We judge your web & can hijack your good name

I’ve been over here in the lab today practicing my advice giving skills. I also wanted to take a new screen capture software for a test-drive so here below you’ll find a video I made from the free version (Windows) of Debut Video Screen Capture from NCH Software

While listening to a web audio podcast of High Velocity Radio I heard 4 local restaurateurs discuss their business in a roundtable chat. I frequent 3 of the 4 as a customer and fan, and the show hosts are pals too. Several times today the name of a “media-marketing -PR” person came up and mentioned favorably. Who is this Jessica Thomas? It seems that I need to know more.

Now if you want to know more about a person, business, topic or place where do you go? One of the panel was a decidedly loyal client and gave a shout-out to Jessica and referred her website JesicaThomasPR.com. I had to have a look.

It first glance I was not sure I was in the right place. Soon I had click through the simple navigation a surmised that Jessica, like nearly every business person, was much better at what they do than designing for and promoting themselves.

As a video freak I am always looking at those 1st. Oh no, another YouTube. This is an instant red flag to me.  YouTube is awesome for driving traffic TO your site, but can definately cause trouble ON your site.

Now, I know the actual work that Jessica does is tops, as her clients are raving fans.  Her web presence however is not doing her any favors, at least not yet.   I am here to help move this ball forward.  I’m doing it because, 1. I learn from it, 2. you learn from it, and 3. Jessica, and others, may find that I have certain information and skills that are needed down the road.

To research a web entity I look at  whois, Google, Twitter, Alexa, LinkedIn, and many more.  As I did all this I made a video which shows my exact moves.  If you watch you’ll see me actually register Jessica’s domain name as MY twitter account.  Don’t let this happen to you. If your twitter name or business name is available then get now. [Get your children and grandchildren too. They'll thank you later]

Enough of this text business.  On with the video, which you will notice is NOT on YouTube.com. (But, I’m saving the Amazon S3 hosting for another day)

Well, I love complicating things and this post has a lot going on.  Ignoring the content for a second, the video made from the new (to me) software is recorded directly into Flash flv format and the quality is not that good. The points however are made and understandable.

I’m not experienced with doing a critique on a site in this manner and am not sure of how it will ‘play’. On some level I think that I do this type of thing, perhaps subconsciously, on every webpage I see. So do you.

This exercise has make me realize the many times in the past that others have been looking at all the html I’m hanging out there and how many pages I wish I’d improved or removed long ago.

The best advice I have for anyone is to get something online, and do it sooner rather than later. Jump before you’re ready. Jessica may have work to do to improve this project but she’s got the ball rolling. The most important work (with customers) is getting done. The little improvements that will help build the online resource aren’t hard to implement.

Secondly, ( the dirty little secret) there is no end to this. If you get everything perfect today, it will be outdated tomorrow. Designs, strategies, content and technologies are constantly changing. The top organic search rankings will slide down and off the list if they’re not constantly tended. Someone has work to do.

Now. If you’ve made through all this you’re bound to have some ideas or questions for the bozo that wrote this stuff. What insight or value can you offer to Jessica, to me, or to the other souls that drift through this neighborhood? Don’t hold back, post a comment.

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