Tutorial #1: How to open a website in less than 1 minute!

Friday 11/20/09 time 8:55 AM - Sjoerd @Moogo

We are proud to present the first video of our Tutorial series for Moogo:

How to open a website in less than 1 minute!

In the future there will be more specific tutorials focused on how you can get the most out of your Moogo website, but we decided to start at the very beginning: how to open a website!

Oh and by the way, don't forget to give us feedback ! We are new at this, so comments are welcome!

SEO: What makes search engines tick?

Thursday 11/19/09 - Heikki @Moogo

Search Engine Optimization has been and continues to be a frequently discussed issue over the Web. The fact that it's an oft-discussed topic doesn't necessarily mean that it's presented in an understandable manner. Since the basic principle behind this blog is to cut through all of the technical clutter, this post is exactly that: SEO explained in layman's terms.

If we stop here for a moment and think about the term SEO, it might seem to be an oddball. This is because we don't optimize search engines, we optimize websites for search engines.

In practice, SEO doesn't require technical knowledge of algorithms or programming, but it does include a basic understanding of how search engines work. Recognizing the importance of search engines and knowing how they work is vital for SEO. Ergo, it's the search engines that we're going to get familiar with first.

A search engine – Google in this instance – uses software (referred to as spiders) that crawls the Internet by following links from one site to another. The spiders are designed to read the content of a site like us westerners read a newspaper. They start from the top left hand corner and will read the site content line by line from left to right.

When a spider encounters a link it can follow, it will record that link and send another spider to copy and record the content found on the site that the link leads to. The spider will proceed through the site until it records everything it can find. Google then judges the topic or theme of the documents the spiders are examining and distinguishes the topical relevancy of documents that are linked together and turns the information into a database.

When a person makes a Google search for specific keywords – i.e. used cars – the spider uses the collected information in its database to present the most relevant result for the search.

The results that come out of the search are split into two sections: sponsored links and organic results. The sponsored links found on the right-hand column are pieces of advertising that companies pay for. The organic results, which are not paid for, are in the left-hand column. These results are then displayed in order according to their page rank. Page rank is a value that Google assigns to a web page based on the importance of the page on the Internet. The importance is determined by the number of incoming links to that web page. This in its essence is how search engines and spiders work together to cater to your search needs.

This is just the first in a series of blog posts, which will be dedicated to SEO. In the near future, we will be discussing the various different SEO practices, why they are important for businesses and showing how you can optimize your search engine. Stay tuned!

Deck the web with boughs of holly!

Wednesday 11/18/09 time 10:43 AM - Sjoerd @Moogo

With the holidays coming up, people are starting to hang up their Christmas decorations. If you own a small business, then either you have already done it, or it is on this week's list.

And I'm also sure that you will take the decorations down in the first week of January, because you are not one of those people that lets their Christmas decorations hang around until mid spring. But do you do the same thing for your website? Do you keep your website up to date?

One of the most important things that keeps a website attractive is not the way it looks, but what it says. Make sure the information is up to date and correct. If you have an event announced on your page, then make sure to take it off after the event has taken place. If you have a temporary offer going on for your business, take it off as soon as the offer ends. If your business has moved to a new address, make sure to update it on the page. You don't want to miss out on customers, because they are at your old address!

I'm sure you get the picture by now. Update! Update! Update! This is Moogo after all, so it can be done in seconds!

A new office for a new team

Tuesday 11/17/09 time 9:33 AM - Sjoerd @Moogo

After a very warm welcome by the rest of team Moogo, we were shown our new office. It looked great; nice view, warm light, and enough space. One minor detail: it still needed to be painted.

When we asked when that was going to happen, our COO Kimmo answered ”Whenever YOU feel like it” and handed over a bucket of paint and a paint roller.

As you can see below, I think we got the message.

5 Tips on how not to scare your customer!

Monday 11/16/09 time 9:38 AM - Helena @Moogo

When having a business on your own, you probably know how much work it is to get everything working and attract your customers to buy your product. Hereby we give you some tips to make it easier for you to build an effective business website:

1. What do you do?

Have you ever gone to a website and then wondered for about 10 minutes what the website is about or what the company does? Yes, we have seen tons of this kind of company homepages, so make sure you don't make this mistake yourself.

Write clearly what it is that your company does. I suppose it's not the best scenario when your potential clients leave your site already because they fail to understand why you exist.

2. Communicate your brand

With Moogo you can change the top banner, as well as the color scheme of the whole website. So make sure that it really communicates what your business is about. Have your logo at the top and colors that match with your identity.

Also it is wise to think about the major keywords that you want your customers to remember when leaving your website. Therefore go through your site and check out if the messages delivered are the correct ones, e.g check how you describe your company, what's the tone of the language used on the website etc.

3. Keep it moderate with all the flash and audio clips

Yep, we know...it's very tempting to put all those eye-catching banners flashing on your website and music to the background. However, it is something that can seriously scare people off. You can have nice banners, but make sure that they don't distract your website visitors in getting the information that they want to get.

Certain music might go together with your corporate identity, but you have to be extremely careful with it, as your musical taste might not go together with your customers understanding of great music. You don't want the first thing that customers do on your website, is look for the “mute” button!

4. Be reachable!

So your customers know what you do and are interested in getting to know more. Make sure that it's easy for your potential customers to contact you! It's very easy with Moogo, as you can add your contact details directly to the side block, as well as to the main menu.

If you have different contacts for different purposes then make sure to mention that.
For example, sometimes the postal address does not match with the visiting address and you don't want to send a potential customer to find a closed door!

5.  Make it simple, clear and understandable

Your website visitors normally decide within just a couple of seconds if they want to stay on the site or not. So what are the defining factors?

• Have a clear structure for the website – use the menu options that Moogo has and don't confuse your visitors with too much overlapping information

• Don't force your visitors to make too many clicks for finding something specific on your homepage. If they need to go through too many pages to find their desired information, they will get lost and leave your site.

• Make your text look nice – don't use capital letters unless you really have to, use paragraphs to separate important information, use bold or italic text options only for stressing important information.

• Be careful with color schemes in text – too much colorful text might be too aggressive and scare your customers away.

And the winner is...Moogo!

Monday 11/16/09 - Heikki @Moogo

Austria, and the city of Graz, are mainly associated with the Styrian Alps and the winter sports that go along with the scenery. But over this winter weekend there was a welcomed change in the mountain air, as Europe's young entrepreneurial minds gathered to participate and compete in the 12^th annual Europrix Awards.

This fête for awarding successful multimedia projects was held November 13-16. The program included presentations from all the nominees, and speakers from Internet and Telecommunications giants Google and Nokia. Naturally it wasn't all work and no play, as during the days participants had the opportunity to experience the culinary delights and the pristine millieu of Graz.

The weekend culminated around Sunday's interactive gala where Moogo was awarded the Special Award. The award was presented to the project which has the best business potential.

Our CEO, Mikko Nurminen (pictured above holding the award with CTO Antti Ala-Ilkka and COO Kimmo Pekari), was obviously feeling jovial over the win. “This is a great recognition for us and Moogo. It wasn't the category that we were first nominated in, but it is the best one and a valuable notch on our belt”.

It's a boy! And a girl! And a boy!

Friday 11/13/09 time 9:31 AM - Sjoerd @Moogo

As more and more people join our free website service everyday, we need more people to keep up the quality of Moogo's service. This week our family has grown with the addition of three Community Managers, Heikki, Helena and Sjoerd. They will keep this blog up and running and provide you with all the latest news on new Moogo features and tips on how to improve your website. Also you will find here practical information on how to use our easy no nonsense free website building service and news items that are related to our service and your website.

Helena

Nothing like tooting your own horn

Friday 11/13/09 time 8:44 AM - Heikki @Moogo

We've got excellent news for the online world: Moogo has earned a spot at the top as we received a finalist nomination in the Europrix 09 contest. 

The Europrix Multimedia Awards operate as a platform for young professionals and students to display their innovative craft in the e-contents and design industry. The competition has been held since 1998, and has grown into a buzzing showroom where today's and tomorrow's talent network and showcase their work.

333 works of art from 31 different countries were submitted, and 20 of those were chosen for the final bout. The final will be held in Graz, Austria on November 13-14.

Moogo blog is now live

Thursday 10/29/09 - Moogo

Welcome to the Moogo blog!

Here you will find the latest news on new Moogo features and tips on how to improve your website. Also you will find extra help on how to use our easy no nonse free website building service, as well as news items that are related to our service and your website.

If you have not created your free, professional looking business or personal website yet, go to www.moogo.com now and instantly make your own site with a blog, photo albums, news and much more!

- The Moogo Team