I recently had the opportunity to do a website audit and consult for a local Portland non-profit that produces holiday performances. They wanted some feedback on their existing website, which had been build a few years ago. They had the ability to update the website, but it was time consuming and not consistent. It was the opposite of using a Content Management System like Wordpress.

The process I walked them through involved investigating their use of marketing and the different channels such as social media, email newsletters, paper newsletters, print advertising, etc. I was impressed how much exposure they were getting through these techniques. We came to the conclusion that Facebook would be their best use of a social media tool because they could share so much about their productions and performances through video, photos, feedback. Twitter, on the flip slide, just didn’t fit the right age range of who they attract.

After marketing, we dove into the the performance and effectiveness of their website. It’s fascinating how each of us doesn’t really see our website like the rest of the world. Over time, it just looks the same and it’s really amazing when you bring in a pair of fresh eyes to see where improvements could be made.

We reviewed simple things such as the placement of signing up for the newsletter. On their current site, a customer would need to click twice to find it. Ideally it would be best to have it on the homepage sidebar and make it so simple you have your customers simply enter their email address and click submit.

Other items were acknowledging that their current design content section was really narrow, not allowing items to be “above the fold”.  This also caused it difficult to manage upcoming news that should be posted on the homepage. I was eager to demostrate how Wordpress would be a great solution for their website content management . A blog could be created to for the non-profit to post news, have it displayed to their front page, be dated and be archived. A very simple way to keep customers and members to keep in the know about upcoming changes. A great win-win!

Over all, I know the client gained a lot of feedback and suggestions for improvement they could act upon on their own and also receive assistance for bigger tasks such as installing and customizing a Wordpress site  from my business and referred colleagues. It was a great feeling to help my client learn what current actions are helping them move toward their marketing goals and what they can do to improve it.

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• How to pick out a domain name!

Since I provide web hosting and web design, many customers and potential clients ask me how to choose a domain name. Sometimes it feels like all the good domain names are taken and it’s impossible to find a good one. Don’t worry, there’s lots of tricks to picking out a great domain name.

1) Make sure your business name is part of the domain.  Be creative and add modifiers. For example, you want the domain greenowlproducts.com, but it’s not available. You can always add an extra word to the domain like your city abbreviation so it’s “greenowlproductspdx.com”. Another tactic is adding your business entity at the end like “greenowlproductsllc.com”. Remember it’s more important if you are a business to get a domain with a .com. No one will remember .biz or .tv or any other extensions. It’s the truth.

2) Don’t pick a domain name that’s too hard to spell or too long. It’s tough if your business name is complicated, maybe it’s your family’s last name. If that’s the case, then get creative and then simple. If you sell cookies and your business name is Laurelgreddinz, focus on your product and buy a domain like “freshcookiesnow.com” or something memberable!

3) Avoid hyphenated names – most folks will forget to add it or will misspell your domain name. Hyphens work ok with search engines so it’s not the end of the world if you have a domain name with it, but it’s not recommended.

4) Avoid making your domain name a plural. Most folks will forget to add the “s”. Think about etoys.com vs. etoy.com – the worst thing you want is for someone to type in your domain name and they go to a dead page.

5) Buy more than one domain name for your website. No one says you have to just use one. Many larger site use multiple domains and point them to the same site. It’s usually little or no cost, especially if you do 3 or less domains. It also gives you a chance to have an abbreviated domain and fully spelled out domain. Here’s an example, if you have a business or non-profit that is Portland Leadership for Future Women Leaders, the acronym would be PLFWF, which is hard to remember. Instead make the full name a domain and make plfwf.org a domain. Internally you can use the acronym, but exernally spelling out the name might be easier for other clients.

Places I recommend my clients to register their domain names at are canvasdreams.com or dotster.com, both are in the Portland/Vancouver area. They don’t try and upsell you other products like other registration sites do.

Register your domains today, don’t wait till they are taken! Good luck, may the force be with you!

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• Walking through a typical Website Consulting project

This is a frequent question I get asked “How can I get my website to come up high in Google Searches or when particular keywords are searched? How easy is this to do?”

The answer isn’t simple – having your website ranked higher might result in more traffic, but do you really see your ROI? Will it encourage products and services to be bought and sold? Are you aiming at the right target market? The following suggestions focus on changes you can do to attract the right customer.

The key point to remember is that you don’t want to be too broad when marketing your business online and ranking high in a search result won’t equal products/services bought or sold.

CONTENT

It’s crucial that your website is written so it’s easy to read and incorporates some keywords. Be careful you don’t overdue or add too many keywords (about 1 every 100 words). Engage your  targeted audience and draw them in, it’s important to put time and energy into all the content of the website. Hire a copywriter or editor if you need help.

REFERRING LINKS
Google rewards websites when other quality websites link to each other.  Having  quality & high-traffic websites (including blogs, social media sites, forums, wikis) link to your website is a good thing. For example, having your business on yelp.com with excellent customer reviews can be a huge way to gain new clients.

CLEANLY CODED WEBSITE

The foundation and structure of your website can play a huge role in how Google perceives it’s value. It’s important that your website is current and isn’t running extra scripts or excessive information. Running a 8 year old website will not encourage folks to come. Make sure that your web designer meets the basic standards and doesn’t produce a broken website.

Google has many tools to help you improve your website include Google Analytics, Google’s Webmaster Tools, and much more. Get your hands dirty and start doing these simple things today.

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• Google+, is it catering to small businesses and ecommerce?