Why Wordpress is Good Enough

August 24, 2009

One of my colleagues and dear friends, Clare Ultimo, and I have hearts and we wear them on our sleeves sometimes. In so much as we go out of our way for nonprofits and extend our professional services (services that are normally well over $100/hour) for free. We donate of our time and our resources only to find that our efforts go unnoticed, our time under-appreciated and our professional services questioned. It hurts.

We are as honest as anyone gets with ourselves, our clients and each other, we are in the top of our class of what we do, so why don’t these nonprofits appreciate us?

What I am specifically referring to is I have been volunteering my services to a nonprofit. I have been helping a lifelong friend who is their webmaster  redesign their site into a WordPress site. The President of the nonprofit must have asked a “friend” his opinion on the WordPress site.

WordPress is an open source application designed to make updating websites easier. There are rivals in web applications. It’s like the classic U of M versus Ohio State rivalry. People are either Open Source or they are not. This guy happened to not be, but he blathered on about how unsecure Wordpress is and how it should only be used for hobby sites.

I took this personally. My services are not just for hobbies, they are for professional companies, organizations, authors, etc. Let’s take a look at some companies/organizations who use WordPress:

Ebay
Yahoo
Digg
Ford
Wall Street Journal
Sony
People Magazine

You can view more commercial companies with the original article here: 21 Popular Brands That Are Using WordPress

Are any of the companies listed above hobbies? No. They are full-fledged commercial entities who chose WordPress because it is the best solution.

Let this be a wake-up call to non-profit boards across the country. Know who to trust and appreciate what you have.

Written by Harmonie · Filed Under Wordpress | 3 Comments 

SEO is a Great Selling Point for Websites

August 19, 2009

SEO is a great selling point for website design companies. It helps us distinguish ourselves from other’s when selling a website or even web related services. Is it overused? Absolutely! Consistently, I see the term listed to sell websites and web related products but then I look and see that the most primative SEO techniques haven’t been executed on their site.

A prime example of this overuse is yesterday I had a meeting with a real estate agent. I mentioned that I had found a cheaper alternative to VisualTour. He stated that part of the value of the product is their submission to the search engines and to the listing on Realtor.com. I knew right away it was a bunch of baloney:

  1. I SEOed his site.
  2. There hasn’t been one single click from Realtor.com

What can I do about this? I can educate and inform of key factors to look for when trying to choose an SEO company. Below please find a few triggers to help you make the best decision

  1. Anytime a company refers to “search engine submissions” - run away! This does nothing if the site isn’t optimized correctly. In fact, this is a key that either they don’t know what they are talking about or they are trying to sell you something that has no value whatsoever.
  2. If a web design company claims the site will be search engine optimized (SEO). Ask them if they have ever been paid for only SEO on past projects? If they haven’t, then the decision is clear: don’t hire them for SEO or you may want to reconsider the company for trying to sell you something they have no experience doing.
  3. This may be a nicer way to approach #2: ask for past rankings and even current rankings of websites they are optimizing.
  4. Google their company name, if they aren’t first, this is another sign that something is wrong.
  5. Never consider hiring an SEO company that contacts you, chances are they have no clue.

Google has written more about this topic here: SEO.

Unfortunately, there is no governing authority on SEO so for now, all I can do is educate you and help you make the right decision. If I see more triggers, then I will certainly update this post. Until then, if you need SEO turn to Ponder Consulting, we guarantee you won’t be let down.

Written by Harmonie · Filed Under Search Engines, Website Design | 1 Comment