This story gives hope to many small talents who are being overshadowed in Ontario, along with the rest of Canada. These talents can include photographers, writers, web designers and graphic designers to name a few. However, it appears that celebrities are using the internet to find new talents daily. For instance, Ellen DeGeneres is now bringing talented children and adults onto her top rated talk show to perform and get exposure.

The key to getting exposure is the same as it has always been: be consistent and passionate about your work. Show yourself in the manner you want to be perceived. Define your personality and your skills and let your professionalism shine.

The moral of the story and the point of this blog post? Do not be afraid to share your work on your personal website. You never know who is looking. Some of the biggest stars may be looking to use your work in upcoming productions.

Is your website ready for visitors?

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Last week, we shared the news with you that Google has changed its algorithm yet again. This time, the changes will benefit the smaller company and personal websites, as larger content mills are being removed from the top search rankings.

Content Mills are websites that publish content for users. Often, these sites will have paid or voluntary contributors and these mills can publish up to 5000 new pages per day given the amount of writers. While some of the content appears to be valuable, some of it has been labelled as spam.

We, at DT Media, want to help you create a website that is not only visually appealing and meets your needs, but also has a high-level SEO so your website can trump the content mills site that companies are currently competing against.

There is no better time to start a website than right now. Who knows? With a unique domain name and a clever website, you may take the top spot in rankings within weeks.

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To keep up with the desires and needs of the readers and to remain the most popular search engine in the industry, Google is frequently changing the search engine algorithms. One of the most recent algorithm changes that are being implemented during the first couple of months in 2011 is being discussed in the news. The goal of this new algorithm is to eliminate content farms and spam from the top pages and promote individual blogs and expert websites.

More information about the specific algorithm change can be found on Matt Cutts’ blog. Cutts is a software engineer and works at Google. He has been part of the team since 2000 and is the head of the Google web-spam team.

New Google Algorithm

The new Google algorithm change is bad news for larger content mills that pump out thousands of pages daily with fresh content. This content is often written by freelance writers, who get paid a flat fee rate per article. Other content sites that will be affected are sites that offer little information about a single topic, but are packed with ads. These two types of websites generate income through the Google Adsense program.

Business owners, individual writers and professional bloggers will benefit from this new algorithm change. Originally written content with optimized SEO trails and techniques will be picked up faster, since it will no longer be competing with content sites that are producing thousands of content sites daily.

How will you be using this new Google algorithm?

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Whether you are an occasional blogger or want to launch a professional business website, you should understand the specific aspects of SEO. SEO is not a single method, but a combination of various techniques and practices.

Keywords – Keywords are specific words that describe the overall content of your website or blog post. If your blog post or website is about cupcakes, whether it is a recipe or a small bakery or business, the main keyword would be cupcakes. Focus keywords are supplementary keywords that helps search engines identify your website or content and index it appropriately. Focus keywords for the above example can include baking, cupcake (singular), frosting, icing, flavours and business.

Short-Tail­ – Short-tail searches is a collection of keywords that potential people may use to find information on the internet. Short-tail searches for the above cupcake example can include local cupcake bakeries and baking cupcakes at home. While the first example provides users with information on local bakeries, the second would provide more do-it-yourself search results. Choose your keywords appropriately, so the users find your website or blog for the relevant searches.

Long-Tail – Long-tail searches are often a collection of five or more keywords that users would plug into a search engine. Examples such as How to Add Icing to Homemade Cupcakes and How to start your own Cupcakes Business would be classified as long-tail SEO searches. While long-tail searches often incorporate filler words, such as to, add, how, start and your, use the long-tail searches as your titles of web pages or blogs to draw more traffic to your site.

Besides actual written content, you can incorporate SEO techniques into other parts of your online media content. For example, online social profiles, podcasts, videos, images, product reviews, online PR and file names are all part of the SEO strategies and techniques.

What are you doing with your website SEO?

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When visitors log on to a website, the first thing they look for is a sense of direction and structure. A website with no proper layout or a menu can become frustrating to users, as they don’t know where to look for orientation. Commonly when people read, they start in the top left-hand corner and browse across the screen. Once they reach the end of the screen, they jump down a line and browse across once more. It is the same pattern as reading that applies to website. It is therefore common that the menu is placed across the top, so the users get immediate orientation support.

Vertical menu placements have also been used, if the space going across the website needs to be used for advertisement or a banner, for example. Vertical menu placements need to be highly visible, so the users know where to go for assistance and guidance.

If you are designing your own menus for your website or want to do something creative, this is the place to do it. However, you should keep one rule in mind. Users often use websites that are consistent in the layout. It provides must easier navigation and user-friendliness for visitors. If you decide to place your menu in one particular place, you must keep it there on all pages that are associated with your website. Avoid putting the menu in the middle of the page on your home page and then changing it on other pages. This creates disorientation and users may end up getting frustrated, because they can’t find anything. Other than that, have fun with your website menu placements.

How have you placed your menu on your website?

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Clean Layout

A clean layout says more about you as a business than your testimonials. Your website is the first impression people get of you, even though it can happen when you are sleeping, eating or working. You are not in control, so you need to present your site as neatly and clearly as possible to give your visitors the best possible experience. A clean layout communicates an organized and professional person behind the site.

Aim for a Brand

Even if you are selling a product or a brand, do not focus all of your content in the direction of a sales pitch. Instead, portray yourself as a source of knowledge rather than a business. For example, Coca Cola’s website has nothing to do with product sales. It focuses more on the Coca Cola community, a rewards program and additional videos produced by Coca Cola – it is all branding. Rather than becoming a sales site, brand your business by providing knowledge and a social network.

Use a Blog

Having a blog is another effective way of creating a social community on your website. Post your opinions on stories, industry relevant news or information about the business you are running. Giving people an insight into your company on a regular basis proves that someone is behind the business, which gives the website a credible level of interactivity.

Videos and Podcasts

Videos and podcasts give the user a certain level of interactivity. The videos and podcasts provide that person behind the website rather than the feeling of an abandoned site or machine driven site. If a voice or face is put on the site, visitors automatically connect more with the content due to the sense of ‘real’ that these elements provide.

What kind of interactive elements do you have on your website?

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However, professional business websites are also starting to use Flash as a way to interact with users and give visitors a memorable experience. Before you go forth with Flash on your professional website, examine the pros and cons to determine whether Adobe Flash is the right choice for you.

Pros to Using Flash

Adobe Flash provides visits with a high level of interactivity when they visit a website. Flash gives users a rich experience, particularly for gaming websites. Rather than a point-and-click experience, Flash takes online gaming to a whole new level, providing gamers with video animations, full-length introductory gaming films and character interaction in video format.

Flash is designed to complement basic HTML and can be installed as a web browser plug-in. It is often seen as the most basic and popular browser plug-in, because it is so widespread.

Flash is often used as a way to showcase portfolio material, particularly for web and graphic designers. When new users visit a web and graph design website or a professional graphic design company, they are expecting to see what the company can do. Having Flash on the site can be a way of indirectly marketing skills and experience.

Cons to Using Flash

You can never predict what type of computer and operating system your visitors are using. Not everyone has the brand new Apple Notebook or the newest Microsoft operating system. Since Flash needs specific requirements in order to function properly, your users may not be able to see the Flash animation you have created. To them, your website may look like it is not working properly.

When people search the Internet to find information, they want it quickly and efficiently. It is only a small fraction of users who want to sit through a 30-second long animation before the website actually loads. Some users will click away from the site after 5 seconds, if the Flash video is taking too long. If your website cannot provide them with data in a fast and effective manner, then users will find another website that can.

If the Flash code is not developed properly, Google will not index it. According to Robert’s Talk, a popular web design blog, developers seem to think that Google with index Flash movies, essentially helping the website’s SEO. The same source claims that with improper code or if the Flash player requirements are not up to par, the Flash could actually work against your website’s SEO, causing you to rank lower in search engines.

Are you using Flash on your website?

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If a business is selling a service rather than a product, it can be difficult to pick the proper pictures. Many will simply pick an image, where a person is smiling or overly happy. This will often be associated with customers and how much joy the service has brought them.

However, you may want to pick another image as many service-based businesses use smiling faces to promote their services. To find the proper image for your website, read through your copy to determine what it is your text is saying about the service or business. For example, do not place a picture of children next to a text that discusses the importance of budgeting money. While some people will interpret the connection as your children needing your money, others will interpret it as saving money in order to donate and provide to others.

It is this interpretation that can cause images to become ineffective on websites. As you choose your images, ensure that it is not open to interpretation when placed next to the right text. Ask five of your friends to ask you what connection they make between the image and text. If you do not get the responses you have hoped for, you need to change the image. Not only do your friends think and interpret differently, but so do every other individual who browse the web.

What great images do you have on your website?

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Having a blog on your website, however, is not enough to attract readers and customers. You must update it frequently with relevant and high-quality content in order to be taken serious. Keep in mind that blog reflects directly on your company, so write professionally with knowledge, personality and calmness.

So how does a blog help, you may ask? There are two distinct reasons. If you remember back to part II of this mini-series, search engines index every web page created, even if it is under the same site or domain name. It is a distinct page, as it is an extension of the original domain name. So every time you write a blog post, you are essentially creating a new web page under your website. This means that you open more doors for visitors to find your site.

Another reason is the content. Let’s say your business is making cupcakes. You offer various types of flavors, colors and decorations. While the main service and purpose of your business website is to sell cupcakes, your blog could discuss various techniques in terms of decorating cupcakes, getting that distinct blue cupcake icing or being creative in terms of developing new flavors. If someone then searches on how to make blue icing for cupcakes, your blog may end up in the search results. You have now attracted a new reader, who may be interested in purchasing blue-colored frosted cupcakes.

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2011 is the year to stand out and fulfill that dream of getting your own website up and running. It is our goal to make some outstanding, unique, memorable and most importantly, professional websites and branding campaigns this year. What better time to get started on that blog or business idea than now?

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