A new and modern makeover for your website will attract clients and keep them interacting with your page longer. Your website is the virtual representation of your entire business and often serves as the first impression for prospective clients and customers. Therefore, it is important that it looks professional and projects the image you want your business to embody.

Follow Lauren Hockenson’s “4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012” to shape up your website for the rest of the year.

1. Don’t be Afraid to be Bold

“Whether it’s an exaggerated footer, a turn to minimalism or a bold and new typeface, incorporating a key graphical element to a website speaks volumes about the overall composition of the layout — and a keen level of attention to detail. Opting for a bold design element is a great way to modernize a website and keep it on trend in the coming years.”

2. Use HTML5…With Care

“For the last couple years, people have been buzzing about HTML5, and it’s not just chatter; HTML5 offers a lot of exciting flexibility that can make a website truly interactive. Seamlessly embedded videos, drag-and-drop interfaces and dynamic message posts are all achievable via HTML5, and with relatively little code work.

But it’s not enough to just call up your freelance web designer and throw up some HTML5 features. As with any programming language, there’s always an issue of browser compatibility. While your new and shiny UI outfitted with dynamic HTML5 might look stunning to a user running on the latest version of Chrome, your high-tech page may look like a series of broken features — or nothing at all — to a less tech-savvy user running Internet Explorer 7 (and there’s a lot of them).”

3. Cut the Fat

“The traditional layouts for websites often call for separate pages that encapsulate the ‘About,’ ‘Contact’ and other informational areas of the website. 2011 saw minimalist designs from multiple websites, and that often translated to cutting these pages in favor of a sleeker overall design (think Tumblr). Some companies chose to forgo nearly everything to produce a strongly graphical one-page website — blogs like One Page Love and successful networking tools like Flavors.me show that people are drifting towards a bold singular statement that makes a big impact on fellow users.

As we move forward in 2012, further exploration into one-page websites is a given. But a single-page website has both its pros and cons. HTML5 can help create a one-page website that cleverly contains all necessary information via pop-up boxes or other media, but the amount of information that can be on a one-page website is still relatively limited. Do you want your website to make a bold statement about your company and focus less on a blog-style format? If so, a one-page website could be right in your wheelhouse. Are you more interested in showing off testimonials, case studies and blogs from your employees? If yes, then this trend would be worth passing on.

However, that doesn’t mean to forgo trimming entirely. Culling the best parts of your website and truncating the rest will result in a sleeker, more intuitive design — and sleek never goes out of style.”

4. Tie in Social Media Intelligently

“This tip could also be titled ‘Quit it With the Widgets.’ Announcing your social media presence on your own website is an absolute necessity, but it needs to be done with care. Automatically updating widgets that stream in social media presence seems intrusive and outdated, not to mention that they can be a hassle for a DIY designer to install and maintain.”

If your website needs a makeover, but you don’t have the resources to implement these 4 tips, contact the pros at DSoul. We will be happy to be your website’s personal trainer and get it in shape for 2012 and the years to come.

SEO is the process of modifying a website to make the site and it’s content relevant for search engines and searchers, so that it can be easily found and placed high in the search engine rankings. It is a critical addition to your marketing plan, as it will greatly increase your visibility on the web and make it easy for prospective clients to find your business. SEO should not be ignored, or Google will ignore you.

Not sure where to get started or how to improve your SEO? Scott Gerber compiled a list of 13 tips from successful entrepreneurs that will grab Google’s attention and make them put you at the top of their list.

1. Create Evergreen Content - You’ll want your content to take the top slots for your name and various keywords and phrases, so you’ll want to have high-quality, authoritative content. The best way to make sure your content is seen this way to is create content that is forever useful, not trendy and disposable. Create content that people will be reading 10 years from now, and you’ll be getting linkbacks for a decade. (Colin Wright, Exile Lifestyle.)

2. Audit Your Online Profiles – Take a few minutes to login to each of your company’s online profiles. Is the biography up to date? More importantly, is your website’s URL listed somewhere? The incoming links from these profiles may not weigh too much in Google’s mysterious algorithm, but you’ll be surprised what it can do if you have more than a handful of accounts online. (Logan Lenz, Engagon.)

3. Think Like Your Customer Types – Think about what your ideal clients and customers might be typing into Google, and then find out if your hunch is right by looking keywords up in Google’s free Keyword Tool. Keep in mind that 25% of keywords have never been typed in before, but you’ll want to aim for popular keywords with low competition if you can. Then write content around these keywords and learn to optimize. (Nathalie Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media.)

4. Hire an Expert – I suggest hiring a search engine optimization company or freelance specialist to develop an effective strategy to improve your rankings. The Google Panda updates has made the SEO space even more challenging to produce results, so I suggest outsourcing this task to the professionals. Look for individuals or companies with proven track records, and monitor their bi-weekly reports closely. (Anthony Saladino, Kitchen Cabinet Kings.)

5. Guest Post – Start guest posting on tons of relevant blogs. Blogs love fresh content, and for you it’s a great way to build links, which will boost your rankings on Google. (Ben Lang, MySchoolHelp.)

6. Content is King and Links are Queen – Yes, creating good content is very important to make your business rank higher in Google. But links are even more important. Google loves links, especially those from other relevant, authority websites. Join any and all industry associations, guest blog with a link back to your website, and submit your site to any relevant directories to grow your backlink profile and your searches. (Warren Jolly, Affiliate Media Inc..)

7. Bust Out the Camera – Video is such a huge thing now for business owners. Not only does it give your company personality, but it can also be spread across networks while linking back to your site. Create great videos filled with information people can share and then repeat. Now videos can be distributed across multiple platforms from one single platform, causing Google to love you. (Ashley Bodi, Business Beware.)

8. Colleges and Universities - The biggest SEO secret is that when .edu sites link to your website it gives you a higher Google ranking. Contact college and universities and find a reason for them to link to your site by running a special internship opportunity, for example. (Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk.)

9. Update Your Site Frequently – The more often you update your site, the more important Google thinks it is. If you can publish content to your blog every day, Google will start to recognize you as a great source of information for whatever your keywords are. With every blog post, you have another chance at ranking for new search terms, so each article increases the odds of your site being found. (Matt Wilson, Under30CEO.com.)

10. Use the Right Keywords – Two effective ways of increasing your SEO rank are tagging articles and keyword analysis. You want to make sure your headlines are descriptive. You should also choose keywords that people are going to look for — so imagine yourself as a searcher. (Lauren Perkins, Lauren Perkins.)

11. Move Away From Flash - Many small businesses, especially restaurants and bars, use Flash for their sites because it’s easy to launch, looks good and is fairly cheap. While the sites might look decent, they rank really poorly in Google (without doing some tricks). Change your Flash-based site to WordPress or another platform, and you’ll rocket up the search engine rankings. (Nathan Lustig, Entrustet.)

12. Have You Taken Advantage of Local Search? – Are you a local business? Have you claimed your listing on Google, Yahoo! and Bing? If not, stop reading this article now and go claim your business listings immediately! I’ve seen a huge jump in traffic for businesses by simply claiming and filling out all the fields on these local profiles. The future of search is personalized local results, and these valuable profiles are often overlooked. (Andrew Saladine, Just Bath Vanities.)

13. Know Exactly What Words People Use to Search – The biggest mistake people make in trying to rank high in Google is having no clue what people are actually typing into search engines to find you. An easy way to find this out is to go to the Google homepage and slowly start typing in your phrases. You’ll notice Google suggested searches come up. Use those exact phrases in your titles. That’s what people want, so give it to them. (Trevor Mauch, Automize, LLC.)

Implementing these 13 tips in your SEO routine will certainly help to increase your Google ranking. However, if tips 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 seem too overwhelming to add to your current workload, tip number 4 is probably the best bet for you. Here at DivergingSoul, we are willing to take the SEO burden off of your back. We have all the skills, tools, and experience to call ourselves SEO experts. Everyone wants to be at the top of Google’s list, and DSoul can help get you there.

How are they doing this? Search plus Your World introduces three new features that integrate your Google+ social life with what you’re interested in searching:

1. Personal Results- Your Google search will return not only information on the public web, but will also include matching results from your Google+ posts and photos, and those that have been shared with you.

2. Profiles in Search- Using a new autocomplete feature, searching a person on Google will first return to you results for people you know, or may be interested in following, before it shows you people you do not know. The results for people you know come accompanied with information from their Google+ profile and web pages that may be relevant to them.

3. People and Pages- Along with information on your search query, Google will return Google+ profiles that are related to your search, and enable you to immediately add them to your circles.

Of course, you must be logged into your Google+ profile to gain access to your personal results, and Google has added other security and control measures to ensure that Search plus Your World is truly a personal and private experience. Google search results and Google+ content are protected by SSL encryption for signed in users, which is the same method of security used for messages in Gmail. To allow for transparency and control, Search plus Your World personal results are marked as Public, Limited or Only You, and Google+ profile results are distinguished by their circle or connection to your search query. Google has also added a toggle button to give you control over whether you want Google to return your personal results, or not.

Without a doubt, this merger between Google search and Google+ is unprecedented, and will remain the only one of its kind for some time. But, what’s next? This certainly will not be the last social media innovation Google unveils. Indeed, according to their blog, “Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started.”

For more information on Search plus Your World and Google+, read:
Google’s blog, “Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut,” and “Google+: The Complete Guide.”

1. First, you need a Google+ personal account to build your brand page off of. If you do not have a personal account, you can create one here.

2. Once you have a personal account, sign in here to begin building your page

3. Pick a category your business falls under. Your options are:
a. Local Business or Place (Hotels, restaurants, places, stores, services…)
b. Product or Brand (Apparel, cars, electronics, financial services…)
c. Company, Institution or Organization (Companies, organizations, institutions, non-profits…)
d. Arts, Entertainment or Sports (Movies, TV, music, books, sports, shows…)
e. Other

4. Add your business’ information.

5. Add only 10 words that best describe your business. You may add your companies tagline, a quick summary of your product or services, or any other 10 words or less you would like to use.

6. Upload a photo to use as your brand page’s profile picture.

7. Announce the creation of your new brand page to your personal circles!

That’s it! In 7 simple steps you have created a Google+ brand page for your small business, and increased your social media presence and SEO. Once you have your brand page, you can post, share, upload photos and videos, add to your circles, and host hangouts. You can even get creative and jazz up your profile with the scrapbook feature. For more information on all of the features and how to use them, check out Mashable’s “10 Tips and Tricks for Better Google+ Brand Pages.”

Take a look at DivergingSoul’s brand new Google+ page, and be sure to add us to your circle!

Just as plants need air, water and sunlight to grow, Aaron Sperling suggests small business websites need fresh content, social media integration, easy ecommerce and maximized SEO. Read his article “4 Ways Small Business Websites Can Drive More Sales” for tips on how to drive more traffic and sales to your small business’ website using these four steps.

For further information on creating and implementing a plan for your small business website, please contact us at DivergingSoul. We have all the tools and knowledge you need to make your website a success!

Social video allows for a company to create unique content that goes beyond traditional advertising to further engage with an audience across multiple platforms. As they are “social,” these videos can be shared amongst viewers to create a viral campaign.

Hundreds of companies have started up their own social video projects, and we can definitely expect to see many more join the trend in 2012. With increasing competition, brings increasing innovations. In “What’s in Store for Social Video in 2012?” Chris Schreiber names five of these innovations that he predicts will be trending in the upcoming year. They are:

1. Integration of original branded content into broader marketing campaigns

2. More organic video experiences on sites

3. Improved earned media science

4. Widespread adoption of cost-per-view pricing

5. Dedicated social video budgets

Will 2012 be the right time for your company to take the leap into social video marketing?

Read Schreiber’s full article for more information on social video in 2012 at Mashable.com.