By admin | Published:
June 4, 2009
My neighbor is a photographer. The other day, she was telling me how nearly all of her business comes from referrals from friends. Come to think of it, referrals are how I usually get my business as well.
Most people prefer to work with a friend of a friend, rather than a stranger. That is why networking is so important for small businesses - the more people we know, the more business is likely to come our way.
It just makes sense. Small business owners want to make it as easy as possible for clients, friends, and relatives to share our business with their friends and colleagues. One way to do this is with an “email-a-friend” link on the business’ web site.
Read more about email-a-friend.
By admin | Published:
May 26, 2009
Adobe Flash is a great tool. Web sites that are all flash are snazzy. They sing, dance, and dazzle. But, like triple chocolate brownies smothered in chocolate syrup, they have their place. You can’t have those brownies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day or you’ll have a problem!
Over the past few weeks, I visited both of the following restaurants. They are my old favorites! I noticed that they both use Flash, and I thought I would use them as examples here. Then, I’ll offer some Flash rules that will help you balance your Flash happiness with Internet realities. Flash sites are generally more expensive than plain old HTML sites, so it’s disappointing to realize that most Flash sites have more problems than their HTML counterparts.
More about Web sites and Flash.
Posted in Web usability | Tagged Flash
By admin | Published:
May 4, 2009
Yes, your URL is important (if you don’t know what that is, a URL is a web page’s address). Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you follow these simple rules, your URLs will really help you out.
- Rule #1: Take a moment to think about the words in your URL
- Rule #2: Separate words with hyphens
- Rule #3: Use all lowercase, always
- Rule #4: If you can get away with it, don’t use a file extension
- Rule #5: Don’t use too many subdirectories
More about URL SEO.
By admin | Published:
April 27, 2009
Search optimization is a very important aspect of web site development, because it connects people who are interested in your services (potential customers) to your web site. Search optimization includes:
- keyword research
- landing page organization
- code optimization
- site and search monitoring
- online marketing
More about the basics of search optimization.
By admin | Published:
April 25, 2009
Stitchsoft is excited to offer a new FREE service, detailed web site analysis and recommendations. To have your site analyzed, email us with your web site’s information and we will post an analysis on our web site.
Learn more about getting your FREE web site analysis.
By mary | Published:
April 1, 2009
Here’s a list of guidelines that will help make your blog successful.
- Gear the site towards the readers
- Know your target search keywords
- Choose your categories wisely
- Blog regularly, and as often as you can handle
- Take advantage of your images
- Use descriptive link text
More about business blog basics…
By mary | Published:
March 27, 2009
Naming your domain is a tough but important choice. Don’t make a shot in the dark; make an informed decision! Put a smart keyword into your domain name so you can more easily rank highly on that keyword.
- Identify your top competitors
- Snoop out your competitors’ main keywords
- Make a comprehensive keyword list
- Find out which keywords are best
- Brainstorm good available domain names
- Rule out the bad names
- Pick a good name and register it
More about choosing a domain name…
By mary | Published:
March 25, 2009
Built for a company that produces quality family workshops, the Success Connection web site allowed people to register for a two-day workshop and order products. It was later scaled down and workshop registration was removed.
By mary | Published:
March 25, 2009
This is one of a set of about 10 web sites were re-vamped for Envision Radiology, a radiology company that owns imaging centers across the United States.
This site had a Flash menu that hampered search engines’ ability to “see” the web site content. By replacing the Flash with an HTML menu, the site and its inner pages rank better in search results. The site’s content is also fast and easy to update using XML. (2007)
