Website Design for Your Business
Website Design–What You Need to Know I am genuinely shocked at the money so many companies pay across the Middle East (and beyond) for website design that, at best, can be described as ugly. If that were the only problem it wouldn’t be so bad, but the following list reflects the negative impact that bad web design can have on your business: Code that ignores the guidelines set out for us by Google Webmaster Guidelines websites that are anything […]
Help I’ve Been Hacked!
‘Help I’ve been hacked!’ We hear this all too often these days. I’m sure you never imagined you’d be writing that. Opening up your website one morning to find that all is not as it should be is the nightmare of most website owners. Unfortunately it’s becoming a reality for more and more of us with so many hackers around trying to make a name–or a buck–for themselves. But it’s common to think you’ve been hacked when in fact, something else […]
Negotiating Social Media–Set Yourself Up for Success!
When I come to look at the social media accounts of people who claim to need social media activity for business, but who aren’t having any success with it, I usually have the same reaction. I look at their accounts and think ‘no wonder.’ To me, you can do the following things with social media: Learn Network Build Your Brand Let’s tackle them in that order. Learning with Social Media It’s not hard to learn with social media. […]
How to Refine Your Social Media Strategy for Maximum Social Media ROI
Social Media Return on Investment Everyone’s looking for the maximum social media ROI. That’s not a bad thing—you and I are both looking for a return on our investment. Whether it’s time, money or some other commodity, we want to know what we’re getting in return, and with social media efforts it’s not different. In terms of business, in terms of of our investment of time and money, we’re quite […]
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing–Everyone Needs it! As far as online marketing is concerned, the situation can be quite confusing to someone who is trying to establish a new business online. In fact, some of us who have been around a while can still feel confused at the wide selection of terminology that gets bandied about. I prefer the term digital marketing to use as an umbrella term to gather together all the different actions that business owners and marketers might take online to […]
Small Business Websites
Surprising Entrepreneurial Fact… Recently, while doing some research for a project, I came across a fact that stopped me in my tracks. Did you know that there are still a lot of small businesses out there that don’t have a website? I had to stop and think about that for a minute. I mean, it’s so easy to have a website, and marketing online is so darned beneficial, I just can’t grasp that concept. A. Business. Without. A. Website. Why would […]
Basic SEO–From Matt Cutts
Here’s Google’s very own Matt Cutts to show you just how easy it is to get the basics right with SEO. Zhimmer is here for when you hit a wall and just don’t know what else to do to get further up the search chain.
So, How Important is Usability?
Marissa Mayer Knows What She’s Talking About Here, Marrisa Mayer is talking specifically about Google’s usability. But the concepts can apply to any business or website. Listen and think about these points she’s talking about and how they might apply to your business. After all, there’s a lot we can learn from the success of Google. Your Website has to do More Than Just Look Good It’s your first reaction when you’re at the point where you’ve decided to get a business website, or upgrade your business website: let’s make it look really nice. And for most people, that’s as far as […]
The Power of Social Media
Death of an Icon by Social Media Decree A few weeks back we all watched the social media slaying of News Of The World via Twitter. Subsequently the paper, which has been running since 1843, folded due to the tremendous strength and volume of public opinion against them. It all started when they were exposed for hacking into the voicemail of a murdered […]
Can Blog Commenting Help Your Business?
This is a question that is constantly out there for discussion in blogger circles and with online businesses. But there’s contention because, as will most things, there’s a right way and a wrong way to comment on blogs. If you study this subject a little, as I have done, you”ll immediately notice something: the people you enjoy reading the most, the ones with the most to offer, are almost always in the camp that says there is
Positive Panda – Four Fantastic Takeaways
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining After a great deal of reflection, I’m coming to the conclusion that, unlike other Google updates, the Panda update was in fact a great thing for the SEO community. Of this we’re pretty sure: spammy sites are no longer getting away with it the way they used to. And link spamming is no longer in any way profitable. Any kind of scraping or repurposing of content is not going to work now that Google has refined it’s algorithm: you […]
Reputation Management Strategy
Every week, thousands of business owners use Google to search for an online reputation management firm. The reason they find this necessary is because the Internet is expert at finding out everything about you. Some of it might not look good when seen through the eyes of a prospective client. Ideally, we’d all practice proactive reputation management. In practice of course, it’s so easy to do something without realizing the repercussions a thoughtless act can have on our […]
What is SEO?
At Zhimmer, we have been asked the question countless times: What is SEO? It’s not that people don’t understand that SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It’s more that they’re a little fuzzy on what SEO can actually do for their business. So, what is SEO? That’s rather like asking how long is a piece of string. SEO, sadly, is still different things to different people. If you’re unlucky enough to hook up with a […]
Staying Competitive in a Cut-Throat Market
You Can Beat Out the Competition! In any market, your goal is to beat out the competition so that you’re number one in your area, or niche. This will never happen by accident. You need to have a strategy, and that must always start with competitive market research. This is where many integrated marketing strategies fail. The initial market research falls woefully short of what is should be, so the resulting campaign is weak and ineffective: not what you pay all those […]
Elite Marketing
Exceptionally Skilled Marketing Most marketing companies focus on what they do best, and that’s understandable. At Zhimmer we focus on what we do best too–but that happens to be everything. Whether you’re in need of marketing copy that will sell, a total social media strategy, a toned-up website that actually serves a purpose (i.e. it sells instead of just looking pretty)–well we can do all that and more. We’ll Solve Your PR Crisis If you have a PR problem and need some help in a […]