Please Don’t Let Your “Friend” or “Nephew” Set Up Your Website

This is advice and kind of a rant because we get the same calls every week,

“My friends knows all about the web and SEO and she/he setup the site, but I can’t find it on Google…”

“My nephew set it up and he says an all Flash site is impressive, but no one can find me…”

“My friend knows all about Wordpress and set up a blog for me, but it isn’t on Google anywhere!’

FYI- Just because someone says they “know everything about the web” doesn’t mean they do!

I could say I know how to cook and I would be lying, but you wouldn’t know the that would you? You could ask my husband, but let’s get back to the point  —> You CANNOT put your business site in the hands of someone that “might” know because your business website is key to your success in today’s world.

Your website is a CRUCIAL part of your advertising:

• People can find you on the web and their phones – this you need!
• With all other advertising mediums you will be sending them to your website – it needs to look nice, be functional for all and SELL!
• You will advertise it on your Facebook page, MySpace or whatever else you choose to use. You need an attractive, user-friendly website!
• It will be on your business cards, right? Don’t feel embarrassed to send someone to your site because your “friend” set it up and you don’t want to hurt their feelings by taking it down.

Besides Friends and Nephews Don’t Just Hire “Anyone”

You can check them out by looking at their portfolios. If they have ugly sites or sites that are difficult to navigate or never show up for searches than you know you need to find someone else.

Here is another hint, if they say they offer “SEO” services or “optimized websites” and you look at their client sites you can look right up at the title-tag and quickly determine if they even have a “slight” clue of what SEO is.

• If the site is for a local business, is there a “city” or “location” in the title-tag? If not, get out of there!
• Do they have the same title-tag on every page? (indicates that they either know nothing or are lazy- both are bad!)
• Does the title-tag mimic the name of the page only? (also indicates that they either know nothing or are lazy- both are bad again!)
• Does it just say “Mozilla Firefox” or “Windows Internet Explorer”? If it does RUN!!!
• Does it say “page 1, page 2 or page 3″? if so, RUNNNNNN FOREST!

So my big point is to “HIRE A PROFESSIONAL“. Make sure your are investing your money the right way! Don’t make a mistake and then have to pay twice.

Melissa – SEO Aware

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Related posts:

1. How Much Would You Pay to Advertise in a Recycling Bin?
2. Restaurant Owners, 10 Things Your Website Needs to Be Successful
3. How Long Does Ranking in the Search Engines Take?
4. Your Wordpress SEO is Only as Good as Your “SEO”
5. Inflated Traffic Data – Are You Really Getting That Many Hits?