1. Good Visual Design – A clean, eye catching, design. Keep it updated with the current trends.

2. Keep your customer in mind. Make it easy for them to navigate your website.

3.  Content – Put the most important information ‘above the fold’. Provide helpful and knowledgeable information about your company, products and services.

4. Solid ‘About’ Page – People are curious and want to know about your company. It gives a potential client information about you and helps them make a connection with you.

5. Search Field – If you have a large website include a search field.

6. Include a Sign up or Subscribe field so customers have the option to receive updates and keep informed.

7. Sitemap – You want to include a sitemap so visitors, to your site, can find what they are looking for easily. You also want a search engine sitemap.

8. Cross Browser Compatibility – Make sure your website works in the most popular browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer.

9. Statistics, Tracking and Analytics – Make sure you sign up for a service that helps you track the number of visitors to your website.

10. Search Engine Optimization – Include titles, keywords, descriptions, etc. so that search engines will find your site when customers are searching for products and services you offer.

Are you connected to social media sites? If not, you should be. Social media marketing is a way to advertise your business for free. Sign up at the following sites and start promoting your business.  IT’S FREE!!!

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Blogs
4. LinkedIn
5. Yelp
6. Foursquare
7. Digg
8. You Tube

Check out the link below for some great social media button information.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29544/The-Ultimate-Cheat-Sheet-for-Creating-Social-Media-Buttons.aspx

Business cards are a great way to market your business. People will remember you if you have a professional and exclusive business card. Want an easy way to promote your business? Hand your business card to a potential client and start a conversation about YOUR business. So simple!

In order for your website to be recognized by search engines you must have excellent SEO.  Without excellent SEO, search engines will not recognize your website when potential clients are searching for you.

Ways to increase your SEO:

• You need a well written title for each of your website pages.
• It is important to have a concise and different description for each page.
• Make each page unique. Do not duplicate content.
• Add google analytics to each page.

If your website was created 5 years ago it is outdated and you could be losing business.

Here are some great questions you should ask yourself to determine if your website needs a face-lift:

1. Does it lack visual appeal?
2. Do you have social media links on your website?
3. Are your sales promotions and coupons expired?
4. Does it contain information that no longer applies?
5. Is it difficult to navigate? Are the words difficult to read?
6. Are you using the appropriate keywords so that search engines can identify you?

Everywhere we look, whether we are looking at the beauty of nature or we are looking at man-made creations, everything has a design. I have been an artist for 20 years and the time had come for me to expand, my desire to create, into the world of web design.

A well designed website is not supposed to show off the designer’s technical abilities, but to make it easy for users, like you and me, to navigate. So keep it simple.