Waterford Technologies

Key Components for a Mobile Website

waterfordtech — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:02:09 +0000

According to Gartner Web, by 2013, more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online and yet less than 20% of businesses have a mobile version of their site. Until you actually sit and compare a website with a mobile version of that same website side by side, you don’t truly recognize how different the browsing experience is. A truly mobile website has two key components:

Designing for small screens – Most screens on mobile devices are very small so you have to do more than just shrink your regular website. You need a wholly different experience that makes the most out of text. A text-based site loads faster, is easy to read and is easy to navigate.

Minimizing content – When mobile phone users look at a small screen, they don’t want to read “a ton of content,” Smith says. So, the mobile site should provide only vital information. A text-based site loads faster, is easy to read and is easy to navigate.

There’s more you can do of course, like building specific phone apps, adding geospatial location services, etc, but the key is to make sure that you optimize your site for mobile viewing. Many of our customers are already seeing between 15-20% of their viewers coming in from mobile devices. You don’t want to miss out on this opportunity. Do something now!

Check out what Sam Harvey did at ISIS Salon and Spa: http://www.isisspaandsalon.com/

Social Seach with BING and Google

waterfordtech — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:08:15 +0000

Social Media and search are becoming increasingly intertwined, and both BING and Google have both been making some major changes recently. Here’s a quick recap for you to understand what the fuss is about and what’s going on:

First of all, in this context the term Social Search is basically an attempt at expanding your typical web search to include results from social media sites so the results are more personalized.

Google recently announced “Search plus Your World”, which surfaces content that has been shared with you on Google+, as well as public information from the social networking site that is related to your search. All of this is integrated with your typical Web search results. It’s a great idea, but Google+ data gets prominent treatment in the main search column and that’s just not as big as they want it to be yet.

BING has also added in social results with their latest release, however they are more integrated with Facebook and have limited the social results to a sidebar to stop it from being intrusive for those who don’t want it. Users can also ask questions to their Facebook friends directly from the search page, and see a list of who might know about a given topic. From the Sidebar, users can add comments on Facebook and pin Bing searches to their posts.

All in all the trend towards social search is a good thing. Clearly, the major search engines are embracing Social Media as an essential part of search. They realize that search results that come from a person’s social network are much more relevant to a user than generic search results. Although we are at the beginning of the Social Search movement, it’s important to be aware of what’s going on so you can ultimately use it to your own advantage. Stay tuned!

Web Design Tip: Leave the Book for the Kindle!

waterfordtech — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:50:15 +0000

With Google recently updating their search rules to seek out and penalize ‘over-optimized’ websites more and more small business owners are concerned about how much content to put on their site. For me this is a blessing in disguise. Too many times small business websites are loaded up with way too much information. It can be intimidating for viewers. I always say no one wants to read a book online! (IE the title. Get it?) The website is used to validate your business, confirm who you are and what you do, and peak their interest enough to contact you. You can’t tell them everything online, and you don’t want too! If you are like me, the real difference in what you offer is in the level of your service. How do you explain that online? With catchy phrases and cliches? Make your message short, concise, and crystal clear. If you load up on content, make it original content that helps promote your business as a thought-leader…(another topic for later), and provides useful information for your viewers. Though even then it needs to be pointed and concise.

So how much is too much? There is no right or wrong here. Some businesses will inevitably need to showcase more content than others. Read it aloud and see if you get the right message. Have family and friends go through it. If it puts anyone to sleep you know it’s too much! Just keep it simple…get your unique selling proposition across and err on the side of caution.

Jazz Up Your Business BLOG

waterfordtech — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:13:30 +0000

Some tips for enhancing your business BLOG:

1. Make it Visual.

People determine right away if they are interested or not, so between the title and a good image paint them a picture of your topic quickly.

2. Interesting

Don’t talk like you’re in a board meeting. No one cares about your annual reports. Find a relevant topic, and make it interesting!

3. Activate Readers.

Blog posts should encourage action, whether that means helping people learn or getting them more interested in your organization. Encourage feedback….like feel free to comment on this after you ready it!

4. Plan.

Don’t wing it. Plan your content and your schedule in advance. Otherwise it could overwhelm you.

5. Share.

Always share it afterwards. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. You can include Add-This on your site to help it, or you can just paste the link yourself. Either way get it out there to all your contacts.

At the end of the day, I just try and find useful content to my small business owners, offer short and hopefully insightful tips, and make it readily available to them. I hope it helps, just like I hope these tips help you do the same!

Pinterest: Should My Business Use It?

waterfordtech — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 15:22:36 +0000

Following up on our discussion from last time, Pinterest is an image-sharing website where people can build and maintain theme-based image collections. Pinterest uses these themes to connect people through common interests. It is THE hot social media property right now and we’re getting questions left and right from small business owners asking if they should be using Pinterest for their business, and if so, how. We here at Waterford Technologies and Waterford Web Works have been going through the same evaluation and let me share some of our notes on the topic:

You can use Pinterest to show off your products and services. Products are easier of course, but you can demonstrate services with images too, or in our case how about Portfolio images of client websites? Think about how you can articulate your service with an image. Auto Services, Cleaning services, lawn care, etc. Show your favorite client projects.
It’s another chance to connect with existing and potential clients. Pinterest allows users to leave comments and you can use this to interact with them and have them interact with each other as well. The more touch points you can have with your clients, the deeper you can build the relationships.
You can add personality. Just like Twitter, Pinterest gives business owners a chance to show that behind every business is another person just like you and I. Mix in some personal preference. Show some of your favorite vacation spots. Drop a few pictures of sites you enjoy. Be smart about it, and avoid controversy, but put a face to your business. We all feel more comfortable doing business with someone we know.

Ultimately Pinterest is looking like a great tool to help profile your business and allow you to show some personality. It has the potential to enhance your business efforts and improve customer interaction. I wouldn’t drop everything and dive right in, but it is certainly something to start looking in too and consider taking advantage of for your business.

Group Hotels

waterfordtech — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:54:57 +0000

“We couldn’t be happier with the work Steve and his team did for us! I bought Group Hotels with high hopes and with Waterford Technologies as my partner moving forward I know there is no ceiling to the services I can now offer our customers! We will be THE destination on the web for group travel planning services!”

- Robert Miller, Owner

Background

GroupHotels.com set out to create an engaging experience to help group planners research, plan and book the perfect trip at GroupHotels.com – the portal site for Travel Advocates. Increase search visibility and drive a new brand identity while providing a foundation for providing group travel discounts for businesses, sports teams, reunions, and other travel needs.

Solution/Results

Sales in the first 6 weeks out performed the prior 6 months
Website traffic increased 200% in the first month
Social Media footprint increased significantly; adding hundreds of new visitors to all properties within weeks of launch
The new content management platform allows remote administrators to publish content from all over

Technology: Microsoft .NET, DotNetNuke Platform, XML, SQL Server 2010

Pinterest: What Is It?

waterfordtech — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:42:33 +0000

Pinterest is all the rage in social media and the new HOT topic. Like everything else web it’s moving at light speed and people aren’t sure what to make of it, how to use it, and if it’s even something they need to use for their business. Well here at Waterford we’re in the same boat and are looking to evaluate this new network for our business just like everyone else. Over the next few days we’ll walk through this together and see if we can’t come to some conclusions about why, how, and when we should all start taking advantage of the latest social media trends for our business.

Let’s just start by figuring out what ‘Pinterest’ is. According to their website:

“Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.”

Translation: Pinterest is an image-sharing website where people can build and maintain theme-based image collections. Pinterest uses these themes to connect people through common interests. People started connecting through shared recipes, favorite places, favorite music, etc. While you mull that over think through your product or service and see if you can think of ways to connect consumers to your business in this same way. Check back for Part II!

Google Places Ranking Factors – Third Party Article

waterfordtech — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:09:28 +0000

Here is a good article by Andrew Shotland that I read yesterday and I found interesting and important.

Google Places Ranking Factors – The PhD Version
Mar 19, 2012 at 10:00am ET by Andrew Shotland

Bizible, a start-up that makes local marketing software for SMBs, approached me recently* to preview the results of a Google Places Ranking Factors study they had conducted and I was intrigued enough by their findings to share some of them here.

Bizible’s team is made up of former Bing AdCenter guys and counts a PhD and a stats expert on their staff, so their study is a more scientific attempt to figure out what’s going on with Google Places than your typical “here’s what some SEOs think” kind of thing.

For methodology, they studied 30 potential ranking factors by querying approximately 20 cities across approximately 20 local categories (about 400 search terms), looking 30 results deep in Google Places rankings. They looked at each factor in isolation and then looked at them in combination to see if there were any multiplier effects.

While there are likely some holes in their methodology – for example, changing physical location of the browser might lead to different results (Bizible used a variety of IP addresses to try to mimic this), there’s no accounting for personalization or Google SPyW results and their approach sounds like something a quant geek might approve of. Their site has more detail on their methodology if you’re into that kind of thing. Also note the research was conducted before Google’s Venice Update which changed the way Google ranks URLs for local queries.

So what did them fancy PhD-types discover? Some interesting stuff.

The Bizible data shows a big difference in ranking factors between improving ranking when the local result were integrated in the main SERP page and when it did not make it in the 7 pack/5 pack/universal results.

Top 3 Factors To Improve Ranking For Pages In Integrated Results

Places page category matches a broader category than that of the search (search for “pizza”, Places category = restaurant). This only applies of course if there is a broader category. This applies for both primary and secondary Places page categories.
The search category appears in the business name (“Rocky’s Pizza” for a “Seattle pizza” search).
The search category appears in the “at a glance” section.

Top 5 Factors To Improve Ranking For Pages Not In Integrated Results

Having 5 or more Google reviews.
Location term in “at a glance” section. (Seattle in “Seattle pizza”)
Category term in Google review content. (pizza in “Seattle pizza” is in the contents of the Google reviews)
Category term in business description.
Category term in “at a glance.”

Other Interesting Nuggets

Having a physical address in the city of the search did not turn out to be a strong ranking factor, only distance from centroid seemed to matter. So, if you are just outside the city and your address is not officially in the city, this didn’t seem to hurt any more than a business whose address was in the city, but just as far from the centroid.
That said, for every mile away from the centroid, ranking dropped by .4 (4/10ths) of a position.
An average Google Review score of 1 or less significantly hurt ranking (as expected), although the incremental increase in ranking as the review score increased from 2->3->4->5 ranking was negligible (interesting, no?).
The presence of a business description did not help ranking, although having the search category in the business description did help ranking.
Getting your 5th Google review significantly helped ranking, although incremental reviews between 1 and 4 and above 5 had a very small impact on ranking (you have to get 100+ of reviews for it to help ranking any more than just 5, so good news for much-loved businesses and review spammers).

According to Aaron Bird, CEO and Night Janitor at Bizible:

“For the integrated results, we found that on average, implementing all of these factors showed an increase in rank by about 2 positions, which is fairly significant for a 3/5/7 pack. For the non-integrated results, we found that on average, implementing all of these factors showed an increase in rank by about 9 positions, which good as well, given that we only went 30 results deep.”

I encourage you to review the initial report, Google Places Optimization – Local Ranking Factors (nice keyword targeting guys) at Bizible’s site. Over the next couple of weeks, they will be adding four more reports on different aspects of the results and Bird told me they may incorporate post-Venice data in a future study.

If you haven’t updated your Google Places Page categorization by now, what are you waiting for?

*Note: the author is not affiliated professionally with Bizible.

Facebook, Twitter…Linked In? What We Need To Know

waterfordtech — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:13:20 +0000

Social Media, like the Internet in general, is moving way too fast for most businesses and we’re all struggling to keep up. It’s hard enough to keep up with all the Facebook changes let alone staying on top of all the top social media outlets. Most small businesses have decided to focus on Facebook and Twitter and stay current on the others while being ready to jump in when they can. So what about Linkedin? Should we still keep an eye on it or is it maybe time to jump on board?

Given the fact that Linked in has 150 million members worldwide, and is adding 10 new members every 5 seconds it definitely deserves attention! Especially important is that the majority of their audience is targeting corporations and business. Now that they offer the ability to create Linkedin Company Pages it can be used in a whole different way. People on Linkedin are targeting business contacts and present an entirely different audience from Facebook. It’s this diversity that makes it attractive. It’s time to give it a serious look! We’ll talk more about this over the next week…start your research!

U.S. Joint Forces Command

waterfordtech — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:52:06 +0000

“…I just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how beneficial HarmonieWeb has proven to be for our task force…”

“…Please pass a “Thank You” to the mastermind behind the site, it is truly paying dividends as we strive to bridge the gap between our task force and our partners here in Afghanistan.”

Background

Brought in by Microsoft to augment their Solutions team, Waterford Technologies provided design, development, and program management support for an exciting project that used the web to increase communication between military agencies.

Technology
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS); ISA Server 2006; Exchange Server 2007; Live Communication Server 2003; Virtual Earth; Add-ons and Web Parts