Client Managment for Web Designers

Posted on May 29, 2011 by admin

This post is for website designers and business owners, but can be geared to business people in general. It’s about the importance of treating customers right.

A potential client will come to you for information on designing a website, doing some artwork, or technical work.

Treat each and every person with complete respect. It will generally be reciprocated and will pay out in the future.

I try to generally follow these guidelines when first speaking with a potential client:

  1. Hear them out as to what service they seem to want from you.
  2. While they are speaking, quickly assess their level of web-based expertise. This will allow you to know at what level to speak with them. The worst thing you can do is speak over someone’s head. If they don’t understand what you are saying, you likely won’t get the job.
  3. Ask them about their business – and be interested. If you don’t care about their business, they will sense that and will move on.
  4. During your conversation, ask any questions about their general goals of what they are looking for – is it just a website? Do they need ongoing SEO? How about brochures? In today’s web-based climate, often people could use the extra services you may offer.
  5. Once you’ve determined what they need, you have the ability to either give a ballpark quote, or have set the table for asking them more details in an email, or face-to-face conversation before quoting on the project.

OK, you got the project, great! Now, you must be sure to communicate with the client throughout the entire process. Even if you haven’t made much progress for whatever reason, the client will be more accommodating if you let him/her know where you are at. (but be careful not to get them too involved, which may hurt productivity).

BE SOMEWHAT FLEXIBLE IN YOUR SCOPE OF WORK. Even the most organized projects change scope. By nickel and diming the client for more money every time you have to do something different, you will create resentment. Build this flexibility in your quotes. Assess the client as to who may require more “flexibility”. On the other side of the coin, don’t get taken advantage of. Set the limits of how far you are willing to “bend”.

Once the project is done, ask for feedback, both good and bad – you will learn what you did well and where to improve. Keep on good terms with the client. If you haven’t found out already, the majority of your clients will refer you to someone else.

Good luck.

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Optimizing a Website for Facebook

Posted on April 21, 2011 by admin

Normally, I would say not to care about optimizing a website for Bing. Google Optimization is far more valuable. From what I have seen, over 90% of search engine visits to my website are through Google. However, having said this, Bing has a very important foot in the door. That door is in the house of Facebook. Last year this time, over 60% of people had a Facebook account. I’m not sure what the numbers are. People live in Facebook, spending literally hours a month reading up on friends, writing about their dinner last night and seeing who has the best profile pictures.

Why does that matter? Well people are generally lazy. If they need to find information on a topic, they will do a search. Well at the top of the Facebook page there is a search. This search will find Facebook pages for sure, but there is also a web component. And guess what company is used for the web search? Yes, it’s Bing.

Well so what – what does this mean to me? How is Google different than Bing? There are generally fairly subtle differences in the algorithm for getting found by Google Versus Bing. I believe I have read rumors that Bing has tried to determine the Google algorithms for themselves.

There is one very big difference where you can do well with Bing, but not Google. That is with keyword specific URLS (eg websitedesignersurrey.com). Bing rates the keywords in the URL extremely high. So how do you use this? If you have a website URL that is not keyword rich, you may want to think about making satellite sites that are very keyword-centric. This has worked for me.

Go ahead – do a search for website designer surrey in Google and then in Bing. My little one pager “websitedesignersurrey.com” is ahead of my “citylinewebsites.com” in Bing. Google has a much different ranking.

So for those of you in Facebook doing a search for a “website designer in surrey” will likely find my satellite site (which links to my main site).

So the moral of the story is…
If you have the ability, then create a content rich URL, even if it’s a one-pager. It will help you get found on Facebook.

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Writing for SEO – How much to tell your client

Posted on February 19, 2011 by admin

I was recently asked why do I tell my clients how to write for the web. Isn’t that giving away my trade secrets and giving away potential work?

Here’s my answer…

If the client has the budget for a copy writer, one that knows how Google looks at articles, cares about keyword density, location of key phrases, understands the topic and at the same time knows how to write for the reader, then absolutely I recommend a professional to write all the copy for the website. In fact I encourage my clients to head this direction. However, too often the client does not have the budget, due to them being a startup, small business, or suffering due to the slow economy. These are often the individuals that with a bit of coaching can create a website that gets found by Google.

Why I tell my clients how to write their own copy
As a website designer and Search Engine Optimization company, I care about both how my website looks, and how my websites place on Google. The better my client does in these two areas, the better I look, the happier the client, and the more referrals I receive. Poor, sloppy copy that does not contain the key words for Google will not get found. I don’t want this for my clients. With some coaching, and with help editing, we can create a great product. A better product = more links to the company = more links back to me and my company = more business = more $.

It’s a win-win situation.

What I tell my clients
Well if you were my client, I would tell you how to write for the web. Basically you have to focus on a key phrase or two, write sufficient content containing this phrase in the right quantities. Headings, bold text, should contain your key words. It’s all about creating a theme revolving around your key phrase. More to come in a future blog.

What to do if your client can’t write?
If your client cannot write, but doesn’t have the budget to hire a copy writer to start from scratch, there is often a compromise. What I tell my clients is that I need point form notes, or their best attempt. We can then write / rewrite what they have done. This can save some money, but still produce a top quality site.

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Why Your Business Needs a Facebook Page

Posted on February 3, 2011 by admin

Most all businesses should have a Facebook page. Not to let people know that they enjoyed their steak dinner, or that they saw a rare spotted dodo bird on the side of the road, but to establish a presence. Facebook is in my opinion the best social media site out there. There may be better programmed sites, but Facebook is where everyone is “at”. So Facebook is for people to catch up on news or find out what a long lost friend is doing. You ask how that is relevant to you as a small business owner on the corner of X and Y in the city. Well here’s how.

The stats…

From the Facebook site itself I present the following statistics:

  • More than 500 million active users
  • 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • Average user has 130 friends
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

So doing the math, people average about 40 minutes a day on Facebook. Facebook becomes an area of comfort where they interact with good friends, and check out old friends. Now enter you and your business. If you have a small business (eg a website design business) and have a Facebook page, you can interact with those who “like” you. Talk your friends into liking your page.

Why get your friends to like your business Facebook page?

It’s not your friends you care about. If they are your friends, they will buy from you. It’s the friends of the friends you want to bring into the mix. When people are looking up your Facebook “likers” they will see your posts (which go on their wall), and they’ll see that they like you. So if you have 100 people liking your page, and the average number of friends is 130, you are reaching out to 100×130 or 13,000. Every new person you get to like you is another 130 potential customers.

Other advantages of Facebook Pages

If you are somewhat active with your Facebook Page, you will get complete strangers liking your business. Maybe they are a competitor, maybe they like your product. Who cares, that’s more people to see what you do. So if you can post at least once a week, that’s fine… If you can post more, better, if you post less, then not as good. But you should have a Facebook page. When people are in their happy place on Facebook, they’ll do a search for you business. If they find you and you have some good stuff for them to look at, then you’re getting a potential client. If you are not there, then Facebook will find a competitor they can check out instead.

Conclusions

So even if you set something up and can’t do too much to it, you are better off than not having anything at all. Ideally, you canvas your friends to like your page, and then keep current. You’ll get what you put into it and more.

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