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Turned Our Website into a Bilingual One

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A few weeks ago I finally decided to translate my corporate website and make it a bilingual website.

I would love to do that with my blog but I don’t have the time to translate most of the content. I also know that I don’t have access to someone reviewing my work day by day with strong Spanish grammar knowledge but I had to give it a try and so far we have had very positive results.

The benefits of creating a Spanish site mirroring my English corporate website has brought me some results already. I have been contacted by possible clients in Mexico that read some of the posts we wrote in Spanish and are interested in seeing how I can support some of their efforts remotely.

I have also been able to create traffic for my site significantly. People are finding the content I have written in both languages on the search engines and are stopping by my site to find more information. I am in the process of translating a few more posts so I can fully leverage the benefit of Google finding content on my site for people searching for relevant services for their specific needs.

I would have never guessed how effective it was to have my site in both languages. We are about to close our first big deal due to one post that we created on the site.

Are you missing out on customers because they prefer to search for content in Spanish or another language?

If you need us to help you, please let us know how we can help you with moving your site to a multi-lingual website.

 

SEO TIPS FROM SEOMOZ found on @chrisbrogan's Blog

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Reading Chris Brogan’s Blog I was able to bump into this awesome video on how Google’s Panda Update changes SEO by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.

Once again my friend @chrisbrogan provides awesome content sharing what others have done. If you want get updated on the Google Panda Update feel free to jump in and watch the video.

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You can also see the full video at How Google’s Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices Forever – Whiteboard Friday.

Attracting Clients via Quality Content

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A question was posed in one of the groups that I participate in on-line; “How do you measure online influence?” to which I replied that tools such as Klout do not influence me. What will influence me to visit a person’s or company’ website is the content that is relevant to me.

We have all heard the adage that “Content is King” and this is relevant as small and large business delve into social platforms or decide to create a website. The content that is published on a website or posted on a social platform has to be captivating for me to read or research. Sometimes the titles of certain posts can be misleading and when I read the content, I feel that I have wasted my time. At this time in my life I am a new mom. Content shared on social platforms about nursing, toy recalls, or parenting tips is going to be of interest to me. This may lead me into forwarding the information to other new parents and I might even leave a comment on the company or person’s site.

When researching content for our clients such as the Puerto Rican Parade of Fairfield County, news, history, events, or facts about Puerto Rico posted in a twitter feed, will pique my curiosity and I will read the content to see how relevant it is for their community to read.

How does one post quality content to capture the attention of a new client and keep the old ones coming back?

Relevancy: It has to be relevant to a group of people that may have vast interests with one goal in mind at the moment you post information on a twitter feed or Facebook page. Food always draws the attention of many folks with a wide variety of tastes. Our client Archipielago has a menu for those who are looking for an entrée that is meat, fish, or vegetarian based.

Resolve an Issue: The content in a website has to also resolve an issue. Our friends at TropicalBloomPR wrote an article about how to keep your pets away from eating plants or digging up a garden. They provided an eco-friendly and harmless solution to persuade your pets to play somewhere else.

Sparks Debate: The ideas you convey in an article are not going to strike a chord with certain people. There are going to be people that agree with what you write and others that will have a totally different opinion. If you can spark a healthy debate without insults, then you know that the content you have written is being talked about. On RaulColon.net, Raul wrote about how Fragile the iPad2 is and the incident that occurred when his fell on the ground and the screen cracked. Some people were sympathetic to what happened, while others who are not Apple fans gave their opinions about his mistake in buying such an expensive item.

Shared with others: Once the person feels that the content has solved their issue and is relevant to them, they will have the urge to share it with others. I wrote a post about going Vegetarian during Lenten Season on VegLatino.com. I knew that the title, content, and suggestions written about was going to be forwarded to those who are Catholic, Vegetarian, and people looking for a solution to the issue of preparing a meatless meal on Fridays. I had quite a few comments on Facebook about the article and it was even shared on another site called The News Taco.

Quality content on your website might be relevant to one person and might not be for someone else. Always keep in mind how you will fulfill your client’s basic needs and how you will attract new ones.

What is your interpretation of quality content?

What factors draw you to comment on a post where the content has been relevant to your specific needs?

photo credit by ragnar1984

5 recommendations to Choose a Content Management System

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Once people determine they need to make their website more dynamic, the next step is choosing a Content Management Framework to use.

Multiple Content Management Frameworks to Choose

Depending on the developers or people you ask, you will get various answers. Some of the more popular ones are Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress.

I clearly believe that it depends on the objectives around your website. Some think WordPress is for blogging only but you I have created websites in wordpress that quickly started converting clients. I personally favor WordPress for most small business individuals.

Less Time Coding

When I moved this site from Drupal to WordPress, I realized that I could focus more on providing content instead of spending so much time on coding.

To help me get familiar with WordPress I decided to buy the Genesis Framework (affiliate link). I got over the learning curve factor very quickly. I realized that I could not have made a better choice using Genesis.

If you have a complex website in mind, Drupal is my choice since it is very functional and a lot of great developers that I know and run circles around me when it comes to this frame work.

Here are 5 recommendations for  choosing a Content Management Sotware and/or Framework:

  1. Smooth functioning website
  2. Cost Effective
    • Open Source
    • Easier to handle in house
    • Very user friendly for everyone once configured
  3. Admin Control
    • Very Little Tech knowledge. The administrator has full control
    • Manage the website through an admin panel
    • No need to spend extra money on developers for minor changes to website
  4. Performance
    • Constant updates
    • Stability
    • Fully Tested – Less Headaches
  5. Opportunities for:
    1. Improvements
    2. Expansions
    3. Customizations

If you have any questions regarding which Content Management Software you are planning to use feel free to contact us directly.

photo credit by ChrisBecerra_

 

Do you have permission to Play Music On Your Site?

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Beware of  the Music you use on your site you just may be breaking the law and copyright infringements. There are laws that you need to learn about if you are posting music on your website, an on-line slideshow, or even YouTube video. These laws protect the rights of music artists ,their work, and how the consumer uses or shares their product.

A question arose from one of our clients trying to find music that was protected under creative commons. A slideshow of one of their events made by a third party contained music that was violating copyright laws.

How could we help the client understand that the music they are using is violating a law and still help them create a slideshow for the website?

I asked for help from Jose “Pepe” Pesante (@joeprog) radio host of  http://frecuenciasalternas.com and editor-in-chief of  http://vorticeonline.com for assistance with finding a site under creative commons related to the music industry. Thanks to his expertise, he was able to provided me two sites; one called SoundCloud and the other Bandcamp. Both offer CC licensing and options for purchase, free download or streaming only.

I would recommend SoundCloud over Bandcamp because it is very obvious that it is for sharing. SoundCloud 101 is a simple guide that has a section for music artists and those looking for music, regarding the terms of their site.  It also provides details of how one shares music under the creative commons license. There are samples you can listen to on the main page.

You can sign up for both sites as an artist or group promoting your music as long as you are complying with U.S. copyright laws and the websites’ Terms of Use.

Here are the links to some of the sites that I found useful that talk about copyright law for music along with links to SoundCloud and BandCamp.

http://mpa.org/copyright_resource_center/copying

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_copyright_law

http://soundcloud.com/

http://bandcamp.com/

photo credit by bwhistler