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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!December 23, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant
Wishing Everyone a Blessed Christmas and Prosperous New Year…
 Posted in Uncategorized. Comment Great Website Design is Worthless without Great Web DevelopmentDecember 19, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant
I tried out a website design and development company several months ago. The design capabilities and work output was great. However, their development team was inexperienced, took short cuts, created shoddy code- simply put, they almost screwed up the web project. I had to assign the development work to an independent developer that I know well. In a few days, he was able to untangle their mess and helped me develop a really solid website that looked, and most importantly, worked great. Lesson Learned: A web design firm can put out excellent designs but that is really nothing without having excellent web development as its backbone. Poor web development can really ruin a website’s experience and effectiveness. I have a lot of web design firms approach me to do work for us, but many of them have the same unfortunate ailment…quite capable website design, but shoddy web development. Finding a web firm who can do both design and development equally well is challenging- this is why I keep my design and development functions separate in our website design projects, giving my clients the best of both worlds. My designers can focus on what they do best: design, colors, flow, usability. My developers can focus on what they do best: code, performance, efficiency, workability. So You May be Asking: What is Web Development? In a word: Customization. A good web project is one that is customized for the particular client. Good web development takes the design the client approves and makes it actually work. A web developer knows programming and code; knows work flow; knows efficiencies; knows how to make something work well for the project requirements. This could be a Content Management System (CMS) that is specifically “designed” by the web developer so the client can manage the website easily, or could be a custom Check Out Cart System, a Newsletter email system, JavaScript/Flash Presentation, Language Translation/Localization, WordPress/Drupal/Joomla Customization, Cross Browser Compatibility, Website Performance/Efficiency– it is host of things, mostly revolving around good programming and coding. Web development is the foundation, the backbone to a website: it is the code that users never see but makes the website engine work well. High level website customization per client requirements is what great web development is really about. Why is Web Development Important? Web development is crucial in a web project because it is the architecture behind the website’s design. A website can be designed for maximum user experience and ease of use, but without great web development, the site won’t work well and the designer’s work will go down the drain. In all actuality, web development is far more important than website design. Web design gets all the attention and lauding in a web project and is important, yet it is the web development which really makes the web project a success, or lack thereof. Analyze Website Design & Web Development Separately When Assessing a Web Design Firm If you have a web project for web companies to bid on, be sure to analyze their development skills, as much as, if not more, their design skills. Ask hard questions about how their web developers will approach and address your specific website requirements. Look very carefully at their web design projects. Does the website work well? What is the back end for the client like? Does it perform well? Does it load well? Don’t awed by a design firm’s design capability and overlook the most important component of a web project: development. If a website is not working well, it may not be a design flaw, it may be a poor backbone. Consider Web Design & Development as a Whole In the previous paragraph, I said assess design and development separately. But that is just for assessment of skill and capability. It is vitally important that both design and development are considered as a whole in a web project, and how each affects the other. Both design and development must be considered when developing a web project, and as a business consultant and web expert, this is why customers come to me for their web design projects. They come to me because they want a stunning website that works well and will generate business. This is a four pronged challenge: design, development, search engine optimization, internet marketing. Additionally, on a Global basis, clients come to me because they want their website to reflect their strategic plan and be part of their strategic planning process and marketing systems. This is what a good web project encompasses, and unfortunately, many web design firms can simply not provide what a client truly needs. My Advice: Take the time to develop out what your website project really is, what it needs to accomplish, and its implementation steps…take the time to figure out how your company will support and maintain the project. Start with the big picture and nail it down to its elements, both your website design and development will benefit, and most importantly, your business will benefit with added revenue. Web Design & Development is Nothing without Great SEO This could be the title of another blog post (and may well be in the future)… My point is simple: without great search engine optimization, and how a website is to be found and marketed, then all the design and development are for naught. Before a website project is initiated, its SEO and marketing must be defined, designed and tested. The SEO and marketing of the website must be integral to the website design and development. Otherwise, you have a pretty brochure on the web that may look good but does nothing for your company. A website is not a brochure…so many companies use them as brochures because they don’t really know how to effectively use a website per its intended and best use. A website is not static like a brochure, it is dynamic. A website does not need fulfillment and follow up like a brochure needs. A website, when properly designed, developed, SEOed and marketed, is a sales and profit machine that will autonomously outwork and outperform the best sales people in the world (it is actually a sales person’s best friend). It never takes a day off and markets your company 24×7, 365 days a year. Maximize its best use! Posted in Business Internet Strategies. Comment WordPress is the Best Overall Website CMS and Publishing PlatformOctober 3, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant
There are a ton of web content management systems (CMS), and publishing, development and design platforms to choose from, both open source and paid. I have tried them all, and I find that WordPress is the superior choice. Here is why… WordPress is a User Friendly CMS WordPress when it is set up and customized correctly is very easy for any skill level person to handle content on a website once it is in initially developed by a professional. Changing and adding content is a cinch. Even changing and adding pictures and videos is easy. You can even add more navigation structure simply as well. I find so many of the other content management systems out there to be very user un-friendly, complicated, and in many cases, don’t work well. Why fight with your CMS or screw up your clean website design, or mess up your nice search engine optimization when using a website publishing platform? You don’t have to and WordPress is simple to learn and quick to use. Customization of WordPress is Key To get the real benefit from WordPress, the publishing platform must be customized to the website project and the end users. This is why it is good to first start with a professional website design company that has a lot of expertise and proficiency in WordPress. WordPress is an open source platform that offers a “generic” web design, development and publishing platform, but for it to be effective and useful, it must be further customized. There are a bunch of plugins for WordPress that cover a lot of the customization but there are also tweaks needed in the web development process itself that need to be done so you have a completely customized solution and a stunning website that doesn’t look like the regular WordPress themes that exist. You can achieve sophisticated website design and development customization and produce a stunning looking website (i.e. high design) that is very SEO friendly using WordPress. The trick is finding a web developer and designer that specializes in WordPress website design. Recommended WordPress Plug Ins Here is a list of the most common plug ins we use when customizing a WordPress Website and Blog for a client. This is a “standard” for us. We add more as needed to customize the website and blog for the client’s specific needs and issues. You need to understand how to manage and optimize the resources on WordPress very well when using so many plug ins; otherwise, your website and blog will be slow to load, and you will be frustrated as a CMS user in the back end use of WP. Plugins offer great customization, but they add resource load so you must manage and weigh both as you build out the website and blog. Add to Any: Allows sharing your website content throughout the internet. Automatically adds the Add to Any button to your website pages and blog posts. Admin Bar Removal: Removes excess code of the new Admin Bar in the WP platform, front and back end, so that the memory load is minimal on the user’s computer. Akismet: Protect your blog from trackback and comment spam. All in One SEO Pack: Makes your WordPress website completely SEO maximized. Recommend the Pro Version. Anti Feed Scraper Message: Prevents your RSS feed from being scraped without attribution. Adds a customizable message with a link back to your website so that if a blog post is copied and pasted on another website/blog, you at least have a back link and some attribution. Breadcrumb NavXT: Adds breadcrumb navigation links so the website visitor knows their navigation path at any time and can easily navigate a page intensive website. Also adds fantastic SEO value. Contact Form 7: Great customizable contact form generator and manager. Very flexible. Did You Pass Math?: Restricts comment spam by throwing the commenter an easy math question to solve. Google XML Sitemap for Videos: Creates an XML sitemap for all the videos on your website or blog. Google XML Sitemaps: Creates a sitemap so the search engines index and crawl your site. Hyper Cache: Cache system that improves a WP website’s performance and saves resources. Pages will load quickly and cleanly for the web visitor. Adds SEO value. MHR Custom Anti Copy: Prevents blatant copying of your valuable website and blog content. Can be customized so your forms and payment buttons still work correctly. Newsletter Pro: Forget paying for an email service like Constant Contact. Build your newsletter delivery system seamlessly into your WP platform. Allows for customized design and high customization of email campaigns. Permalink Editor: You can customize the WordPress link structure to allow the addition of prefixes or file extensions to your page URLs. For instance, your URL can appear as .html, instead of the typical WP link structure. You can customize site wide, or on a particular page or post. Subscribe 2: Great email notifying system when you post new content on your website or blog. WordPress Database Backup: On demand back up of your WP database. You can never be too careful. WordPress Hashcash: Blocks spam robots. WP Print: Displays a print version of your post or page. WP reCAPTCHA: reCAPTCHA anti-spam solution. Posted in Business Internet Strategies. Comment The Number One Search Engine Optimization StrategySeptember 26, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant
There are so many search engine optimization experts, firms, gurus, contractors out there espousing all kinds of tactics to help your website get ranked organically in the search engines. The list of SEO services/tactics could involve: social bookmarks, forum posts and linking, blog comments, high PR back links, social media linking, EDU/GOV back links, link wheels, articles, blogging, directory submissions, and the list goes on and on…Some work, some don’t- most depend on effective implementation, which is lacking in the SEO services world. The Key is Content SEO is really only about relevant content- that is really what the search engines care about. Having tons of back links factors in some (as well as link diversity), but what really drives rank is contextual back links. These are back links containing your keywords and are placed in relevant content about the keyword subject. Contextual back links are important on your website and off your website. Other respected websites and blogs posting relevant content with your keywords linking back to the web page you are trying to get ranked is very important too. Step 1 – Develop SEO Content on Your Website, Blog & Social Properties Before any back linking from other websites and blogs are going to help you at all in your search engine optimization strategy, you need to have solid relevant content on all your targeted web pages and properties. Create this content first and keep it refreshed. Ensure you cross link key words throughout your sites so the search engines know what content you are offering. Step 2 – Develop Contextual Back Links Having your relevant content published by another website or blog containing your important keyword back links is crucial to ranking well in the organic search results. Personally, I do not like Article Directory sites. Why? The back links are of low quality, often found at the bottom of the article in the Article Resource area. What you need in your SEO strategy are contextual back links that are in the Body of relevant content featured on a blog or website, preferably one that is your industry/niche and one that is respected. Consistency is Important Consistently having your contextual keywords back linking to your key relevant content pages day in and day out is what gives you rank, and most importantly, helps to preserve your rank. There must be fresh content containing your keyword back links out on the internet on a daily basis. Sound like a tall task? It is- particularly if you are trying to rank for numerous and competitive keywords. This is why search engine optimization companies and SEO services have flourished in recent years as the work is intensive, exacting and time consuming. The problem is, most SEO firms do not provide the quality contextual back links I have been writing about in this post. Rather, they offer sub-par linking strategies that are typically very poorly implemented, with lots of mistakes, and if they get you some ranking, it doesn’t last. Carefully examine how the SEO company goes about its SEO strategy, and if it is all about relevant content, both on and off your website, or about massive back linking and hoping for the best. SEO can be a game changing strategy for many companies, particularly in a tough recession driven market, but it needs to be done right and always have Content as the key strategy. Posted in Business Internet Strategies, Business Marketing Strategies. Comment Recession Tactic 101 – Do Not Reduce Your Pricing!September 19, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant
Well, it is great to get back to blogging after a long absence. I have been waiting on our new website and blog to be done before getting back into regular blogging. And now they are done! Let me know what you think about the new look and content. This recession has a lot of companies questioning their tactics and pricing. Question your marketing and tactics but not your pricing. All too often I see companies who are experiencing less business reduce their prices. This is often a fatal mistake. The answer is not price reduction! In particular, I have seen construction industry companies slashing pricing, thinking that is what is needed to get business in this recession. All too often they find this makes it worse with no end in sight. If you have a good price for the value you offer for your product or service, either leave it alone, or even increase it. Yep, I said price increase in a Recession! (and I am not crazy) Pricing is often just a part of a very complex picture of a company’s success. There are so many other factors to consider in relation to and outside of pricing. Things like efficiency, cash flow, profitability, employees, management, etc all have to be considered, and the business needs to be comprehensively analyzed as a whole (sum of its parts) to come up with a viable recession strategy. Just cutting pricing and thinking that will help you turn things around in a recession will fail 99% of the time. So what is the Answer in this Recession? Two part answer: 1) Do a full Business Analysis and get an accurate picture of the health of your business and how the sum of the working parts of the business are working well, or not well together. With the analysis complete, you know where you are as a business- it a point to work from. Make improvements where you can based upon the results of the analysis, and most importantly, track the results of your changes and improvements over time. Tracking and tweaking along the way is critical! Also, fully establish that your pricing is in alignment with the value you provide– if it isn’t, fix that upfront– yes, increase pricing if necessary! 2) Improve Your Marketing: The answer in a recession isn’t price reduction but better marketing to a target of your best customers. You need to define who are your best customers, and how to market to them. The smart and successful companies in a recession expand their marketing budgets, not reduce them. Pricing Think of ways to package and combine products and services (and add ons) that offer substantial value to your customers, yet are highly profitable to you as a company. Then market behind those key product and service bundles/packages. Pricing strategy and marketing are one and them same– take each into careful consideration and devise a strategy that encourages maximum marketing ROI for “x” price component. Marketing Two words: Internet Marketing. Two More Words: Inbound Marketing. You won’t find a lower cost marketing method (if done right) for a higher ROI anywhere. The bottom line with any marketing campaign is to have your phone ring and boost sales. Why have mostly outbound marketing? It is expensive and often not very effective (low ROI). Inbound marketing is superior. Here are the keys to good Internet Marketing:
Final Thoughts The danger with a “lowering the price strategy” is you cheapen your brand and value, only making the hemorrhaging of cash and profits greater in the long run. Even worse, you may start a pricing war which often ends in disaster. Get the health of your overall business right, ensure your pricing matches the value you offer, develop out of the box pricing packages/bundles, and most importantly, spend your money and time on Internet Marketing, not traditional marketing. Does this sound like a tall order? It can be if not done right. Consider hiring an experienced business consultant to help with the business analysis, business recommendations, business changes, pricing strategy, and marketing strategy. If the business consultant is worth his or her salt, it is money well spent and vey easily recouped. Find a consultant that is results based! Posted in Business Internet Strategies, Business Marketing Strategies, Business Recession Tactics. Comment Five Benefits of Using Payroll SoftwareJune 14, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant These days, most firms use some sort of payroll software to help them take care of their financial obligations. There are lots of benefits to using the software, so if you are still completing your payroll records manually, read on to find out five benefits of using payroll software. Save Time One of the main benefits of using payroll software is that it can save you time: rather than having to work everything out manually every time you need to pay your employees, the software can do it for you. This means that accounting staff can spend much more time on other aspects of their jobs and just check the payroll software regularly to make sure everything is running smoothly. Tax and NI Calculations A key function of payroll software is that it can calculate tax and NI payments for you. It can also adjust the calculations when changes occur in the tax system, taking a large burden from your shoulders. It can also help to calculate other things such as holiday, sick or maternity pay. Reports Generated Payroll software can generate reports so you can see at a glance your outgoings and other financial information. This is useful when you are compiling end-of-year reports or need an update for some reason. It can also print payslips on a monthly basis. Records Stored Safely All of the information you enter into payroll software will be stored in case you need to view it later. This can help you document the hours that employees have worked and the time they have had off, as well as other relevant information. Plan Ahead Finally, the fact that payroll software records all your data means you will always have an accurate picture of your payroll commitments. This can help you to plan for the future as you will have a more exact idea of what you will be spending and when. When looking for Payroll Software in the marketplace be sure there is a strong fit with your organization needs. There are also Payroll Courses that offer more in depth training to support your company’s payroll understanding and education. Disclaimer: ABC Business Consulting and the Blog Author do not endorse any products mentioned in this blog post. It is for informational purposes only. Posted in Business Productivity. Comment Search Engine Optimization is the Number One Inbound Marketing Strategy to Get Great CustomersFebruary 1, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves primarily: 1) Optimizing a website / web property for relevant content 2) Optimizing a website / web property for its title, heading, keyword, description, image and video tags, among other on page factors, such as, coding and website navigation / organization. 3) Offsite optimization via back linking I find that customers who find us through the general search engine results via our SEO strategies are the most qualified for our services and are better customers for us as compared to Pay Per Click. While we use both Pay Per Click (PPC) and SEO in our inbound marketing strategy, we certainly see the advantage of SEO from not just a cost standpoint but a quality customer standpoint too. Combining a good SEO strategy with a PPC Strategy really is a highly effective strategy with one feeding off the other- a great complimentary pair whose synergistic relationship increases the effectiveness of both strategies while minimizing customer acquisition costs. Hence our emphasis on good SEO and the reason for this blog post. In a later blog post, I will get more into PPC. In today’s blog, I am going to concentrate on item #1, Relevant Content. I will cover items # 2 and 3 in subsequent blogs. Before any SEO strategy can be effective it is absolutely essential to have relevant content on your website. Relevant content is the number one determinant of ranking in the search engines, and your SEO back linking strategies will be minimally effective until you have adequately addressed the relevant content on your website for the keywords you want to rank for. Relevant Content is the Number One Ranking Factor Search Engine Optimization revolves around the fact that when someone enters a keyword into a search engine, the most relevant websites appear at the top of the natural, general, organic search results. Search engines are built with the goal of providing relevant content to keyword searches. You can have all the back links in the world, but without good, relevant content on your website, particularly for a competitive keyword, you won’t get the top ranking, nor hold a top position on the search engines. Home Page Content The content on the home page should characterize all that is offered on the website and be optimized for the keywords you want to rank for. Just listing keywords and linking them throughout your website isn’t enough. The keywords have to be incorporated in the relevant content of a website, with the home page being the entree to all the great content held on the site. Also remember that search engines look for natural and useful content- having a ton of keywords spammed all over the home page will not be seriously considered for top ranking. Inner Page Content Each of your inner pages for ranking purposes should contain relevant content on a particular subject area and contain optimized keywords within that content that relate to the overall content of the page. This content can be in the form of a blog, article, white paper and the like. Typically this content is not reserved for your products and services pages but can certainly link to them and give them sales flow and SEO credence. You can also optimize your products and services web pages as well but watch getting too wordy for it can distract from the sales process. Example of Inner Page Relevant Content An example is worth a thousand words…For instance, I am a “business consultant” and want to rank well for the term. I wrote an article titled, “What Does a Good Business Consultant Do?”. This article is on an inner web page, and it is referenced from the home page in a simple paragraph about business consulting. If you type in “business consultant” on Google (as of the date of this blog post), you will find our website holding the number one and two positions. The first page listed is my article written about business consultants and the second listing is our home page. I have concentrated our SEO strategy on the article page, but Google has also given our home page a ranking since it is well optimized for the keyword and has valuable relevant content. The keyword “business consultant” is highly competitive and Google in this instance recognizes my article and home page content as quite relevant for the keyword phrase. By having this good content our ranking stays pretty consistent, allowing us to effectively compete for this keyword phrase. Get Your Content Developed and Published FIRST If you are serious about top 5 ranking on the search engines for a competitive keyword term, then it is an absolute must to get your relevant content developed first before rolling out any SEO Strategy. If you get your content right from the beginning, all your other SEO efforts will be well rewarded. Stay tuned…in my next blog post, I will talk about on page SEO factors that are important.
Posted in Business Internet Strategies. 2 Comments The Trend for 2011- Inbound MarketingJanuary 19, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant It is great to be back blogging again. We were so busy in December and now in January that I just didn’t have much of a chance to blog. This is a good problem to have in business, yet to blog more is on my new year resolution list for 2011. So I hope you will tune back in more often! The number one success key for businesses in 2011 will definitely be mastering the art and science of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing = internet marketing, specifically Search Engine Optimization marketing and Pay Per Click marketing. Why is Inbound Marketing so Powerful? Customers have fundamentally changed as the result of this three year recession we are experiencing. Customers want a good deal for the very best service, and they will take the time to really research and seek out the provider. This is where the internet becomes so powerful. The number one place customers go to research for products and services is no longer the yellow pages, it is the internet. They find a website in the general search engine results or in a sponsored ads, and determine through that web platform whether the service or product is for them. Your website becomes 1) a resource and 2) a qualifier. You know what type of customer you want, and what your products and services do and don’t offer, so be sure to include that in your website’s navigation, content and sales experience. You Speak with Prospects that are Qualified When a prospect finds you on the internet, whether as a result of good SEO or PPC, then you know they are actively seeking information and perhaps a service or product. This is the key: they are ACTIVE. Inbound marketing when done properly captures actively searching, wanting and needing prospects. No longer do you have to cold call a prospect, get them to understand your product/service need, answer objections and try to close the sale. Or worse yet, send a direct mail piece that is quickly ignored and needing thousands to bring a measly return. Your website becomes your champion of qualifying. If written well with a certain sales and qualifying process in mind, your website will determine if the visitor is just an information gatherer (i.e. looking for research) or someone who is actively seeking to purchase. Then once the prospect contacts you via online chat, a website feedback form or the phone, you can quickly help the prospect to make an educated decision about your product or service offerings. Better yet, the prospect may purchase your offering through the website prior to contacting you. This is the basis of Online Marketing, and why it is so highly effective for very little cost per customer acquisition. How to get Found on the Internet Getting found on the internet is the lynchpin for inbound marketing to really work well. There are a multitude of ways to be found on the internet, but I find that two main ways are most effective to start (you can build in the others down the line): SEO and PPC. SEO and PPC should be part of any company’s Business Plan. In a series of future blogs I will explain the ins and outs of SEO and PPC, and how to effectively implement these strategies for big success with inbound marketing. We as a company use the internet as a primary tool for our customers to find us. It is a powerful sales platform, and once mastered, can bring sustained success and high profits for little outlay. Stay tuned…
Posted in Business Internet Strategies, Business Marketing Strategies. 1 Comment Happy New Year! Toasting Your Success in 2011December 30, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant 2010 was a trying year for a lot of us. Lucky for us, our year ended really strong, and we are anticipating an excellent year for 2011. A big thanks goes out to our customers. Without you, we wouldn’t exist. We have enjoyed working with you and look forward to continuing our business success consulting in the New Year. Next week I will publish my Year in Review blog post and reveal some excellent Recession Proof Strategies that you can use in 2011. Be sure to come back in 2011 as I will be revealing some of my best marketing secrets for growing a company, even in the hardest of times. Wishing you a Fabulous New Years… –Frank
Posted in Uncategorized. Comment I am Counting my Blessings this Merry ChristmasDecember 23, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant This is the time of year I count my blessings… I am truly blessed with the family that I have… I am blessed with the unconditional love of my family and true friends… I am blessed with working in a great business… I am blessed with working with great customers… I am blessed with all the generous business people that I work with on a daily basis… I am blessed with a fruitful year, despite the recession that lingers… Please take this time to count your blessings and tell those close to you that you love them… Renew your spirit, and your business will be bountiful… Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas… – Frank P.S. Look for my Business Success Year in Review Blog Next Week! Some key recession proof strategies will be contained therein…
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