Is your site indexed in Google or Bing? Here are some quick ways to find out, along with tips for indexing your Sitebuilder Website.

You should compare Google and Bing periodically to get the best bang for your search engine buck. For serious research, try both.

more...

3/13/15 Update: Thieves are stealing company web addresses, so please be wary of responding to suspicious "phishing" emails asking you to renew your domain or provide other sensitive account information. Also, guard and take responsibility for your own account user names and passwords. 

More details about "Thieves Steal Company Web Addresses" here.

5/4/14 Update to blog article originally published in November 2009.

There's always someone willing to part you from your hard-earned money or steal your identity. Domain name scammers are among them! These nasty Internet denizens will send you an official looking letter or email with dire admonitions that your domain is about to expire and you must renew or transfer your domain name with them (or risk losing it forever).

One of our customers got taken by this scam, and his domain expired anyway! That's because the company (Domain Renewal Group) did not renew or transfer his domain; they simply took his $30 check and cashed it! Fortunately, were were able to renew his domain with his official registrar. Our customer may have been lucky only to lose his money. Some of these scammers take much more because they are identity thieves, trolling for credit card and other valuable information!

_____________

5/2014 Update: A customer received a letter from Domain Registry Services (https://www.droa.com/index.asp), paid for 10 years and a transfer at high cost. She learned it was a mistake to respond to the letter, and now must hassle to get her money back. Her domains are already registered elsewhere for much less money, and there is no need to transfer them. She simply needs to renew with her current domain regstrar and all will be well.

_____________

Unless you are 100% sure they are legit, do not respond to these letters!

If you receive a letter about renewing your domain name — especially if you don't recognize the company as YOUR domain registrar — please contact us right away, before you send a check or give them your credit card information. We'll try to verify whether the communication is a legitimate message from your current domain registrar. (As an aside, most domain renewals cost about $10 per year. If yours costs significantly more, ask us about transferring your domain to another registrar.)

All this said, please do not ignore an expiring domain! You've invested time, money, and Goodwill in your domain name, so it's important to stay on top of expiration dates and keep your domain registration current. Also be aware that if a domain expires, no one can access your website until the domain registration is updated or the site is moved to a new domain name. And if someone happens to grab your domain after it has expired, you probably will be unable to retrieve it.

For some specific details about this domain scamming problem, check out this link.

Want to know more about domain scammers? Search Google for "domain renewal scam" or type the name of the company that has sent you a letter (between quotation marks) and add the word scam, like this:

"Domain Renewal Group" scam

Google recently posted an update about a security vulnerability with SSLv3, an old version of SSL connection technology used mainly with Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP or older. The new vulnerability enables attackers to decode encrypted connections. For this reason, SSLv3 support is being disabled on all SiteBuilder Systems.

You may be wondering why your website no longer appears on page 1 of Google search results. The answer is complicated. Some of the answer depends on the content of your site (something you can control). But a lot is due to changes in the way Google does business (something you cannot control). An article by Rolfe Winkler in the Tuesday, August 19, 2014 edition of The Wall Street Journal, page B1, outlines the differences between Google's goals before it went public in 2004 and Google's goals in 2014.

...more

Read full article (requires subscription): http://online.wsj.com/articles/googles-richer-content-worries-some-advertisers-1408391392

BEWARE OF GOOGLE ACCOUNT LOCKOUTS! If you enter an incorrect birth date showing you are not old enough when setting up or updating any Google account (gmail, calendar, YouTube, etc.), you will be locked out of your account. » more

Google recently has introduced SEO and spam penalties that can hurt SEO focused sites in Google's rankings. The best way to keep your site performing well in search engines is to add more content rather than over-adjusting the content you have.

Key do's and don'ts include:

• Avoid repeating the keyword phrase more than 10-15 times in your article or putting too many keywords on a single page
• Avoid titles that are stilted and repetitive
• Avoid multiple headlines using the keyword phrase
• Avoid including the keyword phrase in additional, less visible locations such as image "alt" text
• Write and expand content regularly to ensure:
  • Relevance and focus on delivering content to customers
  • Website provides expanded information on a topic
  • More of your pages found in search results
  • More linking opportunities within your website
  • More frequent visits by search engine spiders (they remember if your site is updated regularly)

» Read complete article by Jennifer Kyrnin

The Huffington Post recently reprinted a blog article by Anne Hill titled "5 Great New Social Media Strategies." Read the complete article. I've summarized this article for you below*.

Most companies today understand they need great SEO for their websites, and they need to actively participate in social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. However, there are some new FREE options for you to consider in your quest for successful Internet marketing. These include:

1. Set up a Yelp Business Profile. This is especially useful for storefronts, but can be used for non-storefronts as well. Yelp provides a mobile app for finding products and services while you're on the road, and Yelp has an extensive set of features that allow people to review businesses and post events. Visit yelp.com to get started.
2. Get listed in Google Places. It turns out that being listed in Google Places will improve the Google search results for your business. If that's not an incentive, we don't know what is! Visit Google Places to get started.
3. Increase your visibility as an expert on Quora. Quora bills itself as "A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it." Quora is a place to learn and to have others learn from you. Visit Quora to get started.
4. Use video to get your message across. There's nothing like a video to showcase your products, services, and to give your business personality and pizazz. A small video camera or smart phone will get you started for little money. Post to YouTube and other social networking sites.
5. Use Meetup to create or join a group for local events. This tool is perfect for businesses that regularly hold informational meetings. Visit Meetup to get started.

* Special thanks to Kevin McGinn of Kevin McGinn Stables for bringing this article to our attention!

The Costco Connection (February 2011) recently featured an article titled "Nine Steps to Getting Your Website Noticed" by Andy Tilbrook. The original article is available at http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201102?pg=28#pg28.

Here are highlights of the tips:

1. Be sure to submit your website to the big 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing). Links are:
   • www.google.com/addurl/
   • http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
   • www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
2. Submit your site to dmoz, a human-reviewed non-profit Web-monitoring project that links to Google's directory. Link is: www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html
3. Include a sitemap, which provides a list of your web site's pages for the major search engines. You can generate a sitemap automatically at www.xml-sitemaps.com. After generating the map, you will need to upload it to your website and submit it to the search engines.
4. Be sure the content of your site includes the key words and phrases that people would enter into search engines when they are looking for the type of product or service that you offer.
5. Try using Google's keyword tool to get ideas for keywords to include in your site. Link is: www.google.com/sktool/
6. Be sure the filenames of your photos include descriptive keywords, such as avoid_gum_surgery.jpg. (And don't forget to include the "Alt" tags.) 
7. Encourage links from other (related) websites to yours. For example, when commenting on blog articles that are related to your business, be sure to include a link back to a relevant page on your website. Also, ask for other sites to link to yours. For example, if you sell volleyball uniforms, ask the webmaster for your local volleyball club to link from the volleyball club's site to your site.
8. Use informative description and title meta tags on each page of your site. These tags are not visible to website users, but most search engines employ them when creating a listing for your website's pages in their indexes.
9. Use relevant, visible headings that employ your search engine keywords throughout your site.

If you would like us to help improve your site's search rankings using the tips below, please contact us.

Do you want some help figuring out the best keywords to use in your Pay Per Click system (e.g., Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture)? Do you want to find out what the competition is doing? If so, check out Google's FREE Search-Based Keyword Tool. Use this free tool from Google to generate a list of keywords found on any site, including your own and your competition's.

To use the tool:

1. Click here to start the SK tool (www.google.com/sktool/).
2. In the Website box, enter the website address that you want to analyze.
3. Click Find Keywords.

You can sort by any column (click on the column name), analyze the results in a variety of ways, and even export the keywords found. The tool is optimized for use with Google's Adwords system, but it's great all by itself. (Note that it shows a limited list of keyword ideas, not every possible keyword associated with the site you selected.)

To learn about more tools for selecting Pay Per Click keywords, visit the Pay Per Click Insider Tips article titled "Five Techniques to Dominate the Long-Tail".

Our clients increasingly ask us to help improve their website traffic and pay per click results using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) techniques. These techniques can require considerable time to master and not inconsiderable expense to implement.

One way we can help is by sharing the latest information and tips about current SEO and SEM techniques. Recently, we explored some tips from Google and received an email newsletter from PPCSummit containing information that we would like to share with you. Most of this information is written in plain English that even we can understand, so we feel it's worth passing along to our clients. We've summarized these articles below and provided links to the original material for your reading pleasure.

One more tip: Consider running ads in craigslist. Most craigslist ads are free, craigslist offers local classifieds and forums throughout the world, and Google indexes craigslist ads! >> more about craigslist

Google Webmaster Guidelines

This article from Google provides essential guidelines for: Website Design and Content, Technical Tools (for webmasters), and Quality. Implementing these guidelines will help Google do a better job of finding, indexing, and ranking your website. Among the most important are the Quality guidelines, which, if violated, can cause your site to be removed from or penalized in Google's index. >> read the article

Facebook Advertising (You May Want To Try It)

Facebook has nearly 200 million users, of which more than 100 million log on to Facebook at least daily. This article introduces Facebook Advertising, an increasingly effective way to reach Facebook's targeted audiences (which typically make impulse buys) and to increase brand awareness. The article provides helpful ad creation tips that apply to Facebook marketing as well as other contextual advertising such as Google Adsense. >> read the article

How to Train Your Visitors to Improve Your Conversions

Your website's landing page should treat visitors like untrained dogs that need clear guidance to get them to do something, such as buy your product or contact your company. The article explains how to find the competition's successful landing pages on the Internet and how to design landing pages for your own site that get more conversions. The acronym MORE ? which stands for Marketing Effectiveness; Offer Clarity; Readability of the Page; and Engagement with the Visitor ? is used to illustrate key points. The article also stresses the importance of testing and measuring the results. >> read the article

Five Ways to Maximize Your Pay Per Click Conversion Rates

Companies using Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) such as Google Adwords or Yahoo Overture know that every click from a sponsored search costs money that can add up quickly. This article explains five ways to communicate your message so that more visitors will turn into leads for your products or services. (Many of these tips will improve your website overall, whether you use PPC or not.)

1. Clearly understand your target market and the 2-3 messages you want to convey.

2. Make the landing page relevant to the link the user clicked.

3. Make the site design usable and readable, with a clear structure and easy navigation.

4. Include several ways to contact you.

5. Test your ads at least once a month.

>> read the article

Using Social Media to Discover Better Keywords

Social media enables companies to learn what's being said about their products and services in real time. This article discusses social media tools that can help you uncover keywords that can improve your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign results and search engine page rankings. Tools mentioned include TwitterSearch, Collecta, Facebook Lexicon, and Delicious Tags; these can supplement more traditional methods for discovering keywords such as Google's Keyword Tool, WordTracker, and Keyword Discovery. >> read the article

"Killer Insider SEO Tips": How to Create Targeted Web Traffic in a Week

Need tips for getting targeted traffic to your website and converting that traffic to leads? This article includes four mostly free ways to begin, including:

1. Keyword research.

2. Using social media and building links. (Google's page ranking algorithm currently relies heavily on high-quality links!)

3. Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to build content-rich, keyword-rich copy and search-friendly websites.

4. Evaluating your competition.

>> read the article