<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><atom:link href="http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;Type=RSS20" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><title>Websites Under Your Control Blog</title><description>Websites Under Your Control Blog</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/</link><lastBuildDate>Thu, 17 May 2012 22:30:41 GMT</lastBuildDate><docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss</docs><generator>RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/</generator><item><title>Just when you thought you had figured out how Google operates... they are changing the rules</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Google is about to roll out one of the biggest group of changes in its history -- and it will affect how millions of websites show up in Google search results. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(If you want to impress people at the next networking meeting, just tell them you are preparing for Google's plans to incorporate &lt;em&gt;semantic search algorithms&lt;/em&gt; in the very near future.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In short, Google will be trying to answer the user's questions in the same way a human might -- understanding that informative pages that address the topic are far more valuable to the searcher than a page full of keywords.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here is the short version about how to  prepare for the new search engine changes:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t dwell on keywords&lt;/strong&gt;.   Google&amp;rsquo;s next algorithms will not concentrate on   keywords, but on the &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; of those words. That means you can use synonyms instead of the same old dreary,   overused keywords. That will make your website more enjoyable to read. It won&amp;rsquo;t   seem as redundant. People won&amp;rsquo;t cringe every time they see an overused   keyword, and you won't need to try and cover every separate entry in the thesaurus. &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Set up an FAQ page&lt;/strong&gt;. Google   says their new system will place more importance on finding answers to specific questions. By setting up a FAQ page, your content will naturally address the questions you include, and thus contain exactly what Google is looking for to satisfy users seeking info on related topics.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Use your website to inform,   not sell.&lt;/strong&gt; With Google seeking to provide &lt;em&gt;informative&lt;/em&gt; responses, pages written to educate your potential customers will score higher than pages written to push products and services. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Get the idea? Put yourself in the mindset that someone just asked you about (&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;insert likely search phrase here&lt;/span&gt;), and then write your pages and FAQs the same way you would answer that person.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These changes will benefit   those that switch to the new style of thinking quickly. The sooner you get your house in order, the sooner the changes will pay off   for you. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you need help, &lt;a href="/contact.html"&gt;contact us right away&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=221445&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fJust_when_you_thought_you_had_figured_out_how_Google_operates_they_are_changing_the_rules%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Just_when_you_thought_you_had_figured_out_how_Google_operates_they_are_changing_the_rules/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:48:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Putting the "Q" in "QR Codes"</title><description>&lt;p&gt;"Quick Response Codes" -- commonly known as "QR Codes" have become popular ways for letting smartphone users get to a web page quickly and without keying in the web address.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/images/QR.png" style="border: 0px solid; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" alt="A QR code that takes you to a different blog post on our site" title="A QR code that takes you to a different blog post on our site" /&gt;These images are showing up on real estate signs as a way for people to view a listing and virtual tour online, in magazine ads to get people to a page with product details and perhaps a coupon, and even business cards and name tags. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Want a QR Code quick? Here's how:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Go to &lt;a href="http://goo.gl/" target="_blank" title="http://goo.gl"&gt;goo.gl&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
2. Enter the web address where you want to send visitors&lt;br /&gt;
3. Click on "Details" for that address&lt;br /&gt;
4. Right-click to save the resulting QR Code &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds... watch this (silent) video demo that just takes 25 seconds...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;iframe width="600" height="510" frameborder="0" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/37170105?title=0&amp;amp;byline=0&amp;amp;portrait=0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=219229&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fPutting_the_Q_in_QR_Codes%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Putting_the_Q_in_QR_Codes/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:44:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Converting visitors to buyers</title><description>&lt;h2&gt;Getting website visitors to &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;actually do&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt; something &lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We &lt;a href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Just_answer_the_question%21/" target="_blank"&gt;talked earlier&lt;/a&gt; about how ineffective it is to get someone to come visit, and then make them do detective work to find what they are looking for.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Any link to your site from any other site on the Internet should point directly to a &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;custom&lt;/span&gt; page -- these are called &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;landing pages&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;img alt="" width="350" height="233" style="border: 0px solid; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="/newsletter-img/iStock_000005855742XSmall.jpg" /&gt;Why is this important? &lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Your advertising Return  on Investment (ROI) will be highest if you deliver exactly what was promised in the topic of the link when someone clicks on those external links.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;It's not enough to  merely lure people to your home page&lt;/em&gt; through pay-per-click ads, e-mail  campaigns, social media marketing or ads on TV, radio or print. What are they supposed to do when they get there? Start searching? &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;No, you want them to  &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;take action&lt;/span&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A landing page should result in new customers. It should provoke
action from the visitor, such as giving their contact data, having them
sign up  for a special offer or encouraging them to make a purchase.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;To maximize your landing page's  effectiveness, follow these tips.&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px;"&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Use an obvious call to action.&lt;/strong&gt;	Don't make visitors read several pages of text. Keep it simple. Use large type  with clear instructions. Put the directions in a box with lots of white space  around it. Use graphics to direct attention to your call to  action. Be sure to detail what will happen when they fill out your form. &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don't mince words.&lt;/strong&gt; Say what you  mean. If you're having a sale on glass widgets, use a headline like "Huge  Savings on Glass Widgets!" Use a subhead to further support the headline like  "Lowest prices on glass widgets in the &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;USA&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;!" Then  briefly explain the sale.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don't give the visitor too many  options.&lt;/strong&gt; Don't put links to other sites or other offers, and minimize the links to other pages on your own site. Concentrate on the main  offer. After the visitor acts on your offer, &lt;em&gt;then&lt;/em&gt; forward them back to your  website so they can completely check out your site. Limit any distractions on  your page. Dedicate your landing page to your call to action.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don't overwhelm the visitor  with too many words or images. &lt;/strong&gt;Keep  images small so they load quickly. Don't  advertise or self-promote on your landing page--only use text that encourages  action on their part. Reduce the distractions as much as possible.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Be sure your landing page says  what the prospects are expecting.&lt;/strong&gt; Don't bait and switch. If you lured them there  with an ad for glass widgets, don't try to get them to buy stainless steel  widgets instead. &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Add  reviews or  recommendations that will make your clients feel secure when they respond to  your call to action.&lt;/strong&gt; If you are associated with any well-known organizations or  companies, use their logos to create trust.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Implement a tie-in with social  media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.&lt;/strong&gt; These sites can increase the number of  visitors exponentially. (&lt;a target="_new" href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Your_website_may_not_be_enough/"&gt;Here is how we suggest you do this&lt;/a&gt;...)&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 10px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keep your forms short and  simple.&lt;/strong&gt; Don't ask for anything you'd be reluctant to offer to a stranger. If  you're making a sale, emphasize that your site is safe and you use encrypted  data transfer. Add a feeling of urgency to the  offer. Don't forget to offer a guarantee of satisfaction so visitors feel safe  spending their money.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;The main thing to remember is  that people will be more likely to follow through on your offer if your landing  page&amp;nbsp;makes it easy for them. The fewer hoops they have to jump through, the  more people will jump. &lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=194016&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fLanding_Pages_2%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Landing_Pages_2/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:21:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>We misplaced our nimble, but got it back</title><description>&lt;h2&gt;Wonder where we have been since mid-Summer?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In late July, we embarked on a joint effort with one of our clients - an advertising agency (Propaganda Methodology). In the new arrangement, all the sales, support, and admin for both firms ran through a shared team of people, and we stayed in the background, doing the website stuff.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
It's been a wild ride. Not surprisingly, sometimes bigger, newer agency projects came in and pulled us away from our core business. At the same time, since agency staff were handling sales and support, we almost never spent time with the clients, and didn't even meet them in many cases.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img width="400" height="210" style="border: 0px solid; float: right; margin-left: 8px;" alt="Nimble - agile, and quick to understand" src="/newsletter-img/nimble.gif" /&gt;Our new arrangement added layers of people and processes between us and our customers &amp;mdash; and while it worked for a few clients, it didn't work for many. We realized we had lost something &amp;mdash; we weren't &lt;em&gt;nimble&lt;/em&gt; anymore.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And that just didn't sit right. Our success grew the way it
did because we could provide a high-quality website at a good value, we
had a good understanding of our clients' businesses and goals, and when
you wanted to talk to Bill or Kim, you got us right away.  &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So we and the ad agency decided to change back to where we were before. We still have a great relationship with the folks at Propaganda.  We will still provide web services to them, as a vendor, and they will still provide the other ad agency services if we need them, so all the same talent is available to all our clients.   &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But by returning to two separate businesses instead of trying to operate as one, we can better control the customer service that our clients receive, and we can have a much better understanding of our clients' needs when we work directly with them before ever starting a project.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
We were pleased to receive the opportunity to grow our business to something new.  But we are also satisfied now &amp;mdash; with our decision to return to what we do best, once we realized that the new arrangement wasn't working the way we had hoped. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We're back now, and more nimble than ever!&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=212077&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fWe're_Back!%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/We're_Back!/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:43:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Let your fans vote for you!</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Google has recently started testing a way for their users to vote for search results they like,
either from the search results page or from the page itself.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They
call it the "+1" -- see &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/+1/button/" target="_blank"&gt;www.google.com/+1&lt;/a&gt; for more information from Google.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;img alt="" width="311" height="155" style="border: 0pt none; float: right;" src="/newsletter-img/serps-plus1.png" /&gt;When someone with a Google account is logged in (and most people
with such accounts just stay logged in all the time), they will see a
faint icon next to &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;some&lt;/span&gt;* of the results, and
a slightly more obvious icon when they hover over the result with their
mouse.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If the Google user clicks on the icon, they will be endorsing that web page. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;* - Why only &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;some&lt;/span&gt; of the results? Owners of websites who want to participate will have to add a snippet of code to their websites. They also have the option to add the clickable icon to their website.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Want this for your website? Google tells you what needs to be done -- see the &lt;a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html" target="_blank"&gt;short version&lt;/a&gt; or the &lt;a href="http://code.google.com/apis/+1button/" target="_blank"&gt;detailed description&lt;/a&gt;. If you are comfortable editing the HTML of your website, you can do it yourself.&amp;nbsp; (If you are one of our Online Business Partner users, just go to the "tracking code" content holder, click "HTML", and add the snippet before or after anything that is already there.)&amp;nbsp; Otherwise, check with your webmaster.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=196573&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fLet_your_fans_vote_for_you!%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Let_your_fans_vote_for_you!/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:21:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Just answer the question!</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Where is the answer?" src="/newsletter-img/signpost.jpg" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" /&gt;
Imagine you pick up the phone, call the listed phone number, and ask to order the "special" being advertised.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From the other end of the line, you hear a salesman rattle on about the history of the company, how great the team is, that they are members of the association of blah &lt;span style="color: #7f7f7f;"&gt;blah &lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="color: #a5a5a5;"&gt;blah blah&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="color: #d8d8d8;"&gt;blah blah&lt;/span&gt;... &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You have certainly tuned out by now, and only politeness keeps you from hanging up without another word.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Imagine you are the business owner, and hear your sales people turning away business that way? (And you &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;pay them&lt;/span&gt; to do that?!)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chances are, that's exactly what you are doing with the most promising visitors to your website!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Say what?&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Someone who has never heard of you, but is looking for exactly what you offer, hears about you from some source of their own. Maybe it is Facebook, a professional association website, a Google ad, or the website of a related business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They click on the link... and see all that blah &lt;span style="color: #7f7f7f;"&gt;blah &lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="color: #a5a5a5;"&gt;blah blah&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="color: #d8d8d8;"&gt;blah blah&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You have just wasted all the effort in getting those links and building those pages.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Instead, try this...&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Every link to your website that you control should point directly to a custom page that talks directly to the topic of the link.  &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul style="margin-left: 15px;"&gt;
    &lt;li style="margin-left: 15px; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;  If the link is on the site of one of your suppliers, the page should talk  about how you do what you do, with that supplier's products. &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="margin-left: 15px; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;If the link is about you as a supplier of widget adjustments, have it go to a page about your widget adjustment services. &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="margin-left: 15px; list-style-type: disc;"&gt;If it is a link from the Chamber of Commerce, let the page talk about specials you provide for Chamber members. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You get the idea.&lt;strong&gt; When someone clicks on a link and goes to your website, their first reaction should be, &lt;em&gt;"This is exactly what I was looking for!"&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And it's really easy...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you are using our Online Business Partner&lt;sup&gt;&amp;reg;&lt;/sup&gt; service, just log in and find the current page on your site that most closely matches the interests of those prospects who would likely click to get more information, then select "Copy This Web Page". On the copy, revise the title, headlines, and text to focus precisely on the topic. Save this new page, and provide the link to it to those who will be linking back to your site. Repeat as necessary for other topics and link sources. (No need to add this new page to your navigation menu if you don't want. The automatic sitemap updates will inform search engines of your new page.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Next issue... optimizing these "landing pages" for best results.&lt;/h3&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=192872&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fJust_answer_the_question!%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Just_answer_the_question!/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:58:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Writing your website text</title><description>&lt;p&gt;While it&amp;rsquo;s true that a picture may be worth a thousand words, your website can&amp;rsquo;t be only graphics. You need the right well-written text to deliver your message.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; In fact, the &lt;em&gt;best looking&lt;/em&gt; site won&amp;rsquo;t be the &lt;em&gt;best-performing&lt;/em&gt; site on the web, unless you have solid content that reaches your audience and propels them to action. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You want your site to entertain or educate, but not at the cost of sales.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Here are several tips that will punch up your text, making it easier to read and understand.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul style="margin-left: 30px; list-style: disc outside none;"&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px;"&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Rather than writing in long paragraphs, use bulleted lists.&lt;/strong&gt; Visitors to your site may get put off by the sight of long paragraphs, and they won't read them. The only person likely to wade through a white paper on your background is your mom.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
    Keep each topic focused.&lt;/strong&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s better to have one page on shipping and one on receiving than a combined page on shipping and receiving. That way, your visitors can read the only the parts they need. (It is better for your search engine results, too.)&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
    Use subheads&lt;/strong&gt;. Subheads make the text look nicer and give it a more organized feel. Readers can go right to the part that interests them.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px;"&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Avoid bragging or hyperbole.&lt;/strong&gt; Save that for the ads. Your website should be an objective take on your services. Make it a gentle read.&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li style="padding-bottom: 10px;"&gt;
    &lt;img width="300" height="199" style="float: right;" src="/images/blog-images/ref-books.jpg" alt="English 101, or hire a ghostwriter?" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t try to "stuff" your content with keywords.&lt;/strong&gt; Search engines are too sophisticated to fall for that old trick. It&amp;rsquo;s better for you to have well-written content that delivers to your audience. That way your visitors will get your message completely, and take action.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
If you don&amp;rsquo;t feel qualified or don't have time, hire a pro--like ours. We have a ghostwriter in captivity who is ready to write some great content for your website. And if you need a newsletter, press release or blog article, our writer will compose it quickly and well. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It can be humorous, instructional or informative. You can have one article written or one every week or month. The more work we give this guy, the less noise he makes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Hiring a professional writer is a good idea if you don&amp;rsquo;t feel like dusting off the old English 101 textbook, or you'd rather be on the golf course in the little free time you have. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But whether you write your own content or hire a ghostwriter, follow the above steps to make your website more readable, more persuasive and more frequently read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=186146&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fWriting_your_website_text%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Writing_your_website_text/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:12:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Your website belongs to your customers...</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Unless web geeks are your best customers, keep it simple, avoid the costly flashy stuff, and never, ever, have a starting page that says "click to skip intro." &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And write for your customers, not your own ego!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of our oft-repeated messages to our clients is, focus  your web site toward those people and  businesses you feel are most likely to become your best customers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Some want a website that tries to be all things to all people.  That may sound like it would get more potential business, but you are  diluting your appeal to your best prospects, and inviting time-wasting inquiries you don't want from people you can't help. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;You are also dramatically weakening your Google appeal.&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="168" width="225" style="margin: 0px 0px 6px 6px; float: right;" alt="Make sure your site is focused on your best clients" src="/newsletter-img/dachshund.jpg" /&gt;If you have a site  that proclaims "anything for dogs" but you only sell jackets for dachshunds, you&amp;rsquo;re going to compete with a vast number of other sites for Google ranking. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Great Dane owners will find nothing to buy, and&amp;nbsp; your best customers will probably never find your site.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, if you aim your site specifically toward wiener-dog  owners, you&amp;rsquo;ll be more likely to get prominent Google ranking, even without any other special efforts. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;But there's more to life than Google...&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;How much time do you want to spend with the wrong people? How about, precisely zero?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; So in addition to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;what you say&lt;/span&gt;,&lt;/strong&gt; make sure that you keep your best prospects in mind when you decide &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;how you say it&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="206" width="144" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" alt="The shoemaker's children go barefoot..." src="/images/Bare-feet.jpg" /&gt;By way of example, since you are already here, look around &lt;a href="http://www.friscowebsites.com"&gt;our new website&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; (update long overdue, but you know about the shoemaker's children...) &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rather than design a garish, overblown site with  fireworks and an organ grinder just to prove we can, we designed it as we would  for any of our customers. We kept it simple, easy on the eyes, and informative. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our decision to keep the tone  light was based on our own personalities, plus our preference to  work with people who think like we do. We want to inform, not preach. We&amp;rsquo;d  rather joke than complain. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is who we are, not who we want you to think we  are.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We think a web site should be  individual and personalized. It doesn&amp;rsquo;t have to scream to be heard. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sometimes  people listen more closely when you whisper. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Need help? That's what we are here for.&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=174385&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fYour_website_belongs_to_your_customers%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Your_website_belongs_to_your_customers/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:22:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Don't pay for it when you can get it for free!</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="/images/blog-images/house-cleaning-frisco.jpg" style="border: 0pt none; float: right;" /&gt;Interested in being at the top of Google when your local customers search for what you offer?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here, we typed "home cleaning frisco" into Google, and were presented with listings with a map, labeled "Local business results," showing nearby services. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Google's local search results -- which happen automatically when Google detects that people are searching for something in a specific geographical area -- will display the closest matches on a map on the first page, before even the top-ranked "organic" search results.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Where do they get these matches?&amp;nbsp; Google gathers all sorts of information to populate this portion of their search results, and they may already have your business listed. Business owners can also list their businesses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether you are listed or not, go to Google's &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://txzz.com/1c"&gt;local business update page&lt;/a&gt; and add or update your information. There, you will be able to add your contact and business details, links to your website, a description, images, videos, key words, categories in which you want to be listed, and much more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You will have to do this yourself, because Google will "robo-call"
your listed phone number to verify it is really you making the updates,
but it is easy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The best part?&amp;nbsp; It's free! No need to pay anyone, since all you do is fill out a form, and you are done.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=170401&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fYou_don't_need_to_pay_for_it%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/You_don't_need_to_pay_for_it/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:39:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Friends don't spam friends</title><description>&lt;p&gt;Two weeks ago, we &lt;a href="http://txzz.com/19" target="_blank"&gt;wrote about the benefits of writing something interesting to your customers&lt;/a&gt; and then using social media such as Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter to alert your customers and friends, and their networks, to your new interesting information.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;img style="border: 0px solid ; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="/images/blog-images/disgusted.jpg" alt="Getting spammed" /&gt;The key word is &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;"interesting." &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Think WIIFM.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you broadcast something via email or social media that your audience finds useful, then your message will be welcome.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you aren't sure, measure your response.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you send something with a coupon or special offer, are a reasonable number of coupons being redeemed?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you send a teaser to a blog post containing a useful tip, do you see a reasonable amount of new traffic to your blog post?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you just send news, a thought to ponder, event reminders, or even just something that makes your current and future customers laugh, do you get positive feedback?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you send &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;occasional&lt;/span&gt; messages informing your audience about a new offering, that's fine too.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But if all you send are messages saying little more than "hey look at me" then you are spamming.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;If no one says they are glad you sent those messages (and you really wouldn't expect them to), we suggest you are sending the wrong messages. &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Spamming your customers and prospects will only get you blocked, "unfriended," or at best ignored.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=169288&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fFriends_don't_spam_friends%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Friends_don't_spam_friends/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:22:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Your website may not be enough</title><description>&lt;p&gt;A common question from new clients... why should they bother with a blog, email marketing, Facebook, Twitter, etc.?&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If the new client has teenagers at home, this is usually accompanied with &lt;em&gt;"I don't care to tell everyone when I go to the bathroom!"&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If your business never changes, and if your customers (and their friends) know perfectly well what you offer and think about your business frequently, then ... well, enough with fairy tales. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In reality, your business does change (or it dies),&amp;nbsp; your past and potential customers don't know about those changes, and they don't always think about how your business can help them. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact, your &lt;strong&gt;best prospects for future sales&lt;/strong&gt; are those who already know you. But why would they go back to your website, if they think they already know who you are and what you offer?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;img alt="Here's an idea..." style="border: 0pt none; float: right;" src="/images/blog-images/idea.jpg" /&gt;What to do?&amp;nbsp; Maybe try this idea:&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Write a &lt;strong&gt;brief newsletter article&lt;/strong&gt; about a topic of interest to your likely customers or referral sources, and send to your email list. &lt;em&gt;(What to write about? Something that will benefit the reader. New services you offer, a special offering, the answer to a frequent question, changes in your field, etc.)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Publish the message, reformatted as necessary, &lt;strong&gt;on your blog&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;em&gt;(Of course, the article should be published on your blog on &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;your&lt;/span&gt; website, so the reader will be already in position to click around your site.)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Post a "teaser"&lt;/strong&gt; about the article on your &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;business&lt;/span&gt; (not personal) page on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. &lt;em&gt;(The teaser should mention a customer need, and article should address that need -- "hype" will backfire.)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Repeat this process frequently. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This isn't hard.&amp;nbsp; If you are an Online Business Partner client, you can use your built-in tools for #1 and #2.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Don't have time, or just don't want to mess with it? If you are our client, we can have one of our ghostwriters develop the initial draft of the newsletter article, and we can do the rest as well - or any portion you want us to handle.&amp;nbsp; (If you are not our client, then your web professional will be able to help you.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=168068&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fYour_website_may_not_be_enough%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Your_website_may_not_be_enough/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:59:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Look at a Magazine</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;First glance...&lt;/strong&gt; A couple of years ago we published an account of a research study showing that &lt;a href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Make_it_love_at_first_sight/"&gt;first impressions&lt;/a&gt; are made in the first 1/20th of a second.&amp;nbsp; (A blink of the eye takes about 15 times longer!)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Second glance...&lt;/strong&gt; Then a few months ago, we described &lt;a href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/7_Tips_for_Telling_Your_Story_on_the_Web/"&gt;typical visitor time on web pages&lt;/a&gt; (30 seconds, regardless of amount of text), pointing out that only about 100-150 words will "register."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Magazine cover, simple, attractive" style="border: 0pt none; float: right;" src="/images/blog-images/Wine_Savant_Magazine_Cover.jpg" /&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;magazine industr&lt;/strong&gt;y has had centuries to figure out what works. Think about the row after row of magazines you see at the store. Each magazine has a few things in common with the rest: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First glance...&lt;/strong&gt; an overall appearance that appeals to their target audience, to get them to take a closer look,&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Second glance...&lt;/strong&gt; seldom more than 100-150 words, in 3-6 "teasers," to entice potential readers to open up the magazine, and,&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;nothing else!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Your home page should follow the same approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You need an overall look that &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;immediately appeals&lt;/span&gt; to your ideal audience. &lt;em&gt;Remember, that "appeal" is won or lost before any words have had time to even register in your visitors' minds.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; You cannot convey more than the most basic message on the home page. The goal is to catch their attention on any of a very few key topics, so they will click (not scroll) to learn more. &lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=165697&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fLook_at_a_Magazine%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Look_at_a_Magazine/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:42:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>You built it, they came. Now what?</title><description>&lt;p&gt; You have this professionally-designed website that you can edit yourself, and you have &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;finally&lt;/span&gt; achieved that goal of first-page listing on Google for some of your likely search phrases... &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;but do the visitors to your site become customers?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Businesses that fail to "close the deal" will find that even high levels of traffic may not provide the return on their investment that they desired.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are several way-too-common reasons why otherwise great websites don't generate the business they should. Check your own site, and see if you...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#qyourself"&gt; Qualify Yourself&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#qcustomers"&gt; Qualify the Potential Customers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="#easytobuy"&gt; Make it Easy to Buy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt; &lt;a href="#calltoaction"&gt;Help Them Take the Next Step&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a name="qyourself"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Qualify Yourself &lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="81" width="228" src="/img/aboutus-icon.jpg" style="border: 0pt none; float: right;" alt="Are you just another anonymous face in the drowd?" /&gt;Will potential customers want to do business with you? How will you stand out from the many competitors who are also found when someone searches Google for what you offer?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First impressions:&lt;/strong&gt; Make sure that your website projects a professional appearance and
generates trust in visitors. When someone clicks through to your web
pages, they should feel they have landed on the site of a reputable
business, and the quality of the site should engender confidence.&lt;/p&gt;
Provide your visitors with testimonials from past clients. Put snippets of these testimonials where they will be seen even if no one goes to the testimonials page.
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Display relevant credentials and licenses, along with  memberships in professional business associations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Include an &amp;ldquo;About Us&amp;rdquo; page that describes the history  of your company and bios of the owners and  the key staff. List the qualifications of  team members, and include "personalizing" things like  community service and involvement. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Include your physical address and phone number. (If your address is a PO box or mailbox service, you'll have to work harder on other areas to build up the trust factor.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Include frequent case studies or sample projects in your blog, mixed in with useful information related to your products and  services.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Publish a regular newsletter, not full of ads, but with information useful to people who might become your customers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt; &lt;a name="qcustomers"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Qualify the Potential Customers&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;"Qualifying potential customers" merely means making sure that there is a good match between what you offer, what they need, the location of the service, and the price.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Problem&lt;/strong&gt;: If it isn't obvious what you offer or where, they are much less likely to ever call you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Solution&lt;/strong&gt;: Make it clear what you offer, &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;and where&lt;/span&gt;.&amp;nbsp; (Many sites have their location in their title tags, but while this is great for Google, it is usually overlooked by website visitors.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pricing:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Many businesses do not want their prices on their website, for fear their competitors will see them.  &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table cellspacing="5" align="right" width="250"&gt;
    &lt;tbody&gt;
        &lt;tr&gt;
            &lt;td style="border: 1px solid #0000ff;"&gt;
            &lt;table cellspacing="5"&gt;
                &lt;tbody&gt;
                    &lt;tr&gt;
                        &lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 18px;"&gt;Most people will not contact you for details when there is not at least some indication of  pricing  on your website.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
                    &lt;/tr&gt;
                &lt;/tbody&gt;
            &lt;/table&gt;
            &lt;/td&gt;
        &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We have to ask, however, whether the potentially lost "bargain-shopping" customers are as valuable as those who simply move on to the next website where they discover that the services are within their price range. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Given the many options for a provider, most people won't consider the ones who offer no pricing information at all.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bonus:&lt;/strong&gt; You won't waste time dealing with customers who won't spend what you ask, if you provide reasonable hints of your  pricing on your website.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt; &lt;a name="easytobuy"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Make It Easy to Buy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt; While many service providers can adjust what they offer based on their customers' needs and budgets, many potential customers prefer to purchase packages of services at  fixed prices. For the provider and customer alike, such packages remove the headache of having to make numerous decisions about many possible options.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Even if every project will be customized, start with a "standard package" and then adjust as needed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; With pre-bundled packages, the customer can often find exactly what  they need on their own without the extra work on both their part and yours. The packaged services are also ideal  for online purchase, since the whole bundle can be  included as a single product. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bonus: &lt;/strong&gt;Don't underestimate the time saved when you don't need to develop a custom package with  unique price estimates for each customer. What's your time worth?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt; &lt;a name="repeatbuying"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;h2&gt; &lt;a name="calltoaction"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Help Them Take the Next Step&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Just listing your email address or phone number on your website won't cut it. &lt;em&gt;(But omitting those will pretty much guarantee failure...)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Do you need to "ask for the order" or give a "call to action" when you have already described what you have to offer and how to reach you?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Researchers have found, as reported by Malcolm Gladwell's best seller, &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316346624?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;tag=capnbill-20&amp;amp;linkCode=as2&amp;amp;camp=1789&amp;amp;creative=9325&amp;amp;creativeASIN=0316346624" target="_blank"&gt;The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img alt="" height="1" width="1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=capnbill-20&amp;amp;l=as2&amp;amp;o=1&amp;amp;a=0316346624" /&gt;,&amp;nbsp; as much as a &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;900% increase&lt;/strong&gt; in follow-through&lt;/span&gt; will result for walking the prospect through the next steps...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Make sure that your website includes a message calling on visitors to  take action. Many websites forget this simple step and end up losing  valuable sales.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Extra Bonus Topic: Make It Easy for Them to &lt;em&gt;Keep&lt;/em&gt; Buying&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt; While you are at it, why not boost your recurring revenues by
offering your customers something you know they will need every so
often? Make it easy for them to get automatic refills, updates, replacements, tune-ups, or whatever else your customers ought to be getting on a repeat basis. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, you are abandoning these customers back to the marketplace when they next need what you offer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Need help putting all this together for your website? &lt;/h2&gt;
Call us at 866-640-1234, or email us at &lt;a href="mailto:partners@friscowebsites.com?subject=Followup%20from%20your%20blog%20post"&gt;partners@friscowebsites.com&lt;/a&gt;.
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=160278&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fYou_built_it_they_came_Now_what%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/You_built_it_they_came_Now_what/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:46:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Big Hat, No Cattle</title><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="" style="border: 0px solid; float: right; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 10px;" src="/images/blog-images/big_hat_no_cattle.jpg" /&gt;You know the expression? It usually refers to a big talker who can't deliver on his claims. &lt;/p&gt;
We
sometimes think of that phrase when asked to help someone get
their amateurish website pushed to a more prominent position in Google.
&lt;p&gt;For both the&amp;nbsp;braggart and the website, once people get disappointed, they are likely turned off forever. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So even if you &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;can&lt;/span&gt; get prime Google placement, if your website isn't up to snuff, well, nice hat!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We strongly advise: first and foremost, make your website appealing to your visitors. Only then give thought to your Google placement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why? Do the arithmetic.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Say your website brings in 500 visitors a month, and 5 of them, or 1%, become customers. Say each will spend enough to make you $100. That's $500 profit from your website.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Think about those 495 people who did &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;not&lt;/span&gt; buy from you. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Just like the 5 who bought from you, these 495&amp;nbsp; took the time to come to your website because they assumed you offered something they wanted. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What website improvements might convert &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;just 5&lt;/span&gt; out of those 495 interested people into buyers? &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get those 5 more, and the monthly net from your website just jumped from $500 to $1000. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Bonus: &lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Improve the content, and not only will your conversion rate improve -- the search engines will rate you higher as well!&amp;nbsp; If you missed it, &lt;a href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Without_good_content,_forget_SEO/"&gt;last week&lt;/a&gt;
we talked about how search engines are almost immune from "tricks"
these days, and increasingly look for the quality of your website - so &lt;strong&gt;focus on compelling content&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Need help with your content? We offer a &lt;a href="/content.htm"&gt;ghostwriting service&lt;/a&gt; for our clients. If you're not our client, see if your webmaster or marketing advisor can help.)&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=159265&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fBig_Hat_No_Cattle%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Big_Hat_No_Cattle/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:10:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Without good content, don't bother with SEO</title><description>&lt;p&gt;There was a time when filling your website&amp;rsquo;s pages with relevant keywords and incorporating a variety of search engine optimization (SEO) tricks would all but ensure you would rank high in search engine results. There were plenty of SEO tricks back then, and many proved to be highly effective. But, as they say, all good (or maybe not so good) things eventually come to an end. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Search engines make their money by selling ads, and need lots of users in order to sell those ads.&amp;nbsp; It is only natural, then, that search engines continuously improve the methods they use to deliver the best, most relevant search results possible. As it turns out, they are very good at it &amp;ndash; and getting even better.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is no secret that Google adjusts its search algorithms more often than most people take a shower. One of the primary purposes of these tweaks is to seek out and destroy the tactics being used to surreptitiously increase a site&amp;rsquo;s ranking in search engine results. Consequently, websites filled with pages populated with content created solely with search engines &amp;ndash; rather than visitors &amp;ndash; in mind are only going to continue their steady fall into oblivion.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
This leads to the obvious question: What do we do now? Well, we do what we should have been doing all along. We fill our web pages with high quality content that is well-written, informative, and of interest to our target markets. Search engines will only continue to hone their ability to recognize high quality content, while putting the kibosh on SEO tricksters.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;img alt="" src="/images/blog-images/happy_with_results.jpg" style="border: 0pt none; float: right;" /&gt;If you populate your website with informative, quality content, it will naturally include words and phrases that are relevant to your topic or to the searches your target audience will perform to find products or services like yours. As long as the site is built properly (see our posts on &lt;a href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/The_Title_Tells_It_All%21/"&gt;titles&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/We_all_scan_the_headlines_so_does_Google%21/"&gt;headlines&lt;/a&gt;), this is what it takes to for search engines to prominently display your pages. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;(Need help with your content? We offer a &lt;a href="/content.htm"&gt;ghostwriting service&lt;/a&gt; for our clients. If you're not our client, see if your webmaster or marketing advisor can help.)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The days of keyword stuffing have passed, and poor quality content written just to appeal to the search engines will no longer be so easily forgiven. SEO strategies that worked wonders before will now do little to increase your ranking, and their effectiveness will continue to dwindle in the coming months and years.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Providing useful, high quality content that educates your visitors and holds their interest is your best option. Rather than fanatically calculating your keyword density and obsessing over whether &amp;ldquo;web site&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;website&amp;rdquo; has more local search juice, simply deliver good, useful content that meets the needs of your target market. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description><link>http://www.friscowebsites.com/RSSRetrieve.aspx?ID=9840&amp;A=Link&amp;ObjectID=159262&amp;ObjectType=56&amp;O=http%253a%252f%252fwww.friscowebsites.com%252f_blog%252fWebsites_Under_Your_Control_Blog%252fpost%252fWithout_good_content_forget_SEO%252f</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.friscowebsites.com/_blog/Websites_Under_Your_Control_Blog/post/Without_good_content_forget_SEO/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:58:00 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>
