Potissimus Weekly Website Tips

Tip 37 - New Years Resolutions

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 01:02:00 GMT

Happy New Year to all and all the best for 2012.

But remember the New Year is not just a time for personal resolutions its a great time to get your business in shape. Take sometime to think of how you can do better in 2012, and remember how ever good or bad 2011 was for your business, dont think that 2012 has to or will be the same.

So when you are making your list for yourself of New Years resolutions, make another list of resolutions for your business, and why not use 2012 to not only get yourself in shape but you business as well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2012.

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 36 - Blogging

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:07:00 GMT

As you are already reading this you know what a blog is, and although the term blogging has changed dramatically over the years, from just being someones account of what they are doing to more like a news feed on any particular subject.

So if you dont already have a blog you should start one, just write about what you know and if interesting enough people will share it. There are two main points to writing your blog theses are

To get exposure, the more your write the more change you have that people will see you as an expert in your field and hire you to do stuff for them.
Get a bit extra cash, you can actually make money from your blogs, there are teh very simple advertising methods such as Google Adsense, Amazon, Clickbank to name but a few. But if you enjoy writing you can actually make money from writing about stuff on your blog, everything from toasters to tech, sites such as SponsoredReviews.com will let you write about other peoples products or services and you get paid for doing this. I was a bit wary at first but have just been paid for one of my reviews and know this site is genuine.

So get yourself onto blogger.com or wordpress.com or https://www.tumblr.com/ and start you blog, and remember keep it up to date with interesting stuff and you will get more exposure and more people will know what you do, but remember keep it interesting, dont just blog about yourself

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 36 - Twitter

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:53:00 GMT

OK so you have all heard the news about Google+ and new changes to FaceBook, well this tip is to not forget about the huge success of Twitter and why you should use it.

First of it you have not already done so head over to Twitter and create your account, and start tweeting. Making sure you tweet about stuff that is not only interesting, but stuff that you are doing. Dont use Twitter as a place just to shout your link to your website, blog, facebook, google+ or whatever.

Each tweet should be about interesting stuff and try to incorporate hash tags by using the hash (#) symbol before words, for example your tweet could read "just started my new blog on #photography".

Keep your tweets short and interesting and you will get followers.

Also make sure you use lists, these help you group people into categories you understand, there are a couple of great places to start your twitter journey once you have created your id.

www.listorious.com - A great place to share your lists and find interesting people to follow
www.twellow.com - A directory of twitter users, just like the phone book only for twitter.

Once you start tweeting just keep it up, and make sure you pay attention to others who you follow, retweet interesting post, mention people in your posts by using the at (@) symbol, for example to mention me use @potissimus in your tweets.

Feel free to follow my Twitter account and I will follow you back.

@Potissimus - http://twitter.com/potissimus

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 35 - Google Pages

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 01:44:00 GMT

Google+ Pages have finally been launched so get over to Google+ and secure your brands before someone else does.

Just make sure you have a Google+ profile then go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create to get started creating yoru Google+ page for your business.

Check out my page for inspiration https://plus.google.com/116531610334932058322

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 34 - Google Insights for Search

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 3 Nov 2011 01:21:00 GMT

Ok so you have spent your entire life writing your website, getting the design just right and now its live and the visitors are coming, or are they.

OK as you will already know the key to a successful website is having not only other websites linking to your website, but having the right keywords in and on your website so that it can be found.

Ok so how do you find out which ones to use (I have touched on keywords before but not the stats), the key to the right keywords is research. Play around with different words to see which ones are being searched. To do this you have a few choices and these are

Open a Google Adwords account and use the keyword Tools in the Reporting and Tools section to play around and find out which keywords are being searched and how competitive they are.
Google being the nice people they are have started to open up some of the search engine data for you to play with, and although still a Beta solution the new kid on the block is Google Insights for Search with this tool you can see what people are searching for almost in realtime, and unlike the keyword tools in adwords this shows you the information from the search engine direct, so although a keyword may not have a lot of competition it may or may not be popular.
Not forgetting Bing which is the other big search engine on the block, by using the Bing Webmaster tools you can research your keywords and website from the Bing side of the fence.
Not forgetting that Google also provides a suite of webmaster tools to help you with your search engine journey

By using these tools above you can get an idea of which keywords will work best for your website,

Once you have your keywords and have made changes to your website to track the visitors and keywords they use to come to your website. Again make sure to stick to both side of the fence in terms of search engines, use both Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster Tools to check on your visitors and where they are coming from.

Happy website promoting and best of luck.

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 33 - Testing

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:02:00 +0100

I thought I woudl take some time to mention one area most website designers and developers struggle with and that is testing. Simply put just making sure your website works and looks the same on all browsers.

It is the norm for anyone who designs websites on a regular basis to have an array of browsers on their machine in order to check that their website works on different browsers, but you may be asking what about me I only have a single website and its too much to have all browsers on my machine.

The Solution

The solution lies in online testing, and although there are a lot of websites that offer this service both free and paid, the best one I have come accross is by the lovely people at Adobe and its called the Adobe Browser Lab this lovely service let you test you website in not only different browsers but different operating systems also.

Dont Forget

Whilst it is always a good idea to test your website in different browsers, never forget that not everyone is using teh same size or resolution of monitor, although the standard is still 1024 x 768 make sure you test on as many resolutions as possible, and remember a given resolution is not the same on a wide screen monitor as it may be on say a Mac laptop.

So in testing make sure you test both compatibility as well as viewability.

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 32 - Keywords (again)

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:14:00 +0100

Now we have all heard the hype about keywords over the years, and whether META tags and your text play apart in your search engine rankings, or whether they are just old school and not worth worrying about. Well the fact is simple Search engines work on a set of search rules called algorithms, simply put they make a decison based on lots of criteria to show people who search what they are looking for.

Normally these rules are a whole load of things, including inbound links (sites linking to yours), where you are mentioned, your actual domain name to name but a few.

Now why I mention this is that I get lots of people asking me the best keywords to use for their website, now in reality the only person who can answer this is you. There are lots of great programs to help you decide which keywords are best, and which keywords your competition is using. But my advice if use with caution, using these programs will give you a nice list. But try not to simply copy your competition, take on board the keywords they are using and try to think they they are using them, and if they are appropriate to you then use them, but make sure when writing your text on yoru site that it makes sense, dont throw in random words just for the sake of it.

Next use the excellent, and free, tools provided by Google along with using Google Analytics will give you everything you need to see which words people are using to find you, where their from. All you need to do now is look at the search phrases and words people are using to find you, and ask yourself are they the things your want to be found for?

You may by now be asking yourself, how do you come up with keywords, the answer is quite simply really. Get a pen and a piece of paper and write down everything you can think of about your business and your website, no matter how big or small. Out of this brainstorming you will see a pattern of the words your actually want to be found for. So whats next.

Make sure to include your new list of words within the text of your website.
Included them in your signature, both in your emails, forums, social networking, etc.
In fact any where you write online, try to put these words in the text (press releases, news letters, etc)
BUT remember although you now know what your keywords should be, make sure everything you write makes sense, and you are not just stuffing your keywords where they should not go.

Happy keyword searching, and remember getting found online is more about getting quality visits over millions of useless ones.

Find me on FaceBook
Follow me on Twitter

Tip 31 - Keep It Real (Google Profiles)

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 23:46:00 +0100

You may or may not be aware of the latest debate over Google and its policy to force people to user their real names as their profile on Google. This has caused lots of different opinions on the web, but here is how and why you shoudl capitalise on this to promote your website.

In any business regardless of the size there is one simple rule to remember and that is "people by from people" not matter what your product or service people will always prefer dealing with people. This being the case you should try to make all of your profiles as real as possible, and make sure that people can connect your online presence with your offline presence.

How? the best way it to firstly make sure you have a profile online for yourself and your business "although not currently possible on Google". One you have your profiles make sure that your personal profile speaks to people about who you are, and gives them an insight into your world. Them make sure within your profile you link to your website.

So in short my tips are

Make your profile personal and show people you are a real person
link your profile to your website and make sure people know that although they are buying from your company. "its you they are dealing with"
Try to keep the link between you and your company as connected as possible but without your potential work prospects adding your personal profile as your work one. You dont want clients seeing your drunken photos now do you.

So remember in order to make the most out of social media you must be "SOCIAL"

Are you making the most out of your website and social media. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 30 - Google Real-Time Search

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 20:51:00 +0100

Google has announced that it will be introducing real-time search results, after the service was halted following not being able to reach an agreement with twitter.

The major change this time is that the results will be powered by Google's own social networking site Google+ and the Google Plus button, this means that all activity you do and all the plus's you get can influence the search engines results immediately.

So he is what you need to do.

If you do not already have a Google+ account go and create one.
Keep active, its too easy to think that just by creating your profile that your job done, you need to keep your status up to date, and make sure you interact with others, commenting, liking, plus's all help keep you in the forefront.
Make sure you add the Google plus button to your website.
If you have some news make sure to tell the world, so if you have a big event coming up update your status, even if you have just hired someone new update your status.
Just remember this, this old rules still apply make sure you include some relevant keywords in your updates, don't make it spammy but just make sure they are there.

Good luck with your social media adventures.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 29 - FaceBook Business Pages vs Google+ Business Profile

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:01:00 +0100

As the new kid on the block Google+ is trying to evolve, and after its initial launch success and gaining over 2 million users worldwide, the Google+ team are about to launch the ability to have a business profile on Google+, as a present it is only possible to create personal profiles.

So in response to this FaceBook have launched FaceBook Business Pages, which in reality is a page detailing what you can do for your business on FaceBook, for an example of this please check out our FaceBook Business Page this puts FaceBook in direct competition with Google+ and its business profile intention.

So the question you may be asking yourself is which is better a FaceBook page or Google+ business profile, the answer in short is they both have their merits, but my advice is to stick with FaceBook if you really want to have a business page, as the Google+ offering is still in its initial stages and as FaceBook has most things working I would stick with that for now.

HOWEVER

One thing they say is never mix business with pleasure, and never is that more true than in the social media world. So what I would suggest for the ideal solution is to use different social networking sites for different identities, although having a business profile on FaceBook or Google+ is not a bad thing, I would suggest using sites such as LinkedIn in order to keep your business world away from your personal world. After all do you really think that your next customer really wants to see your holiday snaps, or that you pals care about what your company does.

So in short, use FaceBook and Google+ for non business and use dedicated business sites like LinkedIn for business.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 28 - Google+ and You

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 6 Jul 2011 00:06:00 +0100

First off if you have not heard of Google+, then dont worry its currently in Beta stage and invitation only, but its simply Googles answer to FaceBook.

Google has announced that it intends to start renaming all non Google created assets inline with the intended public launch of Google+ (Googles answer to FaceBook), this will include the renaming of assets such as Blogger and Picasa to Google Blogs and Google Photos.

This also falls in line with Googles intended removal of all Private profiles from Google, this I must say I am in total agreement with, after all what is the point of Social Media if you are not being social about it. By having private profiles the only people who can see them are the people you allow to, which means in reality these are people you already now.

After all the whole point of "Social Networking" is to do increase your connections and make more friends and unlike normal networking this extends beyond your business life to include all aspects of your life.

So to Google I say "WELL DONE" and again the Global giant is both listening and acting on what people want and as always doing a great job in the process.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 27 - Tracking & Building an Online Following

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:01:00 GMT

In the current climate of social media, it is all to easy to start reading a blog, or visiting a website regularly or even receiving a newsletter. This is a problem.

You may be thinking WHY? the answer is simple as it costs very little to build a following on the internet, you must track the entry points in order to build a successful marketing campaign.

What this means is that you must keep a track of the two areas.

1. Sites, Blogs, Newsletter You Read / View / Follow

You need to make a note of how you first heard about something, whether that something is a website, blog, newsletter. Try to write down exactly how you came to know about it, that way you may find an area that could work for your website. Did you get an email? Did you read about it on a forum?

What ever the way you heard about something, write it down as it may just be a good place for you to build your online following.

2. People who connect with you.

You must ask everytime someone connects with you, whether its an email, reply to your post on a forum, comment or what ever, how they came to know about you or the website they heard about you.

All it takes is a quick question, how do you hear about me?

So remember along with the following you must keep a point of the first point of entry of anything you view, read, watch and see if it will help you grow your online presence.

Now the following is a reminder of what basics you must have to help get the word out.

1. Put an email signature, including your website, contact details, social networking etc on all your emails.
2. Create a signature in all forums, website or anywhere else your post stuff.
3. Create and keep your online profiles up to date, whether its your Facebook, LinkedIn or anywhere else you live online, keep the content and all links up to date. Remember to at least have a link to you main website in all your profiles.

If this all sounds scary, please get in touch and Iwill be happy to help you start building your online following visit me at www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 26 - Internet Speed

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 9 Feb 2011 00:17:00 GMT

This tip in nice and simple, "dont juse code your site for faster internet connection and normal viewers".

There are far too many site today being designed with flashy multimedia and heavy graphics, this is great is you are running a 100meg internet connection, but as the average internet speed is still only around 10meg, you must remember to make sure your site is just as fast.

My advice for this is simple code your site for the most common types of internet connection, not speed and you cant go wrong. So if you keep in mind that a cable connection, and adsl connection and a leased line connection you wont go far wrong.

Simply put, cable connections are usually around 10meg, but can go as low as 2meg and as fast as 100meg. ADSL connections still only average out at about 8meg, but can go as fast as 24meg or as slow as a few hundred kilobytes.

So in short thing of speeds of 2meg and under, 8-24meg and 24meg + and you site will work great for everyone. One word of caution if you are thinking of the mobile market, most mobile browsers will run at around 1-2meg tops, so make sure you have a cut down mobile version of your website, as unfortunately todays modern smartphones will be happy to attempt to load a full non mobile designed website.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 25 - Browser Size

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:03:00 GMT

With the every increasing monitor sizes available today, it has never been more important to make sure your website will look the same on all monitors.

It is still safe to say that the most commonly used screen size is 1024 wide by 768 high, although some people still use 800 wide by 600 high. Although they are a dying breed and with technology prices falling, laptops and desktop screen becoming ever larger you should try your site on a variety of monitor sizes.

One thing to keep in ming when designing your layout is a term known as "below the fold", put simply this means that at the time of loading anything a user can see on your website is "above the fold" and any content a user has to scroll to see is "below the fold". This is an expectable way to show content, especially when you have lots of text articles or similar.

HOWEVER

You must design your page so that it is not wider than the users screen, people do not want to scroll across to read content. So if you have to make your site not as wide and make it longer, but avoid side scrolling content.

You may be thinking "How do I test my content in a variety of size? I only have one monitor" well other than messing with your computer display settings, there are a number of ways to do this. The easiest is to use one of the many website tools out there to aid your design.

Here are a couple of tools I use to test website design

1. Web Confs - Web Page Screen Resolution Simulator
2 Google Labs - Browser Size Tool

So remember when testing to make sure everyone can see all your hard work.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 24 - Dont Kill Christmas

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:46:00 GMT

We all love getting christmas greetings from people, but make sure that you use your web presence to send season greetings and see in the new year, but in a controlled manner.

Dont blanket the world with happy new year, just update your site, blog, twitter or what ever else you use and this will not only show you care but also keep your presence online current.

Hope you all had a great christmas and have a very Happy New Year.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 23 - Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and Others

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:56:00 GMT

So you have heard of Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the many other social networking sites, but the question is are you making the most out of them to help your website?

The answer is probably NO.

Try to think if you do any of the following

1. Do you mention your website URL when you Tweet or change your status
2. Is your website URL in your signature when you post in forums
3. Is your website URL actually part of your profile in your chosen social networking site
4. Do you remember to use Twitter to Tweet when you update your website.

These are just 4 simple ideas you can do right away to help promote your website, but remember to keep to limited as these sites are meant to be about socialising not self promotion.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to http://potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 22 - Use Video

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:34:00 +0100

Use video on your website to increase visitor interaction.

After thinking about the way the web is going and what people are actually doing online and the more common tasks people are now doing is watching video. With an abudance of video hosting solutions out there you shoudl be incorprating some form of video in your website and marketing efforts.

We have all heard of the big boy out there in terms of online video, that is of course youtube.com the great thing about YouTube is it is easy to host your video online and all the necessary links are included to embed your video on your website.

There are a few key rules to making and hosting your video online.

Your video should be kept short, to a maximum of around 3 minutes in length.
The content of your video should be interesting, try to avoid videoing you sitting in a chair talking about your product or services.
Your video DOES NOT have to be professional looking, you can use the included tools on both Windows (windows movie maker) or on Apple (iMovie) to make a suitable video for online.
The files size of your video shoudl be kept as small as possible, ideally to a few MB.
Informative videos are always the best, thing such as how to's, instructional videos always do well.

The current main topic people do when watching online is firstly watching news related video, and then watching teaching or instructional videos. Everything from how to change your car oil filter to play the guitar.

So think about what you have to offer, if you have a product you job is a whole of easier. If you have a service you need to put your thinking cap on and think of an imaginative way to show what you do. Without being boring.

If you want any assistance or need further advice on how to get your video online, just drop me an email.

Happy Videoing.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 21 - What is Really Important for SEO

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:53:00 +0100

Firstly what is SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimisation and it is simply the tasks involved in trying to improve your website ranking in the search engines. It is normally concerned with such activities as analysing on page text, checking site for validation, getting links and a whole lot of other stuff to get more people to your website.

It has often been said that one of the most important things to have on your site is such things as a relevant title, your chosen keywords within certain types of tags, and a great amount of linking sites to your website.

The following is a list of things that are no longer as important as they once were in getting good search engine ranking.

Keywords in Bold or H tags i.e (H1, H2) It is now not as important to have your chosen keywords shown on your website in highligt or bold tags. The search engines are now not as concerned about your website showing text highlighted on the page.
Lots of sites linking to your website It is now not that important to get lots of links to your website, it is a lot better to get relevant links to your website, although even this will not longer make a lot of difference to your search engine rankings. It will however drive traffic to your website that is relevant, and this means the people following these links may buy your product or sign up for your list, or what ever you wish.
Meta Tags Meta tags such as description, keywords are no longer relevant in order to gain search engine placement, and this is to the point that some engines dont read them at all. They are still a good idea as it give your site content and allows the browsers to know more about your website.

So you may be saying to yourself if I can't play with my keywords and can't have them bold on my page, and the millions of links I have dont mean anything. Well what does?

The thing to remember is that your website is not meant for the search engines, the design, layout and wording is aimed at your audience. So when ever you work on your website keep in mind that it is an internet user that will use your website, after all they see it in a way that the search engines don't. Make a point of writing good content, and in the process of writing good content, by good I mean good for your topic, you will actually create a site that has lots of nice keywords in it. Without trying too hard to create the content for the search engines.

As for sites linking to your website, it is more important to have a few relevant links than lots of irrelevant ones. This achieves a two fold result, one the search engines look better on this as they see your are not just spamming your website across the internet and secondly you will get traffic to your website without the need for any search engine traffic. After all if someone is on a news article and your site shows up and they click on the link then you get a relevant visitor to your website, then the search engines look at this incoming link in high regard. So when you are trying to get links to your website, try to get high ranking relevant sites to link to you. News and TV website are always a safe bet, but also harder to get links from. That way you not only get people to your website who are interested in your topic, but you also gain an increased position in the search engines.

So in short, the best way to make sure your website is optimised for the search engines is to make sure you do the following.

Write and Design you website with the visitor in mind. This includes the website copy / text as well as layout and design.
Try to get incoming links that are from relevant and respected sources, such as local newspaper, TV, radio or any other website that is seen as an authority on your subject.

But the main point to take away from this article is the "Website Copy is Key to getting better search engine ranking"

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 20 - Design over Substance

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:01:00 +0100

Ok so how often have you been to a website and thought, what a nice looking site only to find the site navigation hard to use, or the website just not functioning. Unfortunately this an all too common problem. It is mainly due to websites being designed and not developed. This means that too many website have taken design over substance and ended up with a poor website.

Let me explain if you take your home as an example. When your house was built it was first designed by an architect, they decided which doors lead to where, how many rooms there are, where the walls are and so on. It was not designed by an interior designer, as they would come in after the house was built and add the nice finishing touches, after all on the inside your house is nothing more than bricks and mortar.

So how does this fit with your website? Simple, behind the scenes your website is nothing more than a bunch of code (the bricks and mortar) that holds it all together and makes it work in the way you want it to. to see this in action click on the view menu at the top of your browser and select the option for source or page source. It does not matter if you dont understand what you see, you just need to remember that this is all the internet sees of your site. Whether you are searching on a search engine or looking at your site in your browser.

When you are looking at your website, or thinking of getting it redesigned or a new one designed, make sure you go to the right people at the right time. The place to start is with a Technical Architect, they will make sure your site is designed and developed just how you want it and that it will all fit together and work like a charm.

There are lots of agencies out there who do great designs, they also tend to off a lot of offline designs too such as leaflets, popsters, logos, etc. They may be able to make you website look great but due to the fact they are designers your site will lack the necessary functionality that comes with being a website.

So remember this simple lesson, when getting your current website redone or a new one built, start as you would for your home, get the functionality designed by a Technical Architect. Avoid using one of the many companies who also do offline designing (leaflets, brochures, etc) as they will only sub-contract parts of your website out to someone who can do the coding side. All of which will cost you more, where as if you start with a Technical Architect they will make sure you get the right people for the job from day one, and this will save you money in the long run.

If this all leaves you wondering where to start, please feel free to visit my website Potissimus.co.uk or drop me an email sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk and I will do my best to guide you through this internet driven world.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 19 - Content Management Systems

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:43:00 +0100

When it comes to your website, we all know the best way to increase traffic and make it a better website is up to date content. In the past this has meant using your web master to update your content, which has been a time consuming task.

Thankfully gone are the days of relying on your web master to update your content thanks to a wonderful thing know as CMS or Content Management Systems. Put simply these allow the end user, in other words you to keep your website content up to date, this includes everything from the pictures to the text.

There are an adundant number of CMS around and using one does not have to cost the earth, as if you use an open source CMS option then the only cost is the implementation.

Now depending on which technology your site is based on, whether it is .Net, Php, Java there is an open source solution for you.

As I work with Microsoft Asp.Net my personal favourites are umbraco and DotNetNuke these are both Asp.Net / VB.Net based solutions and are simple to set up and use. Word of warning is that they do require some level of technical knowledge to use everyday, although if you get your web master to set them up correctly you should have no trouble using them.

There are a lot of other CMS options available, another one I quite like, although it is PHP based, is Typo3 , although it is better to use the pre built installer for Typo3, which you can find here Typo3 is a nice simple solution and again its open source so the costs are minimal.

WARNING

Althought using open source software saves on time and money, you must be away that open source means everything is available to everyone, this includes the source code. So where honest decent developers are helping develop these systems and push them forward, you also have the dishonest developers who are looking to compromise your security. So just be aware that your MUST make sure your security is tight when using open source.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 18 - Check It Regularly

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Wed, 4 Feb 2009 01:06:00 GMT

Once you have your website up and running, that is not the end of the story, you need to check your website regularly.

There are 2 important factors to consider when checking your site.

1. Make sure you keep your content is up to date, this goes for both the general stuff about your company, yourself or whatever but also for the stuff that is governed by outside forces, such as laws, policies or anything else.

2. As new browsers and operating systems come about make sure your site still looks like you want it to, I cant say how many sites I have seen that dont look right now that the RC1 version of Internet Explorer 8 has been released. If you wish to only target a particular browser or operating system, make it clear on your website.

These are just two main factors, you may also wish to consider the look and feel of your website, after all if you site starts looking dated in terms of design it will put people off, or if your prices are not up to date, or your product list, well I think you get th picture.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 17 - Multi Platform

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:29:00 +0100

Although the web is an open borders platform, and anyone regardless of platform can use it. You must remember to test your website on all web browsers, and all browsers running on all available platforms.

Remember, Internet Explorer is not the same on a PC as a Mac, neither is Safari.

So in short with new browsers being brought out almost every week keep on top of your testing, simple rule all browsers, all platforms, all the time.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 16 - Search Engines

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:28:00 +0100

There are lots of different things to remember when it comes to search engines, and in particular your listing in the search engines. At the time of writing this there are 3 main players in the the search engine field.

Google
Live / Bing (used to be msn)
Yahoo

There are lots of different ways to get higher listing in the search engines, but the main things to look at are.

Your website text or copy, make sure it contain the words and phases you want to be found on the search engines for. Make sure not to over do it, try to write your website for your visitors and not solely to get higher ranking on the search engines.
Don't over Google it, remember although Google is currently the big boy in the world, it is not the most visited, as that honour currently goes to Yahoo, so remember to get involved in the activities of all the engines. Such as groups, listing, directories, etc.
Get external links, this one is not as easy as it sounds as one things the engines look for is the importance of the site linking to you. So try to get better quality sites linking to you, rather than lots of lesser sites linking to you.
In terms of Google, your Page Rank will play a small part in your ranking. This is simply the importance that Google places on your site, as a score out of 10. Try to get links from sites with a higher Page Rank, rather than lots of sites with low Page Rank.

One final word is simply that you get nothing for nothing, so put the work in and you will get the rewards. Participate in the web and your will build your visitors. Just remember that the people you want visiting your site should be quality over quantity, as visitors do not pay your bills, customers do.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 15 - Stay in your Comfort Zone

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:54:00 +0100

When you are coding your website try to stay within your area of expertise, and if you are not comfortable with certain areas, get someone who is.

This goes for the website content, try to target your website to your audience, do not try to be all things to all people. For example if you are a web designer only mention the code your actually know, dont be tempted to cover all industry topics.

Think of it this way being head in a niche market is better than being at the back in the market. Remember being an expert in your field is a good thing, you need to build this from somewhere without trying to have all your fingers in all the pies.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to www.potissimus.co.uk for more info.

Tip 14 - AIDA - Attention Interest Desire Action

sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk (Sean J Connolly) — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:55:00 +0100

This one goes back to the good old days of marketing and tasks a previous tip a bit further, that is the copy of the website. Not only do you need to thing about your copy of your website, but you also need to thing about what your copy does, and this comes back to a basic marketing acroynm, AIDA.

So what does AIDA stand for simply Attention Interest Desire Action.

Attention

Your first part of your website copy should be attention grabbing, this is a basic advertising ploy, think about most of the adverts you have seen or read, they have one thing in common they grab your interest. This is not to sell you anything ust draw you to read more.

Lines such as 50% OFF, FREE, Unlimited will all grab people to read more.

Interest

Ok, so now you have peoples attention you need to take this to the next level, this is simply expanding further on your message, and informing people of what you have to offer, and why it should be of interest to them. Remember this section is to gain interest and not sell, so explain your FEATURES here, what is your product or service about.

Desire

Now we move on to the next step and once we have given people a basic understanding of our product or service, we need to sell it to them. This is where we we move on to the BENEFITS or your product or services, that is what is it about your offering that can help people.

Action

The home run, people have been drawn in by your opening line, told a bit about your product and told why it will help them. Now its time to go in for the final sale, and provide a call to action.

A Call to Action can be anything from getting someones email address, to getting a sales. Just remember that what is an action for one website does not have to be yours. For example you may be wanting to give people something, so getting emails or downloads is your call to action, if you are selling getting sales is the action.

Try to identify what you want the action to be and be clear on how people can do it.

Are you making the most out of your website. The answer will most definately be no. Ask for a FREE report now. Go to http://potissimus.co.uk for more info.