Friday, December 5th, 2008
Many small business owners will use their old generic email address when doing business, even after they’ve spent money to buy a domain name. Sending an email to someone with a HotMail, Yahoo, or Gmail domain name is a sure sign that you don’t know what you are doing, that you are second rate, that you are not professional.
You should set up addresses like support@ and sales@ and information@, just to look professional.
Make sure that the web host that is hosting your web site can do email also. All of them should be able to. It’s not that hard. Take the time to go in a get it set up. Find out what the host name is there and set up the account.
Set up your email application to log into that account, then use it to send and receive email.
You should also have a “catch all” account that will probably get filled with spam, but you’ll also get those emails with misspelled email addresses that you might otherwise miss.
You should set up addresses like “support@” and “sales@” and “information@”, just to look professional. You, or someone, should be able to log in and send and receive email at each of your custom addresses.
Also, don’t let any address lay dormant. Make sure that someone is logging into every account, every 10 minutes. “I sent you an email last week. Did you get it?” is not the question you want to hear.
Posted in web host |
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
You should be aware of how your web site is doing out there in the real world. Google published a page with search tricks on it. It can do magic tricks. Very useful stuff out there. The whole page is located at:
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
The two that I want to point out are:
link: Find linked pages, i.e., show pages that point to the URL.
site: Search only one website or domain.
link:websitestarterkit.com
If you want to know who’s pointing at your site, where your incoming links are coming in from, search for “link:www.yourdomain.com”, without the quotes, of course. This will return all of the pages on all of the sites that have a link to your site.
If you want to know who's pointing at your site, where your incoming links are coming in from
You should go look at them and check what exactly they are using for the “link text”. That’s the actual text that a user will click to follow the link. You will be rated higher for the keywords in that link text.
You can ask the owners of those sites to change the text and maybe they will, if that will help you out for specific keywords. As much as you get good points for them using keywords, you also get bad points if all of the link text is identical. That make you look like you’ve automated it. There needs to be a certain organic-ness to the text so Google knows that there are real people putting them in.
site:websitestarterkit.com
The next good search is “site:” followed by your domain name. (No space after the colon, by the way.) This search will list all of the pages that Google has indexed from your site. Any URL for a page that starts with your domain name.
This is how you can be sure that Google has indexed all of the pages in your site. Check the “cache date” if they list that. You might be able to tell how often they spider your site. If you are a good blogger and post something new every day and you publish an XML site map for them, which is easy to do in WordPress, then they will probably be looking at your site often.
Posted in free |
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
All local business should have these 4 things on every page for people and search engines to read. Most sites these days are built on templates, so it’s easy to put in a footer or side bar containing all of these essential elements. All of these should be in text so that search engines can easily read them.
Your business name, a description of what you do, where you do it, who you do it for.
1. Your business name, a description of what you do, where you do it, who you do it for. Be short and to the point. They have other pages on the site for in depth information if they want more detailed information. This is for people to know at a glance what they are looking at.
2. Your address, phone number and email address. Be sure to put all of this information in full, including the street address, city, state and zip code. Put the area code with the phone number.
3. Hours that your business is open.
4. A list of cities you serve. If someone searches for the type of business that you have plus the city name, they can find it in the search engines.
Posted in marketing |
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Here are the three most critical questions to ask when you are shopping for a web hosting company. Support is the main one. Do they answer their email? Are they helpful? Do you get shuffled around?
Unlimited bandwidth and server space are not that critical. Don’t be swayed by those claims. Price and support. Again, I recommend Powweb. Click the button on the right to get more info about them.
The Shared Hosting Checklist | Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials – © Web Hosting Rating
Support
Customer service is a critical element of web hosting, especially if you are creating your first website. To make sure you get the benefit of quality support, you should find out if the company has a phone number, email address or live chat. You can take this one step further by making contact before signing up to judge their response time. If they take days to reply or blow you off completely, there is no need to waste your time.
Reviews
One way to find yourself a good shared host is to read reviews online. This should give you a good idea about who you will be dealing with and what to expect. At the same time, you shouldn’t rely solely on web hosting reviews. Some could be written by internal sources at a particular company while others could be written by competitors. If you want helpful reviews, try to get them from somebody you can trust to provide honest opinions.
Status
Every web host had to start somewhere, but it’s always a good idea to sign up with a company that has been in the business for a while. Several providers have crumbled despite seeming as if they were off to a good start. By doing business with trusted names with documentation to back up their claims, you can better assure that your experience with shared hosting will be a positive one.
Read the entire article at The Shared Hosting Checklist | Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials – © Web Hosting Rating
Posted in web host |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
A lot of times, a developer will register your domain name for you as a service and charge you the fee every year to renew it. That’s great if they are honorable people and there are no problems.
The real owner of any domain name is the Administrative Contact in the whois record
The real owner of any domain name is the “Administrative Contact” in the “whois” record. They are the person or business that has the legal ownership. You can go to court and prove ownership with this.
If your developer is listed as that admin contact, then they are the legal owner. Again, this is nice that they are helping you out, but be aware that you are vulnerable to having your domain name held hostage, or worse, stolen from you.
This is the “whois” that I use. It’s from an old registrar that I no longer use because they quit responding to all communication from me. They were horrible. But, I still use their whois look up because they are no flashing ads or captchas to slow me down. I’ll share their secret look up page with you.
Check who owns your domain name here.
If you are not listed for your domain name, take steps to change that or have it changed. Make sure that your email address is also listed. If someone hijacks your email account, they can have your password sent to them, log in and change the admin contact to themselves and steal your domain name.
Send me email if you want any help with checking on this.
Posted in web host |
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
1. Shared – This is a server that is shared by multiple web sites. You get to put your web sites on there, along with everyone else.
This is a server that is shared by multiple web sites.
You share the hard drive space and you share the bandwidth. You have privacy. Everyone can only see their own files. Upside – these are the cheapest out there, maybe $5 to $30 a month. Downside – if someone else uses a lot of bandwidth or has CPU intensive scripts, then your site might be affected. You usually have less bandwidth on a shared server.
This is your own personal piece of hardware that you drive down to the hosting company
2. Collocated – This is your own personal piece of hardware that you drive down to the hosting company and they put it on their rack and plug it into their bandwidth. Upside – you can do anything you want and have complete control over the entire machine. All you are really paying for is the bandwidth. Downside – all you are paying for is the bandwidth. You have to back it up. You have to fix any problems. You have to manage the whole thing your self. If a hard drive fails, you have to buy a new one and replace it your self. You own the machine.
You get the entire machine, usually with more access to it than with a shared server.
3. Unmanaged Dedicated – This is their machine that you are renting from them. They give you file space and bandwidth. You get the entire machine, usually with more access to it than with a shared server. Upside – you get huge bandwidth and all of the CPU. You can run a lot of traffic through one of these. They can handle probably 500,000 page views a day. You want one of these if you have a huge site with a lot of traffic. Downside – they are expensive. They might be $200-$500 a month. You want a Ferrari, you pay for a Ferrari.
The hosting company will all monitor the server for you and fix things if they go wrong.
4. Managed Dedicated – These are the as Unmanaged Dedicated servers, except the hosting company will all monitor the server for you and fix things if they go wrong. If you have a large commercial site that MUST be up all the time, then you want one of these babies. Upside – these can handle anything, all the time. Downside – you guessed it, much more expensive.
If your site has little traffic, you won’t need the power of a dedicated server. If you are not a geek, then you probably don’t need to collocate your own server. If you are not running a huge commercial site, you probably don’t need a dedicated server.
I use these guys and they give me enough bandwidth and customer service to make me happy. I don’t promote anyone else, just Powweb.
Posted in web host |
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
No matter what kind of web site you are creating, no matter what size or what content, it’s always best to plan out what you need to do before you do anything.
I always start with a planning document. It can be formal or informal. It just needs to have all of the information you need in a way that makes sense to you.
It's always best to plan out what you need to do before you do anything.
Start out with the technical, web hosting issues. What is the domain name? Where will it be hosted? Are there any other technical requirements like SQL or PHP? You may not know all of these right now, but be aware of them. They might cause problems later if you don’t plan for them now.
Once you have a handle on the technical issues, which will take way more time to explore, the next step is a site map. This might be called the site architecture or site plan. There are various names for it.
You need to have a list of every page on the site and a description of the content for every page. You also need to know the relationships of each page, which will be defined with the menus.
Most sites have a list of things that are exactly the same on each page, so we call this the template. These things would be the header and footer, the sidebars, and the logo. Whatever else you might have can be put into the template.
If your site has nothing common on each page, then you’re better off creating them individually. You still need to make the site map.
You can make this list as a text outline or as a graphic with little boxes and lines running between them. Use whatever tools you have that make sense to you.
Posted in web site build |
Monday, November 17th, 2008
Do you want a web site, but don’t know where to start? You’re smart, but don’t have the information you need? That’s why I wrote the Web Site Starter Kit.
I've created a new site for the Web Site Starter Kit.
It will be an eBook that will walk you through everything you need to know to get a web site up and running, which is why I named it the
Web Site Starter Kit. It is written for people who know they need a web site, but don’t know the first thing about how to get one or manage it once it’s there. The
Web Site Starter Kit will tell you the technical background if you want to know the details, but it will also tell you the quick and dirty method.
Web Site Starter Kit will outline the step by step tasks you need to do to make a great site happen quickly and cheaply.
If you are trying to start a web site, build a web site, this will help. If you already have a web site, this will also give you a checklist of things to make it better.
We’ll talk about SEO, search engine optimization. That the general term for all the little things that you can do for free to get your site up higher in the search engine results pages. Build traffic to your site from the search engines. Web Site Starter Kit will give you all this information and more.
Posted in web site build |
Monday, November 17th, 2008
I just got a new domain name. I actually bought it and had to transfer it to my own registrar.
In order to transfer domain names these days, you have to log into your account, get a couple of codes, a transaction code and a security code, from your domain name registrar and make the request to transfer. The codes are emailed to you so they can confirm that you have access to the email account listed in your registration.
Usually the transfer of a domain name is pretty straight forward, as long as you jump through the hoops they set up for you.
Then you have to go to the other registrar, and get an EPP code from them. That one is emailed to you as the current owner of the domain name.
That works if you are the owner that you are transferring from. If you are getting the domain from another person, then they have to get that EPP code and send it to you. You have to put the EPP code into your account and that will complete the transfer request.
Then, the fun part is waiting for the other registrar to get around to sending you the actual domain name.
If you are trying to get a domain name out of Network Solutions, you have to make a phone call and talk to their high pressure salesman, support person. After they try to sell you on staying, they will finally allow the transfer. If there is any way possible to not have anything to do with Network Solutions, stay as far away from them as possible.
Usually the transfer of a domain name is pretty straight forward, as long as you jump through the hops they set up for you. The hassle is actually for your own good. (I sound like my mother.) It it supposed to make it harder for bad guys to steal domain names away from you.
The latest scam that I heard of is if they get your email account log in, which is sometimes not that hard to do (Sarah Palin), then they can have your registrar send your password as a forgotten password. With your email account and your registrar password, they initiate the transfer, send the codes, approve the transfer, and wait for your domain name. Then you get an email asking you for $2000 to get your domain name back.
Keep your email account secure. Use obscure passwords, like my email password is w958hd)… Ha! Did you really think I would give you my password?
Posted in web site build |
Monday, November 17th, 2008
This is the new site that I’ve created for the Web Site Starter Kit. It will be an eBook that will walk you through everything you need to know to get a web site up and running, hence the name – Web Site Starter Kit. It is written for people who know they need a web site, but don’t know the first thing about how to get one or manage it once it’s there. The Web Site Starter Kit will tell you the technical background if you want to know the details, but it will also tell you the quick and dirty method. Web Site Starter Kit will outline the step by step tasks you need to do to make a great site happen quickly and cheaply.
If you are trying to start a web site, build a web site, this will help. If you already have a web site, this will also give you a checklist of things to make it better.
We’ll talk about SEO, search engine optimization. That the general term for all the little things that you can do for free to get your site up higher in the search engine results pages. Build traffic to your site from the search engines. Web Site Starter Kit will give you all this information and more.
Posted in web site build |
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Before you do anything else on this page, let’s go back to that list of keywords that we created before you went to bathroom. Remember them? In our example, we were going to use “auto repair torrance”. If that’s what we were going to use, then I would make the username on this page “auturepairtorrance”. We want to have all of the keywords in the URL of our site. That’s SEO trick number one.
That would cost you $25 from an SEO expert.
What are your keywords? Pick the 3 that best describe your business. How will people most likely find you in the search engines? If this was printed, I’d make some empty space below, but since I don’t want you writing on your computer screen, go find a piece of paper and write some down. I’ll wait here.
Just pick the obvious ones. Quite trying to over think it. Yes, this may determine whether you drive a Ferrari or sleep on a park bench, but just pick them. Come on. I’m waiting. No pressure, but…
OK. Are you back now? Let me see what you picked. Ah. Good. Are you sure about that one? OK. I’ll buy that. Those will work fine.
In my example above, using “Auto Repair Torrance” as keywords, I actually set up http://autorepairtorrance.wordpress.com/ to make sure this would work. It took a while to get it indexed by Google, but I linked to it from a couple other sites that I have. That’s the easiest way to get it indexed, by the way, not submitting it. After about 3 weeks, it’s #5 on the search results page for that search. Try it. Auto Repair Torrance
Posted in web site build |
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Now, back to the WordPress page. See where it says “Username”? Type in your three keywords, in order of importance. Now put in a password. No, not the name of your cat.
Bam. There it is.
Use numbers and letters and make sure you can remember it. There. That’s good. Put it in again, to make sure you didn’t make a typo, not that you would ever do that.
Put in your email address so they can send you a confirmation email to activate your account. They want to make sure you are a real person. Check the legal flotsam, tell them you want your blog and click “Next”. Bam. There it is.
Posted in web site build |
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
There are a ton of web hosting companies out there. You will probably not get the traffic that requires some huge, bullet proof servers and bandwidth. You’ll be fine with a shared server and a lot of bandwidth.
Small business web hosting has become so easy and common that it’s a commodity these days. You want to look for price first, but the determining factor now are reliability, customer service and ease of use.
Reliability
When I first started to publish a fan site at survivor.com, I was getting a huge amount of traffic. I bought space at PowWeb, who I use now, and was fairly happy with them for the most part. They advertised “unlimited bandwidth”, so we were cool with the huge traffic spike every Thursday night.
Customer Service
That is, until it all stopped. One day, they decided that I had too many connections within a specific time, so they just turned it off. I had no site. I was furious. Of course, I found this out after I got home from work and their office was closed. I was screwed.
When I did contact them, they pointed out some fine print in that “unlimited bandwidth” section of the terms and conditions. They could shut me off any old time they wanted to with no warning. I was still furious.
Ease of Use
I shopped around and decided it was time to get a dedicated server with a specified amount of bandwidth. I was making good enough money to pay for it and it seemed like it was time to take the plunge. I had a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. I signed the year long contract and had the server set up. I found that the interface was horrible. I couldn’t manage the domain names the way I wanted to set them up. I didn’t have access to the MySQL settings. There were all sorts of little nuisances that I didn’t have with the shared server.
I was shocked at how hard it was to manage this thing. I couldn’t do half the things that I could with the shared server. I canceled the contract and asked for my money back. It took them 60 days to get that back to me.
I’m sure that there are better dedicated servers out there, just like there are worse shared servers. The key is to get in and play around with whatever you buy. Make sure that you can do what to do with it and that it’s easy. They have gotten much better today, so you shouldn’t have any problems, but you might.
After that fiasco, I went back to PowWeb, since I had paid for a year of their service. It seems that as soon as I decided that, they changed their terms of service and were promoting the amount of bandwidth they include. They no longer can decide arbitrarily, but they have a specified amount of bandwidth you can use. They tell you how much you’ve used and when you might run out.
I feel much better about being told that I have a “Monthly limit: 15400.00 GB” than it being “Unlimited”. That makes me a little nervous. (I just checked and they are advertising “Unlimited” again. Hmmmm…) Since I went back to them, they’ve given me absolutely no trouble at all. They’ve been 100% reliable. I’ve been able to do everything I need to. I’ve recommended them to clients who are also happy with them.
I would recommend PowWeb 100%.
There are other good, cheap hosts out there. I have nothing against any of them. Check them out. Make sure you can do what you want and that they give you a money back guarantee.
DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH NETWORK SOLUTIONS!.
Posted in web site build |
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
DO NOT USE NETWORK SOLUTIONS FOR ANYTHING, EVER!
Registering a domain name is pretty cheap and easy. There are a couple pitfalls that could kill you if you’re not careful, but if you watch out for them, it’ll all be fine.
First, you should understand how the whole DNS thing works. You don’t need to, but it helps to know what you’re doing.
Manage Your Own Domain Name
You might have a technical guy handling all of this computery stuff for you, and that’s cool, but you need to make sure that you have the domain name registered in your name, on your account. You need to have control over the domain name registration as much as you need to have the key to the front door of your house. You need to have the userID and password to the account that manages the domain name.
I’ve heard of people having their developer manage it for them, then running into a conflict with the developer some how and the domain name gets held for ransom. You don’t need to do much with the domain name registration, but when you need to make that one critical change to move to a new web host or a new developer, then you need the keys to that kingdom.
If you set up the registration account, then make sure that your email is the one on file with them. When you share the password with the developer, so he can manage it for you, he’s able to change the password. The only way to protect yourself from that is if you can hit that “Forget your password” link and have the new password emailed to you. Make sure you own everything. Don’t let anyone else help you out with this one. Do it yourself.
Make Sure You Can Transfer It
The other area where you can be vulnerable is with the ability to transfer your domain name to another registrar. The reason that Network Solutions is so evil is that they make you actually call them and listen to a sales pitch before they will release your domain name for transfer. It should be a simple process of logging in, asking for the transfer, responding to some emails and being on your way. It should take 5 minutes to transfer.
My nightmare experience was with JumpDomain. They were great in the old days. They were the cheapest that I could find and the admin interface was powerful adn easy to use. I registered probably 100 domain names with them over the years that I was with them. I recommended them to friends also. (Sorry!)
The trick to transfers is that the registrar has to approve it. They have to send you a code for each domain name. This rule was put in place to prevent unauthorized transfers by bad guys. I appreciate that, but the system better work.
Then, one dark and stormy night, I had a problem with one of the domain names. I opened a help desk ticket on it, asking them to fix the error on their end. No answer. I opened another ticket. No answer. Waited and waited. Sent email. I looked up their WHOIS contact info and sent emails. No response. Over all, I waited a couple months for any kind of response. I did some research and decided to move them all to GoDaddy. I had about 40 names to move at that point.
I finally did some research and found that they were using Enom for their registration. I emailled, then called Enom and explained the situation. They finally emailed me the codes and I was able to transfer them to GoDaddy. Total time to transfer: 3 months.
I learned that prices change and you should always shop around instead of just renewing every year. I learned that the registrar can kill you if they want to, so pick wisely. Admin interfaces can improve, so get the easy to use interface. If you don’t like it, transfer to somewhere else.
GoDaddy seems to be the best and the cheapest, right now. That may change in the next month or two. Network Solutions is horrible. Never, ever, use them. Enom was helpful to me, but they have had some questionable stories told about them. Ask a friend. Ask on line. Ask in forums. Ask me.
Shop around and don’t get bit.
Posted in web site build |
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
So you think you need a web site for your small business. You’re right. If you don’t have one by now, you’re behind the curve. If you have one that sucks, you need to make it better.
Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through the steps to get one up and running. The overview of the process contains the following steps:
1. Register a domain name.
2. Find a web hosting company.
3. Set up the domain name to point at the web host.
4. Design the web site.
5. Develop the web site.
6. Post them to the web host.
7. Maintain it.
There are a lot of companies out there promising to do it all for you for cheap, but be careful of who you give your money to and what you get stuck with. There are deals and there are dangers.
The first rule of web site development is DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH NETWORK SOLUTIONS!. They are evil. They will suck you into a black hole of fees and never let you go. They are the La Brea tar pits of the Internet.
Each of the steps above has it’s own page dedicated to it and they are many other resources out there on the web for information about each subject.
Posted in web site build |
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
The Internet is a bunch of computers that all send little packets of data back and forth between each other. The computer that you are reading this on is one of them.
Each computer must have some sort of identifier so that it knows where to send the data to and so that other computer knows where to send it back to. These identifiers are called “IP Addresses”. IP stands for “Internet Protocol”. The address itself looks like this: 63.74.159.145. I’m sure you’ve seen something like that somewhere before.
But when you want a web page, you don’t tell your web browser to go get data from an IP address. You use a “domain name”, like “www.google.com” or “www.walton.com”. That domain name needs to be “resolved”. It’s got to be translated into an IP address so the data knows where to go. That all happens behind the scenes.
I’ll go through all the steps that happen so you’ll know what you need to do to get your own domain name set up without being taken advantage up by low life registrars. More about them later.
When you type in a domain name into your browser and hit enter, your computer goes and asks another server, called a “DNS” or “Domain Name Server” what the IP address is for that domain name. When your computer knows the IP address, it sends off the request and receives that answer back. In this case, the request is for a file that creates the web page in your browser.
Before I go farther, two terms you need to know are “client” and “server”. Each is a computer that can talk to other computers. The difference is that a “client” sends a request, while a “server” responds to requests. One asks and the other answers. Any computer can be either, or both, a client and a server.
Web pages are only one type of request, but probably the most common type. There are time servers that only respond with the time. There are Instant Message servers that sit between two people and send IMs to each of them as they are received. DNS responds to domain names with IP addresses.
So how does that DNS know what IP address is correct? From the “Root Servers”, of course! (No, they don’t serve roots.) There are 13 root servers that contain all of the information for each domain name that has been registered. Yes, they are pretty critical.
When a request for a domain name is received by a root server, it only knows which DNS to go ask for the IP address. DNS servers (Yes, the S is redundant, but who wants to call them “DN servers”?) are also called “name servers”.
Too many technical names? I think I got them all out so I can stop now.
The DNS are located all over. Anyone can have one. I have one here. Anyone can provide the service for you if you really wanted. Now, the DNS manages the relationship between the domain name and the IP address. Root servers know which DNS to ask and the DNS knows the IP. There are local DNS for each computer that needs to look up stuff. There are DNS that have authority over specific domain names.
The root servers get their information from “domain name registrars”. (That’s not really a technical name, so it doesn’t count.) You’ll hear people talking about their “registrar”. GoDaddy.com is one. Networksolutions.com is also one, but they are evil, so NEVER, EVER use them for anything. Did I mention that before?
A registrar will charge you some money per year to register your name. They usually provide a web interface so that you can manage what the name servers are for that domain name. They might provide the DNS for you and they’ll let you manage that too. The strength of that interface and what it will allow you to do is very important.
So, to review, you type in a domain name into your web browser. Your web browser asks the local DNS what the IP address is. If the local DNS doesn’t know, it asks the Root Server, which then tells it which DNS has authority for that name. Your local DNS then asks the DNS with authority, which then responds with the correct IP address. The web browser then sends off the web page request to the proper web server to get the web page.
All of that happens in the blink of an eye, which is a technical term for “under 200 milliseconds”.
Posted in DNS |
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
They will grab any name you search for. I’ve had a client go look for names for a new site we were building. They had some ideas and wanted to check them out. 2 days later, they came back and said that the one they wanted was available, but was now taken.
We're Waiting...
I asked her where she looked for them and she told me she used Network Solutions to search. As I checked into it, I found that Network Solutions had registered the name and would gladly give us the registration IF we registered with them.
That means that we had to pay $36 a year to register instead of $8 at GoDaddy, who we wanted to use. It cost us $28 more just because she used Network Solutions to search for available domain names.
In the past, I used a great small service for registration. They were great until they quit responding to emails and their help desk. I’ll tell that horror story in another post, but they did have a nice, easy to use “whois”, the tool you can use to look up domain name registrations. There’s no captcha. No advertising. There’s just the form.
If you want to look up domain names, use this WHOIS form.
Posted in web site build |
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Why The World Isn’t Listening – Small Business Branding Written by Ed Roach
How many of your clients believe they are an apple ripe for the picking? They believe in the old adage, “build it and they will come” – literally.
Based on a comment to the post written by Krishne De entitled, Getting Your Website Found Online, I was inspired to write this post. The point of the comments were that there are a great many businesses who believe that having that website or blog is all you should have to do to get an audience.
I'm Not Listening To You!
The actual post told of businesses who want that magic bullet to success. You know – the – what is the tricks and techniques to instant results? What is it, that would lead any of us to believe that this solution exists? In the many years I’ve been in business, nothing comes easily. It takes work and perseverance.
How in the world is anyone supposed to find you if you do nothing to tell anyone that you are there? Googling is not enough, don’t bet the farm on SEO (but don’t ignore it either). You have to get out there. Do your research. You can’t generate an income without some sales effort. There are some great books on promoting yourself on and offline. Read them and FOLLOW THEM. Having your base marketing in place is a great start, but you have to realize that you must consistently and repeatedly push your brand out into the world. Take every opportunity to develop your brand so that it returns a respectable income for you and your company.
Posted in web site build |
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
How to explain “URLs” so anybody can understand them – easyDNS Blog
One of our tech support guys just had a conversation with somebody who wanted “to register the URL http://example.com/something.html”, where example.com was already registered, the person couldn’t understand why he couldn’t have that URL with “something.html” after it.
We’ve heard variations of this one a lot. Like somebody who knows “xyz.zz” is taken “but can I register “www.xyz.zz?”, no, you can’t.
The easiest way to explain a URL such as this one: http://www.example.com/something.html
Is to think of it as HOW, then WHERE and finally WHAT:
| http:// |
« how? |
The method we are going to use to retrieve or “get to” the document described by the URL. Common ones are “http” (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol), you may also see “ftp://” or “mailto:” |
| www.example.com |
« where? |
This is the hostname of the server, somewhere on the internet, which is holding the document we actually want |
| /something.html |
« what? |
Finally, after we know what server we are looking for and how we’re going to retrieve the document from it, we now specify exactly which document we want off of the remote server. |
Understand those three components and you basically have URLs down cold.
Your web browser (firefox, safari, IE, Opera) is all about “how”, what protocols to use to pull all these documents over the web to your desktop.
The web host is the “what” machine. It sits on a server and serves document after document to remote web browsers who send it requests.
Something has to bridge the browser to the web host/server and that’s the “where”, that’s where DNS and domains come in, and that’s primarily what we do here at easyDNS. We tell web browsers (and other client applications) the “where” aspect of retrieving and transmitting documents (the “whats”) across the internet. We do this via “DNS lookups” …about a quarter billion times a day.
Read the entire article at How to explain “URLs” so anybody can understand them – easyDNS Blog
Posted in web site build |
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
You should use keywords in page titles. The title tag is different from a Meta tag. Whatever text one places in the title tag will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also append whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or OPERA.
Search Results Pages, Your Bread and Butter
One of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page is the actual text you use in the title tag. In addition, all major search engines will use your title tag as the title of your page in your listings.
Each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content may draw traffic to each individual page.
The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.
The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first build their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Most of your prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site.
It is probably a waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. You should consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will do better in the search engine listings.
Posted in SEO |
