Light House Studio - Light House Studio - Seeing the world in a different light
Why choose LHS?
We create sites that are functional and beautiful. Search Engine Optimization and sensible navigation are a part of every site we build.
You want a site that looks good, works well and can be found by potential customers. That is what we provide.
If you want a COMPLETE site, give us a call today!
Why On Site SEO is Important
I spend a lot of time thinking about websites. I know this sounds kind of crazy and you are probably asking yourself why anyone one would something like that. Well, since building websites for people is a part of what I do for a living, it is just something that happens.
While most people are wondering about the chance of their favorite team making it to a playoff game, I am thinking about how to get the sites that I build to be seen by others. This means I do a lot of thinking, testing and evaluating different techniques to get sites more traffic. Possibly the biggest mistake I see, in most web sites, is the lack of on site Search Engine Optimization or SEO, for short.
I have seen many cases where there has been a feeble attempt at SEO or no effort whatsoever made for SEO on the site. I also see many cases where the site was once optimized, but has not been updated in a while and, therefore, no longer complies with the latest, best practices in optimization. (This last problem is due, mostly, to the major change that Google made in its algorithm earlier in the year.)
In fact, we recently did a re-optimization for a client who had been paying another firm $500 a month to do their SEO and their website was almost non-existent on Google and other search engines. After we fine tuned the on site optimization, the site is now on the first page of Google for those search terms.
Many people will tell you that a good social media marketing campaign is all you need to get people to your site, but they are dead wrong. Social media marketing, paid online advertising and linking strategies all play a role in effectively driving people to your site and to the total overall search engine optimization plan. However, without effective SEO on the site itself, many of these strategies will fall miserably short in providing consistent traffic to the site.
I recommend that you take a look at your website and evaluate its search engine friendliness. If you have never had any SEO done to your site or if you have never even heard of SEO, you should definitely get someone to evaluate the site. SEO can make a big difference in how your site shows up in organic (non-paid) search and therefore a big difference in the amount of traffic and potential customers that visit your site. After all, isn't that what you want your website to do?
We can help you with this evaluation and make sure that your site is optimized for the current best practices in on site SEO. If you would like to find out more, contact us today or give us a call at (865) 898-2069. We are here to help.
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Is Facebook Your Best Choice for Reaching Your Audience?
I have been following a new trend with Facebook, lately. I had noticed that when I posted a new item in my business' fan page that it took a long time to or never showed up in my personal time line. Even though I am a fan of the page, I was not seeing my own posts. At first, I just thought it was a setting by Facebook not showing it to me because I had posted it. However, I don't think this is the case.
I have seen a couple of articles that talk about Facebook's new "promoted posts" and the way they work. It seems, from what I have read, that FB will only submit your fan page post to about 15% of your fans on their time line. If you want to reach your whole fan base, you have to PAY to have a promoted post. Facebook has been growing wildly, until it became a publicly traded company, and now it is no longer the darling of the Social Media scene. It seems that now, they will be more concerned with keeping the stock holders wealthy than keeping their users happy.
Here is a direct quote from an email that I received from FB today, that pretty well confirms this for me:
Want an easy way to reach more people with your posts in news feed? Promoting your post will get more of the people who like your Page and their friends to see your message, become aware of your business, or respond to a discount or sales promotion.
Notice the phrase "get more of the people who like your page". How about allowing all of the people who like my page see my posts. To see even more of this, here is the page that FB sends you to for more information
This is a bad move on the part of Facebook. With so many other alternatives out there for Social Media exposure, they may find themselves extinct. If you don't think that is possible, then just take a look at MySpace.
Remember them?
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Website Security & Malware Notifications
Is Your Site Secure?
Many of today's websites are built on a Content Management System (CMS) core. Sites built on CMS scripts such as Joomla and Wordpress have literally thousands of files that work together to make the site function properly.
CMS scripts, like any software, are vulnerable to malicious attacks from black-hat hackers (bad guys). The older the script is and the more involved it gets, the more possible entry points there are.
My Site Is Safe, Isn't It?
The simple answer is NO! If it is online or connected to a network, it can be hacked. If you don't think so, just take a look at Google, Sony, and countless other agencies and sites that have been hacked in recent months. These mega-sites have teams of people keeping their sites up to date and secure. However, if someone wants in enough and is good enough and patient enough, it will happen.
What Should You Do?
The good news is that most web sites aren't attacked by hacker of that magnitude. Many are hacked by some "script-kiddie" who found a script online, downloaded it and is just out to see what he can do. Just like locking your car door when you get out, you can go a long way in stopping most of these guys with just a few precautions.
Keeping Up To Date
There are several things you can do. The best way to combat this problem is to keep you CMS script and all of its plugins up to date with the latest versions. This effectively plugs the holes that are being shared out online from hacker to hacker. Also, you should periodically have the passwords reset for your logins to the administrator part of your site, your hosting control panel and your file upload settings (FTP).
If you are unsure how to do this, we can help. We offer these services as a one-time fee or as an ongoing monthly plan. See the information in the left column to learn more.
The cost of repairing a site can easily be more than you would pay in a monthly maintenance plan. And, while we cannot guarantee your site will never be hacked while we are maintaining it, we do see a great deal less issues with sites that we maintain. Feel free to call or email us to get more information
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