Here are several good reasons to spend a little more on your online presence.

Your Brand

These days it is very difficult to grow your brand, your company or your name without a solid website. People just expect it. And more importantly, they expect your site to look professional and current. A stale, amateurish website (or worse yet, no website at all) can do significant harm to your brand!

Your Sales

If you have something to sell and you’re not using the web to bring in business then you are missing out on a huge opportunity (that just gets bigger every year). A website designer will help you incorporate e-commerce into your site and help you generate revenue online.

Your Leads

If you want to use your site as a lead-generating machine, then you need to bring on a web designer who knows all the in’s and out’s of user interfaces and website structure. This is the kind of website designer who will skillfully build you something that leads potential customers to the sign-up areas, calls-to-action, products and more! To find different web designers, view our sub-category list.

Your Reputation

A top-notch website solidifies your reputation in the marketplace. It says that you are a major player in your sector, and you are moving forward into the remainder of the 21st century with a total knowledge of the web and how important it is to business.

Find a great web designer who will help you achieve these goals. There may be a bit more money involved, but when you measure the returns, the difference between a professionally designed website and a do-it-yourself template is immeasurable.

1) Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2) Conveying your site’s theme

When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the “big picture” of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors’ time.

3) Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links to every single page on your site. Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page — they will follow the links on the sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by search engines! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website.

4) Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird’s eye view of your site structure, and whenever you need to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you will have a perfectly organized site with everything sorted according to their relevance.

From the above reasons, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects with a considerable size. Through this way, you will be able to keep your website easily accesible and neatly organized for everyone.

Some website owners have misused the link building process by creating link farms for the sole purpose of building backlinks to their websites and the search engines have become aware of this and will restrict those websites to misuse the process. For those website owners who use the link building process correctly they can achieve very positive results.

You can give your website a very important internet presence when you use link building effectively. Here are some effective methods for building backlinks to your website.

1. Link exchanges. With a link exchange you contact other website owners and offer to swap links. You place a link to their website on your site and they return the favor and place a link to your website on their site. If you don’t want an ‘obvious’ link swap you can try a three way link with another website owner so that no two websites are directly swapping.

2. Article Marketing. Write articles and submit them to article directories. Most article directories will allow you a resource box where you can include a link to your website. Good quality articles will get many readers and if you use your resource box wisely you can entice those readers to visit your website.

3. Article syndication. If the articles you submit to article directories are of high quality there is a good chance that they will be syndicated. This means that other website owners will publish your articles on their websites. The terms of website owners’ using your article is that they include the resource box that includes the link to your website. The more your articles are syndicated the more backlinks your article will give you.

4. Blog commenting. Find other blogs within your niche and leave comments and include a link to your website. Never spam blogs with your comments or they will most likely just get deleted. Instead, always leave good quality comments on blogs.

5. Forum marketing. Join some forums within your niche and include a link in your forum signature. You should always check the forum rules before doing so as some forums don’t allow signature links. Be an active participant in the forum as the more posts that you make the more links you are building with your signature link. Leave information and helpful forum posts and other forum members are more likely to click on your link and visit your website.

When you get visitors to your website make sure that you keep those visitors. Have an interesting site that gives visitors what they are looking for. A good, information and exciting website will keep visitors coming back.

Does this design fall in line with the overall theme of the company?

Does this design ‘say’ what the company is trying to say?

In some instances and with some clients, we don’t even have to make a ‘great’ design, however, we are expected to make something that would be well received by the company and their audience.

Being aware of this is being aware of the branding of a company.

A quick lesson on branding: Companies should be trying to brand their company (especially if they believe they have a unique service or product to offer). The benefits of branding are often long term, but include customer qualities like loyalty, memorability familiarity and at some point, our marketing expenses will significantly decrease because an audience is already familiar with the company. All that stuff sounds good, However, the catch is that the company is not in direct control of the brand. In a nutshell, branding is the perceived emotional image of a company as a whole and, in it’s simplest form, has nothing to do with things like logo’s and stationary as many designers will lead we to believe.

Branding is a fairly complicated subject because typically the company’s management and the designer are trying to figure out how to brand the company, or how to find a way in which the company will be unique and find a place in the customers mind; but it’s really not about what the management and the designer want, branding really relies on the perception of the audience. So the next question is, ‘How do we find out what our audience is thinking?’

The answer is pretty simple: by doing marketing research–in it’s simplest form, this could be a survey sent to past customers asking them their perception of the company. The main goal here is to understand our audience and what they think about our company. The next step is how to capitalize (or fix) that perception. That’s branding!

Every good company should be trying to create a brand and not just creating a company or a nice product. A nicely branded company has placement in our mind–when we think of innovation, perhaps we think of Apple Products. When we think of graphic design, we may automatically think of Adobe Products or Photo Shop directly. These are just examples of what good branding is and how they create an attachment with their audience.

When we create a business without really throwing attempts at branding it, our audience will kind of lose sight of it and most times think of it as a copycat business or nothing to really write home about. Worst of all, we may not have an audience at all! The best way to find out if our client is serious, is to ask them what they would like their brand to be perceived as. If they don’t have a decent answer (that makes sense: saying ‘We want to be the next Photo Shop’ doesn’t count), then they aren’t serious about their business and desire no long term success.

The ultimate goal of a company, is to win the hearts and minds of our consumers. Once we’ve done that, we have achieved what is called ‘brand recognition.’ This means our audience knows the company well enough to know what they may or may not say, and what they may or may not look like.

As a designer, we try to help with the recognized look of a company. For example, if we see a red bulls eye, we may automatically think of Target Stores. If we are a designer working with Target Stores, we better believe we aren’t designing something using predominately blue squares–that’s just not that brand. we want to create something that is consistent and adds to a company’s brand and if we are working with a company that does not have an established brand, we want to create something that works within the views of the company. For example, if I’m working with a brand new music studio start up that wants to focus on traditional country music, I’m not going to give them something that looks like it was made for a pop star.

Consistency is absolutely key if a company wants an audience to recognize them. Recognition also works in a way that creates placement in a persons thought patterns. This recognition and placement can work positively for one company and maybe even negatively for another. For example, some people think that Volvo’s are some of the safest cars or Chevrolet’s are gas guzzling machines–positive and negative effects. In another example, a car might try to brand itself as a super safe car, but an audience may feel it’s safety features aren’t better than a Volvo, so they just end up getting a Volvo.

Once our audience has clamped on to that recognition or that placement, if it’s positive, we want to do everything we can to continue with it. If it’s negative we want to do everything we can to change it. Recognition and placement for brands can end up pushing sales harder than any marketing or advertising plan.

Design is only a small portion of branding. Creating a super sweet logo and letterhead doesn’t mean a ton if the consumer doesn’t have a great perception of the company. However, good brand design can help build a solid foundation for a brand. If the brand is to be known for their scholastic wealth and achievements, we want to create something that gives off that feeling. If a brand has a product that is designed to make the consumer happy, don’t create or use anything that could do otherwise. Pick an idea or feeling and nail that down as best as possible.

Designers can also contribute to branding through creating work that is consistent with the views and perception of the clients company. Something all designers (and company’s, for that matter) must understand is good design equals good quality. When we really brand something in a consumers mind, it can really stand out for ever, for example color schemes and logos are really memorable and help create a good foundation or start of branding. we want to keep this in mind so that we make something that can be EASILY remembered, rather than easily forgotten. When we are working for a company that isn’t quite new and isn’t quite old, just try to create something that follows along with the design and perception that they already have going on. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel (of course unless asked) but we should think of more creative ways to get across the same message they have.

Most of the branding should come from the company — what do they stand for, what do they sell, who do they cater too — so hopefully for a good designer, branding should be a breeze, as far as logo’s and color schemes go. Designers can also contribute not just by the design but by the way in which the design and/or the company is presented. For example, if a company sells a product that needs packaging, what is the best kind of packaging for that product and how is it designed? Or even simply, should a company have a tri-fold brochure or just a simple sell sheet. Though minute, these things have a ton to do with how a company is perceived and remembered.

What Website Spokane will do for you:

Mobile Website – QR Code – Phone Apps

Manage and budget local Pay-Per-Click accounts

Correctly distribute your content across the Search Engines.
Set-up and maintain a Custom Website that is Internet Browser and Mobile Phone Ready.
Post original content relative to your business.
Set up, maintain and optimize Google Places page.
Set-up, build and maintain Facebook Business Page.
Integrate your Facebook & Social media pages into your site.
Comprehensive Local Search Engine Optimization plans.
Review Gathering
Social Media Marketing
Email Campaigns
Link Building
Media Management

Whether you have a website or not, operate 15 neighborhood stores or 1, or provide a specialized service to a small market niche, reaching local consumers is a number one priority. Today, nearly 3 billion local online searches are performed every month on a local search engine or local business directory by consumers looking for qualified local businesses selling the products and services they need. How can you reach these people? By implementing an effective online local search engine strategy developed by Get Found In Town.  At the core of our internet marketing strategies are the services we provide. These internet marketing services have proven to be an essential component to the success of many businesses throughout the United States.

Let us help you participate in the fastest growing, most affordable marketing medium available to small business.

Contact us today and give your business the best chance of thriving in today’s dynamic online marketplace.

How Does Twitter Work?

Twitter allows users to post messages up to a total of 140 characters,
which includes punctuation and spaces. Not only can you tweet via your
computer but also through your mobile telephone networks as well. And given that most
telephone services limits texting on your cell phones to 160
characters, Twitter opted to limit it to 140 leaving you with 20 characters for your
username. The messages that you post are public and can be read by anyone who signs
up to “follow” your twits.

Getting Started

Get to know Twitter a bit first – Be sure to read through the
Twitter Rules and Terms of Service to stay out of trouble.

Create your company profile – Go to twitter.com and click
sign up now. Enter your company name just as you want it to appear in the “Full
Name” field. This is your user name or “handle” by which you will be
known on Twitter. Use the shortest name that describes your company. Preferably your company or website name (without the .com) if its available and not over 20
characters.

Learn the Twitter lingo – Although Twitter seems easy
enough, understanding the special terms used to communicate will make using this social
network much more effective.

Read Twitter 101 (http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/learning)to learn about each of the terms used in with your Twitter account.

Personalize your profile – Go into Settings and give your company or
website a face. Upload a picture, such as your logo or homepage screenshot. Then
add the names of those who will be tweeting on the account. Its especially
important to pay attention to to bio section. It is limited to 160 characters so
you need to determine the best way to describe your website and/or what you do. Use
some of your most important keywords. Space is limited to one line in the
bio section, but you can go to the design tab and utilize the background image on
your profile to post additional information.

Begin tweeting – Remember Twitter
allows you to post messages only up to 140 characters long, including punctuation and spaces. Its also best to use
a casual, friendly tone, or even some humor to keep your tweets from being too
dry or boring. a good idea is to make your followers feel like insiders with
behind the scenes looks at your company. Write tweets about breaking business
news, post links to your website, as well as to other sites or articles you think
your followers may be interested in.

Retweet Posts – especially tweets by others that you feel will be of interest to your followers. Always make sure your retweets provide value to your followers. This will eventually make you more visible to others who may not have
found you otherwise.

Make Connections- Twitter isn’t just an advertising medium, its a Social Medium. Get out and communicate. Use the search box on your Twitter homepage to search for other professionals in your field. Use key
terms, specific to your website such to search for mentions of these keywords by other
websites, your visitors and potential visitors. When you find interesting tweets
you can choose to follow those individuals who posted the tweets. Say hello to
be personable. Twitter also has a Find People section to search for
specific people, companies or websites by name.

Find out what people are saying about you -Type your company name, website name or products into the search box on your Twitter home page and discover where your company and products are mentioned.

Building Relationships – Respond immediately to any complaints posted and send thank you notes to those who give praise. Offer helpful hints and quickly answer any questions or issues about your site or services.

Promote your Twitter account – Promote your twitter account wherever you can. Post a Twitter badge on your website, connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Add your Twitter URL to your signature line for your email.

Tips to help you get the most out of Twitter:

• Be sure your posts are interesting!
– Its just as easy to choose to unfollow you as to follow you.

• Follow others – The more people you follow, the more people will follow you.

• Know your goals – Knowing your goals helps you determine what to post and when to post it.

• Use shortened URL’s – You only have 140 characters, and can often use more than the allotted space for the URL alone. Use the Bit.ly (http://bit.ly) to shorten the links you post..

• Use DMs (Direct Messages) to send private messages to other Twitterers who are following you to personally address concerns.

• Retweet Often, but make it good stuff! Retweeting is a common form of communicating on Twitter.

• Pay attention to the Trending Topics on your Twitter search page. These most mentioned terms show you what most people are paying attention to right now and can be used for topics on your own Tweets.

• Don’t spam people by sending unsolicited @messages or DM’s.

• Don’t post the same messages to a multitude of accounts, or tweet the same things over and over, or to a multitude of accounts.

• Do not “follow churn” or follow and unfollow the same people over and over.

• Ask for feedback – ask friends and followers to give you feedback on your website or products/services.

• Put a Twitter icon on your homepage.