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.
]]>Search Engine Rankings - Instant, online reports of web site rankings in 9 top search engines and web directories, including Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN, AOL, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Yahoo! Directory, Open Directory (Dmoz), and LookSmart.
Link Popularity Checker - Instant, online reports of a site’s link popularity rating in 3 top search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and MSN - FREE!
Here is another tool that lets you check your link backs and more http://www.marketleap.com/verify/default.htm
]]>If you’re going to create an image rich website make sure to match it with text or you’ll be lucky to get 100 visitors per month!
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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).
I finally discovered an answer from someone I know who owns a large hosting company, Hostgator. In the blog area (not easily found by most casual visitors) Brent spells it out. First, they allow approximately 2,000 websites per server. At $400 per month to lease for a good dedicated server that allows a lot of websites! Next, most people use only a small portion of what they are granted, less than 200 megs for a very large non porn website. If you’re not hosting movies or bit torrent sites you rarely get above 200, PAontheweb.com is not even 200 megs!
The one thing they don’t tell you is they cut you off if you use too much in the way of system resources like CPU usage. If your site is pulling tons of resources you’ll be notified and then shut down if you don’t comply. You will also note that many of these companies (not all) add very large hard drives to their servers. This reduces the over all effectiveness of the CPU and other things like RAM. That is why there are so many complaints about cheap website hosts.
Let’s face it. You’ve got to run a streamlined server to keep your clients happy. In order to do that you (as a server admin) must stay on top of system resources being consumed. That’s one of the main differences between dedicated business hosting and inexpensive hosting like GoDaddy, Networksolutions etc. There are other differences like support and redundancy. For example, our servers are backed up automatically on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and there is never a fee to restore a website to one of those three options.
Besides all that our servers are RAID 10 SATA II minimum meaning they have many redundancies built in. This may be outdated information by the time you’re reading it. We’re continually upgrading servers to the next phase as soon as it becomes needed. For example, we’re already considering moving up to a Quad-Core 3210 Xeon (Kentfield). Keeping our clients on the best systems available is one of our greatest services.
Who created your website?
If you did it yourself or had a cousin or friend who is an I.T. professional do it the odds are very low that you’ll get much in the way of results. Why do we add the “I.T. (information technology) professional to our list of poor website designers? It is like asking a dentist to perform brain surgery. While the two may at first seem related it soon becomes apparent that they are worlds apart.
How often do things change on your website?
Like anything that stays the same, it tends to gather dust. A static website is commonly referred to as a “cobweb’ by our team. Do you go back to websites that never change or do you continually visit websites that have new information? If you have a website you should have one you can update on your own and update it frequently. If you have lots of money, hire a pro to change it for you.
What is your personal home page set at?
If you have your own website why would you have your home page set to Yahoo or Google? If you want your website to grow have your website set as your home page. What is your home page? This is the page your browser opens to automatically when you start it up.
How popular is the subject of your website?
If your website is about mundane things then there is little chance you’ll find much success. Are people looking for what you provide? If not, then your website will probably not perform well on its own (organically). You may want to look at a marketing strategy for your website to target the few that are interested.
How much content does your website have?
Content is King. First you need a lot of content so Google and humans can find what they’re looking for. The more information you have the better your chances are of being found by both the major search engines and the human beings looking for the information your website contains.
Is your business or location seasonal?
Ice cream in Alaska during the winter is not nearly as popular as it would be in Florida during the summer. If you’re focused in the northern hemisphere (like PAontheweb.com) you may find more traffic to your website during the winter than the summer. People are indoors more and on the computer in the winter because of the temperature and the shorter days. This may also be true during the dog days of summer when it is so hot outside people would rather be in the cool.
This is by no means a complete list of the variables that make a website great. However, it is a good starting point.
Computer Science
A document or file having a preset format, used as a starting point for a particular application so that the format does not have to be recreated each time it is used
1. First and foremost, templates are usually created for Webmasters or “do it yourself” types. You can buy a template but then you need a program like Dreamweaver, Front Page, Adobe Go Live or others and some skill to FTP it to your hosting platform and make it all work. PAontheweb.com creates custom templates. We match your business colors, insert your logo and do other custom design work for your website template, business cards etc. All websites start with a template, either custom made or prefabricated.
2. Next is your search engine optimization. It is one thing to have a good looking website it is quite another to get it ranked with Google and other search engines. This is where 99% of all websites fail. Few Webmasters (so called) actually know what they are doing when it comes to getting your website found for the terms you want. That is one of our specialties.
3. There are prefabricated templates that you can get from places like Template Monster. These templates have two distinct prices.
a. A low price as anyone may have this template. That means 100 or more people may be using the same template as you.
b. A much higher exclusive price which means you pay 2 or 3 thousand and you are the only one that can have that design.
4. All websites start out with a Template. When we create a website for your company it is called a Custom Template. This Template is applied to most if not all pages of your website.
5. Our system allows you to purchase and display different templates at different times of the year. For example, you may purchase a website from us but want to decorate for the holidays like Christmas, Independence Day and many other holidays. In less than 2 seconds you can change the entire look of your website without disturbing the pages and the content already on your website!
We hope this helps you understand a bit more about templates.
PAontheweb looks closely at Page Views since that is the number of times we can expose a site wide advertiser to the public. A Hit is a series of links on that particular page that is seen by the public. Looking at it as Hits, PAontheweb received over 4 million hits in July 2007.
These Hits and Page Views were generated by 142,576 Visitors. The number of Unique Visitors was 82,429.
Without getting too technical about it, Unique Visitors is very unreliable because of the way the internet works. When a visitor comes to a website the I.P. address of the computer connecting to the website is checked. That is a unique visitor. The problem with this is many companies run off of one I.P. address. If a company has 10 or a thousand computers and more than one individual looks at the same site it is only counted as one Unique Visitor.
Visitors are not the best way to measure your website success either. In the case of PAontheweb.com, many Visitors click a website, see what is provided click a link on the page and are taken to another website. The real measure of our success is how many pages are viewed in a given month. That means a site visitor has actually seen your ad or link. They may not have clicked it but they did see it.
The bottom line is the more times you’re exposed to the public the better off you are. If you need Brand Identity we suggest using an image link. If you’re interested in more clicks we suggest a text link to go with your image or a simple text link.
Text links are clicked on more frequently than images. Most people have trained themselves to not click images. The reason is simple. For years, advertisers used image ads for Pop Up advertising and this caused people to stop clicking images. While PAontheweb.com uses Pop Ups when you click a link it is not an advertising pop up. If you click one of our links we are supposing you may not find what you want. If you close that window you will be brought back to the page you were on. You can then check out the next link.
In some cases our advertisers request that their link not open in a pop up. In these cases we comply and you will have to navigate back to PAontneweb.com to do another search.
I know this went beyond the question about Hits, Visitors and Page Views. However, it is all intertwined with they way we do business.
Once upon a time the World Wide Web was a much less regulated area. You could get a system that would send out thousands of emails for very little. Today there are new laws that prohibit unsolicited email for good reason. We’re all tired of spammers. This has increased server management costs significantly.
Along with new anti-spam laws came a new group of private internet companies policing the web. Companies like Spam Haus, Spam Cop and hundreds of others have opened. Here is a sample page for the results on Google with DNSStuff.com (a paid service but you get several free lookups) http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ip4r.ch?&ip=google.com
As you can see there are tons of resources that can be subscribed to by Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) like Comcast, Verizon etc. You never know which company uses which resource. If the server your website resides on gets listed as a spammer for sending out unwanted emails everyone on that server or I.P. address is usually affected. That means your email may get through to Comcast email customers but not to Verizon email customers, depending on which resource the ISP uses.
Worse yet there are no rules that all these listing agencies must live by. Some set spam traps others require a certain I.P. address receive a certain number of complaints before they blacklist or blocklist the server. Online email interfaces like Comcast Browser Based Email systems put the Report as SPAM button very close to the Delete button causing some emails to be erroneously reported as SPAM. I have not seen the AOL interface but I was once told they had the same problem.
The first indication a server is black or blocklisted is usually a complaint from a client trying to send email from their domain name email address. When notified we start an investigation to find out which agency has black or blocklisted us and begin the process of getting unblocked. It can take days to get the server unblocked. Therefore, your email and email newsletters are not guaranteed to go through.
In the event one of our servers is black or blocklisted and you are affected (even though you are affected collaterally) we will make every attempt to get our affected server off the black or blocklist as soon as possible. However, we are not in control of this procedure and are at the whim of the listing agency. We will also make every attempt to find the offending party and remove them from our server so you are not affected again.
There is much more to it than these few paragraphs can describe. If you are not using an email newsletter system and encounter this problem you should set up your Outlook / Express, Thunderbird etc to have the Outgoing SMTP set to that of your ISP instead of your domain name. Click here to learn how.
You’ve Got Spam: How to “Can” Unwanted Email
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/inbox.shtm
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
]]>Go to your Outlook and Click Tools and select your Email Account. (Other email clients like Eudora work in a similar way)
Change your Outgoing mail server (smtp) from mail.yourdomain.com to smtp.yourISP.net or .com etc. Example, if you’re ISP is Comcast you would set your Outgoing mail server to smtp.comcast.net. If you are unsure ask your internet service provider for this information.
In the More Settings block deselect my outgoing server (smpt) requires authentication.
Click Test to make sure you set it up correctly. Your incoming mail server information should remain the same, example, mail.yourdomain.com.
]]>Political Shift in Washington
Bob Casey, Jr. defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. On Tuesday night, Sen. Santorum conceded to Casey and thanked Pennsylvanians for the opportunity to serve as their United States Senator. As of early Wednesday morning, Casey has received 2,251,813 votes compared to Santorum’s 1,581,512 votes*.
Similar to the U.S. House, there may be a shift in control of the U.S. Senate. Democrats had 44 members in the Senate, and Republicans had a 55-seat majority prior to the elections. As votes are still being counted in Montana and Virginia, to determine the election of 6 key Senate races in the nation (Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia), some political insiders are predicting that there will be a 50/50 split in the Senate.
Included in this potential shift in the Senate is the election of 2 elected Independents (including former Democrat Joe Lieberman from Connecticut, current Independent Party Senator elect).
After much speculation, the unofficial results of many races across the nation show that the Democrats have taken control of the U.S. House. Reports are showing that there will be 228 Democrats (with 4 races to be confirmed) and 193 Republicans (with 10 races to be confirmed) serving as U.S. Representatives.
In our region incumbents have retained their seats: Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Holden was able to defeat Republican challenger Matthew Wertz 135,235 to 73,785. Holden’s retention will be beneficial to Pennsylvanians with Democratic leadership as he serves on the House Agriculture and Transportation & Infrastructure Committees.
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R), also defeated Democratic challenger Tony Barr 115,169 to 76,222. Shuster’s district includes much of Central Pennsylvania, including parts of Cumberland and Perry Counties. Shuster also serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Todd Platts defeated his Democratic opponent Philip Avillo, Jr. and Green Party challenger Derf W. Maitland with 142,092 votes to their respective 74,388 and 5,616. Todd is another member of the Central Pennsylvania Congressional delegation that serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Current Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi (California) is currently working in her party to develop the House’s legislative agenda for next year.
And in Pennsylvania…
Pennsylvania has also had its share of upsets in the Pennsylvania General *bleep*. Not included in these upsets is the retention of Gov. Ed Rendell (D) with 2,320,768 votes (60.3%) compared to Republican challenger Lynn Swann’s 1,528,648 votes (39.7%)*.
It appears that the Republicans may maintain control of the House, but this will be with a much slimmer majority. Results are still expected in some races in Pennsylvania to decide who will control the House. However, there has been one change in leadership for the House Democratic party: Minority Whip Mike Veon (D-Allegheny County) was defeated by his Republican challenger Jim Marshall by 8,992 votes to 10,511 votes.
In our tri-county region, some incumbents retained their seats by virtue of running unopposed and receiving 100% of the votes--Rep. Mark Keller (R-Perry County), Rep. David S. Hickernell (R-Dauphin County), and Rep. John Payne (R-Dauphin County).
Incumbent Republicans (Rep. Glen Grell, Rep. Rob Kauffman, Rep. Ron Marsico, Rep. Jerry Nailor, and Rep. Will Gabig) in Cumberland and Dauphin Counties were able to retain their seats by defeating their challengers on the ballot. What is interesting to note is that both Marsico and Nailor are expected to hold a Chair position for a House committee when the *bleep* reconvenes in the next session. Rep. Ron Buxton (D-Dauphin County) was also able to defeat his challenger in his bid to retain his seat.
Sen. Jake Corman (R-Perry County) has retained his seat after defeating three challengers, Jon Eich (D), Thomas A. Martin (Libertarian), and Robert J. Cash (VFC).
Following elections and the closing of the current legislative session, the Pennsylvania Senate will soon select its leadership to replace the departing Sen. Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer and Majority Leader David “Chip” Brightbill. It has been rumored that Jeff Piccola (R-Dauphin County) may be in a position to move into a higher leadership post.
Open Seats Are Filled
In the open seats for our region, Republican candidate Mike Folmer has received 52,202 votes to defeat his Democratic challenger John Liss’ 30,436 votes. Republican candidate Sue Helm defeated her Democratic opponent Dennis Coffman with 12,629 votes to his 9,685. Republican candidate Scott Perry also defeated his Democratic opponent with 16,047 votes to 6,589 votes.
Referendum Question
In addition to the election of representatives, Pennsylvanians found a question on the ballot requesting approval of the Commonwealth to incur indebtedness of up to $20 million to pay for the compensation of service for soldiers in the Persian Gulf Conflict in 1990-91. Statewide results showed a majority supported this measure with 1,946,795 voting in the affirmative and 1,230,005 opposed.
*All results are based on unofficial election returns with 95.78% of Pennsylvania districts reporting
Emailed from Harrisburg Regional Chamber 8 Nov 2006