SOI

Content is King

Published July 17, 2012 | By R & D Art

When I first talk with a potential client for R & D Art, the first and foremost thing that I explain to them is that content is king. No matter how well the website or blogsite that we would build for you is optimized, the bottom line always comes back to the content that you produce. Pardon the bluntness, but if your content is crap then your website will quickly follow; maybe not in the beginning, but it will over time. I know that people in the social media realm will bury you if they think your website or posts stink. Grammar, spelling, and factual content is key when it comes to content. Believe it or not, there are people that sit around and wait for people to make mistakes just so that they can punish them brutally.

Let me say this before we go any further; if you have thin skin or do not take criticism well, then blogging might not be for you. What these ‘grammar police’ do is not necessarily right, but the blogging world has pounded on some of newspapers biggest journalists because they made one mistake. With that said, relative anonymity can be a ‘safe haven’ until the article hits the social media world where bad grammar, spelling, and unchecked assertions can come crashing down on you. If you are blogging to create a journal, a diary, or just some ramblings, then quit reading this article and move on. This does not pertain to you.

The biggest question that I am asked is “What do you mean by ‘Content is King’?” That is a great question. The first thing that comes to mind is relevancy. Is the content that you are writing relevant to your site’s topic? If your site is a sports related website, you would not want to write about parenting. You can write about sports, you can write about common surgeries that sports players encounter, you can write about sports movies, you can write about sports events, and the list can go on and on. Bottom line is, it is the content that keeps the people coming back time and time again. This is what drives the success of a website.

In the Real Estate world, people are going to visit your site because they want to know about the products that you offer. 87% of all home searches begin on the internet. People want to know about the area where they are considering moving. Therefore, when they come to your site, they will stick around if you offer the information that they are looking for. One of the big issues that I have seen with most real estate websites is the lack of articles about their area. Above anyone, a realtor has to be an expert on their area. The schools, churches, and other amenities in your area give you so much to write about. This helps to open a dialogue with your readers and that is what turns them into potential clients. This can be said of loan officers as well. You have many products to offer and there are many things that are going on in the financial sector. The same can be said for insurance agents, appraisers, home inspectors, and many other professions who fall under the umbrella of real estate industry. This means that there is always something available for you to write about today. Taking 30 minutes out of your day to write a 200 to 500 word article should not be a chore.

I could go on and on about what you should or could be writing about. The bottom line is that CONTENT IS KING! I cannot emphasize this too much. Think before you hit that submit or publish button as this is going to go out to the world. Use this thought pattern: Is this something that I would find interesting?

Posted in Blogging, Social Media | Tagged blogging, content, facebook, ROI, SEO, SMM, social media, social media marketing, SOI, Twitter | 1 Comment

Blogging Is It In You?

Published July 2, 2012 | By R & D Art

Blogging is a direct and effective way to reach your target audience. I firmly believe that most websites can benefit tremendously by having a blog component. That said, you as a website owner, with certain expectations of your website, must put in the minimal effort that blogging requires. For many years now, I immersed myself deeper and deeper in the blogging world. I sit here behind my computer and surf more than a 1,000 blogs each month. In so doing, I come across more blogs than I care to mention that have not been updated in weeks, as well as blogs that have very little substance to begin with. Many of these blogs would be better served by being on Facebook or Twitter. The short blurbs or pictures that they post would fit in well with the style of these two social media outlets. Not to mention the lack of traffic that comes to a blog that is basically inactive.

Take the Real Estate industry for example, blogging can be a big part of a Realtor’s marketing. According to research, more than 80% of all home searches start on the internet. Bottom line is that the people with a strong web presence will be the ones that get found on the internet in these searches. I would also like to refer to a conversation that I had with a Realtor out of the Pacific Northwest recently. In terms of business, she indicated that she can easily differentiate between when she blogs versus the time that she does not blog. She told me, her phone rings off the hook when she is blogging and it is eerily quiet when she is not. With that said, let me make sure that you understand this in relation to blogging; not everyone will experience the same results. Some results may be better and some will be worse.

The problem that most people have with blogging is that they think they have nothing to write about. Well, frankly, that is a big crock. From products, to information, to services, and regardless of your industry or profession, you are typically selling something. I have yet to meet a sales person that does not like to talk; if there is one out there, they typically are not of the more successful type. Being in the web development industry, there is always something to write about. If consumers can find solid information on your website, then chances are, they will regard you as one of the go to people for your industry.

Blogging is not the wave of the future. It is the wave of now. Having a marketing plan, or a website, that does not including blogging is not a wise choice. The benefits of blogging far outweigh the time and effort that go into it. As the world continues to move forward, more and more people will continue to start their search for most products and services on the internet as opposed to walking into a brick and mortar location. The question that I have to ask potential clients of R & D Art is “Are your poised to claim your share of that market?” If you can not shout a resounding yes to that question, then contact us today.

Posted in Advertising & Marketing, Blogging, SEO, Social Media | Tagged blogging, facebook, ROI, SEO, SMM, social media, social media marketing, SOI, Twitter | Leave a comment

WordPress Web Design

R & D Art offers WordPress web design on a per project basis. We build a custom theme from ground up based on the specifications that you provide. ALL of the custom themes that R & D Art builds are designed with the full approval of our clients and are specific to that client and may not be reused without the consent of that particular client. During the design process we also setup the WordPress platform on your server or ours, based on what you needs are. You can always use our Maintenance and Training or Hosting, Maintenance, and Training products if you need. Once the platform is correctly structured on your site, we will build up to 5 pages for you. This will be the main page, an about page, a contact page and any other 2 pages that you desire. All of the content has to be provided by you. While we will spell check the verbiage, we will not optimize it for SEO under this basic service.

*All pictures for the website need to be provided by you and either you need to own them or have permission to use these images.*

WordPress Web Development

R & D Art offers WordPress Web Development on a per project basis. This product envelopes many of our individual projects in one. We custom price each project based on the needs of the client.

With WordPress Web Development, we combine the basic WordPress Web Design with our WordPress SEO, WordPress Security, WordPress Performance, adding plugins that are tested to work great for SEO, performance, and security, up to 10 pages built with your content added and optimized for SEO as well as spell checked. There are other processes that we do not share out.

We also offer branding for social media FaceBook and Twitter accounts.

*All pictures for the website need to be provided by you and either you need to own them or have permission to use these images.*

WordPress Web Performance

Web performance deals with the speed of your website. We utilize a tool from GTmetrix in order to run a detailed report of your website. With this report we can determine all the issues that keep your PageLoad Speed and YSlow Speed scores low. Once we review the report we sit down with the site owner to review the report and formulate a plan of action for your site and needs.

If you would like more information or would like to hire us to test your web performance, then click on the link.

WordPress Webmaster

R & D Art now offers WordPress Webmaster as a monthly or yearly option. As a WordPress Webmaster, we basically take care of everything that is technical with your website. When we first take the site over, we go in Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster tools to make sure that your site is setup correctly in both. We then monitor your site once a month to make sure that everything is performing how it should. In addition, we do a review of the SEO of your website and then make suggestions based on your goals. We then work with you to implement the processes that you want to use. We also help to optimize any blogging post or new pages that you create for optimum SEO.

We also provide our full Security package to your website. This will provide any clean ups to your site from malware or from being hacked for free as long as you are current with our services. (Once you leave our Webmaster service, we no longer support the security of your site).

If there is conflicts with plugins or themes, we work directly with the creators to help to resolve this matter. If you are looking to add new plugins or change your theme, we actually test each one for you to make sure that they are compatible to your site and will not have an adverse effect.

As your WordPress Webmasters, we handle issues that clients have in using your website. If you have an eCommerce store and people have issues ordering, then we look into those issues for you. (In the beginning, we review your entire site and go over potential issues and the cost associated to fix them if this is not a site that we created.) If you have a static or blog site and a visitor has an issue with accessing portions of the site, they will be contacting us. You will still be copied on the contact form so that you can follow any issues.

In a nutshell, any and everything that deals with the technical side of your site is handled by us. Also, anyone that chooses this product will not have to carry our Maintenance and Training and this will be part of our service to you. However, if you do not have your own hosting, there will be a charge for being on our server.

WordPress SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) might be one of the most important services in the internet business today. While there are many tactics webmasters use to get their site or those of their clients found in the search engines, R & D Art only employs white hat tactics in our web SEO services. With that said, we do require a minimum 6 month commitment for our Web SEO service.

If you are interested in getting more information about hiring R & D Art to manage your WordPress Web SEO then click on the link.

WordPress Web Security

In today's Internet environment, the possibility of your website succumbing to malware, viruses, or even a hacker is increasing every day. With the fact that powerhouses like the D.O.D., GoDaddy, Yahoo, and numerous other major players face the same issues, this webmaster knows that if a hacker wants in, they will get in. It is my job to make that as difficult as possible.

If you would like to learn more about our WordPress Web Security, then click on the link.

Hosting, Maintenance and Training

R & D Art Hosting, Servicing, Support package basically provides you with top of the line hosting, servicing and support. We provide the server space, run all the updates included the WordPress Platform updates, backup your site daily, run a database optimization each time we upgrade to clean out the "dead" files out of the database, and provide unlimited support in order to teach you how to use the WordPress platform.

Hosting - With our hosting portion of the Hosting, Maintenance, and Training package, we offer you 1000 MB of storage for your site. We don't allow for multiple sites on the same CPanel. You are also limited on the bandwidth for the month, however, there is ample enough bandwidth for your site to perform adequately.

Maintenance: Our maintenance of your site is done Monday through Friday and entails us performing any plugin, theme, or platform updates. We also optimize your database each of these days as well. This helps speed your site up. Lastly, we delete any spam messages on your website.

Training: When someone first starts using WordPress, there always seems to be tons of questions. We believe that you can go to many different places to get the answers that you need. While there are a lot of answers out there, they are not always right. While we will never lead you to believe that we have ALL the answers, we will make sure that you understand if we do not have the right answer, we will find the correct one for you. The great news is that training is always provided when you subscribe to our Hosting, Maintenance, and Training package.

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