The Cheap Revolution

12 Cheap Employee Incentives that Will Pay Off for Your Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every business is looking for ways to create happier and more productive employees. However, with the economic recovery still slower than expected, many companies don’t have the budgets they once did for employee incentives. In fact, many businesses are simply trying to survive.

Still, with some creativity, you can come up with several affordable ways to incent your employees and make them more loyal and more productive. Here are 12 inexpensive ways of rewarding your employees that can really pay off for your company:

1. Free School Supplies. Buy your employees’ school supplies for those with children by letting them raid the supply closet at the beginning of each school year. Since there are volume discounts available from companies like Staples, the supplies will end up costing you hardly anything, while your employees will appreciate not having to buy school supplies for their kids. 

2. Snack of the Month. It’s no secret that people love variety, especially when it comes to food. Give your employees a new snack around the office each month, and they will greatly appreciate it. In fact, at the beginning of each month, the conversation will be guessing which new snack it will be. Some good online resources to save money on snacks are My M&Ms (branded with your logo), Harry & David, Dale & Thomas Popcorn and Nuts Online. 

3. Computer Discount Program. Along the same lines as the gift card incentives, many companies offer their employees the opportunity to buy a computer at a discounted price. HP has a special Business Center section on their site that has discount programs that are easy for most businesses to join. 

4. Gift Card Incentives. According to recent studies, gift cards have a higher perceived value for employees than cash. This is because it is easier for the employee to imagine what they will spend the money on. Gift cards are easy for employers as well because they are easy to order and distribute, and they can often receive volume discounts. You can go even further and use them as a branding tool by having the gift cards you distribute branded with your Company information by using GiftCards.com, which also offers cards at less than face value.  

Here are some suggestions for popular and affordable gift cards that will motivate your employees:

• Groupon: Groupon is one of the hottest ways for people to save money on purchasing products or services in their local area. They offer deals on everything from automotive to electronics to travel to countless other categories at significant savings over buying directly from the merchant. This is a great way to provide your employees with valuable incentives while saving money in the process. To get started, pick your city then scroll to the botton and click on "Corporate Gift Cards."
• Amazon or iTunes: These are two of the most popular gift card options. For the best deal, grab them at eBillme.com and save up to 10%. 
• Restaurants: Who doesn’t love to go out to eat? A gift card from Restaurant.com is sure to be a hit with your employees. They provide most $25 certificates for only $10 and allow you to select from local spots instead of chain restaurants. 
• Movie Tickets: People still love to go to the big theatre to see a movie, but many think it’s getting too expensive these days. A $25 gift card from Fandango.com can give your employees a rare treat they are sure to thank you for.
• Health Club Memberships: Encouraging employee fitness can pay off in numerous ways. You can give them a free month or two, or discount each month on a membership to a popular health club like Bally Total Fitness or 24 Hour Fitness (click the links for special deals!).
• Gas Reimbursement: With the cost of gas going ever-higher, employees are concerned about the expense of commuting to work. Why not help them out by rewarding them with a gas card coupon? I couldn't find a gas-specific gift card but there are many Visa, Mastercard or American Express cards to choose them at GiftCards.com.
• Tickets to Ball Games or Concerts: Even in a tough economy, sporting events and shows are still America’s favorite pastime. Your employees will really appreciate two tickets to a game or concert, and you can get them discounted from places like Tickco, Ticket Network, or Tickets Now. 

5. Put Your Employee on your Shared Wireless Plan. If you have a business that requires continual communication with employees outside the office, then it makes sense to put them on a shared wireless plan with your company. Be careful though, and make sure you set up a plan that does not allow them to rack up costly overage charges. 

6. Flexible Scheduling. Very few things make an employee happier than the ability to create their own schedule. If your company has the flexibility to allow your employees to at least partially set their own schedule, then by all means take advantage of it. 

7. Work from Home Option. Again, this is dependent on your business as to whether or not you can allow this. If you are able to allow your employees this option, why not let them work from home once a week or once a month? Employees love to have this option on Fridays, so they can be home earlier and get ready for the weekend. 

8. Weekly Pizza Day. Along with the snacks, it’s a good little perk to buy the employees lunch once a week. This saves them from having to pack a lunch or spend $10 or more going out to eat. Also, pizza is very popular and relatively inexpensive, especially when purchased in bulk. In keeping with the spirit of variety, order from a different pizza place each week. 

9. Casual Dress Days. Most people love to dress casual and would prefer to go to work this way. If your business model allows it, let your employees dress casual or at least “business casual” once or twice a week so they are more comfortable while working. Friday is always a good day for this. 

10. Have Fun in the Workplace. A fun work environment enhances productivity. Put some people in charge of playing practical jokes and handing out novelty items to mix things up around the office. ThinkGeek.com has a great selection of novelty and odd items to spice up your work environment.

11. Regular Company Outings. There’s no better way for workers and management to bond and get to know each other better than a company outing. Organize regular company picnics and other outings like softball games. It will make your employees feel more like family and they will feel more loyal to your business. 

12. Hand Written “Thank You” Notes. Finally, when an employee does a good job, often times a pat on the back goes further than a financial reward. Don’t forget to take the time to acknowledge an employee when he/she does a good job. This will make them feel good about the company they work for and motivate them to keep performing well. 

We hope you found these tips for employee incentives helpful.  What are your favorite tips for employees?   Leave your best ideas in the comments to share with the community.

Alternatives to Mozy: Which backup service is right for you?

 "43% of people lose irreplaceable files every year"

Updated as of March 2011: Mozy.com is one of the most popular online backup services for individuals. The main reason is due to it's low price point (now $5.99 a month for 50GB of storage). They recently changed their pricing and no longer allow for unlimited storage. In addition to the 50GB plan, they also offer 125GB for $9.99 a month. 

I use the service personally and while it currently suits most of my needs, it lacks two main functions I would love to have. First, it doesn't have mobile access so I can't retreive my computer files or photos on the go. I recall seeing an announcement that it will be available when I subscribed six months ago and I'm still waiting. The second is the constant number of unsuccessful backup attempts I’ve experienced. Without fail, the application stops updating once a month and I have to contact Mozy and provide them with remote access to fix the issue.

I opted for the Mozy annual plan when I signed up because I saved ten percent. Will I stay after my subscription is over? Unless things change, probably not. I’ve explored other solutions in the meantime and found the top four Mozy alternatives available using an Internet and Twitter search. If you'd like a quick overview by comparing backup solutions side-by-side, check out this chart.

Note: These Mozy alternatives are in no particular order and have been pre-screened to ensure they meet standard security specifications.

1. SugarSync.com – Close to Mozy’s monthly subscription at $4.99 (for 30GB of storage), the most notable features of this service include:

• A 30-day free trial of any plan from 30GB to 250GB of storage
• It is compatible with PCs and Macs
• Multiple computers can be backed up using one account
• SugarSync offers mobile applications. (Nice twist: photos and music are automatically synced to your computer without needing to download them)
• They allow file sharing 
• You can restore documents for up to 5 versions

2. ElephantDrive -This service offers plans specifically for individuals and families starting at $9.95 for 100GB of storage or $19.95 a month for 500GB of storage. See below for a list of their top features:

• A free 2GB trial
• It is compatible with PCs and Macs
• Up to two PCs can use the personal account and 5 devices can use the family account
• Mobile access is provided
• File sharing is available
• File versioning is offered for the last 30 days (for the personal account) or one year for family account)

Bonus: This ElephantDrive coupon link is currently offering two months for free when you purchase their annual plan.

3. Carbonite - Carbonite used to be a top contendor as a Mozy alternative because they were so similar in featuresets. However, that has changed with Mozy's new pricing scheme. Carbonite only offers unlimited storage so you're not limited by size constraints (a big appeal to their service). Another difference is they don't have a monthly subscription. Their annual plan starts at $54.95 (about $4.58/month) for one computer. Some of their noteworthy features include:

• A free 15-day trial with unlimited storage
• They are compatible with PCs and Macs
• Mobile applications are available
• File versioning is offered
• Email & phone support are provided

4. Dropbox - Boasting more than 6 million users, Dropbox had to make this list. They offer two plans - 50GB for $9.99/month or 100GB for $19.99/month.  In addition:

• A free 2GB trial with an extra 250MB for each referral you provide
• Compatability with PCs, Macs and Linux
• Multiple computers can be backed up using one account
• Mobile access is provided
• File sharing is available
• File versioning for the last 30 days or you can upgrade to their pack rat feature which saves your history forever

What are your favorite backup options and why? Are there other Mozy alternatives you want us to know about? Leave us a comment and we’ll add it to the list.

 

By: Yasmine Mustafa

Yasmine is a former Team and a Dream-er. She is currently the Founder of 123LinkIt.com. The Company creates tools for bloggers to help them monetize their sites. A free affiliate plugin for WordPress is now available.

Content is King – SEO Best Practices

If you want your Website to rank high on major search engines such as Google, your best shot is to develop a list of targeted keywords and then build specific WebPages with content focusing on these keywords.  SEO is done best before the Webpage is built; first you develop the strategy then implement by developing a targeted Webpage focused on your targeted keywords.

Step 1 – Keyword Research
Develop a targeted keyword list.  Once you develop your targeted keyword list you need to use a keyword research tool to research how often these terms are being searched and will also give you other suggestions of keywords that you may want to target.  There are plenty of free tools available, just do a search on any major search engine for keyword research tool.

Step 2 – Content Development
Build individual WebPages that target the better performing keywords on your list.  The content of the Webpage should target the keyword phrase you chosen for that Webpage, mentioned three to five times within the page copy.  It is also very beneficial to title the page using your chosen keyword phrase inside of a H1 style tag.  This will tell Google and the other major search engines that the chosen keyword phrase is what the Webpage is focused. 

Your Meta content which includes your Meta title, Meta description and Meta keywords should focus on the targeted keyword phrase.  Your Meta title and Meta description is what will appear on the search results page.  Both needs to include your targeted keyword phrase.  It is usually best to mention your targeted keyword or keyword phrase twice in your Meta title.  For example “Philadelphia Bankruptcy Lawyer – Bankruptcy Lawyer in Philadelphia”.

Step 3 – Linking
In order to maximize your chances of receiving high search engine rankings for the targeted keyword phrases you have chosen to target, you need to have both internal links pointing to this page and external links pointing to this Webpage.  The internal link should come from your homepage and any other page that Google has indexed.  The name of the link should be the targeted keyword phrase if possible, such as “Bankruptcy Lawyer”.

It will be very beneficial to gain external links pointing to the specific Webpage that you are targeting.  This is referred to as deep linking.  You can submit this deep link to some directories that allow deep linking.  Some directories only allow you to link to your homepage or will charge a fee for a deep link.  It may be worth $5 for this deep link. Make sure that the name of the link is descriptive and uses your targeted keyword phrase; “Bankruptcy Lawyer in Philadelphia”. 

You also need to develop external content in the form of articles and press releases.  Write value added articles focusing on the keyword phrases that you are targeting.  These articles should not promote your business or Website or the article directory will not accept the article.  It is very important to write an article that brings value to the person reading it.  You can add some direct deep links within the article pointing to your targeted Webpage.  It is important that the link names are keyword driven.  If you are writing an article on bankruptcy law, you can add a link within the article to your Webpage using a keyword phrases such as “bankruptcy law” or “bankruptcy lawyer”. 

Each article directory has its own rules when it comes to how many links you can add to an article.  Some allow zero link backs, while other article directories will allow three or more link backs.  All article directories will allow you to link to your Webpage from a resource area below the content of the article.  Make sure the link name is keyword driven “Philadelphia Bankruptcy Lawyer”.  It is typically free to submit your article to article hubs.  Do a search for top article hubs or top article directories to find a list to submit your articles.

It is also very beneficial to write a press release focusing on the keyword phrases you are targeting.  You will need to hire a company to send out your press release to the appropriate News Websites such as Yahoo and Google news.  There will be a fee for this service which varies greatly between press release submission services, depending on many variables.  You should research your choices and go with what will work best for your business.

Article written by Jason Lomberg, the SEO strategist for Philly Marketing Labs

Optimize your Website for Local Search – Part 2

Part 1 of this installment focused on local business listings and optimizing your Pay per Click campaigns to maximize your investment in targeting local search.  Both strategies laid out in Part 1 should be fairly easy to accomplish; Part 2 is a more complicated and time consuming strategy to maximize your investment in targeting local search.

Natural Search Engine Optimization
Natural search engine optimization is using onsite and offsite techniques to get naturally ranked high on Google or other search engines for targeted keyword phrases.  As a small business targeting a local area it is too costly and time consuming to rank for general terms without targeting the location.

Let’s use the bankruptcy lawyer in Chicago example again; it will be almost impossible for a small business with limited resources to rank high enough on Google for a keyword phrase such as “bankruptcy lawyer”.  It would be a challenge just to be listed on the first ten pages, let alone the first page.  There are simply too many Websites that already target that keyword phrase for you to have a chance to rank high.  Also in most cases ranking high for “bankruptcy lawyer” would be irrelevant because the chances are the person searching is out of your business area.

When developing your search engine optimization plan you should focus on targeting keyword phrases that include the location in which you do business.  This geographic location plan should be implemented in both your onsite and your offsite SEO strategies.

Onsite Localized Search Engine Optimization strategy

1. Develop a list of 5 – 10 targeted geographic based keyword phrases(chicago bankruptcy lawyer, chicago bankruptcy attorney, bankruptcy law firm in chicago, etc)
2. Develop a Webpage of content for each keyword phrase targeted.  For example; develop a Webpage that is keyword dense for chicago bankruptcy lawyer.
3. In your Page title tags utilize the targeted keywords in your list, make sure the most important terms are to the left (your business name is a waste here).  For example; if your homepage targets the keyword phrase “chicago bankruptcy lawyer” your title should be something like “Chicago Bankruptcy Lawyer – Bankruptcy Lawyer in Chicago”.  Best to use your keywords no more than twice in a title.
4. Write a good Meta Description that contains that targeted keyword phrase.
5. Your H1 tags on your Web pages should include the targeted keyword phrase for that page.
6. Your image alt tags should include the targeted keyword phrase.
7. Your page names should include the keyword phrase that is targeted on that Web page. For example if your “about” page targets “chicago bankruptcy attorney”,  then instead of calling that Web Page “about.html” it is better to call that page “chicago-bankruptcy-attorney.html”

Offsite Localized Search Engine Optimization strategy

1. Your directory submissions need to include your targeted keyword phrases.  When adding your Website to directories, instead of using your company name as the link it is smarter to use your targeted keyword phrases.  For example when you add your Website to directory A, you can use a link name of “Chicago Bankruptcy Lawyer” and when you add your website to directory B, you can use a link name of “Bankruptcy Law Firm Chicago”.
2. Look for directories that allow for deep linking and link to individual keyword driven pages instead of all links going to your homepage.  For example: if your about page targets “chicago bankruptcy lawyer” you should submit that page to a directory that will accept a deep link and use the link name “Chicago Bankruptcy Lawyer”.
3. Write industry specific articles and link to targeted Web Pages in your Website.  For example if you write an article about Bankruptcy Law, you should link that article to your page that describes Chicago Bankruptcy Attorneys and make sure the link title is “Chicago Bankruptcy Attorneys”.  Most article submission sites include a link to your Website in your resources section and sometimes in the article itself.
4. Write keyword driven press releases and submit to the Web.  Make sure the back links in your press release are title using your targeted keywords such as “Bankruptcy Law Firm in Chicago”

In conclusion, there are three strategies you should explore if you are a company that offers your products or services to a defined location and you want to rank high on the major search engines. 
1.  Local Business Results 
2.  Localized Pay per Click Advertising 
3.  Localized Natural Search Engine Optimization

 Article written by Jason Lomberg is the SEO strategist of Philly Marketing Labs.

Optimize your Website for Local Search – Part 1

Chances are as a small business or an entrepreneur the products or services that you offer are targeted to a local area.  When this is the case it is very important to develop your search engine optimization strategy with a plan to attract localized searches.  If you are a pizza shop in Philadelphia it makes logical sense to target searches of people looking for a pizza shop in Philadelphia or if you’re a lawyer in New York it is logical to target searches looking for a lawyer in New York and not someone looking for a lawyer in California. 

There are three Search Engine Marketing techniques to maximize local search (using Google as an example).  This blog entry will focus on the two easier ways to maximize local search, part two of this blog will focus on a more complicated strategy to maximize local search

Get your Website listed on Google local business results
This should be mandatory for any business with a physical location.  By getting listed as a local business you will be included in Google’s maps and also will be shown in results that target your location. For example if you are a restaurant in Philadelphia you will be included in Google maps so that a person getting directions to your location can simply just type in the name of your restaurant instead of your address to find directions. Also if a person is on Google maps close to your location you will show up. 

Most importantly you will be queried in the result set under local business for restaurants in Philadelphia with a map of your location attached.  These results typically are at the top or near the top of Google rankings.  This does not apply to every type of business but will work for most businesses that have a physical location.

This is very simple to accomplish, here are the steps

1. Visit www.google.com/local
2. Click the link “Put your business on Google Maps”
3. Set up a Google Account and confirm via email
4. Click the link “add your business”
5. Add your location information
6. You will be sent a postcard from Google with a PIN number to confirm your business is actually in that location
7. Log back into your Local Google account and add your PIN number for confirmation

 Pay per Click (Google Adwords) Advertising
For many businesses Pay per Click is a great way to drive traffic to your Website.  Be aware, many businesses do not profit from their Pay per Click advertising campaigns.  It is important to keep a close eye on your PPC analytics to be sure your ads are profitable. 

Google Adwords is a great strategy for localized businesses because you can control who sees your ad by location. Google generally knows the location of the person who does a search on Google; this is very beneficial to your business.  AdWords allows you to set up your advertising campaign so only people within a specific geographic location (zip code radius, by city, by state, etc) sees your advertisement.  This prevents people who are not in your physical location to click on your ad which will cost you money. 

For example, let’s say you’re a bankruptcy Lawyer  in Chicago; it is important that you target your Adwords so only people either in Chicago or within a specific zip code radius (possibly within 50 miles of your zip code)  sees your ad when they search for a lawyer.  Targeting your location using Adwords is an easy way to drive business to your Website when a searcher searches for bankruptcy lawyer.

 Part 2 of this installment will focus on a more complicated strategy in maximizing your results on search engines.  The blog entry will focus on Natural Search Engine Optimization and how to rank high on Google and other search engines when a searcher is looking locally for your products or services.

 Article written by Jason Lomberg, SEO Strategist for Philly Marketing Labs

SEO – Optimize Your Blog for High Search Engine Rankings

One of the primary reasons to operate and maintain a blog about your industry is to gain high search engine rankings to assist you in driving targeted potential customers and clients to your business.

Because blogs are updated on a daily or weekly basis they naturally have an advantage over static Websites or Websites that rarely has content changes or additional content. Blogs also naturally receive better rankings because blog posts typically include lot of targeted keywords that helps Google rank your blog for specific targeted keyword phrases.

Even though a blog will naturally gain better rankings, there are still optimization techniques that will assist in gaining high Google and other major search engine rankings. The two biggest blogging sites are WordPress and Blogger. Both blogging sites give you the flexibility to optimize your blog for high search engine ranking.

 

From an optimization standpoint, blogs are not very different from Websites. Keyword driven content and incoming relevant links are still keys to your SEO success. The competitive advantage of a blog is from the frequency of keyword driven postings. By posting daily or multiple times per week, Google and other search engines will quickly take notice and index and rank your blog.

Some Blog Optimization Tips:

• Write an interesting title that correctly describes your blog post.  Your title should captivate the user to read more and possibly attract other Website operators to link to your blog post.
  

• Try to use the most important blog keywords in the title - while it may be hard to always do this, by keeping the title related to the topic, your blog will always be relevant and assists Search Engines in ranking your Website for those targeted terms.

• Utilize the H1 tags - Your blog editor should allow for custom templates, so be sure to stylize your blog title in the H1 tags.  H1 tags is a specific style that search engines recognize as a title to the page and the importance of the keywords within this title

• Turn on the feature that allows you to control the name of the sub directory that the post exists within.  Use your most important 2 or 3 word keyword phrase, placing a dash between each word. (professional-financial-services)

• Make sure the name of the webpage matches your blog post title; this is referred to as URL Rewritten Permalinks.  In addition, most blogging platforms will allow you to add an SEO widget that will assist in the optimization of your blog pages.

• Don't forget about your archives.  They are full of great keyword driven content that will be picked up by search engines.  Make sure these are always turned on and linked from your homepage.

• Link your blog from your corporate Website and any sister sites.  Also invite other relevant Websites to trade links with your blog to increase your incoming links.

Again, the key to a successful search engine optimized blog is frequent keyword driven postings.  It may not be necessary to write up a full article every time you post, two paragraphs and maybe some resource links is all you typically need.  One trick is to split a larger blog post into two sections (part 1 & part 2).  Posts the first part one day, and then post the second part the next day.  This will increase the frequency of your blog posts without a lot of additional work.

  

Article written by Jason Lomberg, SEO Strategist for Philly Marketing Labs

 

 

Advanced SEO Best Practices– Keyword Driven URL Structure

It is an enormous advantage to develop your search engine optimization strategy before the development of your Website.  Best practices are to do your keyword research then develop your Website based on these results.  Each Webpage should have its own SEO strategy based on targeted keyword phrases.  Your competitive advantage is in developing  your URL structure to match the keyword strategy for that page.  

URL structure strategy includes three parts:

1.    Domain Name Strategy (www.yourcompany.com). 
This is the hardest part to control; but if possible you are better off choosing a domain name that includes your targeted keyword phrases instead of your company name.  You can purchase your company name or brand as a second domain and point that domain to your Website. For example if you are a marketing company in Boston, from an SEO perspective it is better to use the domain www.boston-marketing-company.com instead of www.yourcompany.com.  It does make sense to also purchase www. yourcompany.com and point that domain to www.boston-marketing-company.com.  Google and the major search engines consider a dash (-) a space in the URL.  Google sees www.boston-marketing-company.com as “boston marketing company”.  You will gain a competitive advantage when a person on Google searches under a phrase such as “marketing company Boston”.

2.    Subdirectory  Strategy (/subdirectoryname/)

A keyword driven subdirectory can be very beneficial in gaining high search engine rankings for selected keyword phrases. This is easy for a Web developer to implement into your Website but it is best to integrate into your Website while it is being developed and not changed later. A subdirectory is a folder that you can place files into and this will become part of your URL; www.yourcompany.com/subdirectory/pagename.html. The concept is to name the subdirectory using a targeted keyword phrase that describes that Webpage or group of WebPages.

 

 Let’s use the example of a Marketing company located in Boston.  You market a variety of marketing services on your Website with each service on its own Webpage.  The marketing services WebPage should be put into a directory call “marketing-services-boston”.  Google sees these keywords in your URL and will help you rank higher when people search under those terms such as “marketing services in Boston”. Utilizing the domain and subdirectory strategies your URL should look like this; "www.boston-marketing-company.com/marketing-services-boston.com/pagename.html"

  

  

 

3.    Page Name Strategy (pagename.html)

Of the threes URL strategies your page name strategy is the most important and the easiest to control.  To gain high search engine rankings for your targeted keyword phrases it is critical to name the page using the keywords that best describe that Webpage.

 

Let’s get back to the Marketing Company in Boston example.  One of your services is Public Relations and you want to attain high search engine rankings for anyone searching for Public Relations on the major search engines.  Best practices are to name that Webpage describing the content and the keyword target of that Webpage.  In this case the suggested page name would be “public-relations-boston.html”.  Another example would be is if you offer Internet Marketing services, the page name should similar to “internet-marketing-boston.html”.

 

 

 

Utilizing the three URL strategies laid out above your Public Relations focused Webpage should have a URL similar to “www.boston-marketing-company.com/marketing-services-boston/public-relations-boston.html”.  That URL or a similar URL will give your Public Relations Webpage a competitive advantage against competitors without a similar URL structure when a person searches “public relations in Boston”.  Obviously  you still have to do all the typical SEO techniques including a lot of linking but a keyword driven URL will increase your chance of being found on Google and the other major search engines.

 

Jason Lomberg is the SEO Strategist for Philly Marketing Labs.  Please stay tuned for more SEO strategy related posts

Search Engine Optimization – Properly Utilizing Title Tags

When optimizing your Website for high search engine rankings, targeted search engines such as Google and Bing, the first step is writing keyword driven Meta title tags.  This title tag is the title on the top left of your browser window.  Search engines put a lot of weight on these titles when ranking your Website.  Many Websites utilize the company name or the name of that Webpage as the page title which is typically a mistake if you want to rank that Webpage for targeted keyword phrases. Even if you do not execute any other types of optimization in your WebPages, keyword driven title tags will help you rank your Website in a higher position.

The Meta title tag serves two purposes in relation to search engines.

1. When a searcher searches keywords that are in your title tag you will rank higher for those keywords.  Google’s number one focus is to give the searcher relevant Websites to choose from that is most closely related to their search.  Google assumes your title tag describes the Webpage and uses that information in deciding where to rank that Webpage.
2. The clickable title of your search engine listing is your title tag for that page.  Unless you’re a known brand your company name serves no purpose here.  It is better to display text that is closely related to the searcher.  For example if someone is searching for a” Bankruptcy Lawyer in Philadelphia” a Website with a title of Philadelphia Bankruptcy Lawyer or Bankruptcy Lawyer in Philadelphia is much more relevant to the searcher then “J & J Law Firm” and will increase the chance of your site being visited from that search.
   

Title Tag Best Practices

• Research your keywords and make sure these are keywords that people are searching. I personally prefer to use multiple tools for this process.  A free tool that works well for keyword research is SEO Book
• Try to be somewhat specific in the keywords you target, very general keywords are very competitive.  For example instead of targeting the keyword “lawyer”, target “Philadelphia bankruptcy lawyer”.  By targeting that phrase you are actually targeting four searchable phrases in one shot; “Philadelphia bankruptcy lawyer”, “bankruptcy lawyer”, “Philadelphia lawyer” and “lawyer”.
• If possible utilize the most important keyword words two times in the title but no more than twice.  For example, “Philadelphia Bankruptcy Lawyer – Bankruptcy Lawyer in Philadelphia”
• Limit your title tag to 70 or fewer characters, including spaces.  If you go over the 70 character limit it won’t hurt your rankings but only the first 70 characters are displayed on Google’s search results.  Also it is possible that characters after the 70 character limit will carry less weight in your ranking.
• Capitalize the first letter of each word.
•  Instead of using the word “and” (takes up space) you can use a “-“ or “|”.  Instead of “Serving Philadelphia and Delaware” you can use “Serving Philadelphia | Delaware”
• Google puts more weight on the left most words of the title tag.
• Your title tag should be focused on the content of that Webpage.  If the Webpage describes a bankruptcy lawyer then bankruptcy lawyer should be in the title and not divorce lawyer.

Keep in mind that by properly writing your title tags does not mean you will magically appear at the top of Google rankings for many targeted keyword phrases. In some cases, typically non-competitive keyword phrases, this will give you a major boost in your rankings.  To be truly successful you need keyword dense webpage copy and a link building strategy among other factors in addition to targeted keyword driven titles.

Stay tuned for future blog posts on how to better rank your Website with SEO.   Have you done a title tag review of your Web site?  How does it stack up against these guidelines?

Jason Lomberg is an SEO Strategist with Team and a Dream

Moving my desktop to the cloud: A packrat's need for speed

(Cloud Image from wallpaperstock.net) 

My old HP Tablet has had a flickering display lately.  Moving on four years old, it seems that the heart of this old workhorse is about to give out.  However, I always dread moving my desktop from one computer to another. It takes hours of planning and hair-pulling effort.  

I decided to use this opportunity to move as much as I could to the cloud.  For me, the cloud mostly means that I moved to Google, although there are plenty of options out there.  My reasoning?

1) in the future, moves to new computers will be much easier

2) let someone else worry about backing up my data

3) the cloud applications are cheaper (mostly free!)

4) I've found that Google applications are generally faster loading than my desktop apps

So, my business partner and friend, Bechara, found me a sweet deal on FatWallet for a new Hewlett Packard G72 Notebook with sweet 17" display, 4 GB of RAM, 350 GB Hard drive and 2.27 GHz In tel Core i3 CPU.  For less than $500, I had doubled my RAM, tripled my hard-drive space and at least doubled my CPU speed.

Here are some of the key ways that I shed my old desktop turtle shell.  

1) Email.  I moved from Outlook to Gmail.  I actually did this a while ago.  As a packrat, I had years (and Gigabytes) of data accumulated in my Outlook files.  Backing the Outlook data files up takes hours, but worse - it literally took 5 minutes or more to start up Outlook.  Now, I run all of my email accounts on gmail (save one Outlook account that a client requires).   Gmail's philosophy is "don't save and archive, keep everything and use search to find it".   While I make heavy use of the Google Gmail Labels, this works really, really well for me.   With 8 Gb of free storage (and growing), I have what I need for my packrat ways!

2) My calendar.  I've been a faithful user of Franklin Covey's PlanPlus application.  This powerful desktop application rolled my calendar, my todolist and my note-taking (I take a lot of notes) into one sweet application.  I already moved this application across laptops once - and my FranklinCovey files are starting to suffer from the same fate as my big, fat Outlook files.  Time to seek a new calendar.  

I checked out the Franklin Covey online software, but it has a recurrring fee (monthly or annual) and didn't have all of the features I use in the desktop software.   So I moved across to the Google Calendar App, much to the delight of my team-mates who have been asking me to update/synchronize with my Google Calendar on a regular basis so they can figure out when I'm available.  Improved team collaboration is an unanticipated benefit of moving to Google Calendar. 

3) My todolist. Also part of the PlanPlus software, I went online to see what was available.   I looked at things like Tadalist and its sister application Basecamp from 37signals.   One was too simple, the other had a monthly fee and was too much (for the purpose of maintaining lists).  So I settled on Google's answer - the Google task list.  Task lists are integrated right into my Gmail.   The only problem I've had so far is that once I built more than 9 "master lists", I found that the Task list chooser started jumping around.  Okay - I can live with 9 lists for now  (client-work, sales, marketing, infrastructure, household, blog/twitter-ideas, special-project, todays-work, competition).

4) My note-taking. Franklin Covey's note-taking organizer was really central to my work and tracking meeting notes, outcomes, etc.   For this, I stayed off the cloud and opted for a Microsoft's Onenote application. I'm still using Microsoft Office for Word processing, spreadsheets and, now, note-taking.  But I'll keep watching Google Apps and other tools as wireless access becomes a given at all of my workplaces. Not quite there yet.

5) Backups.  There are plenty of cloud-based backup systems emerging like Mozy, Carbonite and Dropbox.  Backing up your files to the cloud means that you won't suffer if there is an office disaster (yes this is a first step in disaster recovery). Tools like Dropbox also let you share with colleagues, doubling both as a backup and a collaboration tool.   I'll keep my eyes on these, but the good people at SmartSync (which I purchased years ago) were good enough to send me a registration key for my new computer.  SmartSync syncs my desktop data with an external drive every night.   This also helped me in moving to my new machine.  I simply plugged the external drive into my new laptop - and copied the directories I wanted to the local disk.  

6) Mobile access. My Droid should be easily synchronized using Google Sync. (I haven't tried this yet.) This means that I can see my calendar, my email and my todo lists on my phone.   It also means that I was able to easily move my browser bookmarks from my old machine to another

7) Contacts database. For most of the past decade, my contacts were squirreled away in an old Palm Desktop application. Since I haven't had a Palm device for nearly 10 years, it seems that it might be time to move on. Exporting in VCard format was simple and I imported my contacts right into Google Contacts. This may be a temporary visit as I look at Social CRM apps like Gist, Salesforce or Landslide.

The result of moving my desktop apps to the cloud is a much faster, more accessible and more collaborative desktop. I can take advantage of Google Chrome's blinding load time as a browser and enter my workplace from anywhere. I can access much of my work from the train on my Droid, my mother's PC or a Kiosk at Burger King. I can share calendars with my colleagues.  

I realize I'm just touching the tip of the iceberg here.  What are your favorite cloud-based applications?  How have you migrated from desktop to cloud ?  How has it helped or hindered your work? 

Find the best freelancers. odesk vs elance vs getafreelancer vs rentacoder (now vWorker)

One of the biggest challenges of a startup or growing small business is to find the right people for the right seat on the bus.   You often find yourself with a part-time need from a very qualified individual.

Can you take advantage of the Global effects of Web to help with your search?   

You bet you can! There are a number of platforms for sourcing freelancers or contract hires.  As you can see from this graphic, many of these platforms are drawing hundreds of thousands of visits each month.  That translates into a ready pool of talent for you. 

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/guru.com+elance.com+odesk.com/

Here is what we can share from personal experience. 

oDesk - This is the latest platform that we tried and we love it.  There are so many ways to search, there is such a rich group of contractors and you can find incredibly cost-effective offerings.  We're going to deep dive into oDesk shortly.  

First, lets take a quick look at some other options.  

Guru - They claim to be the world's largest online freelancer marketplace, with over 1,000,000 freelancers to choose from.  We've used it before and found some great project teams... and some not so great.  For a while, we offered a service to help with freelancer screening process (We did a series of posts on how to effectively screen freelancers ).  Guru was our favorite for a while and we wrote a blog comparing Guru with elance and rentacoder.

eLance, rentacoder (now vWorker.com) and getafreelancer - We've heard of good results for these but haven't used them personally. They appear to be an especially great source for copywriters, coders and web designers. The Compete graph above shows eLance to have the most traffic of the sites that we surveyed in Compete. 

As for oDesk, we were impressed by the ability to search across so many different criteria - areas of expertise, feedback from other clients, number of tests passed, test scores compared to their peer group, experience in hours, rates and more. Take a look at the dashboard below illustrating a search for SEM professionals.

With over 300 qualification tests available on oDesk, there are a wide range of hard skills you can use to sort out the freelancers you'd prefer to work with.

Properly finding a freelancer needs a significant time investment.  Beyond finding your ideal candidate based on qualifications, tests, references and rates, you need to check references.  You should also gauge responsiveness and communication.  We recommend starting with a small project and growing from there.  

Have you used any of these platforms?  If you have, please share your experience with us. Are there other freelance platforms, freelance marketplaces or freelance forums our readers should know about?