still have a few tricks up their sleeves and 

        all their years of effort are not wasted.

Automation and artificial intelligence can do the same job.  This new trend of automated design services and simple drag and drop procedures provide a service which makes semantic design decisions for anyone adventurous enough to do so.

This artificial intelligence provides careful content analysis to determine the best layout, colours, fonts, and imagery for your site. When something like this can be successfully automated, it means that these standards no longer need human input.

This will provoke a huge competition as to which service can deliver better designs, faster, and with less human intervention. All this thanks to The Grid, the next generation of automated web design.

        Not sure about you, but most if not all of my buying decisions are often 

        based on human interactions. Call me old-fashioned! It is what it is.

Facebook pages are the new small business homepage.  Unlike the late 90's and even into 2005 future-minded business owners would buy their domain names, purchase expensive hosting plans, and hire a "webmaster" in order to have a web page to make them visible on the internet. 

Soon after, sites like Blogger and Wordpress.com were providing more than enough for a small business web presence that was quick and free. Today Facebook pages have taken over as the free, made to be viral out of the box solution and make setting up a profile page so easy as compared to paying for updates and media postings in past.

        While efficient at making business more visible they are hardly a replacement 

        for a website and the freedom that it allows. Don't confuse social media with 

        a real website.

Mobile is killing the web.  How often do you visit a website from your mobile device by directly typing the address? Only when you don't have the app right? People think more about digital brands than they do web pages these days, translating more into apps or subscriptions or likes and follows. This is the reason why most websites, blogs, and portals are pushing their mobile apps on you - out of home screen, out of mind.

Making a web site responsive merely guarantees viewing in a mobile device and still requires a different set of SEO rules and parameters. Not sure about you, but i still ask for and request a good old-fashioned web address or URL.

         Caution: Unless you want to avoid early vision complications from 

         persistent eye strain like me, I still prefer the comfort and viewing 

         pleasure delivered by my desktop computer and large viewing screen. 

         I consider this  shift in web design to be digital suicide and only the 

         viewers can make that choice with what little room in in our minds we 

         may still have left after thinking about the hundreds of apps we already

         use. Our memories can only absorb and retain so much, so a choice will 

         have to be made somewhere - domain address or app name.

The truth is, we have far too many choices to make, too many web pages to sift through,  and quite simply TMI - that's too much information. It's become one big competition for your attention and your money. What truly matters is how much time we have to devote to this dazzling array of effects, intros, navigational methods, and oh yes, let's not forget those annoying pop-up ads.

There seems a real shift with Android to providing the exact information you need, when you need it. Tap to call buttons are causing people to bypass websites altogether in an effort to improve user experience. But are we really getting it right?

As a baby boomer and by far the largest segment of the population with the most spending power, I still like to know more about whom I am dealing with and what they have to offer and say to me as a consumer. Not alone and knowing this, I hardly think that web design is going to change any time soon and that having a web site with carefully placed content in terms of specific user need is still the preferred norm for myself and many others I know and that isn't going to change any time soon.

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Have You Considered Sharing Short Video Content As Part Of Your Marketing Strategy?

Social Video Marketing: A Missed Opportunity

Do you think video is only for the big brands with big budgets?

If you haven’t explored short video for your business, you may be missing out on an

opportunity for more reach and shares.

What is Social Video and why is it important?

By definition it simply means digital video designed to be shared through social networks. 

Social media videos needs to be digital, or optimized for digital channels. Videos that work on television may not work on an iPad.

Social video also needs to be shareable. You’re not just optimizing for the channel, but for share-ability as well. Different things make content shareable, from the emotions it induces to the traditional story structures it uses.

And finally, these videos needs to be designed for social networks. Video appears in different ways on different social networks, and each network has a unique audience. You need to keep these things in mind when creating social media videos and potentially edit the same video in different ways for each network.

Social video’s importance can be seen in rise of platforms like Instagram video, Vine and even Snapchat. It can also be seen in more recent developments, from Facebook’s purchase of Oculus Rift

Social video is also important because of its primary audience. Its growth is fueled by millennials (approx 18-33) who grew up with online video and spend a growing number of hours on their phones and laptops and a shrinking number of hours in front of the television.

Video is also unique in its ability to convey a powerful message to viewers, in a way that static forms of content can’t. Social networks also favour video in their algorithms, knowing that this rich form of content is more appreciated by users. Plus, video comes with special advantages on social networks and online in general. You may only have 140 characters for your Tweet, but you can also include a video in a Twitter Card for greater appeal to your followers. Videos get a thumbnail preview in Google search results that make them more clickable as well.

Businesses that don’t invest in video risk being left behind. Almost 70 per cent of businesses said their budgets for online videos would increase in 2014. It’s clear that companies are beginning to recognize the power of these videos. If you’re not investing in social video, your competitors probably are.

Social media videos can deliver impressive ROI. This is probably the only point you will care about the most. Production and distribution costs associated with video have plummeted in recent years. That coupled with the value of earned media you can drive from a truly shareable video makes this one of the most effective forms of content marketing.

How does Social Video Marketing Fit Into Your Marketing Plan?

Brand Awareness. It’s simply a matter of reaching your consumers where they are. If you work as a real estate agent, videos from inside new homes may not go viral across the web, but can be very shareable amongst prospective home buyers in your area.

Employer Branding. It allows you to show a more fun or hidden side of your company, regardless of how ‘boring’ it might seem from the outside. Even accounting firms (sorry accounting firms!) can have great company culture. Social video is a fantastic means to lift the veil on your business and attract new applicants.

Lead Generation. Make sure you focus on creating compelling video and don’t be afraid to make your initial call-to-action simply a share button. Once the video has been shared you can point the interested audience to more complex lead generation channels.

Customer Support. By using social video to answer customer inquiries, you get to answer the question in a very visual and personal way, which makes it easier for your clients to learn a solution. You also create something that is more shareable than a lengthy thread of discussions, which makes it more likely that other people facing the same issues will find that solution.  

10 Quick Benefits (with Stats)

Customers watch more video -  78% watch 1 vid per week, 92% of B2B watch online video, 34% of shoppers more likely to purchase after watching a video.

Video is helping your competition -  including email, greatly improves consumer engagement.

Easily searchable -  70 % of top google search listings are video results.

Video is Mobile -  accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic, 85% of marketers plan to increase mobile advertising budgets, 30% of mobile ads have an 88% completion rate.

Behaviour Analytics -  YouTube and other video hosting sites provide extensive viewer data that can give you deep insight into the behavoir of viewers who interact with your videos.

Conversions - increases odds of purchasing by as much as 35%.

Efficiency - software developers are continually finding new ways to integrate sites so that video messages can be easily shared and broadcast via social networking channels.

SEO - Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other internet search sites/engines have made video a key factor in their search formulas. The more videos on your website, the higher the search rankings.

Emotional Benefits - Videos offer the opportunity to use sight and sound to connect emotionally with viewers via storytelling. Video entertains and influences viewers by invoking a series of emotions that result from showing images that connect to their hearts and their brains with your product or service.

Social Media Sharing - More than 500 years worth of video are watched daily on Facebook. More than 700 videos are shared on Twitter every minute. Video sharing is a large part of social media, and social media is a great way to get your message out there in a fun and share-able way.

While you might naturally think of YouTube when you think of video, it’s not the only platform embracing video content.Given how large this video phenomenom has become and how popular video has grown across the internet, others are setting out to jump on the digital video bandwagon in hopes of achieving comparable success. Not only have most social media sites now been swamped with massive amounts of video content, but an array of new and innovative video sharing platforms have sprung up to bring this form of visual content to center stage.

"Yes, Your honour, I am guilty!"  A portion of my own spare time is now being devoted to watching instructional YouTube videos on you guessed it - How To Make A YouTube Video.

I truly wish that I had devoted more time to video production in past years, so now I am making it a priority when time permits.

Here are some of the top video sharing platforms to get your business discovered and drive additional conversions:

Vimeo. Vimeo is geared toward filmmakers, artists, professional videographers, or anyone else who seeks to share high quality work. Vimeo provides a multitude of benefits for producing videos such as free video tutorials, a stock music library, and translation and subtitling tools.

Instagram.  Instagram is a photo and video sharing service that has gained massive success and momentum over the past few years. The company’s mission is, “to capture and share the world’s moments” and that is exactly what they have been doing with an estimated worth of $35 million. The platform provides users with various tools such as a multitude of filters, an image stabilization feature for shaky videos, as well as numerous other means to develop videos with a slightly more professional feel. Instagram videos can range anywhere between three and fifteen seconds. 

The site itself is owned by Facebook. This ownership allows for simple and easy integration of cross-promotion efforts. At the end of the day, having these two sites linked together will allow additional followers to be gained from both portals, regardless of which one the brand was discovered on.

Vine.  Alongside Instagram is Vine. By now, most have seen these short, typically funny, six second snippets around the internet. These videos are often looped, which is excellent for product demonstrations or comedic effect. By taking advantage of this looping process or stop motion, businesses have the opportunity to develop some highly informative and creative videos. This is important in an era where the average attention span is constantly diminishing due to sensory overload.

Vine is owned by Facebook’s largest competitor, Twitter. Because of this, there are similar advantages to using Vine. Twitter’s control over the platform enables the integration of hashtags and the same ability for cross-promotion between websites.

Ocho.  Somewhat new to the video sharing game, the free app Ocho gives users access to a plethora of videos slightly longer than Vine’s. On Ocho, video creators get an additional two seconds, allowing for 8 second videos to be generated. Backed by billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, Ocho serves up a continuous stream of clips for users to enjoy. In an announcement about the app, Cuban stated that, “Ocho is redefining the way we share our stories through creating a powerful, video-based social network in a way that hasn’t been possible until now.
This new video platforms gives users the ability to narrate videos after the initial shooting with a voiceover feature. Additionally, all videos are shot with a 16:9 aspect ratio even if users hold the phone horizontally or vertically.

Ocho also flaunts the fact that comments can only be made in the form of a video reply. The lack of a text reply will keep people accountable for what is said in comments, largely cutting down on the “troll” factor. If you are unfamiliar with the term “troll” visit the YouTube’s comments section.

MikMak.  MikMak is a brand new iOS video app currently available only on the iPhone 5, 5s, 6, and 6+ devices. This app seeks to revolutionize infomercials to be geared more towards the millennial generation. MikMak produces 30 second “minimericals” selling devices or products. Gadgets, jewelry, kitchenware, and home goods (all priced at less than $100) are some of the things that one can expect to find. The short videos are designed to be fun to watch and funny in content.

I Think You Get The Picture ...

now I'm gonna go away and study some more videos and get to it

                                                           

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Online Marketing Is Like Walking A Tight Rope, You Just Need Balance

Does Your Small Business Have Time To Get Online Marketing Right?

The fewer people a business has, the harder it is to do marketing right.

Most small and medium-sized businesses don't think they have the time or knowledge to manage their digital media efforts effectively, and believe me when I say "understandable."

70% of small businesses wish they could take better advantage of digital media to help them expand their businesses and reach. Just remember that it's not quantity that gets you noticed - it's quality of content. Your investment of even just a few hours per week will eventually pay off in the form of customers, followers, and the like.

Is a lack of time preventing you from being able to take care of the marketing strategy you'd like to employ? My general rule of thumb is be persistent - don't give up. The problem is most small business owners feel current marketing providers don't have their best interest in mind.

The biggest areas of anticipated growth are company websites, social media, mobile advertising, display ads, paid search, SEO, online video, and email marketing. Most of the categories with less anticipated growth are offline channels like yellow pages, radio, magazine ads, TV, newspapers, and outdoor advertising.

Don't be intimidated by big business who have huge budgets to pursue online marketing campaign - be assertive and consistent and eventually you will see positive results. Don't be fooled into thinking you need to spend a lot of money to get results.

Online Marketing vs Traditional Media: Let's Compare!

Here's what traditional media can't offer you:

Reduced Cost: The starting cost of online marketing is only a fraction of the thousands of dollars that Yellow Pages, television and radio ads cost. For example, you can get a free listing on Google Local that will be just as effective as a costly online Yellow Pages ad. In addition, while traditional ads may only run for a short time, a search engine optimization campaign can deliver long-term results.

Everything Is Measurable: When you place an ad in the newspaper or a magazine, it can be difficult to assess the direct sales impact for your business. With online marketing, everything can be tracked and illustrated in detailed graphs that illustrate traffic growth, leads and sales conversions from your specific search marketing campaigns. Using a free traffic analysis tool like Google Analytics, it is easy to calculate your return on investment (ROI) so you can appreciate the excellent value generated from your online marketing budget.

Brand Engagement: In the crowded market, you need to establish and maintain positive brand awareness and client loyalty. Apart from word-of-mouth and leveraging your personal relationships with your established clients, a website is the most important marketing tool a business can have. An updated website with good content to maintain interest is crucial and shows people your distinctiveness and how you offer the best value to your clients.

Demographic Targeting: The degree to which an online marketing campaign can target and measure the response from specific demographics and regions is often astonishing to business owners who normally use traditional media. Straight forward analysis allows you to specifically target the specific consumer demographics most likely to buy your products. In particular, if you want to target young people between the ages of 16-30, you'll need an online marketing strategy to reach them where they spend the bulk of their time: On the Internet and on social media sites.

Real-Time Results:  With online marketing you don’t have to wait weeks to see a significant boost in your business. Results that enable you to fine-tune your marketing message to achieve your desired effect. If your marketing strategy isn't working effectively, real-time monitoring tools allow you to easily pin-point exactly where you are going wrong.

Long Term Exposure:  The benefit of an organic search marketing campaign that optimizes a website for specific keywords is that you will achieve a long-term return on your investment. Once your website’s visibility is well-established with search engines, it is easy to do regular low-cost maintenance of your strategy. Those who take full advantage of the benefits of newer online marketing platforms like social media marketing will have a significant head start over their competition.

Product Information:  Today’s savvy consumers want to compare reviews and opinions of friends, trusted bloggers and industry experts before they make a decision. If you can provide quality, linkable information that is what people are looking for, then the next step of converting users into paying clients can be very easy. With social media networks like Facebook and Twitter re-enforcing the value of positive word-of-mouth exposure, trust is more important than ever in the marketing field.

Well, I think you get the big picture. Aside from the obvious, namely economics, hiring a good website designer/developer is a good investment that will pay off for years to come. I'm not asking you to negate traditional advertising from your small business campaign - I'm just trying to prove which one will have a bigger impact on your overall strategy and finances.

Businesses not utilizing Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, and so on  more might be missing out on some serious clicks.

Is your business struggling with online marketing because of time and/or a lack of resources? Do you expect things to improve in the near future? Can you truly afford not to have a website, and take advantage of social media and related marketing campaigns?

Why not give CompuAssist a call @ 705-828-7411 or email us at info@compuassist.ca to find out how we can assist you in both giving your online presence a jump-start. Be sure to check out our newest product, Tap To Call Mobile, a guaranteed benefits to many small business owners offered FREE when you purchase one of our affordable web design packages.

Hope To Hear From You Soon - Brent Vanderham

Visit Us Online @ www.CompuAssist.ca

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It's What You Don't Know That Can Hurt You

Is Your Website Performing The Way You Expected?

On page SEO is the most important process for better rankings and for a successful internet marketing campaign. 

Every campaign starts from the web site and if your web site is not optimized for both search engines and users, your chances for success are minimized.

For purposes of this blog article, we'll discuss the relationship between on-page and off-page SEO at a later time. In order to give beginners a complete picture, I will explain in brief a few basic terms.

Search Engine Optimization :  Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term that encompasses everything you need to do to improve your web site’s ranking position in the various search engines, and in particular, the most widely used ones like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This includes configuration settings you have to apply on the website (that’s on page SEO) and techniques you can use outside the boundaries of the website (that’s off page SEO). Oh sure, you can use an online service like Wix.com or Weebly but there are vital tidbits of code that should be uploaded to your server provided by your site host - and these sites not only don't inform you of this critical information, they may well be selling you false hopes. With this being the case more often than not, I would venture to say that the only people who will see your attractive website are the one that you provide your web address to.

Is on-page SEO more important than off-page SEO? That's a good question.

To achieve maximum exposure in the search engines and keep your users happy you need both off-page SEO and on-page SEO. I believe on page SEO is more important and I will explain below why.

1) ‘Speak’ the search engines language: It makes more sense to start with on-page SEO and get it right rather than trying to convince search engines to give you better ranking with off page SEO. Search engines are computer programs (software) and they understand a particular language. With SEO and especially on page SEO you ‘speak’ their language and your goal is to help them understand what your website is about. In other words the more signals you can give them, the more chances you have of achieving better rankings.

2) On Page SEO is about the user as well: Never forget that your primary target is to keep your users happy. Off Page SEO may bring traffic to the website but if it is not setup correctly, if it is not user-friendly the desired results will not be achieved.

3) Many websites get it wrong: It’s amazing but it is true that the majority of websites today are not optimized for search engines. Despite the plethora of information about SEO many website owners believe that it does not worth to even do SEO and they quit before starting. For those cases on-page SEO has a lot to offer both in terms of usability but in terms of traffic as well.

4) Good On Page SEO is in many cases all you need: If you are running a website for a small business and you need to get local customers searching for various terms on Google then on page SEO is all you need to do.

5) Off page SEO comes after on page SEO: In order to start thinking on how you can promote your website you need to be sure that the website is optimized and in good condition. So I would strongly advise you to work with on-site SEO first and then go off-site.

Let's work together to get you the recognition you deserve. Call CompuAssist today @ 705-828-7411 or email us at info@compuassist.ca and discover how we can improve your on page SEO today.

Visit Us Online:  www.compuassist.ca

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