1. Under Construction Creates a ‘Coming Soon’ page that will show for all users who are not logged in. Useful for developing a site on a live server, without the world being able to see it

2. Dashboard Heaven Dashboard Heaven lets you get rid of those annoying feeds and widgets on your user’s dashboard. WP Green Cache WP Green Cache is a powerfull caching plugin for WordPress blogs. It’s higly minimize (%95) the usage of server’s resources and provides very fast blog pages. If you care about the speed of your site, WP

3. Green Cache is one of those plugins that you absolutely MUST have installed. TinyMCE Advanced This plugin adds 16 plugins to TinyMCE, WordPress’s WYSIWYG editor. Most important of all it stops the WYSIWYG editor getting rid of your extra returns you use for spacing.

4. Shortcodes Pro Shortcodes Pro allows quick and easy creation of WordPress shortcodes and TinyMCE rich editor buttons from the comfort of the WordPress interface.

5. Portfolio Slideshow Easily add a clean and simple javascript slideshow to your site. The slideshow integrates well into any design, supports fluid-width themes, and offers lots of options for power users, too.

6. Contact Form 7 Allows you to simply add contact forms to your site 6. WordPress SEO There are amany SEO pluggins out there, every site needs one and this is one of the better ones.

7. Google Analytics Allows you to simply add Google Analytics to your site.

8. Google XML Sitemaps Allows you to create a dynamic XML sitemap which you can feed into Google making sure every page get effectively indexed.

2 Claim and verify your listing. Google prefers listings who detailed have been verified by the owners. To verify you listing you will be asked to enter a code into your account admin page that will be sent to you by Phone, SMS, or Postcard.

3 Make sure you fill out every section in the information page. This means as well as adding all your contact details that you add 10 pictures, at least 3 videos from YouTube (they do not have to be about you but as long as they are related to your business they will help), a description that includes your keywords and don’t forget the ‘Additional Details’ area this a great way to get some more details of your business onto the page, it is also a great place to insert some of those keywords that will rank well.

4 Make sure that all your contact details are consistent. This is one of the main stumbling points for many people. You must make sure that whenever your details appear on the web, whether it be on your website, a directory or your Google places page, that they are exactly the same. Any small differences like Rd instead or Road, different phone numbers, abbreviated County (Beds for Bedfordshire) can cause real problems.

5 Link your website to your Google Places page. In general Google loves anyone that it sees as an “information provider” and a well optimised website can really boost your position.

6 Get citation links from as many places as you can. Everyone knows that Google loves backlinks to your site but for Places pages it uses citations rather than keyword backlinks. Citations are mentions or your name and contact details which means that online directories are a great place to start. Also look for industry specific directories as I have found that Google often gives more credit for citations from these sites.

7 Get Reviews from Customers. Many people think that this is becoming the most important factor in Google Places SERPs and I think that if they will become more important as time goes on. Talk to your customers and solicit reviews if you can but be sure to add them over a period of time as Google often “smells a rat” if they are all added on the same day. See my post on Online Reputation Management for more details on this subject.

8 Go back and repeat steps 6 & 7 every month if you can. You must remember that SERPs are fluid and change on a day to day basis. As competitors catch on they may try to catch you so its important to stay ahead of the pack!

The best place to start is of course with a website but this does not necessarily mean you need hire a web designer. There are many ways in which you can get great exposure on other sites and all for free.

Google provide a one page website for every business and all you have to do is claim it. See my post on Claiming your Google places page for more details on this. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube all offer great exposure and all it takes is some time.

There are also many free directory listings from Yell, Scoot, City-Visitor to name but a few. An afternoon filling in online forms can see great results as many of this listings also get first page listings in Google.

In short, get your name out there on as many sites as you can and see the results.

1. Optimise your website for location+products/services, including building good links to your pages.

2. Choose the proper categories in Places.

3. Make sure Google can associate your website and your Places page together.

4. Eliminate data confusion.

5. Solicit reviews from happy customers.

6. Work on everything else as time and budget permit.

Call or email me to for a free WordPress website design quote now. Tel: 01234 317441 

Website design has changed over the last few years. The huge popularity of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube has meant the internet has become a more interactive experience. This means that consumers expect a current, up to date website, even from smaller local companies.

Content management software such as WordPress allows non technical users to update their own website content without knowing any “code”, giving them control over the site and allowing them to keep their content relevant. Special offers, prices, opening times, availability for work and many more types of information can easily be changed at the click of a button.

WordPress website design also has the advantage of having a huge amount of extra functionality available at very little cost through the use of 3rd party pluggins. These are small pieces of code that can be easily imported into the site to allow it to do certain functions at a fraction of the cost of employing a custom programmer. These functions could be virtually anything depending on your business but popular pluggins include online video, image galleries, calenders, contact form and many more.

I have been using WordPress since its launch in 2003 and consider myself an expert. I can create almost any website design in WordPress to give you a totally bespoke website with lots of functionality.

Call or email me to for a free website design quote now. Tel: 01234 317441 

Further more 50% of businesses in the UK have yet to claim this web page and are missing out of the possible traffic and enquires it could bring. To find out more about Google Places Pages, and how to find and claim your contact me on 01234 317441.

Compare this to internet marketing, where you work to place your website all over the net and when somebody needs you they come looking for you. It will be there working for you 24hours a day 365 days a year, unlike an advert which will only appear in 1 or 2 issues.

Its not hard to see why internet marketing is so popular with business, even local businesses offering local services.