photo credit: tj scenes

Just how important is your search engine ranking? Well consider that in 2002, about one-third of all users typically searched for something each day. Now in 2008, a new high of just under one half (49%) are searching daily for something on the Internet, according to the latest study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

If you don’t know, or want to rank better, feel free to contact me. I would love to talk with you about your web site, and how it can be more effective on the web.

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Popularity: unranked [?]

From time to time different clients call me up to ask me about something that comes across their desk. Most of the time their gut instinct had it right, and they were looking at a scam.

Sometimes the scam is legal, just immoral – like charging $100 a year for a domain name when it can cost under $10. Or they are charging $200 for submitting your site to Google every month for a year, when in reality, you can do it yourself for free. By the way, over submitting to Google or the other search engines doesn’t help you and can actually hurt you as they see it as a form of spam.

Other times the scam is illegal. I don’t want to post too much just yet, as legal action might be taken, however I wanted to post a couple of links for helping you check out a scam.

www.ic3.gov/ – Internet Fraud Complaint Center
http://www.nethelp.org/scamhelp/ – list of common scams and types of scams
http://www.b4usplashcash.ocba.sa.gov.au/money/scams.html – from the Australian government
http://www.forexscams.org/ – foreign money exchange. This can take many forms, and a variation of this was attempted on my client.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html – from Craig’s List – a simple easy to follow guide
http://suckerswanted.blogspot.com/ - a list of scams and how to protect yourself

Luckily my client kept her head, realized some of the issues, and when she stepped back to look at the big picture, she saw it as the scam it was, before losing any money. (She did lose about 6 hours of time over a week – and time is money…)

Hopefully the links will be able to help other’s out.

If you know of any resources, please let me know as well.

Popularity: 52% [?]

In our last posting, three things that make up a website, we mentioned the three things that you need to have a website, your domain name, your host, and your files.

We also talked about picking and getting your domain name. Remember to talk to your web designer/company, they should be able to help you come up with some good names. If not, you might need to consider a different web design company.

Get some web server space

This is the next item that needs to be taken care of. Your website, while a virtual thing out on Internet, has to reside on a physical server some place. When you request a web page, a computer will send the page and accompanying files that are requested. Most modern servers will also handle databases, sending e-mail, and e-commerce activities.

Web hosting will vary in cost from $4/month on up to tens of thousands of dollars a month. The reason for this difference is the levels of service that are provided such as:

1. Number of tech calls
2. Applications loaded on the server
3. Number of servers
4. Type of server
5. Etc.

Most web servers have multiple sites on the same server. The cheaper the cost of the server, the more sites they have to put on each server, which can cause the performance of your web server to degrade as more and more additional websites are loaded on the server.

In my experience with different hosts, working with different companies, I have found that host charging less than $7 or $8 a month are not worth having if you are going to host your company on it. This does not mean that more expensive is better; it is just a general rule to follow. Cheaper hosts may work wonderfully for a little while, or be fine for personal websites, but I generally do not trust them for a professional website.

I usually recommend this to be second, because until you have a host, the company that you register your domain name through will put up a “parking page”. What this means is that you will see a page that looks like the image on the left. This is allowing the domain registration company to earn money until you have web server space of your own, and update the DNS servers. (Your registration company should be able to tell you how to do that.)

You can always have a “temporary page” what is displayed while you have your main site being developed. This is something I commonly do for companies, that way we can express some information, while allowing your company to build a brand for itself on-line.

Depending on the type of site, as well as your host, you might have the choice between several different hosting “packages”. Each will provide you with different options for different prices. The two biggest line items to change will be your storage space and your transfer amount. You will probably want to find a host that will allow you to upgrade your hosting package easily, if you need the extra space/transfer allowance, as your website grows. This will allow you to save some money while your site is young and not as popular, and then expand as your on-line needs grow and you can afford the changes.

Publish the website file(s)

This is the only step that many people think is required. However, while it is important, without the previous two steps, it is for naught.

This is where you go and hire a web designer, or do it yourself, to generate and create a website. Now you upload the files that make up a website to the server space that you acquired in step two. Now when someone accesses your domain name (acquired in step one), they will see your website.

Popularity: 47% [?]

As someone who works with getting companies on the web, often for the first time, this is a question I am asked all of the time. While it may seem straightforward “Make a web page”, there is a little more to it than that, although not a lot.

There are three things that go into getting a website published, beyond all of the details like, how to make it, what to put on it, etc.

1. Have a domain name
2. Get some web server space
3. Publish the website file(s)

Let’s take a quick look at each piece to determine what this means. You will want to go in this order as well, but you don’t have to. As we go along, I’ll explain why I recommend following this order.

This will be a simple two part post, with part two coming shortly afterward.

Have a domain name

A domain name is what is typed into the web browser that lets you go where you want to go, such as <>.

Because only one person/company can own a specific domain name in the entire world, you may or may not be able to get the name you want. If you try to request a domain name, and you cannot get one, then you have two options.

Attempt to purchase the domain name from the existing owner. This is fairly common and depending upon the name, and its value, you may be able to get the name for anywhere from $50 on up to several million dollars. Only you can determine if you want to purchase the domain for that price.

Choose a different name. If money is tight, or the owner doesn’t want to relinquish the name (and there is little that can be done then) this is another viable option. I did this for a church not that long ago. The church’s name was Dayspring Community Church; however, DayspringCommunityChurch.Com was taken by another church with the same name in a different state. We tried numerous variations of the name and it never worked. We ended up using DayspringOrlando.com because it incorporated the location of the church in the domain name.

You should be able to purchase a .com domain name for under $10. Some times the specialized Top Level Domains (TLDs) (the end of the domain name such as .com, .org, etc) will cost more. .tv for example costs usually about $35.

If you go to purchase a .com name, and they want more than $10, you need to check what you are getting for that price. I’ve seen people swindled at over $100 a year. Always check with a third party, like your designer if you are not purchasing the domain from them, if you can. You can usually save yourself a decent amount of money this way.

You “purchase” a domain name’s rights a year at a time. At the end of the year, you can renew your rights to that domain name if you like, or walk away. As the current owner, you have the first dibs. To make some things easier, you can usually purchase several years at once, usually 2, 5, or 10 years. You may even receive a discount if you purchase several years at once.

Because only one person can have a domain name at a time, I recommend that you purchase this as soon as you have a name you like. It is quite possible for a name to be available one day, and not the next.

You should always note that your web designer, be a firm or an individual, should be able to help you pick the right name.  The name doesn’t have to be part of your company name, but it should be easy to use/say, and it should help describe your  business it’s not your name.  This will help convey what you do to your customers, and help your search engine efforts as well.

In the next part we’ll look at the server space you need, what it should cost, etc, and then also the files you need for your site.

Popularity: 66% [?]