Has your website and organic search engine rank been affected by Google's recent Penguin Update? The Penguin update was released in late April 2012 and has impacted a significant number of web properties. 

Read about the Google Penguin Update in more detail on the Arnima Learning Center and find out how you can try to reverse some, or all of the damage by applying some of our recommended corrections.

We recommend that you read the following article on the Arnima Learning Center before you hire a web design & development company for your web project: http://www.arnimalearningcenter.com/before-hiring-a-web-design-company.html.

Here is a link to an article posted on the Arnima Learning Center that explains How to Optimize Website Performance for best results.

One of my pet peeves revolves around companies that do not publish a phone number anywhere on their website. Instead, they rely on email, live-chat, trouble ticket systems and these so-called user forums to interact with their prospective customers. Now, since we are not a customer of any such company, we do not know whether they provide a contact number and we do now know how they handle post-sales support and customer management

We were recently researching shopping cart systems for one of our clients and we came across a particular shopping cart vendor - one of the 2 we had shortlisted - that did not provide a telephone number anywhere on their website! Our client is investing a not-so-insignificant amount of money in their website and in order to do them justice, we wanted to speak to the shopping cart vendor's sales team. At that very moment. We wanted some questions answered so we could make a decision and get moving on the project. Just so you know, this vendor's shopping cart license cost starts at over ten thousand dollars - per year! Despite that, they required us to submit a fill-in form to get pricing and support and other details.

We did not want to "fill-in" a contact form and we did not want to submit a ticket to their system and we most definitely did not want to post a question in their forum. We trolled their entire website and we still could not find a telephone number. We even went so far as to search for them on Facebook, LinkedIn and despite all of that, we still could not find a phone number. And trust us; if the information is on the Internet, we know how to find it!

In the end, this particular vendor lost our business (and will never get our business). Instead, we selected the next vendor - because they provided their contact details and we were able to get in touch with their sales team - immediately and get all our questions answered.

Given the intense competition and the sheer number of options available, is it not critical to allow your potential customer to contact you in as many ways as possible?

Inbound leads that are generated on your website (whether it is a form-fill or call-in) go stale almost immediately!

Your chances of qualifying such leads decrease by a factor of 21 times if you wait beyond 30 minutes to contact them!

Check out this blog post by Tim Ash, a landing page optimization at Site Turners.

Unless your organization has significant brand recognition and awareness, just having a nice website is simply not enough. Remember, there are close to 250 million websites on the Internet. Your website is simply one of them – a proverbial needle in the haystack!

It is challenging enough that the expectations of Internet users are constantly increasing and people want much more than they did previously. Technological advances have made the Internet an essential part of life for most people to the point where they rely on it for information, entertainment, research and a whole lot more! They expect fast load times, minimal distractions, user friendliness and attractive designs and more than anything else, they expect unique and meaningful content. And this challenge is augmented by the fact that search engines are continually improving and tweaking their search algorithms to make sure that relevance is maintained for every search conducted – so now you have to satisfy both your website visitors AND the search engines!

Consider the following questions:
1. How do you expect your potential website visitors to find you on the Internet?
2. Once your potential visitors find your website, what do you want them to do?
3. Do you have a plan to engage your visitors and lead them through a decision making process?

When it comes to the Internet, there is no magical formula for success. In order to gain an edge, you must dot all your “i’s” and cross all your “t’s”.   With that in mind, at the very least, your website should:

-be well designed and architected with focus on ease of use
-have unique and relevant content that engages your website visitors and prospective customers
-be optimized to rank high on search engines using ethical SEO (search engine optimization)
-have properly laid out landing pages with clear call(s) to action that lead visitors to take action
-be constructed such that information is readily found without having to hunt around for it
-be optimized to load quickly without any broken links and missing elements
-make minimal use of distractive technologies and elements (excessive use of flash, for example)
-work properly on all major browsers and have no broken links and missing elements
-use effective technology that enhances the user experience without becoming cumbersome
-be easy to manage, update and keep current without having to rely on designers or developers for assistance

If your website is not generating the results that you expect it to, you need to take a hard look at its overall effectiveness and address the items listed above.

Arnima is a Tampa SEO and Florida Web Design company that can help you rank high on Bing and also on Google and other search engines via our Search Engine Optimization Services.

We are pleased to announce our first ever CYBER MONDAY Special Offer. Starting Friday, November 26, 2010, all our SEO plans are 33.33% off. This is a great time to take advantage of our SEO Services. This offer is valid unitl December 3, 2010.

We are excited to introduce our "Websites on a Budget" Offering via Arnima Express.

Arnima Express was created with a simple and a single goal - to provide high-quality and fully-functional websites on a budget. We identified a need in the market and Arnima Express simply fills that need

Consider a simple situation – you start a business and you immediately realize that one of the first things you require is a website. You look around, you talk to friends, family, associates and you realize that it will not be that simple to find a company that will suit your needs – primarily because your research has uncovered that a custom website can cost anywhere from $2,500 and up!

Don’t be dejected or discouraged – our websites are fully functional, don’t cost a fortune and allow you to scale up as you grow your business.

Don’t believe us? Check out our Demo Websites and look at our Pricing. And then decide for yourself. And Get Started when you are ready.

And, oh, check out our blog post on Arnima Express @  http//arni.ma/aexp-intro

Website analytics tracking software shows you the activity of your website visitors and measures their online behavior.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics offers you more insights on the performance of your web site than just about any other tool available today. You can find anything from what screen resolution your customers have, what color space they're using, to what ISP they are using and much more.

Graphs, charts and interactive map

You can get graphs, pie charts, and lists and that’s not all. You can also find an exciting interactive world map that shows you from which countries, states and cities your visitors are coming from, plus when and how they got there!

Search engine Statistics

You also get detailed search engine statistics, such as which keywords are being typed into the search box to get to your site. You also get to see which pages are getting most hits, how users are searching for your website and a lotmore data!

Another great thing about Google Analytics is that it can show you how people are getting to your site (which search engines, what percentage of users are reaching your site through referrals, what or where they were referred from and also what percentage of your visitors were direct traffic and what they were typing in to become direct traffic).

The information you get from the referral data shows you which of your marketing campaigns are working and which ones aren't doing so well. This abundance of information allows you to make easy and quick changes to your marketing strategies and track your progress on an almost daily basis.

Here are some actual visitor statistics from one of our websites, www.findnotarypublic.com:

Site Usage - the number of visits, page view and other statistics

Visitors Overview - the number of visitors



Traffic Sources - where people are coming from

In Part 1 of this series, we covered the first 5 questions. Now, in Part 2, we cover the remaining 6 questions.

6. Do you have a formal design & development process?
A well-outlined and formal web design & development process will indicate that a company has invested the time and effort into processes which means that they are serious about what they do. It will also allow you to determine their level of expertise. In fact, beware of a company that does not have a formal process in place. Well established companies will also educate you as to your roles and responsibilities and what feedback and input would be required from you during the project.

7. How do you handle changes?
A proper change management process is essential. Let’s face it; at some point in time, your website will need changes or updates. A properly implemented change management mechanism is important as it will ensure that the changes are
(a) properly reported
(b) actually implemented
(c) reported back to you and
(d) tested to make sure all works well.

You will also need to find out what types of maintenance options are provided and what the associated charges are.

8. What types of technologies do you work with?
The answer to this question is critical. Given the ever-evolving nature of technology, companies must make the effort to keep up with the times. A good web design & development company will be able to work in ASP.NET, ASP, PHP, AJAX and various scripting languages such as JavaScript and VBScript. They should also have significant expertise in database technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server, mySQL, Oracle, Microsoft Access. In terms of design tools, look for names such as Adobe, Microsoft and other recognizable companies that put out serious design & development tools

9.  Do you provide website hosting services?
Get a clear answer. If a company provides in-house hosting, at the very least, make sure that they are not hosting your mission critical website on a server in their basement, or in their office. If they outsource, make sure that you know what SLAs (Service Level Agreements) are in place and where the hosting company is located.

10. Who owns the website code after work is completed?
If you are spending several thousands of dollars on your website, there is only one acceptable answer. You as the client will own the website, the code, media and all content.  If your website uses components such as a content management system, or a shopping cart system, be sure to find out about the licensing and ownership.

11. How do you charge?
There are 2 ways for a web design & development company. They can charge you for time, i.e. by the hour, day, week or month. Or they can charge you a fixed amount for your project. Bear in mind that in order to establish a fixed cost, the requirements and specifications have to be very clearly laid out. In fact, most web projects can be estimated fairly accurately if a given company has the experience in the industry. If a company is unwilling to give you a fixed cost for a project, it is advisable to be careful…time-based billing can get ridiculously expensive.