JetPoint Consulting

The Website Trinity

Brian Holecko — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:49:25 +0000

When it comes to building a website, there are three major areas that contribute to a successful, prosperous site on the web: development, design, and marketing. I call this the Website Trinity and if the web had a god, this would be it. If you are lacking in any of these areas, your website will not be as successful as it could be, if at all.

Most people look at building a website from only one of these perspectives. Some people are looking for custom functionality, some people are looking for something that looks pretty, and some people are looking for a marketing tool. Identify which category you fall into, as the other two areas will need greater focus in order for you to be successful. It is this lack of focus that allows design companies to pose as development companies, marketing companies to pose as design companies, development companies to pose as marketing companies, and so on. In reality, every web company has a focus/strength in one area then covers the other two at sub-par quality, with the exception of the few and proud elite that start around $150/hr.

If you want a premium and affordable website, you are going to have to put the three pieces together, each with its own company, which is why our design and marketing services are provided through transparent partnerships. This gives us the flexibility in choosing the perfect designer to compliment our strong technical services. To cap it off, we can refer you to a marketing specialist that will drive tons of traffic to your website that is highly targeted to your niche. These three pieces will form your own Website Trinity and will ensure high success in the fast-paced and ultra-competitive internet landscape.

JetPoint Consulting Hits First Page of Google Search Results

Brian Holecko — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:18:13 +0000

JetPoint Consulting currently ranks in the top 10 for the keywords “Magento Experts” and “Magento Consulting” in the Google search results. We will continue to work our way up the Google search ladder with hopes of hitting #1 for both of these keywords!

Magento Upgrade Process Management

Brian Holecko — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:50:35 +0000

One of the core architectural benefits of Magento is that it provides a clear upgrade path that prevents you from being locked into the version of the platform that you began with. Unfortunately, the upgrade process can still create more problems than it solves after it has been run, thus, we recommend the following approach to our clients to manage the risk associated with upgrading:

Work with client to identify specific benefits of upgrading to the latest version. If any specific benefits are identified by client, provide quote for upgrading.
If quote is approved, proceed with the following steps:
Create full backup of the website including all site files and databases.
Set up test instance of the website on a login-secured subdomain if it does not yet exist.
Create another full backup of the website including all site files and databases.
Run upgrade process.
Fully test all critical features and check all pages for bugs.
Provide report on all new bugs to the client.
Provide quote on fixing each bug to the client.
Client identifies whether the cost of fixing each bug is worth the benefits of upgrading.
Fix bugs or roll test instance back to previously stable state based on client direction.

Recommended Premium Magento Theme Providers

Brian Holecko — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:29:12 +0000

There are a plethora of theme providers in the Magento community, but only a handful that provide a wide array of highly attractive themes and quality customer support. These are our favorite Magento theme providers:

SEO Basics

Brian Holecko — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:20:59 +0000

By popular demand, I’ll provide a general overview of how the search engine results are ranked so that those who are interested in building traffic through Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. can get have a firm understanding of the basics. Google holds a very dominant share of the search engine market, over 80% I believe, so you only really need to be focused on the Google algorithm for determining your placement. Overall, Google intends on delivering the most fresh, relevant, and authoritative content to people that are searching Google, so you have to have a strong content strategy that establishes you as a popular authority on your niche. You do this by creating interesting, relevant, and fresh content via a blog, articles, tweets, forum posts, and anything else you can think of that will establish you as an authority on your subject throughout the internet. Your goal should be to provide the best information out there for your particular type of business. If you search the web and find a lot of competition for the niche you are targeting, keep narrowing your niche until you are confident you can be number 1 or number 2 in that category.

For example, if I tried to target the keyword “Magento”, I would have to compete against a ton of heavyweights that can throw gobs and gobs of money into an SEO campaign to suck up a lot of traffic. However, if I target “Magento Florida” or “Magento Orlando”, I’ll be targeting less people, but those people will have less competition to get their business, plus I will be more relevant to what they are looking for which results in more targeted leads.

The second most important concept is generating one-way links to your site from other sites that are relevant to yours. Not only will these links drive targeted traffic to your site, but they will also boost your SEO. How many links you get and the quality of those links are combined to calculate what is called PageRank. This essentially works like a system of voting, however, not all votes are equal. They work more like endorsements. One endorsement from a leader in your field is going to be worth more than 1,000 endorsements from people that know nothing about what you do.

So, the bottom line is to create great content and spread it everywhere you can to get it linked to. Here are some sample resources to do just that:

Site Directories
http://www.dmoz.org/
http://dir.yahoo.com/
http://www.jayde.com/

Article Sites
http://www.articlesnatch.com/
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.isnare.com/

Blog Directories
http://technorati.com/
http://blogs.botw.org/
http://www.blogcatalog.com/

Wikis
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.wiki.com/
http://www.wikispaces.com/

Social Media/Bookmarking
http://digg.com/
http://delicious.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Local Business Listings, Yellow Pages, and Review Sites
http://www.google.com/local
http://www.yellowpages.com/
http://www.yelp.com/

Free Classified Ads
http://craigslist.org/
http://www.backpage.com/
http://www.kijiji.com/

If you would like to learn about more advanced techniques like keyword density analysis, internal linking structure, or more, please visit http://www.seochat.com/

Google to Drop IE 6 Support on March 1st

Brian Holecko — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:30:05 +0000

There has been much heated debate recently over the support of Internet Explorer 6. Many IT departments are mandating the use of IE 6 which escalates the cost of web development and prevents more advanced browser technology from dominating the marketplace. Many companies have dropped support for Internet Explorer 6, and finally Google has followed suit starting March 1st:

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/01/modern-browsers-for-modern-applications.html

From here, we will be recommending no or limited support for IE 6 to our clients to help improve the web as a whole. With the above announcement, you can be confident that IE 6 will continue to fade away and will soon be irrelevant.

Clarification on Our Name

Brian Holecko — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:36:21 +0000

So, I’ve been getting quite a few wisecracks about the company name lately. The lady at my local bank asked me if we build jets. My neighbor asked me if I’ve been doing much flying. Well, I did fly up to Washington, DC to visit my parents for Christmas.

JetPoint is one word, intended to invoke an image of the endpoint of a jet, not the whole jet itself! I hope this clears things up.

TCHO Now Being Sold at 5,500 Starbucks Nationwide

Brian Holecko — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:26:14 +0000

JetPoint Consulting’s premier client, TCHO, is now having their premium chocolate sold at 5,500 Starbucks locations nationwide. Congratulations on TCHO’s success! We are sure TCHO will continue to have great success in the years to come.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Brian Holecko — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:19:05 +0000

Happy New Year! Our first calendar year has been a great success and we are looking forward to another in 2010.

Please Make a Donation to Goodwill for the Holidays

Brian Holecko — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:55:57 +0000

If you haven’t made a charitable contribution to the community for the holidays yet, now is a great time to do so. I’m sure everyone has some clothes, furniture, electronics, etc. laying around that no longer have any use. Remember that a lot of families are experiencing financial hardship due to the economy and could use a helping hand:

Goodwill Industries International