Website Design | Internet Marketing | Website Maintenance | Search Engine Optimization

There is a general rule of thumb that internet marketers and web designers live by: content is king. In the modern era of search engine marketing, nothing delivers more bang for your buck than original, useful, and engaging content. While Web 2.0 design standards emphasize clean and flowing graphics, the motor running everything is content.

Google's Webmaster Guidelines explicitly state, "Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content." Content, in other words, is a top priority in terms of what a search engine looks for when they visit your site.

Content, of course, comes in many different varieties. There is actual static page content. This is the information that is relatively stable on your website and which is fairly easily indexed. There is also what we call articles which frequently come in the form of blog posts. In terms of maximizing your internet marketing, I have found that a site must strike a balance between stable content and dynamic content. To a search engine, this shows that a site is consistent and stable, yet continuously adding content and improving its engagement.

For content to be most effective, however, it has to be optimized. This means including all your standard SEO code techniques and making sure page titles and headers are included. Additionally, the art of content production is about targeting a handful of keywords for which you are optimizing.

Content does no good, however, unless people actively read it and respond to it. This is why the other half of content production is content publishing. We have a list of sites that are great for publishing your blog (some automatically updated with a blog feed). There are also a handful of article publishing websites that we utilize. The point of all that is to distribute the content and extend your authorship to sites that you wouldn't normally publish.

Furthermore, producing content does you no good if the content is of a poor quality. As a general rule of thumb, any piece of content should be at least 400 words, should not be keyword heavy (3-5% is the recommended figure), and should be produced primarily for, and this may seem odd to some, humans not the search engines.

For your website to be optimally indexed, then, it needs a vast amount of quality content. Frankly, the more content the better as it should foster users going deeper into your site and staying for greater periods of time. While design gets all the attention, remember that your site is nothing unless it has readable content.

Learn more at http://www.mirawebservices.com/the-value-of-content-productionwriting/

SEO is one of those terms that has a lot of baggage. In its purest form, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of principles and techniques that help websites get high rankings in the various search engines.

First off, good SEO starts at the code level and by implementing basic elements that have great importance to the search engines. Those within the industry know all about the absolute necessity of keyword-rich <h1> and <h2> tags. There's also the effective use of the bold tags and the value of good internal linking. For many novices I speak with, the term SEO almost exclusively means the site's META information. While the META tags have their place, particularly the <title> tag, they nonetheless remain only one component to achieving a great SEO score.

With every code-based Search Engine Optimization element in place, any site will see a positive uptick in their rankings. However, to achieve the best results possible, the work of the SEO technician is never done. Of course, continual keyword research is a must. By analyzing target keywords for both the amount of search queries and their competitiveness, one is better able to choose specific phrases that will yield the best results. Sitemaps, additionally, are an absolute necessity as they are crucial for indexing all of your pages.

One aspect of SEO that I have found to have one of the greatest impacts is original content. By original content, I mean regularly creating and publishing blog articles. Furthermore, once a blog article is finished it is ideal to publish it to any and every reputable source. Not only do you gain a quality link-back, but you additionally establish high relevancy between your site and the topic of the article.

As the web has progressed, we have also noticed the seismic shift towards social networking. While the data is still infantile, we in the industry are seeing that those companies and websites who have an active social media presence achieve higher results. The reason? The continual addition of new, engaging content drives traffic back to a website and further establishes relevancy.

Of course, SEO has its dark side. Those trying to game the system set up link farms and other nefarious tactics which, at times, produces quick results. The problem, however, is that if, say, Google discovers this then you are immediately blacklisted and any results you may have achieved disappear over night.

These principles are just barely touching the foundation of search engine optimization. No matter how you establish SEO, stick with it and you will see higher placement.

Learn more at http://www.mirawebservices.com/what-is-seo-search-engine-optimization/

If you have a website, someone will have to take care of it in a variety of ways. There's a certain perception that a website either (1) does not need regular maintenance or (2) is easy-enough to update. I've run into a number of business owners who think that they can run, update, design, and promote their website all as a hobby of sorts. While some individuals certainly can do this, many nonetheless simply lack the technical expertise to perform all the duties entrusted to a Webmaster.

When someone considers website maintenance, the first thing that typically comes to mind is the notion of regular updates. Change text, update contact information, swap out photos, and other tasks are regularly incorporated into a website maintenance package. Sometimes, of course, there are drastic changes like adding seasonal sale information in a contemporary design standard, creating pages, and substantial layout changes. These tasks are often outside the technical scope of individuals not routinely involved in this industry.

While many think that website maintenance consists solely of updates like those listed above, there's another equally important consideration: security. The internet is a wild world in terms of security threats and a properly experienced webmaster can protect your website and any vital information that may be associated with it (think of an e-commerce site for example). Now more than ever, it's imperative to have at least some measure of security associated with your website's hosting account and, again, this escapes the vast majority of non-experienced individuals.

Typically, the greatest thing for a business owner in contracting a webmaster is that there then becomes a single contact for the full array of issues that may arise with a website including email, DNS, and other hosting issues. As a webmaster for several years now, I've seen just about the full gamut of problems that can occur and many can be truly overwhelming for the non-technocrat.

In my experience, it's almost always been to the business owner's advantage to have a reliable website design/maintenance company to handle their website because of the ease in which changes are implemented, the relatively low risk in doing so, and the fact that there is someone ultimately responsible for the vast majority of website-related matters.

Being a webmaster, in other words, is not an easy task and should not be taken lightly for any business owner, aside from the technologically experienced.

Learn more at http://www.mirawebservices.com/website-maintenance-and-its-challenges/

One of the largest trends in recent years in terms of user interaction with search engines has been the absolute dominance of local searches. Rather than searching for "Grocery Store", users have been increasingly incorporating geo-local terms for the most convenient results, hence searching "Grocery Store Orlando" for example. Nowadays, most businesses on the web (depending on the industry, of course) cannot just target specific keywords. One must target that keyword in geographic locations in order to optimize local searches.

One of the best methods to help increase your business' relevancy in a certain city is through the notion of local listings. These online directories allow a business to post vital information about themselves such as the address, contact information, hours, and a description. While this may seem humdrum to many, it is nonetheless important in establishing your company in a specific area. The more listings you're on, in other words, the greater relevancy you have to that area and the more likely you are to come up in a local search.

With search engines, the subject of local listings becomes even more important. Take Google Maps for example, the most important local listing directory. A local search on Google will display Map listings as the first several results. For users, this is great because you immediately see where the businesses you are looking for are located and a brief description of each. For a business that is not listed however, this could completely wreck your online advertising strategy.

Furthermore, it's absolutely vital to have your local listings in-tune with your overall SEO strategy for optimal results. With Google Maps, a business' categories should be consistent with the highest-returning keywords they are targeting. Of course, several listing sites give you predetermined categories to choose from but it remains important to keep things consistent across the full spectrum of the web.

There's also the additional organic search benefit to local listings. If someone is searching for your business' services or industry in your area, local listings are surprisingly high ranking in terms of the search results. Think about it or experiment-how many times does a City Search or Yelp listing appear for a particular service you are searching for?

All of this ultimately makes local listings a necessity in promoting your business on the web. The trend of local searches is not going away and, if anything, is becoming the predominant paradigm of how we, as users, use the web.

Learn more at http://www.mirawebservices.com/local-listings-and-seo/

First the facts: there are over 800 million active Facebook users; Twitter averages about 140 million Tweets per day; and Google + created nearly 100 million users in one year. For many these stats are utterly unimaginable. Furthermore, many find it difficult to reconcile the fact that there are millions of people freely sharing information about themselves and their lives online with the notion that there is an opportunity to promote your brand or business.

Throughout my years in the industry, when I try to breach the subject of establishing a social networking presence for business they are, typically, very hesitant. "I don't see the point" or "I don't have time for that" are the most popular answers to my suggestion. While Facebook and Twitter can be enormous time drains (most of us have had those days where we spend 8 hours on Facebook), they inherently do not have to be time-consuming or difficult to understand.

In terms of promoting your business' overall web presence, social media has never been more important. It's been shown that pages and information that has been shared through social networking ranks higher in organic searches (i.e. via a search engine). This is the result of the search engine's retooling their algorithms and a basic SEO tenant: backlinks. Secondly, it's becoming increasingly likely (particularly with Google now in the social media game) that searches will become intertwined with one's Facebook and Google + accounts. Organic searches will most likely be determined by relevancy to one's "likes" which makes having a social media presence absolutely vital.

Then there is notion of reaching out and interacting with your customer-base as well as your community. For those businesses which are dedicated to their communities and local charitable organizations, social networking is one of the best methods to encourage your customers and followers to get more involved. It's also great to have additional avenues to receive feedback, solicit reviews, and encourage a general sense of interaction with your customers.

Of course, there still remain challenges to promoting your brand or business of Facebook, Twitter, and the like. First and foremost, one must create content that people are willing to (1) read, (2) like, and (3) share. This content, ideally, should be tailored in accordance with your overall web strategy so as to increase relevancy. A social media profile, additionally, has to be active. Updating your profile twice a year just won't cut it. One needs regularly occurring posts so as to create a follower-base and maintain it.

With the proper strategy, however, your business will surely reap considerable rewards for having an active social media presence.

Learn more at http://www.mirawebservices.com/the-new-scope-of-social-networking/

Code is the foundation of any website–the framework of any home no matter how beautiful the aesthetics. That's why I find it shocking how many websites are written in outdated or, at times, utterly illogical markup. Good code is the first start to any SEO or marketing and, unfortunately, does not come from website template builders or novices attempting to build one of their first sites.

First, a word about contemporary coding standards: forget PHP, HTML, or any other markup language. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) have been and remain one of the most important components to any site. If, as a business and website owner who manages everything on their own, you have no idea what CSS may be, then it's time to hand the management of your site off to someone more specialized. As a developer, it's hard to remember what designing websites was like prior to CSS. It's that important and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Of course PHP and HTML still have their important roles to play within the hierarchy of markup. HTML just isn't going anywhere in terms of web design, particularly with the latest introduction of HTML5, and PHP is the script of any CMS (Content Management System). What's important here is not so much what tool a web designer uses (they're going to use them all reasonably) but are they using each language appropriately.

For example, I can take a look at any website and either (1) see the stylesheet embedded on the page or (2) tons of inline style formats and just know that it could have been coded better. Worse yet, I still look at sites that utilize tables to format the layout or, even worse, still use frames!

The point of all this is that a good site is one that utilizes good code. Web design will always rely on the backend developer creating the frontend experience and who you entrust as that backend developer matters a great deal. Do any Google Map search for a web designer and chances are the screens just lights up with red dots. The relative low start-up cost and DIY approach of the industry appeals to a lot of individuals. But one simply cannot entrust their business website to an unlicensed company. It's too big of an investment for things to get screwed up, coded poorly, or any number of possibilities.

Since good coding is the foundation of any website with a strong web presence, establishing a site with clean, contemporary code goes much further than one thinks.

Learn more at http://www.mirawebservices.com/bad-coding-and-why-its-detrimental/