“I have a Facebook page.  My sister told me this is all I need in order to make LOTS of money from the internet.”  If I had a nickel for everytime I heard this, I’d have retired young by now.

Don’t get me wrong.  Facebook can be a valuable part of your internet strategy.  (Heck I might even sign up one of these days.)  But if you truly want to be found on the internet by more than your friends and family, I’m going to recommend you reach a little further.  This chart is the best explanation I’ve found so far to show how things fit.  I’ve lost the info on the source, so if you know, please let me know so I can give credit where its due.

What it explains is that Facebook and other social media (Twitter, Linked In, etc.) make up the top of your pyramid – kind of like the sweets in your grade school food pyramid.  It’s fun, it tastes really good, but too much will give you an upset stomach.  In this case, the crumblies come from too high of expectations.

Facebook may be the best Continue reading »

webpage contentThis is a fairly common problem.  Webpages, particularly when set up for e-commerce, frequently end up being too sparse from a search engine standpoint.  The page may look beautiful to you human audience, and it may give them everything they could possibly need in order to make the decision to purchase your widget.

But if the search engines can’t determine what the webpage is about, or worse yet can gleen more info from your competitors page, you may not ever get the chance to make that sale. 

This part of the development of your site is at least as much art as it is science.  But the rule of thumb to use is to compare each page to the other pages on your site.  If they are nearly identical – differing only on product name, image, and price for instance – search engines will tend to score your site down relative to the competition.  My favorite example of a company that does this well Continue reading »

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