Step 1. BLOG BLOG BLOG!

So here’s the deal. You might be tempted to do a Facebook profile, or do a LinkedIn account first. However, if you really want to get the most potential out of your web presence, blogging is best. Why? Think about it as starting with your best foot forward. You want to have a rich blog site that talks in depth about the things that are most important before you go straight to the people. This is the hardest part with the most long term benefits. If you don’t have any idea where to even begin blogging, contact ICE4Web and we can help you plan out a web strategy with a complementary meeting.

Step 2. Social Media

So here is where most people start. While a Facebook is a great way to get in front of people, it can’t substitute a blog for true brand power, and benefits from being linked to a content rich blog (which you have now taken care of). This way if they like the personality you show on your profile, you can give them more to go through.

Personality is a big deal when it comes to Facebook, G+ and any other social media site. If you are selling Biker T-shirts, you better not put yourself as a meek, uptight, or formal business. Why? BECAUSE THAT ISN’T WHAT BIKERS LIKE! You might alienate your audience. If you make child care products, talk to your audience like you are in front of the kids they are using your products to care for. No swearing, no attitute, and if you want to put out your sense of humor, you got to do it appropriately. Humor is a great tool when used right, but it has a tendency to back fire if you don’t know you audience.

Use Social Media as a funnel to bring in more people to your blog. Engage your audience there and talk about content on your blog from time to time. bring them to YOUR turf. Unlike social media site, there are no rules on your own site. This means you have more flexibility, and do things like sell things, advertise, and do other things with your audience that Facebook doesn’t allow for.

Step 3. Advertise online

once you have your rhythm down and know how to engage the audience that you are after, bring out the big guns. This is when it is safe to actually use conventional advertising channels. Facebook advertising is great for getting your page some traffic, and Google ads can get your blog targeted traffic that is second to very few. However, doing this early becomes a waste of money. Why? Because you have to be good at keeping people before you want to attract people.

If your online brand isn’t bringing you in any income to substantiate advertising, you have a two options. One is to skip this step and work with what you have, which for some companies is enough, or you need to decide on ways to monetize your site. This too is something that ICE4Web can help with. We know of many ways to monetize a blog page so that your presence is self sustaining.

So, we here at ICE4Web hope this gives you a better idea of where to start your journey online. While we can’t possibly cover all that you can do taking your business online, this guide will give you a head start on some of your planning.

Lets start immediately with our Don’t. Don’t come in with only a base idea. This can be dangerous, because your idea is now able to be molded into someone else’s interpretation of your idea. Some web designers are great at figuring out exactly what to do with abstract ideas.

Most, however, fall into two groups. One is the normal person that may be a good web designer, but a terrible interpreter. This person will give you a great site… but it may not be your great site. There is no harm intended here, but you end up with at least one person upset at the work not being what was imagined. Some designers will try to fix it at no charge, and others may require further payment. Either way, this isn’t good for either party, as the former costs the designer valuable time, and the ladder costs you money, straining your relationship.

The other type is the money type. Money types like abstract thinkers because they can turn a simple idea, into a cash nightmare. Sadly this is all too common, especially in large firms where the term little, isn’t in the project vocabulary. You might get what you pay for, but you might be paying for the wrong product.

Now for your Do. Do your research! Before you meet with a web developer, do your research on similar idea that are out there. See if there are things that already exist that you can show. I always suggest listing out similar sites that you like in function, and make another list too for similar sites in how you want your site to look. This gives the developer less room to screw up your intentions.

So remember, don’t go in with just an idea, go in with a plan! Its better to walk in with a so-so plan that web designer can work with, than just a good idea.

Budgets are a huge deal with web projects. They often times are the biggest factor in what kind of site you can afford. If you have a budget of 1000 dollars, a web designer can make you a fantastic blog page, but can’t make much of a shopping page if at all. When you talk to a web designer, you need to know what you are willing and/or want to spend.

Otherwise, one of two things will likely happen. Your web designer may go WAY overboard and hand you the bill saying, “Well i did what you asked, and this is what that costs.”  Or your web designer will get nervous about being that kind and skimp everywhere possible to keep the bill down. In either situation, no one wins. No web designer likes having an upset customer, and no  person in need of a website wants to get anything that they aren’t expecting.

So for our Do this week, Do walk in with a budget plan. Don’t know what you are willing to spend? Think about it as though you are already talking to a web designer. Toss numbers around and see how you feel about them. If someone suggesting 3,000 for a site seems over the top, you know that you don’t want to spend that. Be hypothetical and find your range. If a web designer tells you that they can’t do your project for that, ask them why, what part of it makes it too expensive. It may be that one little ‘fun’ idea that you really don’t need.

No for the very obvious Don’t. Don’t walk in and ask “How much does a website cost?” and base your budget on that. Depending on if you are talking to a large firm or a small shop, that can be some wild and very different numbers. More than anything else though, it takes the power of your purchasing decision out of your hands and into theirs, and if you are working with a professional salesman, that can be a very bad thing.

Kicking off our first entry in our series is a big Don’t. Don’t fall for the ‘this was my project’ routine. You’ll see some web designers that will show you this big site and say “this is my work.” Often times, its their work and others. This is a very common thing in web design, not because of intending deceit, but because there really isn’t a way to show off a portfolio impressively and honestly in a single glance.

But that doesn’t mean that the practice doesn’t lead to wrong impressions.

So this beings us to our Do. Ask about their portfolio. If you see a piece of work that is similar to what you want to pull off, you need to ask them what they did on it. You may be in luck and they may have done the whole thing. They may have done it with a partner that they still know and work with. They also may have only done the front page of the site…

This can be very important with web design because it is so diverse that it is impossible to meet an expert at everything. You need to make sure that the person you are talking to is an expert in what is important to you.

So what does this mean? It means if you want a website, you need to be getting a website that everyone of these new smaller devices can see. according to this article, you can bet that these devices are here to stay… if not take over! Site designers have to learn fast just how to meet the demand for mobile capable sites!

So this leads us to the Tip of the article. What to ask your web designer. If you need to know if your designer knows what they are talking about, here are the questions to ask about mobile design

1. First, ask if you need a mobile site (trick question). This will guage two things. One where they are in the state of the industry, and two if they are more sales than web designer. If they tell you they can do a separate mobile site, they are talking about making another whole project. If they go straight to talking about a site that can change size based on device, you are most likely in good hands.
2. Secondly, ask if they do “Responsive” Design. Don’t be surprised if there is an extra charge, that’s normal (It is after all more work). But if they have no idea what that is, you may be talking to the wrong person.
3. Lastly, Ask if they do “Mobile First Design.” Mobile First Design is when a site is designed starting at the mobile version, then tablet, then desktop. This results often times in the most compatible designs because it goes after the hardest design first. Not every site needs to be Mobile First though, some sites are great mobile sites that don’t follow the philosophy. This question is meant to gauge their knowledge of mobile concepts.

These are all questions that we here at ICE4Web can answer happily. Its our job to make sure you get what you need, and that we give it to you as straight as possible.

As time has gone on, firms and designers alike have found formula’s that work for getting pages up in search engines. When ever these formulas become common knowledge, people begin to abuse them. You see sites that are terrible to read, and keyword rich hitting number 1 on the searches. These are sites that people don’t actually want to see, but attract the attention of Google Bot, Google’s program that scans and ranks pages. This is something Google can’t allow, so you see them “Shake things up” on a pretty regular basis by reprogramming Google Bot.

Seems like every 2 years or so Google does something dramatic though. Google Bot comes out impressively more sophisticated, or just plain different. This year is the year of the Penguin it seems. Google’s new Penguin update is set to kill spammers. Previously all links back to your site we a positive SEO bonus. Now, however, some ways actually demerit your site. This is a long over due change, as people found ways to abuse this heavily.

Also of note, is that now older content on a site is now is considered irrelevant. This means when you search, you will not see old info from years back. This is a god send for rapidly changing industries like technology, but is less useful for sites for history and other subjects that aren’t as likely to change.

So what does all this mean? It means that conventional SEO is out the window. It means that the best sites on search engines are going to be sites with lots of content, are refreshed and edited constantly, and aren’t being linked back to wrongly.

But there is a problem, and that is that a great deal of sites seem to have been hit rather undeservingly by Penguin. It seems that google’s back link terms either weren’t clear, or aren’t enforced properly. Many site admins complain that links at the top of their site were being marked as spam, something that shouldn’t be the case. Search results are being affected massively in some areas. Some people have gone as far as switching to Bing and Yahoo to get better results.

All this over Google keeping it fresh, and going after the bad guys. While these changes will certainly help get rid of the worst offending sites, only time will tell if these changes are truly for the better.

So they finally found a way to do the unthinkable… You can now update your Google plus, Twitter, AND Facebook. That’s right, Facebook and twitter may not want to play nice normally, but using the tools Jill Duffy discusses in her PC Mag article, you can make them work together.
For those of you out there that doubt you need 3 social networks, you aren’t seeing the bigger picture here. Facebook, we all know, is where most everyone is at, and it is a mistake to ignore Facebook for your business. OK, that one i don’t think anyone will doubt. Twitter, is just as necessary. Why? Because twitter people are the most active social media people around. 100 twitter followers might be more active to your marketing than 300 Facebook followers. Sorry, its true. Modern organic marketing takes place on these social media sites.

Why Google+? Because Google+ is Google owned, which means it will effect your search engine ranking. SEO is one of the most important forms of marketing, and Google is using it as a reason for you to use all of their services. Not to mention that having an effect on Google means having an effect on Youtube, the most popular site period. This means Google + is invaluable.

So now do you see why linking these could be effective? When you have multiple sites that need this kind of attention, its great to know there are tools out there that make it a one and done deal.