The F7 Blog
Figureseven, Inc. has been helping businesses maximize their offline and online marketing efforts for over a decade. This blog provides insight, tips and advice from our experts to help you achieve your marketing goals.
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Figureseven, Inc.
615 South Street
Fitchburg, MA 01420
877-626-2771
Treat your website like your front lawn
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
June 25, 2009 in Web Marketing, Web Site Management
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Del.icio.usDo you treat your website like you treat your lawn or your dirty laundry? Unfortunately for many of you the answer is the latter. Let me put this question into perspective. If I go two weeks without cutting my grass my wife is complaining, the neighbors hate me, people who drive by point and snicker that I am “that guy” who doesn’t care about what kind of impression I am making. Whereas everyone pushes doing laundry off until it is convenient/necessary. If I don’t get to it today, it doesn’t matter because it can be done tomorrow. I may be wearing my second-best pair of pants and that shirt that’s starting to fray a little at the cuffs, but that’s ok. Hey, I can get by on that and at least I’m clothed!
One of the hardest things to accept when you are a company that develops websites is having your hard work turn into a rotten mess. Our industry typically works on client-initiated website maintenance requests. What that means is our clients call us when they need work done. Unfortunately, as time goes on, these calls happen less and less and oftentimes the website’s content becomes outdated, certain elements fall out of style and ultimately the site ceases to be relevant.
Revisiting online search techniques
By Aimee Belair, Creative Director, Figureseven, Inc.
June 23, 2009 in Technical Information, Usability
To improve your search engine results on a topic, try the following:
To search for an exact phrase, enclose it all in quotation marks. For example, type in the phrase mathematical help into your search bar of choice and view the results. Now go back and type in "mathematical help" and notice the change in results. This method is called phrase searching.
What do you mean my website is down?
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
June 17, 2009 in Technical Information, Web Hosting
If you are a business owner, this is one sentence you do not want to be spitting out. As each day passes, our reliance on the Internet increases. In a nutshell, your business cannot afford to have its website down for a significant period of time. Businesses that have ecommerce sites are fully aware of this and usually take the proper precautions to ensure their business is “hosted” properly. For business owners who are not selling items online, many fail to see the importance. If this describes you, then you might want to think again. Take a look at a recent article that illustrates the importance of web hosting:
Can Google Find You?
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
June 9, 2009 in Search Engine Optimization, Web Marketing, Web Site Management
I heard an old saying this morning that got me thinking: if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And that got me to thinking: if your website is online and no one can find it, does it really exist? Well, of course in both cases we know the reality, but if the question can be asked of your website, then you should think about how you can change that. These tips can bring your site to light.
- Content: Search Engines nowadays are scanning the content you have on your site. Previously, you could just update your meta tags and be set, but now the content you have on your site is more important than ever. You can’t fool the search engines anymore – the content must be quality and relevant to your customer. It is important that you set time aside at least once a week, but daily if possible
- Freshness: Search engines are smarter than you and I. You may think, “I have the greatest content on my website and it will get my website noticed.” At first it may, but if you do not have fresh content on your site, search engines will eventually stop tracking you as much. Many companies have started to write blogs to counter this.
- Structure: Ask yourself this question. When was the last time I read anything that did not have a compelling heading? You may have to think for a while. Be organized with your website. Correctly order things for your users and for the search engines. It will help.
- Well Coded Sites: Did you build your website yourself using some kind of template? Did your business have a company build your website without properly coding it? If that is the case, the coding may be hindering your ability to be found. Having a website that is properly coded can aid with visibility across multiple engines.
(As a side note, did you know that every website we develop is coded by hand? Just checking.)
A BIG Thank You from Figureseven
By Scott Devlin, Director of Business Development, Figureseven, Inc.
June 3, 2009 in Web Marketing
The first time I heard Susan Boyle, I had the reaction that most of you had –“who is this singing and why do I not know who she is?” I could not believe that someone with talent like hers had not been discovered yet. I was amazed and shocked all at once. I asked myself, why do all of these reality talent shows exist and succeed? Is it that we enjoy seeing the failures of those delusional enough to think they are good, or do we like to see those stories of people who overcome adversity to succeed on the biggest stage? Often, the contestants on these shows may be facing a fear of performing in public, or a physical issue that has made life a bit more challenging, or overcoming the loss of a loved one. Their stories give me inspiration. Their stories make me believe that we need to believe in our abilities and jump in when our minds say it might be too dangerous.
Don’t believe I’m telling you to go play in traffic. Doing that may not work out so well. What I am telling you is, if you believe in your business and your product, take the leap. Our economy today is challenging to say the least. All of us, large companies and small, have had to make tough decisions. Many of us have parted ways with valuable members of our teams in order to survive. We recently sat down as a team to project out our next twelve months. We see the next year as one of great opportunity. We’re excited to go forward with a new look to our website and some big projects that have opened many doors for us. We will be unveiling the latest version of our Content Management System and have recently upgraded our hosting capabilities. I am lucky enough to be part of a team that has such drive and focus. We believe in our company and will do whatever is necessary to exceed expectations. Our clients are the very lifeblood to our company and we know that. To all of them, present and future, I say thank you!
