Affected By The Penguin Update? It Could Be Time To Start A New Website

So far, this year has been one filled with dramatic changes for webmasters everywhere.

Search engines that once favored content rich websites have apparently changed some of their algorithmic ways and left many a site owner scratching their head about what their next move is. Should you make make moves to 'de-optimize' your existing site? Should you try to remove low level links to your website?
Should you cull through thousands of pages of content and try to distill your message in to something more focused?

While all of these tactics might be helpful in your attempt to 'fix' your existing website, it's worth noting that this will also be time consuming and require you to 'undo' a lot of things you've done over the past weeks, months or even years - depending on the website. In my opinion, this time might be better spent building something fresh and brand new that has a better chance of survival.

I'm sure that you're probably thinking "Why that? My website is 9 years old, has had top search rankings for 8 1/2 of them and I want to get it all back in a hurry."

Of course, that makes some amount of sense but being afraid to try your hand with a new website could be holding you back and might actually be just what the search engine doctor ordered.

Even Overstock.com - a large Internet retailer - was willing to rethink their Internet marketing approach and came resurrected their brand as O.co in early 2011. This was after being known as Overstock.com for 14 years. While your brand might not be as large or as impressive, it certainly is a bit of food for thought.

Since I have your ear, here are a few other ideas that could help your online efforts rise like a Phoenix in the wake of the recent algo changes:

• Select a brand new domain. Despite what you might think, there are still a number of great .com's still available. If you've been in the habit of using keyword laden URL's, try registering a domain that isn't 'keyword-centric' to observe if this helpful or detrimental to your online efforts.
• Don't use Wordpress. I know, I know - Wordpress is easy to use and all, but this CMS is being used to stamp out over 100,000 blogs every day! In a year that's over 36 million occurrences of the same basic website, even if your Wordpress is so customized it has it's own rims. Think of your website as you would a new car. If you have the same V8 engine all the other cars on the road are equipped with there's little chance that you can go from 0-60 any faster than anyone else using the same technology. If however, you're behind the wheel of an Aston-Martin you have a competitive advantage over everyone else that doesn't have a car built specifically to go from 0-62 MPH in under 4 seconds. Get where I'm headed with this one?
• Consider using a different webhost than you usually do. Sure, staying with the host you already have offers a bit of comfortable familiarity, but sometimes a new webhost can offer advantages like faster servers, better sitebuilding software and other technical advantages for your new website.

If your website took a substantial blow during the updates this year, I hope that you'll take some of my advice to heart and try something new - if nothing else, it can help you focus on something positive and forward moving instead of dwelling on what you had. 

In a lot of ways, starting a new website is like moving to a new town or beginning a new relationship - it's different, it's exciting, it's new and offers a bright new future filled with endless possibilities. How can that not be a good thing?

Website Creation Is For Everyone Now

There's no longer a need to be an HTML expert when it comes to creating a new website.  In fact, website creation software makes the task simple.  Website development has now become so easy that everyone can do it, regardless of their experience or technical knowledge.  Website building software has helped to 'level the playing field' by making web design more accessible to all.

Like anyone, you'll want your website to have all the features visitors have come to expect. In the past, this would be a hard thing to accomplish, and would require a lot of configuration work.  Now it's a simple matter of dragging and dropping in the correct module!

Website creation software gives you a competitive advantage over those who don't have it.  You can build websites a lot faster than they can and you can make those websites better as quickly as you need.  You don't have to use FTP or anything complicated to publish.  Just click on the 'Publish' button and away you go.

Watch the following video to see how easy it really is to build a robust and professional web presence for your business.  You'll never have to hire web designers again to work on your business website!

SaaS Is Changing The Way Business Is Done

Unless you've been ignoring all the technology trends going on today, you're probably familiar with SaaS - or Software as a Service - and how this is revolutionizing the way that business is being done.

 Here are a few ways that SaaS is a game changer for businesses of all sizes:

• Reduces the need for local computer storage. Since SaaS runs on cloud infrastructure, this greatly reduces the need for local storage on your network computers for whatever application SaaS is being used to run.
• Reduces risk of data loss. While owning your own computers is a great idea, you don't necessarily want to use them to store all of your key data. While no one ever wants to think of the worst case scenario, if your computers are ever stolen, lost, breached or the hard drive goes bad you're about to have a really bad day trying to restore this information from no where.
• Reduces costs. By shifting data and applications to cloud infrastructure, you won't be required to download software programs that take up valuable disc space on your computer. Further, SaaS software is always being updated, so you don't have to worry about having outdated software programs saved on your computer.
• Provides accessibility. Since most all SaaS programs are designed to be accessible from anywhere that has Internet access, you can access your products or services from virtually anywhere - even if you're not using your primary business terminal. This offers flexibility to any business owner that's frequently away from his desk or a salesperson that's on the road closing business deals.

Software as a Service is now being used to provide a myriad of business products such as Web Presence Builder which empowers small business owners to quickly design a great online Web Presence without the need for expensive web designers. 

Other advancements include Cloud Phone Systems that allow small businesses to have an enterprise style phone system, complete with a local, toll-free or vanity phone number without needing to purchase an expensive PBX system to route phone calls. This works in conjunction with already existing phone lines so there's no need to spend additional money on new phones. Just pick your plan, your phone number and start taking incoming phone calls immediately!

I hope that you've found this post helpful! If so, please take a moment to share it with your friends or colleagues and spread the word about just how great Software as a Service really is!

Building Websites The DIY Way Doesn't Have To Be Hard

A few years ago, only the most technically-oriented people were able to build great websites.  That changed over the years as DIY website builder tools came to the forefront.  These tools eliminated a lot of the problems that used to be associated with designing websites.  In fact, DIY tools make website building so easy that almost anyone can do it.

Sure, you'll still need to learn a few things, but not enough to turn you off to the project.  Now you can be empowered by the knowledge that you know what you're doing and you're the master of your own domain!  That beats having to outsource everything to someone else.  You can reduce your dependence on third parties by using a tool that makes your life that much easier.

The more skill you can bring to the job of website design, the better.  Having a powerful toolkit at your disposal is certainly a great way to improve your website design.  No longer will you have to spend tons of hours learning when you can focus on 'doing.'

It's time to add simplicity to your job of designing websites.  When all is said and done, reducing the number of steps it takes you to put up full functioning websites gives you more time to focus on the more-important parts of running your online business.  That's the only thing that can add to your bottom line.

Cloud Phones Can Improve Your Small Business Communications

The move towards cloud phones is likely to continue.  Cloud phones, make of use of Hosted PBX technology to create a fantastic user experience.  Clients can login to a simple to use control panel and manage all the functions of their cloud business phone, with a minimum of hassle.  Let's look at how these features can help anyone grow their business.

A cloud receptionist will answer incoming phone calls, and then route them based on rules you specify.  That means you can set up virtual extensions that 'ring up' your salespeople based on rules.  This is great for any organization that boasts an extended sales team or support personnel in multiple locations.

Not only that, but the cloud receptionist sports other features you'd expect from a PBX system.  This includes features like 'music on hold' and round robin dialing.  If one of your sales people is busy, the receptionist will move on to the next one.  This makes your inbound calling highly optimized for success. You can organize all your inbound sales efforts in an extremely efficient manner, which can help you increase sales.

For new businesses, starting with a cloud receptionist can really help improve your image to clients.  No one likes to call a business and get no answer.  By smartly routing phone calls to the best person each time, you can greatly enhance your appearance to potential customers.

Making Your Own Website Has Never Been Easier

Building your own website has never been easier.  Back in the 'old days,' people were forced to buy expensive programs or learn complex code in order to create beautiful websites.  Now the job is a lot simpler.  Using website builders, even inexperience people can create truly incredible websites that engage their visitors.  For small businesses and SoHo operators, this advancement is making life a lot easier.

Routine Web Design Tasks Can Be Accomplished Easily

Many of the tasks you'll run into when building your business website are routine.  They have been solved before you by others.  There's no need for your to reinvent the wheel.  With website making software you can drag and drop extended functionality into your web presence with the click of a mouse.  You might be surprised at how easy it is to add really robust features.  This includes any PHP or JavaScript app, as well as eCommerce, contact forms, and much more.  If you need to embed a YouTube video, you can drag it in!  It really is amazingly simple.  If you ever used an email editor, you already have the skills you need to succeed when making a great new website.

As you can see in the video, making a website is easy now.  With a cloud hosting plan and website building software, the barrier to entry has been eliminated and go-to-market time for website development has been drastically reduced. If you run a business and need to create a new web presence, now is the time.