Top 10 tips for using twitter to get traffic to your website

Social media can bring traffic to your website.  Facebook connects you with people you already know, and a few of their friends - LinkedIn is great for building a network of like-minded professionals, but twitter can quickly reach the parts other social media can't. It has an undeserved reputation for trivia. Used well it is the most effective medium for connecting with a broad audience and hunting out special interest groups. There are few better ways to share information fast and effectively. It just takes a little time and effort and a bit of practice.

First sign up and follow the twitter guide to the basics, all available here. Familiarise yourself with the basic functions in the picture here and then follow the tips below for more effective tweeting.

1. Be yourself
Follow some basic rules of twittiquette which are not unlike the rules of social etiquette- be polite, be informative, be interesting. You can also be fun, but don't force it. Make sure your tweets have something to say but make it punchy and arresting if you can. Use topical references, puns, even shock to get noticed. But above all, as they always say, be yourself. It is hard to keep up a persona that isn't quite you, and authenticity always wins through in the end. You might be formal or informal, but be true.

2. Find some good friends
The big problem with twitter is that until you have followers, nobody sees what you are tweeting. Dispiriting and pointless. So how to make a start? Look for people you know are in your field of interest. - you can search twitter for names or hunt out peoples twitter handles on the internet. Follow them (see the guide) and send them an @theirtwittername message to introduce yourself, or better still some information that might be of interest or use to them. Or send a relevant reply to one of their tweets. Keep at it - twitter streams are fast and people have a lot of followers, or may simply be doing something else at the time. It is easy to get lost in the traffic so don't take a lack of response as a snub. Be persistent. Hope that as time goes on you will get a few retweets and follows back. Sadly this can be exciting.

3. Be very nice to your followers
If someone adds you as a follower send them a nice message to thank them and tweet something friendly - look out for their tweets and reply or retweet when relevant. Use #Follow Friday to promote your favourites. When people you follow tweet something of interest to you, reply and retweet when you can - it will get you noticed and seem friendly. But don't over do it or it can seem creepy. Don't be a twart. (See tip no 1).

4. Follow the master's master
If you find someone with similar interests or objectives on twitter who is established, look at who they are following - those are people you may want to connect with too - many will be relevant and worth a follow. Be discerning though - their relatives and neighbours and hobbies may be there too. You also don't want to follow too many people or your twitter stream will get too busy.

5. Make it a regular habit
Set a regular slot each day, for say half an hour, to look over your twitter stream.  Click the (@connect), reply to messages. Check the new stream or # subjects of interest and retweet a few.  Then send out some new tweets. Send a mixture of stuff and see how it goes down - some serious, some personal, some light. It is social media after all.

6. Ride the hash-tag # waves
Hash tags connect interest groups and ideas on twitter irrespective of followers, so a great place for the initially friendless, or to promote a message more widely. Here are the top tips for hash-tags:

• Search a hash-tag entry to see who is tweeting about it (search bar at the top of your twitter page). If it seems appropriate send some of them a message, reply or follow .
• Add hash-tags to your tweets whenever relevant. They will then be noticed by others who are interested in your topic.
• Ride the trending or hash-tag wave - see what is trending on twitter (listed on your home page) and see if there is any way that your message can be made to fit with it. Then launch it out into the trending topic stream (suitably hash-tagged where necessary).
• The same with tv programmes- many twitterati tweet to each other during popular tv and radio shows - if a programme relevant to you or of general interest comes up, join the fray. Send out pertinent, apposite, witty and astonishingly insightful tweets (with the relevant hash-tag of course) and you will soon find yourself re-tweeted and followed. Note there may be several different hash-tags set up for each programme - to be safe, use them all.

Four great tools 

7. Search out relevant tweets and tweeters with twilert
To find who is interested in your topic sign up for twilert (its free) and set some keywords relevant to your cause/business. Twilert will collect all of the tweets containing your key word every 24 hours and email them to you. Look over them and reply, re-tweet, message and follow where relevant. Do this once a day for 15 minutes and you will soon have a network of relevant tweeters built up.  If the keywords aren't working (too many results- too few), use others.

8. Manage your twitter account with lists
Using lists on twitter can save a lot of time and effort later. Add followers to lists you have created when you come across them, under relevant topics like friends, local people, interest groups etc. Then you can make more sense of your twitter stream by reading and writing to a sub group of your followers. Have a look at other people's lists too. These could give you another source of relevant tweeters to connect with. Another great way to find friends and followers and to network effectively.

9. Hootsuite for easy management

Try Hootsuite (also free) which will allow you to sign in, monitor and manage a range of social media and twitter lists more easily. When getting started it may seem a fuss, but once your tweeting and facebooking etc get busy, hootsuite is a great way to manage and coordinate all your social media at once - a great time saver. Try it!

10. Better links with Bitly 
You will of course be adding links to your tweets back to your website and cause/business as often as is decent, but Bitly is invaluable. It will do two things for you - shorten the link so that it fits into a tweet in very few characters, freeing up space for more fascinating and witty content - and it will give you a breakdown of how often, when and from where the link was read. Useful feedback to see what kind of stuff is actually interesting the punters. Sending people links to what they like is also a great way to stay popular. Nearly everybody seems to like a cute animal video or funny picture.

FastNet Websites for all your web design, e-commerce and digital marketing. Working across West Cork in Clonakilty, Bandon, Skibbereen and Bantry.

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Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media

Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation

There are so many millions of websites now that getting noticed is not easy. You will need to know the basics of search engines optimisation and how to use using social media like twitter and facebook and reddit if you really want to attract visitors to your website.

SEO tutorial and starter package

For a flat 50 Euro we offer an SEO starter tutorial, and/or a tutorial in using email marketing and social media to learn how to attract the right visitors to your site.

The fee includes submitting your url for registration, essential SEO advice and tips on how to link, promote and maintain visibility for your site by accessing the major search engines.and using free social networking tools.

We will also set up a google analytics account for you and show you how to check the statistics on who is visiting your website, and which posts and pages interest them most.  These will help you to adjust the content of your site and your marketing strategy to best reach the audience you want.

But for now, click here if you would like some free search engine optimisation tips to get you started.  Or read more about who is using social media and how to reach them.

What to look for when building or commissioning a website??

A website is first and foremost a communication tool, right?  So, just like any means of communication that means three things:

1. It needs to connect
2. It needs to be interesting
3. It needs to be clear

Put it the other way around - make it invisible, boring and confusing and it's unlikely to work well for you.  If you prefer to be easy to find, gorgeous to look at and fun to be with, read on.

Award winning site about Hampstead Heath

So how does that translate into building or commissioning your website?

Make it visible
Most websites are buried in cyberspace (this one is somewhere underneath California ) or on a "cloud" host. So you have to rely on people's interface with cyberspace to bring them to your website, self evidently via a computer screen.

Traffic to most sites falls neatly into one third searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo etc, one third redirection from other sites or emails, and one third referrals from other social media such as facebook, twitter, or search engine.  So use them all.

To see how to get that working for you have a look at these tips for getting visitors to your site.

Engage visitors' attention
This falls into three categories: design, signposting and content.

Design is a big plus for websites - the colour scheme, layout and images all make it one of the most attractive means of communication, so make the most of it.  Keep a colour theme going, base it on your logo if you have one, use good pictures to support a point and add interest and colour.

Pay special attention to your header - the panel at the top of the site.  It sets the tone and message of your website right from the start and serves as a familiar anchor as visitors travel the site.

But don't let your site get too busy - flashing images and sliding photos are known to put people off and simply distract from the important element, the words you want people to read.

Signposting
Again, keep it simple.  Let the tabs and headings tell a new visitor exactly what to expect on your website, so that hidden pages that you want them to find are linked clearly and obviously from the start.  The eye usually travels top left to top right on each new page, then down the right side and across and up the middle.  So put key tabs clearly and obviously along those lines of sight.

Drop the drop down menus
As with flashing images and sliding photos, drop down menus on tabs seem exciting and clever, but in fact they hide information and give your visitors a job they don't want.   With drop down menus readers will diligently have to visit each menu and memorize their content in order simply to find their way to your pages.  Guess what? They won't bother!

If a visitor wants to read a page again will they remember how they got there?  No. So unless you have hundreds of pages and an obvious need for subcategories like Amazon do, best avoid drop-down menus if you can.   Also, avoid asking visitors to make more than one click to get to a page.  Chances are they wont.

Content
At last the visitor is there, engaged nicely and ready to read your stuff!  So give it nice clear headings, easy to read language, clearly expressed and above all interesting.  And, in the marketing jargon, make sure it lets visitors know how your site can meet their needs.  For more tips on building good content, click here!

So if you are building website or having one built for you, make sure you think about SEO, think about layout and signposting and think about  good design and good content.  

So, boring, confusing and invisible or easy to find, gorgeous to look at and fun to be with?

Facebook vs Website

Who is turning to Facebook as a key online promotion tool?  Large promoters such as Carling have learnt that Facebook is where young people are, so where better to court them than on their home turf. Not only Carling itself but The Carling Cup now has a its own Facebook page. Why? Is it a friend of yours?  No, it's pretending to be your mate to sell beer.  Similarly, 12.000 plus people now "like" the Mahon shopping centre. Really? Presumably a few shopaholics but mostly those looking for news of sales and special offers, and now cheerfully receiving promotional info from their new imaginary friend.

A great marketing opportunity
 If the big boys are doing it, it must be working for them.  No surprise then that small businesses, community organisations and campaigners are following suit.  If you promote your wares or cause to  Facebook users, you could potentially reach the now over 835,525,280 signed up with Facebook.  And not just the young.  Facebook users are represented across all age groups from teenage right up to 55 plus.

A great marketing tool? Yes. So why the note of caution?  Because many organisations and groups are using Facebook not as an addition to a website presence on the web, but instead of a website.  Why they do that is threefold.

Three good reasons to use Facebook
1. It's free.  Facebook costs nothing and so any group or business can use it. Facebook for business tells you how.  Websites can be expensive - for a domain name, to build and to host. Facebook does and as they say, always will, cost nothing.

2. It's easy.  Even if you find creating an online presence daunting, even the average teenager can now help you to set up your business or community Facebook page.  Websites are harder to set up and not many people know how to help you.

3.  You get instant feedback. The "likes" you get are a buzz, especially for charity and community groups who can feel the love of supporters and friends who will cheerfully like pretty well everything they do.  And most of your pals will be willing to "like" you - it costs them nothing - not even the time to actually read your page.

Five reasons not to limit yourself to Facebook
So what limitations does Facebook have?

1. It only works for people who are signed up Facebook users.  Yes, that's potentially 835,525,280 people worldwide, which is a lot, but there are 7,017,846,922  internet users, so your audience is only 12% of all internet users.  If you only use Facebook, you are missing 88% of your potential supporters or customers. Admittedly that percentage is much higher in social media savvy Europe and the USA  where on average two thirds of people are on line, but only half of those are also signed up to (but not necessarily using) Facebook.

2.  Facebook pages are harder to find.  Have you tried searching for a Facebook page on Google when you don't know the exact name?  Exactly - you can't seem to find it.  That's because all that search engine optimisation stuff you need to do for a website is necessary for Facebook too, it doesn't happen automatically.  Neither will your page or a specific post turn up in relevant searches the way a well signposted website will.  So although your Facebook page may do well when you send it to your supporters or pals, you may still be invisible to virtually everyone else.  Facebook reaches the people who already know you and some of the people who know them, but not those who don't.

3. The Facebook format is inflexible.  Facebook only features your latest posts and very few people will trouble to scroll down further than the top of your page.  You have no way of signposting other information to them easily because the Facebook format won't let you.   That means that essential information about you either needs to be repeated, in which case you will bore your regular readers, or missed out, in which case you appear only to be about the latest thing you posted.  And that may be out of date, making you appear asleep at the wheel.

4.  Your page features other people's comments and posts.  Regular Facebook accounts feature not just your comments but other peoples' too. Great, but for new readers it can take the debate away from your latest message and highlight what any passing "friend" happens to be talking about that day.   Chances are it's not what you want people to read about.  

5.  It takes a lot of work to keep it going.  If you want people to like your page, and to bother to come back for more, you need to follow the Facebook advice to business users. They say:

• Be timely by posting about current events, holidays or news 
• Make sure your posts are relevant to your audience and business
• Be succinct, friendly and conversational
• Share photos and videos because they tend to be more engaging
• Ask questions or seek input
• Give access to exclusive information and specials 

So why not get your website to do it better?

If you are going to devote that much time and effort to your Facebook posts (and there is no point if you don't), why not put the effort into a website which can reach the other 88% of users as well? When you post to a website, you can also automatically feed it to your Facebook page, and link people back to the full website which will contain much more relevant and carefully presented information about you and your cause or business, set out as you want it to look.

If you want to see if you are liked, add Google analytics to your website (for free) and you can see not only who is visiting but how long they actually spent reading your articles and searching your site, and what articles or pages interested them. And if you want to promote your website on the internet to social media users, well that's the time to invest some time in twitter, LinkedIn and even, yes well, Facebook.

Blogger vs. Wordpress

Blogger and Wordpress both offer very popular free services to set up your own website and get blogging on the internet.  Most commentators will agree that Wordpress is the way to go, and Blogger is a good second best for people who don't really know what they are doing.  But is that true? 



A Wordpress Website

There are a gazillion articles on this topic, so no need to rehearse the arguments again here.  But let's look at it from the point of view of the blogs-for-free or low-cost web presence community.  A community group, charity or campaigning blogger is going to have three things in mind.  Firstly, price is an issue.  If it will get you the same result cheaper then that has to be a consideration.  Secondly, is it easy to use?  Few people have the time or the inclination to learn html or to mess about with a website dashboard - they want it done reasonably simply and reasonably quickly.  And thirdly, the site should reflect something of the character of the group or issue being promoted - not an off-the-peg look or the issue or campaign will just look like every other website you have seen.

Let the contest begin
So how do Blogger and Wordpress measure up to these criteria?  They both offer a range of attractive templates and both have easy to navigate dashboards and tutorials to guide you.  The templates can also be changed and customised (to a point) and a range of interesting and impressive gadgets can be added to posts or to sidebars.  But while Blogger offers a good range of colours, Wordpress, it has to be said, offers a simple clean look and high quality finish that is very professional looking, and fits better with the popular minimalist style.

A Blogger Website

Price
So what is the cost? They are both free. Or are they? With Blogger you can choose a template, change your header, and sort out the colour scheme of the site and its text, for free.  You can also add video footage to any page or post or gadget and an infinite number of gadgets and feeds to a range of sidebars and footers.  You are limited to twenty pages, but can have as many posts as you like, and the mechanism for adding sidebars, gadgets and posts is very straight forward.

With Wordpress the 'free' stops fairly soon. If you like your template, then great.  But if you want to customise the colour or font, or add video footage for example, then it will cost you (about 30 dollars per function, and it's an annual charge).  Blogger also remains advertisement free, with the option of adding ads if you want to earn money from your site.  Let's face it, most community bloggers don't expect enough traffic to earn money, and they don't want to put off their supporters with flashing adverts asking for cash which may also compromise their image or undermine the integrity of a campaign.  So don't have them?  Well with Blogger you simply don't choose to have ads.  With free Wordpress you have to pay not to have them. Another annual charge of 29 dollars.

Wordpress Charges

Ease of use
While the Blogger dashboard is marginally quicker and easier to navigate, especially with its useful fast edit function on the home page, both are easy to get to know after a few hours of exploration.  The Wordpress site is clear and easy to use, but at every turn you are offered to enter areas that will cost you more money, which is frustrating.  With Blogger, everything is yours to try out, and if it seems you can't do something you want to, look up one of the Blogger sages like blogger hints and tips  to see how it can be done.

Customizing
If you get over the hurdle of cost, and learn how to navigate the dashboard, then customizing either website is easy enough.  With Blogger in particular you can change the layout, width and the colour scheme to make quite an impact on the original template if you want to.  With Wordpress you are more restricted with the template you chose, but with the paid version you will have those options.  The limitations of Blogger become clearer when it comes to adding gadgets other than the twenty or so developed by Blogger.  While the finished blog has a very well thought out style, adding externally made gadgets tends to upset the look, and there are limits to the kind and range of add ons possible.  Wordpress on the other hand offers an almost infinite number of add ons and you can really make a highly professional site with many different functions if you want to.  It will cost you, but it can be done. 

And the winner is..
Put simply, if you want a template for free, have no intention of changing it but just want to get posting, either will do you fine.  Really, it is a matter of taste which look you prefer.  Blogger offers more colour and photographic backdrops which are very eye-catching, but a skip through the Wordpress free templates will be bound to throw up something that will suit you, and the range of 'looks' is greater.  Wordpress can (but not always) certainly give you a more professional and finished look straight away, and there is a snobbery out there that favours Wordpress sites as being a little above the rest.

If you want to individualise your site, but don't want to shell out any more money unnecessarily, then Blogger is probably the better option.  It immediately offers a whole range of customisations free of charge that are easy to apply, with a preview function  that allows you to see before you commit.  It also offers free video and photograph montage gadgets which can add to the impact of your site and allow your visitors to connect to youtube or your embedded videos easily.  You can change font and customise your header and generally learn to manage your site more easily, quickly and cheaply than you can with Wordpress.

But finally, if your long-term plans are to build a permanent and highly impressive website, then Wordpress has fewer limitations (other than cost).  The potential is much greater, and in the long term it will not hold you back in technical or space terms if you have greater ambitions for your organisation.

Critics vs public
So what do the public and the critics think?  The critics certainly prefer Wordpress if you read their reviews on the internet.   But the critics are techies mostly, so they see the possibilities with Wordpress - and maybe they don't quite like the fact that Blogger makes them redundant because it gets non-techies up and running without their help, thank you very much.  And the public?  They prefer Blogger, by the millions!

Why have a Website?

The need to communicate is ancient, only the methods change.  The internet offers a fantastic opportunity to communicate openly and effectively with large numbers.  It is also becoming more affordable and technically easier to have a website.  But why have one?  Here are five good reasons. There are plenty more.

People can find you easily
Most adults now use the internet to research an idea, where to go, what to join or what to buy.  If you are not there they won't consider you.

Putting your best foot forward
A website can present what you do or are interested in, in the way you most want it to. Tell your story in the way you want it to be understood.



You can make sure you look your best

Getting to know you
People can be cautious about making first contact, or keen not to waste time on a pointless enquiry.  If they can read all about you first, get to know what you offer and what you do, they will be more confident that you are offering what they want, and call you to find out more.

Communicate accurate and up to date information to everyone who wants or needs it
If you are arranging a meeting, or an event or sharing important information you will want it to be clear, up to date and accurate.  If it is on your website with maps, phone numbers, details, downloads there will be fewer mistakes, less time lost and nobody overlooked.

One stop shop for everything
A website can tell the whole story about you - from what and where you are to what you do.  It can offer contact details, make it simple for people to book and attend events - and to select and buy goods and services.  Once your website is up, all that communication can be done from one, easy manageable place, and reach many more people than other forms of advertising.
 
So who might want to do all that?

Charities & community groups
Charity and community groups need to keep in touch with members and supporters, and a website is the easiest way of putting information in one accessible and up to date place where everyone can find it when and where they need to.  Let people know what you are doing, attract new members, draw attention to a campaign or publicise fundraising days or special events so everyone knows 'happening, where to find you and how to help if they want to.

Businesses

Websites are almost essential for businesses now that so many people rely on the internet to communicate and search for information and goods.  80% of businesses in Ireland now have a website, but until now the cost has been prohibitive for small businesses.  An affordable website is an easy and effective way of letting people know where you are and what you do.  It is a cost effective way of increasing your profile, making it easy for customers to find you or check out  where you are or what you sell.  In fact, not to have a website is a disadvantage, especially if you want to remain up to date and to catch the millions who prefer to do their shopping and enquiring online.

If you run a cafe or restaurant, show people your menu, have photographs of your tables and food to whet their appetites.  If you sell books or jewelry, feature them in photographs or inform people with up to date reviews or fashion advice that will help them chose what to buy.

Or if you are gardener, show examples of your work and put up testimonials from satisfied customers.  Bring people to your website with up to date seasonal tips on what to plant or grow.

Home
Many families now have websites to share photographs and memories with relatives near and far.  Or to keep a record of special days like weddings and birthdays so that everyone can share the moment with you.  Families grow up so quickly and precious moments seem to come and go so quickly.

Share your family photos with friends

Why not record them by writing about them and putting photos and videos where you can always find them.  Make a record of those special paintings or keep a diary of your pets. 


Weddings

And talking of weddings, a website will let family and friends know all of the arrangements at a click.  Without troubling you, your guests can see an up to date gift list, or download a map and information about where to stay nearby.  And on the day itself, you can post photographs and videos for those who were there, and for those who couldn't be.

Blog about your hobbies or special interests or a campaign
Last but not least, a blog is now the ideal place to set out your thoughts and views about a favourite hobby or a campaign for a special interest group.   You can let people know about your interests, put information and views out into the world, and link up with people who share your passion or feel the same about something.  Bloggers are now taking over the world of media as the place for up to date news.  Why not join them?"

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Other FastNet Websites

Look at www.David Jeffery.org for a combination of homeopathy and iridology practices in Cork and County Cork

Top ten tips to make your website content interesting

Whether you have a point to make, information to give or a new poem, you will presumably prefer to be read, so how? Nobody wants to read what is uninteresting or unoriginal or irrelevant- especially when there is plenty of competing material out there.  Whatever your subject, aim to be interesting, relevant and original. Here are ten tips.

"Pigs might fly" is a cliche, but a flying pig can be interesting

Be yourself
If it interests you then it has a good chance of interesting others.  Only write what you believe is true or interesting, whatever the subject.

Be concise
Many web pages are read for an average of 45 seconds or less.  People are often in information mode on the internet and seldom suffer more than a couple of paragraphs of content before giving up. So keep it short and to the point if you can.

Use good headings and titles
A good heading that tells readers what the page or article is about in a clear but enticing way is essential.  Search engines also read headings and titles carefully so don't make them cryptic or generic - be clear, specific and interesting.

Use Keywords
Keywords are the trigger words that are relevant to your subject area.  They let readers know what you are all about, but they are also read by search engines crawling your site trying to understand how to categorise you and bring relevant visitors to your pages.  

Signpost your paragraphs
Encourage your readers to carry on reading down your pages with punchy paragraph headings.  It keeps their attention and encourages them to read on.  Newspapers have been doing just that for almost a century now.

Be easy to find
Make your website easy to follow.  Use clear and easy to follow tabs and signs, and organise the material with links so visitors can find their way to what they want to read.  That way visitors who come in on one page may be tempted to go on to read another.

Don't make your pages hard to find

Don't dissapoint
Readers are unforgiving about cul de sac pages on a website that have little or no content, or an "under construction" notice.  Ditto links that link to nowhere.   A few failed clicks and visitors will soon conclude that all your pages may be similarly empty.  Result - they stop clicking.  So make every page worth visiting, or take it down until it is.

Be topical and up to date
Out of date material gets sort shrift these days, so keep news or information in particular topical and updated.  Link to other sources if you want an article to remain relevant

Be original
Search engines can spot plagiarism or content lifted from elsewhere, and readers may too.  So be fresh and original,  or add your own spin on events or topics under discussion.  News travels fast but a good summary of several news sources can be useful, your personal experience or an original photo can still add interest to a popular item.   People will link to and recommend you if they like what you say.

Use illustrations
Photographs and artwork make your site attractive, add credibility to articles and retain interest in accompanying text.  So add them.  If you have photos or artwork of your own, great.  Otherwise check out Google images for an almost infinite number of images and illustrations on almost any topic.  Check for copyright though - some images are owned.

Top ten tips for getting visitors to your website

Search Engine Optimisation needs to be taken seriously if you want to bring a wider audience to your website.  There are three main areas to concentrate on - making your website visible to search engines, making your content attractive to your readers and circulating news of your posts far and wide.  There is overlap, but follow these top ten tips and you will be on the way.

The tips

Register your site url with Google and Bing
Adding the url or your site (unique locator or web address)  to these major search engines will add you to their directories and encourage them to read your site content and add your web pages to potential searches.  Why Google and Bing? -Yahoo charge money, the others copy Google.

Put metatags in your html
These give extra clues to search engines looking for relevant content to recommend to searchers.  Add a description of your site, keywords and your name if relevant to the html to give them a clear idea of what you think your site is all about.

Use keywords wherever you can
Again - keywords (words which are essential to the description of what your site is about - e.g. fashion, cars, chess etc) are a big help to search engines to help them know who to recommend your site to.  Use them in page titles, and in the opening paragraphs of yor pages and articles.  That is where search engines will be looking most.

Get linked
Search engines, particularity Google, rate your site not only according to how many visitors you have but also according to how many other sites link to you.  People looking for you will also be able to find you through links on other sites.  Try asking relevant sites to put up a link to you - give them a good reason to, and offer to link back to return the favour.  Try similar interest groups, local and national directories and also friends and colleagues. 

Add Google Analytics and see who loves you
A free but amazing service.  Register, add a strip of html code to your site and within 24 hours you will be able to monitor information which will help you understand who is searching for you, how they found you, what they like on your site and what turns them off.

Make your content interesting and original
Use the analytics info to see what people find interesting, and write more of it.  Keep content original, relevant and let it express your passion. People prefer that, and so do search engines

Add photographs to your pages 
Photographs can replace a thousand words, but research also shows that people are far more likely to read text that is illustrated.  Try Google images - there are 1,000s of pictures and images on every possible subject - most free to use.  (Don't forget to add searchable tags and titles to your photographs too).

Email your articles to friends, colleagues and fans
Send people a taster and a link to your site or one of your posts.  Find interest groups who might be glad to read some of your articles and invite them to read it.  Or reply to other articles with a link to yours.

Comment on social forums and other discussion threads
There are many forums with wide ranging topics that may be relevant to your interest.  Be newsy or relevant and you may interest people in a link back to your own comments or content on a topical issue.

Use social media to advertise your content
Last but not least use the existing networks to get noticed.  Use twitter or send links to those who do, and get into hash-tag discussion threads of relevance to your site.  Or use Facebook to post news, photos and links to friends and networks.  Don't overlook other social media like Reddit which, if you can think of relevant punchy stuff to catch peoples eye, can bring a new and wider audience to your posts.

 FastNet Websites for all your web design, e-commerce and digital marketing. Working across West Cork in Clonakilty, Bandon, Skibbereen and Bantry.

Examples of FastNet Websites

Take a look at these FastNet designed websites. Click on the images to view the sites.

Community Group A community website including members pages, searchable databases and information area. Clonakilty Favour Exchange	Therapist An Art Therapist's website introducing the practice and examples of work and contacts  Art Therapy West cork
Musician Professional website with embedded videos,  lyrics, updated gig guides and news, and a photograph gallery Christine Deady	Garden Trail  Featured pages for 15 gardens with searchable index, map and timetable,  brochure request form and links to facebook and twitter. West Cork Garden Trail	Self-help Charity A self help charity website giving information about the group, press articles and meeting times in a clear and attractive Dublin-themed format. LifeRing Dublin
Bee Keeping Society Keep up to date with club news, read the bee-keepers blog and  sign-up for regular emails.	Driving school Tips on driving, testimonials and on-line booking form	Backgammon Club Play live games online, keep up to date with club news and read information on how to play.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation is as ubiquitous and puzzling a term as APR, and potentially as fiddly and difficult as making puff pastry.  Why bother to give yourself a new headache when you don't need to?  Well, its a bit like arranging a party but forgetting to tell people the address, or worse still, organising a fundraiser that nobody knows about.  Or building a website that nobody visits.

What is Search Engines Optimisation? Search engines are very familiar to us now - its Google and Yahoo and Bing and all those other ones like Mamma or Ask Jeeves.  We type in what we want to know, and Hey Presto! They come up with someone who knows the answer.  How do they do that?  And more to the point, how can you make them come up with your website at the top of their list of results?  Search Engine Optimisation is doing just that.

Here are some things that you need to try to make sure you get noticed and get listed. 

Put yourself in the directory
First off, tell them you exist!  Submit what is called the url (the address of your website as written in the address bar). Send it for free to google and yahoo and bing at the very least.  Simply search their submit url page and paste it in.  Now they know you exist!  Much easier for them than when they didn't.




Search Engines

Match what you offer with what people are looking for

Keywords are the words google et al use to identify what they think you are writing about.  They are also the words people commonly put into search engines when hunting out information.  If you can match up what you offer with what people want it will make the whole process of finding the right audience for your website much smoother. 

Look at some of the keyword search tools and search your main topic to see what people are commonly searching for when they want what you offer.   If you run a crocodile farm, are they looking for farms, alligators, purses or crocodile steaks?  It makes a difference.  When you know the key words, and there may be several relevant to you, use those words in your website title, name, post titles and articles whenever you can.  It gives the search engines a clue when trying to match their public with your website.

Get linked
A little known fact is that google began life as a link counter called affectionately "backrub".  If someone links to your content from their website they must like you, and think you are worth reading.  So google's robots don't need to digest your wonderful prose to know you are worth reading, they just have to count the number of links to you.  The more the links, the more fascinating you must be.  So get linked! Beg, reciprocate, email and network your way to be linked as often as you can.  Note though that the more descriptive the link (eg, click here to read more about the world's best parsnips) is more helpful to google et al in knowing what they are recommending than the ubiquitous but keyword lite "click here"

Seem to be popular

Search Engines don't succeed by recommending boring stuff, so they won't take a chance on a new website that has few visitors.   But it's a catch 22 - if your site isn't read it won't be recommended either, so it will continue not to be read.  Friends, relations, supporters, members or sister organisations can all help.  Search engines notice traffic to your website from a number of sources, and if they see a decent amount of it, they will begin to list you to recommend you to others.  Send the address of your website homepage or a key page to as many as you think will agree or be interested to click on it.    For example:

• Email it to friends and  people you think will be interested in you
• Post it on your facebook page or ask friends or supporters to post it on theirs
• Use twitter to reach a wider audience, or ask others to help - but be sure to make it interesting!
• Ask other websites to add a link to your site, and return the compliment
• Send the link to rivals - they won't be able to avoid looking out of curiosity
• Stuck for people? Have a competition with a prize that requires people to visit your site to find out the answer to a quiz or question

So how will this help?  Google, for example, will begin to notice your site once a page has had only twenty plus visits (not from you, of course!).  Try to get traffic to several pages, and you will begin to see the search engines listing you.  Give them time.  It will take a few days to build a picture of you, and a month or two to make a real difference to your ranking, if you keep it up.  Then you will stat to see strangers finding you as well as friends.

Set up a stats counter
This may seem vain at first and could become an obsession, so be warned.  But google analytics or blogger carry statistics counters that are easily set up and will let you know how your site is doing.  They will tell you how many people have visited overall and when, which posts they read, which country they are from, what they searched for to find you or from which link they came to you (twitter, facebook etc).  Why bother?  Because it will tell you which of your posts is popular, and where your audience is coming from.  This will help you to build on what is popular and who to target to get more traffic, and also where the gaps are if you want to try targeting a new audience.

Be interesting and original
Is your material worth reading?  Self-obviously essential, but more easily said than done.  Computer search engines are very discerning readers.  If your articles and content are copied from other sites then they will know, and soon grow tired of you.  True too of facebook and twitter readers.  If they read your stuff once and it sends them to sleep they may not bother again.  But take heart - the golden rule seems to be to be honest and true to yourself, talk about what really interests you, and people like you will find you out and actually enjoy reading your stuff.  Remember, it interested you enough to set up your site in the first place, so play to your strengths- talk about what you know and like.  If you do the audience will come -it's just a matter of finding them.  But SEO will certainly help.

Put it into the tags and titles
Keywords are great, and google et al will find them, but to make life easier put your keywords, and key phrases about your website and its content, into the titles of your pages and articles (what are called the H1 and H2 tags), and the meta-tag for your website.  Make sure that the titles of your posts are descriptive of their content.  Search engines use robots to read (crawl) your site, so it helps to put these big clues about your content where they are definitely going to look.

For our top ten tips to improve your SEO click here

FastNet Websites for all your web design, e-commerce and digital marketing. Working across West Cork in Clonakilty, Bandon, Skibbereen and Bantry.

Who Uses Social Media?

"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true." Robert Wilensky

Why use social media?  Because so many other people already do. Social media, including twitter, Facebook, linkedin and stumbleupon are becoming more common, and more commonly used across the developed world.  What are they? 

The eight most popular social media networks

They have been here less than five years, but already in 2010 Facebook announced that they had reached over 400 million worldwide users and Twitter reached the benchmark of 50 million tweets per day.  Facebook and Twitter had triple-digit growth in 2009 and social networking accounted for 11% of all time spent online.

In 2011 it is estimated that 92% of online adults are using social media. So who are they? Google have analysed who is using which site and in what numbers, and Ethan Block of Flowtown has kindly set it out in a graph.  It makes for an interesting read.  Here are digg, stumbleupon, reddit, facebook, linkedin, twitter, myspace and ning (the key to each logo is above).  Each tiny square represents 1% of users, so the charts give a good visual representation of how a demographic group uses each social media.  They are analysed for user age, gender, educational background and income.

Age profile
Looking at the spread of users by age, few over 55's use any social media, and even fewer over 65's.  But surprisingly, perhaps, the greatest users of all social media are the 25-54 year olds - the middle aged crowd.  The stereotype of the texting, facebooking teenager is only true for Myspace. Even facebook has migrated from a college mating and dating site to the key social media tool of the middle years, as has twitter.



Social Media use by Age Group

Education
Next up is educational background. Again, it is the university degree educated people who are using social media most, with linkedin unsurprisingly pulling in the most given its very career and cv dominated profile.  Those with Phd's might seem to be using social media less, but there are presumably far fewer of them in the world so a high proprotion of them must be using these media to rank in the numbers they do.


Social Media use by Education Level

Income
The next chart shows income level.  Linkedin shows that it attracts those who aspire to earn a lot rather than those who actually do.  The well off seem to be just as busy using facebook to chat and watching videos on digg, although the very high earners clearly have less need or desire to communicate with the rest, featuring very little at the top end of the chart.  But really, with the exception of Myspace, the spread is again very even and shows that social media is not the preserve of any particular group in society.



Socila Media use by Income Level

Gender
Lastly, is social media use a gender specific activity?  To an extent yes.  There are certainly more women than men represented in most categories, and especially in twitter and myspace.  The exception is digg which is more of a male preserve, but only just.  Overall the numbers support the idea that both genders use every type of social media in large numbers. 



Social  Media use by Gender

So, the simple answer is, pretty well every social group you can think of is using social media.  If you want to get your website noticed and linked to, so should you.