June 24th, 2010

The basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

by MaryFrances

Is it so hard to improve your search engine ranking that you can’t do it yourself? No.

Time consuming, yes.

It gets harder if you’re in a competitive area “Top Rankings of Realtors in Denver, Colorado” – however, if you have a niche, you’re good. (if you don’t, I’d suggest developing one).


What is Search engine optimization? SEO consist in optimizing a website to make it more visible for search engine as Google, Yahoo, or Bing and therefore to appear in the first pages of pertinent keyword search concerning the thematic of the website. For example, your search keywords for an Mid Century Furniture store website could be “mid century furniture, Denver, Colorado”. The website would be well-optimized for the search engine if, after having typed these keywords, it would appear amongst the first search pages of Google, Yahoo or Bing.

The first step is to choose the most suitable search terms for your site. Then allocate one or two of them to each suitable page within the site. One search term per page is preferable, but two per page is not so bad. Sometimes it is useful to split a largish page, that covers several closely related topics or several aspects of a topic, into two or more smaller pages so that a different search term can be targeted on each of them. Matching search terms to a page’s content is essential.

Smaller pages are better than larger ones because it is easier to target a search term when there is less text on the page to dilute the focus. They are also more user friendly and easier to read.

So, how do I do this?

  1. Select your main search terms. This can be simple, but really think it through. What specific words single out your company the best. Target these and try to keep it simple.
  2. Keep different search terms separated on different pages. If you have two areas of business, mid-century furniture and mid-century nick-nacks, you might want a page for each. Keep them short and targeted.
  3. Link throughout your site and keep it organized. I have always said that scattered websites are the result of scattered owners. Keep it logical and link where it makes sense (to your contact information).
  4. Try to get people to link to specific parts of your website. If someone is talking about your nick-nacks, have them link to that page. Sometimes you can’t control this, but it always helps to suggest it or provide links.

These basic tips will go a LONG way to helping you improve in the rankings. Don’t be afraid to play with your search terms, but also remember it takes a while to “spider” (that’s when the search engines come looking for you) and to rank you on any search term, so do it maybe monthly or bi-monthly.

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May 19th, 2010

Small Business and the Internet

by MaryFrances

In these uncertain financial times, it may seem like a great idea to start a home business or second job by marketing yourself (or company) or creating an e-commerce site on the Internet. However, I am still amazed at how often I run across people who have overspent and over planned on their website in the excitement of getting started. As amazing as spending way too much money upfront seems, it’s a common pitfall in web work-simply because most people have no idea what they’re getting into.

Quite often, the client’s inexperience with websites, terminology, and other pitfalls gets them into trouble. So, let’s look at some of the questions you should be asking yourself and your potential designer:

Do I need e-commerce and, if so, how much?
If you are selling a lot of items and you know you are going to have an amazing first month, you have advertising lined up and customers beating down your door to buy online then “yes.” Otherwise, my motto is to take baby steps.

Put a few items up and have them call or email you to order, then add PayPal buttons. When you know your revenue will be enough to support it, put up a shopping cart. Not before then. I have had many customers come to me who have put thousands into sites that never get used. Start slow and build. Websites can always be changed but you’ll never get back money that was poorly spent.

Do I need flash?
Flash is a favorite tool of Internet users and designers. It’s a fabulous tool – turning basic images into something, well, “flashy”!

However, there are some huge pitfalls to Flash. Flash is basically a dynamic image file, so there are no quick and easy text edits. The cost of having your Web site developed in Flash easily doubles the cost of the website. It’s costly and time consuming to update; you almost always have to go to the designer to redo a page when you need an update. Some Internet users still refuse to install the plug-in, which renders your website useless if it’s all in Flash.

Finally, search engines can’t “see” anything on a Flash graphic. So if your entire site is in Flash, it appears as a big nothing to most search engines. This will lower your ranking on Google and most other major search engines.

I only recommend Flash for high tech companies, anyone needing to appear cutting edge or with a clientele that is more technically savvy. Think about your user, not just what looks great on your computer screen or what a designer loves to create their Web site in.

Can I update the Web site myself?
Many clients come to me with the idea that they will update their Web site once it gets up and running-if you have plenty of time and the desire to learn html, this can be great. Changes can be simple if they are just updating lines of text and other simple links.

However, I often find that the time it will take clients to figure out what they’re doing isn’t worth the time away from their business. Be realistic, just because tutorials are all over the internet, doesn’t mean you have the time to learn enough to update your own Web site.

There are Content Management programs, but most are quite costly to implement and it can be easier to just pay someone.

Should I use the latest trendy programming language?
For most small businesses (and even a lot of large companies), html (and a few flavors thereof) is all they really need to have a professional and informational Web site.

If you need to have databases where information is stored, or dynamic content (something that’s going to change onscreen as you watch) then you might need to hire a programmer. Be careful of what language they are programming your site in. Many programming languages are trendy or outdated. Either can be a nightmare to have updated later in the Web site’s life.

We have even made the mistake of experimental programming with sites and kicked ourselves later. The only way to update them is to completely redo the site later.

Will there be ongoing fees?
Yes! No matter how you design what goes on your page, you will need to register a domain name and then have it hosted. Many people get these two things confused. I compare the domain name to a trailer. You own the trailer, but you still need a lot to park it on-that’s the hosting! So pay for your trailer and then find a spot to park it. That should be all you need. Registering your domain name will cost you yearly (although you can pay several years ahead at a cost savings) and then it costs you money to host the site.

Be on the lookout for hidden fees.

Hosting is one of the most dangerous areas for this. Be realistic, if a company does a lot of advertising they are probably not cheap. No matter how cheap it seems on the front end, look for hidden costs. Do they charge you for email? Do they charge you if you go over a certain amount of disc space. Do they charge you for spikes in your usage? All of these can end up costing you extra, so watch out!

If your hosting is free then you have to ask your self why? Do you get a domain name? Is there advertising you have approved on your site? However, domain name registration can cost anywhere from six dollars a year to thirty-five dollars per year and give you exactly the same results. Don’t pay too much! If you’re in doubt about any of this get an expert to help you. Most Web companies do this on a daily basis and are used to getting the best prices.

First published October 2008

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April 16th, 2010

The Gilliam House

by Roger L. Main

So today’s the big day. You’re finally out of college and you’ve already got yourself a good job that promises a high paycheque. There’s only one thing left to do: find somewhere to live. So you go to the newspaper and you see an ad that says “House for rent” and there’s a price which sounds reasonable, a picture of a cute girl in a racing outfit and a phone number. So of course, you pick up the phone and say “I’ll take it!”

Well, naturally there are other costs involved in moving into a new house. You need electricity (it used to be phone and electricity but you don’t need a phone because you have that really neat, albeit virtually obsolete, cell phone that your daddy bought for you in your junior year). So the realtor selling you the house tells you that you can only get power from “Esoteric Utilities Incorporated”. Then you find out that the “Esoteric Utilities Incorporated” only provides electricity. No gas, so bummer about that ten thousand dollar, multi-burner, professional grade stove that your mommy bought you for a house warming gift.

Then there’s the shock of moving day. It turns out that your dream home has only one room and that one room is too small to fit your bed. The realtor can make the room bigger by knocking down a wall and building out, but, of course, that costs even more. There is a garage, but for some odd reason only a 2002 Toyota Prius will fit into it which is not very practical for that spanking new, Mazda Miata that your daddy bought you for a graduation present. The neighbors come over to welcome you to the neighborhood, including the local mailman (who informs you that you need to pay extra to get your mail) and in the course of your “housewarming” it’s pointed out that your plans to paint your house a 50s retro green will not be permitted by the local neighborhood association as all houses must be painted a particular shade of gray – unless you pay extra, in which case you should use their approved (and more expensive) paint supplier. This isn’t mandatory, but you don’t know that.

Oh, and you can’t have pets unless you pay extra. And your pets will run away from home on a routine basis. And you can’t get any insurance for this house – it’s a condition of renting.

I’m kidding, aren’t I? Surely this is some weird, surrealistic nightmare that is better suited to a Terry Gilliam film rather than to a serious discussion. But I haven’t gotten to the really weird thing yet, so here it is: people do this every day and never question it!

That bears repeating – let me say it again: people do this every day and never question it!

When it comes to buying a house no one in their right mind would rent or buy one straight out of the paper, sight unseen, but oddly enough people are only too happy to sign up with their website host with no questions asked. Your web host provides the “house” for your website – it’s where your site lives so that the rest of the world knows where to go to visit it. But when choosing a site’s house people will happily be swayed by the cute girl in the racing outfit and sign up for the service, not knowing that what is being offered is like our “Gilliam” house: it a) has additional costs involved and b) doesn’t suit their needs at all.

Every single feature of the Gilliam house that I mentioned is analogous to a feature of a web host. Let’s look at those features one at a time.

1) Price. The cute girl in the racing outfit does not have the best price available. She has bought the most ad space in the paper (and on TV and on the Internet) so she’s the most prevalent, but doesn’t the fact that she can afford to buy all of that advertising space tell you something? Like, maybe her prices aren’t the best around?

read more »

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January 24th, 2010

What is RSS (Really sImple Syndication) and why do I care?

by MaryFrances

According to Wikipedia:


RSS is is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works-such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video-in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

As one of our clients put it, “you lost me at ‘web feed formats’ can you start over?”.
If you have a blog, this is all fairly important and if you use our services here at Widget, you’ll end up calling us to ask “where is my RSS feed” at some point, so pay attention!

Think newspapers. Syndication is quite simply broadcasting (an article or cartoon) for publication in many magazines or newspapers at the same time. Ironically, now this term is more often used regarding the content of websites than it is for newspapers.

Really simple syndication comes set up and ready to go on most blogs. On Blogger, for instance if you type in http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml the “feed” will usually automatically come up. That is, if you haven’t changed settings, but we’re assuming here you’re a beginner and you don’t go regularly mucking around in your publishing settings in the back end.

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November 22nd, 2009

How sad for you

by Roger L. Main

So I took my car over to my mechanic the other day and I said to him, “My car’s broken. Fix it.” And then I left. Imagine my frustration when I went back two hours later and found that he hadn’t done anything – my car was the only one in the garage and the mechanic hadn’t done so much as pick up a screwdriver. I found him in the office, on the phone to a friend organizing a fishing trip.

What lousy service!

Okay, this didn’t really happen. I completely made it up to highlight a point. I wouldn’t be able to leave the mechanic without a barrage of questions – simply saying “it’s broken” wouldn’t give him any direction – he just wouldn’t know where to start looking. What’s broken? The brakes? The transmission? The engine? The automatic windows? That little thingy on the dashboard that tells you how much gas you’ve got? And for the mechanic to try to diagnose a problem not knowing where to begin would require checking everything, resulting in much wasted time (and expense).

But we’re about computers and websites, not cars, so it’s different, right? Nope, it’s exactly the same. And, with the advent of email, it’s entirely possible for someone to come out of the woodwork, dump an “it’s broken” message on the doorstep and then disappear, only to be disgruntled later when they find that the problem has not been resolved.

I’ve done technical support and it is, at times, crucial to hold the person’s hand and walk them step by step through the program to try to resolve the issue. In fact, it’s a necessary part of the whole support process. I’ve never come across the “too stupid to own a computer” scenario (http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/wordperfect.asp – for a little light humor at a pervasive tech support myth) but I have received my fair share of customers complaining “it’s broken” and then promptly leaving the shop.

My first response to an “it’s broken” message (apart from a cynical “how sad for you” muttering under my breath) is “what’s broken?” Remember that many of our clients have come to us with pre-existing sites and I don’t know the ins and outs of these sites like I do with the ones that I’ve developed (and even then it may have been months or even years since I looked at that particular part of the site – do you remember what you had for lunch on the 21st of May, 2002?). Sometimes the site has a third party component (like an Ecommerce add-in, for example) that I don’t know back to front, either. So sometimes I need a little hand holding. Here are a couple of tips for reporting problems to help us to help you (after all, that’s what we’re about: we make time for small business).

Tip #1 – As they said in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” DON’T PANIC! This sounds obvious – panic is usually counterproductive – but there are other reasons. Firstly, no matter what the problem with your site, it can (and will) be fixed. Secondly, if you panic then, like dogs sensing fear, we pick up on it and we panic. And if we panic we make mistakes (as much as we deal with machines we’re only human). If we make mistakes then we might be able to fix your problem, but we could introduce new ones and on goes the cycle.

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October 13th, 2009

5 Insider Secrets For Writing With Confidence by Ali Hale

by MaryFrances

Found at pickthebrain.com some fabulous pointers for anyone who wants to blog (I especially enjoyed “The first draft of anything is crap.” – read through the jump!

I’m a professional writer. I work for blogs and the occasional magazine, and in the past I’ve written for clients who wanted website copy. My fiction has also been published, including a couple of competition prizes. Small successes, perhaps; but even these wouldn’t have happened without a strong level of writing confidence.

Since I write for a number of blogs, I often get questions from would-be writers. Something which crops up frequently is a lack of confidence. Many (surprisingly good) writers never send pieces to an editor, or agonise over every post they write on their own blog.

It doesn’t need to be that way. Good writing isn’t the preserve of a few lucky individuals – after all, none of us were born able to write! And, in the 21st century, many stifling grammatical “rules” no longer apply. You’re free to write in your own voice and your own style … and you can enjoy it. Here’s how:

Treat Writing As a Skill
Now, I’ll admit that some people do seem to be natural-born writers, just as others have an innate talent for music or art. Writing is a skill, however – one that can be learnt. This could include

The technicalities of writing (like where to put a comma and how to ensure subject-verb agreement). If your grasp of grammar is shaky, there are lots of books that can help.
Writing style and fluidity. An evening class or a correspondence course, where you get feedback from a tutor, can help you to develop stylistically.

Voice and purpose. One of the most important things to learn in writing is how to tailor a piece to an audience. This means learning how to write in different tones, from chatty to professional to motivational.

Good writers spend time learning and honing their craft, which gives them true confidence – because they know their skills are up to scratch.

Practice Regularly
If you’ve ever learnt to play an instrument, or studied a foreign language, you’ll know how important it is to practice. Even if your first attempts are faltering, you quickly get better. It’s just the same with writing: the more you write, the better you’ll become.

Read the rest of the article….

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October 2nd, 2009

The Numbers Just Don’t Add Up

by MaryFrances

Here’s a fabulous article on web statistic numbers! I have just begun realizing this myself – with 5 different analytics programs, I often get 5 completely different numbers!

How can that happen? Well, if you think about it, statistic programs are counted on to weed out spiders and crawlers (which are “finding” your site electronically – but are not real visitors) and they are trying to get rid of repeat visitors. So, the statistics can vary – a lot.

So, why are they still helpful. Look to them for trends – not the actual stats. I do tend to rely more on my web hosts actual “numbers” for visitors than I do Google analytics (mostly because the former is higher) but Google analytics makes it easier to look at and track trends.

I know it’s frustrating, but the Internet is NOT a perfect place.

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September 19th, 2009

Venting about Web Design companies who rip people off

by MaryFrances

I started this company as a work at home Mom – as a sideline. It’s definately NOT a sideline anymore (yay) with my husband by my side and two new part time employees but I haven’t changed my rates much in 9 years. Why? Because it’s enough!! What I make and what I charge for what I do covers my time and my expertise.

Why am I venting?

Because yesterday I had one of those professional experiences that really pisses me off. I went into a neighborhood store (who’s name shall be preserved to protect the innocent) and they said “I’m sorry we close in 5 minutes”.

I commented that their website said they were open an hour later and they said “oh, it costs $300 to update our website so that’s wrong and we close earlier”. WHAT?????

Their website is html – boring, easy – as easy as me typing a sentence right now – we charge $15 for small updates (our quarter hour minimum). Whatever justification their web company has for doing what they’re doing, it is a COMPLETE RIP OFF! Now, maybe that company doesn’t want to do updates so they charge crazy rates to discourage having anyone go back to them.

However, what really annoys me about this is that we’re doing the business owner a disservice. Why encourage people to put up a website they can never update? It’s ridiculous!

I also visited an old friend’s website yesterday and it was created by a company that charges $500 for a 4 page website (we charge $60 per page) and after digging a bit more around his website – guess what? He uses templates!! He buys a template for $25 – dumps this clients info into it and charges them $500. This is not only unfair, but I think misrepresentation – I highly doubt he tells them it’s a template and if he does, $500 is a crazy price for filling out a template. Trust me, just go buy the $25 template and do it yourself.

When did having a company and being an entrepreneur become more about us making money than customer service for the clients we serve?

I happen to find websites invaluable. Not just because I’m a geek, but because I use them all the time. So, why should small companies be unable to update them or get help?

What’s crazy about this story is that almost all of our clients have had these experiences in one way or another. Small companies most likely are not run by someone who’s a tech expert and so they must look to web companies to help them. The problem is there is no standardization for what’s “right” in the industry.

So, how do you NOT get ripped off? Shop around. Ask questions. Please, don’t resort to having your nephew do the site (we have ugly stories to tell about that too) – but honestly there are reputable web companies out there.

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September 17th, 2009

How to Tweak Outlook email to work for you

by MaryFrances

How to Tweak Outlook Email to Work for You
by Katherine BoehretWednesday, September 16, 2009
provided by
If you have a job, chances are you use Microsoft Outlook.
But are you using it to your best advantage?
More from WSJ.com: • To Count Stimulus Jobs, Help Really Wanted • The Top Business-School Programs if You’re in a Hurry • Avoiding Bank Overdraft Fees
Despite the popularity of Microsoft Outlook, several of its functions aren’t noticeable unless you dig around in menus or try out keystroke shortcuts. Many of these tricks can be found by reading a user manual, but users would rather be spending their time in Outlook responding to or writing emails.

Read more…

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September 16th, 2009

New issue of our newsletter – big expansion news!

by MaryFrances

We’re so excited to announce our “new additions” here at Widget. Nope, we’re not having a baby, we’ve hired employees!

Justin Hernandez is now part time in our office helping us out with administrative duties and whatever else we throw at him! So, if you get him on the phone, be sure to say hi!

We are also pleased to introduce Jani Duncan Smith as our new graphic and print designer. Mary-Frances has gotten so busy with other things that this gives her a chance to concentrate more on SEO and customer service (along with some design of course!) and hand off print and other graphic projects off to Jani!

Jani says about herself:

“I got my start as a designer in 1989 as the assistant to the principal designer of a small design firm, after five years in the agency world, I moved into publishing where I have flourished for over 15 years.
My freelance career started in 1994 with Merry JJ Design Boutique, which I formed along with a friend to pursue other creative interests that were not part of the day-to-day publishing world. We designed together for four years, then my partner moved away but the clients didn’t, so I was “it”, and It Girl Design Boutique was born.
I enjoy all aspects of the creative process and have done work on a wide-range of projects for clients all over the globe.”

We are helping Jani to revamp her website, but meanwhile you can check out her other work here at: http://www.itgirldesign.com/

We are so excited to be growing and expanding and hope to address all of your web and marketing more completely with these two fabulous additions to our staff!

Roger and Mary-Frances

To read the rest of our newsletter or to subscribe, click here.

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