12 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR WEBSITE ON TOP IN 2012

We're guessing you have a lot to say about your business. Don't be shy! Your website is the perfect place to tell everything wonderful and true. And with a dynamic CMS, it's never too early or too late. Below are some tips to ensure it's as striking as can be:

1. We said this last year, and will say it again. Update frequently. In fact, take a minute now to make a change on your site. The blog post will wait for you. 
 
2. Do you have a blog of your own? If not, we recommend you start one immediately, and cross-link with your website. On the Webtreepro site, we incorporated this blog into the menu.
   
   
3. Pull ideas for content from anywhere and everywhere on the web.
 
4. Consider spending more time in SEO-land. Your website will thank you. Check out www.localsevens.com for how to take it all the way.
 
5. Make sure your website is visible on social media profiles. If someone notices you there, either through a link or contact, you better be ready to receive them! Likewise, promote your SM pages on your website with either simple icons or interactive widgets.
   
   
6. Write down inspiration as soon as it hits. This can be on the subway, during a five-course dinner, at 3am in the moonlight, or while running for a touchdown in the Super Bowl. You will be glad you did.
   
   
7. Every now and then, ask for third-party feedback on your website. Sometimes they see things that we're simply too close to realize.
   
   
8. And, if you have the opportunity, ask for expert feeback. Neon orange may not be the best color for your website after all. Or perhaps your navigation could use some tidying up. Be flexible to suggestions.
   
   
9. Consider writing some helpful whitepapers or presentations, and use these as lead-generation tools. Promote them on the appropriate pages of your website to capture visitor information and illustrate your expertise.
   
   
10. Make your calls-to-action stand out. Use complementary colors, active words and clear direction.
    
    
11. Find inspiration in other websites, even those that may be in a compeletly different arena. Beautiful design and engaging content transcends industries.
    
    
12. Read the news. This is just good common sense. 

WHAT WE LEARNED IN 2011

There must be someone nudging the clock hands of life forward, because every year seems to go by quicker than the last. Here's some things the last year has taught us:

• People don't want to buy products, they want to buy solutions.
• Jack may need you for a different solution than Jill. Love them both.
• Working on three sites from four countries in one week is simple with Webtreepro!
• Facebook can frustrate most of its users, who will continue to use it. Most likely for non-work items during their work time.
• There is miles of road between Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9
• Google Chrome is becoming a household name.
• Backlink, backlink, backlink.
• Netflix validated the most important lesson of business -- if you think you know what your customers want, you better be sure to ask.
• The last Harry Potter movie marked the end of an era for a large percentage of the world.
• Content management systems are becoming ever more popular as people want true control and flexibility.

LOST IN TRANSLATION — WEB WRITING DECODED

One of the truly marvelous changes that has occurred with the emergence of the Internet is the worldwide connectivity that is instant and permanent. A phone call once pricey and inconvenient can be conducted over Skype for only a few cents a minute. An ad that used to require exhausting placement research is simple to arrange via Google and can be seen at the same time by someone in Canada and someone in Hong Kong. And the ultimate marketing tool, your website, avails itself 24/7 to the entire planet, not just for an instant but forever. Or so it should be.

The nature of the web necessitates your site is easy to navigate, your language is crisp and your message is universal. How to prepare a page then for friendly reading? Some tips are below!

1. Keep it short, keep it sweet. Interior pages may be comprehensive, but don't scare prospects away from your home page by attempting to express every benefit of your service. Or, if you simply have too much to say, consider incorporating a slide show with different value points highlighted on each image.
    
   
2. Avoid using superfluous flowery language. You might be a fabulous writer with an extensive vocabulary, but visitors who do not speak English as their mother tongue will find it challenging to work through your words. Write well, but write for everyone.
   
   
3. The same can be said for headers and menu items. Save the fancy words for your targeted marketing pieces. Links like "Home," "About," etc. are expected and understood; not everyone will know where "Foyer" or "Family Ties" lead within your website "house."
   *An exception may be if you do creative work and your customers expect a certain level of whimsy reflected on your website.
   
   
4. It's not a good idea to reference local agenda that is meaningless to prospects who don't live nearby. Although some businesses, like hotels and restaurants, can leverage this information, most companies will have too broad of a marketplace to interest visitors with neighborhood news.
   
   
5. Internet browsers like Chrome will prompt to translate text on sites that are not in the user's selected language. Make sure you take advantage of this by avoiding words as images and using a CMS that will cleanly wrap content around graphics.
   
   
6. Maybe it's a balmy 75 degrees at your business headquarters, but any clients below the equator will be experiencing winter during your August barbecue. If you have an international following, consider their feelings.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SEO DESTINY...WITH LOCAL SEVENS 

Local Sevens is the SEO sister to Webtreepro. It's a key component to making your online presence known and your attractively designed website visible! A business that does not show up in search results may as well exist in the furthest reaches of the desert, miles from civilization and certainly absent from the minds of prospective customers. 

You may have spent some time in the Webtreepro SEO center, targeting the optimization capabilities built in your site layout. This robust set of modifiers makes the most of your on-page presence. For a fully comprehensive off-page strategy, Local Sevens takes the reins.

Sit back, relax and let us drive your website to the top of search engine results. Ensure local search success where no one has to trudge through miles of virtual sand to make your acquaintance. 

www.localsevens.com

THE REALITIES OF OPEN-SOURCE CMS

There’s been an ongoing debate among about the merits of using Open Source Web Content Management Systems (WCMS), vs. commercially developed versions. Each has benefits and liabilities, and both introduce some often overlooked complexities.  We believe that both options should be considered not on the perceived financial or social aspect, but rather on which delivers the fastest and most-cost effective outcome. Today, I want to offer some perspective on open source and I'll take up the commercial alternatives in a future post.

It’s absolutely true that the source code is available at no cost. But source code is a complex tool, not an outcome (website). What you then need to factor is the costs associated with using that tool which may be significant. 

Before you can lay down your first line of code, you have to install and maintain a hardware environment that’s compliant. Next, you’ll need professional, technical resources that can develop that source code into a functional framework for your sites. There are literally thousands of redevelopers making a healthy living out of making open source work and that money is coming from somewhere. Or you may have this skill in house, but chances are that’s not free either — you’re probably paying your employees. At the very least, there are opportunity costs of using your IT staff for website deployment and maintenance.

Once your code diverges from the core, you’re less able to leverage updates, features or bug fixes that are happening in the open source core. You can certainly mirror those items in your own version, but that won’t be free either. If you don’t keep up, there’s a risk that your sites end up on a burning platform. With web practices and standards ever changing, this risk is real.

At this point, you’ve also created a couple dependencies. Your development partner (if you’re not doing it yourself), owns the keys to your web kingdom, and you’ll be fully dependent on them for functional changes. While you may be able to manage your own content easily, your ability to develop new navigation and incorporate other customized elements could be severely constrained. We have quite a bit of experience picking up projects from companies that have taken a DIY approach or have been sold promises on the cheap only to find later they needed to start all over. Most franchisors and associations aren't prepared for this commitment as it draws resources away from their core business.

So what are the advantages of Open Source? Well, to begin with, it is free and if you’re a technically robust organization, it’s a viable alternative especially when you have ample resource bandwidth in IT. And you can do whatever you want with it, but it's a long-term commitment of resources.  This should lead to some high-level questions.

Question #1 is: 

Do we have plenty of technical resources to apply to this project?

If not, then Question #2 is:

Do we have ample funding to acquire the outside technical resources for this project?

If you’re still going, then Question #3 is:

Are we ready to commit financial and/or personnel resources for the long-term, as this will essentially be a build (vs. buy) commitment to technology?

And finally, Question #4 is:

Do we have plenty of time for prototyping, testing and code revision?

In summary, open source is not a solution that pops out of the box ready to go. If you’re searching for a web-based CMS to enable your non-technical users to communicate online, then there’s something self-defeating about needing a lot of technical support. It’s like inheriting a set of mechanics tools ... just having them doesn’t confer the ability to repair automobiles. This is where commercial CMS packages may have a much clearer advantage, providing they don’t replicate the same liabilities of cost, time and technical care and feeding of site and content management. They aren't monolithic in their abilities and require diligence when evaluating as well. 

I’ll be addressing the commercial CMS option in next week’s posting and we’ll explore total cost of ownership factors for both open and commercial CMS. 

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