Builders in Athlone

Whether your are a builder in Athlone or a carpenter in Galway you need to think about using he web to promote your business.  The tradesmen who ignore the web in the past now realise that in the ultra competitive building space that having a website can make the difference between getting a customer and not.

Here are 5 simple steps to getting a website.

1. Gather as much information about what you do as possible.  Photos of of your work,  testimonials and records of work.
2. Contact a website design company who will talk you through the process.
3. Work closely with the company to deliver a professional and complete message.

Search Engine Optimisation

  Search Engine Optimisation is a term that is getting greater recognition in the Irish business community over the past 12-18 months.  As more and more business people put up a website they realise that their new site can be like a idyllic Philippine Island.  Beautiful to the eye but nobody visits it.

Primary Position in Limerick are an excellent SEO company and one of the best in their area.  They provide a free site review and are excellent to deal with.  Why not start with them on your path to leaving the Philippine island and becoming a busy main street business online?

If the business you are has any level of competition on web search it is highly advisable looking at working with a reputable Search Engine Optimisation expert.  Beware out for the information on the web that tells you that it is just a matter of following 10 steps to getting found on Google.

Yes there are a lot of sensible practical steps to help that happen but for a term that a lot of people are looking for speak to an SEO expert. The right person will advise you on correct B2B and B2C strategies to getting your website found for the correct business terms.  It is not a short term engagement either and involves the right mix of on page changes, internet marketing, off page development and actual work on your whole business strategy in general.

Google Analytics Doesn't Do Everything

Well it doesn't claim to do everything to be fair.  Its latest release makes it a huge mistake not to use it on your website and it is well worthwhile spending sometime playing with the advanced features for your site.


If you have a website and do not know your site statistics it is pretty straightforward to add it to your site in the first place and this is one of the first things that you should do when you build a site.

One of the things that does make me wonder from time to time is how would a person know that someone called them based on their phone number on the site.  More and more people just use Google as an advanced Yellow Pages.  You should at least ask people how they found your number but unless you log calls using a CRM system you more often than not forget to.

It would be excellent if there was a Phone Analytics tool that could show how much of your business from a website was from viewing the phone number and then dialling.  Perhaps it exists on an off-line tool like the CRM system above but I think for the moment you just need to ask.

The World is Full of Idiots - Have a No Download Day

Strong words but it is true.  Every day we get e-mails, tips, product info on the latest gadget that we can use to make our desktop more productive.  Tools to do graphics, manage our to do lists, improve our surfing the internet experience We blindly download them,  play with them for a few days, weeks and then forget them and even worse then forget to unistall them and make our PC, laptop get more and more bloated.

My advice today is a productivity one.  Look at the tools that you already have on your desktop and learn a little more about them.  Looking for a Productivity App?  Use MS Word.  Create a List.  Open it every day - update ' print ' post save.

Need a note taking application - use Notepad
Need a graphics too - you actually don't - leave the graphics to the designers.  Need to draw circles, boxes and lines - your desktop publishing tools can do that already.

Learn about what you have stop looking over the horizon.  Save your self time learning new apps when you haventt even learnt the apps you have already.

Google Experts - Where are You

Absolutely everyone who uses the Internet now uses Google but so few people are experts in the use of it and can use the power to its maximum.  As part of my website design business in Cork customers often ask me how to get on the first page of Google thinking that as I am a web designer that I am also an expert in all things related to Google.

My short and sweet answer to them is that They cant get to #1 on Google!.

Well not actually true.  You can be number one on Google if the topic that you blog about or the site that you create does not have a lot of traffic.  For example if you write about Ping Tutus for Sheep farmers then you will be number one in Google in a couple of days (come back in a few days and Google this search term and I bet chances are that this post will be on the front page.

But if you want to figure on the hallowed ground for a more competitive area then you need to have some serious Search Engine Optimisation done (SEO for short).  What is SEO?  This is not an area I am expert in.  I know an awful lot about it but will never claim to be  expert as it is a full time job done by people with laser like focus on the topic. There are a large number of factors for getting good ranking here are only 5 that make a difference (not in priority just a dump of items)

1. Keywords on your main page and how they are placed and ordered
2. Your domain name
3. Your domain age
4. Links to your site from other sites
5. Ratings of your site on social networks

There are many many others but this is just a start.  Google Experts beware!

Why is there a Google Map Next to my Competitors Link?

If you have ever Googled a service or business or service you may have noticed a listing of results with a Google Map to the left with the business names next to them.  These results are generated by using the Google Local Business Center service.  Add your business listing and details to this service and put your business name into the appropriate category and it will be added to the listing. Google helps you to step through the process very easily with a video and help files.  As part of my Web Design business I do this as part of my service for all clients.

If there is a lot of competition for your market and related bsuinesses have already your site may not appear on the listing and you have to work on regular Search Engine Optimisation techniques to ensure that Google lists you higher.  However if your competition has not added their site then you may possibly be the only listing there.

Here are 5 tips for adding your business to the Local Business Center your site

1. Fill in all the categories that are there for your niche (research your keywords to make sure the categories are accurate).  You can create your own categories if you do not like the ones Google presents to you.
2. Ideally have a local number with the local prefix.
3. The closer your business address is to the city centre the better as Google checks this. 
4. If possible add some additional information, an image or a video as this shows up attractively on the map and also shows that you are not just a spammer.
5. If you have not done so on your site create your address in a hcard format which is an XML standard for writing your contact details.  The current buzz is that this makes your details more accessible to Google and the Business Center.

5 Twitter tools to Waste the Rest of Your Day

Here are some tools that you can while away the whole day on Twitter with looking at who is following who, counting your followers, grading your performance and so on.  One for a rainy day up a mountain with a broadband connection.

• Twitter Grader  http://twitter.grader.com/ - Allows you to calculate your Twitter Grade.  I played with this for a while and basically you have to be tweeting regularly (every day really  as if you stop your grade slides away down) and also you have to be followed by people with lots of followers.  Check out the site.  It is fun to see where you are in the ranking for your area.
• Twellow - http://www.twellow.com It claims to be a Twitter Yellow Pages.  It is built like a ?Yahoo search engine and looks at your profile and then puts you into a section.  Lion taming has no section.
• Doesfollow http://www.doesfollow.com/  Check who is following who.  Its like when you were (or are) a teenager and asked if X was dating Y.  Now you can do this all day long.  I check to see if @Oprah has seen the light yet but she hasn't to date.
• Twitoria - http://www.twitoria.com - Checks your (or others for that matter - strange) to see if they have been sending Tweets.  Useful for cleaning out inactive followers who may have been either spammers or just joined Twitter and  gave up when their fingers or brains got tired.
• Xefer http://xefer.com/twitter - Shows when you tweet and when you reply.  Cool graph if anything else.  No surprise that I don't tweet when I am asleep (well except when I slip in the odd feed).