Welcome to 2010!  A whole year has elapsed since I last blogged about the importance of keeping your website content fresh and relevant.  My previous post – Website Tune-Up – focused on strategies to keep your website current and favorable to the search engines.  Today, I hope to share some equally important tips to optimize your website and online presence this year.

1.  Make the most of social media. Over the last twelve months I’ve enjoyed a significant increase in traffic to my website and blog as a result of social media.  Active participation in Facebook and Twitter has reinforced our web presence and generated many new leads and relationships.  If you have social media profiles, be sure to link those profiles to your website.

2.  Blog! Blogging offers great benefits due to easy to index regular content. Add a few basic SEO skills and you’re ready to go! Take your blog a step further: Host your blog on your own website instead of using a free hosted blog. Why? When you host your own blog your blog posts supplement the content of your website, thus increasing the quality and vibrancy of your site. Adding an RSS feed button to both your website and blog will make it easy for readers to subscribe to your feed and keep up with your posts. Additionally, RSS features can help make your online (internet) marketing strategies more effective.

3.  Don’t be anonymous. One of the primary goals of your website is to build trust and credibility. Does your website give potential customers the information they need? Is your name, photo and contact information prominently displayed? If you are a service provider you should make every effort to make a personal connection with your visitors.

4. Never underestimate the power of a well designed website. If your website is more than two years old, a revamp alone could boost your SEO ranking. HTML and CSS are the most common technologies used in making web pages, but there are also other ways to go. Flash is known for it’s excellent multimedia capabilities but is generally believed to be less search engine friendly than CSS. Some businesses have even abandoned traditional websites in favor of blog-based sites.

5. Use high quality images. Website images should be carefully selected; ideally they should represent your own work and style to help you connect with your audience (target market). Some vendors may use stock photography as part of their start-up promotions, but in the wedding and event industry I’d advise moving away from this option as quickly as possible (or risk possible damage to your reputation). By the same token, amateur photos will not adequately show even your best work – so select images with a discerning eye.

5.5 Upgrade to Video! If a picture is worth a thousand words than video is worth a million. Video is fast-rising as the newest ‘must-have’ feature because it helps build brand, it’s more engaging than static, printed text, and it’s easier to effectively demonstrate your product or service.

There is virtually no cost associated with these tips – especially if you have the ability or capability to edit your own website. Many resources and tutorials are available online if you need additional information. Otherwise, consider hiring someone to assist with migrating your blog or updating the look of your website – it will be money well spent.

© 2010 E. Delgardio All Rights Reserved

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“Get educated, get involved and lead others.”
-Elisa Delgardio

“Break From the Pack! If you fall lockstep with everyone else, you’ll never get ahead. Every great innovator likely strayed from the norm!!”
-Bill Rancic (via twitter)

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
-John Quincy Adams

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.”
-Warren Bennis

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This week I attended another fabulous ISES Orlando meeting! Our “Re-Introduce Yourself” meeting was held at the Hyatt Regency and boasted an attendance of over 100 ISES members and guests. Everyone was buzzing about Laura Schwartz of White House Strategies and looking forward to hearing her speak; she had tailored a presentation specifically for our group about the power of networking and how to network more effectively.

Laura has a dynamic personality and her boundless enthusiasm is contagious! She did an outstanding job of communicating great concepts and techniques for “building bridges” and optimizing your networking resources. Her presentation sparked many ideas for me, and I plan to implement some of her suggestions in the coming months.

One thing she said really stuck with me. She said, “Be the B“… At first my eyebrows raised (yes, she had my attention with that one!) and then she explained that it’s great to be in the position to connect an “A” and a “C” – in other words, be the person who connects others. Being the “B” essentially makes you the bridge, and helping others is a way of leading by example. This resonated with me because I often find myself in this exact position and it was nice to be reminded that even when you’re not directly benefiting from a situation, your role is important – sometimes key!

Today started at 4 am, as I prepared for the long ride to South West Florida for the We Wed Brunch. (Thank goodness for the company of Kerline Docteur!)

We arrived at the most impressive(!) Miromar Lakes Beach Club at 9 am and were very excited by the great turnout. For Kerline and me this was a fabulous opportunity to exchange ideas with a whole new group of wedding professionals, and personally meet Kelly McWilliams (Weddings By Socialites), a well respected colleague. Kelly’s knowledge of social media marketing and networking was truly impressive; not only did she share her own remarkable stories and experiences about with us, she did an outstanding job of coaching us to better utilize blogging and micro blogging services to enhance our professional network.

I’m so glad I made the trip because it was an absolutely wonderful day! I’m looking forward to connecting with Kelly and all my new SWFL friends at the cutting edge of SMM!

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