Comments on: The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business

By: Don Makoviney

Don Makoviney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:57:52 +0000

Thanks for the comments Pierpaolo. Enjoy your vacation!

By: Pierpaolo

Pierpaolo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:23:40 +0000

Really good article, Don. I think you are absolutely right; a lot of people focus on Social Media to drive traffic to their site, which is fine, but they leave it at that. They fail to take a holistic approach to make sure they have done everything they can to increase conversions – either in actual sales, or, as you mentioned, increasing membership of the site, or subscribers to the company’s newsletter. Building a loyal following with Social Media is great, but then driving them to a poorly designed, poorly optimized site with poor content is a recipe for disaster; I see this all the time. (I think that was Gabriella’s point – Gabriella is such a great person and an amazing resource, nice to see you mentioning her )).

Reputation is the new currency, and it is so easy to blow it. At the very least, those “Four Pillars” you mention must be taken into consideration.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:27:21 +0000

I hope it helps him out! Basically those are the frustrations I have had dealing with clients over and over again. Hopefully the information is helpful to small businesses and non-profits – especially now when lots of funding is being cut and businesses are working on razor thin margins. It doesn’t make sense to throw that money away on something ineffective.

Hope you’re well by the way! Thanks for the comment

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:18:08 +0000

Hi Don,

I sent this link to Andy. He’s doing some pro-bono work for a non-profit and is about to pull his hair out because they don’t get the big picture. I think info on this page will help him layout what the client should really be looking for rather than big flashy images in a textless site.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:25:59 +0000

Thanks Gabriella. I think conversion pages and call-to-action skills are an important missing part of the online equation. Many prospective clients will complain to me about all the money they are spending on AdWords. After setting up some funnels to track performance it becomes clear very quickly their landing pages are very bad – even horrible. They might as well be using their money for kindling. Perhaps we can work together on some good useful articles in the future. Perhaps guest posting. Sounds wonderful and keep the great content flowing

By: Gabriella

Gabriella — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:20:07 +0000

Don what a nice thing to say… I am glad you find value in what I write. Sometimes it’s not easy coming up with articles. But to come up with great articles that help is rare. I guess we could start doing some link baiting with doom & gloom articles about technology or even bashing a certain industry… lame and nothing more than regurgitated content. Basically create that buzz in order to get traffic. Ultimately, unless you have some grass root, basic fundamental information to read the “traffic” won’t come back. I guess what I am trying to say is the posts I write and enjoy reading (like yours) are simple yet, informational I am glad you “get it.”