There is no question that your content needs to be accessible on mobile devices and tablets. With an ever increasing percentage of traffic coming from smartphones and tablets, there are plenty of reasons your business needs to be paying attention and making sure your site is optimized but do you need a separate site or just one that will adapt to the endless amount of new devices being released every day?

For some, it makes sense to create an app or separate mobile site if your visits are browsing on different devices for different reasons. For example, a music app call Rdio has a standard site for desktop computers, but when visiting the site on my mobile device, I am presented with a condensed version of the content, sticking mainly to product features and then I’m prompted to use the app made for my phone rather than access the full site.

Why? Well it is always due to the context of the situation. When I’m on my phone using a music app, it’s very likely that I am there to listen to music, and for this reason a native app is necessary so it will not interfere with phone calls or other features.

Compare that to another site, like Mashable where the context is similar for mobile and desktop browsing. For this reason it is less important to have a separate site, especially considering the amount of content that would need to be duplicated and maintained. Instead, Mashable reorganizes itself, making the large amount of content easier to navigate on the smaller screen space.

When creating a new website, mobile devices and tablets should be at the forefront of the conversation, determining what information is most important in order to make the most of the limited screen space. Only then can the content be expanded and added to for the larger space of desktop monitors.

Drupal is a good example of a CMS that offers more flexibility and control over the way content is handled on your site. More often than not, a normal “brochure-style” website, which consists mainly of your standard About, Services and Contact areas fit nicely within a simple CMS like WordPress. When organizations need to provide many different types of content, like directory listings, events and entertainment packages or extensive employee listings that all need to be easy to manage, that is where a more flexible CMS may need to be considered.

Like Drupal, ExpressionEngine is another amazing CMS that gives developers full control over the way your content is organized and handled in the back-end of your CMS. In addition, each type of content can be manage with customized forms so you don’t have to fit all of your information into the “Page Title” and “Content” boxes that most standard CMS’s provide.

This makes managing content and keeping your site up to date, while maintaining a consistent look and feel easier than ever, even if your site is more advanced than others.

Unfortunately Google didn’t follow it own rules and is now going to experience decrease Search Engine rankings for at least 60 days before it is able to make a run at increasing it’s rankings again.

While this is most likely an unintended mistake on Google’s part, it must be quite embarrassing for the search giant to have made this sort of oversight with so many people paying attention. It’s good to see them taking action for their own mistakes and taking the initiative to punish their own browser’s site for breaking the guidelines.

What do you think about Google’s run-in with itself? Does this violation make you think any differently of Google, Chrome or both products?

When you are writing new content or trying to target new keyword phrases, it is common to overdo things a bit by trying to cram too many keywords onto a single page.

You want your keywords to appear in your content naturally because over using keyword phrases can make human readers skeptical of your information. Since search engines are trying to think like humans, they will pick up on this too and you won’t get the maximum value out of your content.

Concentrating your focus is very important for SEO. You want to really drive home your site’s value for specific keywords. By trying to add too many on any single page, you are confusing search engines and diluting the value of each keyword phrase.

If you have a large number of keyword phrases to target, you will need to consider spreading your efforts across multiple pages. Linking to these other pages from the home page will ensure that search engines will pay attention.

Spreading your keywords across multiple pages on your website will also give you an opportunity to add keywords into each URL, enhancing the value of your site for other keywords in addition to giving all of your keywords more emphasis.

You Need SEO To:

• Drive more traffic to your web site
• Establish you as an authority in your industry
• Increase brand awareness
• Reach a broader market
• Increase revenues and increase profit centers

Now with the most recent iteration of Web History, Personalized Search is working in the background even if you are not signed in to one of your Google accounts like Gmail.

Since 2009, Google has maintained their offer to users of Personalized Search is a great thing, even when you are not signed in, and since it’s by default, even when you don’t think of turning it off. This is what Google has said about Personalized Search:

+View and manage your web activity. You know that great web site you saw online and now can’t find? From now on, you can. With Web History, you can view and search across the full text of the pages you’ve visited, including Google searches, web pages, images, videos and news stories. You can also manage your web activity and remove items from your web history at any time.

+Get the search results most relevant to you.Web History helps deliver more personalized search results based on the things you’ve searched for on Google and the sites you’ve visited. You might not notice a big impact on your search results early on, but they should steadily improve over time the more you use Web History.

+Follow interesting trends in your web activity. Which sites do you visit frequently? How many searches did you do between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.? Web History can tell you about these and other interesting trends in your web activity.

Personalized Search then, changes your results by using data based on the types of sites you select from any and all of your searches. This may have an interesting effect on your Search Engine Optimization efforts as sites that a person typically searches for, or that Google determines they searching for based on past searches, get a boost in rankings.

As a user, if you don’t want this, next time you search in Google click on the Web History link in your results page (top right). It will have a link that you can click called “Disable customizations based on search activity” and that is the one you want.

There are many reasons you would want to turn Personalized Search off.

1. You may not like the idea that Google is recording what you are doing online. This has always been an issue with Internet activity. Statistics on what we do on the Internet are now being tracked in the name of helping us as opposed to the old more obvious, “we want to know what to sell you” approach.
2. People switching computers will see different results unless they use all of them the same way. What’s the likelihood of that? Hope your IT guy doesn?t need to spend too much time on your computer and use Google at the same time. And you thought deleting history from your browser was enough?
3. People will visit more and more of the same sites. It will become more and more difficult to find new things, original sources, and small niche publishers. I want to come up with the brilliant search query, not have Google tell me what I meant based on my prior history. I’m human and reserve the right to change my mind.
4. By trying to get ever closer to human intelligence, search results get weaker. I may be searching for schools for my children and where to repair my car next and then my wife using my computer could search to shop online or plan our next vacation. Track that!
5. Internet Explorer keeps track of my history as does Firefox just fine so I don?t need a Google database somewhere in Internet land to keep a copy of my data.

It seems obvious that we use search engines when we don’t know what we are looking for. So why would I want my past search history to limit some new and unique (to me) question I need answered?

How about this approach: let me search for what I want.

I’ll be clicking on “Disable customizations based on search activity” now…

Most people think that once their site is up, they don’t have to do anything in order to compete for their desired keywords. It is actually the opposite — increasing your ranking is like a marathon race to the finish line, or in your case, to the first page.

Your site needs to always appear fresh and active to both search engines and visitors. This means regular content updates to your blog or other pages, integrating social media, and a range of other SEO tactics. But once things are in place and you are blogging every week, what else needs to be done in order to compete for those tougher keywords?

Off-page SEO, as it is called, refers to the factors that affect your search engine results page ranking that happen off your site. The main off page SEO factor are back links to your site. We get a lot of questions from people asking what a back link does to help SEO value. One good comparison is looking at a back link the same way as word-of-mouth marketing.

You get recommendations all the time when talking to people and someone tells you, “Hey check out [this company], they make a really great [product]“. You are going to take that information and based on a couple of factors, decide whether or not that company is for you.

If the person who told you about this company is an expert on a particular product or service, you are more likely to trust that referral based on the relevancy of the referral and the trustworthiness of the source. A back link works the same way. If a search engine is out and about, crawling pages on the web and it finds a link saying “great service company” pointing to your site, that search engine will evaluate your page and adjust your ranking for that keyword based on similar factors.

• Was the site that linked to you an authority or expert on the subject?
• Was the site trustworthy and did it contain quality content?
• What were the keywords in the link?
• Did the content on your site reflect the keyword subject area?

As search engines “hear” more about your site by finding these back links, your ranking will improve as you are viewed more of an authority in your field. Combine that with effective on-page SEO and content updates and you are well on your way to the finish line — first page search results.

Joomla is a powerful content management system (CMS) that has the ability to adapt and grow with your business needs. So when seeking a perfect way to give your online biz a boost, picking Jomla web design is an excellent platform and may be the right solution for you.

Our company can help you with that. We have an awesome team of Joomla web designers and programmers that ensure you get exactly what you need to make it happen. Here are some of the main services we provide you:

• HTML to Joomla Conversion
• Joomla Customization and Development
• Upgrade Joomla 1 to Joomla 1.5
• Joomla Website Migrations
• Joomla Menu Development
• Joomla Template Design
• Website Design and Maintenance
• And a lot more?

We have been in business for years, and we have the skills and experience to meet whatever you need for your websites. Just contact us and let us know about the nature of your business and your target market. We give you the straight talk about how best to customize Joomla web design for your website, specific strategies implementation, and interface set up.

We also have a wide array of options and resources for your Joomla powered websites, as well as custom design templates, plug-ins and amazing components for developing the simple to complex solutions you need. Check our past and present Joomla projects we?ve handled for our clients.

Give your online business the edge over the competition utilizing the best Joomla web design solutions you can find today. Contact us now. Your satisfaction is guaranteed!

What if you want more from your website? Traditionally websites are just pages on the web, but with the way things are now, your site ends up being more like your company’s own web application, delivering up-to-date information for visitors and also giving you an opportunity to help manage things internally which can speed up your workflow!

Here’s an example, any CMS worth using will give you an area to manage member accounts, they might not always get their own profile like Facebook or Twitter but what you get is a place online to manage contacts and see how frequently they login to your site. Maybe you need a place where all of your employee’s can access customer phone numbers or contact information on the go, well they can login through a smart phone or tablet and get the information they need and get back to business!

At some point you’re going to need to collect other information from a customer, maybe a work order or specific information that gets sent to your team back at the office. What if instead of filling out a form by hand, going back to your office and inputting that information into your computer you could simply fill out an online form through your site that connects directly to the people / team that need that information? You’ll save time (and money) because things will get moving faster.

Sometimes you aren’t getting information from people, but what if you need to show them something? Images, documents, etc. can all be managed on your site and you can even have a system in place to protect those files and make them accessible only to people you choose. Now you have another way of getting people on your website and keeping them there instead of simply emailing back and forth.

Of course there is plenty more where that came from and considering the fact that a CMS can be expanded through existing plugins and custom developed add-ons; your options are literally endless.

How could you take advantage of a CMS to solve a problem? Contact us today to find out more!

The proposed rules recognize that the Internet is the main communications tool that virtually all people use to get information important to them. And contrary to fears of overreaching, the Internet user is an intense researcher who is going to be well prepared on what questions to ask about their matter and which attorney they will hire.

Prior proposed rules included an unworkable pop-up page requiring the website visitor?s name and information before being able to see the rest of the website. The new proposed rules on the other hand are very Internet friendly and join all other industries and businesses who wish to provide consumers with accurate and easy to access information.

?

Here are some highlights of the proposed rules:

1. Websites are advertising but do not require pre-approval from the bar like radio and tv ads. This is no doubt related to challenges presented by the size, complexity, and frequency of changes of websites. Though websites did not have to be submitted to the Florida Bar for approval under current rules either, the proposed rules specify that websites are otherwise subject to all other advertising rules.

2. There is no requirement for website pop-up disclaimers or visitor click-throughs. To have required this would make websites an afterthought for lawyers. Now they will be mandatory marketing to stay ahead of the competition.

3. Lawyers can reference past results on their website provided that such information is objectively verifiable. This provides more marketing opportunities but is likely an area to be closely scrutinized by the Florida Bar.

4. Attorneys can use testimonials on websites provided:

• they are made by someone qualified to make the testimonial,
• they are the actual experience of that person,
• they are representative of what clients of the lawyer generally experience,
• they are not written or drafted by the lawyer,
• the person making the testimonial has not been given anything of value to make it, and
• a disclaimer is made that prospective clients may not obtain the same or similar results.

The rules provide Florida attorneys the chance to correct any rule violations presented by their website prior to being held accountable or being disciplined by the Bar.

Also, Social Media is now subject to the same rules and is therefore open to testimonials and past results.

Law firms across Florida will be upping their game now. Law firms across the country already have since the ABA is ahead of the curve on a less restrictive use of the Internet by attorneys and more and more jurisdictions are adopting such an approach.

And with pressures from Legal Process Outsourcing (the outsourcing of back office functions to attorneys in India), attorneys must establish a vibrant web presence and an open Social Media profile that is helpful and engaging.

Now more than ever attorneys need informative websites. Here are four steps you can take now to stay competitive:

• Redesign your website with the goal of making it easy to navigate and easy to understand who you are and what you do.
• Create helpful content and make it easily accessible from your website. This can be whitepapers, newsletters, and blog articles.
• Integrate Social Media accounts into your website and stay active on them. Social Media is mandatory for attorneys because that?s just how people are communicating.
• Start marketing your website and get a specific Search Engine Optimization plan to start getting found online.

The relationship based lawyer who is easily accessible online will be the lawyer who stays most competitive going forward.

Why not make it easy?

?

Consider the low chance for a return phone call being like someone getting to your website and then immediately going to the next search result. We measure that for our clients. It’s called “bounce rate” and you want it to be as low as you can get it. Here is where leaving a brief message on voice mail that provides all necessary information and is to the point is what you also need to achieve on your website.

1. Introduce Yourself.

State your name. Almost everyone gets this (but you’d be surprised). Also clearly state the company you’re calling from. Provide your phone number at the start of the message. Also provide it at the end. Include the area code and say it slowly so they don’t have to play the voice mail repeatedly to get the number right.

Website: Your company should have a clean two or maximum three color logo that should be prominent on your website. Make finding the phone number easy. Put it in large, easy to read font on the top right section of your website. Contact information should also be on the footer of your website. This still means you should have a contact page. Sites that don’t have a contact page or give any address information tend to be looked at as illegitimate businesses.

2. Tell Me What You Do.

Especially for your first call, you should let me know what you do. “We’re the investment experts.” “We keep your IT systems secure.” Then give me a quick elaboration of exactly what that entails.

Website: Your web presence, and other print materials for that matter, will have a tag line or short description of what you do. This is your value proposition and needs to be clear and concise. On your website you want to provide quick and specific examples of your services and what the benefits are. If you don’t explain to web visitors what you do quickly, they will go to the next Google search result.

3. How Can You Help Me?

Let me know what you can do to solve a specific problem. “I want to show you how we can improve your efficiency by giving your workforce mobile devices in the field.” Will I call you back? Maybe. But you just had to leave a message anyway so you have nothing to lose by giving me information that may interest me.

Website: This is like the call to action button or link on a website. It should be clear, easy to find near the top of your website, and fit well with who you are and why I should be interested. Your call to action has to attract attention while concisely telling users what to do and what they will learn or get if they take action. You also want to use words to encourage website visitors to take that action. Having a “Submit Now” button really isn’t enough.

4. Don’t Let Me Forget Who You Are.

Maybe you have a free offer or were referred by one of my business colleagues or personal friends. Let me know that you will call back to follow up on your call. Maybe I will take the call next time because I am interested. At least I know you are interested and believe you can help. I could very well follow up with who referred you and find out if you did a good job for them.

Website: Do you have a blog or downloadable pdf white papers? Giving information to website visitors is a good way to increase the chances they will remember you. How about a newsletter sign-up or special offer? You need to have the primary Social Media Marketing buttons on your site – Facebook page, LinkedIn company page, and Twitter profile. Friends refer friends and Social Media is becoming increasingly important for referrals and continued prospect interaction. Remember, having a low bounce rate is good but having your prospective customer come back is even better.

As a society we’re so wired now that we have less time to analyze more messages coming at us from more directions. It’s the same busy business people listening to your voice mail that may also be drawn in to your website. Keep these tips in mind to succeed in capturing their attention long enough to deliver your message.