The Green Apple Blog

The web is all about sharing information. The things you received for free you should spread for free. This excellent web statistics package falls in that category. 

Some time ago, Google bought Urchin web analytics software. It allowed you to track number of visitors, from what search engines and keywords, and so much more. From what I understand, Urchin used to cost upwards of $500/mo. Google aquires it, improves it, and releases it for free. It is a snap to install on any website, not taking any more than 15 minutes for your webmaster to put on there.

Learn more about Google Analytics here.

One of the reasons I started a web design company was the plethora of crummy looking sites. So when we start out with a client and they are in a particular genre of site - like corporate, travel, or commerce - it is hard to find good examples. Someone out there in web world has obvioulsy felt the pain and came up with this fabulous collection of design patterns for websites at Design Meltdown.

Many of Create Web Development Studios clients want their web site to come up on top on Google search. In fact, some expect it to happen. While we do have a host of search engine optimization techniques that we apply, it is unrealistic to expect to come up first in the search engines for “Jacksonville Real Estate”. I honestly don’t know of any company in Jacksonville, Florida that can pull this off. I would suspect the budget would be tens of thousands of dollars and would be a monthly battle to stay on top in the search engine results.

On the other hand, if you are in a unique market or specialize in a highly competitive market, there are things you should consider. For example, a realtor may focus on selling “atlantic beach homes” instead of “jacksonville real estate”. Highly competitive markets like clothes, electronics, and realty requires you to specialize to achieve top organic search engine results.
What should you be able to do with search engines and your web site?

• Your Company Name Comes Up First in Google, Yahoo, and MSN
  In most cases, searching on your company name should result in the top ranking for Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Even with sites that use flash technology this is possible. Search Google for our clients “Mack Salon” or “Create Studios Jacksonville” and see who comes first. In some cases it is necessary to qualify the search with your business location, since “Create Studios” is rather generic, whereas “Create Studios, Jacksonville” qualifies the search.
• Build Your Web Site Content with the Right Keywords
  Find the keyword “buckets” that will help sell your business products and services online. Many times these keyword buckets are counterintuitive. The realtor selling “atlantic beach homes” may need to target “move to atlantic beach” since it may generate 120% more traffic than the previous keyword phrase. There are many free tools to help you analyze keywords such as this keyword suggestion tool or the Google keywords analysis tool
• Learn to Write Content for Your Website
  Team up with someone well versed in web copy writing techniques as they differ greatly from the off-line world. A book like the Online Copywriter’s Handbook.
• Stay Clear of Black Hat Techniques
  Don’t use any “black hat” techniques for cheating the search engines. We consulted once with a prospective client who bought 12 different domain names, based on keywords, and redirected them all back to his master site. Google had them dropped within months!

You can’t read any business magazine these days without stumbling over the term “web 2.0″. So what is it? The covers of Newsweek and Forbes feature sites like myspace.com, wikipedia.org, and youtube.com; which have mushroomed into household names. You may have even stumbled across some cutting edge sites like zillow.com or noticed that your webmail (Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL) feels a lot more like using a Microsoft Office program than the simple web pages they were a couple of year ago.

So just what is this new face of the Internet? In a nutshell web 2.0 represents the second generation of the Internet that features social networking, user driven content, and the shift to the Internet as a platform for every business. Below is a quick whirlwind tour of web 2.0:

For your web 2.0 education, check out these sites:

• The official web2.0 definition on wikipedia.org (a web 2.0 site)
• The shift to the Internet as a key business platform explained by Tim O’Reilly who coined the term in 2003.

To experience web 2.0 check out these sites (there are many to choose from, but these are particularly noteworthy):

• Discover the best Internet sites with ease using StumbleUpon.
• How much did your friend pay for their new big house? Try zillow.com.
• Use this comprehensive list of many web 2.0 applications at go2web20.net.

People expect websites to be updated. That’s the great thing about the web, it’s dynamic and constantly changing. Unfortunately most business websites are treated like the classic company brochure - work on it once and it’s finished.
Here are five common mistakes that you need to make sure are not happening on your site:

1. Your copyright at the bottom of your website doesn’t reflect the current year.
2. You have a latest news section that hasn’t been updated in months. Either remove it or start updating it. This takes away your credibility.
3. Your portfolio/project/clients section on your website has projects in it, but the dates of the projects are very old. Either update your portfolio or keep the projects in there but remove the dates.
4. Your service or product offerings on your website are out of synch with your business.
5. Your about us page is out of date, with employees that shouldn’t be on there and new recently hired employees that should.