NetGains Marketing

It seems Bing is undergoing a simplistic makeover, one that looks very familiar.

As we all know, Google is known for is its bare bones simplicity; no fancy images, no pictures, just a simple white design with a direct focus on content. Over the years there have been changes, but the core simplistic philosophy has remained the same, and there's a reason: it works. 

So now Bing is simplifying its look, as you can see below, and it looks quite similar to Google. Is this blatant copying, or do they realize the KISS design principle is the way to go? You be the judge.

Image from mashable.com

If you own a small business and simply don't have the budget for a custom website solution, investing into a customized Facebook Fan Page may be the option you've been waiting for. With options like personalized  Welcome pages, exclusive fan offers, and on-page sign up forms, your business can really stand out from your competition. Your Fan Page provides you with a flexible and inexpensive forum to connect with current and potential clients in a very personal way.

According to Google, Facebook not only has the most unique visitors, but also the most page views per month, a whopping 570 billion views, ahead of other properties like Craigslist (#49) with 14 billion views. (source: PC World). Those numbers alone should be enough to get you on the Facebook bandwagon, but if you're still lacking the inspiration you need, here are a list of 10 of the best Facebook Fanpages we've come across:

1. jeff dunham

Vibrant and fun, this page quickly tells you who Jeff is and what he does. Highlighting upcoming events and promoting product, with over 4 million fans, this page is definatly working!



2. LEVI's
Levi's fanpage offers ample engagement opportunities for fans. From a "live feed" where users can share comments about current events, to customer polls, coupons, and more, its definatly worth taking a look at.

3. Dell
Dell's fanpage offers a great balance of education for potential customers in the 'research' phase of their buying process, and support for existing ones. On top of news about upcoming product launches or industry news, Dell's page provides 'how-to' videos, chat forums, and blog articles to answer questions and generate conversation.

4. skittles

The Skittles fan page is has one of the largest fan bases on Facebook, with over 9,600,000 fans. Apart from the image, polls, videos and photos, their quirky statuses always generate huge engagement from their fans, with hundreds of comments and 'likes'.

5. The children's place

Apart from its great design, exclusive offers, integrated shopping cart, the Children's Place fanpage also provides ample opportunity for its fans to become evangelists for its brand. Because their customers can (and do) upload photos and videos of their children wearing the latest styles, the Children's Place gains links on their fans photo albums and show up in their NewsFeed.

6. pepsi

Designed for interaction, this fanpage is like a fully functioning mini-site. With surveys, integrated blog posts, exclusive fan offers, sweepstakes and more, this page is sure to keep fan engaged!

7. mickey mouse clubhouse

A great example of a fanpage which caters to more than one market. The page integrates colorful graphics and fun acitivities for their viewers (preschoolers), but also brings in information valuable to parents, such as party planning tips and recipes.

8. lululemon athletica

With a built-in product showcase, Lululemon allows fans to easily become customers. If a product catches your eye, it takes only a click of the mouse to link you back to their corporate site, landing on that product's page, where you can complete your purchase.

9. Jones Soda

Just like the "fortunes" on their bottlecaps, or photos on the label, Jones Soda's fanpage has gone to great lengths to include their customers in the experience.  With some customized flash programming, Jones allows fans to submit their own photos to be displayed in a scrolling photo display.

10. Sheraton

Sheraton's fanpage is a great reflection of the brand as a whole. With an elegant design, the page provides some unique options such as creating a "wish list" of resorts you want to stay in (which will post to your wall), a 'gift app' for when you're on the road, and on-page booking.



Are you inspired yet? One of the best things about Facebook is whether you're a multi-billion dollar corporation or working out of your basement, you can take advantage of the same tools. with a unique design and a strong offer, you can make your business stand out, don't wait, call us today and we can show you how to get started.

Have you ever tried to Google your company name and not even shown up in the results? Super powers are cool, but if it’s your website that’s invisible, you may need to think about getting a new one.

If you run a local business, having a presence on the search engines is crucial. Last year, 80% of searches online were looking for a local business, if you aren’t showing up on the results you are losing customers to companies who are.

Here are some red flags that your website isn’t getting the placement it deserves:

1.  You aren’t optimizing your meta tags

When Google displays a search result, you are able to see two main elements, the Title and the Description. These elements are among the most important in the search engine’s determination of what your website is about. Having “untitled”, generic “home” or “about us”, or simply your company name is not helping in your quest to rank on a specific search term. 

2.  Your website is 100% flash based

If your website is 100% flash based and you aren’t being indexed on the search engines, you may want to consider a redesign. While the movement is beautiful, there are many drawbacks to flash based websites. Consider using a more search engine friendly programming language such as HTML5, which can mimic the movement of flash, but still allows the search engines to spider your website. 

3.  Your content isn’t SEO friendly

The search engines “read” your content to try and determine when your website is relevant. Ensuring that your content has been written to include the keywords you want to show up on is important. Having those keywords included in important elements of that content, such as h1 tags and anchor text will help even more.

4.  You are using outdated or ‘black hat’ SEO strategies

Did you know that the algorithms used by the search engines to rank your website are constantly changing? Did you know that some of the tactics that yielded great results 3-5 years ago, may actually get you black listed today? If your website’s SEO strategy includes keyword stuffing, invisible text, doorway pages, or other “black hat” SEO Techniques, your might find yourself banned from the search engines.

If your website isn’t driving you the business that it should, and any of these red flags are present, you need to consider having your website redone, or at least “made-over” in a search engine friendly manner.  With more than 450 million searches performed daily on Google alone, if you aren’t ranking, you may as well be invisible.

Flash can be beautiful. There are many design advantages that come with a flash website. When done well, the movement and interaction on a flash-based website can be mesmerizing and engaging.
But there are drawbacks - big ones - that may outweigh the design benefits of having a 100% flash-based website. Here are just a few:

1. FLASH WEBSITES ARE OFTEN INVISIBLE TO SEARCH ENGINES
Most business owners have website's developed with one goal in mind: to attract new customers. Most potential clients for your business begin their buying process on a search engine. Even when they already know your company name or website url, many will enter it into the Google Search Bar rather than directly into their browser. Many business with Flash based websites have found that they don't even register on Google's search results under their own brand. Why does this happen?

When you enter a search term into a search engine such as Google, the search engine will scan for the website for information, process it, and try to bring in the best matches for your query. The problem is, even with improvements in the search engine's algorithms, Search Engines aren't very good at "reading" images, and Flash is, in simplified terms, a series of images. There is often very little textual information on a flash based site, and crucial elements, such as internal links, are often hidden within Flash based navigation.

While there are things that can be done to improve the search engine friendliness of a Flash-based website, there are newer and more seo friendly coding practices, like HTML5, that can be used which mimic the visual impact of Flash, but are search engine friendly.

2. LONG LOAD TIMES CAN FRUSTRATE USERS AND CAUSE THEM TO LEAVE
Your website has a very short window of time to engage your user. Not everyone has access to high-speed internet, and if you website takes more than a few seconds to load, chances are high that a visitor will leave without ever seeing your website.

In addition, many web users have started to disable Flash in their web pages in order to avoid flash based advertising, and/or to improve their page-load times. You may have CUT OFF a segment in your market before you even start.

3. APPLE IPAD AND IPHONE DO NOT DISPLAY FLASH
Surely you've seen the new iPad. Lately I can't walk into a coffee shop without spotting a few. With over 5.5 million units sold worldwide, and Canadian retailers being nearly sold out within only 4 days of the products launch, they are a hot item. But, did you know that you cannot view flash on an iPad? The same is true of iPhones. In fact, Apple products will not support Flash at all.

With more and more consumers embracing the mobile era, flash-based sites will leave you out this market entirely.

4. FLASH WEBSITES ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH MOST WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS
Last, but certainly not least, on our list of Flash drawbacks, is the fact that Flash based websites are extremely difficult to track using website analytics. The next time you visit a 100% Flash based website, keep an eye on your browser as you click through the pages. Most flash based websites do not provide unique url's for each page within the site. Even though you see different pages, such as home, about us, contact, you're actually seeing layers of images. Your web analytics tool will not "see" any of those clicks so long as the actual url isn't changing.

We are always saying that having measurable data about the performance of your website is crucial in shaping your online strategies, having a website that can't be tracked will only leave you guessing where the opportunities and limitations of your site performance lie.

So if you have a 100% Flash Based website and are wondering how to improve your search engine placement, increase your website accessibility, get more visits from mobile devices, and start capturing valuable web analytics data, it might be time to consider a website redesign.