I’m sure everyone would love to get something for nothing!  When it comes to your website, this couldn’t be more true.  Especially in the early stages when you are just starting out and paying for various aspects of starting a company and building a website.  Why not take advantage of a few free options to promote your website and get your name out there?

Word of Mouth

Don’t be afraid to mention your company and website to friends and family.  There is no better free marketing tool than this.  First of all, your family and friends have your best interest in mind and want to see you succeed.  Because of this, they will undoubtedly share your info to anyone they come across who could use your services.  Whether it be their friends, coworkers or even people they meet at the store, they will most likely chime in and offer up your contact info to anyone they hear mention the need for services or products which you provide.

Secondly, your family and friends will surely make contact with several people that you yourself may never even meet.  They have their own set of friends, extended family, coworkers, etc.  By broadening your network, you will reach more people without doing any extra work.  The best part is that this again, is still FREE!

Social Media

These days it seems like everyone is on either Facebook or Twitter or another similar social media site.  These sites have become such a strong force in society that some people even have pages for their pets!  That being said, you should take advantage of these free sites to promote your company!  You can easily create an account for your company which displays all of your info, including a link to your website.  You can then market this by suggesting the company page to your friends and family.  Once they “Like” your page, their friends will be able to see your page as well.  Just like word of mouth marketing, you will be able to contact so many more people by going through your family and friends and their network!

Blog

By creating a blog on your website and adding to it regularly, you are adding new content to your site as well as giving yourself another way to market your site!  Once you have posted a blog entry, you can post the blog to your social media site, giving your website another link!  The more links you have pointing to your site, the more exposure you have and also the more relevant you will appear to be to the search engines.

Starting a business is always a costly venture.  Building your website should be a top priority and will require an initial investment of some size.  However, if you are willing to do a few small tasks on your own, you can create a marketing buzz without reaching into your pocket!  Don’t be afraid to use these tips.  Just because they are free, doesn’t mean they don’t work!

As we all know, there are many different types of web hosting.  So many that it can, at times, become very confusing.  In this post, I’ll try to clarify things to make it a little easier for you to differentiate the different types of hosting and choose the best option for you.

Tier 1 Web Hosting

The first level of web hosting acts more like a “hotel” for your site.  You are given a place to stay, a “room”, but little control over anything else in the “hotel.”  Free web hosting and shared web hosting both fall into this category.  These services can be limited, often supported by advertisements and retain multiple sites.

Tier 2 Web Hosting

With the second level of web hosting, you become a part of the “hotel staff.”  You have more input over what can be done to your site and can make updates and changes on your own, however you still do not have control over the server itself.  Virtual dedicated hosting, dedicated hosting service and managed hosting service are included in this category.  You will not be able to modify the server however you will be able to manage and maintain your site by yourself.

Tier 3 Web Hosting

When you are ready to be a part of “hotel management,” you will need to look towards collocation web hosting or securing a home server.  Both of these services allow you to manage and modify not only your site, but the entire server itself.  You have full control over any and all changes to the server.  The only possible downside to this is that if you did ever have an issue of any kind, you would be the only one responsible for fixing it.  You would have little to no support from a web hosting company as you would with the other hosting methods.  In this case, you would need to be certain that you can handle any issues that might arise.

As you can see, there are many options and points to consider when it comes to choosing which type of web hosting is right for you and your website.  Most importantly, you need to first decide how much responsibility you are willing to and wanting to take on.  After that, the decision will most likely become much easier now that you have an idea of each service.

Welcome to Skinnytaste.com!  This blog is a compilation of healthy recipes for the average cook.  From drinks to dinners to desserts, this site offers up healthy alternatives for your family daily.  With the national obesity crisis, blogs like this are a welcome site to most at home chefs!

Each recipe is accompanied by a gorgeous colorful picture of every item.  This makes it extremely difficult to not want to stop what you are doing and go make each dish you see!  The pictures pull you in and keep you interested as you scroll through the hundreds of recipes on the site.  As with grocery shopping, I recommend that you not look at these pictures on an empty stomach!

This blog is also extremely organized and user friendly.  There is an easy to use recipe index that coordinates each recipe with a specific category.  Each recipe also offers the nutritional information and recommended serving size.  This helps people to be in control of their portions and keep track of the calories they are consuming daily.  This site is very informative and helpful in keeping your family on track with a healthy diet.

As far as the actual website design itself, this blog is very accommodating to its users.  It’s bright, crisp, clear and organized.  Its SEO campaign looks to be successful as well.  The use of keywords along with links to social media sites helps to promote the site.  Users are able to find and follow this blog via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  Along with links to these social media outlets, Skinnytaste.com is shared by its users and exposed to others via the internet which undoubtedly creates more traffic to the site.  This is a smart and effective way to increase followers for the blog.

With the incredible pictures, organization and functionality of this site, it is no wonder that it ranks highly in Google searches for recipe blogs.  It has a great brightness to visually draw users in and the content will keep people coming back for more!

When it comes to building a website for your company, there are several things to consider.  Some people choose to use a template to create a website on their own, while others choose to pay a professional website designer or developer.  As with anything, there are pros and cons for each.

Do you want to be in or out of the box?

Using a template may be a quick, easy way to get a website up and running at a lower cost, however, you will be limited.  Whether you are trying to create a certain layout or specific functions, you will only be able to achieve the substance that is included in the original template.  You won’t be allowed to customize your website to suit all of your needs.

By hiring a website designer, they will be able to think outside the box.  Since he or she will be developing your website from scratch, anything is possible.  Depending on how talented your designer is, he or she should be able to incorporate anything and everything you can think up for your site.  The sky’s the limit!

Cost Consideration

You can definitely save some money by creating a website on your own.  Since there is very little involved in creating a template that can be used over and over, these companies can offer their product at a lower price.  They simply create the template once and then sell it as many times as people will buy it.

That being said, the cost of hiring a website designer will be more, however, no one else in the world will have a website just like yours.  Your site will be unique to your company and your needs.  You will choose every detail from colors to fonts to functionality.  Your website will truly be a one-of-a-kind!

Are you ready to hit it out of the park?

In the beginning stages of your company, it may be okay to go with a template based website.  Since most businesses sadly fail, it is understandable that some people may not want to take the risk.

However, at some point, it will definitely be worth the investment to hire a website developer.  Along with creating your website, most professional developers will offer some kind of additional support.  A search engine optimization (SEO) campaign can do wonders in helping your website reach the top of search engine rankings such as Google and Yahoo.  A professional website developer will know how to use keywords, content, etc to get your site recognized quickly!

As I said, there are several things to consider when it comes to who develops your website.  Whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a professional, be sure to evaluate all of the pros and cons for each.  You may be more concerned with the initial investment, but be sure to assess what will make more sense for you in the longer run!

Google is constantly updating and indexing websites based on its always evolving algorithm.  Spiders, a tool used by Google to review sites, are sent out on a regular basis to collect and store data for Google to process into search results.  Here are a few things you should know in order to get noticed on the next crawl.

Getting Started

If you want to rank on Google, first you need to make sure Google knows you exist.  You can aid Google with this by creating a sitemap for your website and submitting it manually to Google.  This will provide a list of pages for Google to send their spiders out to crawl.  This sitemap will make sure that pages on your website will be found.  Benefit: This can greatly increase the time it takes Google to index your website.

Another important first step is to sign up for Google Analytics.  This tool will help you keep record of the incoming traffic through your website.  Being able to follow traffic will allow you to know how many visits you have to your site daily, weekly, monthly, etc.  This tool can also tell you which keywords are being used to find your site, allowing you to modify any SEO campaign to ensure the best results.  In any business, knowledge is power and this is the tool to gather intel!

Indexed?

Again, you can’t rank in Google if you do not exist to Google.  You need to be “indexed” into the Google database.  How to know when you are indexed is simple, run this search “site:www.yourdomain.com.”  If your domain doesn’t pull up in the search, then you will just need to wait a little longer for Google to run its course.  Beware: This process of getting indexed can take hours up to weeks.

Indexed, Check…Now What?

Now that you are indexed you need to begin a SEO (search engine optimization) campaign. In the beginning of any campaign it is important to gather a starting point.  In order to know where your site ranks in Google you can use rankings tools or perform manual searches to see where your site is ranked.  It is important to know where you are ranked at all times in order to track your SEO progress.  This will help you evaluate which changes to your campaign are working and which are not.

Simple Keys to a Successful SEO Campaign

As previously stated, Google is an evolving algorithm that is constantly changing to prevent “black hatters” from gaining an unfair advantage in the serps (search engine result pages).  Though the formula is always looking at sites differently there are a few things that will always be important factors: keywords, content and incoming links.

Keywords are important, due to the fact that you can’t rank for a set of keywords unless those keywords are present within your site.  To optimize your site you will want to use these keywords where you can, ie within page copy, in file names, headings, meta, image alt tags, etc.  Beware: Don’t overdo it though!  Sometimes, too much isn’t a good thing.   Google has recently released a change to their algorithm called “Penguin” which will actually penalize sites that over-do it on the seo optimization.

So now you have keywords to target!  Next is filling your site with fresh, unique, keyword filled content.  Make sure you are constantly adding unique content to your site.  This will allow for the Google bots to differentiate your site from others, as well as provide multiple doorways for users to find your site.

After your site overflows with fresh content, links become an important factor.  Links between pages and sites are another way to promote your website up the ranks.  You should link from pages within your own site as well as gather links from other websites.  The more links you have pointing to your site, the more relevant you may appear.

It may take some time and effort, but by following these tips, you can get your website to the top!  Once you’re at the top, traffic to your website will undoubtedly increase!

See something I missed, please feel free to submit suggestions below!