There is a big difference between web design and search engine optimization. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. In today’s business world around 60% of success depends upon the company’s appearance. Getting your website designed and hosted is step 1 – the apples.
So now that your site is up, have you been wondering why you haven’t received more calls or emails from your site? Here is where Search Engine Optimization comes in. Search engine optimization or SEO is basically a technique to put a website on top of various search engines. When somebody searches for a specific search term in Google, Yahoo or MSN, websites showing on top of the SERPS are the ones most likely to be visited by the users. This is what SEO aims to give to a specific website owner or a business owner. Marketing and SEO for your website is step 2 – the oranges.
When you hire someone to design and create a website, ask them if they also do SEO. Some companies do, but you must note that this is a separate and comprehensive service and fee all of its own. If they don’t you can choose to tackle some of it yourself!
Whether you choose to hire your website designer OR a separate SEO company OR decide to optimize search engines for yourself, here is the Top Ten SEO Checklist!
1) Proper Title Tags: Well-constructed title tags contain the main keyword for the page, followed by a brief description of the page content. Make it less than 65 characters and avoid using stop words such as: a, if, the, then, and, an, to, etc. Your title tag should also be limited to the use of alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and commas.
2) Proper Description Tags: Good description tags contain information about the page’s content and persuade search engine users to visit your web site. They should be between 25 and 35 words in length.
3) Proper Keywords Tags: Your keywords meta tag should contain between 5-10 keywords or keyword phrases that are also found in page content.
4) Proper Heading Tags: Each page of your site should use at least the H1 heading tag for the search engines that examine it when crawling your site.
5) Page Content: Pages should have between 300 and 700 words of descriptive content that contains the keywords specified in the keywords meta tag for the page. A page’s meta tag keywords should also be those that occur most frequently on the page.
6) Proper Navigation: Each page of your site should contain links to every other page so search engine spiders can find every page. This is a critical step for the proper indexing and page rank distribution of your site.
7) Proper Sitemap: It’s important to use two site maps for your website–an XML version and a static version. The XML version can be created with Search Engine Visibility’s site map tool. The static version should sit on a static HTML page and contain links to every other page.
8) Controlled Crawling: It’s important that search engine spiders find your robots.txt file that guides spiders to pages and directories you want crawled and denies entry to protected areas of your site.
9) Duplicate Content/Tags: Because search engines treat web sites as a grouping of pages and not a single entity, each page on your site should be unique so that the tags and content differ between each page. Doing so increases the number of pages that will rank.
10) Word Density: Pages should contain 300 to 700 words of unique and descriptive content.
HOW TO CREATE A BUSINESS PAGE ON FACEBOOK
HOW TO CREATE A BUSINESS PAGE ON FACEBOOK
If there is one conclusion I can garner from my Computer Icon clients is that FACEBOOK IS CONFUSING!!!
First of all you have to understand the purpose. It is a social network service where users may create a personal profile, exchange messages, get notifications from friends, find out about events, and join common interest groups among other things.
But the question now is …. How can I market my business and services on facebook?
There are 3 types of PROFILES on facebook
- Personal Profiles – which are for people
- Pages – which are for businesses
- Groups – a space for important groups of people in your life
Steps to create a business facebook page
1. REGISTER A PAGE
Choose either LOCAL ( which will allow you to post open hours, parking availability and public transit) OR BRAND (which will allow you to list products, website, company overview) The major difference is the info page layout.
NAME FOR PAGE – company name
IMPORTANT: this information CANNOT be changed once your page is created
2. FILL IN BASIC INFORMATION
Profile Picture – use your logo (must be in 96dpi)
Company Bio – brief summary of company. Give viewers detailed but succinct information about your company AND make your company stand out.
IMPORTANT: Click on CREATE PAGE. You will be asked to Log in or create a new facebook account.
3. INCREASE PAGE PUBLICITY
Link page to twitter account
Add to My Page’s Favorites (this appears on other pages you administer)
Share your page on YOUR PERSONAL PROFILE page
4. MANAGE TABS
WALL – this is where to post aspects of your company or service that updates constantly such as new products, services, jobs, etc.
IMPORTANT: FANS CAN CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR WALL
INFO – more details about your company based on whether you are LOCAL or BRAND in step 1
PHOTOS – Professional photos, samples of your work
DISCUSSIONS – for interactions with fans, a place to gather customer feedback, run Q&A
VIDEOS – good for product demos
IMPORTANT: EACH TAB HAS A UNIQUE PUBLICLY SEARCHABLE URL LINK. IT’S GOOD TO HAVE MORE TABS AS LONG AS THEY CONTAIN DIFFERENT CONTENT.
5. EDIT YOUR PAGE
On left side is list of everything you can edit. On right side is resources. Here you can also find Insights and Help.
So now you can add a LIKE icon on your website and ask friends to become fans. Good luck and I hope this brings you lots of new clients!
Website vs. Blog? What is right for you?
I am frequently asked the question – should I create a website or a blog or both? Hopefully this will clear up a few of your questions.
A website is a group of pages containing text, images, videos or any other media, which is accessed from the same domain name. It is also like a digitized (better than) business card. If you sell a product or service these days … you need to have representation on the internet to show that you are a viable resource.
A blog, on the other hand is a frequently updated journal, not necessarily on a single subject, in general not needing any computer or programing expertise.
So website vs. blog – what’s good and what’s not?
Ease of navigation – A website would normally contain an index or menu, repeated on every page, listing all the available pages. A blog, however, is usually navigated from one page to another or from links within posts to other related posts. Generally a blog will have a sidebar in which recent posts are listed as well as an archive where you can see the posts for any given month. A blog will also have categories, which differentiate between the types or topics of posts.
ANSWER? A website, if it has been well-built, is easier to navigate.
Ease of updating. Appending a page to a website would commonly necessitate some knowledge of HTML (hypertext markup language), the need for some sort of webcoding software or of course, and experienced website designer. Blogs ordinarily have a content management system which pretty much does everything for you, apart from actually typing the posts. The software will organize everything for you and will automatically update your archive, etc.
ANSWER? A blog is easier to update if you have no knowledge of HTML or how to build a website.
User-friendliness. Making a blog attention-getting and easy to use is fairly simple because there are a lot of templates readily available, plus plugins and widgets. In general they have an easy to use comment facility. However, because of that facility, blogs can be full of ridiculous or unsuitable content, rather than useful and informative items. A website can generally only be revised by its owner, so the browsing experience isn’t interrupted by rubbish.
ANSWER? A website offers a better browsing experience for someone seriously searching for data but a blog would be for those just after a bit of fun or wanting to communicate with friends.
To sum up, blogs are fun and easy to add to, but may not offer the facilities you need to upload the content you want. However, a website may suit you if you want to put up some serious one-time information which will not require updating on a regular basis.
For the best of all worlds, use both. You can put up your main content on a website and link it to your blog, where you can easily publish updates and keep in touch with your readers.
Getting “Phished”
I was just asked the question, what you do if you think someone sent you a “phishing” email. I know this is a long post — but definitely sit down to read this when you have the time.
A phishing scam is one in which victims are tricked into providing personal information such as account numbers, passwords and credit card details to what they believe to be a legitimate company or organization. In order to carry out this trick, the scammers often create a “look-a-like” webpage that is designed to resemble the target company’s official website. Typically, emails are used as “bait” in order to get the potential victim to visit the bogus website. The emails use various devious ruses to trick readers into clicking on the included links, thereby opening the bogus website. Information submitted on these bogus websites is harvested by the scammers and may then be used to steal funds from the user’s accounts and/or steal the victim’s identity.
Phishing scam emails are created to give the illusion that they have been sent by a legitimate institution. Emails may arrive in HTML format and include logos, styling, contact and copyright information virtually identical to those used by the targeted institution. To further create the illusion of legitimacy, some of the secondary links in these bogus emails may lead to the institution’s genuine website. However, one or more of the hyperlinks featured in the body of the email will point to the fraudulent website.
Links in phishing scam messages are often disguised to make it appear that they lead to the genuine institution site. The sender address of the email may also be disguised in such a way that it appears to have originated from the targeted company. Because they are sent in bulk to many recipients, scam emails use generic greetings such as “Dear account holder” or “Dear [targeted institution] customer”. If an institution needed to contact a customer about some aspect of his or her account, the contact email would address the customer by name.
OK – NOW HERE ARE A FEW THINGS YOU CAN DO ASAP!
The entire purpose of a typical phishing scam is to get the recipient to provide personal information. If you receive any unsolicited email that asks you to click a link and provide sensitive personal information, then you should view the message with the utmost suspicion. It is highly unlikely that a legitimate institution would request sensitive information in such a way. Do not click links or open attachments in such messages. Do not reply to the senders. If you have any doubts at all about the veracity of the email, contact the institution directly to check.
Do NOT respond to the original email. Contact the company by manually typing in the address to get their information. Contact customer support of the company who supposedly sent you the email via email or phone, and ask them to verify whatever claims are being made in the email.
Do NOT click on any links stated on the email.
Always report “phishing” e-mails to the following groups by forwarding the email to:
AntiPhishing.com : reportphishing@antiphishing.com
Federal Trade Commission: spam@uce.gov
Or file a complaint at the Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI website.
When forwarding spoofed messages, always include the entire original email with its original header information intact.
Document the names and phone numbers of everyone you speak to regarding the incident. Follow-up your phone calls with letters. Keep copies of all correspondence.
If you have given out your credit or debit or ATM card information: Report the theft of this information to the card issuer as quickly as possible. Many companies have toll-free numbers and 24-hour service to deal with such emergencies. Cancel your account and open a new one.
Review your billing statements carefully after the loss. If the loss involves your credit card number, but not the card itself, you have no liability for unauthorized use.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you need a cleanup!
Lynn
The Social Network (Not the movie!) HOW IT CAN WORK FOR YOU
Most of us have been using Social Networking websites on daily basis, some to share our interest with friends and groups, others to connect with new people and killing some time online. Do you realize how helpful it can be to your business?
There are as many different online forums and networking sites in the online marketing arena as there are fish in the ocean. For the purpose of clarity, consider Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr as prime examples. In fact, these five steps to creating a consistent brand in social media marketing will apply the same way to every online promotional opportunity from electronic article publication to blogging.
As you often hear saying, social media is about engagement.
Are you already connecting with your customers online? Do you offer them a link to your social profiles in external networks? Are you letting them know about this initiatives on your store? If your answer is “NO” why don’t just start doing this..
1. Decide on a Niche Market
2. Get Connected to the communities and People with related interest and with those who can search for your business
3. Promote New Feeds every day.
4. Draft emails and respond ASAP — be engaged
5. Start blogging
As people are showing more interest in social networks and blogs so it will prove a great idea to start with social media marketing.
Need a new computer?
It used to be simple! If you wanted a computer, you chose from one of the many desktop varieties available. With all the improvements in computing technology, it feels like you need to be an expert to figure out what type of computer you need. Do you need a laptop? Or maybe an all-in-one computer, that can be used as your TV as well? And what exactly are the differences between them?
Here’s a quick rundown:
Netbook
This is a relatively new category of computers. Netbooks are small, light, reasonably priced, and have extra battery life. These typically have less processing power than full-sized laptops but are very suitable for word processing, surfing the web, and connecting wirelessly to the Internet. Their small size makes them ultra-portable and convenient for travel.
Laptop
Also known as a notebook, a laptop is a portable computer that you can take with you and use in different environments—on an airplane, in the library, in a temporary office, and at a meeting. It includes a screen, a keyboard, and a trackpad or trackball, which serves as a mouse. It has a battery, which allows you to use it on the go, plus a power adapter, which lets you use power from an outlet. New laptops can provide the speed and power of desktop computers, although usually at a higher price.
Desktop
A desktop computer is designed to stay in one place. These machines each consist of several components—a central processing unit (CPU), a monitor, a separate keyboard, and connecting cables Because they’re modular, each component can be replaced or upgraded separately. Desktop computers are usually cheaper than laptops and are the most common type of computer used by businesses, schools, households, and other organizations.
What is an RSS Feed and do I need it?
RSS Feeds are a way for websites and blogs to distribute their content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates (ie. The Computer Icon’s Blog Tips), delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or good old email. Feeds also make it possible for site content to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other bite-sized technologies that make it possible to display blogs, podcasts, and major news/sports/weather/whatever headlines just about anywhere.I am going to answer the second question first. If you would like to receive Well, first of allHow do I use feeds?
You may be wondering what software you’ll have to install to use feeds. Never fear, the answer is likely ‘none’. If you use a modern web-browser — Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 — you have support for feeds right there.
To use a feed, you subscribe to it. When you subscribe to a feed, you tell your browser to keep an eye on the feed and let you know when it’s updated. So how do you subscribe to a feed?
Do you recognise these icons?
In Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 7 respectively, these icons let you know whether a feed is available for the page you’re viewing. For the BBC News front page, the icons show up to let you know there is a feed for the latest headlines.
Using feeds in Firefox
Firefox’s live bookmarks allow you to subscribe to a feed. If you see the feed icon appear, clicking on it will give you the option of subscribing to the feed as a live bookmark.
A live bookmark is like a folder of bookmarks; once you add it to your bookmarks menu you will see a new folder named after the feed, and in it a list of bookmarks — each corresponding to an article in the feed.
This list will update whenever a new article is added. So for BBC News, when the latest headlines change, so will your folder of bookmarks.
Using feeds in Safari
Safari’s feed-handling is similar to that of Firefox. When a page offers a feed you’ll see the blue ‘RSS’ logo to the right of the address bar. Click it, and Safari will show you the contents of the feed in your browser window.
To subscribe to the feed, click the ‘Add Bookmark…’ links at the bottom of the grey sidebar. It will appear in your bookmarks menu like any other, with one exception: if there are new articles in the feed, Safari will let you know by displaying the number of new articles in the bookmark’s name.
Using feeds in Internet Explorer 7
Again, Internet Explorer handles feeds in a similar way to Firefox and Safari. When a page offers a feed, the icon (shown in the screen shot above) lights up. Click the icon and you’ll see a page with the contents of the page.
To subscribe to the feed, click the ‘Subscribe to this feed’ link. The feed is then added to your favorites, under the ‘Feeds’ heading.
How can I tell if an email is fradulent?
Unfortunately, as phishing attacks become more sophisticated, it is very difficult for the average person to tell if a message is fraudulent. That is why phishing schemes are so prevelant and successful for criminals. For example, many phony e-mail messages link to real company logos of well-known brands. However, there are things you can be on the lookout for:
- Requests for personal information in an e-mail message Most legitimate businesses have a policy that they do not ask you for your personal information through e-mail. Be very suspicious of a message that asks for personal information even if it might look legitimate.
- Urgent wording Wording in phishing e-mail messages is usually polite and accommodating in tone. It almost always tries to get you to respond to the message or to click the link that is included. To increase the number of responses, criminals attempt to create a sense of urgency so that people immediately respond without thinking. Usually, fake e-mail messages are NOT personalized, while valid messages from your bank or e-commerce company generally are. The following is an example from a real phishing scheme:
Dear valued bank member, it has come to our attention that your account information needs to be updated due to inactive member, frauds, and spoof reports. Failure to update your records will result in account deletion. Please follow the link below to confirm you data.
- Fake links Phishers are getting very sophisticated in their ability to create misleading links to the point where it is impossible for the average person to tell if the link is legitimate or not. It’s always best to type in the Web address you know is correct into your browser. Also you can save the correct URL to your browser Favorites. Do not copy and paste URLs from messages into your browser. Some of the techniques that criminals have used in the past to fake links are as follows:
- In some messages, the link you are urged to click might contain all or part of a real company’s name and can be “masked,” meaning that the link you see does not take you to that address but somewhere different, usually a faked Web site. Notice in this example using Outlook that resting the pointer on the link reveals another numeric Internet address in the box with the yellow background. This should make you suspicious.
- Be aware of URLs that include the @ sign. In the following example, the URL would take you to the location that comes after the @ sign, not to Wood Grove Bank. This is because browers ignore anything in the URL that comes before the @ sign:
https://www.woodgrovebank.com@nl.tv/secure_verification.aspx
The real location, nl.tv/secure_verification.aspx, could easily be an unsafe site.
- Another common technique that has been used is a URL that at first glance is the name of a well-known company but on closer scrutiny is slightly altered. For example, www.microsoft.com could appear instead as:
www.micosoft.com, www.verify-microsoft.com, www.mircosoft.com
- Message body is an image To avoid detection by spam filters, fake e-mail messages used in phishing schemes often use an image instead of text in the message body. If the sent spam message uses real text and you happen to use Outlook, the Outlook Junk Email Filter will very likely move the message to the Junk E-mail folder. The message body image is usually a hyperlink. You can tell because when you rest the pointer on the message body, the pointer becomes a hand.
- Attachments Many phishing schemes ask you to open attachments, which can then infect your computer with a virus or spyware. If spyware is downloaded to your computer, it can then record the keystrokes you use to log into your personal online accounts and then sends that information back to the criminal. So be sure not to open attachments in suspicious e-mail messages. Any attachment that you want to view should be saved first, and then scanned with an up-to-date anti-virus program before you open it.
- Promises that seem too good to be true Use common sense and be suspicious when you are offered money or discounts that seem too good to be true
WEB BROWSING 101 – Where do I type in my website address and where do I type in my search?
One of the most common mistakes made by beginners on the internet is incorrectly using the search field and address bar. This will explain the difference between the two, and specifically, how to get to a website if you already have the URL (internet address). I have used an example from a particular ISP (Internet Service Provider) and Internet Explorer, but the same principles apply to any ISP and any browser.
The screenshot above shows the homepage of a popular ISP called XTRA.
This homepage is usually installed as the default homepage for Xtra’s customers. Many people assume that this page is the starting point of the entire internet — a misperception the ISP is unlikely to clarify as it suits them well.
One of the first things you see on this homepage is a place to enter the subject you wish to search for. If, like many people, you don’t understand how browsers work then you may assume that whatever you want to do should be entered into this field.
And this is where the problem occurs: A user has the URL of a website they wish to visit (e.g. www.ups.com), so they type this URL into the search field. Most of the time they will be given a list of search results which includes the website in question. The user can then click this link and be taken to the website.
Although this may work for you, it is NOT the correct course of action. At best it is a slow, round-about way of getting where you wanted to be. At worst it will take you to the wrong place or fail to find the website you’re looking for.
This is how it should be done:
Look for the Address Bar near the top of your browser window. It may be in the same place as our example or it make look a little different, but it will usually be labeled “Address”.
If you know the URL of the website you wish to visit, type it directly into the address bar and click the Go button (or hit your keyboard’s Enter key). This bypasses the search altogether and takes you straight to the site you want to visit. Simple as that!
Whom among us does not love cookies? You shouldn’t.
Cookies is a term used for pieces of data that websites store on your computer. They do this so that they can track you from session to session as well as store things about you, like your particular preferences at a website, or even the last search you did (at a few travel sites). Sometimes it’s just there so that they can track you from session to session, and know that its the same person each time. In all these cases they are using your computer to help them track you. Maybe that’s fine with you, maybe its not, but now you can choose.
Check out NPR’s story yesterday (August 19, 2010) that will tell you all about “Tracking The Companies That Track You Online”.
