It began with a quick road trip from Greensboro to Raleigh, NC.  It was pretty straight forward until the road construction that funneled the four lane highway traffic into one lane of nobody’s-going-anywhere-fast.  Fortunately the solution oriented team that we are checked the GPS, ignored the directions, and made our way around the mess to arrive spot on time to register, get coffee and get seated for the welcome.

After that it was one information packed presentation after another with three tracks: Users Track, Power Users Track, and Developers Track.  The User Track was ideal for those familiar with WordPress, and looking to get more use out of it for their own site.  Though some things were touched on for application to businesses, much of the user track was for the novice.  It is important to note that by novice, I mean someone who has actually seen a WordPress dashboard and poked around with the settings already.  There was no WordPress 101: Setting Up Your Site or So You Want to Start a Blog presentation.  If that is the kind of thing you are looking for check with your local community college or perhaps a web meet up group in your area.

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SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, but what does it mean? Basically when someone decides to look for something on the Internet they type in a few words and hit search.  A list is then generated of possible items that meet the user’s inquiry based on the words he used to search; this is called a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). This listing of web pages is ordered from highest to lowest ranked relevant pages containing those keywords.

This is where SEO comes into play, to put it simply it is a way to improve your web visibility either a website or webpage via “natural” or “Organic” searches results.

If you are a business utilizing the internet to market yourself then this topic is one you should be aware of as it does relate directly to you, and yes, you need it.  However before you get overwhelmed with the complicated workings of how the algorithms of search engines work to determine rankings and become fixated on being at the top of every list here are a few simple techniques to give your website competitive standing without compromising your integrity.

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It’s been a good year for us at WebRealSimple.  We got our website up and dedicated ourselves to getting several project completed.  In 2011 we hope to continue developing and building websites for the small business man and entrepreneur.

We will be bringing you more informative posts about the web and keeping things moving for your website.  Please, feel free to send in questions and requests.

Have a safe evening and a blast in the new year!

The internet never takes time off, and never needs a break.  We here at WebRealSimple, however, are only human.  With the holidays we will be taking time off for Christmas and New Year.  Now, we will of course continue to keep things running on our end, addressing any server issues that may arise, and keeping sites up.  But everyone needs time to enjoy the feasting and family comradery.

We sincerely hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday, and we look forward to a new year with new projects and possibilities.

Building and maintaining your web presence is an on-going venture.  It is important to establish yourself, but be wary of becoming stagnant.  The look that launched you may not be the one that continues to keep you relevant in the market.  It is important to know when it’s time to redesign your website, but it may not be an easy choice to make.

How Do You Know When It’s Time To Redesign Your Website?

It’s time to redesign and relaunch when:

Your site looks old. This is sometimes hard to come to grips with, but if your site is still using design trends that have passed such as Flash introduction pages which tend to annoy users rather than excite them then you are probably doing yourself more harm than good.  What you may like, may not be appealing to your customers or attracting new clients.  Additionally, as the web has matured so too have the navigation functionalities.  Familiarity for the user isn’t just in what they have been used to, but in keeping up with current trends they are quickly adapting to.

Your competitors are getting ahead. It is important to stay aware of what your competitor are doing.  They may be onto functionalities that are more efficient and layouts that draw more interest.  You should always take the time to research and analyze the competition in your field.  To really stay ahead, you want to be the one setting the standard.

Your business has changed. If you are now offering new or improved services then what better way to showcase this than with a fresh design to reflect the progress of your business.  As your business evolves marketing it the same way may not bring you the revenue you could be getting.  Have your goals changed?  Has your mission changed?  Redesigning your look and updating your marketing strategies could improve things all around.

Your target audience has changed. Keeping in touch with who is visiting your site and what they are looking for when they do is key to the success of your website.  As your business changes so too does the consumer to which you are appealing.  Are you attracting the users you want to be attracting?  Keep the user in mind when considering a redesign.

Your site is old. This can happen if you aren’t keeping up with optimization trends for search engines.  If your site wasn’t originally designed with multiple browser access in mind, then you are missing out on potential clients simply by not being visible to them.  In addition to redesigning your website you may also need to consider that maintaining it is a full time job to keep it up to date and relevant.

Google celebrates 10 years of AdWords

Welcome to WebRealSimple as we kick off our web site.  We’ve been working on so many projects for others, making their dreams our priority, that we put this off for far too long.

We specialize in providing simple web solutions to startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.  We pride ourselves on the care we offer with good customer service.  We guide clients through the process of building and maintaining their web presence, answering questions and keeping things relatively easy to understand.  We break things down into well defined options allowing clients to decide how much or how little they want, and still maintain a viable website.