Web and Business articles

Recently, I have started to utilize the google local business center. My first encounter with this feature arrived after searching for competing keywords. When I saw the search results, there was a box of the map with business listings. So I thought to myself. Hmmmm. People see local listings before organic listings and thus would click those more often.

It just made sense. Being high in organic listings was not enough because now there was a listing with business names and phone number. The sweat off my forehead hit the table. I quickly plunged into the google local center and signed myself up.

After a couple of days, I saw no response and my ad was not showing up. Uh-Oh where did it all go wrong. As I read my listing I realized my mistake. I put my business/company name in the listing instead of keywords.

So here is the lesson: PUT KEYWORDS + COMPANY NAME IN GOOGLE LOCAL.

Glad to announce that the service of googlerankings.com is back up. Hurray! Search away guys.

It is sometimes hard to gauge at the competition of your keyword you are going for. Most keywords are used as anchor text in backlinks or link exchange. Anchor text is the phrase/word used between the anchor link tags. Example,ANCHOR TAG. By placing the anchor tag between the links, you are telling google that “XYZ site” is about “Anchor tag”. The link and word used therefore get weighted more for your website.

So in the google search bar, type in inanchor:"Key word”. This will tell all the links that have your keyword. Higher the results could correlate to tough competition as people want to be ranked high for that term.

Till next time.

A problem that I had run into is trying to get Google Mail Application to work with Hostexcellence mail settings. Since hostexcellence is not yet part of google yet, I had to figure out the hard way. So here it is.

This is the list of Googles Servers:

MX Server address Priority
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 10
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 20
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 20
ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30
ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30
ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30
ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. 30

1) Log into your Hostexcellence acount and click on the domain you want to change
2) Click on the “Edit” button beside “DNS configuration”
3) Remove any custom MX records that exist
4) Click “Add Mx Record”

Now here is where I messed up.
5)Leave the name field empty. The data field is where you insert the Google MX Server address. and in Priority insert the respective number.

I hope this helps.

Enjoy

Another victim in the domain buy out is googlerankings.com. The ever lasting domain that provided excellent SEO tools to determine your rank, back links etc… has now been taken over by this stupid company that has just posted up ads.

This happened to me 2 years when I ranked a domain #1 for a specific keyword. I went on vacation and never pre-authorized the domain. I came and back and to my surprise my domain had ads of viagara.

My condolences go out to the googlerankings.com team. I hope you guys come up somewhere else.

There is big problem that I am running into as I build strong one way backlinks. The primary way to get strong one way back links is to purchase them. I find it is the best way to get them, rather than sending out millions of emails to people that will just dump them in the trash.

But the problem is guaging at the quality of the website. I have come up with some methods to determine if websites with one way link building are any good.

First, check the age of the domain. Search “internet archive” in google to view the history. Most people just buy high PR domains thats have expired and put up a splash page. I made a mistake of doing this and paid a high price. When google index bot came around, the website got stuck with a pr of 0. I was shit out of luck. So look at the history of the website.

Second, look at the google cache of the webpage. Google cache is a snapshot of the website that includes the text and design. This will tell you if the design of the website is well implemented and what text they do have. Most websites that are poorly designed will not get cached well and will just end up looking horrible to the google bot.

I hope these tips helps.

It is hard to drive free traffic to your website. Webmaster have developed many new techniques over the past year to increase website traffic. Not all ideas have had much success but lets take a look at what has.

The best type of marketing is one that is completely free. This free marketing comes at the cost of your customers. Viral Marketing. Viral marketing is basically considered word of mouth. It is the best type of advertising because it builds credibility, trust and most of all free.

Scenario 1:

Joe tells Sheryl about widgets. Sheryl trust Joe about the widgets and buys them.

Scenario 2:

Sheryl see’s an ad on T.V. Turns on Young and the restless and forgets about widgets.

Everyone trusts his or her good buddies about anything. Think to the last time how much your friends had an influence on your decision making?

Go ahead tell a Freind

Most websites over look this script to generate viral marketing. Webmasters think their visitors will call their friends and have a slumber party about the product/service. But here is the catch. That is too much work for your visitors to do.

So make it easy for them. Implement a “tell a friend” script instead. This is a simple program that allows your visitors to fill out a form and send your offers to your friend. Placement of these scripts should be on your product offering page or sales page.

New scenario:
Sheryl gets an email from Joe about widgets. Her attention is caught and she click the link in the email that points to your products. That increases your chances of closing a sale.

It might be a slow start but “telling a friend” can go a long way for your web business.

Many webmaster’s start a website and within couple of weeks loose momentum. The website goes to a tropical wasteland “it could have been this, or could have been that”. The main reason for this death, is the lack of planning.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail
- Some Smart man

When you start a website keep in mind what exactly you want to accomplish. Write down all the ideas that pop in your head and organize them into sections. Take each section and turn that into a category where you will update it.

Optimize your website

The next step to this process is optimizing for revenue. First, take a look at what is offered. The most popular revenue generator is adsense developed by Google. Google adsense places small text link ads on your site or banner ads. The ads are customized to your liking and can vary. After you have created your ad, you can place the code in each category of your website. Google will then cater proper ads in regard to your content.

The internet is growing rapidly and is outperforming magazine and newspaper ads. So this mean there is a lot of untapped resources and websites that can benefit from the heavy ad investment.

Most websites, if not all, depend on traffic. Not just any traffic but loyal traffic. This loyal traffic is key for you’re the success of your online sales effort. The returning visitors are aware of your offerings and familiar with your online shopping process. Familiarity increases trust. Hence increasing your websites credibility. So here are some tips to implement in your website design.

Interact with website users: i.e. forums

A forum is a great avenue for your visitors to share opinions on many different matters. When web users start to share their opinion, each of the users develops a community feeling and a sense of belonging. Either it be your product or service, your website customers know their voices are being heard.

Curiosity for your visitors

It is the hot new sensation on the internet. It gets everyone wired up and become addicted to it. I am referring to a web Blog. Creating a blog can be very beneficial as it will give your website a human touch. It will allow them to see the person behind the company and allow them to connect with the product or service.  If you are selling a product you are able to release updates and talk about hurdles. This way the customer is always kept in the loop and can see the dire efforts done by your online web business.

Feedback: polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are one of the most overlooked factors on any website but yet they provide the most crucial information. A lot of business owners feel that it deters visitors by asking so many questions. It does, but only if you make the questionnaire long and boring. Make your surveys short and straight to the point. I always follow the rule of KISS(Keep it Simple Stupid). Moreover, provide incentives for visitors to join the survey. Every response could direct you towards a successful future.