Looking to drive visitors to your site right NOW but, for whatever reason, you aren’t getting them from the search engines, via free or ‘natural’ search results? There’s no alternative, you will have to resort to paid advertising to get your visitors!

This article by by Tracey Simpson @ Search Engine Guide will help you understand how PPC ( Pay Per Plick ) paid advertising works.

The pay per click advertising arena is a complex place. As a Google AdWords advertiser you compete in an auction every time a keyword prompts your ad to be shown. Unfortunately, many advertisers do not realize how complex that auction is. Find out more about how Google AdWords ranks your ads and how you can establish a profitable strategy for your online business…. read the article

cPanel is a great tool for webmasters hosting their websites on servers where the cPanel software is installed. We’ve used Plesk also and find cPanel far easier to use and it has a LOT more functions and extra’s.

One problem with cPanel is that it HAS so many functions and extra’s, a lot to learn for an inexperienced person!

There is however very good documentation for cPanel, it’s just very hard to find if you don’t know where it is.

Login to cPanel, then scroll down where at the bottom of the left hand information boxes you’ll see ‘Documentation’ with a Click to view’ link to the right. On some of the newer versions of cPanel you’ll find a ‘Documentation’ link right at the bottom of the cPanel main page.

If neither of these options is available to you, use this link….

http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/

If you would like to host your website with us and get access to cPanel to help you with your website management, click here to see our Website Hosting Package options.

We will post on most ways to market or promote your website online….

• PPC ( Pay Per Click )
• Paid advertising on other websites, blogs and directories
• Newsletter Advertising
• Newsletter distribution

and more. Click here to bookmark or create an RSS feed for this category!

Experience has shown us that, as long as a website looks ‘professionally designed’ ( not amateurish ), and gives visitors the confidence that they are dealing with a real business, it doesn’t really matter what the design looks like, because everyone has a different opinion of what looks ‘good’ anyway.

Yes you need the site to be fast loading and easy to navigate to make your visitors experience a good one, but the REALLY important thing is to get the right words on the pages….

1. to make sure the website will ( eventually ) attract your target market via the search engines (SE’s) and
2. to turn visitors into sales

1. First and foremost you need to attract visitors so, if the intention is to do this via the SE’s, the copy on the pages of the website needs to be full of the keywords and search terms your target market is using. The more keywords and search terms you can identify and include in your copy, the more chance you have of gaining visitors.

To identify the best and as many keywords / search terms as possible, I recommend my clients use Wordtracker.com. You can do a free ( but limited ) test to familiarise yourself with the way it works then, when you are ready to do the full job you can buy a 24 hour subscription for around US$10.00. If you get lots of keywords search terms in your list you’ll need to be creative in your copy writing to include them on the website.

2. Once the visitors are coming to the website, having good sales copy is extremely important, if the website is to turn those visitors into sales. It becomes even more important when you are paying to send visitors to the website via advertising, wether online or offline. And, initially at least, you will have to pay to drive visitors to the website, because it will take several months before you start to get visitors from the SE’s for even the most niche of your keywords.

So, to get people to go to your order page, use links embedded in enticing copy all around the website and in your ads. To get visitors to order, once they arrive on your order page / shopping cart, the copy on the order page needs to be very well thought out and written. The use of testimonials and money back guarantees can help people make their decision, but I recommend that clients use professional copy writers to make sure this job is done well. Once the copy is in place you’ll need to keep a close eye on your web stats to make sure your conversion rates are good enough, if they aren’t, be prepared to rewrite your sales copy.

Another VERY important factor, in gaining top positions on the SE’s for the more competitive search terms / keywords, is to have lots of unreciprocated links back to your website. You can generate unreciprocated links by getting on to product and geographical Directories, by writing articles for other webmasters etc etc. The more popular the website linking to your website the more importance the SE’s place on that link.

Finally, for top rankings the SE’s need to see new copy being regularly added, so you’ll need to try to keep adding to or updating the copy on your website.

If you can write about your subject regularly, a Blog is an excellent way to fulfill ALL the SE’s main requirements.

A popular Blog, well promoted, will generate lots of unreciprocated back links to your site, it will allow you to keep adding your keyword search terms, and it will keep the SE’s happy with their requirement for regular updating.

WordPress, an extremely popular blog software package, is available to our hosting clients, at no extra charge, via cPanel. If you need help configuring the software or, getting the pages to look like your webpages, we offer those services at minimal rates.

Figuring out the keywords / search terms which need to be included in the text on your web pages is no easy job but, if you want to gain good rankings in the SERP’s it’s a job which HAS to be done and there are ways to make it easier.

This article by Aaron Wall written for WordTraker.com is an excellent read for those of you considering taking on this task.
http://learn.wordtracker.com/articles/keyword-inspiration-aaron-wall-of-seobookcom-shares-his-secrets/

For you bloggers out there this should prove an interesting article / blog by Jill Whalen of HighRankings.com

http://www.highrankings.com/advisor/10-blogger-types/

Wordpress users would do well to check out the latest post on Search Engine Guide…..

http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchbrief/senews/010375.html

Web design should be about creating a website which…..

* is VISITOR FRIENDLY - easy to look at, fast loading, is easy to navigate around and, generally, to understand;
* is SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY - capable of ( eventually ) bringing targeted visitors from the top SE’s;
* is easy to EDIT and ADD TO - preferably by the website owner or someone employed by the owner, to keep their costs down;
* produces a RESULT - for both the visitor and the website owner;

And yet we see a vast majority of websites, particularly the lower budget ones, not fulfilling some, if not all, these criteria….. why?

It usually comes down to the fact that lower budget websites are created by individuals, rather than a team of specialists, and individuals rarely have ALL the skills required to produce a website, which includes all the features specified above.

But this need not necessarily be the case. As a small business website builder, I can safely say that we have EVERY opportunity of creating websites which fulfil ALL the criteria above simply by using one of the many FREE software packages available to us. The one which I use and recommend however is WordPress, the Blog / CMS software which this website is built on.

I recommend Wordpress because it is first and foremost a BLOG and blogging is definitely THE way to go from and SE perspective. Wordpress is also VERY easy for non technical people to edit and add to, and it allows a great ability for the website builder to customise the look and feel of each website to suit individual clients. There are also many free and paid template designs available.

We are now very happy to be able to offer new or redesigned Wordpress Blog website templates, ready for the client to populate with their copy and images, from as little AU$399.00 ( incl GST ) / US$325.00, or finished websites of up to 10 pages, from as little as AU$599.00 ( incl GST ) / US$499.00.

If you would like more info on our web design prices, or to get a quotation please click here.

The SEO scene is ever changing and, tho it is much more complicated and demanding for those websites / webmasters seeking a global audience, never the less a small business owner, seeking to attract visitors from their local geographical area, still needs to ensure that their website is well optimised for their target market’s keywords / search terms.

We will concentrate on this end of the SEO spectrum, helping small business owners, with a limited geographical market, optimise their websites to attract targeted visitors from their area.

So, what are the basics for a well optimised website?

1. Lots of good original copy written to include your target market’s keywords / search terms and a list of the towns, suburbs, counties etc in your geographical area.
2. Good clean html code

• control design elements such as backgrounds, colors, fonts etc using an external CSS file
• call up external java scripts rather than include them on the page
• avoid using Wysiwyg software which writes bad or inflated code ( there are a few out there )
• don’t copy and paste into HTML, CMS or Blog pages directly from a Word doc, you will transfer lots of bad HTML code. Copy Word doc text into a text editor first, then copy and paste from the text editor to your HTML, CMS, Blog etc

3. Interlink your web pages using TEXT based links not images ( buttons ). If you must use images make sure you have text links to all your important pages somewhere on ALL your pages, or…
4. Create and maintain a SITEMAP page and link directly to it from your home page with a TEXT based link.
5. Arrange for as many non reciprocated, non paid links to your website as you can. These links can come from suppliers websites, area directories, industry directories etc. Or they can come from articles written by you, which include a link to your website, and published on other websites, newsletters or blogs.

If you think you might like to host your website with us to gain access to this sort of advice and information directly, please click here to check out the packages we have available and our pricing.

Welcome to the Website Hosting & Management Services Blog.

We are a website host with a difference…..

We HELP our clients with expert advice on everything to do with managing a successful small business website.

On these pages you will find posts about optimising your pages for the search engines, using Google Adwords and similar paid advertising options. We will post about website design options, CMS, newsletter distribution and much more.

Having dealt with small business website owners for the past 8 or 9 years we know how much help you need and this website / blog has been set up to help us help you.

If you think you might like to host your website with us to gain access to this sort of advice and information directly, please click here to check out the packages we have available and our pricing.