I’ve noticed a trend lately that is a little disturbing.  This trend is a slow and steady decay of rankings for static websites with very few, if any, regular updates.

The reason for this decline is a recent emphasis by the major search engines to not only serve up the most relevant search results, but the most recent as well.  And if  your site isn’t updated with current, relevant information then you’re losing the game to a site that is.

The sad part is that this is something that could be fixed with very little effort and very little expense.

There are a number of excellent, open-source (free!) content management systems available to the small business owner.  If you have some technical skills you can make the switch yourself.  Otherwise, you’ll need to hire someone to help migrate your site to a new platform and teach you how to add new content quickly and easily.

Costs for this can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars depending on how many pages you currently have on your site, what functionality you want and whether or not you use a template or have a new design created for you.

Here are a few of the top open-source content management systems available today.

• WordPress (my favorite)
• Joomla
• Drupal
• Dot Net Nuke
• Expression Engine

I’m sure there are lots of others that are very good but these are the ones we have had experience with.

And if you need some help converting your site give me a call.  I’ll be glad to take a look at it and give you a quote.

Photo Credit: Dinosaur Jr. by desdeaquinet on Flikr

Mobile marketing hasn’t really taken off here in the United States like it has in other parts of the world.  I personally thought we would see a lot more of it than we have.

However, with the proliferation of the iPhone and other smart phones, it’s important that people be able to find your site and read it easily on their mobile device.

Our site is built on the WordPress platform, but I have a plug-in from Mofuse installed that shows a mobile version of our site if a visitor is using a mobile device.  It basically renders our RSS feed so that it downloads quickly and easily and is formatted so that it is easy to read.

If you don’t have a website, or you don’t have one that you can use the WordPress plug-in for, you can still set up your very own mobile website in no time at all and for very little money.

Check out the Mofuse website and if you get stuck and need any help, give me a call or shoot me an email.

To your success,
Ken Partain

Our questions of the day today comes from Al Ferriulo of Ferriulo & Associates, a provider of Health Insurance Plans for people throughout Texas.

Here’s the answer to your question, Al.

What is better from an SEO standpoint, creating a blog with it’s own unique website, or incorporating it as a page within your current website?

This is a question I had to address for my own business.  For several years I had a blog separate from my main website.  About two months ago I relaunched my main web site as a blog on the WordPress platform.

The reason I did this is so I could have one domain where people could get information about our company and the search engine optimization plans we offer while still having the ability to blog and connect with our readers through their comments.

From an SEO perspective this accomplishes two things:

We are continually adding content to our main site, which the search engines love,

Any new links to our blog posts count as deep links to our domain.

Google puts a lot of emphasis on incoming links when ranking a page, while Yahoo and Bing, though they also factor incoming links into their rankings, they tend to put more emphasis on the content.

So, by having our web site and blog on one domain, it helps our own SEO efforts and helps to solidify our rankings.

I feel that incorporating your blog into your website is the best way to go from an SEO perspective.

To your success!

Ken Partain

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