Facebook Page or Group?

Which One is Right for You?

a Facebook Page can be seen by unregistered users, where a group page can only be seen by registered Facebook users.

Consider that when you send a message to Facebook Page members, they will only receive an update notification, but if you are sending a message to your Facebook Group they will receive the message via their Facebook inbox. If you want to be able to communicate in a personal way, a Facebook Group option may be a better fit for you.

Facebook Pages

Facebook Offers you Facebook Pages. What does that mean? You can use Facebook Pages to create and give your business their own profile on Facebook; the best thing is right now they are free. These pages give your business an identity on Facebook which strengthens your brand. Current customers or even potential customers can become fans of your page and by doing so this allows them to follow you and receive any updates that you post to your page.

The great thing about Facebook Pages is that every time someone becomes a fan of your page all of their friends see that they have become a “fan.” This often attracts other followers as well as creates a buzz regarding your business and of course your Facebook Page.

You can use your Facebook Page to not only share your company information, but you can also use it to post photos, videos, applications and messages. Any activity that you perform on your Facebook Page is then broadcast into the mini-feeds of your followers.

When creating your Facebook Page, there are things to keep in mind, do you want to promote your business locally, do you want to promote your brand or a product.

Each of these categories will provide you with an opportunity to complete your “basic information”, “detailed information” or your “contact information.” Each option will provide you with a page that enables you to provide different ways of showing your information. It’s important to realize that you cannot edit your page type once you select it, and also remember that the page type that you select will categorize your page with other like pages in that category; this is why you want to make sure you select the correct category to be displayed in.

Your Facebook Page can be used to attract new customers while helping you maintain current customer relationships.

Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups, carry a similarity to Facebook Pages, the difference is they are built around a group of people rather than your business or your brand. You must be a member of Facebook to create a Facebook Group. In order to create a group just login to Facebook and then click on the Groups link in the main menu on the left hand side of the page.

You can use Facebook Groups to create awareness, but they do not have the feature that allows users to become fans, they only become members. The downfall of this is it will not share as much information with friends of “group” members as they interact with the group.

Many businesses using social media are discovering the charms and benefits of Facebook fan pages.

Considerations:

• a value-added service that allows businesses and organizations to build an interactive facebook page to engage existing or potential customers.

• Fan pages are a great way to reach consumers without resorting to direct email (spam) or hit-or-miss mass snail mail (spam in paper form). Since users make the decision to connect with your company, marketing messages will be anticipated not disregarded. People who add themselves to your fan page typically expect to see at least a little advertising come their way.

• Fan pages are a great way of reaching customers and it won’t have an impact on your marketing budgets.

• Fan pages won’t turn up in search engine results so only registered members will even know they exist.

• There are several elements a page needs, like creating contests or giveaways, in order to gather a large following.

• Make your page an information resource, not just an overblown advertisement. It’s not enough to simply bark marketing slogans at visitors, be sure to offer plenty of information and insight about your industry.

• Facebook fan pages are fairly high-maintenance and need to be regularly updated and monitored. A page that looks abandoned is worse than no page at all.

The post Facebook Marketing appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

You can use your own unique address to email content directly into your Flickr account from your cameraphone or your PC email program and the images are available to view on your website immediately.

Photo/Video Privacy

Emailed photographs inherit your default privacy settings. (public/private)

Want to give clients, staff, friends or family a limited access method of uploading photographs?

You can give them access to email their photographs to your Flickr Account and then change your special upload email address, by clicking the reset button to allocate a new email address.

Media uploaded to your Flickr account is live on your website Flickr Gallery immediately.

Live Flickr Gallery Example:

The post Email Photographs To Your Flickr Gallery appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

• Reduced camera shake from vehicle vibrations and
• Animals are more likely to be on edge or even move away from the noise of the vehicle engine if it is left running.

Cut the noodle into 20cm sections and make a cut through to the middle. Your Custom Vehicle Photographic Support is now ready to slip over the vehicle window pane edge. You can raise or lower the window to best suit your photo requirements. This Custom Vehicle Photographic Support is compact and fits easily into your camera bag or left in the boot.
[/quote]

The post Photography Tips & Tricks appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

1. Keep It Simple, Stupid

Simpler, Cleaner and Uncluttered Designs. There’s nothing quite as “attention grabbing” as an honest, straightforward message on a quiet backdrop. Limit your palette to two or three colours. Work within the shades of each colour for variety and depth. It can be truly remarkable what a few colours can do for effective messaging.

2. Less Use of Flash

Modern websites need to have a clean, uncluttered design, be fast loading and most importantly it must be Search Engine friendly. The explosive growth of web surfing on mobile devices perhaps it is the beginning of the end of Flash in web design.

3. Simple Colour Schemes

Simplicity. There’s nothing quite as impacting as an honest message on a quiet backdrop. Quiet can be interpreted several different ways. Forget black and white or shades of gray. Think of green, yellow or even red as your primary colour. However, limit your palette to two or three colours. Work within the shades of each colour for variety. It can be truly remarkable what a few colours can do for your message.

4. Large Image Backgrounds

Large scale backdrops will surge in 2011. These images will be high resolution, and covering the entire site. Large photos are an instant way to grab your audience. Massive images were once taboo for web designers, but thanks to better image optimization, faster internet connections, and smarter loading methods, designers can gain a lot in some sites by pushing image sizes to the maximum. Trends also point to soft and slightly transparent imagery that does not overshadow your content, but works with it.

5. Mobile Ready Design

Smartphones, tablets, netbooks, the list goes on and on. There’s a dizzying amount of mobile products available to your customers in 2011. This means your website must be responsive to multiple devices. Forecasters predict that smartphones will outsell personal computers this year, and by 2013 more time will be spent surfing the internet on a mobile device than on a personal computer.

6. QR: Quick Response

Have noticed those square barcodes popping on business cards, magazines or else where?

The barcodes are called QR, short for Quick Response. Simply take a photo of the unique barcode with your camera phone. Like magic, your phone will call up the website associated with the barcode. The beautiful thing about QR is that you can use it in a myriad of ways. Feature your QR on your website, in order for site visitors to have a shortcut to your mobile site. When you are leaving comments on forums or blogs, use the QR as your avatar.

2011 is all about mobility and it will be smart to take advantage of this new medium.

This is the QR for Frogg Designs.
Create your own QR code

The post 2011 Web Design Trends appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

It was only a matter of time before Internet marketers started using social media to market their businesses.

Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging site that allows you to send a 140-character or less message out to anyone who is following you. I use Twitter to announce my weekly blog posts and chit chat with people who have questions about Internet marketing.

The key to Twitter is NOT to just self promote your site all day. You should take time to follow and respond to people who have sites related to yours (Use the Search function.)

I also use Twitter to send out helpful articles, videos, etc. that may interest my followers. That’s a great way to build credibility and interest in your Twitter feed.

Facebook

You can create a Facebook page to accomplish the same tasks above, however you have a lot more room to write since Facebook has a higher character limit. And since FB has a threaded-comment design, it’s a great way to start conversations with your followers.

I often post thought-provoking questions in order to spark juicy discussions. People love giving their opinions and feedback. Facebook is a great way to poll your audience and get their feedback on various topics.

Of course I also use Facebook to promote my websites, YouTube channel, etc. but I also use it as a discussion platform.

Google +1

This is Google’s answer to Facebook. It’s very similar, but you can create circles to organize your connections. There’s no official word on how Google +1 will tie into search engine optimization, but no doubt it will play a role over time.

It’s still pretty new compared to the other networks, so only time will tell how Google +1 will play out.

For example, say you have a site on cars. You can join popular FB pages related to your niche. Join in the discussion with other “fans”/members. You can also change your FB profile to display your own Facebook page name instead of your real name.

That way when people click on your “name” they will go to your FB page. You can update this in your Facebook Profile Settings.

Just remember. You have to give to get. Social networking is not just about you blasting ads and links to your own site. The words “social” and “networking” both imply multiple parties are involved, and that is true.

Take the time to comment on other people’s work or posts. Write a response blog post to a controversial article someone wrote and tweet it to them.

If the person also has a FB page you can “Like” the page then cross link your pages together by typing @TheNameOfTheirPage when you post it to your FB page.

So let’s say you write a blog post responding to an article another car blogger wrote about. You can post the following on your Facebook page…

Here’s my witty response to @NameOfFaceBookPage ‘s article about Car Emissions.

Now the link will also be posted on their page.

Note: Be responsible about the above strategy. If the article is worthless and clearly just an attempt to get a link back to your page, the person may remove it.

Balancing Social and Business

There’s a science to promoting your site via social media marketing. You want to find the right mix of being social and promoting your business.

Obviously you don’t want to go overboard on the personal posts (what you ate for breakfast, etc.), but throwing in something casual is fine every now and then. It helps people connect with you and it shows you are human.

In addition, you should also recommend other resources and sites not affiliated with your website. If it’s always about you then you may appear greedy and selfish. Take the time to show love for another site that your followers may find interesting.

How you use social media will really reveal a lot about you over time. People who have the most success with this type of marketing have found the right balance between business and personal.Social media can be a great place to promote your business, but more importantly, it can enhance/promote you as an individual. Letting people get to know you as the human behind your business can really benefit you in the long run.
[lightbox type="image" title="Twitter vs Facebook" href="http://froggdesigns.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/facbook_twitter_info.jpg" youtube_id="" vimeo_id=""] The Twitter vs Facebook Chart
[/lightbox]

The post Social Media Marketing Tactics appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

WordPress Content Management System (CMS) is a web application which allows you to manage your website and web content. WordPress CMS websites enable you to upload your own photos, text and much more. WordPress consistently triumphs in popularity polls and is in use on over 200 million websites. What most impresses about WordPress is it’s flexibility: it’s excellent for the most websites or blogs. The flexibility is aided by a massive community who provide many of the plugins to extend the WordPress core free of charge. The result is that WordPress represents an excellent, cost-effective option for a wide range of sites. You can change the whole look of your website with a single click, change the sites colour scheme, font and graphics. Inserting photograph galleries and other features like forms, weather updates and maps is made super easy. A content management system (CMS) is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment:

• Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
• Control access to data and user roles (defining information users or user groups can view, edit, publish, etc.)
• Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
• Reduce repetitive duplicate input
• Improve the ease of report writing
• Improve communication between users

WordPress has a web template system using a template processor. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; and support for tagging of posts and articles. A very popular feature of WordPress is its rich plugin architecture which allows users to extend its functionality beyond the features that come as part of the base install; WordPress has a database of thousands of plugins (Weather, Maps, SEO, Social Media, Videos, Galleries and much more…)

CMS websites versus Regular HTML

An important factor to consider when choosing a CMS website over a regular HTML or Flash site is that you don’t have to rely on a web developer to update your site. Anyone can update or add new content, which is important for Google search rankings. Google rewards new content over sites that have been lying stagnant for a while.

Pros of a CMS website:

• Streamlined authoring process
• Excellent site flexibility, consistency and site navigation
• Good security
• Capacity for growth
• Reduced site maintenance costs and fast turnaround time for new pages and changes

Our WordPress designs offer the latest features…

The post WordPress Content Management appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

Search Engine Optimization is the ability to make a website search engine friendly. Search engines use computer programs called “Robots” which crawl the internet, reading and indexing web pages. Search Engine Optimization is the procedure by which we make your website visible to robots. The more a robot understands your website, the better your ranking is likely to be. Internet Marketing is probably the most effective and affordable way of driving customers to your business.

Frogg Designs SEO and Website Promotion Process:

It is not enough to submit your web site to search engines and to wait for the results. Search engines use a variety of factors to rank web sites. Factors to achieve good results:

1. Finding the right keywords for your web site

The right keywords are not always obvious. Frogg Designs will find the right keywords that will work best for your web site. It is very important that we target the right keywords before you start with your search engine optimization work.

2. Optimize your web pages for these keywords

Optimizing your web pages for your important keywords is crucial if we want to have high search engine rankings. Optimizing one or two pages is not enough. Search engines analyze all pages of your web site and they put these pages in a context. It is important that the combination of your web pages shows search engines that your web site is relevant to a specific topic.

3. Submit your web pages to all important search engines and directories

After optimizing your web site for several keywords, we will submit your web site to our extensive data base of search engines and Internet directories. Although search engine submission is not as important as it was (many search engines will find your web site through links on other sites), it can still help to get your web site listed faster.

4. Get links from other web sites and make sure that these links contain your keywords

Links from other web sites are extremely important to achieving high search engine rankings. High search engine rankings are always the result of optimized web pages and good incoming links.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT FOR SEARCH ENGINE INDEXING?

Research keyword/keyword phrases are being used to search for what your website will cover.

2. Page Title: Use your #1 keyword phrase for each page at the start of the Title Tag. Title tags are best if not wordy and should never be longer than the space allowed for them. If you feel you have to use your business name, use it at the end. For example if your website is about porcelain dolls and is called The Doll Shop – here’s an appropriate title tag: Porcelain Dolls from The Doll Shop.

Remember – this tag is what will be saved to someone’s computer if they bookmark you – so they need to see right away what it is when they’re looking at their bookmarks.

3. Meta Description: This should be a short advertisement for this page of the website – again start with your best keyword phrase for the page but now you can include some other information. The idea here is to entice people with this. Using the above doll store for example purposes a possible description would be:

Find your collectible porcelain doll for sale including fairy and baby dolls. Add to your porcelain doll collection today with these and all the dolls available from The Doll Shop.

4. Meta Keywords: These are no longer used by most search engines. But, since some still might use them, fill them in. Remember, only list keywords/phrases that you are using on this page.

5. Headlines on your pages: Like the title – these headlines will let your customer (and the search engines) quickly know what the page is about. It’s best if you use the h tags when entering headlines, so that the search engines can recognize that this is a headline. A headline is just that. It is not a sentence. It is not wordy. A good headline for the Doll Store would be Collectible Porcelain Dolls.

6. Text on pages: Make sure that the keyword/keyword phrases for the page are being used on the page. Do not spam them. Do not force them. Make the copy feel natural, never forced. If you aren’t sure, try reading your text out loud and see how it sounds to you. If you cringe, you’ve overdone the keywords.

a. Spelling is important. Use a spell checker.

b. Grammar is important. If need be, get other people to read and check your text for you.

c. Bulleted lists are good

d. Highlight/Bold words

e. Use anchor text to link to interior pages from page text.

f. Unique content is VITAL. If you cannot write copy that is unique and will work well for your site, this is the place to spend the money to get it done right.

g. Do NOT use provided copy: If you are selling products – do not use the copy provided by your supplier, but write your own content – again it should be UNIQUE.

7. Do not spam in any of the elements. In other words, don’t use keywords inappropriately in the title, meta, on the page, etc. Do not try to “fool the search engines in anyway.

8. Start a blog and keep it up-to-date. If you can’t keep it going daily – don’t do it.

9. Join other forums, blogs, etc in your websites related field where you can use your expertise, even if you can’t directly link to your website. Become a member of the community.

10. Linking: There are 3 major types of linking: One-way, Reciprocal, and Paid Links

a. One-way links: These are the most valuable links you can have to your website. This means someone has found your site worthwhile enough to give it a vote of confidence from their own website/blog/forum, etc. If you are able to put the link in a blog or forum, make sure you use the best possible anchor text in doing so. For example in the doll store – good anchor text could be either Porcelain dolls or collectible porcelain dolls.

Placing links to authority sites and sites you feel will be worthwhile to your customers is good for your site. And having a site that others will feel is worthwhile to link to you is VITAL for your site. Linking, to be valuable to search engines, should be TEXT links. Banner links are valuable for advertising, but not for rating. A link within the text on a site (like in a blog or newsletter or paragraph), using good anchor text, is the goal for a good link.

b. Reciprocal Linking: Reciprocal links happen when you and someone else agree to exchange links to each other. Some search engines are no longer giving credit (or giving much reduced credit) to this type of linking.² While they are still helping with some search engines, it could still be worthwhile to do reciprocal linking, but keep your eyes on what the future in linking will bring.

c. Paid links: A paid link is simply one that you pay to have on a site. These are usually text links (a site may sell space on their site.) Use these if you feel you will get visitors to come to your site and purchase or do what your website is looking for. Do not use these for help with search engine ranking.

11. Link Baiting: This is the most important factor today in linking. Link baiting is creating your website and its content so that others WANT to link to you. This means finding a niche, product, idea, etc that will create the excitement or interest that causes others to look to you/for you. For example, offer something free that might entice others to send their own traffic to you. Become an authority on something in your field that brings those natural links to you. For example, maybe that doll site could become an authority on the history of porcelain dolls, or the repair of porcelain dolls. Do so in such a manner that people come to those pages for that information – then they use the doll stores navigation to find their products. Link baiting is a viral marketing method that doesn’t have to cost any money. But it will take time to come up with an appropriate idea for your website. And it can’t be something that can be found everywhere else on the web. Or if it is prevalent, you have to have a unique twist on it – something that will make people come to you, not the others.

More SEO

One page cannot be properly optimized for more than 2 or 3 keyword phrases. Ideally, 1-2 maximum will be the best. So, having various pages that are optimized properly will be the key to making or breaking most businesses. (There are exceptions – when a business is really targeted to the point that a single page might be all it needs – if it can get the proper traffic to that page.)

Keywords and keyword phrases need to be carefully selected. If the porcelain doll site tries to compete for the term dolls – it might take a long time to get anywhere near the results it could get for collectible porcelain dolls. Use the phrases that will bring the targeted visitors and will have less competition, while you slowly move up for the more general terms.

Also, remember – most people do not purchase the first time they visit a website. In fact, it normally takes 8 or MORE searches before someone clicks to purchase. And during this time, they may use different search phrases. One time they might search for porcelain dolls, another time collectible porcelain dolls, yet another it might be unique porcelain dolls. The more time your name appears when they search, the better the chance that when they are ready to buy, your site will be the one they purchase from (if your site is user-friendly, easily navigable and welcoming to them). People generally start with more broad terms, then continue narrowing their searches down to more specific terms, though. So, if you aren’t showing up in the broad terms, you might later show up in the specific search and have exactly what the person has been looking for.

The post Search Engine Optimization Tips appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

Google Places for businesses (Google Maps) provides localised results for commercial searches. The map results are separate from paid (Adwords PPC) and organic search results.

Try Searching for local term:

Port Elizabeth Hotel

and you will see the potential exposure Google Places For Business offers in promoting your business. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your storefront or products. This exposure is FREE.

Login via your Google Account or Register for one. You’ll be able to add your listing, which is fairly self-explanatory.

Guide to maximising your exposure:

The post Free Listing On Google Maps appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

1. Title Meta Tag
The title tag is what displays as the headline in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). It’s also what displays in the top blue band of Internet Explorer when your site is displayed.

Your title tag of your website should be easy to read and designed to bring in traffic. Your main keyword phrase should be used toward the beginning of the tag.

Don’t make the mistake of putting your company name first, unless you are already a household name, like Spar or Spur. People are most likely searching for what you have to offer and not your name.

2. Description Meta Tag
The description tag is the paragraph that people will see when your page comes up in the search results.

Your description tag should be captivating and designed to attract business. It should be easy to read, and compel the reader to act right now and follow your link. Without a description tag, search engines will frequently display the first text on your page. Is yours appropriate as a description of the page?

A proper description tag is what people will see below your title. You should make proper use of punctuation, and with readability, use your subject and geographical references.

3. Keywords Meta Tag
The importance of Meta keyword tags fluctuates from month to month among different search engines. There is a belief in the SEO community as to whether or not they help at all on Big5 search engines. However, you’ll NEVER be penalized on any search engines for using relevant targeted keywords in moderation, and they can only help you with most, especially Yahoo.

Avoid stuffing your keyword metatags with too many keywords. Just use relevant tags that apply directly to the content of that particular page, and don’t overdo it.

4. Alt Tags
The small yellow box that comes up when your mouse cursor is placed over an image is called the ALT tag. Every relevant image should have an alt tag with your key words or phrases mentioned in the tag.

The ALT tag is no longer being considered for ranking purposes by some search engines but it cannot HURT you, and will still help you with some engines and works well as a ‘Tag Tip’.

5. Header Tags
The text of each page is given more weight by the search engines if you make use of header tags and then use descriptive body text below those headers. Bullet points work well too. It is not enough to merely BOLD or enlarge your text headlines.

6. Link Text
Search engine spiders cannot follow image links. In addition to having image links or buttons on your web pages, you should have text links at the bottom or elsewhere. The text that the user sees when looking at the link is called the link text.

7. Site Map
Using a site map not only makes it easy for your users to see the entire structure of your website, but it also makes it easier for the search engines to spider your site. When the search engine spiders come to visit, they will follow all of the text links from your main index page. If one of those links is to a site map, then the spiders will go right to the sitemap, and consequently visit every page you have text linked to from that site map. On the site map page, try to have a sentence or two describing each page, and not just a page of links.

8. Relevant Inbound Links
By relevant, I mean similar industry or subject related sites. Right now, no single strategy can get your site ranked higher faster than being linked to by dozens of other relevant websites. It used to be that the quantity of incoming links mattered most, but today, it’s much better to have three highly relevant links to you from other popular related websites than 30 links from unrelated low ranked sites. If there are other businesses in your industry that you can trade links with, it will help your site enormously. Link to others, and have them link to you. It’s proven, and it works. To see who’s linking to you, in Google type the following…
links: yourdomain.com

9. Web Page Content
Not to be forgotten of course, is the actual content of your webpage. It must be relevant helpful information that people want to read. These days, each webpage should be laser focused on one specific product or subject, in order to rank highly for that search phrase. The days of writing one webpage to appeal to dozens of search terms are long gone. Ideally, each page should have between 400 to 650 words on it. Too few, and the search engines won’t consider it to be relevant enough. Too many words and the search engine spiders may have a hard time determining the actual subject or focus of the page.
[quote]More Pages instead of long pages…[/quote]

Use your keywords or phrases often, and use them at the beginning of your paragraphs wherever possible. Don’t overuse them and make the page sound phony, but don’t write a page about a certain subject, and not mention that subject repeatedly either.

Concentrate on writing quality pages that actually appeal to the human reader. Write pages that provide the reader with exactly what they are looking for; that is, information about the exact search phrase they’ve entered.

10. Avoid Cheating
Avoid Black Hat SEO tactics. They have more chance of being labelled as Keyword Spamming than achieving any actual long term success.
It’s tempting to think that you can stuff 100 keywords into your title, or create a page stuffed full of keywords, text links, ALT tags, bullet points etc. but that cannot help you. In fact, this can penalize you, and get your website banned from certain search engines.

The post SEO Top 10 appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.

Main domains can be coded to detect the visitor device and redirect mobile traffic to a Mobile Ready Website. This removes the necessity for a separate .mobi domain and all existing marketing displaying the company web address is already ready for the mobile revolution (No need for “Visit Our Mobile Site”).

The post Mobile Ready Websites appeared first on Port Elizabeth Web Design | Graphic Designs.