I am one of those that have preached for years that it’s all about the back links. It doesn’t matter how much content you’ve got, when it comes to ranking for competitive keywords, it’s all about back links.

So how do we get them?

Start by creating a blog and submitting a couple articles to article sites as well as submitting your blog to the directories.

Then start posting like a wild man or woman.

The more you post, the more you will appear in blog search engines like Technorati, Google Blog Search, and Blog Search Engine.

However, people aren’t going to link to posts that are garbage so don’t sacrifice quality for quantity.

People will link to post that make them think and creates a desire in them to react.

Yes, back links are king but the best way to get them is with content.

To make the most out of a unique website design, you have to provide your designers with the information that they will need to understand your business. Thus armed, they can begin work on your new site with an eye to not only making it stand out, but also emphasizing your strongest suits and making those stick in your customers’ minds. But what are you supposed to look for in a unique website? What features and functions will serve best to not only enhance your site, but also build your brand?

The site’s appearance is going to be important, in large part because this will begin to establish the appearance of your brand. A logo might be the most important detail, but consider other images and colors that represent your business. Remember, you’re going to want to use these things for more than just your website, so the better they look and the more cohesively they fit together, the better. Consider asking for vector images, as these can be easily resized to fit anything from a business card to a website to a billboard. And while your graphics and colors should represent your business, they should also communicate its value. Remember that images and colors are often interpreted symbolically, perhaps on a subconscious level. So you want your designer to provide you with symbols of those things that your business provides: quality, service, affordability, or whatever other edge you have over your competitors.

The layout, navigation, and functionality of the site can also have an impact. Areas of your site that draw the most attention are going to be the most likely visited. A potential customer is not going to read through your entire website, thoughtfully digest the information, compare it with the next ten sites on whatever search engine it is using, and then make a fully informed, perfectly rational decision about which company to choose. If you’re lucky, it might skim the text on your home page, and quickly look around for key features or advantages that it feels are most useful or important. Your web designer should set up your layout and navigation scheme so that a customer can quickly determine the key reasons for choosing you.

But this does not mean you should ignore text entirely. A website is a repository of information, and unique websites are no exception. Not only is text content important to the search engines, but an interested visitor is likely to read (or at least skim) information you provide on whichever product, service, or feature attracted its attention in the first place. Even if you have a title and header and big flashy banner saying that you offer excellent customer service, for example, you need to provide a bit of information (policies, testimonials, etc) to back it up.

Creating a unique website design requires input from the business owner as well as creativity on the part of the designers. Once you have provided the information, you should expect results that not only make your website stand out visually, but that also emphasize the greatest advantages of choosing your business over your competitors. If you provide your designers with the information they need, and the freedom to mold that into the perfect website for your business, a unique website design will be what you get.

Copyright © 2008 Dustin Schwerman.

Dustin Schwerman is the primary web designer at Truly Unique – Small Business Website Design. Truly Unique specializes in impressive, custom sites designed to capture the essence of the businesses they represent, as well as creating useful web-based programs to improve and simplify some of the tasks of running a business. Their goal is to provide these services at affordable, pragmatic rates based on effort involved, rather than arbitrary costs based on number of pages or hours. Truly Unique works on sites of all varieties, from office supply to awards and trophies.

Search Engine Friendly Web Development & Optimization

I had some friends come in late last night from the US who wanted to talk with me about making Money online. One of the topics that came up was doing online marketing. We talked about the shape of the economy and the fact that online marketing was one of the few businesses that should get better as the economy gets worst.

With that being said I explained that the most important part of marketing was to make sure that your client was about to get a return on his investment and that you were able to show him the return.

Marketing a website about making money online is easy. Hit the forums hard and brag about what you’re able to do however, when it comes to marketing a website that’s selling an actual product all that changes. Bragging or in some cases even posting on forums is no longer an option.

I do believe that Google has gotten complex enough over the years that what works to rank one set of keywords want work to rank another. It’s the ability to be flexible and change directions at the drop of a hat that allows any SEO to become successful.

A couple years I jumped into the world of Plastic Wrist Bands. and what I thought was a market with very little competition. Over the years I found that competing in the silicone wristband market was a lot more competitive then I had first thought. However, by aggressively increasing our conversion on the site as well as trying to rank the site we were always able to show the client a return on his investment.

Making money online is never ending and people whom claim it’s a 4 hour work week are not making money online. Things that work today may or may not work tomorrow depending on so many factors that one would have to write a book just to explain it all. However, by the time the book was published it would all be obsolete and they would have to start over because of the rate at which things change in the search engine friendly web development & optimization industry.