Now what?

Before I tell you the secret, I want to share that I’ve owned what’s called a wordpress based website, www.salesletter.ca  and www.patriciaogilvie.com  for upwards of 7 years.

I’ve taken them to the 1^st page of http://www.google.ca  effortlessly. I say this in all honesty and with integrity – I also say I didn’t know why it happened for me. Other intelligent people couldn’t get their websites on the top 10 of Google no matter how much money they paid or how may articles they wrote! Yet I did it about a month. I didn’t know why!

Until now.

You may have read the news. Google has made changes to how searches are done.

What’s more, if the desired Google standards are not met, they will shut you down.

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? But here’s what else I did without realizing at the time how powerful this little action made my online rankings.

I also played around in http://www.facebook.com, spying on my nieces and nephews once every couple of weeks. It was good for me – I learned what they families were planning and where they were going before they invited me!  It was so cool.

Now I know that linking into Facebook and Twitter both, actually increased my scores and helped me achieve the top rankings!

In fact, as of last month, Facebook outpaced even Google, the world's largest search engine, because people are actually finding things through this social forum!

But you don’t have to believe me. Take a look at what the technology is behind this phenomenon! Here’s a link into the technology overview of Google.  Algorithm Technology.

What was the main component that helped me increase rankings?  The truth is, it was creating a blog. Posting a few short paragraphs about what I offered and additional information ranked me to #6.  And WordPress was the software platform that existed 7 years ago for me – I was willing to risk and try out a new thing!

It paid off!  Now the software platform that exists behind WordPress makes it super easy to score high in the search engines.

As an online business services coach, I now always encourage my clients to put their entire website into WordPress. They experience ease to generate leads, lower ad budgets, increase the stick ability, and create high organic rankings.

Here is my advice to you now as a small or large business. GET YOUR WEBSITE INTO WORDPRESS!

Google, Facebook and WordPress work in sync like I've never seen occur before. WordPress and Facebook, along with http://twitter.com  are making it easier than ever for a small business owner to compete with a large company.

Twitter, you say?

Get this.  The US Library of Congress says there’s value in tweets! A recent announcement showed that Tweeting is not a fad.

Let me be frank with you.

I built my websites, ranked on Google’s first page, and continue to upgrade and stay current because of one thing I did – one thing only.

I built my online presence with http://wordpress.org  All, and I mean ALL of my clients who wanted help optimizing and writing content for their websites that were NOT wordpress, had headaches, spent too much time and too much manpower, and too much money getting nowhere fast. And each time I wrote copy and had them make strategic changes in their websites, they balked.  Why?  Because they had to pay their designers to go in and add the content!  It cost them more money than they realized.  So what did they do? Ignore quality marketing content and stay as is!

Plus, they didn’t have fun and I didn’t have fun trying to make things happen for them. Like making potatoe soup without potatoes!

It's not fun and it doesn’t taste like anything.

WordPress changes and refines itself and makes it easy to keep on running while you do.

Oh and one more piece of advice. Don’t use a free www.wordpress.com  site – buy your domain name and attach it to a free template or build a new site with WordPress Thesis themes – but stay away from the free blogs.

Are you serious about your online business?

In fact, your real brick and mortar business will suffer if you don’t represent yourself as qualified and high ranked online.  People don’t read brochures – they search you on the web!

Oprah uses wordpress.

President Obama uses a wordpress blog.

And they have small budgets because they don’t need web designers and technicians to upkeep the websites.  This is awesome news to small business.

So please know this. I'm here to give you advice. It's advice that is based on cold hard experience. Get into WordPress now.

Your business future depends on it. Call me 780-940-5429 or write me info@patriciaogilvie.com Let’s find out how to optimize your web presence so you will rank top of the heap!

7 “Must Ask” Questions Before You Invest
A Single Cent into Building Your Website

Are you being sucked in by a “Tombstone” syndrome web design?

Call me a rebel with a cause!  But I’m writing to protect you from being conned into what I call the “Tombstone” syndrome of website development.

Ok, maybe protect is too harsh a term – how about bring awareness.

Beware the “Tombstone” Syndrome of Web Design

What’s “Tombstone” syndrome?

Here’s the clue. After you’ve had your website built, you run your mouse over all the content, headlines and tabs. If the mouse doesn’t produce the signature hand to get in, then neither can the search engines get in and find you! All you’ve got staring at you from that computer screen is a lovely designed tombstone for your dead website.

Pretty dramatic, isn’t it?  Well, think of it this way. Your website may as well be dead for all the good it’s doing you. It’s that simple.

All Web Designers Know About Search Engine Optimization

Sure, you may not understand the intricacies of web building and design.  And for sure, you expect the web builders and designers to know what they’re doing on your behalf, right?

Wrong!

If you are not aware of what is absolutely required in an optimized website, you could be in danger of destroying your business opportunities on the internet – you could be investing in a “tombstone” instead of a real live, breathing website.

Let me explain.

Web designers and software developers are producing graphic and flash designs thinking that they are doing you a favour.  Yes, it’s pretty alright, however search engines can’t read graphic and flash designs. Let me repeat that:  Google, MSN, Yahoo, and all the search engines of the billions of web surfers can’t find your website.

So that means, when your ideal customer types in a word or phrase into the search bar looking for your product, service or information, your business web will never come up because your web developer didn’t allow the words in your website to be live.

Now being live doesn’t always mean it has to be a link – although this is probably one of the most important questions to ask. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Being live means that the headline and first paragraph is not, and I mean NOT imbedded into a graphically designed file. It means your words are free to be searched by the engines.

This Story Made Me Cry

One of my favourite teachers in junior high school moved into the interior of B.C.  He and his wife set up a Bed And Breakfast in Westbank. Ken told me they just spent over $2,000 to have a website built.  So I took a look.

Honest to goodness, I screamed, then I cried with empathy for them.

Not only did this web designer build them a lovely “picture”, but imbedded all their contact information inside the “picture”. Because of the graphic nature of the website, people could not click onto their email address to write for more information.

People looking for Bed & Breakfasts in the Westbank or Kelowna region can’t find Ken and Lil’s home – it doesn’t come up in the organic search in the top 10 first page – in fact, it doesn’t come up at all.

That’s because it’s a dead end “tombstone” picture that  is not read by the search engine algorithms.

And that’s not all. People know Ken and Lil and know they have a Bed & Breakfast. So typing in their names doesn’t produce any results either. Why?  Because the “tombstone” webpage put their names and contact information inside a graphic that search engines cannot read. Ouch!

The only way to find them is through Tourism B.C. Lucky for them, they put their business in directories and other marketing venues. If you really want to see their site go to lilyspad.ca Make sure you come back and find out what to ask before you invest in a “tombstone” instead of a living, breathing, working website that generates enough business for you.

And Ken and Lil’s site isn’t the only one out there. There are millions! And people wonder why the big deal about the web? Well of course, they wouldn’t understand. But you do.

7 “Tombstone” busting questions to ask any web builder and designer:

I know you understand this. So to help you along, here are 7 important questions you must ask any web builder or designer before you invest hundreds of your dollars into building you a website.

1. Can you build me a header that is a live link back into my home page?
2. Is my company name, logo, tagline and pictures live links into my blog and contact pages?
3. Do my other pages for example, Contact Us, have a live link to my email address and live phone number that can be automatically dialled through services like Skype?
4. Can you build my website design to include live email, website and phone contact information in the footer on very page?
5. Do you provide content (copy) writers who know about keywords and optimization procedures as well as persuasive marketing, or do I have to hire a professional copywriter in addition to the website design?
6. Can you create content that people can read – that means no white letters on black background and font sizes that are easy to read without squinting?
7. Can you research and put keywords and keyphrases in my metatags, tags, and descriptions relevant to my business?
8. Bonus question: Will my website become a content rich and a live business opportunity or a visual “tombstone” offering no potential to be found?

Ask, ask, ask is as important as the well-known marketing phrase, test, test, test. It’s a shame so many people have spent so much on “tombstones”. Don’t be one of them. In fact, ask about hosting, about domain names, about the business potential.

Far too many designers are expert at being creative – find out what they know about the marketing aspect of being on the internet. Then make your decision.