Now that we're heading into the third week of the government shutdown, businesses across the country are affected to varying degrees. Obviously those business owners with direct governmental ties, for example those with government contracts, are affected the most, but the longer the shutdown continues, the further down the effects trickle.
Most business owners know that they should have a blog on their website, but often once the blog is in place, there's some hesitation or confusion about how best to use it. Filling your blog with content isn't something to be done randomly - you'll want to adopt a strategy to make sure that you attract readers and, more importantly, retain them as customers.
The concept of a social media crisis is nothing new. Tales of people saying regretful things on the internet are nearly as old as the internet itself. The snag with online foot-in-mouth syndrome, however, is that unlike in real life, the things you say online continue to live on forever. Even if you delete the text in question, if someone has already drawn attention to it and reposted it, that text can still be spread around and read by countless numbers of people, long after you unsuccessfully tried to take back what you said.
If you've been at all involved with your site's SEO over the past few years, it's likely that link building has been an important part of your overall online marketing strategy. This is because Google has always placed such great importance on how many external sites link back to yours, as a determining factor for how relevant and important your site is to your niche. However, with increasing improvements to the sophistication with which Google determines site ranking, there has been some talk that link building is no longer as important. But is that really the case?
Fifteen or even ten years ago, the web was a sea of text. Sure, there were photos and even some video, but bandwidth limitations kept these aspects of the web to a minimum, and if you wanted to get a message across, well-written copy was the way to do it.
When you're trying to market your business online, the goal is to create a web presence that is popular and far-reaching, with regular site traffic and a community of engaged social media followers. Of course, this can be easier said than done, especially when it comes to creating awareness beyond your company's existing circle of contacts. Guest posting is an effective way to quickly build your presence, as well as boosting brand recognition, and it's pretty easy to get started, even if your blog or site is new.
Even just a few years ago, it was unusual to see people browsing the web on a phone or mobile device. Tablets hadn't really become popular yet, and smartphone browsers weren't quite up to the task. These days, the technology for truly mobile browsing is catching up with user needs; what is still lagging, however, is web design.
Redesigning your website is a major project that's not to be taken lightly. Aside from the expense involved, there's also likely to be a significant time and effort investment on your part. A website redesign can make you feel more confident about your online presence, but there are some factors to take into consideration when deciding when and how you're going to go about it.
