Whether it is business in general, your website or your personal life…the more in-tune, educated and experienced you become with any part of your life, putting first things first becomes more and more evident.

I think it is a common trait for entrepreneurs to move forward with an idea regardless of the planning and preparation that is sometimes needed.  I think this is a strength.  Yet I think there still needs to be a balance as well.

Here is an example:

Lets say your going to build or have someone build a website for you.  Where do you start?  I think most people (including myself) try to get something up fairly quickly and then focus on trying to get traffic to the site.  That seems normal right?

Let me be very clear in saying this:  ***You are potentially wasting your time (and money)***

Let me support my last comment with a numbered list descending to the first thing you should do:

9.  How can you have an prosperous business online if you have no traffic?

8.  How can you have traffic if you don’t do SEO and social media marketing?

7.  How could you effectively do SEO and social media marketing if you don’t have a branded website?

6.  How could you have a branded website if you don’t have a brand?

5.  How could you have a brand if you don’t know who your niche/target market/ideal client is?

4.  How could you have a niche/target market/ideal client if you haven’t done a business plan?

3.  How could you have a business plan if you haven’t established values, goals and principles to consciously live by (in business and personal life)?

2.  How could you have goals, values, etc. if you have not written a “life’s” and “business” mission statement?

1.  How could you write a mission statement if you don’t put first things first? :)

The simple answer is that you “can not”.  In order to achieve anything ***effectively*** listed above you need to do the the thing that comes before it.  Too many times small business owners put the chicken before the egg and pay for it with their time and money.  Think about it.  If you purchase a “quick” website for $500 and find out later that it is not working for you in any way shape or form…you have lost $500.  The same thing applies to every aspect of your online ventures.  You will eventually realize that the “quick” and cheap solution is not doing anything for you and then you will have to do it all over again.  You would save money in fact if you just invested properly from the beginning.

If you “invest” into your business properly from the beginning and put first things first, you will reap the benefits of whatever you have invested 100 times over.

The good thing is that you can always go back and do the thing that maybe you overlooked or missed.  The further you get into these types of things, the more it becomes very clear that some things needed to be done first.  You will know what they are.

Take the time, do the work.

This article on putting first things first was written by Shane Snyder Co-Founder and Project Manager of Pixel Me Pink a San Diego Web Design business.

2.  What is conversion optimization?   

3.  How do you do it?

4.  Putting first things first

In todays internet marketing world, terms like “SEO”, “Social Media Marketing” and “increased traffic” are becoming recognized and used frequently.

The idea is that if you drive a bunch (I use “bunch” loosely :) of traffic to your website, you will get more sales in your business and this is partially true. The thing is, in order to receive a noticeable result (people calling you) you need to have quite a bit of traffic because on average the majority of the people who visit your website will never contact you. In order to get “quite a bit” of traffic you need to do some SEO work to your site, or pay someone to do it for you. This takes time and a substantial budget with the right company to really do things correctly and so what do you do in the meantime? Or a better question is…what should you do from the very beginning?
 

Build or augment your website into one that “CONVERTS!”

Let me ask you a few questions to get the juices flowing:

1. What is the point of sending a “bunch” of traffic to your site if there is nothing enticing them to do anything while they are there?

2. Or better yet, what is the point in having a website AT ALL if it doesn’t work FOR you? Meaning drive traffic into becoming a sale.

Before you consider doing any SEO or developing a social media marketing campaign, you should make sure that your website is set up so that when it DOES get a substantial amount of traffic or any traffic, that it can convert it into a sale.
 

So what is conversion optimization specifically?

Quick definition: Conversion optimization is the process of strategically implementing different “calls to action” and user friendliness/flow tactics so that you can convert as much of the traffic you do get, into taking action on your website in whatever way that may be.

This could be anything from contacting you by phone, signing up for your newsletter, taking advantage of an “irresistible free offer”, to simply guiding the potential visitor through the website to see/read/interact with the information you would like to feature the most.

By employing conversion optimization into your site, you will increase your websites effectiveness dramatically.
 

So how do you do it?

1. First things first.  Have you ever heard of an “irresistible free offer”?

Put yourself in your ideal clients shoes and imagine something that would really solve your most common problem or provide you with something that you would be very interested in. For example, if you were a dentist you could put a “free teeth whitening” call to action on your website so that when potential visitors came to your site, instead of leaving the site without interacting with you they may sign up for the free teeth whitening thereby providing you with an opportunity to build a relationship with this person and potentially provide them with more services.

This free offer should be something that is EASY for you to give away for free, something that you may already do all of the time, while at the same time enticing an ideal client to contact you or somehow provide you with their information. Think “top ten” lists, informational reports, instructional video…

2. Usability/Flow. It is important to know this simple fact: people do not want to see everything about your business on every single page of your website.

What are the top 3 features of your business? What are the 3 top things that your IDEAL clientele are interested in? Focus on these core features on your home page and your main navigation and you will benefit greatly. This doesn’t mean that you can not expound upon other aspects of your business, but these things can be organized and put to great use in a blog or linked to throughout the main pages of your site for the people that want to view this more detailed secondary information.

Once you have chosen the top 3 features of your business that your ideal clientele is most interested in, be sure to have each page guide the visitor through the website in a natural and flowing manner. Using our dentist as an example, if a visitor is on the “about” page and something about the dentist’s experience, schooling or credentials makes them want to call in for a consultation, a link to the contact page or the dentists telephone number should be made very apparent. Or lets say this visitor would like to see some of the dentists work. Somewhere on that page should be a link or a call to action to view the gallery of the dentists past dental work.

The point is to have each page of your website link to or somehow flow into the other pages of your website in a manner that is conducive to the content being shown at the time.

3. Simplicity. How many times have you been to a website and had 70 potential choices to make?

Because it is natural to want to share EVERYTHING about your business with a potential visitor, all too often you see websites that have far too much going on. This creates “choice paralysis”.

Again, the important part here is to focus on the most appealing or sought-after features of your business and bolster them. I know you want visitors to know about who you are, what services you have, check out your portfolio, read your most recent blog post, check out your new sale, sign up for your newsletter, etc., etc., etc…but by cramming all of that onto each page, not only will most people simply leave your website, the people who were genuinely interested in your business will become confused because of all of the options pulling at them and take no action at all. It’s the websites that focus on what their perspective ideal clients biggest concerns or desires that convert the most traffic into sales.
 

Putting first things first

At the end of the day conversion optimization is what will get the phone ringing. Use these 3 steps on your website and you will benefit from a higher conversion rate, from a higher quality of client.

Written by Shane Snyder, Co-Founder of Pixel Me Pink a San Diego Web Design company

Today we are giving some love to the start-up businesses of the world.  We were all there at some point and so I think it’s important to help them become successful as soon as possible.  Especially in today’s world.

Starting a business is exciting, sometimes scary and can sometimes be confusing so below are a few tips to help you out.

Tip 1 – Make decisions quickly and without regret.

• You started a business right?  That probably took a lot of courage and faith to do and so as you move forward with your business continue with making decisions based on passion and from the “gut”.  In the beginning you need all of the momentum you can get so don’t allow the opinions of others or outside information to slow you down or make you second guess yourself.

• There are so many things to consider and to evaluate in the beginning of owning a business and so making quick, decisive decisions based on the best information that is available at the time will keep things moving forward.  You can always fix something in the future, but if you slow down because of “choice paralysis” you could end up without a business!

• If you are afraid of making decisions quickly because you might “mess up”, you are probably comparing yourself to other more established businesses and this is pointless as you are different and should be!  Your also forgetting that the majority of your business systems and success is going to come about BECAUSE you made these mistakes.  You can not learn anything and make things better for yourself and your industry if you don’t know what those problems are.  MAKE MISTAKES! they are good for you :)

Tip 2 – Represent yourself as you actually are.

• If you are a home based operation do not pretend to be like you are some kind of large corporation!

• I think almost everyone runs into this issue in the beginning.  I know that we did it in the beginning of Pixel Me Pink and I know now how silly it really is.  Think about it…you probably started your own business to make things better in your industry, to break the mold of how things are done because you know you can do it better!  So why do we think that we should answer the phone like a call center, or say “we” when really there is just you and the cat and copy all of the other things that somehow has been deemed the “right” way to do business.

• People are not turned off by home operations or smaller start-ups like you may think.  There are benefits to working with these types of businesses and people know that.  So by “acting” like you are something that you are not, not only are you attracting the WRONG type of clientele for yourself, you are also basically lying.  This white lie will come out eventually in one form or another and that is no way to start the reputation of your new business.

• When doing your marketing or basically representing yourself at any point it is so important to be who you really are.  The reason for this is because every business has an “Ideal Client”.  Really, the last thing you want to do is attract ALL and ANY business you can get…even in the beginning.  If you are attracting clients that you can not take care of properly or that for some reason do not jive with you and your business model you will in fact “lose” money every time.

Tip 3 – Don’t make your prices low just because you are new

• Look, I get it.  Your new.  Maybe you are not yet comfortable with charging what your really worth because you feel like if people know that your new that you wouldn’t be able to charge the same as someone else.  Maybe because of some random fears that are deep within your sub-conscious (that were probably cultivated when you were 10 years old) you feel like there is no way you could charge what you need for your business to be successful.

• There is nothing wrong with giving discounts and having sales and in some situations there is nothing wrong with doing free work so that you can gain some exposure or build your portfolio.  But there is a big difference between doing that and making your prices extremely low just so that you can get more clients.  Remember you will attract the wrong type of clients because of this (people looking to scrape the bottom of the barrel usually expect more then what they are paying for and will never value what you do).

• Instead start your business with a fair rate that will keep your business thriving.  It will be much harder to raise your prices in the future then it will be to lower them and you also need to remember that you and your business can only help so many people in the world if it is broke all of the time as compared to how many people it could help if it is successful and fueled by the energy of money.

• If you make your prices low you could start a butterfly effect of destroying your own industry.  If you make your prices far below that of your competitors suddenly they will need to lower their prices as well to stay in the game.  The entire standard of pricing in your industry will eventually change to be much lower and so when you are finally ready to raise your prices you won’t be able to because those prices are now not seen as “standard” by the common public (remember you are not the only new business in your industry doing this).  Not to mention this could negatively effect the other companies in your industry, possibly put them out of business and hurt your economy even further.  Of course this is a bit of a dramatization, but I think you get the point :).

Tip 4 – Treat your business and responsibilities as if it were a 9 to 5 job

• It’s a new business so of course you want to work 50 hours a day and 9 days a week.  STOP! :)

• “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” – Parkinson’s Law.  This is to say that because you have told yourself it is acceptable to work 70 hours a day and 14 days a minute that the work that needs to be done will always take up the available time.

• Instead you should always have a plan of action for each day.  You can then focus on one task at a time that is within any project you are working on.  Sure there will be some distractions as you probably “where all of the hats”, but no matter what happens you should redirect your entire focus into whatever task you have set forth for yourself and do not stop or move on to anything else until it is completed.

• Having a set of working hours will also do many things for you and your business.  Your clients will respect you more.  You will complete tasks faster.  You will inherently gain more control and structure over your business in general.  You will prioritize better and you will have a more balanced life-style. I don’t care WHO you are…if you don’t get some rest, entertainment and physical activity, you will eventually sputter out and lose all of the ground you have worked so hard to gain.  You will have more energy to handle the important things you need to do on a daily basis which will provide you with a better end result in the long term.

Tip 5 – Don’t be afraid to share some of the responsibilities

• One of the biggest if not THE BIGGEST mistakes a new business can make is being scared to hire people.  Whether it is an intern, part-time or full-time help, there is nothing that can help your business grow faster and better short of tripping over a rainbow and falling into a pot of gold.

• Fabienne Fredrickson may or may not have coined the term “brilliance work”, but what it means is vitally important to your future success.  Everyone has it.  It is the type of work that your not good at or excellent at.  It’s  the type of work that you are utterly “brilliant” at.  This is up to you to figure out.  At the same time other people in this world are brilliant at something that they can probably help you with in your business.  It could be aspects of accounting or managerial work.  It doesn’t matter.  What’s important is that you find people to help you based on THEIR brilliance work and not how low you can pay someone to do a crappy job for you.

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!!  Every-time you do a task that could be done by another person better and more efficiently, you are literally losing money.  The sooner you can come to accept this the sooner your business will flourish.

• Here is a great example:  we once had a client who was managing their own twitter account for 30 minutes a day.  They had been doing this for 6 months.  Not only could this client of ours not manage their account as good as we could (because it is our brilliance work) or derive the results they were looking for, this client had also lost money 2 times.

Once was because he spent 30 minutes a day for 6 months.  That comes to 90 hours and his hourly rate happens to be $100 per hour.  So he spent $9,000.00 to obtain 600 followers on twitter with no return on his “time” investment.

The second way that he lost money was because for 90 hours he could have been focusing on his “brilliance work” and the after effect of working on your brilliance work is always further business success, monetarily or otherwise.

To have hired us to do it for him it would have cost a total of $174.00 ($29 times 6 months) and he would have received more twitter followers that were specifically interested in what he does and definitely would have received a return on his investment because of the free training and material we provide.

To conclude

I truly hope this helps you break out of some of the molds that have been put in place by old beliefs and habits.  To have started a business you are a rare kind of person.  Embrace this and remember that you can have anything you want in life by literally and simply envisioning what you want, believing that it is for you to have and putting one foot in front of the other in pursuit of it.

As long as you don’t quit, no matter the mistakes…you can never actually fail.

Hi again.  In “Part 1” of this article series we talked about how to find the best San Diego web design companies for your specific needs and in this article I will be providing you with a list of questions you should ask while you are shopping!

As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, your main focus should be on WHO the provider really is.  By doing this your experience with the provider, the success of your business, and your over-all end result will be so much better.

I think it’s safe to say that when ANYBODY is shopping for something, especially web design, that the “go-to method” (although flawed) is to take a look at the portfolio of work that a design company has (look at the pretty pictures) and then ask them how much something costs or what their rates are.  You then make a list of the best firms based on their work and the price, you pick one and then you’re done right!?  Wrong.

In fact this is a recipe for disaster. This is an out-dated and completely incorrect way to shop for services in the San Diego web design and internet marketing industry simply because there are too many things that the general public is not educated about regarding what it takes to create a website and how to compare web developers.  This is definitely one of the main reasons that providers are able to get away with providing low quality work, poor results and lazy customer service. The general public is shopping for these services blindly and feeding into these poorly developed companies.  Stop asking for the price and start doing your homework!

The Biggest Mistake You Can Make

This point is extremely important so I am going to give you an example:

Imagine that you are looking for San Diego web design companies.  If we are using the old method of shopping around, you would look up a list of providers, check out their work and ask them, “how much”?

You would then pick one heavily based on price.

Based on all of our clients and general experience in the Web Design and Internet Marketing industry, I am not exaggerating when I say that there is a good chance your experience with this company will be one of frustration, disbelief and confusion.

So at the end of the day you didn’t get what you wanted, or the person working on the project “disappears”.  Whatever it is, you now need to spend hours of your time doing research to find someone who is going to treat your project as if it were their own.  Your “time” as a small business owner is “money”.  So you will have truly spent time and money at first (albeit a cheaper price) on a provider that did not work out.  And then you will have to spend more time and money in attempts to find another provider.

You will spend the money, 2 times, when you could have simply paid a good fair price the first time (saving you time and money in the end) on a provider that had your best interests in mind and who could provide you with a solution that would have produced far better results for your business.

Price is important.  Obviously you need to know if you can afford something, but you should not be purposefully trying to find the “cheapest price”.  What we do takes a lot of quality time, effort, skill and passion to pull off properly.  This is your business…why would you invest as little as possible on something that is producing your lively-hood?  The more you properly invest, the more positive return on investment you can expect.  In buckets.

Think about it this way.  If you needed to take a trip from California to New York, would you buy tires for your car that had been patched a few times, were different sizes and had “some wear and tear”?  …”Oh, you know…they’ll get you there.  Just make sure you stay on the surface streets and stay under 55 mph!”.

If our industry is going to change for the better, our clients need to do their part.  Ask the right kinds of questions and pay your provider a fair price for their hard work.  After all, this is the person or persons that will be directly influencing the success of your company for years to come.

Questions to Ask Web Design Companies

Here are some questions that should help you find the right San Diego web design and SEO company:

1.  What is your process like?

It is important to ask this question because once you pay your first deposit, your project is in the hands of the provider.  Will they communicate with you throughout the process in a transparent way?  Do they set deadlines?  What kind of communication can you expect (email, phone, smoke signals)?  How do they make sure they deliver things on time or make sure the project doesn’t go over budget?  How do they make sure they know exactly what you want?

2.  When and why did you start doing web design/internet marketing?  What is your (or your company’s) mission or goals?

This question is extremely important.  If they do not have an answer to this question, you can be sure that someone started the business based off of their “bottom line” and because of this their business ethics, practices and standards will be sub-par.  If someone is doing this for a reason that stems from a passion or a goal that they have for positively effecting the world with their skills, even if they make a mistake or there is some kind of problem during the process of your project, they will take care of you and make sure that they correct the problem.

3.  Can I speak with some of your clients or see real reviews?  What kind of results can I expect and what have you done for past clients?

This one is obvious.  Don’t settle when the “sales guy” tells you that their clients are “super happy” and starts throwing big numbers and phrases around.  Find out what they are really doing for even their smallest client.  Ask to speak with a current and past client.

4.  What kind of help and support can I expect to receive from you guys once my project is done?

If the company or person you are considering to work with has a system and plan for how to continue helping you at no cost, you can be sure that their mindset is to benefit their clients in the short term and long term.  Because of this you can assume that everything else they do in their business, from the way they take payments to the type of website platform they use will be set up with their clients success in mind.

5.  Can I make updates on my own website when it is complete?

If the provider has the success and benefit of their clients in mind, they will use systems and client management systems on their websites that are not only extremely user-friendly but they will also provide high quality tutorials that were made from scratch and provide training of some kind.  The ones that do not are looking to simply finish your project as soon as humanly possible and then if you need updates or changes they will expect you to pay for them every time.  This is a company that you want to steer clear from as their entire business model is structured to “suck you dry” of all your available budget and because there is a good chance that you are uneducated about what everything “really” means, their tactics will work.

6.  How do you take payment?  Do I do a deposit and then pay the other half when I am happy or do I pay everything up front?  Do you require a contract to be signed?

If a provider has a payment option and deposit structure set up, it can be a sign that they are looking at things from a reasonable and partnership perspective.  If they are requesting full payment up-front, hang up the phone.

Sometimes contracts are necessary depending on the situation, and that will be for you to decide, but if someone is requiring a contract there is a HUGE chance that they are trying to lock you into something because they know that eventually the truth about something will come out and they want you to be “bound” to them somehow.  In my opinion this is a wretched way of doing business and should be frowned upon.

Specifically we know of a company that makes you sign a contract when you get a website from them and if they do any SEO work to your website, according to their contract they OWN the SEO work that they did.  This is ludicrous, simply impossible and is a tactic to keep you from ever leaving them or trying to take your website to another provider. You will also notice that their hosting prices are set up to be monthly and are higher than other providers. This is because they know you can not leave, so why not rake it in with monthly hosting expenses.  This company I am talking about is a major player in our industry.  It is sad that these kinds of tactics are being used by the majority as apposed to the minority and this is why you must ask the questions!

7.  How can I be sure that you can provide me with what I need?

A provider that is doing good business will have a way for you to make a reasonable amount of changes or will have a system in place that is setup to address these kinds of issues.

If someone says to you, “we are the professionals, don’t worry about it”, hang up the phone.  There should be a clear-cut understanding that you may not be happy with the end result even if they have tried their best and their should be a solution to the problem.

8.  How will I know that my website will work in all the current browsers in their recent versions (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari)?  How will I know that my website is coded properly not only for usability but for SEO purposes?

A good provider will have a process that they can describe to you for making sure your website is functioning properly in the current versions of all the browsers.

A provider who could care less about your project will not have a quick answer to this question.

Remember:  Google and other search engines look at the code of your website to see if things are correct.  If they are not then you could be “dinged” and have troubles showing up in search results.

9.  How long will it take to complete my project?

A good provider will be able to quickly and easily answer this question.  They should have a system in place for knowing how long it will take on average.  Using web design as an example, for a quality product it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.  Of course this depends on the size and scale of your project.

A provider that is “turning and burning” websites will tell you a week or even less.  Some providers claim that they can build a website in 24 hours…this is silly.

Just make sure that they have a “time-line” and “milestone/deadline” system and you will be good to go.

Finally, our Favorite Web Design Question:

10.  What are your rates?  How much will this cost?  How do you come up with your prices?

A good provider will openly explain how they come up with their pricing structure.  They will NOT bill hourly and this part is important:  If their price is within your budget and you are satisfied with all of their answers to the above questions…pay it and move forward knowing that you have chosen a good provider that is going to produce many more results and monetary benefit for you and your business. If it is not in your budget but you like the provider then do not try to haggle with them and realize that their price is where it is for a reason (which after asking all of the questions it should be obvious).  Listen to their advice and maybe start out with a smaller version of the project you are trying to receive.

If they’re not such a good company they will try to weasel around the question, not know how to answer it, or say a bunch of stuff that really makes no sense or addresses circles around the question without directly addressing it.

If you are trying to purchase web design and the price is under $500 dollars, for even the most basic services, you need to realize that you are not going to get much for the price and you may end up spending more money in the long run to correct that mistake.  Also completely avoid paying for something on an hourly basis as this is a horrible rate structure for both the business and for you.  You don’t want to go into a project “thinking” it is going to cost one thing because “that’s what he said!” and then end up having to pay more.  In general this is a poor way to do a project and has many bad side effects.

To Sum Up

Ask the right questions, find the right provider, reap the rewards

After years of hearing horror stories from our clients and everyone else that we have ever had a conversation with about the web design and internet marketing industry we decided to make it a mission of ours to educate as many people as we could because if everyone understands our industry better, the sub-par providers of the world will be naturally and automatically kicked out :).

Please do your research and ask the questions in this list.  It may take a little more time but I guarantee you will thank me later. 


Good luck!

If you’re shopping for a web designer or graphic design services and/or internet marketing services, it’s very important to educate yourself as much as possible before deciding on a particular provider.

Most of our clients have come to us with horror stories about the service they received from other providers in the web development industry and although our industry seems to be notorious for bad business practices, half of the problem originates with the lack of due diligence and improper shopping tactics by the client.  The following 3 step process is intended to assist you in making the right choice when it comes to choosing a professional or company in the San Diego web design, graphic design, and internet marketing industry.

I tell individuals all of the time that you CAN NOT simply look at the portfolio of work that someone or some business has done and then ask what their price is to achieve a good end result (good end result = having a great experience with someone who actually cares about your business, receiving the design or marketing exactly like you wanted it and paying a fair price).  You would not believe how important transparency, customer service and over-all dependability becomes as soon as you are done making your first payment.

In addition, if the San Diego web design company you are speaking with is solely concentrating on “bottom of the barrel” pricing, chances are the end result is going to be sub-par or even horrible. In the web design and graphic design industry, at some level, the phrase “you get what you pay for” is true.  It takes time, skill and most importantly a real passion for doing what we do.  If any of those things are missing you can be sure that there will also be something missing from your end result. Also keep in mind that there are 100 different ways to build a website.  You could go to 5 different providers and they could all say the same “things” but the way that those things work at the end of the day can be completely different and some are definitely better than others.

If I were to give my best advice, it would be to say that if you find the right provider for you and your specific situation by following the steps provided below, the price will not matter when all is said and done.  This is because whether it be a website or SEO, if your provider actually cares about your business, your end result will return your online investment to you a hundred times over.

There are many different types of providers out there, from friends that say they can build you a web site and college students to freelancers and large firms. They all have their own set of pros and cons and will all do things differently, so finding a provider that will work for YOU is the first step.

Step 1 – What kind of professional is best for me?
To start you can ask yourself a few questions:

What is your website budget?

(When considering your budget, try to remember that this is your business, your lively-hood.  The more you properly invest, the better the return will be)

Are you a brand new business with little to no money to invest? A friend that would be willing to help you get a web design and plays around in Photoshop might be the way to go for now. You can also try your luck at getting a college student to do it for you for free or for a low cost so that they can build their portfolio. Keep in mind that the end result might not be to the highest of standards, and because they have no business systems in place, the process can be a long and confusing one.

Let’s say you do have a budget, but it’s not enough to afford a San Diego web design team focusing all of their attention on your businesses success. You should definitely consider working with an established freelancer. Though keep in mind, if you need a Logo, you might be able to find a reputable freelancer to design that Logo for you, and he or she may do a wonderful job. The problem is that your business needs other things like a website, or SEO, and as a busy entrepreneur or smaller sized business, you are very busy and don’t have the time to shop around and build a new relationship with a new professional every time you need something.

This is where small to medium sized San Diego web design and Internet Marketing companies come in.

A lot of times these places will provide more than one service and their rates are also affordable for other established small businesses. You can get most of what you need related to the industry in one place, and only have to build one relationship.  You can also find providers that have a burning passion for what they do.  Inherently you will work with someone who is taking your project personally and will provide you with a one on one custom tailored kind of experience.  There are many benefits in going this route yet it is not without its flaws.

In today’s day and age, much of the work of your project is being sent overseas with some of these internet companies. Some of the problems that arise from the practice of outsourcing are things like; longer project timelines, low quality of work, and a general lack of communication and consideration when it comes to your project. We will talk about finding a firm that is invested in your business & project in step 2.

And let’s not forget about the “walmart” of San Diego web design and SEO companies.  If you do not care about your business, your project and are wanting to spend as little money as possible…go with these guys :).  They have departments for “sales”, departments for “customer service” and are set up to be focused on one thing and one thing only…”how much money can we strategically make by the end of our fiscal year”.  Nobody cares about your business or your actual return on investment and should be approached with caution.

The above comments are our opinion and experience within our industry.  I’m sure their is a “walmart” of San Diego web design out there somewhere that isn’t so bad :).

Step 2 – How can I find someone that actually cares about my business?

So you’ve chosen the type of provider you want to work with. So what’s next? Well this is where things can get a bit tougher, and a lot of it is going to depend on your “feelings” as well as the “facts”.

No matter which San Diego web design provider you have chosen for yourself, the prices and rates are going to vary, so at the end of the day, you’re going to need to base your decision on who the provider REALLY is, and why they are providing the services that they offer. Are they in it to help people, or are they in it simply for the money?

Specifically, if you’re a business owner, you are probably very passionate about what you do, and everything regarding your business is very important to you. The provider you choose should be just as passionate about their own services. When you speak to them they should be genuinely concerned about your needs, and show signs that they will take ownership of your goals and overall results.

If they do, chances are that your end result will be just what you wanted, and if there are any miscommunications or mistakes, they will do their best to resolve these issues for you without much hassle.

If you ask for a quote and they are able to give you one within a couple minutes right then and there on the phone, hang up and never call them back.  It takes time to properly create a proposal for your needs and they should want to discuss those needs in detail before they could possibly come up with a quote.  If they are able to give you an actual quote over the phone that isn’t a very “rough” estimate then they are making assumptions and the quote they give you will be definitely over-priced.

Talk with them for a while, get to know them. Search for reviews or ask to speak with past clients. Check out their online portfolio of web design work. If you find someone that hires their team locally, shows genuine concern for the success of your business, and is more than willing to let you speak to their past clients, more than likely their prices will be fair and because they have done such a great job for you, your return on investment will make the initial cost ignorable.

Step 3 – What are they the best at?

Last but not least, chose your provider based off of what they do best!

Some website service providers focus on a specific industry, demographic, or situation. If you have followed the above guidelines, at this point even a generalist would provide a great service for you. Still, if you have the option, go with the provider that not only gives you a good vibe, but is also a professional at servicing your specific needs.

So instead of focusing on whose price is the lowest, take a little time to get to know the people who are going to be a main factor in your success, and you will never regret it.

This article was written by Shane Snyder, co-founder of Pixel Me Pink, a San Diego web design and Internet Advertising company. The information provided is based off of research and first-hand experience with the clients of Pixel Me Pink.

Let’s paint a picture…

Somewhere in let’s say Georgia there is a guy sitting down at his computer and looking for somewhere to eat when he goes to California on vacation. He’s just typing words into the computer. Words that any normal person would type; “best San Diego Restaurant” “Seafood San Diego”, etc.  As a restaurant owner you would want to come up for that search. Easy enough, right? Right! This is where it all starts. The KEYWORD.

Keyword research is something that is often overlooked by small business owners, mostly because they don’t really understand it.  The assumption is, if you have a website, they will come. If you blog, they will come. If you have pretty pictures, they will come. Not true! They will only come if they can FIND you. It is your job (or your web professional) to hone in on what your ideal clients are typing in the search bar to find you.

If for some reason the budget isn’t available to have a professional do keyword research for you, we at least want to make sure you have some tools to do it yourself. So we’re giving you a way you can do it for free because it’s just THAT important to your web presence.

So here we go!
Using keywords effectively can be broken down into two steps.
Step 1 – Keyword Research
Step 2 – Placing your keywords strategically into your website

Today we’ll cover the first.

KEYWORD RESEARCH

The objective is simple. Find words that a potential client would type in to find you. Compile a nice list, and then implement them. The tough part is, how do you compete with the thousands of other sites that are doing the same thing?

This is where the COMPETITIVE RATIO comes in (the picture to the right is showing competition results in the “green bars” that relates to “PPC” or “pay per click”.  This does not necessarily apply to the competition level by actual websites that are coming up first for a particular search).

Say you sell pet supplies. If you simply focus on the keyword phrase “pet supplies” your small business is now competing with websites like PETCO, Pet Smart and several other big name companies with big marketing budgets. Instead, try and find keywords that are still being searched, but are not being focused on as much yet and are still relevant to your business. Keywords that you will have a more realistic shot at competing for.

For example, if you do most of your business locally, try adding your location to the search term, ie: “pet supplies san diego”. The searches for this term may be less but the competition is less as well, thus giving it a better ratio.  The fact that your website and business is also more closely related to the search (pet supplies in san diego) means that the people that visit your site will have a higher chance of “converting” into a sale.

Here is a more detailed example:

Let’s pretend you own a dog grooming business for celebrities in Hollywood.  Which searches would you want to come up for?

Of course at first glance you may feel compelled to go for the search term that has a high amount of searches, but you have to consider the quality of those searches.  The majority of the people typing in “dog grooming” are not even looking for a service like yours.  Some of those searches could even be someone doing research on the dog grooming industry to see if they want to start a career or business in that field.  Also, keep in mind that because the competition that is already on the first page for that search term is high, it would take a fairly large monthly budget and a lot more time in order to “beat” all of those other websites.

Now with the other search (Celebrity pet grooming Hollywood), you may only have 1,000 people searching for that per month, but they are looking for exactly what you do and so your conversion rate will be high.  You will also be able to be on the top of the first page in Google for that search with a smaller monthly budget and in a smaller amount of time because the completion level is much lower.  

Really it’s important to keep things simple, try not to over-complicate the process and think like your ideal clients think.  What searches are people doing that your business is specific or at least relevant to?  It is also important to focus on just 1 or 2 main keyword terms in the beginning, and depending on the situation, probably in the future as well.
OK, so now you have picked 10 or so keywords that you would like to come up for in Google.  Now what?  How do you dwindle them down to just 1 or 2 main keyword terms that you are going to focus on?

You need to type them into Google and see who shows up.  Out of those websites that show up in the first 3 positions you need to find out how much THEY have invested in their own SEO.  How many pages do they have on the site?  How many “backlinks” do they have for their site?  What is their page rank?  All of these things and more need to be analyzed before choosing the keywords that you want to try and be at the top for. We have our own tools but below are a list of tools that you can use to do some of this research on your own.  Remember that you should have a professional doing this for you if possible as there are many other aspects that need to be analyzed, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be helped before you have a workable budget :)

Tools to check out the competition:

Google Adwords can be used to find out how many people are searching per month for a specific “keyword phrase” and it will also show you the competition level on that keyword phrase for “PPC” also called “Pay per click”.

Googling “site:competitorsite.com” shows how many pages a competitor has in total.

Yahoo Site Explorer finds how many back-links a competitor has.

Google Page Rank shows the over-all “page rank” of a competitor.  In general the higher the number, the more clout they have with Google.

Once you have used these tools to get a general idea of the competition level for each keyword you are considering to focus on you can pick the best and easiest 1 or 2 out of the list and start your campaign.

KEYWORD INTENTION

Take our company for example. Most people would think it obvious for us to want “Web Design” as one of our keywords. The truth is though; someone who types in “Web Design” could be a student looking for more information on the industry, someone wanting to see examples of good web design to put in their blog, etc.

As long as the search volume is still there, the more specific you can get the better. For example, “ affordable web design ” or “ san diego web design ”.

This is just a guess, but as a small to medium sized business owner I am going to assume that you have a website so that you can make more sales?  So if someone types in “dog grooming” or “dog groomer”, which one do you think is actually looking for a service to spend money with?

So have fun with it and remember to keep yourself grounded.  It’s really easy to over analyze this process and of course you want to focus on the right words for your business, but if you simply hone in on specific keywords that are highly relevant to your business and then understand the intention behind those searches, you will do just fine.

A good way to avoid neglecting this most important part of your business is to allocate a different focus for different days of the week, such as client meeting days, development days and admin days.

Imagine if you were in the middle of an important project and had to leave to meet a client. This would be counter productive to your project. Let FOCUS be your best friend.

• each time you change focus, you delay the outcome
• it takes more time to get BACK to a project than to complete it

Instead, schedule say Tuesdays and Thursdays to meet clients. That way you wake up knowing that you will be engaged in meetings all day and can mentally prepare. This leaves your “client work days” un-interrupted and you will get much more done.

For instance, we have dubbed every Friday at Pixel Me Pink to be FOUNDATION FRIDAY. On this day we don’t do ANY client work. Instead our whole team works on our systems, our strategies, our newsletter, our social media campaigns, our website, etc. One full day every week focused solely on improving our business.

What new level of success could your business reach if you mapped out your goals and dedicated a whole day each week to achieve them?

That is 52 whole days a year dedicated to making your business BIGGER, BETTER, and MORE PROFITABLE.

You must simply shift the way you work and beware of the Parkinson’s Law.

Work expands to fill time available

• set short deadlines for yourself
• use a timer to complete projects
• don’t EVER multi-task

Write down ALL projects on your plate and prioritize them by

• What’s going to bring in the most money fastest?
• What is the lowest cost to implement?
• What can be implemented with the greatest ease?

Put a star on current “Project of the Moment” and focus ONLY on this until completion.

• They don’t know what to do
• In what order to do it in
• Or don’t have the time to do it

This creates a problem because if your ideal clients don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. If other professionals don’t know about you they can’t refer you business.

It is your duty to market. You possess certain skills and talents that others do not. People out there NEED your service or product. If you don’t let them know you have it then you are being stingy!

How often should you market?

Ideally 2-4 hours a day

How do you find that much time every day?

It’s more about managing your priorities than it is managing your time. You can defer tasks or delegate them, chunk down projects to smaller steps, and set aside time on your calendar for making calls, writing letters, or updating marketing materials.

Most self-employed people do too many things!

• Client work (important for you to do)
• Marketing (important for you to do)
• Administrative, Bookkeeping, Invoicing, Errands, shipping etc.
  (hire help as much as possible [local virtual assistants are a great option] )

Think and act as if you work in a corporation. Don’t treat your business like a hobby. Eliminate all things during 9am and 5pm that aren’t

• Client work (what makes you money)
• Client attraction/marketing (what brings in the money)

Always ask yourself “is what I’m doing right now getting me closer to my goal?”

Learn to say “no” to projects that aren’t in line with your goals and to people who make requests not in line with your objectives.

If your not sure how to do some of the following, not to worry! I’ve linked out to some great resources, so do as much as you can. Every little bit helps. I will also be doing several follow-up posts with some detailed “how-to’s“.

Did you know that one out of every five searches on Google pertains to a specific location? It’s true! And from this bit of information, Google Places was born.

Google Places is easily the most powerful free marketing tool available to local businesses. Like the old fashioned Yellow Pages, Google Places offers business information organized by category. However, unlike the old fashioned Yellow Pages, Google Places is available on any computer and mobile device. This is important because many people use their mobile device as a resource for finding stores, services and businesses.

You can also create and offer coupons that appear next to your business listing in Google Maps and other Google search results. This service also is free and it creates a unique redemption code and an expiration date for your sales campaign. Importantly, Google creates and displays web and mobile versions of your coupons so that you can encourage customers to redeem them in any way they choose.

More benefits include:

• Service areas: Designed to help internet marketers make their address private and help brick and mortar establishments cater to people in a geographic region

• $25 Enhanced listings and tags to help users search

• Business photo shoots. Businesses can upload their own photos or request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which can supplement existing photos
  Find out how you can have Google take your business’s pictures for free!

• Customized QR codes which can be placed on smart phones and business cards and scanned to help people find your establishment

• Business owners can post real-time updates to their Place Page. This makes promoting special events, offering coupons or incentives easy

• Google Places also offers a personalized dashboard for business owners so they can track the data including how many times prospects have found your business on Google, what keywords they used and where they came from

Simply follow this link to set up your google places space