Well, that didn’t take long. The summer headache arrived on Day One of “School is Out”.  Working from home has it’s challenges and this is definitely one of them. This year it arrived in all it’s glorious chaos on a Saturday – thank goodness for that at least.

It’s funny how the kids seem to think that summer equals no rules or anything goes. Sitcoms and cartoons, much? We’re mere hours into summer and I’ve already been put in the position of being the “mean mom” because my son invited friends swimming without asking. Yeah, well, it’s my house, and a pool in the backyard doesn’t mean you can just show up whenever without asking. (and it doesn’t really matter how hot it is or how bored you are – seriously school’s been out for less than 24 hours…)

I’m really not a mean mom – it’s just that my husband and I take the pool thing seriously and don’t let kids swim without supervision and that means a grown-up. Add the work from home dynamic and it’s a recipe for summer headaches. Our business doesn’t take summer vacation and while our schedule can be flexible – it’s not summertime abandon everything and swim all day flexible.

I guess this is what the parenting gurus call a teaching moment. (LOL)

This is something I’ve come across a time or two (or three) in my time in this business. And every time I encounter it – it makes me want to scream.

I filed this under SEO because, guess what? You can’t SEO without content – it’s all related…

Before I tell you the topic of this little rant, let’s take a look at what a website does. What is a website’s purpose? What makes up a website?

For most of my clients, their website is an online representation of what they do in their business. It contains information about their services, their products, likely some images, but the most prominent thing you will notice is text. That’s right, words. Words a lot like these. Words? Sure, no problem, we speak them, write them, type them, they’re everywhere.

But this is where it gets interesting. I’ve worked on sites where the design phase is awesome – it goes smoothly. Ideas flow and the client gives input and is involved in the process.  The design is built out and ready to go, but we can’t go live. Why not? Well, where’s the content? Seriously, how can you run a business when you can’t jot down a few words about what you do?

Here are some of the actual responses I’ve heard:

• Can’t you just make something up?
• Can’t we use what is on our old site, even thought it’s not really what we do?
• Let’s use what’s on XYZ’s site – they sort of do what we do.

None of these are viable. Let’s look at why.

Can’t you just make something up?

Sure, we’ll give a laptop to a room full of chimpanzees. They have fingers, so should be able to type. We won’t likely get many words, but it will be content. (pretty ridiculous, huh?)

Can’t we use what is on our old site, even though it ’s not really what we do?

Well, I suppose we can, if your true services and products are a secret, and you don’t want new business, that might make sense.

Let’s use what’s on XYZ’s site

Sigh. Such a bad idea. Plagiarizing wasn’t cool in school, and it’s not any cooler in business. Sort of is not good enough. Your content may be the only shot you have at a customer, so make sure it’s yours and make sure it’s accurate. After all,who are you promoting, your business or your competitor’s?

What it all boils down to: Content is simply the words used to tell your audience about what you do. Every market has terminology and a vocabulary that describes it’s activities. Use those industry terms along with the words your customer’s would use to describe your product or service.

Sit down and a make a quick list – I won’t even call it an outline (since that might be intimidating). List the core things you do. Then next to each one list the related things that go a little deeper and expand upon that item. Now list why you’re better than your competitor, what do you do that’s different? What benefit does your customer get from choosing you?

If that’s too hard, then put it in terms of your elevator pitch – you know the quick, short description you blurt out when  someone asks you what you do. What would you tell someone you wanted to impress about what you do?

That’s how you begin to create content for your site. The list you created, or your elevator pitch,  aren’t quite content, by themselves – but if you’re not a writer, it will be enough to give a good copywriter a place to start so they can develop your content. (oh, and they’ll need your input, too)

I’m sitting here a few days before Thanksgiving thinking about 2009 and the things I have to be thankful for. You know – it’s a lot.

My husband is wonderful – 20 years and we still feel newlywed. I’ve got 2 great kids. I’ve even spent a fair amount of time at the beach this year.  And business… Business has been good for us in spite of all the doom and gloom.  The more I think about it the more I know: It’s no accident, it’s not something that happens all by itself, it’s about the relationships and the people we work with, mastermind with and learn from.  I’ve been privileged, blessed and beyond.

And you know what?  2010 looks even better…

My son taught me something this last weekend at the beach. I watched him become an expert and I was struck by how simple it really is and the lesson was taught by a 12 year old.

First let’s define expert.

Expert: A person with a high degree of skill in or knowledge of a certain subject. (The Free Dictionary)

So, how did a 12 year old teach me on becoming an expert? It started with the beach. We like to spend time at the beach as a family, and fishing is something my husband and son have recently started doing together. Salt water surf fishing is quite different from fresh water fishing on a lake. You never know what you’ll catch. (sharks!)

My son was introduced to surf fishing a few months ago and he has taken to it with a single-minded passion I wish he’d use with his schoolwork. He became a sponge for fishing.

He’s learned his rod and reel, about bait and tackle, stringers, what works for bait, where the fish are in relation to the sandbars, about the lovely green water that happens in the Gulf with a North wind, slicks, schools of fish and more. When we arrived at the beach last week, his first move was to grab his gear, bait and hit the water.

Here’s the kicker: not only did he acquire this knowledge, he went out and applied it, seeking to learn more by testing and trying things. Then he passed on his new knowledge by teaching us what he learned.

How does this make him an expert? If you think about it, that’s what an expert is – someone who knows more about a topic than the general population. How do experts grow? They are passionate about what they do, loving the subject, loving learning more about it and wanting to share their information with others.

Chances are, you’re an expert at something, too.

After reading Andy Beard’s article about Premium WordPress themes (I’d already watched the StomperNet videos) – I decided to spend some time with Thesis (my favorite premium themes). My goal was to customize Thesis to be even better at SEO, using simple custom_functions.php.

First: those dreaded header links – Yep, Thesis has those, most blog themes do. So, what to do about them? We still need a header area, it’s prime real estate on the page and our visitors expect to see certain things in that area: branding, name, navigation and other elements. We also want users to have navigation options so they can move around our site easily.

By default, Thesis already renders the sidebars below the content – so we’re all good on that point. So, let’s move the navigation  that usually appears above the Thesis #header, so it appears in the source code below the content. This takes a bit of custom code – place it in your custom_functions.php file.

// first let's remove the default Thesis nav
remove_action ('thesis_hook_before_header', 'thesis_nav_menu' );
// now let's add it back where we want it
add_action('thesis_hook_after_footer', 'thesis_nav_menu');

Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to style your #header to be a bit taller so you can position the nav bar where it belongs, I like it below the header image. Here’s an example from one of my sites added in the custom.css file (you may have made other style changes, this one is stripped down to the minimum):

.custom #tabs {
 top: 108px;
 position: absolute;
}

Now upload your changes to the /custom folder of your Thesis theme and reload your site. You should see the nav bar below the header and when you view source, you should see the html for the navbar appearing after the footer. Here’s an example using Print Preview in the browser.

What’s this do? This makes the first links encountered on your page those found in the content of your site, rather than the shorter less descriptive default navigation links that usually precede the meat of your page. First Link Priority: This means you have greater control over the link text giving you more control over how the search engines see your pages.

You could also move the entire header area with site name and tagline to the bottom with a bit more tweaking.  There are more in depth changes that can be made to further enhance this on a site, which changes you make depend on how you use your site (as a cms or as a straight blog) this is just an overview to get you started thinking in that direction.

Not that it ever went away… but no more 301’s for this domain. Stompernet Live 8 hasn’t even been over for a week – and relaunching this domain as a full site is only the first of many things to implement. Please excuse the dust and such, while I move into this new site and get things situated. Obviously, this post is intentionally short.