It has been estimated that one in three adults in the United States has a smartphone, which is used on a daily basis. What does this mean for your business?

Consumers are utilizing their smartphones in increasing numbers, as data plans become more affordable, download times become faster, and information becomes more accessible. In today’s market, companies need to maintain a mobile presence. A mobile website needs to mirror your marketing and branding message, but be tailored to fit on a smaller screen, with condensed, easily accessible information. To put it simply, your mobile site needs to be a smaller, more efficient version of your current website. It needs to reduce the amount of effort taken by a user to gain the information they need. If your company is not currently utilizing a mobile website, you are losing business.

Ask anyone who owns and uses a smartphone how frustrated they become when searching for a particular company or piece of information from a website that is not enabled for mobile viewing. They will tell you the experience is frustrating, and often, they quickly move on to easier solutions. Imagine you own a restaurant, and rely on tourism for a portion of your business. You have a website, but it is not configured for viewing from a smartphone or mobile device. Every day, you are losing business, because your potential customers cannot get the information they need. Unable to locate pricing information or directions, they move on to another option, one that provides information to them in a fast and concise manner.

Arguably, there are no disadvantages to having a mobile website. It may cost your company additional fees to build and implement, but will pay for itself over time. Typically, most mobile websites do not contain the amount of information in a regular website, and therefore contain fewer pages, which can also help to offset the total cost.

Mobile websites can aid your business, and  continue to be utilized every day, in growing numbers in all sectors of the market. With this technology projected to become even more prevalent, if your business or organization is not using a mobile website, you will continue to lose more prospective clients. The time to take your company onto a mobile platform is now.

Domain Names

Your domain name (your “www” address) is a property that is renewed (typically) every year, with the domain Registrant listed as the owner of the domain. The domain name Registrant needs to be permanently associated with your company. If your design firm is taking care of the registration themselves, be sure to specify to them who should be named as Registrant, and what contact information should be associated with the domain. This should be the name of an individual within your organization and long-term contact information for your company.

You should also put in place a succession plan in the case that the individual listed as Registrant leaves your company. Your domain registration should always remain within the hands of your organization.

Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages are run by “admins.” The initial creator of the Page is automatically made an admin, who can then designate other admins. These admins may also add other admins, and so on. Admins may also remove other admins.

Because of the nature of these pages, it is important to always have multiple individuals in your company listed as admins. If an admin leaves your company, you should be sure to remove their admin status from the page. Likewise, if you have a third party taking part in the running of your Facebook Page, you should never have them as the sole administrator and should remove their capabilities from the page if you part ways.

There is no way to have Facebook restore administrative powers to your company once you lose control of your Page, even if you can prove that you own the company it’s promoting. This makes it vital that you do not allow such a situation to occur.

Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Services such as Twitter and YouTube are run from a single username and password. If you have multiple people updating your company’s profiles on these sites, they will all be sharing the same password. However, even if you only have a single person updating your profiles, you should have multiple people within your business who know the login information. If one person who knew the password leaves the organization, you should be sure to change the password and inform those who are still with your company.

If a password is lost, forgotten or changed without your knowledge, it is possible to reset the password using the email address that is used when registering for the websites. To ensure you will be able to reset the password if needed, you should use a generic company email address (for example, if your company has an “info@” email address) that is not specific to an individual.
It’s important to maintain ownership of and access to everything your company puts online. If all of your online accounts are in the hands of a single employee or a third party company, there is an ongoing risk that when that employee leaves, or when you disassociate with the third party, that you will lose access to your accounts. Or even worse – an unhappy former employee could use their ownership of your online accounts against you.

One of the greatest benefits of social media networks is their ability to involve the customer. Facebook, for example, allows customers to connect with your business in one click of a button. Once the person is connected, they will have the ability to communicate directly with representatives at your organization as well as with other customers.

This serves two important purposes for your brand. The first is that it engages the customer, essentially making them a part of your company’s creative process. This personal connection helps to develop brand-loyalty within your client base. Actively responding to feedback left by clients will enhance this benefit further. The second is that it provides your business with instant feedback. Comments left by customers can be used to gauge the success of a new product or program, as well as provide insight into potential improvements. You can also pose questions to your network, oftentimes getting results within a matter of minutes.

Another asset of social media websites is the ease by which they can be updated. Any number of moderators from your organization can make posts as frequently as necessary, keeping your brand relevant and at the front of your clients’ minds. You can use these posts to advertise a new promotion or event as well as link viewers to your website where they can learn more about the subject. Many clients find these updates to be less invasive and more personal than an email newsletter.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also provide your company with another type of advertising, search engine results. Google and other major search engines have begun to use data provided by Facebook pages to generate search results. This extra visibility provides your organization with free promotion that will help you become more recognizable and set you apart from your competitors.

A CMS-based website (sometimes referred to as a “dynamic” or “database-driven” site) uses a scripting language and a database to publish content. These packages include an administrative area that enables you to conveniently update the website without any knowledge of HTML or other coding language. If you can complete an online form, you can maintain the entire website.

Some core CMS features enable you to:

• Add, edit or delete text site-wide
• Upload and insert images
• Publish (and catalog) news items, press releases and blog posts
• Make documents available for download (.PDF, .DOC, etc.)
• Maintain an events calendar
• Create links to pages anywhere on the web (including your own site)

In the early days of commercial websites, Content Management Systems were cost prohibitive. Each package required custom development, quickly leading to a steep price tag that required a long period of time to realize a return on the investment. These days, there is a wide selection of off-the-shelf CMS packages available—many of which are low-cost or even free to use, due to being released under the Creative Commons License. The folks at SpryeStudios put together a nice list of what they consider to be the “Top 12 Free Content Management Systems” available (with additional packages listed in the “Comments” area).

What this means to you is that you can easily add a CMS to your site, giving you the immediate and complete control over the content you publish. Any competent web development company will be able to help you select a CMS best suited for your business and then customize that package to function according to your specific needs.

These ten ideas can help you increase the number of visitors to your website and, in many cases, improve the quality of their visit.

Create a Google Webmaster Tools account

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service that shows you how your website appears to Google’s search engine crawlers. It also provides you with the means of making it easier for Google to index your website through the use of a file known as an XML sitemap. This file identifies the name and location of every page on your site and can even be set to designate the frequency at which each page is updated.

No level of technical knowledge is needed to create the sitemap.xml file thanks to the many free online services that will generate one for you, including XML-Sitemaps.com.

Submit to Industry Directories

When a website is launched it is often standard procedure to submit the URL to search engine directories, such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and DMOZ. What is frequently overlooked, however, is the ample supply of smaller, more specific directories available online.

Finding directories specific to your industry can be as simple as entering “[industry name] directory” in your favorite search engine. Having your business listed in as many of these directories as is feasible can result in increased visits from a less generalized demographic.

Add a Blog

Blogs are a convenient way for businesses to publish the single most valuable element on the Internet—new, unique content. By posting compelling, relevant articles businesses can:

• Demonstrate a superior level of expertise in an industry sector
• Open a new line of communication with potential customers via integrated “Comments” areas
• Increase search engine ranking by regularly publishing new content and through the use of keyword-rich categories and tags

Thanks to the prevalence of top-tier blogging engines, such as WordPress, Moveable Type and Expression Engine, incorporating a blog in your company’s online marketing scheme has never been more accessible.

Promote Your Content

Make the effort to craft a well-written, timely article pay greater dividends by promoting your new posts in blog-specific search engines. Blog-Search is a search engine focused only on content published through blogs. Users of this type of search engine are looking specifically for insider-style content, the exact type of information you are using to add value to your website. Traditional search engines recognize the value of the links posted to this site as well. By including your site’s blog area to this directory you can increase the visibility of the information you are posting.

Become a Guest Author

Again, recognizing that the main thing people are searching for is original content, we can easily understand the need for popular blogs and online publishers to employ guest authors. Your business can benefit from you becoming a guest author by giving you and your company exposure to a larger audience.

Finding a site willing to publish the work of a guest author can be as simple as emailing the publisher of your favorite industry-related blog. Other places that are always in search of contributing authors include:

• OPEN Forum
• Biznik
• Ezine Articles
• Go Articles
• iSnare

Create a Professional Twitter Account and Facebook Page

A key to getting increased traffic is to distribute your information in a variety of formats. This leaves it to the recipient (your potential customer) to determine which way they prefer to receive periodic updates.

Two easy data streams to tap into are Twitter and Facebook. You can use these networks to post links to related industry articles both on your website and elsewhere on the Internet. These feeds also provide you with a vital link to your follows and fans where you can announce new products, specials and website updates.

Focusing on growing your subscription base in these two networks can result in significant traffic increases.

Leverage Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking site provide individuals with the means of managing important references found on the web. An added benefit of social bookmarking sites is that you can view links that others have found to be of interest. By building a collection of valuable links related to your industry you can increase exposure to your own site as well.

Of course, getting others to bookmark your site is even better. If you are regularly publishing valuable content, encourage them to add your posts to their bookmarks. What’s the easiest way to do that? Add links to your pages that, when clicked, will automatically add the page to that visitor’s account.

A key is knowing which social bookmarking site has the appropriate audience for the information you are publishing. If your information is related to health and wellness then it is unlikely to be added to Slashdot, which is geared specifically towards a computer-savvy audience.

Popular social bookmarking sites include:

• Delicious
• Stumbled Upon
• Digg

Post to Related News Groups

As a knowledgeable professional within your industry you have a lot to offer the general public. Exposing people to that knowledge can not only benefit them, but can result in additional qualified visits to your website.

Sometimes you need to search out those that can benefit from your expertise, and that’s where news groups come into play. Visiting a news group and browsing to your specialized field can provide an abundance of opportunities to demonstrate your knowledge and direct traffic back to your website.

Popular news groups include:

• Yahoo Groups
• Google Groups
• About

Contribute to Industry Related Forums

Along the same lines as participating in news groups, industry forums can provide a bounty of chances to expose your insight within your field. The key is to find relevant forums and participate as much as possible.

You will want to check the sites’ terms and conditions, and, if permitted, include a link to your site in your signature. This way each time you post there is a link to your site surrounded by industry-related content, and search engines have the tendency to like that.

Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaigns

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad campaigns provide businesses with the opportunity to have text-based advertisements appear with related search results. Popular options are Google Adwords and Yahoo!’s Overture. In both cases, businesses bid on keywords for which they want their advertisement to appear. Then, based on bidding and the daily budget allotted for the campaign, advertisements will be displayed when someone searches using the associated keywords.

A important point is that you are only charged when someone actually clicks through your advertisement to your site. Using PPC with a dedicated landing page (a page with content that specifically ties to the advertisement) can result in an effective online advertising campaign.

For many businesses, their website is the prime marketing tool that not only generates leads and sales on its own, but also supports all other promotion efforts. So what is the best way to measure the results of your web-based initiatives?

In our experience, Google Analytics has proven to be the premier website statistical package. Google Analytics has all the tools you need to measure the performance of your website, including unique and repeat visits, page views, pages per visit, bounce rate, average time on site, and percentage of new visits.

By monitoring these numbers on a daily (or at the very least, weekly) basis you can see what your customers are interested in, which types of content generate the most activity and which areas within your site are “sticky” (holding visitors’ attention the longest). Armed with this information you can help your website evolve into a more focused tool by giving your visitors (read: customers) the type of information they desire. This knowledge is also valuable when making day-to-day business decisions, such as product focus or how to adjust sales initiatives.

Integrating Google Analytics into your site is a simple task. It is as easy as signing up for an account and pasting the generated javascript code into each page of your site. That’s it–Google does the rest of the work for you. In fact, you can even choose to have select reports emailed to you eliminating the need to even log in to your account.

If you use AdWords or Adsense, these too can be tracked and reported upon so that you can determine your ROI for your ongoing marketing campaigns.

With up to 85 reports available at your fingertips, you are sure to find the information you need in order to make informative decisions regarding your website’s future offerings. What makes it even better is that this tool is available absolutely free of charge.

If you’ve had your company website up and running for some time, but have paid it only minimal attention, you likely are not utilizing the full potential of this powerful communication tool. In recent years we have seen a revolution in online technology, from the way websites are coded to the delivery methods and types of content. Taking a closer look at your website could uncover ways for you to leverage online promotion while lowering related overhead.

The first step in the analysis of your website is to review the layout and design. Does your site appear dated? There will always be design trends and employing trendy elements is perfectly acceptable. After all, trends come into existence because they convey a particular message. The blocky type and futuristic styling of the early 2000s were used to highlight a company’s focus on advanced technology and cutting-edge staff. These days, however, that look is likely to be seen as dusty and largely ignored. A fresh look is a visual statement to your customers that your company is exciting and keeping with the times.

Advancing technology also affects the presentation of a website. Monitor resolutions continue to trend upward, and each passing milestone leaves websites optimized for the previous acceptable size a little less practical. Adapting to the current minimum standards gives you greater room for presenting your information to an interested audience.

The growing permeation of broadband Internet access throughout communities world-wide has led to greater acceptance of alternate content. Not limited to just text and images, today’s websites feature streaming video, podcasts, and downloads of all varieties. Granting your customers access to the content they desire in a means convenient to their specific situation can be the element that separates you from your competition.

Technological advances go beyond the presentation of content. A website built to today’s standards has a smaller file size (lowering download times and hosting costs), is easier to maintain (lowering daily maintenance costs), and is much easier for search engines to index (resulting in better search engine rankings). These are factors that influence your company’s bottom line and should not be ignored. An investment in revitalizing your website is one that can result in immediate economic returns.

There are several key pieces of collateral that every business needs (logo, business cards, signage), but the single, hardest-working promotional tool is a business’s website. Long gone are the days where a website is a frivolous expense. These days, if you don’t have a website, it is costing you money. Across virtually every demographic, consumers are likely to begin the pre-purchase decision-making process online. And if you’re not in the mix, you are out of the running.

Think about the vacationing family. Most hotels now offer in-room broadband as well as a complementary office area with a community computer. When it comes to deciding where to have dinner, they get a list of local restaurants and begin searching for the related websites. Those that offer online menus (often with associated price) are reaching their customers before they’ve left the hotel. Where is the family most likely to dine, at the restaurant with dishes and prices that they know is right for them, or the restaurant whose offerings are still in the dark?

A more common example is the individual in search of professional services. A website provides more than just an answer to the question “can you do this for me?” It makes a business’s first impression, beginning the selling process. You can demonstrate your expertise in your field. You can cross-sell by bring to light related products or services the site’s visitor may not have thought of. You can educate your customer on their terms, which is a great position for any business to be in.

Your company’s website is your front door to your potential customers. By presenting a professional, well thought out, and easy to use website, your initial impression can be one that results in more customers and more sales.