Every business must keep an eye on the bottom line and with today’s uncertain economic environment every decision counts. Many companies are scrambling to find the opportunities inherent in economic downturns. We look at acquisitions, and other investment potential that might give us the edge with our competition.

The hardest place to look for advantages is also the most effective ROI – Look internally!

Improve your business processes
Businesses with effective work flows are significantly poised to take advantage of new opportunities to grow their business. Those businesses that maintain the ‘Status Quo’ are doomed to struggle no matter how great a break they might find.

Yes, your business could use process improvement.
Unless you have just recently overhauled your business processes, you are likely missing out on better ways to conduct your business. Most small to mid-sized companies focus on the day-to-day business, creating processes and work flows which solve an immediate problem. Many owners, operators of these businesses will admit that even when they first instituted the solution to a new problem, they new there was probably a better way. Years may go by, and still the original solution remains in place, causing backups and frustration to employees and customers.

Change is good for your company
Every company has a life-cycle, like a living organism it’s conceived, grows, and ultimately, perishes. The companies with the greatest longevity learned to recreate themselves through reorganization and…
you guessed it, process improvement.

Why Process Improvement
Every good business owner knows to surround themselves with the best talent possible and delegate, delegate, delegate. The business owner who can relinquish control when appropriate, is the wise and successful entrepreneur, with time to focus on the ‘Vision’. The ‘Too Busy’ business owner is a crisis manager who creates patchwork solutions to keep his operation going, running in infinite circles, he has no time for ‘Vision’.

Embrace your Vision
When business processes are re-engineered immediate benefits ensue. Employees who felt overburdened by daily tasks, that once consumed their workday, are suddenly available to help with problem solving. Orders or services are completed more quickly. Customer satisfaction improves to all time highs. And most importantly, the CEO has time to lead, time to forge an effective ‘Vision’ for the company.

If you own a website or are thinking about building a website you may find choosing a website design a little bit intimidating. There are so many designers to choose from it’s hard to determine who will do the best job for your company. In this article I’m going to try and clear up a few things that will hopefully make your website design choices a little easier.

What is a Web Designer
Believe it or not, there are all kinds of web designers. Some only work in HTML which is a very basic web language. Others are actually graphic artists who can create beautiful PSD’s (photoshop files) but have no programming or web experience at all. And still others work with more advanced website building tools:
CSS, PHP, and CMS systems. The later group are more programmers or web developers than designers.

Which one do you choose for your project
If you have a simple website without much interaction an HTML designer may be adequate, but if you decide to start doing e commerce, or forms processing (contact forms, quotes etc.) , that same designer might not be able to help you. Most likely you will need to hire a web developer to add the new functionality to your website.
What about cost
While this is a great question, the answer is a little strange. You might think that a graphic designer or simple HTML designer would be less expensive than a full blown web developer. Recent trends actually contradict that idea, and graphic artists and HTML designers actually charge as much, or more in some cases than a full blown web developer. Here’s why: A graphic artist at the top of their industry can create some of the most beautiful template designs you have ever seen, and that talent is worth lots. The problem surfaces when your website requires more complex functionality, as noted above.

Aren’t there web developers that are great graphic designers
The simple answer; not usually. Web developers are typically logical, left brain types, and graphic artists are usually creative, right brain types.

What to do
Seems like an insurmountable obstacle doesn’t it. Fact is that the best choice is a hybrid. Many Web developers understand that they aren’t the best designers in the world, so they partner with graphic artists and template designers who can make a beautiful look for your website, while they focus on the details behind the website, like: databases, e commerce, and forms processing.

No matter who you choose, checkout their work first, and make sure the examples they give you are actually work they have done themselves. Ask for references etc.
Hope this article helps.

SEO and SEM in plain english

SEO
Search engine optimization – Maximizing your web presence to Get search engines like: Google, Yahoo, and Bing to notice your website. SEO is making changes to your website that highlight the relevancy of your webpage for a given topic, and building a strong network of relationships with other websites ( known as back-links). Good SEO drives traffic to your website.

Keywords:
Keywords are the phrases that people enter into searches which help them find your website. Example: Building movers or Orlando Building movers or Florida building movers.

Back links:
Back links are references from another website back to your website. Back links are important to search engines in determining how relevant your website is and for driving traffic to your website.
Back links can happen naturally when a different website finds information on your website that is relative to their content. They might have an article about ‘house moving,’ for example, which lists your website as a good place to find a house mover.

We can help this process by actively searching for and obtaining back links thru directory websites like the open directory project.
Additionally, there are countless blogs and forums on the internet that discuss anything you can think about. A back link can be created by posting thoughtful replies on these websites with a link to your website.

Page Ranking:
Page ranking is the assignment of your websites relevance for a certain topic within search engines. A low rank means that the search engine does not give your website the credit it deserves with regard to search results. A high ranking means lots of traffic and potential sales!

Social Media
Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all websites that can help develop a web presence and drive traffic to your website. The idea is to create a social relationship on these websites which entices people to visit your website and hopefully purchase your product or service.

Twitter is a great medium for this. If you can leverage recent news and events to a short snippet that relates to your website, the people will come!

Sitemaps:
A sitemap is a webpage that tells Google and other search engines, as well as visitors, where to find things on the site. It is very effective in ensuring all of your pages are indexed and helping with website traffic.

Seo Services
Seo services are available in many different forms, from directory link submission services( Not recommended), to high-end on-page seo and internet marketing. Services which include quality back-linking from articles, forums, blogs and high PR relevant directories are usually the most effective.

Waterford Media offers the latter in seo services and welcomes the opportunity to work with your company to develop and outstanding web presence.

SEM
Search Engine Marketing PPC (pay-per-click).
Another method to increase web traffic is to pay a provider like Google for advertising on their search engine. An account is created with Google Adwords where you make a short ad, indicate your desired keywords, and set your budget. The budget can be as much or as little as you like. Basically, each click costs a certain amount, depending on the competition for the keywords you want.

Your ad starts showing up on Google almost immediately (once approved), and the traffic follows. At this point, traffic trends, click conversions, etc need to be monitored and adjustments made to ensure the highest conversion rates possible.

SEM is a very effective way to generate business leads.

Ready to get your website found?
We have SEO experts who can analyze your website and make the changes necessary to get your website the attention it deserves!
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing process which requires frequent updates to:

• Build back links.
• Create keyword rich content.
• Post Forum and Blog entries.
• Market through Social Media

Call us today!
407-965-5025 or email at: info(at)waterfordmedia.com

If you want to generate business leads from your website quickly, we can help.
We have $100 Google Adword credits that we can give you toward your campaign.
Let Waterford Media manage your campaign:

• Setup Google Adwords account
• Find the best keywords for your Ad
• Work with you on composing a Google ad
• Publish your ad
• Track and report on progress.

Call us for more details
407-965-5025
or email at: info(at)waterfordmedia.com