When in Doubt, Ask The Expert

Web-Design and Development — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:30:03 +0000

Big Cloud Media here, providing all of your web, marketing, web-marketing and website solutions in one stop. The topic today is “Ask an Expert” and it is a concept that affects every business.

I will start with a couple of questions we can all relate too: When you don’t know how to fix the heater in your house, are you more likely to do it yourself or call an expert? Does it often turn into a crazy mess and end up costing more if you take it on yourself? Does the heater tech’s expertise in the area make the job turn out better and take less time?

These questions are extremely similar to what businesses face each day regarding their websites and web marketing strategies. The website related version of the above question would be: Should I call a web-design company to get my strategy and plan for the web together or should I purchase a generic template site and be done with it? Before going any further, let me clarify because I know that some of you have gone this route and I don’t mean to offend anyone. I am not saying there is anything wrong with doing it yourself, plenty of people have done it and succeeded at it. What I am saying is that by hiring a website expert, just like by hiring the heater tech, the results are often better and you get a quicker return on the work put in.

This being said, I encourage you to seek an expert when it comes to your website and web-marketing needs. Not only will it generally save you time on the project, it will most likely result in a better and more profitable outcome for you. If you need to weigh your options or just throw some ideas around, we would be more than happy to get you on the right track.

Thanks for visiting today and for more website and web-marketing tips and musings see us on Twitter @BigCloudMedia.

Make sure your headers match your content

Web-Design and Development — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:02:10 +0000

Hey folks.

This post is about how to make sure your website headers match your content. This is a short review of how to find them and also, what they should be. You would be surprised how many website owners I have talked to that don’t know how Google and the other search engines are reading their content, and why it is being read a certain way. Knowing and adjusting your website header content is a big step in getting your website on the right track for effective SEO and online marketing.

How do I see my website header tags and what is in them?

Here is how to check to see what your headers look like:

Visit your website.
Click “View” in your browser.
Click the “View Source” option.
When the source code loads, you should see something like the code listed below. This blog is focusing on the meta tags “keywords” , “description”, and “title” just to keep things short. They are labeled in like colors in the code below :

 content="Big Cloud Media is an Arlington, TX based, web-design, development and marketing company that builds business websites, web-applications, and marketing solutions." />

<meta name="keywords" content="web-design, development, marketing, business, Search Engine Optimization, websites, website" />

</strong>Big Cloud Media Custom Business Website Design, Development & Marketing

These tags make up part of what is known as the web-page header. They suggest to search bots how to list your page in their search results and how to categorize your site.

Website Meta Keywords

The website meta keywords can be found by the “keywords” tag:

“keywords” content=”web-design, development, marketing, business, Search Engine Optimization, websites, website” />

The content=”…” portion of this code is where you indicate which keywords you would like your site to be associated with. The catch here though is that you want them to be relevant to your code in your webpage. If they are not, it can hinder your SEO efforts. It is a good idea to repeat the keywords that you want to be found by in your content several times so that your keywords line up with your content. Do it with class though and make sure that the sentences make sense. There isn’t a point in trying to appease the search engines if you lose visitors in the process.

The Meta Description:

The website meta description can be found by looking for the tag:

content=”Big Cloud Media is an Arlington, TX based, web-design, development and marketing company that builds business websites, web-applications, and marketing solutions.” />

The meta description is where you give the search engines a short blurb about the webpage. This is often, in the Google search, the description that shows up under the search result. Sometimes the search engines will create their own for your site but if your description matches your content, it is likely Google will use it. Having an accurate and concise description of your site will also help your SEO efforts later on down the road. The more your headers line up with the content, the better.

The Title Tag

The title tag is can be found by looking for the </span></strong><span style="color: #ffffff;"> tag:</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="color: #008000;"><strong><title></strong>Big Cloud Media Custom Business Website Design, Development & Marketing

The tag is your page title and also the text that appears in your browsers window bar. This should be intuitive and match up with your page content as well. The theme here is continuity. If your page is about Dogs, the title should include “Dogs” in it. The title of your page helps in your suggestion to the search engines about how your site should be listed and in what categories and search terms.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">Why should I care about my meta tags? </span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Ultimately, it all comes down to how search engine friendly do you want your site to be and also, what does the search engine see when it reads your page. The more things that are missing, the less likely your site will be listed correctly and associated with the right search terms. Checking your headers and making sure they are accurate can also help to make your SEO efforts more fruitful. </span></p> <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">This blog came around from a real-world situation I recently came upon. I recently met with a prospective client and after doing a site overview (which includes checking their header tags) we found random stuff in them including unrelated words, references to other companies, etc. Their header tags were hindering their progression online and were definitely not helping their SEO efforts. The prospective client had no clue until this was addressed by us. Thus, this post, my effort to help you all know a little more about the content that represents you online.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">If you have more questions about any of this, please </span><strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">leave a comment </span></strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">or </span><a href="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/hire-us/"><strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">contact us</span></strong></a><span style="color: #ffffff;"> right away. We would be more than happy to help you in your specific situation.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Thanks for reading and I hope that this post has been helpful for you.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Big Cloud Media</span></p> </article> <article> <h1>New SEO Product Rollout</h1> <p>Web-Design and Development — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:34:44 +0000</p> <div class="socialize-in-content" style="float:right;"><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/new-seo-product-rollout/" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-counturl="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/new-seo-product-rollout/" data-url="http://INVALID_APIKEY" data-text="New SEO Product Rollout" data-count="vertical" data-via="BigCloudMedia" data-related="BigCloudMedia"></a></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"></div></div><p>Big Cloud Media is proud to announce that we now offer 2 different kinds of SEO solutions for your business. SEO is Search Engine Optimization and it is a blanket term for any techniques that will help to raise your ranking in the search engines.</p> <p>Our new SEO program takes it a step further and is focused on not only getting your website first search page presence when certain keywords are searched, but taking up 4-6 spots on that first search results page. Imagine your website showing up in 5 results on the first page of the google search instead of 1 result. This is an incredible advance in the SEO world and the results are guranteed.</p> <p>If you are interested in applying this innovative SEO technique to your website give us a call at 210-373-7352 and we can discuss it more in detail with you and answer any questions you may have.</p> <p>Thank you for reading and God bless.</p> <p>Big Cloud Media</p> </article> <article> <h1>HelpMeFindIt.org: A Community Driven Site for Helping People Find Stuff In the Real World</h1> <p>Web-Design and Development — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:13:58 +0000</p> <div class="socialize-in-content" style="float:right;"><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/helpmefindit-org-a-community-driven-site-for-helping-people-find-stuff-in-the-real-world/" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-counturl="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/helpmefindit-org-a-community-driven-site-for-helping-people-find-stuff-in-the-real-world/" data-url="http://INVALID_APIKEY" data-text="HelpMeFindIt.org: A Community Driven Site for Helping People Find Stuff In the Real World" data-count="vertical" data-via="BigCloudMedia" data-related="BigCloudMedia"></a></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"></div></div><p>Big Cloud Media just launched it’s BETA version of <a href="http://helpmefindit.org">HelpMeFindIt.org</a>. This site is A Community Driven Site for Helping People Find Stuff In the Real World. By that we mean people can register, post what they have found or what they are missing and put it out there for the rest of the users to help them find.</p> <p>This site just launched and we don’t really have any advertising budget so to speak, so we need your help in spreading word about this new site and getting people there to use it.</p> <p>Unlike other sites, this site is completely community driven. This isn’t an aggregate feed of missing things on the internet, instead it is a personal approach to helping real people find real things that they lost somewhere.</p> <p>Take a look at <a href="http://helpmefindit.org">http://helpmefindit.org</a> and try it out. Granted, there isn’t much there now because it just launched, but with your help spreading word about it, it can grow quickly. </p> <p>Thank you all and have a great day.</p> <p>Koji Flowers<br /> Big Cloud Media</p> </article> <article> <h1>Online Business Networking: A Must In Today’s Business World</h1> <p>Web-Design and Development — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:48:47 +0000</p> <div class="socialize-in-content" style="float:right;"><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/online-business-networking-a-must-in-todays-business-world/" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-counturl="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/online-business-networking-a-must-in-todays-business-world/" data-url="http://INVALID_APIKEY" data-text="Online Business Networking: A Must In Today’s Business World" data-count="vertical" data-via="BigCloudMedia" data-related="BigCloudMedia"></a></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"></div></div><p>How many of us love to make new connections and find new clients online? Well, I do, and I would like to share with you some different places that are awesome for online networking and also, why, especially now, becoming a part of online networking and social media sites is such an important part of business.</p> <p>To put it simply, social media and online networking gives you the power to make contact with millions of people all over the world. Facebook topped 300 million users and is used by newscasters to get opinions on topics, by radio shows to get recos for music to play, Best Buy now uses twitter to answer questions about tech and much more. This is happening folks. People, potentially your clients, are online and clicking away everyday and if your competition is in on it and working it, you are losing out. Don’t take this the wrong way. Your sales may be off the charts and money is coming in from everywhere and you might say, “I don’t need to get online, everything is working for me just the way it is.” and you would be totally right. In that case, establishing an online presence in the online networking and social media world would only grow your business more. For those who can’t say that and are looking for another way to get the word out, social media and online networking should be considered. If done right and effectively, it can’t hurt.</p> <p><a href="http://facebook.com"><strong>Facebook</strong> <strong>(free to join)</strong></a></p> <p>You have probably heard of the online phenomenon Facebook. I just mentioned it above and with 300 million users and more joinin<a href="http://gigaom.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/facebook-logo.jpg"></a>g daily, it’s a big one. Originally created as a social media site (which it still is) Facebook put a little twist on things and added the ability to create pages. This is where your business would come into play. If you create a page for your business, you can build a following, provide updates on services and products, inform people of newindustry news that may affect them, etc. Having a facebook page and effectively growing your fan base through Facebook gives you one more avenue through which to reach your current customers and potential customers. Keep this in mind though, when on Facebook and your doing all of this, DON”T SPAM!!! Apologies for the change in tone but the fastest way to lose fans of your page is to post every 5 min. the same thing you just posted about this product or that service. Mix it up and keep the content relevant and interesting. </p> <p>Through facebook you can also join groups and create groups to further your reach into the networking world. There are business groups galore, so get on and start meeting people.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://facebook.com">LinkedIn (free to join)</a><br /> </strong></p> <p>As a business, you have probably heard at some point or another about LinkedIn. Think of it as a business facebook. This one is all business, no joke. Through LinkedIn, you can meet all sorts of people (CEO’s and presidents of companies, etc.) and do all sorts of things to get the word out about your business or products/services, and the best part <a href="http://roadagent.org/img/blogsmall/70.gif"></a>is, it’s free. Yay, free stuff!! Once you create a LinkedIn profile, you want to make sure you fill it out completely and put a picture up there. After that, join some groups that you think match your industry or your customers and start meeting people within the groups. LinkedIn also has a thing called Q&A. You can answer questions other people have and also ask questions of your own to your network. Build up your network, spread the word about your company and meet other business people. LinkedIn is awesome for business networking but once again, DON’T SPAM. It’s getting to be a real issue in some of the groups and you will be booted if you SPAM the group. It’s pretty serious and can completely ruin what you are trying to do.</p> <p><strong>Things to Remember about Social Media and Online Networking:</strong></p> <p>One thing to remember about these online networking sites and just the principle in general is that <strong>you are building your reputation as a business</strong> just as much as you are building clientele for your products or services. Protect that reputation by not SPAMMING other members and by offering good information on your products and services in an unobtrusive way. This is very important because you can achieve awesome results but you can also, just as easily, loose your rep for your business.</p> <p>Another thing to remember: It takes time and effort if you are to succeed in networking online. You have to build your following and your friends and connections from the ground up and keep at it. The payoff may not be immediate but just remember that when you have established yourself in these different places online, you are that much easier to be found online and you have more exposure to potential clients and customers.</p> <p>If you have more questions about networking online or social media, please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment or <a href="http://bigcloudmedia.com/hire-us">contact me</a> through my online form. Big Cloud Media also offers consultation on these matters if you are having trouble effectively using them to get word out about your business so please feel free to <a href="http://bigcloudmedia.com/hire-us">contact me</a> if you are interested in that as well.</p> <p>Thank you for reading and God bless.</p> <p>Koji Flowers</p> <p>Big Cloud Media</p> </article> <article> <h1>And we are back up and rolling…</h1> <p>Web-Design and Development — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:26:52 +0000</p> <div class="socialize-in-content" style="float:right;"><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/and-we-are-back-up-and-rolling/" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-counturl="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/and-we-are-back-up-and-rolling/" data-url="http://INVALID_APIKEY" data-text="And we are back up and rolling…" data-count="vertical" data-via="BigCloudMedia" data-related="BigCloudMedia"></a></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"></div></div><p>Good day all. I just wanted to let you know that the wedding went without a hitch thanks to all of the support from family and friends. Thank you all so much.</p> <p>Big Cloud Media has relocated to Dallas, TX and is back up and running so please feel free to write or call (210-373-7352) if you need our services. Just to recap we currently offer the following services:</p> <ul> <li>Custom website design and development</li> <li>Custom web-application design and development</li> <li>Marketing services and consultation including but not limited to: social media, blogging, online marketing, offline marketing, marketing plans and more.</li> <li>Printing, from billboards to business cards</li> <li>Search Engine Optimization</li> <li>Website Effectiveness Consultation and Planning</li> </ul> <p>Please let us know if you are in need of, or are interested in any of these services for your business, band, corp etc. We will be more than happy to help.</p> <p>Thank you all and have a great day.</p> <p>Big Cloud Media</p> </article> <article> <h1>Gmail Seems to Be Having Issues :(</h1> <p>Web-Design and Development — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:13:21 +0000</p> <div class="socialize-in-content" style="float:right;"><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/gmail-seems-to-be-having-issues/" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-counturl="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/gmail-seems-to-be-having-issues/" data-url="http://INVALID_APIKEY" data-text="Gmail Seems to Be Having Issues :(" data-count="vertical" data-via="BigCloudMedia" data-related="BigCloudMedia"></a></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"></div></div><p>Has anyone else had issues logging into <a href="http://gmail.com">gmail</a> today? It was working fine earlier today and business was going as usual but for some reason I keep getting “Server Error” when I try to access my account now. Although it does not bring my business to a complete halt, this outage doesn’t do many good things, except remind me that although Google is an awesome online service provider and extremely powerful and large, they still have their misshaps too. Thus, create backups of important stuff…something all of us get comfy and forget about, but in the long run, it’s a good idea.</p> <p>Resolution: well there isn’t one at the moment. According to Gmail’s support blog: “Because this is impacting so many of you, we wanted to let you know we’re currently looking into the issue and hope to have more info to share here shortly.” (you can read more <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/todays-gmail-problems.html">here</a>).</p> <p>All of us gmailers will have to just deal, I guess, until Google gets their services back online. I guess it is pretty important to them because they use it too, lol. I know it’s free, but when a service has as many users as gmail and is no longer a beta, things should be anticipated. Cheers to waiting it out folks.</p> <p>Koji Flowers</p> <p>Big Cloud Media</p> <h2><span style="color: #ff0000;">Update 4:21pm: We are back…yay! Gmailers, get back to it. </span></h2> </article> <article> <h1>Twack…The Social Media Drug of Choice</h1> <p>Web-Design and Development — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:20:11 +0000</p> <div class="socialize-in-content" style="float:right;"><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/twack-the-social-media-drug-of-choice/" data-counter="top"></script></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-counturl="http://www.bigcloudmedia.com/twack-the-social-media-drug-of-choice/" data-url="http://INVALID_APIKEY" data-text="Twack…The Social Media Drug of Choice" data-count="vertical" data-via="BigCloudMedia" data-related="BigCloudMedia"></a></div><div class="socialize-in-button socialize-in-button-vertical"></div></div><p>Twack is my nickname for Twitter. You are on Twack!! Twitter is highly addictive and can take over people’s lives, much like crack addiction tends to do, only without the legal issues. Thus, Twack is born.</p> <p>You know you are addicted to Twack if you…</p> <ol> <li>Shun hanging with family and friends to update your status.</li> <li>Have a twitter app on your blackberry, G1 or other app supporting phones.</li> <li>Have the twitter number as a contact in your phone to make for easier texting</li> <li>Start speaking in 140 character sentences in regular conversation</li> <li>Get nervous if you can’t update your status</li> <li>Show real concern when your follow count goes down</li> <li>Miss twittering while on vacation</li> <li>Have gotten in an accident because you updated twitter while driving</li> <li>Get moody if you have to be away from Twitter (in any fashion) for more than 5 min.</li> <li>Would rather dm your friends instead of phone them</li> </ol> <p>For all of you hardcore Twitter users out there, know that you are not alone in your fight with Twack. With much willpower and therapy, I am sure that you, me and all the other Twackheads can defeat this life-draining social media induced habit, but as with most struggles, it takes time. </p> <p>That’s it for now. I am starting to get withdrawals from the Twack and need my next fix before I go completely crazy.</p> <p>Yall have a great day and God bless.</p> <p>By the way, you can follow me at <a href="http://twitter.com/bigcloudmedia">twitter.com/bigcloudmedia</a>.</p> </article> </main></body></html>

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When in Doubt, Ask The Expert

Make sure your headers match your content