bite47 - Company Blog

Seminar notes about Search Engine Optimization (Google Panda Updates)

2012-04-13T11:57:54Z

Yesterday evening we had the chance to attend the C36 seminar at Digicomp. Lukas Stuber (@lstuber) from YourPosition talked about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google’s Panda Update.
The picture above shows the notes I took during the talk. PDF Download HERE.

Here’s an outline of the main points:

Manipulations like buying links, etc. is never a good idea
Search results need to be relevant to the user, that’s the main goal of every search engine
The basic SEO work still needs to be done properly
If your business has a physical location Google Places will help you
Videos (if done properly) are a great opportunity
Social Media Services (personal recommendations) will play a bigger role in the future

Summary

If you have no time or a very limited budget you should concentrate on Facebook, Google+, Videos and Unique Content BUT don’t forget the SEO essentials.

It was a great seminar. Thanks again!

Best (helpful) font tools and typography resources

2012-04-12T04:59:00Z

When we start to design a new website, a flyer or a brochure we’re almost always on the search for new great fonts. Sometimes, our client already has some graphic materials and wants to use the same font but can only provide us with a .jpg or .png version of the file. So how do we find out what font was used? And on rare occasions - when we have some spare time ;-) - we like to read about the latest on typography just so we know what’s going on out there.

Here some helpful font tools and typography resources we can recommend:

Font library

Web Fonts

Open (Free) Fonts

Typography Blogs

Font & Typography Tools

If you have other great resources you regularly use, please let us know in the comments.

Best, Nina & team bite47

Best iPhone & iPad apps for entrepreneurs and small business owners

2012-02-21T14:13:20Z

There are a lot of great apps out there that can make your life as a entrepreneur or small business owner much easier. Here is a list of some great iPhone & iPad apps we can recommend.

						Instapaper A simple tool to save web pages for reading later Zite A personalized magazine that gets smarter as you use it Reeder RSS reader pocked sized

						Flipboard Your (pocked-sized) social magazine Feedly A news reader for creative minds

						Twitter Follow your friends, experts and breaking news Facebook Social utility that connects people with friends LinkedIn Manage your professional identity

						Office2 HD All-in-one office document editing suite Good Reader Super-robust PDF reader for iPhone & iPad

						Zoho Docs Online document management service Zoho Invoice Create, send and manage invoices online Zoho CRM For managing your customers In case you don't like Google too much, see the next 3 apps (Basecamp/Harvest & Highrise):

						Basecamp Leading online project collaboration tool Harvest Simple time tracking and fast online invoicing! Highrise Helps you manage your contacts

						Dropbox Share your files easily Wuala Secure online storage from Switzerland

						Evernote Lets you take notes and sync across your devices Dragon Dictation Easy-to-use voice recognition application

						Remember The Milk To-do list that's everywhere you are Clear Life is messy. Keep it together with Clear!

						Genius Scan A scanner in your pocket JotNot Scanner Pro Document and whiteboard scanner

						PayPal Manage your accounts online Shoeboxed Fastest way to organize Receipts Square Accept credit card payments with your iPhone

						Skype Internet calls for free Viber Free phone calls and send text messages

						GoToMyPC Remote access for your computer TeamViewer Instant remote support

						Starbucks Find your coffee place quick Wi-Fi Finder Never worry again about not finding wlan

						Spotify Digital music service Shazam Discover, explore and share music

						Tripit Keeps all of your travel plans in one spot Kayak Find and book cheap flights AroundMe Find information about your surroundings

						Google Translate Translates languages Wikipedia Mobile Wikipedia for on the road

If you have an app you use a lot and think it would be helpful for others too, let us know in the comments below.
Thanks a lot!

Why does your company need Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

2011-08-08T19:18:46Z

SEO is tricky to get right, but once done it will improve your page ranking and therefore lead to more business and customers. Done wrong, it can damage your site and reputation which as you know can be very hard to fix.

So why does your company even need SEO?

The majority of web traffic is still driven by search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. If your site cannot be found by search engines, you miss out on an incredible opportunity. If you can't be found on the internet, then for many you won't exist. Therefore, it is vital to make sure that you will be found.

SEO essentials

There are many factors that influence whether a particular web site appears in web search results and in what ranking. Some factors play a big roll, others a small and some you can't even influence. But let's have look at what you can and should do.

Backlinks
Backlinks are external links to your site. The more you have, the better. But make sure they are only on decent websites or it could damage your reputation. As true in real life, good acquaintances will bring you further but bad ones will most likely cause more damage than good.

Accessibiltiy
All your pages should be easy to access by humans and by the robots (also knows as spiders) from search engines. It may even be useful to think of search engines as users with substantial constraints. They can't read text in images or interpret JavaScript or Flash content. Therefore make sure all your pages are accessible by at least one static link and that you fill in the attributes.

META tags
META tags are HTML codes that will help search engines understand, catalog and categorize your web page and are often not directly visible to your visitors. Your META tags should be configured right but they are not the "magic bullet" that will skyrocket your site to the top of all search page listings as you might have been told before.

Keywords
Choose the right keywords. For instance, if you have a site about cats, do not try and optimize for the keyword “cat”. Instead, focus on keywords like “ragdoll kitten for sale”, “homemade cat food” or “cat training facility”. Think about what words your potential customers might type into the search bar to find your services and use them. To succeed on a very popular one-word keyword is very difficult. Instead, focus on less competitive and more specific keywords.

Content
Write for the human users first. Google and Co.'s robots will crawl your site and it’s important that they find what you want them to. But they will not buy anything form you, sign-up for a newsletter or pick up the phone to call you about your services. Humans do those things, so make sure you write for them first. Also, content which is different from the content on other sites is a real boost for your site's rankings and if you regularly add new content it will make it even better.

Blog
Start a blog. Search engines love blogs for the fresh and highly structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to interact with your customers and community.

Code
Make sure your web site is written in valid HTML code. Search engines have to parse the HTML code of your web site to find the relevant content. If you HTML code contains errors, search engines might not be able to find the content on the page, which will end your SEO efforts right there.

Headings
When you write your web site copy make sure you use correct headings (h1, h2, h3, ...). Heading tags label your headlines so that search engines will recognize it as "important" and make it easy for them to determine what your web site is all about. When writing your headings, try to include your main keywords.

Social Media
The use of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social platforms can be extremely helpful in getting a better page ranking. The problem is, it's a lot of work and if you don't have a proper marketing plan in place it might not be worth the time and money. On top of that, Social Media is very fast changing environment. And with the new Google+, 1 more big player has joined the game. We will provide more about Social Media Marketing in a separate blog post.

Hosting
Downtime of your website can lead to vastly decreased performance in organic search. A reliable hosting service is very important to your SEO and should not be underestimated. Good hosting service is always worth the money.

A few more tips & trick that will help your page ranking

Look
Build a beautiful web site. If you want to show up on the first page of search results make sure your site is looking good and easy to navigate. If your site is unattractive or if they can’t find what they are looking for, even the best SEO will not be of much value to you.

Commitment
Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one time event, it requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

Patience
Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant glory. Results often take months to see. This is especially true if you are a small and new company.

And finally, here are a few myths about Search Engine Optimization

Submission
In the late 1990’s search engine had “submission” forms. You would “submit” your site to make sure it would be crawled by the varies search engines. You can still see submission pages for Google, Bing, Yahoo and Co but these are remains of time long past. This is something you don't have to worry about anymore. In fact, if you hear a pitch from an SEO expert offering “search engine submission” services, run as fast as you can.

Adsense
Adsense might boost your income but Google will not give you a ranking bonus because of hosting ads.

Adwords
Adwords done right will bring more traffic to your site but this will not affect your ranking on search engines in any way.

Summary

SEO plays a very important part in your online appearance but remember that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, Bing or other search engines. But get the SEO essentials right and you will have a much more effective website.

Don't waist your time and money. How to get your message heard!

2011-07-12T11:17:24Z

Most companies put a lot of time, effort and money in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to make their site easy to find. But it shouldn't stop there!

Once people find your site, the next challenge is keeping them there. Does your website make it easy for your visitors to navigate around and find what they need? Is your message clear?

For a website to be successful, at least one of the following actions must happen:

They find the information they are looking for.
They sign-up or give permission to follow up.
They click and buy something.
They tell a friend.
They click somewhere you want them to go.

If one or more of the above actions does not happen, you are wasting your time and money!
Always make it very easy for customers to find the information they are looking for. If this is not clear straight away, its hard to hold their interest.

Remember that if they choose to come by to your site, they are most likely interested in what you have to offer and will be willing to follow. If you would like their permission for you to contact them in the future, make it obvious!

Insure that your site is easy for them to share for example on Facebook or Twitter. Nowadays, when people find something interesting on the internet, they want to share it with friends and acquittance's. Don't miss out on this opportunity to be advertised for free.

Most importantly, it should always be very clear to your visitors what you want them to do. We may have found the answer to that one for you...

We recently discovered a very simple but powerful tool called 'Hello Bar'. Its is a notification bar that pops up on your website to deliver your message instantly. You can implement it onto your site customising it to make it appeal to your visitors and encourage more clicks. Its very easy to install, and will guarantee your message is heard. To find out more, click HERE. We can highly recommend it!

To get the 'Hello Bar' you need (for now) an invite. We still have a few invites to give away, just send as a short messge via mail, Twitter or leave a comment.

For all Squarespace users. Soon, we will post a short video and blog post on 'How to install the Hello Bar on your Squarespace site' on our Code Journal. So, stay tuned!

Finding the perfect business name

2011-06-28T18:54:11Z

Choosing your company name is a very important part of creating your own business. You want to get it right the first time or you risk losing out on more business than you can know.
Descriptive business names, such as

has been a popular way to name businesses for a very long time. The message is clear, and its easy to remember. Surely the goal of finding the right business name is to capture the essence of your company and deliver that message in a single word or short combination of words to the public, right?

Sometimes it is, but not always. Before you make a decision, here are a few points to take into account when choosing your own company name.

Restricting your business
You might start as a web design company and therefore name your business WebStudio4. But its not uncommon for companies to decide to expand their business or branch off. By having a specific name, you will be stuck with a specific brand. For example, WebStudio4 might decide to sell software as well as designing websites. It will be hard to market your new venture when your name conveys that you are specialists in only one particular area.

Hard to find
When searching for a business online, most people type the name into Google. If you use generic words in your business name, such as WebStudio4, it will be difficult to cut out the thousands of other web design studios. You will need to spend a lot of money positioning your company on top of the search results.

URL and Social Media
It can be difficult to get .com URL's for generic words and even harder to get the corresponding Twitter and Facebook account. Before assigning your name, check that it has not already been used.

Trademark problems
By using generic or descriptive words, be aware that the trademark examiner might refuse to pass it on the grounds that it would prevent others from using normal words.

So... How to find the perfect business name

Unique
Look for a name that generates only a few Google matches, therefore cutting out the competion on search engines.

Short
Short names are normally easier to remember and easier to spell. Consider how hard it will be to spell your company name to customers in person, on the phone or when giving out your email address.

Catchy and memorable
If it is short and easy to spell, then it is probably already easy to remember. The important point is that unless you have the money to advertise 24/7, you need to make sure that when potential customers do see your name - It sticks!

Unrestricted
A non-descriptive business name will also give you the opportunity to do your own branding without people making assumptions on what you do as soon as they see your business name, and therefore not giving you the opportunity to correct any ill assumptions or to see what you CAN offer them.

An example of some good business names are Google, Flickr, 37signals, Yahoo and Dell. Interesting, short, unique, unlimiting and memorable!

Inspired by Seth Godin

The best online (cloud) services for SME's

2011-06-17T14:17:33Z

There is a lot of great software out there that can make your life so much easier. Here is a list of online services we use ourselves and can thoroughly recommend.

	Freshbooks is a very powerful invoicing system which makes accounting easy and gives your invoices a professional look. With Freshbooks you will be on top of things at all times from wherever you are.

	Google Apps gives your company a variety of very helpful online applications, such as Docs, Calendar and Mail. Because everything is located in the cloud, your data can be accessed from anywhere without installation of software.

	Dropbox allows you to synchronise your files with multiple computers and mobile devices. You can also access your files online or share folders with several people to work together easily.

	Evernote (available for Desktop, iPhone, iPad, Google Android) a great application that provides an excellent solution to manage notes and snippets of information. All your information is automatically synchronised with your devices.

	Highrise by 37 signals is a very simple to use and powerful CRM tool which keeps you on top of all your customer communication. They have a bunch of other great services too, such as Basecamp, Backpack and Campfire.

	Assistly pulls all your customer service conversations: mail and social media channels like Facebook, Twitter & Co.into one collaborative desktop. The requests get collected and can then be prioritized and handled by your whole team.

	Doodle makes finding a free date for your next meeting very easy. Just send out a your available dates allowing everyone to choose the appointment they would like.

	PayPal offers a secure and convenient way to pay or get paid online. Just send out an email with your invoice and your customer will be able to pay you immediately through their PayPal account or credit card.

	Mailchimp, a brilliant email campaign app, makes it easy to send out newsletters and other important information to your customers.

	SurveryGizmo is the most advanced online survey software out there to get all the data you need for better and deeper insight.

	Skype is the ultimate communication tool, especially if you have clients all over the world.

	Pixlr is an excellent online image editor that offers a great variety of tools, including drawing, retouching, cropping and resizing.

What kind of promotion & marketing items work best

2011-06-03T17:30:13Z

A few weeks ago we were asked to design a website for an exhibition (insp.ch) in our local town. The deal was that in exchange for design work, we were given an exhibition space - a great opportunity to introduce our service to local businesses.

However, apart from business cards we had absolutely no promotion or marketing items.

After some online research and digging out the free promotion catalogues we put in recycling as soon as we received them, we decided on the following:

1. T-Shirt

I know that's not really rocket science but its very important that if someone has a question or would like to know more about what you
offer, they can immediately tell who they need to talk to.

2. Mouse mat

Again, not really rocket science but again, it contributes to making the whole area look more professional. Free promotional mouse mats are fine for home or the office, but it doesn't make sense to promote another company when you are working so hard on promoting your own.

3. Large display board

I was just attending a similar exhibition a few weeks ago and on many stands I had a hard time figuring out what that company is actually doing or trying to sell. It may seem obvious from the flyers etc, but unless you look closely, its impossible to tell. To avoid that happening to us, we had a large display board to get our message out loud and catch the eye of passers by...

4. Display cleaning cloth

We also wanted a giveaway. No one can refuse a free gift! We wanted something different and more personal to our business. That was a tough one. After some brain-storming with the whole team we came up with the idea of display cleaning cloth with our logo. Its related to our company seeing as everything we do is displayed on screens.

5. Business cards & flyers

Last but not least we also created special business cards & flyers for the event, with a discount of 15% to anyone from the event that needed a website until the end of the year.

Conclusion

To participate in exhibitions can be quite expensive and you should always think twice if it's worth spending the money. If you think it's the right one to take part in make sure you make the most out of it.

Make sure:

- Visitors will know immediately what your company does when walking into your booth

- That you can easily explain what you can offer with quick and simple examples

- You have a giveaway, so your visitors will be reminded of you again in the future

How to print address labels and company branded stamps

2011-05-23T14:37:04Z

Some people are lucky enough to have beautiful handwriting. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

After looking around for a better way to address our envelopes I came across the DYMO LableWriter450. This little machine, which doesn't cost a fortune (around USD 180), not only makes our letters look much more professional, but we also use it to print our company branded stamps. So it's a little marketing machine too.

With the software that comes with the DYMO LableWriter450 it’s no problem to import contact data from an Excel file. As we use Highrise as our CRM tool (which we can recommend for everyone who is looking for a very simple piece of software to keep on top of customer relationships) we just export to Excel for lists or an individual vCard. Works like a charm!