Content Management Systems

Posted on February 5, 2016 by ianotr

Content Management Systems

In order to get people to find you, you have to make friends with the search engines. In order to make friends with the search engines, you have to have fresh, relevant content that the algorithms find valuable enough to shoot you to the top of their results pages.

Once upon a time, when you wanted to update web content, you would have had to either know how to write code or pay someone who did. These expensive and tedious hoops lead to a significant amount of stale content in cyberspace, which did no good for anyone.

Oh, how times have changed! With blogs and new products constantly freshening up the internet’s offerings, developers went to work creating the tool now known as the content management system (also commonly referred to as a CMS).

Thanks to the ingenious minds that came together to embark on the creation of the content management system, you are now free to alter your pages and update your content as you see fit. Each content management system that we use here at OTR will incorporate features that will enhance your experience as you navigate your way through your website.

These systems provide you with a way to securely and safely access your website from anywhere with internet access, and you can easily alter the design without needing any knowledge of coding. You’ll have the ability to archive and retrieve prior versions after revisions, in case your newest update isn’t exactly what you’re looking for.

The goal is easy usability — a place where your team and ours can come together to store your content in a version-controlled environment with pre-built features incorporated around your specific business needs. After all, captivating content should always be stored for safe-keeping.

At OTR, we work with you to understand where your business is now so we can choose the right content management system to get you where you want to go. Our Web Content Team is standing by and ready to strategize with your key people to make remarkable messages appear on your pages. Ready to learn more?

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web, a web development company creating market ready websites since 2000, with locations in Canada, USA, Europe and South America.

OTR Web is a Certified Partner with HubSpot and Google.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements

Contact OTR Web.

Content Marketing – Distributing Content

Posted on October 28, 2013 by ianotr

Distributing Content

Content marketing is unique from paid advertising in the sense that the intent is for followers to find you more than you chasing them. This concept is changing views about distribution in many ways. Instead of mass producing a compromised message at a high cost determined by gatekeepers and hoping for a return on investment, you can craft a more engaging low cost message using various interactive distribution channels.

Social Media

A powerful way to share your content is through social media networks such as Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Facebook is a great place to share content with existing followers while Google Plus is a useful platform for finding new followers. Social media can be a time consuming experience because it involves interacting with several people, but it’s a great way to build relationships and loyalty.

Ideally, you want to create a brief catchy post about your blog on a social network with an attractive image and a link to the blog. There are different ways to post content, depending on how much time you want to spend. But if you want to post the same blog in several places including social networks, you should consider an automated system known as RSS (really simple syndication).

Subscribers

Blogs can be distributed to many different places at once using an RSS feed, which is designed for internet subscribers of frequently updated content. An RSS reader is software that aggregates various RSS feeds from the internet and displays them in one place. It eliminates the need for large companies such as USA Today to email their content to millions of subscribers each day. Subscribers can opt in and out of the content anytime they choose. They can subscribe to these feeds just by clicking a “subscribe” link.

Once you complete your blog on a blogging platform such as WordPress or Google’s Blogger, you can click “publish” and the platform will automatically generate an RSS feed URL for your content that can be retrieved by subscribers. You can also syndicate audio or video podcasts. It saves you quite a bit of time from manually sending it out to each recipient or posting in various places. Each social network has instructions for where to place your RSS feed URL, which is a one time setup.

In order to set up an RSS feed you will need an RSS management platform if you’re not using a blogging platform that does it for you. RSS Builder and Google’s FeedBurner are software programs that will do the coding and generate an RSS feed URL for you in one click, while you fill in a form for your title, link, publish date and other information. MailChimp is useful software for scheduling your blog or other content for email subscribers.

Mobile Optimization

Let’s face it, mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets have surged in popularity and have become an easy way to access the internet for people on the go. Optimizing your website for mobile users can help your cause, especially if you run a local business with a physical location.

Some owners prefer to create a separate “mobile website” for mobile users, who need to conserve bandwidth and just need simplified versions of websites to access the most important information and links without dealing with big files. However a “responsive website”, one website that in effect remakes itself for each browser and device type is most often thought as the best solution overall. Google refers to the responsive web as a best practice. The Google app Currents and the iPad app Flipboard create simple ways to syndicate mobile content in real time.

Take the lead in content marketing by making your content available to your followers based on whatever the easiest way is for them to connect with your messages.

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America.

OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.

time to redesign your website when

Posted on August 26, 2013 by ianotr

Time to Redesign Your Website When …

A good website is the key to a successful online presence. It provides a solid foundation for you to build upon and expand your brand. Unfortunately a bad website can cause everything to come tumbling down. Poorly designed websites drive potential customers away in droves. Some studies have even shown that visitors have less trust in companies with poorly designed websites. Don’t feel too bad, outdated and poorly designed websites are a common sight across the web. Choosing the right web design company and avoiding a few simple pitfalls can help bring your online business out of the 90’s and into the 21^st century.

Even you can’t find your page on Google

Improving visibility is probably the number one thing you can do to improve your website. Sites designed with poor SEO end up buried in search results and reducing your traffic. You could have a perfectly designed site, but without proper SEO no one will ever see it. It would be like the Mona Lisa only ever displayed on the fridge at Da Vinci’s mom’s house. A proper SEO centered design can push your website to the top of the search results and expose your brand to a much wider audience. Remember however there is only one opportunity to make a good first impression. Take the lead with a well designed website created with SEO built within the sites architecture.

Mobile users can’t navigate your site

Responsive web design is the future of the internet. When was the last time you sat on a bus or in a waiting room without being surrounded by at least three or four people browsing on a smartphone or tablet? Responsive web design is a design principle which provides your website with adaptability to allow it to be compatible and usable on a wide variety of devices. From the smallest smartphone to the largest display possible, a responsively designed site will work on any size display.

Your users took a wrong turn

A good website should be as in depth as it needs to be, but still simple to navigate. Your business may be complex, requiring a lot of information to get your idea across. However, this doesn’t mean your site has to be complex as well. If your users need more than 2 or 3 clicks to navigate back to your homepage, you may need to reconsider your layout and your web design company. If they have to use the back button on the browser … well enough said!

Your site loads slower than Windows

A website that takes more than a few seconds to load is almost as bad as a site nobody can find. Poorly designed or overly complex websites can slow down loading times and drastically reduce your visitor’s experience. The longer it takes to load, the more frustrated people become and the more likely they are to look elsewhere or as they say in the industry “bounce away”. Additionally, search engines like Google take average loading times into consideration with site rankings.

If your website falls into any of these categories, don’t feel too bad. The good news is these problems can be fixed by the right web design company. At OTR Web Solutions we pride ourselves on results. Our professionally designed and developed websites are world class. By incorporating proven design principles with cutting edge techniques, OTR helps you take the lead and put your business a step above and beyond the competition.

Ian Conklin is the President of OTR Web Solutions a web development company building marketing websites since 2000 with offices in Canada, USA, Europe and South America.
OTR Web is a Value Added Partner with HubSpot.

For all your Inbound Marketing and Website requirements Contact OTR Web.