Website design – How to choose the right company
June 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Here’s the big question – how do you make a good choice when setting out to choose a website design company? Below are some of the top things to consider:
Experience and Relevant Services
The company that you choose should first and foremost be a company with a long history of developing and marketing websites. You can ask them straight up about how long they’ve been in business, what experience their key employees have and how this experience will benefit you.
The services the company offers should also be considered because there are many companies that dabble in “web site design” but are not experienced specialists. At Sanctuary Media Group we specialize in website development and online marketing – this is what we do. This is all we do. Our services encompass everything you need to succeed online from the point where you register your domain name to making sure that you have a plan in place to market your new website. We are simply a one-stop-shop for your online marketing needs. Read more
A quick overview of social media for business
May 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“Social computing is not a fad. Nor is it something that will pass you or your company by. Gradually, social computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company, in all parts of the world.” – Forrester Research
Social media can be summed up in a few powerful words (The five pilars): Community, Conversation, Participation, Openness and Connection. It is the new way of speading the word about your company. It’s not the only way for sure, but, the effective use of social media tools has become an important and effective tool for any company that operates online or off. The concepts are simple, but the opportunities are broad.
In the search for the perfect definition for social media, I must refer to the opening statement of Social Media on Wikipedia:
“It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.”
Getting right to the point, here are some tools that you should investigate first if you’re interested in exploring online marketing and business growth through social media. Read more
How PageRank flows from a link
April 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This is going to be a techy post and I apologize in advace but I think it’s an important point to understand if ranking in the search engines is important to your business. So, take a few minutes, grab a cold one if it’s Friday and let me try to briefly explain how PageRank flows from one site to another and how you can ultimately improve your PageRank.
As most of you know, Google PageRank is a good way to guage how important and respected a site is. It’s mostly based on how many links a site has pointing to it – among other things I’m sure. PR usually influences how high you rank in the SERPs, so, the higher the PR the better when you’re looking for links. (You can download the Google Toolbar to see a site’s PR btw) Our site has a PR5 out of 10 which is pretty darn good I must say. (Even sites like Facebook only have a PR9) But it’s important to know specifically that just because you can get linked to from a page with high PR, it may not improve your own PR that much. Here’s why… Read more
Persevere
April 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins–not through strength but by perseverance.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
I was at a client reception yesterday evening. It was for their company’s 50th Anniversary. 50 years of continued success, happy clients and customers AND blood, sweat and tears. It’s a great achievement that we should all deeply admire.
At first I wasn’t really phased about this achievement as I had had a very bad day and needed a drink, some cheese and some good meat on a stick. So my wife and I made our way to the Hors D’oeuvre table.
After making our selections we settled at a table, and soon after, another couple joined us and we engaged in light conversation. Soon though, the subject turned to business and work and I found that this gentleman has a successful business of his own, with three offices in three states. We chatted about life and children and nursing (my wife is a nurse and so is their daughter) and later at the bar the subject came back around to business. By this time the drinks were sinking in and our moods were improving to the point where we felt a little more comfortable with each other and the man gave me some welcome advice – being that he has been in business 28 years and I’ve been at this for much less. Read more
Having Realistic SEO Expectations
March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.” – Leo Tolstoy
To rank your website in the search engines you need a plan. That plan includes (but is not limited to) all of the above:
- SEO Knowledge (what to do and what not to do)
- Real world keyword and competitor data
- Great content
- Lots of high quality inbound links
- Analytics integration
- Realistic Goals
- A timeline
- A budget
- Patience and the knowledge that your investments WILL pay off if you allow it
The last four items on the list are the topic of discussion today because I think it’s important for people to know that there is no secret magic trick to SEO. It simply takes planning, work, analysis and time and there is no way around this like there might have been in the old school days of the internet. Google never will release the details regarding how or why sites rank above others. We obviously have a good idea based on our experience and that experience shows that you need to create great content (lots of it), get other sites to link to it, analyze your traffic ongoing, continue to optimize your site based on the current data and hit the “repeat” button over and over and over. Read more
10 Reasons why SEO takes time and an ongoing investment
March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Whenever somebody asks me how long search engine optimization takes, I counter by asking them, “How long does marketing take?” – AustinSEOguy.com
Here are some reasons why SEO takes time and requires an ongoing investment:
1. Starting and running an SEO campaign involves a lot of tasks
Many people think that ranking properly in the search engines involves some big secret that can be manipulated – if only we knew what it was. Unfortunately that is not the case and the secrets and tricks that we’ve used in the past are becoming rarer. To get started ranking in the search engines there are many, many things to do but they involve work, knowledge, experience, research and experimentation – not tricks. That work includes (but is not limited to) keyword research, setup of a sitemap, solving domain name and hosting concerns, website design and coding concerns, architectural/navigation concerns, content optimization and creation, analytics setup and integration, reporting, meetings, consultation, planning etc. (Just to name a few) Just the initial start of your SEO campaign can involve months of planning, research, setup, improvements and content creation just to get you ready to roll. Read more
Affordable content management systems
March 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
One thing that Google and other search engines love is a website that’s updated frequently. This shows Google that your site is an active resource and that it’s continually improving the information available.
At Sanctuary Media Group we believe that you should have complete control over your website so you can easily add and modify your content anytime you want. The last thing we want to do (unless you need us to do it) is spend time updating your website. We would much rather see you spend that money on something that makes your business grow.
With that said, we have several affordable options available for you that will give you complete control over your content – ranging from our easy-to-use Site Manager service to a robust custom content management system. Don’t be fooled by the competition that wants to sell you their content management system for $5000-$20,000. We want to make your website “hands on” at the most affordable price possible. Please feel free to shop around and you’ll find that what we’re telling you is true.
Below is a short summary of the options available if you’re interested in gaining control over your website. Read more
Link building 101 – ways to find links
March 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
Many people know that acquiring links to your site is very important. Google loves links… LOVES EM. A link is essentially “a vote” in favor of your site. A link tells Google that someone thinks you’re a good resource – a valuable destination. So, in theory, the more links you have pointing to your site (from quality and related sites!) the higher you will rank.
Sounds simple right? Well, with all things Google, it’s not. We talked a little bit about what types of links Google likes yesterday so we won’t revisit that today. What we’re going to do is briefly look at a couple useful tactics for finding ways to get links. Read more
Twitter and blog comment links have no SEO value
March 4, 2009 | 2 Comments
Twitter is all the rage these days. As I said in a previous post, I use Twitter on a limited basis when I have time and have something valuable to say to my followers. But it is not the final, be-all answer to marketing. It’s just another tool in the marketer’s arsenal. Especially when you’re talking about Search Engine Optimization.
On that note, I just want to clarify something about Twitter. Many people know the fact that to rank well on the search engines you need to get links to your site. The more links the better. A link to your site (in the eyes of Google) is simply “a vote” that tells the search engine that someone thinks you have something of value. The more links, the more they relate back to other high value sites and the more the links relate to your content niche, the more Google will see that you have something of value to offer in your niche. The result will be higher rankings for your site because Google’s job is to return highly relevant search results. Linking is not the only answer to search rankings, there are hundreds – maybe even thousands – of things that affect your rankings. But linking is a major ingredient in the “secret sauce” of SEO. Read more
How to succeed online with a website
February 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I hope you’re having a great year so far. It’s been an exciting and challenging year for us as we’ve continued to help our clients move to, and succeed on the internet.
On that note, I wanted to reach out and let you know about a few new things, remind you that we’re here to help you in any way we can, and to give you a few tidbits of advice. Read more
Content Categories:
News and Blog Updates:
- Website design – How to choose the right company
- A quick overview of social media for business
- How PageRank flows from a link
- Persevere
- Having Realistic SEO Expectations
- 10 Reasons why SEO takes time and an ongoing investment
- Affordable content management systems
- Link building 101 – ways to find links
- Twitter and blog comment links have no SEO value
- How to succeed online with a website
- Small business will lead the U.S. to a better future
- The perils of Search Engine Optimization
- Focus your SEO Efforts on Google
- Keyword research for SEO and online marketing in Ohio
- Becoming a trailblazer
- 10 Reasons why you should start a blog
- How Search Engine Optimization has changed
- Using Twitter
- Pay Per Click vs. SEO
- How to choose a domain name
- What is SEO?
- How to write a great pay-per-click ad
- What is a blog? Getting started with blogging
- What is the semantic web and what can we do with it?
- Hiring Sales Executives Canton, Akron, Cleveland Ohio
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