When it comes to creating an organized, concise, and informative Web site for your Pittsburgh audience, content might be king, but layout is key.

The reason is simple: If your site is not attractive and highly navigable, visitors will not come back. There are literally thousands of Web designers — amateur and professional; specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), or e-commerce, or information design — out there. Each one believes that his or her design style and informational organization approach are the best in the Internet marketing business.

Most of them are wrong.

Have you ever visited a Web site or online business that had a very difficult-to-understand ethos, mission, or purpose? Think back to that site: Why was it so difficult to understand, and to navigate? Read the rest of this entry »

If you have a limited marketing or advertising budget – say less than $10K – don’t waste your money on traditional forms of advertising: the newspaper ads, the television and radio spots, the direct mail pieces. Those forms of advertising are dead. At the least I can hear their ugly gurgling death rattle with each canceled newspaper subscription and with each because-I-don’t-want-to-have-to-listen-to-the-stupid-commercials TiVo purchase.

What’s more, these ad venues are very expensive. Extremely so. A small ad in the daily paper can cost a couple of hundred dollars. And that’s just for a one-day run. If you’ve ever priced out a tv or radio spot, I’m sure you asked the rep not for a pen to sign the contract, but for some antacid to calm you stomach. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a business in Pittsburgh and your products or services are really just geared to a local market – you’re a plumber or a real estate agent, for example – you may be wondering if you should do a little web marketing. After all, you say to yourself, the Internet reaches people worldwide. You don’t need to find people in New Delhi who need a plumber, you tell yourself. You’re not looking for home buyers hoping to purchase a house in Seattle.

But don’t rule out a web marketing campaign just yet – it can be extremely cost effective to market and advertise online, even if your target market truly is Pittsburgh only. Read the rest of this entry »