Build a Better Website in Seven Weeks
These days, a website is an integral part oft he marketing plan for every small business! You probably have one, but is your website doing it’s job? Is it representing your brand, attracting visitors, and converting those visitors to qualified prospects or even customers.
Do you know how your website stacks up against your competitors and do you have a plan to improve?
To help small business owners answer these questions, and many more, we are launching a FREE even week program designed to help you build a better website.
Interested? Simply fill out the form below to get started.
This is part of our FREE On-Line Education Program. When you finish this class, we will send you a link to the others in the program as well.
Breathing New Life Into the Lung Care Group
Over the past few weeks, the Roundpeg staff has been working on a redesign for the Lung Care Group, a team of pulmonologists in Carmel, Indiana. The Lung Care Group already had a website in place, but it was obvious that the site did not adequately capture how talented the team at LCG was.
We got to work on a fully interactive overhaul of the website. We created a new layout which included downloadable forms for patients who didn’t want the inconvenience of filling them out at the doctor’s office. We also generated an interactive map for those who need directions to the Lung Care Group’s office. Not only do we feel that the final product goes a long way in improving the Lung Care Group’s brand image, but the LCG team loves it as well.
We’ve had a blast creating a website that the Lung Care Group could be proud of. Below you’ll find before and after screen shots of the site. Make sure to visit the site and check out all the new features.
Great Web Copy Begins with a Word
Everyone wants the key to success. The one right way to do something. Unfortunately when it comes to web design, like many other marketing strategies, there is no one right answer. Especially when you are working to please multiple audiences.
One of the great challenges of web design is creating a site which serves the needs of the search engines and the real people who visit your site, and hopefully buy something along the way. How do you find a balance between the needs of these two very different audiences?
Your task is to develop content which is interesting and eye catching to your visitors, and informative for search engines.
Search engines like lots of copy, containing key words, repeatedly if possible. Your readers, with serious attention deficit want you to get to the point quickly. One strategy is to start with the very best phrases.
I use the keyword tool from Google Ad Words as a starting point for word selection in my copy. I simply type a phrase I believe clients will use when looking for a particular type of business and the tool generates a list of alternative phrases. It will also rank how often these phrases have been used in recent searches.
Example:
I tested ”small business marketing” and found the term ”marketing strategy” was searched significantly more often. I found it was used an average 201,000 times a month. I also noticed ”small business ideas”, a phrase I have never deliberately used, is searched more than 20,000 times a month. This is not the most popular phrase, but it has a steady following. I am going to try to adjust my copy to add it to the mix!
The Lesson
Researching key words will give you a great foundation for your copy. Be sure you don’t create copy which overuses the terms like this: Small business marketing strategy should include novel ideas for small business owners, which expand their current small business marketing activities. Search engines will love it, but your readers ( the people who buy from you) won’t!
Creating a productive website does not require more flash or more pictures. A great website requires simple navigation and great content.
New Year, New Beginning
This week I began as an account executive here at Roundpeg. As many of you know, I served as an intern here last summer, and I was lucky enough to be invited back to work full-time. It’s been awesome coming into a situation where I’m already so comfortable and feel I fit in so well. With that being said, there are some adjustments for a recent college grad that hasn’t been awake before 9 in the morning since high school (hello McDonald’s breakfast menu!)
With the new year beginning, we have all kinds of new projects. This is the time of year many companies decide it’s time to optimize their marketing efforts, which keeps us plenty busy. There are tons of new things I’ve got to learn and become accustomed to. Luckily, I have a great-and patient-crew around me to help.
The best part about my new job has been the opportunity to work directly with clients right off the bat, as well as be a major contributor to several campaigns…and this has all been in the first three days.
So far, it’s been one new adventure after another. In my first two weeks I will have already worked on designing websites, attended corporate events, contributed to the blog, and opened dialog with a handful of clients. I’m discovering and learning new things every day.
I’m really excited about all the possibilities 2010 has to offer. Here at Roundpeg we’ve done a number of things to improve our business strategy and put ourselves in a great position to achieve our 2010 goals. What changes have you made to start the year off right? How will you improve and make 2010 your best year ever?
Crew Property Improvement Specialists Announce New Website
We recently launched Crew Property Improvement Specialists new website – www.crewspecialists.com.
There old website had an attractive landing page, but without much text or SEO planning, it was not a productive site,
The new website provides more information regarding their home repair services, annual maintenance programs, pictures of past projects, testimonials from clients and company news. The creation of a blog was a major change for this site.
It allowed the firm to move away from a single testimonial page. After seven years in business this page was so long, the testimonials were lost. On the new site each testimonials is an individual blog. They don’t get lost in the shuffle.
The same was true with all the awards and press releases. This is a firm which makes news in the community. The blog allows them to share new information!
“Our old site was attractive, but confusing for the average visitor,” said Crew owner, Eric Schneller. “The new site makes it easy for consumers and realtors to easily find the information they’re seeking.”
To visit the site please go to: www.crewspecialists.com.
To learn more about some of the other features we added to the website Click Here.
Shout Out to Vincent High School
This is a shout out to the students of Vincent High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin! You may be wondering why I am doing a shout out to a group of students at a high school I never attended. The answer is simple: WEB STATS!
Last night, as I took a quick look at my web site statistics I was pleasantly surprised by the spike in traffic I experienced on Monday. At first I thought it was because of the guest post by Robby Slaughter (which by the way was really good), but it wasn’t. Instead, more than 50 people (which for my web site is quite a large number) viewed a post from my How to Write a Business Plan series – (Lesson One) which was written on September 4.
Who were these people? And where did they come from? A quick look at the referring information indicated they were coming from a website sponsored by Vincent High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The site itself is password protected (as school sites should be) so I am not sure exactly what the site said. My best guess, however is one of the teachers in the business department found my content and recommended it to his/her students.
The point of all of this is that you should be looking at your web stats to figure out what is driving traffic to your site. In this instance, I am flattered that a teacher in Milwaukee likes my content, but since she/he and the students aren’t my core audience, I probably won’t write more just for them. However, if this was a group of small business owners, I would be paying more attention to what they were reading, and trying to find ways to serve up more of the same.
What do your web stats tell you about your readers? With a simple plugs-in like WordPress.com Stats or the more comprehensive Google Analytics, there is much you can learn about your website. It is up to you what you do with the information.
And if you are a student from Vincent High, thanks for stopping by, feel free to post a comment, and then go do your homework!
Five Free SEO Tools
Building a great website is only the beginning. Once built, you need to drive traffic and measure performance. Fortunately there are a number of web tools which can help. Here are just a few tools which you can use to put more power in your eMarketing strategy. Best of all, these tools are FREE
Google Webmaster Tools: Webmaster resources help answer crawling and indexing questions. Using these tools improves traffic, enhances the site’s functionality and helps grow your internet business.
Google Analytics: This tool helps you write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and improve conversion. The statistics show where visitors come from and how they interact with your site.
Google Alerts: Receive email updates or notes to your Google Reader on the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. For example: select your company name, the name of your competitor or other hot industry topic and when Google indexes a page related to the topic you have selected you will be notified.
Yahoo Site Explorer: Explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page. Be sure to submit your site to be crawled as well!
SEOBook.com Keyword Research: A fast, easy, reliable and FREE way to perform keyword research. This tool shows you how many people search for keyword phrases in Google, Yahoo and MSN. This tool can help you write more effective copy to help you improve your position in organic searches.
For a more complete list of great tools check out this post from WebBizIdeas.com
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PROMOTION: Curious about how well your website stacks up? 
Discover how visible your site is to search engines and how attractive it is to people.
Request a Free Website Evaluation
Traffic is Good, But Leads are Better!!
When I worked in retail, we always looked at the traffic in the store as the first sign of what kind of day lay ahead. Lots of people, usually meant someone would be buying something!
As I work with clients, many who are not in retail businesses, I can use the measures from their internet marketing to get a feel for the “traffic” to their business.
I review with them raw traffic, page views and time on site. I can point to the number of people who viewed a particular page or blog post, track where they came from and identify the most effective ads.
The numbers are fascinating, but with all this tracking and viewing it is easy to lose track of the real object … CUSTOMERS!
Back in my retail life, there were days the store was filled with browsers who didn’t buy; sometimes the same thing happens on a website. The trick is to convert window shoppers to buyers.
Now, not every business can ” sell ” products on-line. However, every business can use their website to create leads and move prospects along the sales process.
One strategy is to offer free reports, white papers or other resources. Instead of a simple download, require visitors to provide at least an email address to receive the information. Sometimes, people will give you a bogus email address, but most people who are interested in the content provide real contact information. Now you have permission to reconnect and send follow up information to move the prospect closer to a purchase.
We have always had a sign up form for our newsletter on our website but these free offers, like the one below have been much more effective in generating interest.
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PROMOTION: Curious about how well your website stacks up? Discover how visible your site is to search engines and how attractive it is to people.
Request a Free Website Evaluation
Perfect Score
Written by Neil Chaggar
Creating a website takes a lot of hard work, patience, and creativity… but how do you know if your website is serving its true purpose or how effective it is according to your customers? While there are a number of tools out there, we have found www.WebsiteGrader.com to be very helpful as we try to determine if a website set up to attract traffic, if it is connected to the larger internet community, and how it compares to your competitors.
In just in few seconds, the site evaluates your website on a number of set criteria such as Google page rank, Alexa trafffic rank, links, keywords, images, content, blog etc. The detailed report identifies areas for improvment, with suggestions and links on how to make the changes.
I have been using Website Grader to evaluate websites we have designed for clients, including new sites for www.uhasinc.com and www.investsfip.com and have been able to improve their score thanks to this helpful and free website.
So if you are wondering how your website ranks among millions of others just like yours, give Website Grader a try. You may not be able to get into the 90th percentile right away, but you’ll have enough info and the right tools to get there sooner or later. Neil out!
Roundpeg Website Redesign – The Final Chapter
by Jay Mattingly
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s come to this. After months of research, hard work, and dedication, we’ve finally finished our overhaul of the Roundpeg website.
First of all, I can’t thank everyone enough for their input on what they thought works, and more importantly, what they thought didn’t work. We went through four redesign rounds and people continuously gave positive, constructive feedback. The redesign wouldn’t have been possible without you.
We learned a lot along the way, we made some mistakes-well, at least I did-but in the end, it was worth it to be able to stand beside the final product. Look around as the overhaul has really streamlined the site as a whole. We hope you enjoy the new site, and find it’s an improvement over the previous one.
