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How To Use Facebook To Generate Leads

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Generate Leads from Facebook

Social networking sites were originally formed with the intention of building friendships and networks of like minded social contacts. However, there is no avoiding the fact that these same websites also offer businesses the opportunity to improve their exposure and increase their search engine rankings. Many of the big search engines treat links from these social networking sites as being powerful links and they form a very strong link profile for any business related website. One of the key aspects of any social media optimization strategy is to genuinely get involved and not just needlessly and ineffectively spam the sites.

Be Ethical

Spam is a problem in virtually every aspect of the Internet. As well as being a major problem for regular email users, forum spam, blog spam, and MySpace spam have become increasingly common and infuriatingly frustrating. Users of social sites have become near experts in ignoring the irrelevant comments because they use social sites in order to find relevant information and talk to like minded people. The key to success with Facebook, like any social networking site, is to provide what the users want – relevant information.

10 Tips to Get Repeat Web Traffic

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Do you worry about getting your visitors to come back to your site? Are you paying too much for AdWords clicks, to get some visitors that never come back? It's time you focus on some on-page factors that will grab a visitor and remind them why they were there in the first place. Here are a few tips that will get you some repeat web traffic.

1. Update the pages and content on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by most search engine crawlers. You could also put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.

2. Add a few social networking icons that link to your rss feed, mypsace, twitter or facebook pages. This will keep you in touch with your visitors on their terms. Remember, syndication is king.

3. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons. You can often get vistors to join by offering a free report or e-book.

4. Add a bookmarking link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’. These scripts are usually free and you can find them by searching on Google.

5. Add a ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ link, so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it.

Using Keywords In Page Titles

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0000

It is recommended to use keywords in page titles itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it's worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag (between the <title> and </title> portions of your header) will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view your web page. Some browsers also append whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft's Internet Explorer or OPERA.

The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.

If you have designed your website as a series of linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.

The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.

How To Use Google Tags

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Local customers already search Google for the products and services you offer. By creating a free business listing with Google Places, you can help them find your business more easily.

Adding a tag to your Google Places listing allows you to highlight info that you want your customers to see.

This new option can help your business stand out among the competition by showing additional information about your products or services on Google.com and Google Maps.

For example, your tag can highlight a coupon for new customers, a video about your store, or even a link to your menu. You decide what's most important about your business and make sure it stands out.

Although, Google Tags do not affect the rank of your listing, it is a great way to show important information that a customer may be looking for in your business.

Google Plans to add this feature to mobile searches in the future, so small business owners should take advantage now before the market changes.

For a limited time Google is offering 30 days of free advertising to local business, afterwards the price will cost $25/month.

The Difference Between Web Designers & Web Developers

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Most people don't recognize that there is difference between web designers and web developers. And this simple misunderstanding could make a world of difference when looking for someone to create your new site.

What is a Web Designer?

These are the creative guys. They understand how to create attractive pages that keep your visitors engaged and wanting to explore your site further.

A great web designer can convert the ideas in your head into visually stimulating designs. They create the page layout, color schemes and choose fonts that captivate a visitor and keep them coming back.

Web designers have a good knowledge of marketing and once they create the final mockup they hand them it to a web developer to do create the website code.

What is a Web Developer?

These are the technical guys. They take the mockup that a web designer has created and convert it into an internet based code that makes it work online.

Web developers use scripts and web languages that allow your user to click, navigate and experience your site as optimally as possible.

A great web developer will choose the most reliable language and optimize your web site to look the same on any browser from any computer.

They are also sometimes referred to as web programmers.

How To Change Your Personal Facebook URL

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0000

If you want to an easy way for your friends and family to find you on Facebook, you should consider changing your Facebook url.

When you signup on Facebook you are automatically assigned a user number, which shows up in your personal profile URL and looks something like this:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id="user number"

If you want Google to index your facebook page according to your name or print an easier URL to remember you can, so that your facebook page URL looks like this:

http://www.facebook.com/"username"

Both of the URL's point to your page but as you can see, one of them is very easy to remember and the search engines will display your Facebook page when someone searches your name.

Here's how to do it:

1. Login to your facebook account at www.facebook.com.

2. Next click on Account and then Account Settings in the top right hand of your Facebook account.

3. Now click the word Change next to Username and choose the new username you would like to use and check the availability. If the name is not available, you will need to revise the name or think of a new one and check it again. Please note that you can only change your username once. So choose wisely.

4. The last step in learning how to change your Facebook URL is confirming the change of your new username. If your username is available, click on confirm to complete the change.

Now your new username will show in the address bar when anyone visits your profile page. Share it with your friends, family or print it on your business cards!

Google Voice Is Open To The US Public

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Today Google announced that its web-based Google Voice platform is available to everyone in the United States.

Google Voice can provide your business a new phone number and a user interface that makes it easy to manage visual voicemail, text messages, and manage contacts.

It also offers free calls and text messages in the U.S. and Canada, and low international calling rates.

To check out Google Voice for yourself,visit http://www.google.com/voice.

Top 10 Free Twitter Background Sites

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0000

These days, Twitter is proving itself to be the most powerful social networking site. Daily participation and a nice Twitter page can get more followers. A cool Twitter background will help you stand out , impress your visitors, and enhance your brand. There are a variety of places that offer free Twitter backgrounds, here is our top 10.

1. Handpicked Twitter Backgrounds

Press Release Marketing Tips

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Press Releases are one of the most important types of internet marketing available. A press release carries a lot of clout when it comes to link building and can pass a lot of page rank according to Google.

Here are some tips to help you write and distribute your releases and get the most out of it.

1. Make sure your release is worth announcing, if it's boring no one will read it or click on your links.

2. Include important keywords in your release and anchor text but keep the density below 5%.

3. Give the reader a reason to click on your links. Provide a special offer or coupon to the reader.

4. Distribute the press release to local news sites, online newspapers, blogs and authority sites in your niche. Make it easy for writers to write about your news, offer a summary to them as well.

5. Get the release syndicated throughout the web using services like Business Wire, Pr News Wire and Pr Web. These services cost money but are very effective.

6. Post a blog version of the release on your site and include a trackback link and allow commenting.

7. Use social bookmarking sites and sites like twitter to link to the blog post so that the search engines pick it up and index it.

Remember that search engines are looking for new content on the internet everyday, and writing great press releases can keep your site fresh and indexed higher on the results page.

5 Google Tools Every Small Business Can Use

nate@dealzbydesign.com (Nathaniel Deal) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Let's face it, your business needs tools for tracking, interacting and documenting your customers online.

And there are hundreds of tools available you right now, but its too easy to become overwhelmed with all of the functionalities and methods that are available.

So instead of trying out new tools everyday, getting scammed by sub par devolopers or spending a ton of money; I suggest you start with this list of great online tools provided by Google.

Over the years Google has developed some ultra-cool tools to help you understand your customer's interactions, lower advertising costs and increase sales.

These awesome tools are free to use and all you need is a Gmail account. If you don't have one, get a Gmail account here.

1. Google Alerts

Go sign up with Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts.

Setup alerts for your business name, your products or services, your real name and any other words or phrases that relate to your business. (Use quotations around any phrases used, ie "Joe's barber shop")

In the future, if Google finds any of your specified keywords on a website (including your own), it will email you with a link to the page containing your alerted term.

This is very helpful for local business owners that want to know anytime their name or products are mentioned on the web.

It will also give the chance to find out what customers are saying about your business and allows you to join the conversation about your company.