I'll tell you a secret, but don't tell anyone else

If the information valuable, keep it a secret.

May sound like sound advice, but you would be surprised how many people pass on information which could give them a competitive advantage over competitors.

The Website Audit

You don't have the time to evaluate your website, in fact you maybe not really interested, you have more important things to do. A reminder, more than 60% of potential customers now search local Directories and the website before making a purchasing decision.

If your site does not show up in search results for keywords, does the competition? There could be many reasons. Only an independent Website Audit could show where any problems exist, and produce a report setting out what steps should be made.

Do you know how many weekly/ monthly visitors view your website? Might be worth considering reading the Website Audit report.

Help is available, if needed

Time, there is never enough time.

Owning any type of business website can be a challenge, technically and time wise. It seems that half the UK businesses don't even have a website according to a Lloyds Bank report. Is it apathy, lack of knowledge or just a lack of time? Only you know.

If one day you decide to make better use of a very important business resource, which can significantly boost your company accounts as a business asset. Who do you contact?

There are millions of companies all offering to help, with a range of services you may not even know about or understand. When you need a UK professional, who provides a dedicated service as a hobby, and money is not the main object of the service, you may have just found a winner.

Northampton Marketing serves the business sector in Northamptonshire, but is not limited geographically to this area. If in doubt, just contact them and see what they could offer, it does not cost anything, only a little of your time.

Are you responsive?

What does responsive mean?

For Webmasters and anybody caring for a website, this is possibly the greatest challenge for many years, and may mean a complete re-design of the existing website. In a nutshell it means the website must adapt to whatever product the visitor is using.

Google and Bing agree for once

The number of people accessing the Internet using mobile devices is growing rapidly and is considered to be between 50% to 60% and raising. So what should you do? Usually the first step is to research the subject find a range of options and then implement. To help with this decision an article called Responsive Websites is available and might help you understand what to do.

If your site is not responsive you may find that the search engines penalise your website for not adapting to the new standards.

Northampton Business Marketing

I have been very busy this last few months and have finally got round to creating a dedicated website which provides help and support for the busy business owner.

Customers always come first. So it has taken time and is not fully completed. A collection of articles is under development, the first has just been published. Twitter has been launched and a new Facebook pagewill be available shortly

The follow advertisement takes you to the site.

Why waste time with SEO when there is another way to boost sales

Lower your SEO priority

There are a lot of companies specialising in SEO services, it's big business. A lot of money can be spent over time to achieve a position in the top ten for a keyword. Which only lasts for a short while.

Yes, preparing each webpage to standards is important, but the end result that companies are looking for is increased sales. Paying for Adwords is also a method to appear at the top of search results, but can cost a lot of money if the only action is to click on a link, read and leave.

An Alternative way

An article on how to control and manage a dedicated sales network, at low cost is the subject of an article on the SEOclinic

SEOclinic provides a money back guarantee Web Audit

 Own a website? Start with a webcheck and then decide if you want to follow the recommendations yourself, or use the extensive web audit report to challenge your existing website support team. You don't have to understand html code to follow our advice.
SEOclinic provides a money back guarantee Website Audit

New Blog established

The new Blog from Drachsi has a range of ideas, comments and solutions. Today's post is suitable for people interested in flight information, airports and aircraft. Seems not very interesting, just visit and see the live Flight Information on the new Blog. Great for all type of business an d private individuals.

If you own a small business website and are thinking you need some support, then you could find all you need on the site.

Drachsi

Blog now open on the main website

I have both an html version and a WordPress appendix on the www.drachsi.com website. The WordPress part contains pages and the new Blog.

I thought it easier to keep all the webmaster and Drachsi stuff all together in one place. Supporting customers comes first so maintaining a number of Blogs, just for me is time consuming. Hope you like the new Blog?

Regards

Drachsi

Do you need a Webmaster?

The  function of a Webmaster for many people is unknown. In a large company there is an IT department, with a section that looks after the company website. Changes to content and updates are usually handled by experienced web designers. The manager of this section may have a wide range of titles.

A smaller company may outsource all work concerning a website to a web company, either as a fixed price monthly charge or for individual requirements. This can be costly and there is limited control.

Many small business owners are not aware of all the skills and knowledge needed to support, promote and market a website. The old adage " If you don't know what to ask, how will you understand the answer" applies. As the Internet has grown into a major source of new business, the industry has developed into dedicated areas.

Many companies promote a wide range of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services, or guarantee top listing in search results. Treat these claims with caution. Many of the solutions can be effective only if done frequently.

You have a website, time to ask questions. Who has overall responsibility? What is the budget allocation? Is an independent website review made at least once every 6 months? Are using Blogs, Forums part of the business plan? Does the site provide customer facing support, like FAQ's, a ticketing system or community support? Are website and web page analytic's used to monitor the site and provide feedback? Are sales, marketing, production and the financial departments involved in a monthly website review meeting?

All good questions, and important, but you maybe a company of only 2 or 3 people so your choice is to pay different companies to manage different tasks, do it yourself, or consider a Virtual Webmaster working for you.

One example of the things that should be done as part of your overall business plan is use Business Networking to spread your message.

Enough of my message to you, all you have to do is make contact with brief details of your requirements. I work by the hour, so you always know your costs are within budget.

New Page on using Pinterest

There are many opportunities to market a product or service. A rapidly growing source is Pinterest. A new page with information, working examples and source code are available at http://www.drachsi.com/pinterest.htm

Very useful for normal users and web designers.

Are you using Pinterest?

A great tool for creating links to useful information Here is my Pinboard

Marketing a Start-up is difficult

I have just about completed the basic set up of the Mini Job Store website. This is based on the " I will for a fiver" principal. The original idea started in America and has proved very popular. It provides everybody the chance to offer to do work for a Fiver or more. There are now many other clones of the original site.

As a Virtual Webmaster, I am often asked to help with existing websites, this is ok, because there are other people involved. Building a new site alone, that is selling a product is easier than my website www.drachsi.com which sells a service. Starting the www.marketing-yourself.co.uk involved Keyword search, domain name search, registration, and finding a reliable hosting company.

Many companies use their existing trading name, sometimes this works fine, other times it means nothing to other people unless they are friends, family or if it is a bricks and mortar company, but only locals know of it. Finding the right keywords for your company's products, services is a vital first step. Registration is next, but many of the best names have long gone. You stand as better chance in the future, marketing of your website if your keywords are in the name. ie www.marketing-yourself.co.uk has my two keywords, somebody eles has the .com version which is considered the best.

More to follow in the next post.

Drachsi

Marketing a product is easier than a service

I have been spending time creating a product to sell as part of understanding the problems of being rated highly in Google and Bing. First is the time scale. seems like nothing under one month happens.

So now all the effort is to see if the ideas, solutions and suggestions which are part of the Virtual Webmaster Services really work. The site is for a mini job marketplace.

Drachsi

New Virtual Webmaster Services video uploaded

It always takes time, finally the decision has been made to upload a presentation about using a Virtual Webmaster Services company to save time, save money and boost sales. you can see the video on YouTube.

If you need something like this to boost your page ranking or to inform your customers, just send a quick email from www.drachsi.com/drachsi-contact.htm  You can also add your comments to this post.

Drachsi

Maybe the main website has too much information?

I have placed a lot of information on the main website, maybe too much? As I am showing what is possible to other Webmasters, Design Companies and Marketing Agencies. So I have created a single page website which is targeting normal business owners with a website at Webmaster Services Hope this helps to promote the benefits of a Webmaster to people that need solutions?

Drachsi

New Group on LinkedIn

There are many forms of marketing, and using LinkedIn is considered very beneficial. Owning a Group provides for many opportunities, I have created one called the Global Chamber of Commerce.

The reason, there are very few Chamber of Commerce with a LinkedIn Group for their members, and those that do have a Group, insist you are already a member of their Chamber. The group was set up today for all members to join from anywhere in the world. If you are a Chamber member, come and join the Group.

Free special offer now on the home page

Everybody likes something for free. I would like to get more people to consider me as a virtual Webmaster. By offering something for free, which has value, you get to use Twitter or Facebook for me. Worth looking to see how it works. at www.drachsi.com

Drachsi

It's that time of year again

Hopefully you have all had a great Christmas and looking forward to the New Year? Just a quick tip, it's time to plan to change all your copyright dates to 2012 on 1st January or as soon as possible after that date. Good to make other changes, check spelling and create new sitemaps.

Why? Well you know when you visit a website you see many things in the first few seconds, You do notice if the site still shows the copyright year as 2009 etc, this tells you the site is not maintained properly, and may not have the latest information you are looking for. Many often seeking another site.

Don't let this happen to your website

Drachsi

Website Sitemaps, and especially the xml sitemap are important

I did a quick study just now and found more than 85% of websites are not using a Google type sitemap. You would think with all the effort and seo work done, the very least would be to keep the various sitemaps up to date. If you are not certain what I mean, you can read more at Website Sites which show examples and the reasons to use them.

Enjoy.

Drachsi

It's alway nice when lots of hard work are recognised.

Made it into the Newsletter from WPW this week. Hope this translates into more visitors.

Drachsi