Powerful Web Design in Hamilton Ontario Area
By · CommentsAlmost three years ago I was contacted to do a web design in Hamilton Ontario area by Garage Door Canada for their new, and not yet opened, Smilthville Ontario business. This was an interesting challenge since the owner, Walt Kulakowsky, would be counting on his new website to produce most of the initial business for his Garage Door Showroom.
We did some very extensive keyword research on the garage door business locally, developed a large keyword list, and found several online opportunities in the Niagara, Hamilton area. As usual the competition online had not done proper SEO to their websites so we knew what had to be done to beat them in the search engines.
Next we created the website around the keyword research and a new Hamilton Ontario web design was born. We optimized each page of the website to ensure that we would get traffic from several relevant keywords. We also included a blog so that Walt could easily create new content and further target important keywords.
When the website was completed we began to work on the “off-page” SEO. We used blogs and articles but the major traffic generator we used for this site was video. By optimizing the videos, blogs, and articles properly we ended up with several prominent Google listings for many of Garage Door Canada’s important keywords and phrases.
Here’s an example;
In the first year of operation Walt told me that the majority of his entire business could be related to his website. Almost two years later he tells me that much of his business can be attributed to his online presence.
Walt understands that SEO is not a one time effort but an ongoing practice. As a result we continue to support the Garage Door Canada website, watch their rankings, and ensure that the valuable leads from their website continue.
Oh, by the way…if you’re looking for a great garage door and equally great, friendly service, visit Garage Door Canada and tell Walt I sent you.
If you too would like a powerful website design in the Hamilton, Niagara area, or anywhere else for that matter, please give us a call.
St.Catharines Niagara Website Drives New Business!
By · CommentsThis St.Catharines website is not quite three years old yet it drives customers like it’s been around forever.
This year Ryson’s United Studios of Music is celebrating its 73rd year in business. A well established business within the St.Catharines, Niagara area Ryson’s had become the place for music lessons, musical instruments and musical instrument repairs.
In July of 2008 Rysons Music entered the online world with their new website, www.RysonsMusic.com.
Don and Anne, the owners since 1981, wanted not only to display their products and services online but they wanted to begin to interact with their current customers and future ones online.
Web Traffic Solutions was hired to create this new St.Catharines web design and we began with the most important part of a website, the keyword research. Through discussions with Don and Anne we began to get a feel for their business and to understand what terms might be important. Then we researched the terms to determine which ones people actually used in Google, and which of those we would have a chance to rank for in both a short period and the long term.
We then constructed the website around the keyword research paying attention to the important Search Engine Optimization, “on-page” factors, and built the content of each page around the terms we wanted to target.
We attempted to make the site visually appealing to Ryson’s customers but it was even more important to try to present the casual and homey feeling that you get when you enter their music store and studio. To accomplish this we used lots of images and video. Then we engaged in an online promotional campaign that included video marketing, email marketing, and article marketing. The results are staggering.
Over the past three years www.RysonsMusic.com has become a necessity to the St.Catharines music store’s business. It has been responsible for a continuous amount of new business as a result of being found in Google for several important search terms related to their business. The website can boast prominent Google rankings for literally hundreds of important search terms that are driving targeted website traffic, and ultimately new customers to their store.
The most important part of the website has become Anne’s Blog. Ryson’s customers and music students love this part of the website and many of them are featured in the several blog posts that Anne has published.
www.RysonsMusic.com is likely one of the best website designs in the St.Catharines, Niagara area in terms of actually producing new business.
This was one of the most gratifying Niagara web design projets I’ve been involved in. Don and Anne are long time friends of mine and last year Don passed on. I’m so grateful that I was able to contribute in some way to his business and watch him actually get excited about watching the web analytics on his website.
I’d like to thank Anne for allowing Web Traffic Solutions to continue to work with Ryson’s on their online presence. We’re very proud of this particular Niagara website and wish Anne many happy years of business to come.
Murray.
Email Marketing: Still Affordable and Effective
By · Comments
Although I spend most of my time working on my client’s websites, social media sites, and online promotional activities, there’s one online activity that I would like to see my clients use more.
Email is still the most popular activity that people do online. Yes, more popular than Facebook and Google combined.! Yet there are so many small businesses that are not taking advantage of this easy to use marketing tool.
There is a fear about email marketing that needs to be addressed. It is NOT spam! No, we’re not talking about filling the inboxes with messages and advertisements to people who don’t wan’t to receive them. Email marketing is all about sending valuable, useable information that the reader WANTS to receive and has agreed to subscribe to.
Then there is the security and privacy component. In Canada you are responsible to ensure that collected private information, i.e. a name and email address, is stored securely. The way to do this is to subscribe to an email service such as Aweber or Constant Contact. These services will ensure that your database of email information is secure.
The only way that you can send an email through these services is when someone has “opted-in”, or agreed to receive your messages. This way you cannot be accused of spamming, but in addition, your messages will be better received by the reader because they actually want to read your stuff.
Email marketing provides several benefits but here are just a few to consider;
- Affordability; Email is likely the most affordable and effective form of advertising available to any business. The average return is $50.00 for every $1.00 spent on email marketing.
- Tracking; There are few marketing channels that are as good at tracking campaign results as email marketing. You can quickly gain information such as clickthrough rates, open rates, deliverability rates, etc.
- Professional Email Templates; There was a time when you had to design and build your own email templates in order to have something attractive to send to your subscribers. But no longer. Both Aweber and Constant Contact provide a great selection of pre-made temlpates to choose from.
Email can be effectively used to gain new customers as well as keep current ones. There’s really not a better way to keep in touch with your fans on a regular basis.
Just follow the email rules and provide good solid content and information that your readers will want to read.
Google Declares War! Are You The Enemy?
By · Comments
Google is all about collecting and distributing good content to internet searchers who are looking for specific information. Nothing new here. But there’s been a growing problem with the #1 search engine when it comes to content spam and “gaming” the search engine for rankings. You see, many SEO’s and internet marketers figured out that by re using someone else’s content, you can quickly copy, paste, and get rankings for various targeted search terms.
Well that applies no longer! According to Google search engineers, Matt Cutts, and Amit Singal, Google has made a major change to its algorithm and will be penalizing non-original, or low value, content. This change is significant as it will effect 11.8% of worldwide search results.
What does this mean? If your site is benefiting from duplicate content, low-value content, or other content as provided by “content farms”, you can expect to lose your Google rankings over the next little while. Google is specifically targeting “Demand Media”.
Here’s a quote from the Google Blog post:
Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.
The update is currently in the U.S. only but will be rolled out elsewhere over time.
Over the years there’s been a continual controversy over whether duplicate content is ok or not. I think that Google is making this pretty clear. If you want good ranking results in the search engine, provide good quality, original content for your readers.
Is Your Business Using Facebook?
By · CommentsThe popularity of Facebook is continuing to grow for small to medium sized businesses to market their wares. Recent stats tell us that about 70% of merchants are now using Facebook to some degree to promote and market their business. That number is up from last year which was 50%.
Facebook is now the most popular online method of marketing for local businesses. Yes…even more popular than the “big G”, Google at 66%.
The top methods of marketing for local business are; Social Media, SEO/SEM, and Email.
Small businesses are still challenged when it comes to online marketing because of their limited and rather small budgets. They typically have no marketing expertise or resources either. It’s because of this that the methods that are gaining the most attention from small businesses are those that offer low cost, simple solutions that can provide immediate results.
At Web Traffic Solutions we’re pleased to offer small business marketing solutions that are both affordable and effective. We now do “Custom Facebook Pages”.
