Inbound Marketing and Technology Blog

Content Management Systems (CMS), like Wordpress and Joomla, are amazing tools that make truly dynamic web pages possible without having to learn a lot of code. Because these Content Management Systems are extremely popular there are, unfortunately, a number of malicious individuals out there looking to take advantage of loopholes within these systems. For example, if you are using a stock installation of a CMS you might even have a “generator” meta tag in your site’s source code that tells the whole world what CMS and what version of it you are using. Armed with this information, an unscrupulous website visitor knows exactly which vulnerabilities to test to get access to your website files and even your databases.

Inbound marketers are a special bunch. We’re hard working, creative minded, data driven people who recognize the endless possibilities in Internet marketing. There’s no doubt we see the world a bit differently which means we also possess a few quirks. Not sure what I’m talking about? Well then, to help you out, allow me to share a few things you may want to consider.    

Just this past month, Google Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, noted that half of small businesses are not yet online. For businesses that are online, however, their growth rate is twice that of offline businesses, according to Schmidt. That's a powerful statement. You can double your business by taking it online. How effective is your online presence? Do you have an online presence? It's 2012 after all, time to get with the program and make a commitment to your company's revenue growth.

Writing great content is, well … great. But it is possible to overdo it. Cramming too much text onto one page can not only drive away potential customers, but all your carefully written content can become lost to Google. This is where web content architecture comes into play.

Proper web content architecture benefits two parties: your website users and the search engines.

Your website visitors are no different than you or me. They want to be able to find what they're looking for quickly without having to peruse your entire site, and their needs should be the first priority when creating your sitemap. Think about where you would look for certain information on a website, and create a sitemap based on that natural flow. The simpler you make it for them, the more likely they are to convert into paying customers ... and the more likely you are to catch Google's attention.

People are always coming up to me asking how they can easily improve their websites, which always weirds me out, because how do they know that I work for a web design agency? But after that shock wears away and I take a few steps back, I always tell them the same five things:

(1) Use graphics and images to pretty up your site.

When you are creating new pages, updating existing content, writing blog posts, or whatever, make sure you use graphics and images to give your page a visual punch.

Graphics and images do many things; they especially draw the eye and pull the reader in and reinforce your content. Sites like iStockphoto.com make it easy and affordable to add high quality images and illustrations to your site.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you should choose graphics and images that suit your content, your audience, and your brand. If your audience is a senior citizen quilting group, you're most likely not going to use an image of a biker gang. If your audience is more business-oriented, graphs and charts would be a better visual to use than bikini models. Unless your business is selling bikinis (Are you hiring?).