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Do You Know the ABCs of Web Strategy?

In today’s tech-driven world, online marketing is a linchpin for success. The average consumer is changing how they go about finding products and services, with the Internet being one of the first places that they look. Therefore, no matter what sort of industry your business is in, its online web strategy is invaluable.

As important as a web strategy is, it’s also important to remember that it’s just one piece of the puzzle that makes up a business. And with so much else to take care of, it can seem nearly impossible to keep up with the ever-changing atmosphere of online marketing. But while it may be worthwhile to hire an online marketer or social media specialist to handle the day-to-day tasks, it’s still important that managers and owners have a basic understanding of web strategy and online marketing.

The “50,000-foot view” is common business-talk that refers to a general understanding of how part of a company works. For example, a business owner may not know every step of the process that a dedicated marketing team makes, but it’s still important for the team to know the general highlights and direction of the company. When it comes to online marketing, here is a general outline that highlights the ABCs of web strategy.

Know Your Audience

As with any approach, the first key is that you know where your target is. Therefore, your web strategy should have a firm understanding of your audience and how you plan to attract it. If you believe that you already know your audience, you may want to think again.

Most companies will begin by setting up an online marketing strategy that approaches their audience the same way that it would with offline efforts. However, it’s important to know that the Internet is changing the way that you reach customers.

For example, you may have a stand-alone retail store that nobody outside of your neighborhood knows about, but that doesn’t matter once you go online. Your target audience expands to people around the world when it comes to online marketing and approaching new customers.

By understanding who your audience is and whether it is local, regional, national or global, you can develop an online marketing strategy that directly approaches it. This is also the chance that a business can rebrand its image and find new ways to expand in ways like never before.

Determine What the Audience Wants …

The next step in the web strategy for 2014 should be determining what it is that the audience wants and how easily it will stay interested in what you provide. For example, some online strategies may be to post viral videos to social media accounts. Other businesses might rely on blogging or posting new information for their audience to see. Others may even rely on an email list that is used for a monthly newsletter.

There are a variety of different approaches that may work best for your audience, so determining what it wants will help you focus your approach.

Before you jump to the conclusion that more content is better, keep in mind that this may not be true for your specific market. While there are plenty of videos or memes out there that attract a lot of interest, your target market may not be interested in such “viral content.” Instead, your audience may want more relevant information to your industry and what it is that you provide.

Looking to get 1 million views on a video might be a viable online web strategy for some, but it’s most certainly not the only option. Therefore, know what will interest your audience the most and be sure that this is the type of media you use for your approach.

… And Where They Want To Get It From

It is estimated that Facebook has more than 1.2 billion users who have registered accounts. Twitter has roughly 200 million, and Instagram comes in at around 100 million. These are staggering numbers, but it also shows that there are great disparities between each social media site.

As nice as 200 million users is for Twitter, it has a long way to go before it passes the 1 billion mark like Facebook.

Keeping some of the numbers in mind, it’s important that your web strategy is available to your target market via resources that it uses most often. Facebook is obviously a good resource because of the sheer amount of people who are on it, but it’s not the only outlet for your web strategy. Instead, your business may be better suited with an online blog, YouTube video channel, or a simple monthly email.

If you are aiming your online marketing approach at places where your target audience won’t see it, then you are wasting your time. However, providing information to users where they already are looking will help to increase the online presence of a business.

Optimize for SEO

Anywhere you look for tips on how to make your web strategy better, you are going to hear that SEO should be one of your most important considerations. SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the ranking that a website has on a Google search query. In order to get higher rankings through SEO, a business needs:

» Keyword-rich content that triggers search engine results

» A website that runs smoothly and functions properly

» Correct contact information for a business (called “NAP” for: Name, Address, Phone number)

» No filler content to take up space

Plan Ahead

Whatever your approach is for online marketing, be sure that you plan ahead. This will help you save time and be much more effective with your online approach.

By planning ahead and having a routine schedule for improving your website, you won’t have to worry about missing posts or running short of content. Instead, you’ll always have new material to help with SEO, while also keeping the interest of your audience.

Unless you are ingrained in the web strategy approach of your business, it can be hard to keep up with everything. But with this 50,000-foot view of the best practices of web strategy in 2014, it’s much easier to see how valuable each part of the process is.

— Taylor Reaume, is president of Search Engine Pros and a regular speaker on topics of online marketing and web strategy. He has created over 550 web sites since 1998, one which sold for six figures in 2007 to Jupiter Media. Taylor is Vice Chair of the Board at TVSB and an active member of several local non profits and foundations in Santa Barbara. He can be contacted at 800.605.4988. Follow him on Twitter: @SantaBarbaraSEO and Facebook: http://Facebook.com/thesearchenginepros

About Search Engine Pros: Search Engine Pros is a Santa Barbara web marketing firm specialized in online marketing, SEO marketing, PPC (Pay Per Click Google Adwords), and SEO/web design. Visit the website and Facebook page or call 800-605-4988 for more information or to request a copy of 101 Ways to Drive Traffic.

- See more at: http://www.thesearchenginepros.com/santa-barbara-web-strategy.html#sthash.yIYuWHB8.dpuf

#search marketing marketing grouptop Web Designweb marketingonline marketingmarketing servicemarketing plansocial media marketingseo marketin

Accelerate Your SEO Marketing for Christmas Now

The holidays are right around the corner, which means that now is the time for companies to ensure that they have a marketing approach that is geared toward bringing in the most clients possible. Not only will having a tailored marketing approach this holiday season help you close out 2014 with a bang, but it’ll give you a big boost as you prepare to ring in 2015.

If you don’t know by now, marketing has changed drastically over the last few years. The emphasis for online marketing has quickly grown to be much more valuable than nearly any other advertising tool. In order to make online marketing work for your business, it all starts with your ability to be found through a search engine like Google.

You still have a few weeks until Christmas, but now is the prime time for consumer shopping online. Therefore, here are some ways that you can accelerate your SEO marketing for Christmas now, to ensure that you get the most amount of traffic that you can during this incredibly popular time of year.

Revamp Your Website

If you can’t find the perfect gift to give yourself this holiday season, look no further than your website. If it has been a while since you last updated your site, now is the time to make some very critical changes that will help you with search engine optimization.

There is a common misperception that just having a website is good enough to help you with your online presence and SEO listings. However, this isn’t the case. Instead, you need to ensure that your website is built with a strong foundation that will make it easier for viewers to find.

To improve the foundation of your website, make sure that URLs are cohesive and consistent, include valuable metadata, and work to keep everything organized along the way as you continue to build your website. Not only will putting in some effort on your website look better and be more cohesive, but it’ll also help it run faster as well. Google shows preference to websites that can load quickly, which is why it’s important that yours does just that.

If you’ve already invested in your website, you may not want to keep pouring money into it if it’s not working for you. However, you can rest assured knowing that your site is not something that should be overlooked, and instead it might be time for you to spruce things up. After all, the Internet isn’t going away, and revamping your website at the end of 2014 will have lasting positive benefits.

Create Holiday Content

Content is king when it comes to SEO results. Therefore, you want to ensure that you have creative and relevant content throughout your website. The more content you upload, the better your SEO results will be.

If you are having a hard time coming up with creative content this holiday season, it might be time for you to spruce up your blog. With a blog, you can write about anything that is relevant to your website, and this will help with SEO.

Since it’s the holiday season, be sure to include something about the holidays in your blog content. Not only does this keep things relevant and give you something to write about, but it’ll also get your viewers in the holiday spirit as they read your content.

Keep Things Consistent During Christmas

Consistency is key as you begin building your online presence with the hopes of dominating search engines. As you start to build up your website, be sure that URLs for your website are consistent.

Consistency will help you with your SEO rankings, but it also helps with cataloging your entire website. Google and other search engines require you to setup an XML site map, and they give priority rankings to websites with a consistent internal linking structure. The truth is that requirements for search engines are always changing, and a more organized website will make it easier for you to make adjustments in the future.

Do yourself a favor and start with consistent cataloging now, and you’ll have a much easier time with marketing your website in the New Year as well.

Consider Christmas Keywords

As a business owner, it can be hard to see things from the perspective of customers and clients. To dominate SEO marketing during the Christmas season, however, this is exactly what you’ll have to do.

Sure, there are plenty of fancy programs out there that will help you with keywords, and many of them are worth investing into. However, if you are on a budget with your business, you only have to think like a consumer to find relevant keywords.

To help accelerate your SEO marketing, consider the keywords and phrases that you believe your clients will be looking for. In doing so, you’ll notice more hits and traffic to your website.

Spread The Holiday Cheer

2014 was a huge year for social media, and you can expect things to only become more dependent on this type of media in 2015. Therefore, be sure that you take the time during the holidays to improve your overall social media influence.

If you aren’t using your social media profile for your business, you are missing out on a big opportunity to draw in new clients. Your social media profile can also help you with improving your image and the perception that customers have of your brand by interacting with them on a regular basis.

Finally, as you also look to improve your social media presence for SEO this holiday season, also be sure to make your website easier to share. If you can easily share your site through your social media links, you’ll notice an increase in views from your followers online.

The year is almost over, so now is your chance to end 2014 with a bang. Consider these tips to help you accelerate your SEO marketing for Christmas. If you do so correctly, you’ll also be happy with the benefits you’ll get after the New Year as well.

- See more at: http://www.thesearchenginepros.com/seo-marketing-for-christmas.html#sthash.AvcsPorC.dpuf

#search marketing marketing grouptop Web Designweb marketingonline marketingmarketing servicemarketing plansocial media marketingseo marketin

SEO Strategy - 7 Shocking Online Marketing Statistics

In 2014, business owners are finding that they must execute swiftly, all at once, on a series of complex writing tasks to be successful with online marketing. With everybody going online to find products and services, business owners are shifting more and more of their marketing budgets to online marketing mediums.

The big problem facing business owners today is that, while 81% of consumers make buying decisions online, most still don’t understand how to make the incredible power of online marketing work for them. To stay competitive on the marketing battlefield, businesses are developing online marketing strategies that attract prospects’ attention, maintain their interest levels and maximum conversions.

Here are some shocking online marketing statistics that will help your business grow in 2014:

Social media is bigger than you think: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 73% of survey respondents actively use social media. Since Facebook alone has over one billion users, nearly all adults who are active on any social network at all are using Facebook. How does your Facebook strategy connect with them?

Email personalization works: Epsilon and DMA report that the click-through rate on triggered messages is 152% higher than “Business as Usual” messages. Email marketing and lead generation strategies need to integrate personalized and timely lead nurturing with marketing automation.

Mobile marketing is making waves: According to Litmus, email opens on smartphones and tablets increased 80% over just one six month period in 2012. With mobile usage increasing steadily, these devices are a major source of email communication. Email messages need to display properly on both laptop and mobile devices.

Online marketing isn’t going away: By 2016 Forrester Research predicts that more than half of the dollars spent in U.S. retail will be influenced by the web. If you don’t have a way to sell your product or service online, you could miss out.

Blogs build website traffic: According to HubSpot, nearly 40% of U.S. companies use blogs for marketing purposes. Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors.

Social isn’t just for the kids: FastCompany says the fastest growing demographic on Twitter are the 55–64 year olds. The 45–54 year olds are the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook and Google+. If your products appeal to an older demographic, you’d better have a social marketing strategy.

Competition is getting tougher: When it comes to SEO, SociallyStacked reports that 33% of traffic from Google’s organic search results goes to the first item listed. What is propelling your results to the top? 72% of PPC marketers plan to increase their budget in 2014. How will you stack up?

Many business owners find themselves arduously blogging with little traction. The main problem here is their web strategy lacks a ‘connected’ approach. A connected, well-rounded online marketing strategy over a one-year period will generate a positive ROI on a marketing campaign. It takes time and focus. There are dozens of zero-cost ways to build a business through the internet, and it is simply a matter of knowing how to tie them all together into a unique strategy.

Adapting your online marketing strategy to 2014 tactics will keep your company competitive.

Finding the time to setup, and execute on an internet marketing campaign is difficult for most business owners. Online marketing campaigns are fraught with challenges and seemingly insignificant, time consuming tasks. However, when considering the recent marketing statistics presented above, and the high cost of alternative forms of marketing, many business owners are finding online marketing costs a worthwhile investment.

— Taylor Reaume, is president of Search Engine Pros and a regular speaker on topics of online marketing and web strategy. He has created over 550 web sites since 1998, one which sold for six figures in 2007 to Jupiter Media. Taylor is Vice Chair of the Board at TVSB and an active member of several local non profits and foundations in Santa Barbara. He can be contacted at 805-453-9674. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him on Twitter: @SantaBarbaraSEO.

#internet marketing pro #seo strategy #seo articles #santa barbara seo #social media marketing #organic seo #pay per click #facebook marketing #email marketing

MS Word - How to Fix and Recover Word Document Files

'Microsoft Word' is one of the most extensively used Microsoft applications that allows user to create, view, paste, copy, edit, save, print and share documents. It enables the user to enhance their documents by inserting animated images, photographs, diagrams, charts, images, shapes etc. MS Word create an electronic document that is widely used to type articles, letters, essays, memoranda, legal content and member list Owing to its user-friendliness, MS Word finds its utilization for commercial, noncommercial and private sectors.

Do you know that MS Word document file is prone to severe corruption? Yes it's true; a doc file can get easily damaged. MS Word file gets corrupt due to various reasons including Trojan or Virus attacks, abrupt system shutdown, malfunction of any hardware or software and sudden cancellation of the application.

At first instance, a corrupt MS Word file will not open and if it opens it might show some unusual behaviors like improper formatting, incorrect document layout, re-pagination and even the system crash. These changes are the clear indications that your file has damaged.

There are several ways by which you can repair the damaged doc file, these include:

Try opening other documents in Word on the same computer

Look for other copies of your document on another computer or email

Run CHKDSK utility to check corruption at the file system level.

Save the document in a different file format like.rtf or.txt. After opening the converted doc, resave it in a new version of.doc or.docx

Use Word's built-in text converter utility. In Word, click on Microsoft Office button in the upper left part and then select Open from the File

From the Open dialog select "Recover Text from Any File" from dropdown file list, select the file that you want to convert. Reset the dropdown file list into one of the Word document formats to prevent Word from using the recover text utility

Use Word's Open and Repair. This feature repairs Word documents. To use this feature, follow these steps:

Choose the Open option for your Word 2007

In the Open dialog select the file you wish to open and repair

Click the down arrow beside the Open button and select Open and Repair from the menu

Use a shadow copy by right-clicking and selecting Properties from the popup menu. Select Previous Versions tab from one of the available versions on the Properties dialog.

(NOTE: Previous Versions tab appears only if your hard drive is NTFS formatted). Be aware of the fact that a shadow copy will not be as complete as a backup you created If all these steps fail to fix the corrupt file then the possible solution left with you is to go for a 'third-party' Microsoft Word Recovery Software. Microsoft Word Recovery Software can effectively perform strenuous task of repairing as well as recovering of If all these steps fail to fix the corrupt file then the possible solution left with you is to go for a 'third-party' Microsoft Word Recovery Software. Microsoft Word Recovery Software can effectively perform strenuous task of repairing as well as recovering damaged file in just a nick of time.

SysInfoTools MS Word Recovery enables the user to successfully recover corrupt MS Word documents. It efficiently scans the damaged file and performs the recovery of single as well as multiple doc files to recover maximum data. To the delight of the users,it supports a unique previewing feature in both text as well as image form.

You can avail this magnificent product at:

SysInfoTools.com/recovery/word-file-repair-software.html

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_J_Farmer EzineArticles.com/8021064

Online Marketing - SEO Is Like A Rubik’s Cube

Steamling your SEO campaigns is a bit like solving a Rubik’s Cube…

If you have visited Google’s home page today, you’ve seen that they replaced their logo with a rendition of the mesmerizing Rubik’s Cube. According to Wired Magazine, Google is celebrating the iconic puzzle’s 40th anniversary with an interactive Doodle.

At Search Engine Pros, this got us thinking that SEO (search engine optimization) is like a Rubik’s Cube. SEO is complex and requires an integrated, all-in-one approach to solve it. Getting one area perfect does not complete the picture if other puzzle pieces are incomplete. Instead of colors, here is what we’d put into an “SEO Solver’s Cube”:

Great Web Design: This part of the puzzle helps all the others fall into place. An old, outdated, or ineffective website can hurt your marketing strategy and keep you from achieving your goals. Our web marketing agency can help put your website to work. We can develop a web design plan, execute that plan through top web designers, and implement a branding strategy.

Blogs: Our professional SEO company can constantly publish high quality content on your behalf. Our marketing agency takes advantage of the best WordPress plugins, SEO tools, and top WordPress themes to make your blog capture the audience’s attention. A well-written blog also increases the opportunity for SEO optimization by providing content that generates back-links.

Newsletters: Newsletters and email marketing can sometimes be the forgotten cousin to the sexy blogs, but they keep your business in touch with prospects and current customers. While blogs usually focus on one topic, newsletters help you communicate to a wider audience on several topics. As a marketing consultant, we believe that the best marketing strategies should incorporate a newsletter component.

Social Media Marketing: In today’s connected world, it’s crucial to keep in touch through social media. Our Santa Barbara social media services can improve your exposure on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Our social media agency can develop a Facebook marketing plan that provides a mechanism for engagement, interaction and two-way communication.

Public Relations: Not only can a high quality press release communicate specific points about your business, it can also get picked up by many online news outlets, adding even more to your internet marketing and SEO effectiveness.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): Use our PPC services to capture attention at the very moment a prospect is searching for your product or service. Ask us for a PPC campaign proposal.

Put it all together in a concise marketing plan and you’ve found the solution to your online marketing puzzle. Our Santa Barbara marketing group can help you with all aspects of online marketing, web marketing, social media marketing, SEO marketing, and PPC marketing.

Search Engine Pros is an ethical SEO company that stands ready to help you reach your online marketing goals. So stop playing with the Rubik’s Cube on Google and start working on your SEO strategy!

About Search Engine Pros: Search Engine Pros is a Santa Barbara web marketing firm which specializes in SEO marketing, online marketing, PPC (Pay Per Click Google Adwords), and SEO/web design. Visit the website and Facebook page or call 800-605-4988 for more information or to request a copy of 101 Ways to Drive Traffic.

Big budget results. Small budget costs.

Step 1. Design a site that captivates, informs and motivates customers to action. Step 2. Develop a content publishing plan detailing specific steps to success. Step 3. Delegate execution to a team with a strong track record for success.

Ready to get started? Fill out this form to receive a free web site analysis and rank report.

Smile, It’s Contagious!

#search engine marketing #search engine optimization #seo articles #seo strategy #santa barbara seo #online marketing #professional websites #inbound links

Internet Marketing - Why Your Website Strategy Doesn’t Get any ROI

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” - John Wanamaker

Let’s face it – you’re still not happy with the results your website is generating for you. You’ve changed designs, updated copy, and added new photos, but it still doesn’t seem to be gaining any traction. At Search Engine Pros we offer personal and ethical search engine optimization that utilizes the latest, most effective online marketing strategies. Based on our experience, here are some reasons why your web strategy may not be providing a strong return on your investment:

Lack of an Overall Strategy: Over 81% of consumers make buying decisions on the internet, and your business needs a total strategy to attract their attention. A sexy website alone isn’t enough to do the job. Your strategy must include all elements from “The Strategic Circle” for website marketing success.

Consumers Can’t Find You: A website that just talks about your business without any search engine optimization (SEO) will not appear in search results.

Nobody is Linking to You: Search engines look for websites that have links to and from other sources as a way of establishing credibility and topical relevance. Back links are online referrals for your business.

Not Functional on all Devices: Consumers are now accessing the Internet from PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Websites that don’t translate well to all devices are missing out on potential traffic.

No Social Media: Your customers like to stay in touch and are using social media to do it. Be sure to have links to your Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages and keep them updated, too. Have a constant stream of outgoing information, try to link up with online influencers, and respond quickly to requests for information.

One Language Limitations: In a bi-lingual and multi-lingual world, a website that only provides information in English excludes a significant portion of the buying public. The key to International SEO is optimizing a page for foreign language natural search.

Not Driving Customers to Your Site: Sometimes a little extra push is all a consumer needs to be motivated to visit your site. Properly worded and placed pay-per-click (PPC) Google Adwords can provide just the right touch at the moment of decision.

As online marketing professionals, our role is (1) to help you gain a better grasp of what is often a complex maze of decisions; (2) to help ensure that decisions you make are carried out; (3) to keep your strategies up-to-date.

Our clients include small business owners, financial professionals, lawyers, doctors, and corporations – people who struggle for time to carefully focus on their online marketing goals. The Accelerator Plans we offer are advanced marketing plans designed to optimize your internet presence and grow your customer base. All project related information is stored in the project center. Google Analytics and Get Clicky tracking software are utilized to fine tune efforts each month.

As your marketing partner, we’re experienced enough to be proactive, not reactive. Working with a marketing agency should be fun, not annoying and tiresome. We handle all the time consuming details in a cost effective way for you. Remember that the true cost of working with our company is ZERO, when considering year end business growth figures. Inaction is much more expensive in terms of lost market share and lost revenues.

About Search Engine Pros: Search Engine Pros is a Santa Barbara web marketing firm located at 629 State Street, #204. The company offers online marketing, SEO marketing, PPC (Pay Per Click Google Adwords), or SEO/web design. Visit the website and Facebook page or call 800-605-4988 for more information or to request a copy of 101 Ways to Drive Traffic.

#web marketing #the search engine pros #search engine optimization #search engine marketing #reaume #santa barbara #inbound links #google #professional websites #internet marketing pro #seo strategy #seo articles

Do I Need Responsive Web Design for My Website?

The term "responsive web design" refers to websites that change and adapt their appearance for optimum viewing on all screen sizes, tablets, smartphones, ipods, kindles along with desktop and laptop computer screens. Occasionally, in the digital arts industry, it is called "fluid design", "adaptive website design" or "RWD". Unresponsive websites do not change to fit different screen sizes, which means they can be difficult to navigate and look at on smaller devices.

Desktop sales have been surpassed by mobile sales already, and most digital media education sources predict that mobile web use will overtake desktop use by 2014. Hence, it only seems logical that desktop search will be overtaken by mobile search soon as well. Sixty percent of web users say that they would be more inclined to buy from mobile optimized websites. Therefore, businesses that depend on SEO would have a lot of sense to start making the move towards mobile friendly sites, and responsive site designs specifically. Especially as the new Google algorithm updates now frown upon separate mobile only sites. Such as those with a.mobi in the url. More and more, new websites are built using responsive design methods to eradicate the requirement for standalone mobile websites. Also, this decision dramatically improves the user experience. This leads to more customer interaction and sales, as prospective customers are not alienated by tiny text and difficult navigation.

To make responsive designs work, a media query is used to determine the screen size that the site is being accessed from. The script can detect all devices, whether they are tablets, laptops or smartphones. Then, it uses CSS to show the website in a suitable format. Images can be re-sized accordingly to fit on screens that are smaller. The text is made bigger and the menus can switch to a variety of different dropdown formats, as opposed to the mostly standard horizontal display.

The benefits of using this kind of design, compared to setting up a mobile version of your website that is completely separate from your original site, are obvious. Whenever you update your website, it will updated for every device and display correctly on every screen. You only have to update in one location, where with a separate mobile site would require a separate location requiring updating as well. Often, your websites will be accessed from a tablet. If you have a two separate sites, a mobile and a desktop version, it is anybodies guess which version of the site tablet users will be seeing. With responsive design you get to control (mostly) what every screen size will be viewing.

Several companies provide both fluid design and mobile design for websites. However, RWD methods are constantly improving, so there appears little point in having a standalone mobile website. The only time when you might want a separate site, would be if you prefer to advertise differently to laptop or desktop users, compared to how you would advertise to mobile users. For instance, a fast food company might wish to target individuals on the go with an instant special offer, but display their upcoming promotions and menu to laptop users. Nonetheless, in many cases, a website will cater to all users in an identical manner, thus a responsive design is the preferred option.

In the fast approaching future, all websites should have responsive designs, as users will come to expect it. Therefore, in a couple of years, businesses that build unresponsive websites will have to pay for a new site to make up to their users the lack in their website. Consequently, before starting any new website design projects, it would be advisable to learn more about the cost and advantages of adaptive designs.

I only touched on the subject of mobile site and didn't even mention native apps, but there is much to be said on that subject! A great resource for more information on apps and mobile design is IDMAA.org/?post_type=journalarticle&p=1782.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jordan_Larkin EzineArticles.com/8114631

Santa Barbara Marketing: How To Make Your Website Sexier

Does sex sell? Many marketers think it does. Just ask the editors of Sports Illustrated whether having images of bikini-clad models on their cover helped sell any magazines! Consumers want to be associated with products, services and brands that help them feel good about themselves. Your company may be able to increase its sales by having a website that plays into this need for self-appreciation. Your web site needs to be sexy to convert visitors. Even the greatest SEO marketing strategy will do no good if it draws traffic to your site only to bore the visitor.

At Search Engine Pros we offer personal and ethical search engine optimization that utilizes the latest, most effective online marketing strategies. We have helped clients in every type of industry improve the appearance and sexiness of their websites without sacrificing SEO strategies or content. Based on our experience as web site conversion optimization specialists, here are some suggestions you can use to make your website sexier:

Smashing Design: Start with a dynamic website design that pops out, invites visitors to stay, and leads the eye on a coherent journey through the information you need to impart.

Looking Good: Closely inspect the graphics you use to draw attention to your website. Photos should have attractive people that will appeal to the visitor’s eye. Graphics should be clean and classy, with a feel of elegance and sophistication.

Beautiful Buttons: Most web designers fail to focus on the little things that can make a web site more attractive. Those “submit, cancel and download” buttons don’t have to be just a dull gray square. Use some color, beveled edges and gradient fill to really make them pop.

Social Sharing: You want visitors to let others know about your site, so it’s important to make it appealing to share on social media. Make sure your social sharing buttons look great, load quickly, offer choices that will help your SEO, and fit with the overall feel of your page.

Relevance: Nothing is sexier than finding out what visitors want and providing it. It’s the online equivalent of “I hear you.” Is your website screaming “It’s all about me, Me, ME!” or is it saying “Here is how I can help you achieve more in your life.” If your content doesn’t live up to the hype, no sexy photos can help make a sale.

Need our help? Call upon the professional web design conversion experts at Search Engine Pros and we’ll help you design eye-catching banners and embed powerful calls to action which will lower your bounce rates, boosts conversions, increase the time people spend on your site (which will increases rankings and doubles your sales).

If you’d like to learn more about how a web site marketing strategy can help your company grow, visit our booth at the 2014 Santa Barbara Business Expo at The Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort, 633 E. Cabrillo Boulevard on Saturday, April 5 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Search Engine Pros founder, Taylor Reaume, will be presenting from 9am-9:30am on “How To Rank Your Web Site by Helping Others First”. Add yourself to the SBBE Event page, Click LIKE on the fan page: https://www.facebook.com/BusinessExpoSB to stay up to date. Download the event flyer here

About Taylor Reaume: Taylor Reaume is a Santa Barbara web marketing strategist, and founder of the local SEO and internet marketing firm, Search Engine Pros, located at 201 W. Montecito St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. The company offers online marketing, SEO marketing, PPC (Pay Per Click Google Adwords), or SEO/web design. Visit the website and Facebook page or call 800-605-4988 for more information or to request a copy of 101 Ways to Drive Traffic.

#web marketing #website design #social media #the search engine pros #santa barbara seo #online marketing #internet marketing pro #google #seo strategy #seo articles

CNN: Inside a government computer attack exercise

Idaho Falls, Idaho (CNN) -- Forget, for the moment, about computer whiz kids who download copyrighted music for free.

Forget, too, about sophisticated hackers who can steal identities.

Focus instead on the next wave of potential computer miscreants -- criminals who can penetrate corporate computer systems to turn valves, start pumps or surge power at factories or electrical plants. They might even be able to hit chemical facilities.

Those folks are on the minds of the researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory, where the federal government regularly trains industry leaders on how to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.

In the not-so-distant past, instructors here say, security officials relied on the "3 Gs" -- guns, gates and guards -- to protect infrastructure from intrusions. But increasingly mechanical systems inside those gates are being linked to computers and controlled via networks and cyberspace.

That has left industrial control systems vulnerable to attack.

CNN: Hackers take aim at real-world targets

To demonstrate the vulnerability, the Department of Homeland Security and Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls recently showed reporters a cyberattack on a mock-up of a chemical facility.

In the exercise, a small group of "Red Team" attackers staged an assault on the chemical plant. A larger group of "Blue Team" defenders sought to protect that mock-up building, which was constructed of barrel-size containers of water connected by pipes and pumps such as those found in chemical plants.

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