Do you want to make your office a greener and more efficient place but just aren’t sure how to start?

Greening your office can be a lot easier than you think. Check out some ideas below to get started:

Print on opposite side of recycled paper

Did you know that about 71 million tons of paper and paperboard are used in the United States each year? So instead of tossing out those extra reports after the meeting, why not flip them upside down and put them back in the printer to be used one more time.

Change to an eco-font that uses less ink

To cut down on printing costs and ink cartridge replacements consider switching fonts to one that uses less ink. Try switching fonts from Arial to Century Gothic. The font uses 30 percent less ink but is still readable. That’s what the University of Wisconsin did last year and they managed to improve their $10,000 per year toner cost by a few thousand dollars.

Invest in a POU filtration system

Switch your old water cooler system to a cleaner, more efficient point-of-use filtration system that uses your building’s pre-existing water line and a state-of-the-art filtration process to deliver the highest quality, best tasting drinking water. Not only will you save money from not having to get water jugs delivered, you will save space from being taken up by extra jug inventory and your staff will never have to run out of water and risk injury changing a heavy water jug either.

Carpool, carpool, carpool

When gas prices can jump by 20 cents in just a couple days, it sometimes becomes a challenge getting to work—especially if your commute is on the longer side. So why not save a few dollars and buddy-up for the morning car ride into work? It not only saves money that could be spent on other things but it puts fewer emissions into the air. And if your cubicle-mate is just too annoying to spend 25 minutes in a car with, there’s always public transportation.

Photo credit: solar.calfinder.com

About Quench

Kali Wyrosdic is a contributing writer for Quench, the largest bottleless water cooler company in North America. Since 2006, Quench has provided thousands of large and small businesses with an endless and sustainable supply of purified drinking water using the latest state-of-the art water filtration technologies. Quench’s drinking water service provides customers reliable water dispensing systems at the point-of-use that utilize a building’s existing tap water system to deliver chilled or hot high-quality purified and filtered water on-demand. Quench systems offer a lower cost, healthier, more convenient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional bottled water delivery.

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It seems like every few weeks one blogger or another is heralding the death of SEO, usually citing social media marketing as the murderer.

Is SEO changing? Most definitely. Is social media marketing having an effect on how websites create and manage SEO campaigns? You bet. But is SEO really dead? Far from it.

Social media and SEO are not in competition with each other, as so many site owners seem to think. In fact, the two disciplines are joining forces to form social SEO, which takes the best of both campaigns and leverages them for a strong online marketing campaign.

Bing, Facebook and the “Friend Effect”

In May 2011, Bing and Facebook announced a new approach to searching, naming it the “Friend Effect.”

As Bing explained in their blog post announcing the partnership, searching has become an increasingly social experience.

We ask our friends, family and coworkers for advice at various points during the decision making process, whether it be what movie we should see this weekend or what IT services company we should hire to manage our small business. Peer review sites like Yelp allow people to connect with users outside of their personal social network and tap into what Bing calls the “collective IQ of the Web.” Because of the Friend Effect, Bing users “receive personalized search results based on the opinions of your friends by simply signing into Facebook.”

So how does that affect your SEO?

It means that a Bing user logged into Facebook could potentially see an entirely different SERP than when they aren’t logged in, based on the preferences of their network. A website that didn’t even crack the top results is suddenly catapulted to the #3 spot, just because a handful of that user’s Facebook friends Liked that page.

Now, more than ever, site owners have to make sure their content is easily shareable (and worthy of being shared). Installing the Facebook Like button on your blog is the first step, but you must take an active role in promoting your own content.  Your brand’s online presence could be severely diminished in the number two search engine if you don’t use Facebook to promote your content.

Google+ and +1

Not to be outdone by Facebook and Bing, Google launched their much anticipated social networking site, Google+ in June. A few short weeks after Google+ launched, the site had over 25 million users that were sharing more than a billion pieces of content EVERY DAY.

The newest social networking site recently opened up the brand floodgates, allowing companies to create their own business profiles. Some have heralded Google+ as the Facebook killer; while others say it’s doomed to fail like the other Google social networking attempts. Regardless of what you think, there is no denying that right now Google+ has a lot of potential.

The +1 button, the predecessor to Google+, was Google’s answer to the “Friendship Effect” created by Bing and Facebook. As Google explained:

Adding the +1 button to pages on your own site lets users recommend your content, knowing that their friends and contacts will see their recommendation when it’s most relevant…When a signed-in Google user is searching, your Google search result snippet may be annotated with the names of the user’s connections who’ve +1′d your page.

This means that when a Google user is logged into the Google account and searching, the search results will show who in their social network has liked which result. The idea behind the +1 button is that people don’t necessarily want Google telling them which results are the best, but they are more likely to trust a piece of content that has been +1d by a friend.

So how does that affect your SEO?

Just recently, Google+ brand pages have begun appearing with the SERP alongside company websites.

In some cases, content businesses have shared on Google+ are also directly published on the SERPs. This is an excellent opportunity for companies to expand their overall online presence, especially for branded searches. The more chances a potential customer has to interact with your company the better.

While it has yet to be confirmed, many in the SEO industry suspect that Google might be giving more weight to websites that have an active Google+ account and receive numerous +1s on their content. Since Google no longer has direct access to Facebook’s data, it makes sense to assume they are using Google+ and +1 to fill the gaps.

The worlds of social media and search are becoming more and more intertwined everyday. Bing wants to offer more personalized search, Google wants to be a social networking site, Facebook wants to become the hub of all our online activities and brands have to balance multiple campaigns at once if they want to compete.

The most successful websites are the ones who recognize social’s impact on SEO and are integrating the two disciplines into one strong online presence.

Photo credit: ibizclicks.com

About the Author

Nick Stamoulis is a Boston SEO consultant and president of Brick Marketing, a full service SEO and white hat link building  company. With over 12 years of industry experience, Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal, and by publishing the Brick Marketing SEO newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers.

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Businesses invest a lot of time and effort in creating a Web site that reveals their expertise, as well as their brand.

Building a professional, informative Web site with a high-end design ensures that customers will have confidence in your company.  But what good does that do if no one ever finds your Web site?

It’s critical that your Web site and search engine optimization work together.

In the big picture, what’s the return on investment for a site that looks great but has very little traffic?  A ghost town of a Web site isn’t going to bring your target audience in, and your growth is stifled.

On the other hand, if you’ve exploited your SEO and have high traffic but a lightweight Web site, you’ll have the opposite problem: lots of prospects, but very few customers.

How to Build a Credible Site

First things first: when you build your site, make sure it’s clean, professional, and user-friendly.

Here are some issues to consider in the construction phase:

1. Avoid using Flash

This is simple: Flash is not business-friendly.  Search engines usually can’t detect information imbedded in Flash, and Web site reporting on Flash sites is difficult and inaccurate.  The maintenance is endless, and you won’t be w3c-compliant.  Worse, many Web sites’ hosts disable Flash to avoid spam advertising, so all your effort is for nothing.

2. Avoid low quantity of content

Visitors come more frequently to sites with consistently new content; it makes their time investment more worthwhile.  They’re also driven there by search engines, which pick up sites with high content delivery more easily.

3. Pick only one spot to use motion on your homepage

This refers back to some of the issues with Flash, but it can also look cheesy to have an abundance of motion icons.  Pick one place where it will make an impact, and then step away.

4. Use consistent fonts

Have you ever read an Internet article and noticed that it jumped to a different font halfway through?  It was jarring, and it made you question the professionalism of the site, didn’t it?  Don’t do that to your readers.

5. Avoid overcrowding

A crowded Web site makes it difficult for your clients to find the information they’re looking for.  Great design utilizes clean lines, open space (within reason), and user-friendly fonts.  Once you draw customers in, you can follow up with additional information.  Focus on the hook.

6. Avoid placing many Calls-to-Action on the homepage

Call-to-Action buttons, which implore you to “Buy now!” or “Post a job,” are great for getting people to take action.  You need to clearly explain what each one is for, so you want to minimize the number you place on your homepage – that real estate has other uses.

7. Don’t use templates

Templates are efficient, yes, but they prevent you from being able to adequately brand your business.  They’re too generic, and they carry less value than customized sites.  They also hurt your compliance with different programming languages.

How to Optimize SEO

A great Web site that’s representative of your brand and your mission is the first step; the next is to make sure people land on it.  Here are some questions to ask yourself as you maximize SEO:

1. Is the site w3c-compliant?

You may have heard people ask whether a mark-up validation check is necessary.  It absolutely is – it debugs your site, it reduces the amount of maintenance you’ll do long-term, and it’s a sign of professionalism.

2. Do we have SEO-friendly URLs?

You’ve no doubt racked your brain to find a URL that quickly summarizes what your business is all about.  Sometimes, however, the things that seem helpful (punctuation, lots of words) make your URL difficult to remember, type, or protect.  “Clean” your URLs as necessary to ensure that search engines are zoning in on you.

3. Are all meta tags in place?

These title tags not only are highlighted on a browser, they’re also culled by search engines and displayed in search results.  Make sure your meta tags are relevant, brief, and utilize keywords.

4. Is RSS feed provided?

RSS feeds allow publishers to automatically syndicate their content.  That means you can publish content once, and it can be viewed from many different programs simultaneously.  RSS feeds can be read via the web or mobile devices; this is a big benefit in the current marketplace.  Make sure you’re mobile-friendly.

5. Have we checked the site speed?

You can check your site speed using Firefox’s page speed tool.  Maximizing your page speed cannot be underestimated.  The longer a customer waits for your page to load, the higher your probability is of losing him.

6. Is there enough dynamic content?

Text is great, but you’ll want to engage your clients with graphics and images as well.  Dynamic content allows you to build content “on demand,” with the content tailored to your users.  Caching (recycling) your content will give you more flexibility in this arena.

If you take each of these items into account, you’ll be well on your way to building a site that’s user-friendly, as well as a search engine’s best friend.  Presenting a professional image, while maximizing your SEO, will help you bring in prospects and convert them to customers.  Make your Web site work for you.  If you build it, they will come.

Photo credit: Sitebuildertips.com

Hassan Bawab is the founder and CEO of Magic Logix, an interactive digital marketing correlation that combines dynamic Web site development, professional Web site design, SEO and integrated online marketing, to drive new leads with high conversion.

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For the millions and millions of small businesses across the nation, having an Internet presence is very important, especially in this day and age of a struggling economy. Without it, those who stay away from the web stand to quickly fall behind the competition.

If your small business is considering a foray into sales and promotions on the web, do you know exactly what you are looking for in a web hosting provider? For many small businesses, they know exactly what they are not looking for in such a provider.

Keep the following in mind should your business be in need of a web host provider:

• Should you go with shared web hosting? – This is one question you will want to consider. One of the bonuses of choosing a shared web host site is that they are generally cheaper, with performance problems sometimes being an issue due to the number of customers sharing the site. If your small business has both light traffic and sales, then shared web hosting is likely the answer. For those companies overseeing ecommerce, it is advised to look for a provider offering a VPS (Virtual Private Server) solution, whereby your sites rests with its own virtual server, allowing it to be unaffected by others;
• Quality customer service is critical – Just like your business is supposed to provide quality care to customers; you want the same from your web host provider. If you’re constantly having to call them to ask questions, discuss concerns, complain about the service, etc. you will likely grow tired of this rather quickly. While many web host providers are pretty much the same during selling you their services, it is what they do when there is a problem that will set one apart from the other;
• Shop around for quotes – When your small business goes in need of supplies, it should be a given that you are obtaining a series of quotes. That being the case, you especially want to do that when in search of a web host provider. Also turn to those in the business community you are close to or family/friends to see who their provider is. Check for things like price, customer service, reputation in business circles and more;
• Check on bandwith and space – Along with price and customer service; get the details on things like bandwith and space, two things that are very important as far as what you can get on your Web site in a fast and orderly procedure. If someone tells you the bandwith and disk space they will be providing you is unlimited, get the specifics prior to putting your name on a contract. The last thing you want is a slow site that is continuously being impacted by a limited amount of space;
• Make sure there is a backup plan – As we have seen all too often, companies can be put in precarious situations should there be a data crash. Make sure you check with your provider that they have a backup plan in place in order to prevent you from losing a ton of data. You also want to make sure the web host provider you go with is up to speed on its security so that you are not saddled with hacking issues;
• Read the fine print – Lastly, make sure you read the fine print to cover any potential hidden fees, longer than you wanted contract language, early exit charges, etc. The last thing you want is dealing with unexpected expenses and headaches that could have been avoided in the first place with a little closer observation.

Given the importance of having a web presence in today’s business world, make sure you find the right host at not only the right price, but one who makes you a priority customer from start to finish.

Photo credit: earningdiary.com

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Unlike the “old” days when employees oftentimes wound up spending several decades with a company, many of today’s employees come and go for a variety of reasons.

Whether it is seeking to find a better career fit, not hiring the right people in the first place, layoffs due to attrition, etc. more and more companies find themselves with revolving doors regarding their workers.

One constant, however, is the need and desire that many employers have in offering continuing education to their current employees, be it in project management, online IT training or other disciplines.

By offering continuing education to employees, employers stand to benefit in several ways. Among them are:

• Attracting a better pool of potential hires who are excited about the chance to continue their studies while under your employment;
• Increasing the wherewithal of your present staff by educating them on the latest news and trends involving their specialty;
• Giving your company more recognition in your specific industry as a leader, looking to educate its employees constantly so that they provide a better product for your customers.

If your small business is looking to offer/provide continuing education opportunities to its employees, take a few minutes to review exactly what is needed.

One of the most important things is to establish what kinds of education and what amounts of reimbursement you will offer. Given that the reimbursements will impact your bottom line financially, it is important that you get with your financial department ahead of time to see what is and isn’t feasible for your small business when it comes to reimbursing employees for college costs.

In the event your company does not financially reimburse employees for their studies, yet wants to support them, there are other means by which to do just that.

One thing your business can do is offer those employees who are continuing their educations the option of working different shifts to accommodate their class studies. By doing so, you show the employee that you as a business owner value their education, leading them to likely be more productive and loyal.

If you are interested in or are just setting up continuing education at your company for the first time, take the time to research the various options out there. Find out what kinds of programs other companies similar to your business are offering, along with seeing how much they cost and what kind of results they have yielded.

With the national unemployment rate still sitting around 9 percent, there are plenty of workers out there for those small businesses looking to hire.

The task becomes locating the right ones, then providing them with continued opportunities to succeed by educating them and allowing them to stick with you for a long time to come.

Photo credit: adminsecret.monster.com

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Even though it seems just about everyone and their mother has a cell phone in this day and age, the office phone still plays a pivotal role for many small businesses in allowing them to conduct daily business.

You see, without that phone to call clients, take incoming calls regarding products and/or services and more, many companies would have a hard time operating on a regular schedule.

With that being said, is your company’s business phone service in fact serving you to its fullest capability or are you feeling disconnected at times?

In the event your company’s phone system is not up to par, there are options for you in order to ring up better service.

Among the factors to consider are:

• Determine your needs – The most important facet is oftentimes the most obvious. Before you embark on the idea of possibly changing your company’s phone system, sit down and do a review of the present one. What does the present one offer you, what are you lacking, what are your employees saying about it, what are customers telling you, and how much are you paying for it? These are all areas to tackle before you consider another phone system for the business;
• Single or multiple lines – Depending on how big your business is, you need to examine and/or re-examine the setup, determining whether your employees require a single phone number that rings simultaneously on a number of devices or not;
• Add an option here and there – Company heads also need to determine if they want their employees having the ability to access such features as intercom abilities, videoconferencing and paging to name a few. Do you want your employees to have the option to integrate a customer relationship management (CRM) system along the way? If the answer to any of those options is yes, expect to pay more or look for a service that bundles a number of options together for businesses.

In breaking down the options a little more, here are some features you may want to consider as you look to phone accessories:

• Auto attendant – Essentially removes the receptionist by giving callers a list of options to route their call (“Press 2 to speak with somebody in marketing”). It also gives callers option to dial directly to their party’s extension;
• Conferencing Features – Permits a pair or more of extensions to join together to take part in a conversation. Typically, the default is two. For those businesses that require more than two, find out what the maximum number of participants allowed is;
• Voice Mail – Rather self-explanatory in it allows messages to be left for employees that are unavailable or on another line;
• Call Hold – This allows for the ability to put a call on hold while the user tends to other matters;
• Music on Hold- With this feature, your callers have something to listen to while they are holding. It can be music or a pre-recorded message advertising your business.

Whatever your company’s business phone system needs, be sure you are dialed into what best serves your office as far as reliability and price.

Photo credit: businessphonesystemsuk.co.uk

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Just about everyone knows a cheesy pickup line or two (Are you lost miss? Because heaven is a long way from here!).

Whenever we hear those tacky pickup lines we think to ourselves, “who could ever fall for something that stupid sounding?” We recognize a pickup line the minute we hear it and disregard it almost immediately. But did you know that the SEO industry has its fair share of pickup lines that Web site owners should recognize and disregard just as fast?

Too often unsuspecting site owners are swept away by these 3 black hat SEO pickup lines:

“We can guarantee you’ll be on the first page of Google inside of the month.”

Google says it flat out in their SEO webmaster guidelines, “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” Yet dozens of black hat SEO consultant and companies promise that they know the “secret” to getting your site to the top of the SERP. There is no secret to SEO, no magic formula that you can follow to catapult your site to the coveted number one spot. Any SEO company toting a guarantee is looking to capitalize on unsuspecting and uneducated site owners. Oh you’ll rank #1, just like they promised, but it will be for an incredibly long-tail, obscure keyword that no one searches for. But hey, they delivered on their guarantee!

A white hat SEO firm is going to do everything they can to help your Web site succeed, but even they can’t predict with absolute certainty what is going to happen.

There are 200 factors that Google takes into account when determining where your site will fall in the SERPs. Some of these factors (like the age of your site) are out of your SEO provider’s hands. A strong SEO campaign will help you build your overall online presence, increase your traffic and conversion rate and slowly lift your site up in rank, but SEO is so long-term that you can’t specify when exactly all that will happen.

“You don’t have to pay until you see the results you want!”

Are you willing to work for free for three months? six months? A year?

That’s how long it could take to see real success that you can contribute to your SEO campaign. White hat SEO is incredibly long-term, which means you’ll have to be a little patient. Great campaigns with a lot of potential are often cut off at the knees because site owners got jumpy and pulled the plug too soon.

Part of the reason black hat SEO is so tempting is because it produces quick, measurable results. Those results make your SEO provider look good to you, which makes you look good to your boss. But here’s the catch—any success earned with black hat SEO tactics is short-lived and ultimately meaningless.

You may be able to show your boss a spreadsheet with 5,000 links in it, but 98% of them come from splogs and link farms, meaning they don’t have much real SEO value. So you’ll pay for the work and watch your site nosedive back down once the SEO company stops working.

Some black hat SEO companies will even undo some of the link building they did on behalf of your site, especially if a good portion of the links were just coming from other spammed sites that the company owned.

“SEO is going to be the answer to all your online marketing needs.”

SEO can do a lot of things, and is certainly one of the most valuable marketing tools you have to leverage on behalf of your brand, but SEO is not a Band-Aid that can fix all your Internet marketing woes.

If you don’t have a well-defined brand, strong point of differentiation and clearly outlined messaging strategy in place BEFORE you start thinking about SEO, your SEO campaign will never be able to get off the ground. You need to be able to identify you key competitors (which may not be the same as your top offline competitors) and understand your target audience and how their live their online lives.

Just like any other marketing campaign, SEO needs a strong foundation to springboard off of.

Editor’s Note: Nick Stamoulis is the president of Boston SEO agency, Brick Marketing. With more than 12 years of Internet marketing experience, Stamoulis shares his knowledge by offering SEO consulting services and writing daily SEO tips in his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal (or SEO Journal). Contact Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com.

Photo credit: onlineseoservices.info

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For the majority of small businesses, having a printer or printers in the office is a necessity.

The question becomes, however, how best to go about buying and maintaining the right printers?

When searching for a printer, companies can follow several tips to secure the best buy for their money. Among them are: Read the full entry

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While more and more business gets done these days through email and other electronic transmissions, there is still the important need of a quality phone system for one’s business.

When all is said and done, the telephone oftentimes proves the best way for a business to reach customers and partners during business hours, whether that is an actual conversation or leaving a message for them.

With that being the case, it is important for businesses both large and small to have a quality phone system in place to handle the load of communications. Wrongly routed calls, disconnected calls, too much automation and more can lead your customers and partners to wonder if you really have your act together, potentially leading to lost revenue and faith in your abilities. Read the full entry

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For any small business that works in the medical arena and deals with patients on a regular basis or runs any kind of company that is very detailed oriented for that matter, having the right record system in place is crucial to providing quality service and avoiding untimely errors.

Not only is having the right records system in place important for your customer’s well-being, but it is also a necessity given medical ethics if you’re in the medical industry. It is a physician’s duty to keep strict confidentiality regarding any medical information revealed by a patient or discovered by a physician tied to the treatment given a patient.

According to the American Medical Association (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics, the information given to a doctor over time in a patient-doctor relationship is confidential. By doing this, the patient is more inclined to provide a physician with full disclosure regarding their health concerns and needs. Read the full entry

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