Viewing PAontheweb.com Blog

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Are your pages indexed with Google?

Link backs to PAontheweb.com often reveal that folks are not getting their pages properly indexed with Google. If your page does not appear in Google’s index then the link back does not do us or you any good.

How do you know if your pages are indexed? Go to your website and click the various pages and paste the web address into the http://www.Google.com search bar. If no results come up then the page is not indexed and you’re not benefiting.

Do you need help? PAontheweb.com prides itself on getting our clients 100% indexed with Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

Google sends around 80% of all search engine traffic. If you win with Google you’ll win with with the majority.

Contact us today for more information. 717.489.0188 or use our Contact link by clicking here.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Flash websites and search engine optimization

A common practice is creating flash intro pages or image intro pages to websites. PAontheweb.com gave up that practice a long while back. Why? It can prevent search engines from indexing your site properly. I know 90% of all good webmasters know this already. However, we see many who still practice it. You should consider reading this article by Google. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=72746&query=flash+intro+pages&topic=&type=

We have found sIFR to cause websites to load slowly and do not yet use this method. Opinions may vary. We certainly use Flash Elements and Headers to bring out certain points for clients. We do not normally do all Flash sites (although we can if you insist).

Monday, February 19, 2007

Helpful website tips

If you are a local business serving local people you should list your service area on the home page of your website. This serves two purposes. First, it triggers the search engines for words relating to the area your business serves. Second, it allows website visitors to immediately see where your service area is.

How may times have you found a local business website when searching Google and found it to be the correct town but in a different state? You may do a good search on Google but it doesn’t bring up the results you want because the webmaster of the website you’re looking for did not do their job correctly. Making sure the correct content, title tags and description is the job of your webmaster. If you’re doing it yourself then it is your job.

Why do we still have professional webmasters when there are so many do it yourself websites out there? The reason is it takes years of study to develop a website properly. Anyone can do a MySpace website. They typically look horrible and never really get found through search engines. Of course, the price is right; free. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Why not have us take a look at your website? We’re not spamming people and telling them we’ll get thousands of visitors a month to their website. That is unrealistic for the average small to medium sized business. It is not just the number of visitors you get to your website that counts. It is visitors who are looking for the goods and services you offer that counts.

If you want our help with your website we suggest our Premium Listing service which includes website hosting and a good analysis of your website. The Premium Listing keeps you on top of your competitors and is only $50 per month in most locations. Of course, Philadelphia and other major metropolitan areas cost more due to the limited amount of Premium Listings available in any location. Contact us for more details toll free at 866.316.6913 or local to central PA at 717.489.0188. Due to spam issues we do not give out our email address. However, we do have a quick contact form. Click Here

Saturday, June 10, 2006

How to get your website found in PA

How to get your website found in PA. (Case studies)

When we opened in March of 2004 we had no idea how successful we would become in the search engine optimization and search engine marketing arena. In less than 6 months we were at the top of the big 3 search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as the minor engines like AOL, HotBot, Altavista, Lycos and many others.

Anyone doing a search for PA websites, Pennsylvania websites (or web sites) was finding Paontheweb.com on the first page of all the search engines. We soon discovered we were being found under many other search terms that we were totally unaware of. These terms are too numerous to keep track of. In addition, changes to Google’s algorithms can place us on the first page one day and the second page another. The other major search engines are more consistent.

Follow these links to see the proof on the big 3:

Google http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=pa+websites
Yahoo http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=pa+websites&fr=FP-tab-web-t400&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8
MSN http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=pa+websites&Form=MSNH

A client asked us for the search term Hershey Homes. Here are the results. This one took a bit longer as the term was more competitive. The client is HersheyHomesForSale.com (aka LaurelForHomes.com). You will find either Paontheweb.com, HersheyHomesForSale.com or LaurelForHomes.com on the first page.

Google http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=hershey+homes&spell=1
Yahoo http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=hershey+homes&fr=FP-tab-web-t400&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8
MSN http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=hershey+homes&Form=MSNH This one is a number one ranking for the client!

There are many case studies we could show you. However, what is important to you is what we can do for you. Are you ready to find out? Contact us under Company Info when you’re ready to succeed or call us toll free 866.316.6913.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Email campaigns as advertising, do's and don'ts

The great thing about the internet and electronic advertising is it has the power to give people a look at your business like no other medium. The bad thing is if it is done wrong it can hurt you more than help you.

Here are some pointers on what not to do. Do not spam people with email. You don’t like it and neither does anyone else. Not only can this ruin your business reputation it can get your email banned from many different spam organizations today. We’ve had several clients that have been “Black Listed” by a number of different services. It can be time consuming and expensive to get yourself removed from the Black Lists. To see if your website email is Black Listed visit http://www.dnsstuff.com. Insert your domain name if you don’t know your I.P. address and scan the results for Red color bars. One may not hurt you. Multiple red bars are cause for concern. However, one red listing from a large spam house can do you great harm.

When you do send out group emails always have a remove feature. Either a link to automatically remove the email from a list or a simple “Reply with Remove in the subject line to be removed from this mailing list” should work. Warning: Many companies like AOL now provide their users with a “Report as SPAM” link in their mail browser. Many people will report you as a spammer instead of using your Remove feature. There is no guarantee that people will not mark you as a spammer when you are innocent of wrong doing.

You can alternately use a Newsletter service. We offer newsletter services that include all the compliant features for SPAM. In addition your personal email will not be affected if someone marks you as a spammer. The cost for these services varies based on the number of emails you want to send, graphic design work for the newsletter and the urgency of your request. The strength of doing things this way is most systems can tell you how many people opened and read your newsletter, if the reader clicked a link and where they went after that. In addition it can tell you if the person forwards it to a friend or opens it later for a second look.

Where should I advertise?

The age old question is where is the best place to advertise? Let’s think about this in modern terms. By all standards Billboards, Radio and T.V. have been around for a very long time. In relative terms the internet is new. This may be the most important article you read on advertising so we suggest reading it all.

TV is good but what do you do when a commercial comes on? You change the channel or use your fast forward if you have some kind of digital video recording device. If you decide to purchase TV commercials try to get what the industry calls Book Ends. These are the first 10 to 15 seconds coming and going between the show and the commercial break time. You’ll optimize your exposure since most people see a few seconds as their favorite program goes to commercial and is always flipping back to see if their show has returned from the break.

Radio is good but what do you do when commercials come on? You change the channel again. Hum a few bars of “let’s go surfin’ now, surfin USA” from the Beach Boys. The best radio ads are the quick ones during Traffic, Weather and News breaks. Most people stay tuned for those features. Of course, as satellite radio takes over there will be less of this.

Billboards are good. They range in price from hundreds to many thousands per month. All of this is based on the amount of travelers that see them. Of all the billboards you see how many do you really remember? Until you get home, to work or wherever you are going you’ve completely forgotten about what you saw. When you drive the same road every day you also develop Billboard Blindness. You don’t even see them anymore. They are good for getting a new company name out there initially but they are not very cost effective.

Magazines, Newspapers and other print media is good. There is a certain group of people you will reach in print advertising. However, the numbers are significantly dwindling. This is mainly due to the internet. With most articles and news online who uses print any more? I’m sure there are some but I don’t know anyone that reads the newspapers that is under 60.

Yellow Pages is Not a good place to advertise. There are two main reasons. First, they are extremely expensive and you’re locked in for a year. Second, who uses the Yellow Pages anymore? The only time I use them is when there is no computer available.

Internet advertising is the hottest thing going. There are many reasons. First your text link or banner ad can be clicked on to take people to your business website. Instead of 60 seconds of air time or a small square in print you get many pages of information across to your potential customer. If your banner ad is developed correctly you get the same branding effect that you do from billboards, print and TV ads with the extra value of the website link. With a website link people can get more company information and your contact information. Try getting your phone number on a billboard, TV or Radio ad to stick in someone’s head. It just isn’t going to happen.

Also see What kinds of internet advertising area available

So now you’ve had an E Seizure, what do you do about it?

Please refer to Entrepreneurial Seizure Examples
If you are the person who had the E Seizure and you realize it you are tempted to avoid the person or organization that made the offer. This only compounds your problem. Yes, you’re embarrassed to admit your mistake. However, most companies run into this over and over. You’re not the first and you won’t be the last.

For example, our company understands and will think more highly of you if you contact us after you realized you made a mistake. We don’t hold grudges. By admitting to yourself and others that you messed up you can begin the healing process that will grow your company. Do you want to grow your business or watch it fail? It’s all up to you. 

Entrepreneurial Seizure Examples

Please refer to What is an Entrepreneurial Seizure?
1. A used car lot owner told us he did not want a website because he already had too much business. There were tons of unsold cars on his lot. Hmmm.
2. A wholesale distributor told us our website service had to have something wrong with it. He received two previous bids. One was for $18,000 and the other was $14,000. Our price was only $2,500 for the same thing. Therefore, our website system had something wrong with it. Hmmm
3. An auto repair shop told us they didn’t need an advertising website. The owner added that he did not do any advertising. Being new we asked him to tell us more about his business so we could understand his industry needs better. If we weren’t going to sell him we would get information to help us sell the next guy. The owner proceeded to tell us about his business and later showed us all the brochures Yellow Pages ads and mailings he was doing to advertise his business. $14,000 a year was his budget. Remember this guy told us he doesn’t advertise. Hmmm
4. A large regional chamber of commerce was sending out a weekly newsletter that reached 5,000 businesses. The newsletter had three empty “advertise here” links on the page. This went on for weeks. We showed them a Google Answers article. It pointed out they were double industry standard on pricing. They did not lower their price. The reason? “The board of directors made this decision and they put a lot of work into it.” Hmmm
5. More on the chamber. After a couple weeks I made them an offer. We said we would give them a 5 to one swap for banner advertising. Since they reached 5,000 businesses I would give them 25,000 customer exposures through our directory. After a week the Vice President of the chamber said no. It is like a guy that owns a Yugo that refused to trade you for a Cadillac.

We’d like to hear your examples of E Seizures.

Entrepreneurial Seizure, what is it?

I like to define an “Entrepreneurial Seizure” as an event when a decision maker without good decision making skills blows an oppurtunity. Examples of this run rampant in our business. What is our business? We created the state of Pennsylvania’s first and only website directory for small and medium sized business.

Do you own your own business? Do you manage or “gate keep” for a business? If the answer is yes then you need to understand a few things about the “E Seizure” we talk about in this Blog. Please read through the quick examples of E Seizures so it doesn’t happen to you. Then read “So now you’ve had an E Seizure, what do you do about it”?