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  1. 15 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Website in 2011

    With the New Year just around the corner, perhaps you are thinking about the past 12 months and what changes there have been in your business. For instance, did your sales increase? Why or why not? What could you have done to attract more online customers? Perhaps, you had planned to start a newsletter, but…Yes, there are many aspects of having a successful business, and as the New Year approaches, this is a great time to set some new goals for 2011.

    At Page Progressive we want to see your business not just survive but thrive. Our professional web designers can assist you in determining how to best use your time, efforts and energy to make your business all it can be. To get you started, here are 15 website resolutions your company may want to make for your company in 2011.

    1. Ongoing social media maintenance. Just having a Facebook page is not enough. You need to spend time each week adding comments, polls, answering questions, posting promos, etc. This helps build a following and improves your presence on the web. Whether you spend time on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, the benefits are there. Just be sure that you don’t cannibalize other productive time.
    2. Create link bait. Write (or have someone do it for you) informative articles that link to your website. Effective link bait articles can contain lists, eye catching titles that use high ranking keywords and contain useful information that others will want to link to or post on their site.
    3. Newsletters and blogs. You want people to know who are and what you are doing. Whether you opt for a daily blog post, a weekly blog post, a newsletter each quarter or any other schedule, making yourself known through newsletters or blog posts is the online equivalent of a radio or TV commercial.
    4. Implement SEO practices. Be sure your website is search engine optimized through keyword rich content, blog posts and new pages. Set aside time each month to explore additional keyword phrases you can optimize your site for. Use the new Google Instant Search or the Google Adwords Keyword tool for suggestions.
    5. Think about the future. Spend time implementing long term strategies (white hat vs. black hat, link building) with consistent payoffs rather than short term goals with big payoffs.
    6. Good Website usability is a must. Make sure that you spend time designing your site to be mobile device and local search friendly. After all, website usability by -regardless of the devices being used- will increase sales and keep your guests longer.
    7. Make your site interesting to visitors by having tutorials, videos, infographics, e-books, and other features-this is especially helpful if these features are only available on your website!
    8. If you already have a company newsletter, work on reducing your bounce rates by 20-40%.
    9. Have a holistic approach to ecommerce. Combine SEO, social media and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to improve business.
    10. Remember who and what is important. Spend time improving current projects and keeping current customers happy rather that chasing after new clients and beginning more projects.
    11. Link building is a must! Focus on getting more organic links and less paid ones.
    12. Get involved in your community, industry events, conferences, etc, so that others will know who you are and what you do.
    13. Have back up. If you don’t have a backup system in place, make it a priority. Whether you opt for external hard drives or online back-up services, having backup copies of programs, sales, client info, etc. is vital. Also make sure your web host performs regular backups of all files and databases as well.
    14. Delegation-delegation-delegation! Everyone has different skill sets. Some excel in writing, others in designing, some in programming, and so on. When people work on projects that fit with their strengths and skill set, then your company can more easily reach its full potential. If you don’t have the people to within your company, consider hiring someone else. If you don’t know what skill sets your employees posses consider purchasing the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, (Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton) so that you and your employees can take the Gallup strengthfinder.com profile test.
    15. Pay attention to what is happening in the world of the web and how it relates to business. According to Adam Audetter, there are 3 primary focuses for business trends. Paying attention to them can make or break your business goals. These  focuses are:
    1. Prices– The Internet has made comparison shopping easier than ever and customers are moving away from brand loyalty and toward price loyalty. Today’s consumers are looking for deals, discounts, coupons, incentives, free shipping and other reasons to support a specific site or product. E-commerce sites need to do everything possible to reach and retain customers.
    2. Use visual aids– A study by comSense showed that using video as a part of online shopping made sales 64% more likely to occur and that site guest stayed at least 2 minutes longer on the site.
    3. Keep up with trends in technical SEO. Just as Google Instant was released in September of 2010, Bing is going to officially support the "rel canonical" Meta tag in January or February. Unfortunately, Bing is not likely to be able to support cross domain "rel canonical" implementations. The best tool for SEO in regards to Bing is the Bing Webmaster Toolbox. Companies who wish to have a visible presence on the web need to be aware of this and any other technical SEO changes, so they can have the greatest impact possible.

    Depending on your business, there may be other new year’s resolutions you may need to include, these are just some to get you started. It is ultimately up to you to determine which of the resolutions you will focus on. According to PC World.com the following pitfalls should be avoided in making New Year’s resolutions:

    • Having too many. Rather than setting so many goals that you can’t keep up then feeling like a failure, pick New Year’s resolutions that are actually achievable. If you have a number of goals for the year, consider grouping them into manageable sets and focus on each group over a set period of time.
    • Be sure the goal is clearly defined and understood by all those responsible for accomplishing them.
    • Assessment. Take the time-whether weekly, monthly, or otherwise to assess how you are doing in achieving a particular goal. Make notes of what is, or is not, working.

    At Page Progressive, we would love to sit down and help you assess your site and determine what your focus and goals for the New Year should be. We have the people available to see that your website meets all the latest web standards as well as writers, designers and graphic artist who would love to take your business to the next level. You can look us up on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or check out our portfolio to see what we can do to help you realize your New Year’s resolutions for 2011.

  2. Blackhat Versus Whitehat SEO: Slow & Steady Wins the Race

    Turtle and HareDo you remember the Aesop’s fable about the turtle and the hare? Remember how the turtle steadily plodded toward the finish line, while the hare raced along looking for easiest ways to get ahead, and then rested on his laurels once he thought he had attained the prize? Then, seemingly out of nowhere, there was the turtle at the finish line. This story reminds me of how some choose to approach SEO. Consider Black Hat (the hare) and White Hat SEO (the turtle) practices. If it is your job to provide SEO for your company, then understanding White Hat and Black Hat search engine optimization is a must.

    According to Dante Monteverde of Spiderbait.com and guest writer for Website Magazine, an awareness of Black Hat SEO is important because it allows you to:

    1. Ensure that you are not unintentionally using techniques that can result in penalization and purging from search engines
    2. Be able to recognize when/if any of your competitors are using Black Hat SEO

    There is also a form of SEO known as Grey Hat. This combines White Hat and Black Hat practices in a way that attempts to make black look white.  Grey Hat techniques could also be referred to techniques that are frowned upon by search engines but have little or no risk of penalties. However, not everyone who claims to be black/white/greyhat may be telling the whole truth. In fact, Miracle Group.com says, in many cases "Using Grey or Black Hat is the same; it’s just that Grey Hat is a safer term."

    White Hat SEO is achieved by optimizing content on websites with key search phrases, properly using Meta tags, directory submission, sitemaps and obtaining links to increase your website’s page rank. These steps can be easy to do, but they require planning, persistence and patience to do them correctly. In fact, it is a job that lasts as long as you want the website to be a success.

    Black Hat SEO is nothing new. In fact, it has a long and not so colorful reputation. It is sometimes called spamdexing as a result of its affect on SEO. While there are a variety of tactics employed in Black Hat SEO, here are 6 which are fairly prevalent, along with a comparison to their White Hat counterpart.

    Practice White Hat SEO Black Hat SEO
      Non-aggressive + low risk= Mediocre, yet long term, results Aggressive + High risk= Good short term results
    Key Words Choose a solid keyword phrase or long tail words that cue the search engine of your themes. Inserting a long list of keywords into your Meta tags or within the webpage. Search engines are aware of this tactic and will penalize for this action. Also, using key words that are chosen only for traffic and not content relevance.
    Cloaking Avoid cloaking by showing the same content to everyone. An example of allowable hidden content is by hiding a Flash only version of a website from search engines an instead show the text-only version. Hidden content or cloaking is done by showing different content to different users based on the user agent. This typically gives the reader little or no useful information. It is used to attempt to deceive the search engines. While it may work temporarily, once the cloaking is detected by search engine directories like the Yahoo Directory or Open Directory Project, there are negative consequences that could cost you in time and money.
    Link Bait When done properly, this can improve visits to your site. So, be sure that you use unique, helpful stories and articles that webmasters can use to make an informed decision as to whether or not to link to a site. Link bait Black Hat style is when stories are created that contain false information in order to bring people to your site under false impressions.
    Paid Links Writing articles to post on other websites which bring awareness of your site is invaluable. You may do this by paying someone to review your article or service or perhaps paying them to review your website and then provide a link to you in their directory. They key here is the place you are getting a link from is being paid for a service, not just a link. Paying someone to put a link to your website from their website for the express purpose of boosting pagerank. Listing your site is automated and there is no review or other related service. This is most risky when you use 3rd party link brokering services who are careless in where they get the links for you.

    A Grey Hat version of this tactic would be buying an advertisement on a website that isn’t actually marked as being a "sponsored" link.

    Doorway/Landing Pages A doorway or landing page written with useful and unique content designed to rank well for a specific keywords is a great way to improve page rank. As stated by Website Magazine’s Dante Monteverde, " Just because you might be sending paid traffic to your landing pages, there is nothing wrong with having the search engines index those same pages in order to achieve organic search engine rankings as well." Having a doorway/landing page is not necessarily a problem; but how it works is important. Oftentimes, a doorway page is created in order to rank well for a specific keyword and then funnel traffic to your site. Search engines have learned to recognize these pages and will not promote sites with high keyword density. This practice is often intentionally combined with cloaking. It should be noted that the content is usually written for search engines and not for the reader.
    301 Redirects Allowing users to get content that they are actually looking for. If you have changed your domain name and want your site guests to be able to locate your previous content, a 301 redirect page is the way to go. Using content that is not related to your site but gets good traffic and then redirecting that to your site may improve ranking for a short time but will ultimately be ineffective. In fact, the redirects are usually turned away, no links are received and the page is devalued

    There are many ways to improve your website’s ranking but one needs to be very careful when opting for Black Hat SEO practices. Implementing White Hat SEO is the best way to ensure that your website climbs to the top without risk of any penalties in ranking. As the turtle of the fable learned, "Slow and steady wins the race!" If you need help with using SEO to improve your website, be sure to talk to the Page Progressive design team!

     

  3. Debunking the Metatag Myth

    Meta tags

    If you have ever developed a website, then chances are you have worked with Meta tags. And, while many Meta tags are useful, some are not nearly as necessary as they once were. There is an abundance of Meta tag myths circulating on the Web, at conferences/seminars and among many business owners when it comes to SEO. In the world of Meta tags, there are 4 primary types that many sites use:

    • Meta keywords, which are used to tell search engines what key phrases the page should rank for.
    • Meta descriptions, which summarize what is on the page and should be geared for people and not search engines.
    • Meta robots, which interact with search engine spiders to tell them what to (and not to) read.
    • Author, copyright, rating and distribution tags which can be useful for identifying other information about the page

    Debunking Common Meta Tag Myths

    There are many views and opinions circulating at conferences and online concerning Meta tags. Some are true, but many are not. Here are some of the more common Meta Tag myths around today that should be noted:

    • The best Meta tag is one that stuffed with as much information as possible. In reality, this is bogus. Keyword stuffed descriptions and tags are counterproductive in SEO.
    • Keyword Meta tags should contain highly searched for words, even if they are totally unrelated to your web content. Keyword stuffing resulted in search engines realizing what was happening. In fact, Meta keywords tags are no longer used by Google because of this abuse. Recently, some other search engines have started looking at them again but they place very little weight on it, making that particular Meta tag relatively useless despite being widely thought as being THE thing that SEO experts use.
    • It is imperative to use Meta Robots tags. All search engines automatically index and follow unless told not to. So if you have directories you don’t want search engine spiders indexing then this is  something to look in to.
    • Images have no SEO value. Actually, you can use the ALT parameter to assign a label for the photo taht search engines will see.
    • If you define a Meta description, Google uses it in the description underneath your search listing. Au contraire! Although this is often true, it is not always the case. Sometimes search engines decide that there is other text on your page that better describes the page.

    The Meta Description Tag

    Just because Meta keyword tags are not the "magic" many believe them to be, it doesn’t negate the usefulness of all Meta tags. In fact, the Description Meta Tag can be vital to getting traffic to your site. So, as you create your Meta description tags, remember the following:

    • It should be written accurately and concisely describe the page’s content
    • It should be written like an advertisement, so that searchers will be compelled to click on your site in their search results
    • it should use key words, not for SEO/Page Rank, but to show searchers your web content is relevant to what they are looking for.

    With these points mind, create great Meta descriptions by:

    • Always describing your content honestly, yet inviting
    • Paying attention to your character limits and stick with the lowest to ensure it not being cut off: Google is 160, Yahoo is 165 and MSN is 200+. Try out our FREE Meta Tag tool to help keep you on track.
    • Using keywords in your Meta tag – attract PEOPLE, not search engines
    • Convincing your reader that your page has what they are looking for rather than the other 10 results that their search found.

    You want your website to be easy to find and easy to use, regardless of the device it is being read on. So keep in mind some of these tips on getting the most out of your meta tags, without wasting time on tags such as meta keywords, which don’t give you much "bang for the buck." If you want to know where you should focus your time when it comes to SEO, check out this article on the top 3 tags used to rank your page.

  4. Privacy Policies = Higher Page Rank?

    It has been suspected by many web knowledgeable individuals in the SEM realm that having a privacy policy can improve your site’s page ranking, although there is no hard proof of this fact. However, one thing is certain; if you do have a privacy policy, it is mandatory that you follow it.  In fact, if you are selling a product or services, it is true that people are more willing to give you their information if they feel you are trustworthy, so a privacy statement along with a RatePoint seal is a great way to garner trust.

     

     

    Privacy PolicyWhy Should You Have a Privacy Policy?

    By definition, a privacy policy is a document telling site guests
    what information you collect and what will be done with that
    information. So, if you don’t see the need for a privacy policy, and
    depending on the type of business you have, one may not be absolutely
    necessary.

    The main goal of a privacy policy is to be transparent
    with your site visitors and offer a token of trust. Not only that, but
    to be in accordance with any laws or legislation that pertains to your
    business any website that shows Google Adsense advertisements, must have a privacy policy. (See SerpRank) Even if you do not use Google Adsense, you will want to consider these perks of having a privacy:

    • A privacy policy builds trust by establishing what will (or will not) be done with the information collected
    • The policy helps protect you by stating acceptable behavior
    • A privacy policy creates a better electronic environment on the web
    • A privacy page is another opportunity to SEO!

    What Should a Privacy Policy Contain?

    If your website does not have a privacy policy and you would like to
    add one, or if you want to upgrade your current privacy statement, then
    you need to be sure that it includes the following:

    • What cookies are
    • What information is collected
    • What is done with the information
    • How to accept/reject or delete cookies
    • Assurance that there are no harmful technical results or risk

    It
    should be noted that there are some who suggest including key
    words/long tail words as you write your privacy policy. After all, they
    do make a difference in page ranking, so why not use a few?

    How to Write a Privacy Policy

    When you write a privacy policy it doesn’t have to be so full of
    legalese and computer technology terms that the average person cannot
    understand what it is you are saying. Rather, do yourself and your
    guests a favor, and keep the following tips in mind:

    • Keep the language easy to read
    • Make it friendly
    • Design the policy and publish it like the rest of the site
    • Be sure the policy is accessible throughout the site

    If you want additional help or input regarding a privacy policy, talk to the professionals at Page Progressive or check out FreePrivacyPolicy.com.

    Having
    a privacy policy is a simple way to build good public relations for
    your business. Will it increase your page ranking in Google? Maybe, but
    it certainly won’t hurt.  Just having a privacy policy will add to level
    of comfort and give personality to your business. If you don’t already
    have one, take some time to develop a privacy policy page soon!

  5. 6 Ways to Use SEM to Build Your Business

    There is much more to having a successful business than merely having a website. This is because online business is fed by search traffic. This has resulted in a whole industry focus on improving a website’s visibility or Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Originally in 2001, Search Engine Marketing was defined by Danny Sullivan as “The act of marketing a web site via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities.” Today, however, not everyone is in complete agreement as to exactly what SEM is and often uses the term as a synonym for paid search (PPC or Pay-per-click). Now, a commonly accepted definition as stated on Wikipedia is “A combination of search engine optimization and the use of paid and contextual advertising in order to bring a website’s articles or product pages to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs).

    Line Graph

    In 2008, the US spent $13.5 billion in search engine marketing; however, according to Street Insider, global industry analysts are predicting that the world market for SEM is going to reach US $50.68 billion by 2015. It is thought that this increase will be driven by factors such as:

    • an increasing demand for cost effective advertising and marketing strategies
    • raising popularity of organic and paid search
    • the growth of the mobile Internet market

    The report goes on to say that the US remains the largest market, likely due to the “high usage of web search and the continued evolution of search engine technologies in the nation.”SEM is composed of 2 basic factors which must be employed in order to be effective. The first of these are listings. These listings can then be divided into two groups: editorial and paid. In editorial searches, also called “organic” or “natural,” the listings appear without being paid for and are provided by search engines. In paid searches, also known as CPC (cost per click) or PPC (pay per click), the premise is simple, you pay to be listed; the ad is usually displayed alongside the editorial content and should not influence the editorial coverage.

    The second factor in SEM is the type of activities utilized. There are 3 main forms of SEM activities that should be used by business owners: SEO, link building and Paid Search. Using SEO is the equivalent of good PR; good SEO, like good PR, doesn’t necessarily guarantee good search engine coverage, but it can increase the odds if done correctly. In addition to SEO, you should use paid search, CPC or PPC which allows you to “pull in” your potential customer at the exact time they are seeking your products and services regardless of any declines in the marketplace. So, what can you do to make sure that your website is SEM optimized to bring you the full potential? After all, just knowing what SEM is is not enough. You need to be doing it.

    Consequently, be sure these 6 jobs are on your “to do” list.

    1. Be familiar with SEO practices. This is the single most important thing you can do.
    2. Use tools such as Website Grader to asses where your site is or where your website isn’t optimized for SEM. If you don’t know where the problems are, then it is difficult to correct them.
    3. Make quick changes first! These would include concerns like metatags, keywords in title tags, etc. Once the “little things” are accurate begin working on any big changes/corrections.
    4. Use SEM optimized CMS software and plug-ins like WordPress or ImpressCMS. These are the preferred choices at Page Progressive and we have been very pleased with the various features each of them affords.
    5. Test PPC and landing page strategies. You may want to keep lists of which keywords and advertisements bring the most traffic, as well as what happens when the guests arrive. You can also use Google Analytics to help you track what guests do.
    6. Remember, inbound links are critical to point traffic to your site.  If writing articles and posting them to a blog or site such as E-zine, or Hubpages does not appeal to you, then hire someone else to do it. It will be money well-spent.

    SEM, like many aspects of business, is something that must be maintained. But it can be a bit of a trial and error process as you determine what will work best for you, so don’t get discouraged. After all, SEM has the ability to improve your business and should not be overlooked or deemed unnecessary. If you are interested in implementing SEM, but don’t know have the time to do it yourself, talk to the professionals here at Page Progressive, we’ll be glad to help. Our designers and writers will be glad to give your website a makeover so that you can begin seeing more traffic to your site with positive results being the outcome.

  6. Adobe vs. Apple: Is Website Development with Flash Dead?

    Last month, Steve Jobs announced that Apple will no longer be using Flash on its devices like the iPad, iPod touch or iPhone. He then went on to give 6 reasons to back the statement.

    1. Apple Versus AdobeFlash is 100% proprietary and is only available from Adobe. However, he does conceded that Apple uses proprietary products like the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, but uses open standards like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
    2. Although Adobe says that Apple devices cannot access the “full web” due to so much of the web’s video content being in Flash, Jobs points out that many sites now offer the same content in H.264 codec, so iPad users are missing very little.
    3. According to studies done by Symantec, Flash had the worst security records in 2009; Flash is also the number one reason for Macs to crash.
    4. Flash drains battery life, in some cases by more than 50% when compared to using H.264 codec videos.
    5. Flash is designed for a PC and a mouse, not for touch screens, so rollovers and other interactive components can be an issue.
    6. Apple does not want developers to use a “third party cross platform development tool,” preferring to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to their developers so that they can design applications that are unique to their needs and take full advantage of feature on Apple devices.

    Of course,  Adobe could not stand idly by and say nothing. Consequently, the founders of Adobe, Chuck Geshke and John Warnock, have responded to Jobs,  stating:

    1. Saying that they believe in open markets and have"openness to innovation". Adobe has launched a new campaign titled "We (heart) Choice" where they state, "We support technologies like HTML4, HTML5, CSS, and H.264."
    2. Flash was originally designed to be used with tablets that have touch interfaces. For content designed with a PC and mouse in mind, Flash 10.1 (this is scheduled to be released in June 2010) will work.
    3. Concerning battery life- Flash 10.1 will improve battery life, codec execution, memory use, and hardware-accelerated video playback and the Flash Player will be ideal for laptops, tablets, desktops and netbooks.
    4. Regarding security problems, Adobe has taken steps to improve Flash vulnerability and are correcting concerns within Flash as quickly as possible.
    5. Adobe states that Flash Player is part of both open and proprietary technologies and that anyone can design their own SWF or FLV/F4V player.

    For those on the sidelines of the Apple-Adobe debate, there are many opinions. Some, such as James R. Borck of InfoWorld Test Center, feels that Adobe is making progress in hardware acceleration and that Flash is a solid and well-designed content delivery platform that has continually changed to keep up with a rapidly growing web ecosystem.

    Others like Michael Gartenberg of the Altimeter Group, feel that Adobe should focus on what users are missing out on if they don’t have Flash rather than spending time talking about "open" or "closed" technology. Gartenberg has also commented that in order for Adobe to be successful, they ought to convince Apple customers to pressure Apple to makes changes; however since Apple sales are skyrocketing, this doesn’t seem to be likely.

    When it comes to security issues, Ed Bott of PC Computing Magazine recently checked the facts concerning Adobe’s response and found while Adobe stated "that they had the second fewest number of vulnerabilities" this does not accurately tell the story. Bott, followed through on this statement and checked the Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report page and found 23 vulnerabilities in the Flash Player and Adobe Reader.

    Apple’s stance on Flash seems to have made an impact on web development as well. Several web developers, have had clients specifically ask for sites that are compatible with Apple mobile devices. Daniel Trimpey, CEO of Page Progressive, a web development company in Raleigh, NC says:

    "While we had already decided a few years ago to pretty much abandon the use of Flash technology for most sites that we develop and instead rely on Javascript-based alternatives, this recent feud between Apple and Adobe certainly reinforces to us the use of more open standards like CSS, HTML and Javascript, which are making huge strides in their ability to mimic many of the interface elements that were only possible with Flash in the past. And these technologies are better for search engine optimization and also easier to integrate with content management systems."

    Big names and technical arguments aside, many consumers and web developers have one opinion in common: The belief that by Apple choosing to keep 3rd party programs from developing cross-platform apps, that Apple is wanting to "corner the market" so they have no risk of profit loss from apps that are not confined to the Apple iTunes Store.

    Only the future will tell if Flash technology will remain prevalent in website development, but with support from Nokia and also Google, who develops the popular Android mobile operating system, chances are Flash will be sticking around at least for now.

  7. 5 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media to Promote Your Business

    Reasons to Use Social Media for Business, Part 1

    As few as 3 years ago, the use of social media sites and their relevance to business was unheard of. Today, however, savvy businesses are approaching their advertising and marketing resources with a bend toward social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Buzz and others. In fact, according to the observations by the Center for Marketing Research, the Inc. 500 companies are outperforming Fortune companies largely due to the use of social media. In addition, Facebook recently topped Google as the most visited website on the internet. If you are not using a social media website, then you are missing out on a large customer base-and who wants to do that?

    Social Media

    If you still aren’t convinced of the value of social media websites, consider these recent five facts:

      1. There are more than 350 million active users on Facebook with 1.6 million active pages.
      2. 50% of active Facebook users log in on a daily basis, spend a minimum of 55 minutes per day and are posting 700 items per second
      3. Digg has 1 million users
      4. Twitter has over 18 million users posting an average of 600 tweets per second
      5. There are 55 Google Buzz comments per second

              To put these numbers into perspective, consider these comparisons. According to a February 2010 report:

              • Google has 34,000 searches per second; 2 million per minute; 121 million per hour, 3 billion per day and 88 billion per month.
              • Yahoo has 3,200 searches per second; 194 per million; 12 million per hour; 280 million per day and 8.4 billion per month
              • Bing has 927 searches a second; 56,000 per minute; 3 million per hour; 80 million per day and 2.4 billion per month
              • Twitter reports 50 million tweets daily and Facebook shows 60 million per day.

              In addition to these numbers, it should also be noted that in January 2010, Facebook passed Yahoo to be second only to Google. Then, during the week of March 7-13, 2010 visits to Facebook increased by 185% and Google by only 9% over the same week of 2009.   

              With these numbers in mind, utilizing the selling power of social media in business marketing is a must. After all, using social media sites is cost effective (usually free) and the ability to build one’s customer base is exponential. However, there is more to social media than merely setting up an account. To be effective, businesses need to combine SEO practices and customer interaction options in order to build trust and respect with their audience. This social media interaction has been shown to increase retail and e-commerce significantly. Many companies have recognized the correlation between social media and sales. According to a February 2010 Marketing Sherpa poll of 2,300 communication experts, "79% of experts of retail/e-commerce plan to increase their social media interaction in 2010" Simply put, if you are looking for a cost effective and efficient was to promote your business, social media is the way to go. 

              Uses of Social Media to Businesses

              Because search engines are now using "Real Time" search results as well as crawling social media sites, business owners can promote their services in a variety of ways. Also some sites, like Facebook, allow you to target your advertising based on gender, relationship status, age, location, etc… so you are able to focus your efforts on those who are most likely to be interested in your services. Consider including any (or all) of the following as part of your business social media page.

              • Post questions that encourage fan response
              • Post a poll to garner customer feedback
              • Integrate apps like games or quizzes to encourage guests to spend more time on your page
              • Repost information from other  users that is relevant and interesting
              • Promote your business through promos only available on your page (free shipping for fans only, exclusive product discounts, specials, etc…)

              Social media is likely here to stay. Regardless of whether you are a small business owner or President Obama, choosing to use the tools available on sites like Facebook or Twitter, can be a big business benefit.  Why not use it to your advantage and promote your business where you will be seen by the largest customer base available? You can do it yourself or hire the professionals at Page Progressive to do it for you. The sooner you do, the quicker your business can increase. Contact us today!

            • Tips to Test and Measure Your Site’s SEO

              If you’ve been following our last few posts, you now have spent a fair amount of time making your site search engine optimized. And, chances are, you are already seeing a bit more web traffic. However, your website SEO is not complete, nor will it ever be 100%. This is due to step four of the SEO process.

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