Who's Talking About You Online

Everyone who depends on their business's reputation should frequently Google themselves to find out who is saying what about you, online. The problem is, this isn't something you think about on a day to day basis, so weeks and months may go by where you're left in the dark.

Google Alerts to the rescue! This tool is a very quick and easy way to setup a daily, weekly or monthly report on your business or personal name. What Google Alerts does is take a keyword you want monitored and scans every page that Google indexes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
*Note: You can also use this to keep track of your competition.

Example:

1. Say your business is named: Henry Automotive
2. You would go to www.google.com/alerts and monitor the keyword "henry automotive". Make sure to use " " around the keywords so that you're only searching that keyword combination and not 'henry' and automotive' separately.
3. Now you'll get a daily, weekly or monthly (you decide) email on links to articles Google lists on thier search engine.

Funky Results:
At first you will get a lot of older listings popping up over the course of a few weeks, but once they've been mentioned once, they won't be sent to your email again.

You may end up with other results for "henry automotive" that you have nothing to do with you, such as another automotive company or a sentences that are written like "... and I saw Henry. Automotive experts will..."

If you have a business or common name such as a toy shop I know called "Happily Ever After" or "John Smith", then results can seriously muddled. In those cases I would suggest adding several more alerts with additional keywords in them.
"Happily Ever After toys"
"Happily Ever After in Philadelphia" or
"John Smith" painter (notice how I left one of the keywords outside the " ")

~
Alex Seigfried, Owner
Philadelphia, PA

The Seigfried Designs Resume

Choosing how a web company can be something of a mixed bag for many people. It's one of the last businesses to be reigned in by competitive pricing and mega organizations, so that there is no clear set of 'standards' for consumers to fall back on. After all, you can go to any mechanic, plumber, lawyer, doctor or corner store and get similar prices for the same services. But websites, internet marketing and other online services are in a constant state of flux, and vary from business to business. How then are you supposed to choose the right company, that will get you what you need, when you need it.

The first thing you should do is ask a friend or a trusted coworker for advice, a trusted referral is the best way to find information. If none are available to you, then doing a search for local companies is your second best bet, making sure to do searches for reviews of those companies.

The idea is to figure out what kind of a company you want to do business with. Do you like a friendly face, a firm handshake, professional distance or are you looking for a good price? Everybody likes a different style, which is why we have mom and pop operations and corporate giants operating in the same field.

Often I suggest to people that they should periodically do a review of their performance and re-submit a 'resume' to their boss or clients. Because over time you tend to loose touch with the people you work with, and they forget what you provide for them and what you've done in the past. So that being said, here is:

The Seigfried Designs Resume:

About the Owner:
Alex Seigfried is a contractor that provides a personal and human touch to web services, whether it be web design, pay-per-click, marketing, social media or just talking on the phone. He is honest and up front about his work, always detailing exactly what he does and the steps he takes to do it. The phone is always open for questions, comments, suggestions and conversations for clients needs, fears or general understanding of internet technology. Up-front prices are fairly calculated to make sure that you only pay for the time spent working on your projects, to the minute not by the hour. He will always honor an agreement made and has built a reputation for iron clad reliability.

What We've Done:

• Provided dozens of small businesses and web professionals with unique and specially tailored websites, that meet the varying demands of each client.
• Always provide free and useful advice to clients on design, marketing strategy and whether a service is 'right' for their business.
• Taken clients from zero search engine ranking to the top spots on Google and Yahoo, for relevant keywords.
• Increased sales leads and overall business income for all of our clients.
• Providing comprehensive statistics and analysis, to craft an online business plan, where there was none before.
• Made every single one of our clients happy with our services... all of them... period.

~
Alex Seigfried; Owner
Philadelphia, PA

Why I Grudgingly Accept Twitter

Twitter is a service that let's you Micro-blog (140 characters or less) on it's website to keep your friends and followers updated on your current state of... whatever. The general idea behind it is that people can randomly shout out the tiniest minutia of their lives to an audience that may or may not be receptive.

But now that I'm researching it for a book ... I'm starting to see what everyone is yapping on about.

Some reasons that Twitter is something you shouldn't pass on:

1. It's a gigantic network of people, sheer numbers alone give it a high probability that you'll attract customers, friends and inquisitive clients.
2. It's quick and to the point, which is good for any announcement you may wish to make. Specials, Closing early, Questions, Reviews... it is a great way to sum up a short blurb without the hassle of emailing your entire mailing list.
3. It allows people to scan your posts and profile to get a first impression. Do they seem professional, friendly, do they frequently post, are you and expert about what your talking about. The open nature of a Twitter account can reveal more about what your business and you are all about, compared to a block of intro text on your homepage. It's more human.

Some reasons people fail at Twitter:

1. They don't post everyday. You just need to do this once a day, it could be anything at all, but you need to build the sense that you're a source of news that people want to check back with everyday. It's not hard! Write that the decaf is burnt today so your customers should go with a latte, tell people when the new shipment of dolls is coming, inform them you're thinking of green alternatives for powering your shop, keep people in the loop with what your business is doing.
2. Seeing Twitter as 'just some kid thing', like Myspace or Webkins. I learned this lesson, don't knock it till you try it. I've got five years of professional experience in dealing with new internet technology and ten more years of personal background. Twitter is a serious tool that can be leveraged to your financial benefit.
3. Not inviting your customers to join. Twitter is a lot like your website, you can't just build your profile and then sit on it, hoping that people will find you. Obama, FOX News... these people can sit on it and know people will go find them. More than likely, you're not that famous, so you need to be pro-active. Put a button on your website inviting people to join you on Twitter, put it in your emails, tell everyone you meet, even encourage customers face to face. You'll be surprised at the positive response.

~
Alex Seigfried, Owner
Seigfried Designs
Philadelphia, PA

The Importance of Creating a Web Presence Rather than a Website.

It used to be a very simple thing to say to yourself, “I need to get myself online, I'll need a website.”

Although that may not be the wrong idea, today it's not necessary for it to be your first step, and it certainly shouldn't be your only step. The creation of a Web Presence is far more important than tossing down thousands of dollars for a quality website. Let's define what a Web Presence is.

Web Presence is where a business has created multiple avenues, on the internet, for people to find and contact your company. This relates mostly to social media, websites, blogs, sales pages and professional profiles, each of which presents your business information to appropriate parties.

Plain Speak: Create a free blog, myspace page, linkedin profile, twitter account, plaxo, etc. Spread yourself around the internet instead of being boxed into just your single website. Your web presence should be viewed like peanut butter, spread it out across the wonder bread that is the internet, thickly and tastily.

One of the biggest problems a business can face in today's online marketplace is the ability to compete on search engines. Listing sites, junk blogging and Google selling the dictionary to services like bizrate or amazon have turned search engine results into a seedy swap meet for many business categories. Just try doing a search for “plubers” or “shoes” in your local area and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's nearly impossible for a small business to compete against such websites, since they are small and don't generate as much traffic. Despite being highly relevant your business isn't being listed because of companies taking advantage of Google's automated algorithm.

BUT if you create a Web Presence, spread yourself around, you can attack search engines from many different angles. You may never rank very well for “roofing wilmington de”, on a one to one level. JohnSmithCars.com simply isn't going to the pull that FindAutoMechanicsList.com will, but if John Smith has ten different places it's increasing it's presence, it's like having ten different websites working together to achieve greater search engine ranking.

Seigfried Designs can help you create a Web Presence as well as layout a complete game plan for updating and staying on top of your social media needs.

~ Alex Seigfried, Owner; Philadelphia, PA

Using Blogger Instead of Web Design from Scratch

Google's blogger is the herald of a coming “do it yourself” web design revolution. Although you still need someone who is a little tech savvy to get the most out of Blogger, it's the precursor to something much bigger. It's the first service where you can put together a reasonable website for your business, without the need of a professional web designer. My wife and I have done some experimenting with this idea and found that with a little tweaking, you can convert a Blogger blog, into a fully functioning website.

Here are a few simple ways to make the conversion:

1. Think about the typical pages you'll want for your website. Services, About Us, Contact Page, etc. Now write one post for each of those pages, inserting pictures, copy and links as needed. Label as you normally would.
2. Now the twist. Blogger assigns each one of your blog posts their own 'page'. If you go to your blogger blog and click on the title of any post, you'll be taken to a page that has just that post on it (all others disappear). You can then take the link for that post, out of your address bar (the thing at the top of your browser with the www) and save it as a link (copy it down somewhere for later, like a notepad file).
3. After you've saved each of your post's links, you want to go into your Blogger blog's Layout. Choose the Page Elements tab. What we're going to do is create a page element in your sidebar, the Links List element. Take each of the links to your posts, title them and add them to the Links List element. Don't forget to make a link for your Homepage, which you can either type up a static post for your homepage or just use the main link of your blogger account (insertname.blospot.com).

Now you've got a navi bar just like a regular website! It's a simple concept, but it's very handy since most people who use the internet are used to a certain format when they come to websites. Now that you've got a navi bar, people will start using your blog like a website. The best of both worlds, wrapped up in one.

Of course if you want your blog to have it's own unique look, instead of using the standard templates, you're going to have to get someone who's knowledgeable in CSS and Editing Images. This is where you can hire a web designer or web company to really make your new blog website shine.

Seigfried Designs provides web design services for blogger, wordpress and any other blogging format you care to use.

~
Alex Seigfried, Owner; Philadelphia, PA

New Service - Blog Creation & Setup - Philadelphia Blogs

Following trends and the natural progression of information technology online, we are now offering Blog Creation and Setup for all major blog services.

Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal Profiles & More.

We will:

• Help you get started by creating an account and teaching you how to make self-updates.
• Make your blog stand out from the crowd by customizing templates for a unique look.
• Integration of your blog into an existing website.
• Help you make a website in Wordpress that is part blog and part static pages, that you can self-update.