Thanks for attending my June 21, 2011 class Before You Hire Your Web Designer or Web Developer. [If it's before the class date, you'll find class registration info here.]

Here are some helpful resources for anybody planning a website from scratch or an update to an existing website.

Here are 5  (6, actually) Super Resources for the Small Business Owner Who Wants a Great Website! [June 15, 2011 update: added #6!]

I’m gearing up for my June 14 and June 21 classes. I want to make sure I let you know about these articles and tools:

If we can push past the alarming use of profanity against a toddler, there’s something to be gleaned from Mad Mall Mama’s concise call-to-action. The 25-character statement included at least 4 smart components.

This information is intended for very small business owners, like a local landscaper or painter or maybe a daycare establishment. A business that will likely never be able to justify the ROI of hiring a competent and professional SEO. And quite frankly? Likely doesn’t need to.

Here are 5 common web design mistakes you must avoid to create a great user experience and grow your bottom line.

Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster. Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.

This is the gold standard tool for keyword research.

From Outspoken Media: “Hello. I’m a potential new customer and I just landed on your Web site for the very first time. I’m taking a look around and I think I may like what you’re offering. In fact, your services/that pair of shoes/that quirky owl necklace are exactly what I’ve been waiting for. But, as a new customer, before I take the plunge, I have some questions. Things I need to know or at least would like to know before I commit to doing business with you.”

Thank you for attending my Santa Cruz Parks & Rec class How to Prepare for Your Website Overhaul or New Website on January 25, 2011.

My presentation is available for viewing or downloading here:
Download Presentation [PDF]

Upcoming Classes:

1. Expand Your Reach with Soclal Media (with co-instructor Karen Kefauver) on Feb 1, 2011
2. ABCs of SEO – Basics of Search Engine Optimization (with co-instructor, SEO expert, Steve Penny) on Feb 15, 2011.
3. Build a Free Blog or Website with WordPress.com on March 1, 2011.

Details about the classes and registration, see: http://saraisenberg.com/upcoming-classes/

For more resources, see:

• My collection of best SEO Resources: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/10/16/best-seo-resources/
• My collection of best Social Media Resources: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/07/22/social-media-resources-linkedin-facebook-twitter-blogging/
• My collection of Best Resources Before you Design your Small Business Website: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/12/13/best-resources-to-review-before-you-design-your-small-business-website/
• Fast/Cheap/Good Venn Diagram
• Fast/Cheap/Good Triangle
• [added Feb 20, 2011] Preparing and Planning for a Redesign: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/preparing-and-planning-for-a-redesign/

Thanks!
Sara
Website: http://saraisenberg.com
Blog: http://saraisenberg.com/blog
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SaraIsenbergConsulting
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/saraisenberg
Twitter: @saraisenberg

Hot off the press — Here’s another great new presentation from Shane Perlman,  http://shaneandpeter.com, called Freelancers are slutty, but so are you: Strategies for the successful managment of independent contractors.

[In November, I posted a blog entry of another great presentation by Shane about managing distributed teams called Leading Without Seeing — Managing a Distributed Team.]

Here’s the latest from Shane:

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As a web consultant and SBDC Technology Advisor, one of my services is to provide web audits for small business clients. A web audit consists of a thorough website review including review of first impression, design, navigation, usability, content, SEO, etc. I’m always on the lookout for articles to share with clients. [Updated January 21, 2011, February 8, 2011]

Here’s my recent collection of Best Resources to Review before You Design (or Redesign) Your Small Business Website:

1. I heartily recommend these two excellent books as an easy way to learn and/or review some of the basics of web design and web content:
2. • Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Steve Krug)
   • Letting Go of the Words – Writing Web Content that Works (Janice Ginny Reddish)
3. Here’s my collection of Best SEO Search Engine Optimization Resources: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/10/16/best-seo-resources/
4. Here’s my collection of Great Social Media Resources — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twtiter, Blogging: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/07/22/social-media-resources-linkedin-facebook-twitter-blogging/
5. 8 Best-Practices for Small Business Websites (DIYthemes):
   http://diythemes.com/thesis/best-practices-small-business-websites/
6. What Does Web Design Say About Your Small Business? (Mashable): http://mashable.com/2010/12/13/small-business-web-design/
7. 10 Questions You Should Ask Your Web Designer to Get Tangible Results (DIYthemes): http://diythemes.com/thesis/web-design-results/
8. The Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page (Formstack):
   http://www.formstack.com/the-anatomy-of-a-perfect-landing-page
9. How to Choose – And Hire – a Web Designer (DIYthemes): http://diythemes.com/thesis/how-to-hire-a-web-designer/
10. Building an Online Marketing Plan: http://blog.hotdesign.com/2011/01/building-an-online-marketing-plan/
11. The Benefits of Wireframing a Design (SixRevisions):  http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/wireframing-benefits/
12. (I’ll keep adding resources so check back later.)

The following great overview article about Google Caffeine comes from http://www.axandra.com.

Google Caffeine is the name given to Google’s next algorithm update that is going live after the holidays. It seems that Google Caffeine will be more than Google’s regular updates. It will probably be a major overhaul of the calculations that Google uses to rank web pages.

What is going to change?

Of course, Google hasn’t revealed the details of Google Caffeine yet. However, the new index has been live on some test servers and some Google employees also talked about the next index. The following factors might play a larger role in Google’s next index:

• Website speed: if you have a slow loading website, it might not get high rankings on Google.
• Broken links: if your website contains many broken links, this might have a negative impact of the position of your web pages in Google search results.
• Bad neighborhoods: Linking to known spammers and getting a lot of links from known spammers isn’t good for your rankings in Google’s current algorithm. The negative impact of a bad neighborhood will probably be even worse with Google Caffeine.
• The over-all quality of your website: Google’s new algorithm probably will take a closer look at the over-all quality of your website. It’s not enough to have one or two ranking factors in place.You’ll probably need good optimized content, a good website design with a clear navigation, good inbound links, a low bounce rate, etc. The number of social bookmarks might also play an increased role.

Factors like the age of a website, its past history, authority etc. will still play a role in Google’s new index. However, the effect of the different factors on your rankings will shift.

How can you adjust your web pages to Google’s new Caffeine index?

Although Google’s Caffeine update hasn’t been release yet, there are some things that you can do to increase the chances that your website will get good rankings in Google’s new index:

• Remove all spam elements from your web pages. Anything that might be considered spam can and will have a negative effect on the position of your web pages sooner or later. This includes text that has nearly the same color as the background, cloaking and fully automated linking systems.
• Check your website design and the navigation of your website.Your website should have a professional look and feel. The navigation should be easy to understand and your web pages should easily be parseable by search engine spiders. You can test this with the search engine spider simulator in IBP (Select Tools > Search Engine Spider Simulator in IBP’s main window).
• Get links from social bookmark websites. Social bookmark links already play a role in Google’s current algorithm and that role might increase.
• Check your links. You shouldn’t link to websites that look like spammers. It’s better to focus on selected quality links instead of as many links as possible.

Google Caffeine is going to be released after the holidays. If you follow the tips above, your website will be in a good position when Google’s new index will be online.

The following is by my colleague and friend, Kirsti Scott, of Scott Design: http://blog.hotdesign.com.  I value everything that Kirsti writes in her blog about social media.  Here’s another great post from Kirsti:

Here’s a quick rundown of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of using social networks to help kick-start your social media plan.

Who

You should use social media if you have a business and want to do any of the following:

• Reach new customers
• Build relationships with existing customers
• Create awareness of your products or services through PR and marketing
• Decrease customer support costs
• Drive traffic to your website
• Find new employees
• Improve teamwork at your company

What

Social networks are now used by millions of people every day:

• Social networks are web-based, online communities of people with shared interests who communicate with one another and share information.
• Social networks allow you to connect with friends, family, colleagues, and customers online.
• Social media marketing is the use of social networks to promote your company’s products or services.

Where

You should create a presence on the following websites:

• LinkedIn: Set up profiles for key employees. See “Getting Started with LinkedIn.”
• Facebook: Create a Facebook Fan Page for your business. See “Getting Started with Facebook.”
• Twitter: Set up a Twitter profile for your company or brand. See “Getting Started with Twitter.”
• Local Search: Set up listings for your business on Google Local Business Center, Yahoo! Local, Best of the Web Local, and Bing Local Listing Center, by visiting GetListed.org.
• Reviews: Set up a listing for your business on Yelp.

When

• Today: Set up profiles on the major sites. It takes about a day.
• Every day: Keep up with what’s happening in your industry or marketplace.
• Every week: Spend a few hours participating in conversations with people in your networks.
• As needed: Post news about your company.
  

Why

There are five main reasons companies should do social media marketing:

• It is now considered a best practice.
• It drives traffic to your website.
• It improves your search engine rankings.
• It lets you join the conversation.
• It amplifies your marketing messages.

For details, see “5 reasons companies should do social media marketing.”

How

It’s easy to get started with social media:

• Sign up for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, local search engines, and Yelp.
• Fill out the basic information (you can add more later).
• Join groups of peers and/or customers.
• Listen and get a feel for discussion etiquette.
• Get social by joining into conversations with your peers and customers. See “Connecting with customers through LinkedIn,” “Connecting with customers through Facebook,” and “Connecting with customers through Twitter.“

More information

• For more in-depth information about using social media marketing, take a look at “5 Steps in a Social Media Marketing Plan“  and “Promote your business using social media.”
• For an overview of the components in an online marketing strategy, check out the Marketing Treasure Map video.
• For details on the most popular social networking websites, check out the slideshare presentation called “Free Online Tools to Create Conversations.

After attending the Santa Cruz WordPress Meetup and crossing paths with Chris Burbridge several times a week, WordPress is a topic that’s been coming up more in the conversation these days.  From attending the Nextspace WordPress brown bag lunch, to comparing WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal, to discussing what makes a quality theme, best practices, I’ve been telling folks about WP Remix, and just wanted to post this link as a resource and reminder:

Learn  more about WP Remix 3.0

WP Remix 3.0 is

…the only theme that offers WYSIWYG page template editing.  Over 50 page templates to choose from. Web Stanards, Color schemes, Usability, grid, typography…

From time to time, someone will ask me … Which is better: WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal?

The answer is… it depends.

• What is the project? How simple or robust? What features?
• Who is the developer? What are their skills?
• Who will be the site administrator?  How friendly does the CMS editor need to be?

According to Bruce Byfield at linux.com:

Consistently, Drupal offered more fine-tuning and tools for managing multiple blogs, while WordPress, although less configurable than Drupal, proved easier to use and navigate.

Here are some resource summaries on this topic of comparing WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Voila!

1. Article mentioned above, by Bruce Byfield at Linux.com
2. Article with CMS feature comparison chart, by Dan Knauss
3. Article comparing just WordPress VS Drupal comparison, by Todd Zeigler

I put this information together yesterday to share with my cousin — he works for a Community Sponsored Radio Station — and then decided to share here, as well.  Thanks, Norman, you inspired this post.