Missouri Website Builders

The goal of search engine optimization is to show the search engines that your website is important. The single most important thing you can do to (after implementing basic SEO on your website) is to get quality links to your website’s link on other sites to generate increased traffic. In order for your website’s organic search engine ranking to reach full potential, your linking campaign must be well organized and developed.

Links can be directories, social media, blogs, articles, white papers and optimized press releases. Directories are one of the most comprehensive ways to generate incoming links. They are designed to promote links and are sometimes free of charge. Social networks and blogs have also become a great way to generate incoming links to your web site. You should try to control the anchor text of links coming to you as much as possible. Having your best keywords in the link anchor can be a huge help.

When it comes to SEO, linking is a popularity contest. The search engines consider your site more important and rank it higher depending on the number of your sites incoming links. Every link that you do manage to gain, whether it’s from a directory, blog or website, will help build your site’s core strength.

Here are just a few of the benefits of link building:

• Links are viewed as a ‘vote’ for your site
• Inbound links offer a route to your site from other sites
• Links to and from relevant sites help search engines assess what your website’s overall theme is
• A higher link profile can boost your site’s credibility and trust
• More links means more avenues for website traffic to find you
• Improved rankings for your targeted keywords
• Improved search engine robot crawl rate

When mapping out your linking strategy, don’t forget to focus on the quality, in addition to the quantity of the links.   A single, link from a credible website is worth more than dozens of links from junk sites. The relevance of the link and the strength of the site that has provided it, will often determine just how much strength you gain.  If you want to increase the search engine rank of your website, boosts your page rank with the search engines, and generate and increase in the flow of traffic to your site, then quality link building is a profitable investment. Having a good mix of quality and quantity in your inbound links will greatly increase your search engine results rankings and thus, drive more traffic toward your website.

Lastly, do not give up if you are not immediately seeing the positive  results of your linking efforts. The results of an effective linking program do not happen overnight, but rather something that grows over time. Remember, be consistent, be detailed and never stop. Your competitors are not stopping, even if you are ranked number one on Google, you can never stop.

The linking process provided exclusively by The Net Impact assures that links have a smooth feel in the page content, adding to user experience while also contributing effectively to the search engine optimization process. Contact The Net Impact today to learn more about how your business can benefit from a strategic linking campaign!

Source: Original Post from Blog.TheNetImpact.com

Building an online community is a common goal for many brands. In order to do this successfully, visitors need to be able to do a few things when they visit your website in order to get involved in the process. One great way to enhance user experience is to integrate your social media feeds with your website. Social media integration keeps your website fresh, and allows for more visitor interaction.

Displaying your Twitter feed on your website is a wonderful way to show visitors real-time news and events. An attractive Twitter widget can encourage your website’s audience to follow you on Twitter, serving as an additional method for expanding your network. Furthermore, when designed right, a Twitter feed can improve the aesthetics of a website’s layout.

The Twitter Feed module in the Auctori content management system allows users to display their Tweets anywhere on their website. This module takes your most recent Tweets and displays them automatically within an easy to read list for your visiting users. Users have full control over their avatar, how many Tweets to display and even specific grammar settings.

• Display a customized number of Tweets
• Choose whether or not to show your Avatar
• Customizable your Avatar size
• Ability to specify a personalized title
• Styled to match your website for a seamless integration
• Control over past, present and link grammar

learn more about the Auctori web content management system at: www.auctori.com

Once upon a time, in the land of Facebook, there was such a thing as a ‘Fan’. Someone became a fan of a page when they clicked the ‘Become a Fan’ button on a particular fan page. A person had to be on your page to become a fan, but with recent changes to how Facebook allow people to connect with your page, a whole new world of opportunity has opened up.

Recently, Facebook created the Facebook. This button extends Facebook’s like feature to other sites on the web. If users are logged into their facebook account, then they can “like” or “recommend” a web page to all of their facebook friends as they are reading it from the site.

Facebook is the most popular social media network,  everyone from age 11 to 77 are on Facebook. Each user has a news feed where they see updates from their friends. The news feed shows the link their friends like, people their friend added, pages their friends became a fan of and much more. Now if a user has 410 facebook friends, and he clicks “like” on your post, then it will be shown to all of his 410 friends. This is the best free word of mouth advertising you can get. But this does not end here. It gets better. Lets say, Angela  likes a link from one site, and Randy also clicks like on that same link. Lauren who is a mutual friend of both Angela and Randy will see a text like:

Your Friends Angela and Randy liked The Net Impact’s  Link: Who Had the Assist to Your Conversion Goal?

The like feature  is powerful because not only create an excellent platform for word of mouth advertising, but by mentioning two friends liking this post Lauren is twice as likely to click like on your link. This button has the potential to  making your article go viral on facebook.

Find out more about coding and customize your Facebook Like button here.

User Testing –  One Small Change can Make a Big Difference

Let’s  say you have just launched a new website.  Your marketing team loves the web design.  Your IT team is thrilled with the security and efficiency and the C class folks are all lining up to salute.  It’s perfect right?  Maybe, maybe not.  What about taking that quantum leap and testing your site with your intended audience, your customers?  Or, as The Net Impact, an a St. Louis based online interactive agency, recently determined for the City of Wentzville MO, why not test the site from the perspective of your citizens?

When it comes to a municipality website, the usability of the site by its citizens is a necessary condition for performance.  If the  website is difficult to navigate, people leave. If a landing page fails to clearly state what the municipality offers and what users can do on that page, people leave. If users do not like the access to pertinent informationof the website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to find or doesn’t answer their questions, the visitors will be left hanging or will  soon be clicking away to a differetn website. Notice a pattern here?

So how do you determine if your website is user-friendly? User testing allows you to roleplay how citizens will navigate your site. At the same time, you record their comments and responses to their efforts to navigate and move through the site in order to accomplish a designed task.  Sound complicated?  It’s really not.   

For an excellent example of  usability testing review the  recent case study conducted by The Net Impact for the City of Wentzville’s website.  After The Net Impact  launched the  The City of Wentzville’s new website, the city worked with their Web marketing team to conduct a series of usability tests to gauge how user-friendly the website’s navigation and overall experience was for visitors and to get a better idea of ideal traffic flow for visitor satisfaction. TNI created a series of scenarios and tasks for testers to complete on the City of Wentzville’s website.  These tasks were specifically designed to take testers through the navigation pathways of the site and to recreate the experience of a typical visitor to the website.  An impartial  third party service was enlisted to select a broad sample of testers.  A random sampling of testers, with diverse backgrounds including gender, age,  income level, and computer skill level, was determined.  This group best represented the  profiles of actual visitors to the site. As testers performed each task, their mouse movements, clicks and live feedback were all recorded.

Once the user tests were complete, the team of Internet marketing specialist analyzed videos and tester feedback to generate a recommendation report and next steps in order to improve the user experience. From the results we concluded that overall the testers were impressed by the amount of information provided.  Several commented that they wished their own city provided this information and thought this site set the bar high for other municipalities.  However, there were still ample comments from  testers reflecting confusion and difficulty in  finding information .

The Net Impact’s recommendations included consolidating menus, eliminating redundant information and making links to highly requested information more obvious. Some of the tester’s comments also regarded  web design.  The majority of the testers found the site aesthetically pleasing.  Many liked the colors and the rotating photos, but wanted to see more pictures of the city. In addition to suggesting Wentzville add more images to display the character of the  city, The Net Impact suggested different options for the city to make other tools, such as their community calendar easier to find and more simple for visitors to use. – Read more TNI  Case Studies

In conclusion, based on the invaluable feedback from the user testing, the TNI team continues to work with the City of Wentzville to revise aspects of their website to in order to continue to increase effectiveness and functionality. 

Bottom line: User testing is an important aspect of any Internet marketing campaign. The Net Impact employs usability testing as part of our analytics methodology in order to construct  complete online marketing strategies. Remember as well that website testing is an ongoing process, but when managed properly it will drive your efforts and help visitorsrealize a greater satisfaction with your municipal website. Contact The Net Impact today to learn how we can help you find the most effective way to make your website visitors take action.

Google’s latest venture, Google TV, comes from the idea of “connected TV” – televisions  that let people browse the Web for videos, news stories, video conferencing and music.

Wondering how in the world to develop an App for Google TV?

Google has released an initial web development guide to aid those interested in porting their Web or mobile applications to Google TV, the newly announced platform built on top of Google Chrome technology.

• Make it Simple: Identify the vital parts of your app before starting work, stick with one visible mode of navigation or one information hierarchy, make the primary action reachable in one click, avoid the temptation to use abstract icons, limit vertical scrolling, and preselect the user’s next action when you can.
• Get Navigation Right: Google TV users will often navigate with a directional pad, so the navigation model involves up, down, left, right and enter buttons and action. Make your app navigable with one hand.
• Design for TV screens, not Computer Screens: TVs have wider screens, so you should make UI elements slightly larger. Also, avoid highly saturated and very bright colors, and design for 1280×720 and 1920×1080 resolutions, including at least a 10% margin. Use pure white (#FFFFFF) sparingly.
• Pick the Right Fonts: Avoid lightweight fonts or those with very narrow or broad strokes. Use simply constructed sans serif fonts and apply anti aliasing to increase readability. Google TV currently supports only the Droid Sans and Droid Serif font families. If you want to use font embedding techniques to create a more customized appearance, you can, but this relies on Flash design, which will be slower.
• Make Onscreen Text Readable:
  • Limit each paragraph to no more than 90 words.
  • Break text into small chunks that can be read at a glance.
  • Keep line length at about five to seven words per line. Never go shorter than three or longer than 12.
  • Remember that light text on a dark background is slightly easier to read on TV (compared to dark text on a light background).
  • Target body text to be around 21pt on 720p and 28pt on 1080p.
  • Don’t use any text smaller than 18pt on 720p and 24pt on 1080p.
  • Add more leading (larger line spacing) for onscreen text than print text.
• Don’t Use Disruptive Sounds: By default, volume should be low. Make it simple to mute the app. Don’t make interactions dependent on audio cues.
• Use Flash Wisely: Google TV can play 720p and 1080p Flash videos. Use h.264 encoding, not h.263 or vp6. Avoid Flash banner or sidebar ads that include video. Only use one instance of the media player at a time. Be conscious of system memory.
• Be Conscious of Performance: Perceived performance is more important than actual performance for TV apps. Make sure the app never executes so much code that the runtime can’t frequently update the screen and gather user input. You may need to divide a task into parts to accomplish this.
• Use Bitmaps: Use bitmaps to optimize rendering.
• Watch Out for Tweening: Minimize the use of motion tweens to help content run faster. (Source - Read Write Web)

With Google TV, “television is no longer confined to showing just video” explains Salahuddin Choudhary, Google TV product manager, in a blog post. “It can be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player and much more.”

“A successful website in today’s society is defined as a site receiving as much traffic from social media as from search engines.” Does this shocking announcement from the Search Engine Strategies December 2009 Conference surprise you? Well, it shouldn’t.  After all Mr. and Ms. Average Web User, the explosion of social media is your fault! 

You are one of the 400 million people on Facebook who spend spend 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.  You are one of the 105 million plus people out there tweeting away.You are among the 2 billion visitors to YouTube daily. As a matter of fact … you spend almost as much time on social media as watching television!  You are even using social media while watching television!  Entertainment multitasking, is that “multi-taining?”

We are in the age of user-generated content.  Companies are quickly realizing they cannot avoid online consumers interacting with their brands online, yet this exchange is only minimally occurring through their company website.  Let’s face it; no one goes to your international B2B website to hang out with friends and share product opinions.  Your website visitors are not your pals.  With social media, however, they can be your “fans.”   If you want that to happen, go where your customers already choose to meet and develop ways to involve yourself appropriately.  Listen first; then engage them in conversation.  Remember that if you don’t listen to these voices and consider them your fans, you run the risk of making them foes.

So, if social media is here to stay (do you doubt that it is?), and if Facebook and Twitter can be relatively inexpensive, what does this mean for your firm’s very prestigious, costly and carefully managed website? Corporate websites represent legally required information, a powerbase for your brand andmarketing approach that social media sites usually cannot equal.  So, while the website is still the fundamental aspect of online branding, many businesses have greatly benefited by investing time (yes, it takes time) into using social media networks to go directly to where their consumers “meet by choice” each point of interaction having a unique “face” to the public.   Successful online marketers tend to think “one brand – many faces.” 

In conclusion, social media is important, very important, but without the anchor of your corporate website, your brand would be floating adrift on each new conversation current.  Social media continues to expand rapidly to new audiences by new applications.  The growth is driving online interactions everywhere at once.   But your brand, represented by your website, shouldn’t be going everywhere at once.  Remember that every photo you put up on Facebook, every message mashed into 140 characters on Twitter and every storytelling video posted on YouTube needs to be purposeful and must still reflect your company’s image and message.  Who knows?  The next link that drives the next big business deal to your website might just arise from a response to “What are you up to?”

When Website design lacks the sustenance to convert visitors, the Internet marketing strategy suffers. Just because a Web site commands top page ranking does not mean that it is impervious to low conversion rates.

 A well-balanced Internet marketing diet consists of cross spectrum of web marketing supplements.

Website testing provides an analysis of sorts.  Through a series of algorithms, web design landing page testing and other analytics, Web site tests and assessments identify the following:

Redeeming qualities – identify what features of web design appeal to the target audience

Deficiencies – which aspects of the website design fail to convert unique visitors to take a buying acting.

Potential market niches – reveals other potential market niches necessitate fulfillment thus and new business opportunity.

If the Internet marketing diet is deficient in social media, the web marketing strategy could be suffering from social media malnutrition.

•  Does your Web site analytics tell a story of unique traffic statistics generated from Twitter, Facebook Linked In?

Social media has become an essential vitamin for Internet marketing. Formerly, exchanging links with other complementary organizations used to be a primary supplement for Internet marketing. With social media networking being in perpetual evolution, Internet marketing instruments are in constant flux. Aside from the website design,  email marketing campaign and search engine optimization, social media networking enforces link popularity (i.e. exposure).

Does your site have a nutritional, Internet marketing diet of:

• Solid Website Design
• Email Marketing
• Press release optimization
• Website Traffic

The aforementioned components fuel the Internet marketing cause.

• Has the company web site been tested for efficacy, website conversion?

 Read more, please click on “website testing” for a complimentary website design analysis.

Web design only carries the online identity so far. Not branding the company Web site with a logo is tantamount to becoming lost in the abyss of Google surf results. Sites sans the corporate logo tend to lack a certain panache and credibility. The proceeding bulleted list particularizes logo design:  

• Logos are like badges of honor, which lend authenticity to an entity’s offerings.

• Logo design is most effective when it reflects the product identity, appealing to its specific target audience.

• Over the last decade, the following logo design trends have been popular among well-known brands.

• 3D logo  - Well before the debut of “Avatar” three-dimensional logo design have been in vogue for quite some time.

• Eco-smart logos – symbolize environmental responsibility. The IgoCar sharing company exudes the eco-concept by using green to emphasize its font based logo design.

• Conceptual Logos intelligently camouflage certain shapes and features, which are unique to the brand.

• Minimalism logo – Apple and Nike are examples of minimalism logo design.

• Signature Logo –Effective for luxury and designer apparel, signature logos are brand-driven

• Despite the aforementioned list of logo design styles, the most distinctive logo is not limited to the latest trend in logo design.

• The colors used for logo design inculcate specific mental associations.

• Book Antiqua, Didot and Lucida Calligraphy exemplify elegantly stylized fonts, applied to luxury products.

• Purported as the lasted trend, conceptual logo design incorporates and conceals another design element. For instance, Budweiser’s Select beer product line’s brand identity consists of a red crown with five smartly disguised points, representing the five ingredients used to make Budweiser Select beer.

The web design company, The Net Impact utilizes a typeface logo to distinguish its company. (See the example below).

The Net Impact's logo design typifies the typeface logo

If your company needs more Web design or logo design assistance, contact the Net Impact at 888.629.4672.

Overlooking social media design is a tempting prospect. After all, why should anyone pay a web design company to develop a layout for a free service? Nurturing consumer loyalty is the rudimentary objective of social media. Without a visually magnificent fan wall or follower’s page, it’s just one bland social media page among a throng of millions.

It’s no secret that social media design requires more than selecting the templates, available in Facebook and Twitter web applications. Just as the company Web site, stationary and traditional advertising collateral sport the company’s insignia, the social media site is not any different.

Did you know... that social media doubles as a market research platform. Moreover, corporations with social media pages on Facebook and Twitter bolster better page rankings and search engine visibility than those that do not subscribe to social media.

Since, social media remains an enigma to small to large sizes businesses, companies should approach the marketing catalyst with a strategy in mind. Use the following list to refine a social media design strategy:

• How does your firm plan to use social media to heighten brand awareness? 

• Does your firm plan to leverage social media to enhance the company reputation?

• Is your business introducing a new product line or service(s)? Whether social media design is for new or existing products, remember to include the products, logo and other distinctive brand traits on the Twitter and Facebook site layouts. Also, make sure that your company’s Web site has a link to the Facebook  and Twitter sites.

Social media design tip: Compile a list, creating a profile of the specific target segments

Once the social media design is complete, be sure to assign a member of the team the responsibility of keeping the page fresh and current.

 Please click “social media design” for more information.

The Situation

CMA Consulting, a management consulting firm with headquarters in St. Louis, required a website design renovation, which accentuated the company’s brand as an authority in business with an engaging visitor experience. CMA intended to maximize their site’s marketability via lead generation and new business development. CMA also necessitated a redesign geared toward Traffic Based Design™, providing the consulting firm the self-sufficiency to administer site modifications as often as possible—and post frequent updates.

The Solution

To resolve the redesign Website, The Net Impact recommended that CMA architect their site with the aid of their partnered product, Auctori—a Web Content Management System programmed for search engine optimization.

The website design renovation begin with a premise to develop a polished brand identity for CMA that would ultimately bolster targeted traffic, maximizing lead generation. With the website design strategy in place, and using the Auctori engineering software, The Net Impact rendered the CMA’s site build-out. 

To expedite CMA’s website design specifications, Auctori served as an efficient, and comprehensive solution. The finished product was a showcase of search engine optimized pages, an interactive forum, and blog for posting frequent updates. The Net Impact implemented an IP Security system to ensure visitor, client and candidate protection. The security upgrade also gave CMA the autonomy to control their online safety measures.

The Outcome

Partner of CMA, Dan Bean shared, “TNI worked with our existing vendors to integrate some complex database features and assessment delivery functions, and we’ve been impressed with their ability to understand and solve business problems… Moving from a static site to a dynamic one is a leap forward for us as a company as we look to better establish our presence on the web.  We consider the Auctori content management system and our new Wordpress blog to be tremendous assets, and we feel like we have the keys to the car with our site.”

• Read more Web design case studies

If your website design requires a renovation, please click “contact the Net Impact” for a consultation.