Blog or use it as a Content Management System, WordPress is the next best cost effective web solution.

No need to purchase additional software, your site is accessible wherever there’s internet connectivity and most importantly, you own it. No monthly leasing payments.

There are also hundreds of Free and inexpensive WordPress Themes available to choose from that represent several business styles such as: Magazine Editorial, Corporate, and Creative, Retail, Technology, Nonprofit, entertainment and more. You can make simple changes to represent your brand and brand messaging without having a fully custom built website. Example: http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/

The WordPress administrative area is easy to use to make updates to both your posts and pages. Posts are listed in reverse chronological order and are also displayed in RSS feeds. Pages are static and not listed by date. Your navigation is typically referencing a static page; whereas your posts reference the latest information sorted by date.

WordPress also keeps costs of having a dynamic website minimal because of the long lists of plugins that are available to customize your needs. There are ecommerce plugins, fundraising plugins, social media plugins, All-in-One SEO plugins, sitemap plugins, gallery plugins, calendar plugins, event plugins and more. Example: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/browse/popular/.

Take a look at WordPress as a solution for your business or non-profit. View their Showcase and the many businesses and non-profits that are currently using WordPress as their choice for a publishing platform.

Non-profit Examples

• Walk to Washington
• Joint Use
• American Red Cross Online Disaster News Portal
• Philadelphia Neighborhoods
• Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands
• BigGovHealth
• More Examples

Business Examples

• Great Basin Arts & Entertainment
• Susan Hill Pr
• Westward Strategy & Design Group
• Cardinal Law
• Bartlett Architecture

You can download WordPress for free http://wordpress.org/download/.

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If you would like to learn more about WordPress as a solution for your Reno Business or Reno Non-profit, please give Kristy Crabtree a call at (775) 626-8330.

You will be asked to create a business profile allowing you to add a brief description of your business, a link to your website, your contact phone numbers, a contact person, your business logo, photographs highlighting your business, hours of operation as well as a few other business specifics.

8 Free Business Listing Websites

1. Google
Local Business Listings
http://www.google.com/local/add

2. Yahoo
Local Business Listings
http://listings.local.yahoo.com

3. Bing
Local Business Listings
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

4. Yelp
Real People. Real Reviews.
http://www.yelp.com

5. City Search
Local Business Listings
http://www.citysearch.com

6. Merchant Circle
Free Online Advertising
http://www.merchantcircle.com

7. Trip Advisor
Local Business Listings
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Owners

8. DMOZ
Open Directory Project
http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

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By Kristy Crabtree
Westward Strategy & Design Group

Are you ready to build a website for your small business or for yourself? There are simple search engine optimization steps you should consider during the development process.

The following 12 step optimization checklist will bring you one step closer to maximizing your revenues with smart web design.

1.) Choose a domain name, that is a URL, that is descriptive of what your website will represent:

• Your business name (ex. WestwardStrategy.com)
• Your first and last name (ex. KristyCrabtree.com) or
• Keyword specific phrase (ex. WestwardDesignGroup.com)

2.) Decide what keywords and/or phrase targets the visitors you are looking for, and that best describes what your business offers.

3.) Sub directory names using keywords or phrases should use hyphens in the url: http://url.com/descriptive-keyword/

4.) Title tags are the words that appear on site visitor’s browser tabs as they navigate through your site. Clearly define your title tags for each individual web page making sure that it is accurate and descriptive of the page’s content. Keep it 70 characters or less.

• (Example 1) Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
• (Example 2) Brand Name | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keyword

5.) The meta description is the primary source of information search engines review, and this is also the information that appears along with your site name in the search engine results. Clearly define your meta descriptions for each individual web page making sure that it too is accurate and descriptive of the page’s content. Keep it 155 characters or less

EXAMPLE: Keyword/Phrase Search Results

6.) Develop keyword rich content on all pages including the keyword and/or phrase within the content

7.) Use descriptive words for your navigation when it makes sense

8.) Name all images on website with descriptive image names:

• (Example) chocolate-lab-running.jpg vs. img0893.jpg

9.) The title tags are the words that visitor’s click to reach the hyperlinks behind them. Add descriptive title tags to anchor links

• (Example) title=” Descriptive Title Tag” vs. title=”Click Here”

10.) Setup Google Analytics and see who’s visiting your website and who’s giving you referral’s: http://www.google.com/analytics

11.) Create a sitemap and submit to Google Webmaster Tools and other search engines. The free tools give you a look under the hood at your website performance: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

12.) Add new website to local free business listings and other free directory sites

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Contributed by Kristy Crabtree
Westward Strategy & Design Group

NEVADA EXPORT UNIVERSITY
“Helping Nevada companies export and expand international sales”

What: A three-part series designed by the District Export Council and the Commerical Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This will be a video-conference that will originate in Las Vegas, Nevada, with participation from three additional locations statewide.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in learning how to sell products and services overseas.

Who will attend: Manufacturers, producers, and service based companies and students with an interested in learning the skills required by companies wanting to export.

When: All sessions are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. & include lunch and materials.

Class 101 – September 18, 2009
This introductory 100 Series class is designed for all levels of personnel at primarily new-to-export companies and students seeking skills to identify and communicate with buyers, banks, logistics intermediaries and others in developing the basis for all export transaction.

Class 201 – October 16, 2009
This intermediate 200 Series class is designed for managers at exporting companies and students who are responsible for developing and fine-tuning operations to increase a firm’s export volume.

Class 301 – November 13, 2009
The advanced 300 Series class is designed for those responsible for developing the strategic export plan.

Locations: Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City & Winnemucca

Fee: $60* general; $30* student (with valid student ID)
*cost per session

Download the detailed Nevada Export University Class Agenda

To register go to:   https://ssl.nsbdc.org/education/calendar

For more details visit: www.exportuniversity.com and click on Nevada, or contact Andrew Edlefsen at: Andrew.Edlefsen@mail.doc.gov or 702.388.6694

I’m creating this post to take it for a spin the first time.

Josh works over at Twelve Horses, the folks that built our website. He is a very cleaver guy.

So if your business or organization is using a blog powered by Word Press you are gonna want one of these.

1. Optimize for keyword content
To get listed correctly in the search engines, each page of your site needs to be optimized to the best of your ability. Since the keywords that you decide to target will be used throughout the optimization process, choosing the right keywords is essential. If you choose the wrong keywords you will not be found in the search engines. If you are not found in the search engines how will anyone find your site? Pick one core term for each page and write the optimized text around it. To brainstorm top phrases for your industry try reviewing your competitors’ websites.

2. Write unique title tags
The title tag of your page is the most important factor to consider when optimizing your web page for the search engines. This is because most engines place a high level of importance on information found in your title tag. The title tag is also what the search engines usually use for the title of your listing in the search results.

The title tag appears as the description of the page at the top of your browser’s window. It should be a complete sentence that includes your term(s) for that page. Do not overstuff these tags or your website will be penalized in the search results!

3. Implement quality Meta content
Meta is a part of the page html code human visitors to your site rarely see. It is used by search engine visitors (robots or bots) to help them determine what the page is about.

Description Meta should be one or two core-term enriched sentences that do not exceed 250 characters.

Keyword Meta is a space-separated list of terms relating to your page. The core term should appear at the beginning and end of this list. Limit the number of characters to 1,024, including spaces.

4. Content is king
The page content is one of the most important factors to letting visitors and the search engines know what it is you are offering. Improve your content and you will improve your listings in search engines. Each page should have at least 200 words of copy and include your keyword terms. The most important aspect of writing for the web is that you write for the human visitors, not the search engines.

5. Use image alt text wisely
Each image on your page can include a keyword phrase that relates to the image. This text will also help those that may have their images turned off when visiting your site. This text can be included in the alternate or “alt” attribute of the html code for an image. The important thing is to describe the image first and then try to work in key terms.

6. Use a robots.txt file to tell search engines where to go
This simple text file is a roadmap of your website. It should be placed in the root directory of your site, and it tells the search engine spiders which sections they should go into and which ones they are not allowed in. It is one of the easiest tactics you can use to help ensure your site gets crawled. It’s also one of the most overlooked opportunities.

7. Use a Sitemap.xml file, and keep it up to date
A sitemap file is a source of information for the search engines, like your robots.txt file. It tells them the location of all the sections and pages of your website, how important each of those sections are to your site, and most importantly when those sections were last updated. Most importantly, when you change your content, update your sitemap file!

8. Get rid of duplicate content
It’s easy to use the same content for multiple pages on your site, especially if you’re a retailer and the manufacturer has already provided lots of content for you. However, every time you use the exact same content you are taking a chance that the search engines will throw your site out of their results, thereby negating all of your hard work to get there in the first place.

Take the time to rewrite content for each page, regardless of how similar it may be to another page. Get rid of mirrored sites or completely rewrite these as well. Also, rewrite an article two or three times for use in article marketing or syndication.

9. Create custom error pages
If a visitor accidentally stumbles into a section that does not exist anymore, their browser’s default “Page Not Found” message does not give them a way to get back into the content of your site. However, it is very easy to set up custom error pages that have the same look and feel as the rest of your site. They will help keep visitors and therefore search engine spiders from reaching a dead end in your site and leaving.

10. Get validated!
First, validate your code for well-formed HTML. The rules of HTML have changed quite significantly over the years, and it is no longer optimal for you or your webmaster to generate messy, broken mark up.Although not a requirement from the search engines, both Google and Yahoo mention it in their guidelines for Webmasters.

Second, validate your entire Web site through Google and Yahoo. This is a simple task that involves uploading a file to your Web site’s root directory or adding information to your meta tags.You can find more information on this process in the search engines’ Webmaster guidelines.

This tip also serves to build a level of trust with the search engines and lets them know that your site is a current and active. This is a major component in determining how often your Web site is visited by the search engines.

The 10 tips presented here are just the beginning of a well-optimized Web site. The depth of a successful natural search optimization strategy is beyond the scope of this article, but we hope this guide will help site owners and Webmasters improve their natural search optimization.

Written by Kristy Crabtree with Chris Gandolfo.

Kristy Crabtree is the owner of Westward Strategy & Design Group in Sparks, and Chris Gandolfo is a marketing and design specialist with the firm. Contact them at (775) 720-3521 or visit WestwardStrategy.com for more natural search optimization tips and information.

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