Do you think you're ready to take the leap and bring your business online? Building a new website can seem like a daunting task. Between content, pictures, design, logos; all the while having to worry about things like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media, it can all be overwhelming. There are several steps you can take to help you better prepare for the experience and make it a bit less frightening.

Find the right domain name
First, check to see if the domain name you want to use is available. Having the perfect domain name for your website is very important as it gives you your online identity and it should not be overlooked. Check to see if your desired domain name is available, and register it right away.  You will also need hosting which you can register at the same time. Hosting is often included when you sign on to work with a web developer, however finding the best package for your needs is important as you may need multiple mailboxes, online streaming, blog capabilities etc. Webnames.ca has some great new plans available and you will get your domain FOR FREE. Know what your needs are to ensure you pick the right hosting plan.  Take a look at Webnames Hosting Plans.

What is the purpose of your website?
You should  have a clear idea of what your website will be used for, and what your visitors want from your website. Knowing your target market and how to meet their needs will help you choose the overall look and feel of your website.
Get an idea of what key components you want on your website (home page, about page, blog etc.). You will also need to consider things like eCommerce (will your visitors be purchasing from your site? If the answer is yes, how will you collect the funds?) Your decisions are not set in stone, but it is important to have somewhere to begin.

What is your budget?
This is an important one, as this will help to determine what kind of features you can have on your website. The more complex you want your website to be, the more time it will take the developer and this will lead to an increase in price. You may need to be flexible either with your website or with your budget to get exactly what you want, so keep that in mind.

Content, Content, Content!
If you want to have more than blank space on your website, you need to write some content. This is a huge portion of your website, and not something to be overlooked. You know your business better than anyone else and you need to supply your web developer with the content, don't expect that they will create it for you.Your content is also very important as it affects your Search Engine rankings. If you want to be found online, you want to be aware of the keywords that visitors will be using in an effort to find your business. Read more about SEO.

Images
Pictures are a huge part of making your website stand out. Ensuring your graphics are appropriate and communicate the concept of your company, service or product cannot be ignored. Do you already have photos ready to use for your website? Do you need to have professional photographs taken? Or are you planning to pay for stock images? Consider all your options and choose the best photos to better represent your online image and identity.

Who will design your website?
There are many design firms and freelance Web designers out there who can help you create your website. It is sometimes hard to tell one from the other and making the right decision can be a challenge.

A Freelance Web Designer/Developer
- May be more cost effective than a big design firm.
- May not have all of the resources needed for larger projects and continuity in relationship (if they move or go out of business) can be an issue.

A Professional Design Firm
- Often provides the most comprehensive set of skills, resources and services.
- Usually the most expensive option.
Make sure you take these items in to consideration before you get started on your new website. Although there are a lot of items to be aware of, choosing the right web designer to help walk you through it all can make all the difference.

Ready to start the Process?
Get the best of both worlds with a professional website at a great price! Webnames.ca has two comprehensive packages, FastTrack (starting at just $499) and Essentials ($1895) that will set you up with a great looking Wordpress based website.
Learn more about FastTrack and Essentials, and see which one is best for your business website.

Choosing Webnames.ca, you always know you are getting the highest level of service and the ease of knowing the job is being done right.

You've built your website, it's been working well for a while, but it's time for an update. Keeping your website the same for too long is like not updating the paint on your home. Eventually it starts to look outdated. Looking at your website as something that needs to be refreshed and updated is the best way to ensure you get the most out of your online presence.

A website re-build or re-design can be daunting and does take some level of planning to ensure it's a success.  Things that you need to consider are similar to the things that go into the design of a new website, such as target market, prioritization of goals, your overall image, etc. Here are some important steps to take when planning to update your website.


Assessment - What is currently working well on your site and what isn't?
If there are areas of your current website that are working well, and attracting clients, there is no use in changing it. Make sure you take a good look at the analytics of your site and any user feedback you have received. Make a list of the things that are working and make note of why they are working well. At the same time, take a look at the areas that are performing poorly and try to come up with ways that may help to improve them.

Goals - Think about what you are trying to accomplish
Having the best looking logo design, great graphics and a site that looks better than your competitors is great, however, if you do not have a website that aligns well with your overall business plan and goals, it makes no difference.
Ensure you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with the website (more leads, sell more etc.). At this time take a look at some of your competitors to see what they are doing that works. This will help you get creative with things that could be used for your own website.

Targeted Content - Are there areas/pages you can remove?
Having an over cluttered website is common. Oftentimes by reviewing the information on your website, you can come up with ways to simplify it by either removing pages, or combining some. Think about your audience, how they are using your website and what information is crucial. Getting rid of any "extras" will only help your clients better navigate your site. Alternatively or in addition to this, you may find that other sections and pages need to be added as your business develops. Things like a blog or image gallery are very common today and can increase the traffic to your newly designed site.

Visual Appeal - Do your photos and images need to be updated?
Having photos on your website that are several years old can really date your website, even if the overall look of your site is current. Getting new photos taken can truly update the look of your site and give in an "instant facelift". If you are using stock photos, take a look at some new images. You can use the images as a way to completely alter your business's overall impression and image, or stick with your current overall feel. The images you use are an integral part of your website and are just as important as the overall design.

Priority - Is a full redesign right for you, right now?
If your website is working well for you, creating leads and supplying customers with the information they require, a full redesign may not be necessary. Perhaps your site might just need some design updates to keep it current and modern. Make sure you consider all your options before jumping in to a full re-design.

Qualifications - Working with the right re-designer
Creating a new design and re-designing are two different things. You want to ensure you are working with someone who has experience with re-designs as oftentimes re-designs are more complicated than creating a new design.  If your site is complex and you want to keep some areas of your site while removing others, you need someone with the experience to ensure the process is smooth.

Ready to start your re-design/re-build?
Webnames.ca is well equipped to help you with your re-design through the Essentials Program. Essentials is designed to help you whether you want to re-design an existing website or launch your business on the Internet.

Learn more about Essentials, and see how it can help you with your business website.

The talk around the office is that EVERYONE should be using generic domain names. What are they you ask? Generic domains are keyword based rather than brand based. Coke.com, Google.ca, Dell.com, CanadianTire.com - these are all brand domains.  Examples of generic domains would include halifaxpizza.ca, kelownadenturist.ca, petbeds.com and mobilephones.net.

We keep saying that Google likes generic domain names. The theory is if you type in Barrie tailor as a Google search, a generic domain name like barrietailors.net or tailorbarrie.info will rank in the first page or two of Google.

I decided to put this theory to the test.  Last week, using Google.ca, I did searches on the following: Halifax plumber, Montreal plumber, Toronto plumber, Winnipeg plumber, Regina plumber, Calgary plumber and Vancouver plumber.

Of course for a website to rank well it needs to be built properly - targeted and relevant content, perhaps a blog, links in and out, that kind of thing. Websites that are domain parking pages will not do very well.

The results were interesting. I was also testing the theory that you did not have to be a generic .com to rank and it turns out that you do not! .Ca, .org, ,info, etc., can do the job.

In Halifax Plumberhalifax.ca was #3.  In Toronto Torontoplumbling.org was 12th. Winnipeg and Montreal did not have generic's show up - mostly Yellow Pages, CanPages, Kijiji and Yelp listings.

Regina had Reginaplumbers.info at #5 and Vancouver had Vancouversbestplumber.com at #7.

Calgary was the most exciting. Bestcalgaryplumber.com was #1. It's a built out blog site that you can advertise on. Plumber-calgary.ca was #2 and is also a built out blog site that you can advertise on. Calgaryplumbers.com was #3 and is a plumbing directory site.

The piece de resistance was Calgary-plumbing.com at #4. It is a sister site to ThePunctualPlumber.ca which ranked 6th. Both websites have different content but are about the same company. So the generic domain ranked better than the brand domain!

I would have said a dash was bad for a domain name but clearly good content wins every time.

If you are going to purchase a generic domain name, you have to remember the golden rule - it has to have completely different content from your branded site - mirrored content will get you banned by Google ...... and nobody wants that.

The Social Search. How it Works:

Google and Bing are changing the way we are use the internet..... again.  Social Search has been created and both Bing and Google have their own takes on it.  So what is it? 

Social Search is a new addition to the old search engine that allows users to opt-in to having search results come from content created by friends and connections in their social networks. These results would be included with the search results from the web.  The difference between the two? Bing has Facebook, Google has Twitter. 

If you are anything like me, you are already using your social media platforms to search for anything from places to eat to apartments for rent. With the new social search that both Google and Bing are offering up, I can simply log into my Google (or Bing) account and search one place which will produce results from people in my social network and the web.  This produces a lattice of information that has specific relevance to me; it is my network after all. 

I recently moved to Vancouver.  I have a few friends here, but for the most part, the friends I've made are also new to the city.  When I was on the hunt for a great Mexican restaurant, I did what most of us do, I googled "Mexican in Vancouver".  The Google map appeared with pink dots all over it as to where I could find Mexican food in Vancouver, phone numbers and addresses included, but no great reviews. 

With the advent of the Social Search, I can now scan my social networks to see if any of my friends have said anything about "Mexican in Vancouver".  Instead of going to a dodgy hole-in-the-wall spot, I can go to Topanga Café for some delicious margaritas and well deserved burritos (after all, it was really tough to find).   The result of my search is not only personalized for me by my friends who "Like" it, but is actually put into the top results based on my own social network.

The great Benefits of the Social Search? Reduced spam, increased relevance, human judgment, relevance determined by peers, and results from your network that are not stale dated.

The Cons of the Social Search: What do you like on Facebook?

I "Like" a lot of things on Facebook. I "Like" Justin Bieber, and I "Like" being a part of the Young Seniors of Oak Bay Group.  No offense to Justin Bieber, but I'm not actually a fan, I simply think it's funny to be one and I can be sure I'm not the only one who "Likes" things they know nothing about.

So the relevance of all searches could be skewed by my impish tendencies to like idiotic things.

The Social Search will no doubt be a game changer in SEO, and the way we use the internet. For now, just be wary of whose word you're choosing to trust and be choosey about what you "Like". 

We launched our Search Engine Optimization service last month and I wanted to give you a taste of what I learned from our (frankly) brilliant SEO consultants.

There are some fast and easy things you can do that should garner you noticeable improvements in your search engine ranking.

#1 quick win - The Title Tag.
Your website's title tag is the first piece of real estate that Google indexes. If it just says Benson and Sons you've given the engines nothing to work with and unless people already know about you, it doesn't say what you do. But if you say "Benson and Sons -Winnipeg Area Private Investigators and Bail Bondsmen",  you've told the search engines where you are and what your business does.

#2 quick win - Words, Words, Words 
Google loves words and primarily indexes words. Your landing page should have at least 250 words on it and some of those words must be the key search terms that you want to be found on. So for Benson and Sons I would suggest the landing page have something like this:

"Benson and Sons is a Winnipeg based private investigation firm that also specialized in bail bonding.

Our certified investigators and bondsmen are discreet and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Bonds and investigations no longer need to be the embarrassment they once were! You can make inquires by phone, email, online or in person. Our process is simple. Once you contact us we will get back to you within the hour. We will listen to your problem and come up with a solution plan that can be acted upon quickly.

No bond is too high and no investigation too small.  Bail for a loved one falsely accused of being the Kissing Bandit? We've got you covered. Would you like us to find out who the real Bandit is?  Our state of the art undercover and online sleuthing will complement your solicitors work.

We take all manner of payment for our bond and investigation services - credit card, mortgage lien, high performance vehicles, estate jewelry and the like.

We service Winnipeg and southern Manitoba as well.  Call Benson and Sons today. Our satisfied customers all say the same thing "I have never had my bail bond and private investigation needs handled so quickly and efficiently".

Should you need us to work in any other province; we will gladly assist one of our many professional associates in those provinces who are certified bondsmen and investigators. At no time will we hand off the work to another company.  Your satisfaction is our only goal."

The key words that they would be found on would be : Winnipeg, bail, bond(s), investigator(s), investigation.

This block of text uses the key words organically.  It covered off what we do and our location. Both of these are essential to being found.

Our resident filmmaker Rami, shot to the first page of Google (from page 4) on the term Vancouver Cinematographer by changing his Title tag. It had been Rami Films Personal Portfolio and then became Rami Films Vancouver Cinematographer.

He also made sure that he peppered his blog posts with the two words and then added those posts to his blog roll on his main page at www.ramifilms.com.

Our SEO service consultants can help you figure out which words you should be trying to be found on. They can tell you how to use the description fields for your pages and the alt tags for your pictures.

They'll look at your competition and figure out what you can do to leap over them in the rankings. They'll teach you about links in and links out.

So give us a call today and we'll get you set up with a consultant ASAP. And if you want some snappy copy for your website we can help with that too! Just give us a call.

We recently came across an article on CanuckSEO.com that measures the effectiveness of .CA  versus .COM for Canadian businesses and they kindly allowed us to republish it on Webnames.ca Blog.

While it is no secret we are big proponents of .CA - Webnames.ca co-founder John Demco actually conceived of .CA in 1987 to identify Canadian content on the Web - we generally advocate that businesses get their name in both their .CA and .COM whenever possible and forward the second extension to their primary website to capture direct navigation (aka 'type-in') traffic as well as boost their SEO. The problem, however, is that most Canadian business's find their .COM already registered.

What new businesses should know is that in today's SEO landscape the domain extension you choose does not actually matter that much if you want to reach an international audience. If you are targeting a Canadian audience, however, .CA has some real SEO advantages especially when it comes to ranking on Google.ca.

The article by David Leonhardt below examines this in greater detail.
 
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To Dot-CA or not to Dot-CA?

Many Canadian businesses are faced with a conundrum: do they set up their website on a .ca domain or on a .com domain.  There are pros and cons for each, and some of those are related to SEO, to the rankings that the website can achieve in the search engines.

The first question a business should answer is whether a website is targeting just a Canadian audience or whether it is targeting a world audience (including Canada, but also the USA, Europe, Asia, etc.).  This post will address only those businesses targeting primarily a Canadian audience.

I will say only that if your business is targeting a world audience, and you do choose to use a .ca domain, we have seen no evidence that it will hurt your rankings in New York or London.  However, .ca does say "Canadian" and it is reasonable to expect change at any time - that Google and Bing might one day wake up and decide not serve up a .ca listing in results outside of Canada, or at least to reduce their rankings.

What we do know is that there are five ways to let the search engines know that your website is particularly relevant to Canadians:

1. A .ca domain makes it very clear that the site is Canadian

2. A site hosted on a Canadian server is usually considered Canadian

3. A site with a significantly disproportionate percentage of backlinks from .ca or Canadian-hosted domains is likely to be relevant specifically to Canadians

4. A website with an address located in Canada, or the word Canada written all over it is also likely to be of particular interest to Canadians

5. In Google's webmaster tools, you can associate a website with "Canada", but that doesn't help at Bing, Yahoo, Ask or other engines

The order I listed the five methods above is purposeful; a .ca domain is generally believed to be the single most effective way to signal "Canadian" to the search engines.  My own anecdotal experience confirms this, although I have not seen any statistically sound testing to confirm this.

How effective is a .CA domain? 

It can make a very big difference at Google.ca, making a website rank much higher than at it does at Google.com .  Here are some sample rankings for the top 6 most important search phrases for a client of mine who is on a .ca domain -

As an example, one of my clients with a .ca domain is competing is a highly competitive niche.  Here are a few sample rankings at Google.ca and Google.com:

Why this matters is because Google serves up Google.ca to all users whose IP address is designated Canadian.  That is a majority of Canadian searchers.  Having a .ca domain gives your business an advantage it does not have at Google.com .

That does not mean you should ignore Google.com .  There are many applications, including the Google Toolbar and third party websites running Google searches, where geography is not factored in and Canadians are treated as if they were global nomads.  A .ca domain won't help you in these searches, but other signals will.

Canadians searching through applications that ignore geography are much more likely to refine their search geographically (adding "Canada" or the name of their city and clicking "search" again).  This is just an assumption on my part; it would be interesting to see data, but I don't believe there is any available.

Although right now a .ca domain does not give a business a natural advantage in Google.com searches from within Canada, there is no telling that it might not in the future.  If at any time it does, I know a lot of .ca domain owners who will be smiling.

By the way, I put my money where my mouth is.  Although my clients come from all over the world, I have a special interest in home base.  So my main, international website is at www.seo-writer.com, but I have a website just to attract Canadian clients at www.seo-writer.ca .

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About the Author: David Leonhardt is the founder of The Happy Guy Marketing. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/Amabaie.

About the Blog: CanuckSEO is maintained by Jim Rudnick and features search engine optimization help with a Canadian twist. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JVRudnick

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Related Resources

For more information about domain name selection and its impact on SEO, we recommend the 'Site-Wide (non-link based) Ranking Factors' section in SEO MOZ's comprehensive Search Engine Factors Ranking 2009 Report.

We love SEO MOZ! 

 

I don't know of a single blogger who doesn't want to improve their search engine optimization and page rank. The truth is that there is always something you can do!  Here are 10 tips for boosting SEO - and all of them are straight forward things you can implement yourself.

 

• Start with writing great content that is useful and relevant to your audience.

 

• Try to create content 'staying power'.

 

• Name individual blog posts using keywords from your post and use descriptive titles, for example "10 Simple Tips for Optimizing your Blog on Search Engines" 

 

• Add compelling images to increase visual interest. Tag your images appropriately with keywords from your post.

 

• Promote sharing of your content by adding widgets to allow for easy sharing including Twitter and other social network of the reader's choice. Remember to avoid overloading with too many widgets which may slow down your site.

 

• Add RSS in an obvious spot of your blog so readers can easily subscribe.

 

• Link new posts to previous related posts on your blog to encourage sharing and longevity of old posts. Update stories with a new take and link to the original article. And while you're here, check out our Free SEO Tools post ;)

 

• Cross-link. Link to other blogs with similar topics and let them know you are doing so. They may link back in a future story.

 

• Allow readers to leave comments for ongoing discussion. Monitor for spam and leave relevant comments to encourage further discussion.

 

• Share older (but still relevant) posts through Twitter. Most of your followers have probably not read the post so don't feel like you are re-hashing old news if the information still has value to your followers.

 

A recent report published by Hitwise, a company that specializes in measuring activity on the Internet, sheds light on the search behaviors and browser preferences of Canadians. Deeming a successful search as "one where the consumer leaves the search engine after performing the search," Hitwise found that Canadians have a 70% success rate on search engine queries.

Other interesting findings include that Canadians typically favour less complex queries than our American neighbours with approximately half of us opting to use only one or two keywords. The report also noted that Canadians are more successful searching when they include the word "Canada" in their search; using Walmart as an example, the study notes the term "Walmart" attained an 88.8% success rate, while "walmart Canada" was 92.5% successful.

While Google is the favoured search engine of Canadians (no surprise there!) cornering 80% of the market, the study names Microsoft's Bing as "the best search engine for producing successful searches." According to the study, Bing had 78.6 percent success rate for Canadians, compared to Yahoo, which had 74.4 percent, and Google which had an even lower rate of 72.1 percent. Currently Bing is the sixth most popular search engine among Canadians.

If you do online business with Canadians, the study emphasizes the importance of optimizing your website for Canadian search engines as they are responsible for one-third of all website visits. It also recommends getting a .CA domain name stating that "Canadians are quite nationalistic when it comes to online shopping."

Hmmm, I think I know someone who can help you with that .CA domain registration.

Read the article:

Canadian Online Search Behaviors Revealed, By Kaila Krayewski from www.isedb.com

 

Although not all of the sites that list the top 100 visited websites agree on the list of 100 they do when taken collectively give a pretty clear image of what people are looking for online.  By reviewing the top 100 website lists at some of the following sites www.Alexa.com, www.Quantcast.com, www.web100.com,  and www.Compete.com, one can gain a clearer picture of what the websites making up the top 100 are about and what we can all learn from them when it comes to internet success.

One only needs look at the lists to see that the top ranking sites fall into the top 10 categories of  E-Commerce, Reference, News, software, Search Engines, Banking, Adult, Blogging, Social Networking, and Image Hosting. 

Knowing what the top sites are and what they are doing to stay in the top 100 is helpful to any internet business as clear trends can be seen among them.  Surprisingly with all of the technology and new internet fads out there the majority of the top 100 sites still rely on relatively old school means to stay on top.  Over 90% of the domains in the top 100 websites are .COM names, even as less and less .COM's are available everyday.  It is also interesting to note that over 80% of the content on the top 100 websites is text based with images coming in second place, leaving video and audio with the smallest amount of content.  What does this all mean?  The internet for all of its variety and people looking for their 15 minutes of fame is still primarily being used for business and as a resource for finding useful information. 

So what can a startup or existing business learn from the top 100?  Firstly you don't need a real world store front to succeed.   More and more businesses are using the internet to reach a broader customer base with a good majority of them having only an online presence and no real world store front.  This means lower over head costs at the same time as a larger potential customer base equaling higher profits for the companies that take the time to find out who their customers are, what their needs are and how to best serve them in the online market.  Register the best domain name for your website that you can as a .COM as well as other extensions and use free tools like Webnames.ca domain forwarding (included with every domain name purchase) to forward multiple domains to your main website, to drive the most possible traffic to your site.  Thirdly make your site clean, clear and easy to follow, although images and video can be fun and trendy add-ons to a site your, meat and potatoes should still be text based, using tools like Webnames.ca Web Builder to get your site up and running even if you don't have a lot of website design experience.   Get your site listed on search engines and aim for the highest rankings you can so people can find you easily.  And most importantly don't forget that great customer service, reputation, and ease of use will go a long way in keeping your customers coming back once you are up and running.  Webnames.ca can get you up and running with your domain name, hosting, Web Builder, SSL and domain management needs, who knows with a little research, hard work and focus you could be on next years list of top 100 websites.

Often times people think that if they register a domain and put a web site up, they will automatically appear on the first page of any search engine results. This, unfortunately, is not true. There is quite a bit of work that goes into making your domain appear at the top of search engine lists, it is, in some respects, a science. Whether you're just putting up a new site, or you want to elevate the rankings of your current one, it's hard to know where to start. Here are some simple ways you can boost your search engine results in a few easy steps.

The search engine that I'll be using for this example is Google. It is the one that we get asked about, and is the best recognized and most used search engine out there today. If you attempt to get yourself listed on any search engine, Google is usually the one you want to concentrate on, it contains about a billion indexed pages and your search results are presented in a clean manner ranked by relevance. It doesn't throw pop-up ads at you, and when you search for 'monkey falling out of a tree', you get just that - all 224 000 pages (who knew there were so many clumsy monkeys out there).

Google has become much more than a search engine, it's managed to wiggle its way into our daily lexicon. Ten years ago if somebody was asking you for information and you suggested that they Google it, you probably would have gotten a rather puzzled look. These days people are more apt to hit Google first instead of asking you if you know the average temperature in Iceland in July (which according to Google, is 10-12°C).

Now before we go into Google rankings, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. Everybody out there is trying to get ranked #1 on Google, not just you. There is plenty of competition, and there are people out there that make careers out of getting top ranks on Google. It's a full time job, and if you think you can be ranked numero uno on Google (with the exception of very obscure topics, think three legged platypus attends mammal/reptile crossover convention level of obscure) with little or no effort you are unfortunately several left turns away from being only slightly off base.

What you need to do first, is request a visit from the Google robot, or bot for short. The Googlebot crawls the Internet indexing web pages for the search engine.

The Google Robot

You can request a Google robot visit at www.google.com/addurl. The robot will browse your site and index its contents. Please note that this won't happen overnight, it may take a few weeks for your website to get indexed. Also, make sure to remember to list your site at www.dmoz.org. This is Google's web directory and, coupled with the Googlebot, an important source of the Google application programming interface, which is a source code interface that an operating system or library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by programs.

Keywords Keywords Keywords

It's important to select relevant keywords, it is also important to mention them often. There are several services that allow you to enter in a keyword, and it returns results based on what terms containing your keyword other people have searched for recently. Below is an example of the top five results from inventory.overature.com, searching on the term 'bicycle'. These sort of tools will allow you to plan and structure your keywords according to popularity.

 

Page Rank

Page rank is basically a score given to your page from one to ten, one being bad and ten being good. The lower ranked your page, the less likely you will be to appear at the top of the search rankings. If you want to do a quick check of your page rank, there are many available tools out there. I did a Google (surprise, surprise) search and found the following which is pretty simple to use, type in your domain name and away you go. http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

When formatting your web site keep in mind that Googlebot does not recognize frames, so to get ranked you'll need to make sure your site is properly formatted and written in a standard programming language. Googlebot will also skip over flash action scripting so avoid creating your site using only flash, no matter how cool it looks or how impressed you think your friends will be with the 'l33tness' of your skillz....

Also keep in mind that the Googlebot likes pages that are frequently updated and those that are registered for a longer term (ie: a 5 year domain registration as opposed to a 1 year domain registration term)

No BS! (Being Sneaky that is...)

If you think you can be smart and do things like listing a huge long block of keywords in the same colour as your background so that people don't see it but Googlebot will, don't bother. The Googlebot will ignore tricks like that. Linkfarms are also highly frowned upon and Google will usually put a 30 day block (search engine) on your site, with the possibility of being removed from the rankings for good. I know that this is probably a lot of information to take in, especially when most people think that getting top ranked at Google simply requires a domain name and a web site. I wish it was that easy, but it's not. Just keep in mind these tips offered up, do some research on your own (may I suggest an excellent starting point being Google itself) and you should be well on your way to climbing up in the dog eat dog world of Google rankings.

As COO of Webnames.ca, board member of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and a former President of Wired Woman, I attend a lot of business and networking events. I have met a lot of successful entrepreneurs, executives of large corporations and owners of startup companies alike. One question that I get asked more than any other is - "Which domain should we register,.com or .ca? It's a simple question with a simple answer. Both!

In fact, my advice has always been if you can afford it secure them all: .com, .ca, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .mobi, .us, .cn. Here are some reasons why -

It's inexpensive to do- The cost of a domain name is relatively small. People don't think twice about spending $5.00 for a large cappuccino every morning. The cost of a domain is about $0.13 a day. Multiply this by 10 domain names and that's still only $1.30 a day. I'm not saying go without your morning java ... but if you can afford your daily coffee, you can definitely afford registering your business names in a variety of extensions.

Business expense You can't write your morning coffee written off, but your domain names are a legitimate business expense.

Your domain name is a valuable business asset - Many businesses think about exit strategies at some point in time. When selling a company, having your business and brand domain names secured can mean a higher selling price. People have long recognized office equipment, accounts receivables, inventory, land holdings and patents as assets of a company. Domain names are definitely written into all purchase and sale agreements these days as assets and if you have secured your brand carefully, it can add considerable value to your company. Have you seen what domain names are selling for these days?

Protect your business against cybersquatting - Cybersquatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. Since domain names are offered on a "first come, first served" basis, there is nothing to stop individuals from registering either new or expired domains a legitimate business might want now or in the future. Well-known companies and product manufactures, celebrities and political candidates often discover that someone else has registered their names. Although trademark laws offer some protection, it's often less costly to purchase the domain from a cybersquatter than it is to sue. Of course, the cheapest and easiest method is to register your domains before someone else does. Smaller companies and startups used to go unnoticed by cybersquatters, but that's changing as well. If you are a growing company, starting to get some media coverage and/or decent search engine rankings, you better start reviewing your domain name portfolio right away.  

Drive traffic - Having numerous domain names doesn't mean having to host them all. You have one main website and then forward the rest of your domains to it (domain forwarding is free at Webnames.ca). So if someone types one domain extension instead of another, it doesn't matter. You are guaranteeing that your customers will find you.

Differentiate your markets - Your can have a separate landing page or even a separate site for your Canadian customers at yourcompany.ca showing Canadian currency, shipping info, etc than at yourcompany.com page. Yourcompany.info page can be corporate information about your company or customer testimonials. Having these separated can help you track where your traffic is coming from as well.  

In terms of the other extensions, you can build a .mobi or mobile website for the millions of wireless handheld devices out there. With mobile use growing at a staggering rate (already outnumbering PC's by 4 to 1), mobile websites will soon become a must for most businesses. Your .us domain can be for your US market with US currency and shipping info. And of course if you plan to do business in China, securing your .cn is a must -  it remains the fastest growing domain extension. 

Defending your trademark  According to trademark law, your mark is protected only if you are actively protecting it. If someone violates your mark, it's your responsibility to object and defend it.  If you don't, you weaken your position in future disputes. If someone has registered your trademark as a domain, you need to review and pursue a claim through the Unform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy or Canadian Dispute Resolution Policy to resolve the issue.

And how long should you register your domain? - Google had filed a patent US Patent Application #20050071741 - Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data which suggests registering your domain name for a longer term can help improve your Google rankings. Google tries to determine the legitimacy of a domain name and according to the document, valuable domains are often paid for several years in advance while throwaway or "doorway" domains are rarely registered for more than a year. To determine the value of a domain, Google records the following information:

• The length of the domain registration (one year <-> several years)
• The address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact
• The stability of data and host company
• The number of pages on a website (web sites must have more than one page)

Google claims that they have a list of known bad contact information, name servers and IP addresses that helps them to find out whether a spammer is running a domain. So what does this mean for you? Optimizing your website for Google can require considerable work. Extending your domain registration term may not make a huge impact but clearly it helps and if you can afford it, registering for 10 years makes a lot of sense. I have just extended "webnames.ca" for the maximum 10 year term and I'll update you in the future as to whether this makes any difference.

See our previous blog post on this topic at http://webnamesblog.ca/index.php/2007/09/25/longer-domain-registrations-help-search-engine-rankings/

As a university student, I had a motto for saving money - free = good. Whether it was free miso soup at my favourite sushi place, or free samples from the cosmetics counter, this unspoken rule worked well for a student trying to maximize her budget. Years on I still think free = good, and while I don't apply it to all aspects of my finances anymore, it's a tactic many small businesses can and should use to help stretch every dollar. You can pay thousands of dollars for a top notch SEO consultant, and in many cases you get what you pay for. We can't all afford to pay top dollar for SEO expertise, but lucky for us, the good folks at SEO Position have catalogued 15 of the best free tools out there. Who better to offer up reviews of these tools than an SEO consultancy.

If you regularly monitor SEO sites and blogs, some of these tools won't be new to you, but even adding a few of these in your repertoire will be very useful indeed. From tracking keywords to page rank, here are our 5 favourites from their top 15:

1. SEOmoz - Rank Checker We agree with SEO Position on this one, rank checker is a great tool to have in your arsenal. You can check 5 keywords a day and save your results. Check, track and download your keywords in your SEOmoz account - all for free.

2. SEObook.com - SEO for Firefox Get a wealth of information right in your browser (as long as you are using Firefox that is). You can track a number of stats and export it all into a CSV file for further analysis. Another great reason to use Firefox.

3. We Build Pages - Strongest Subpages Find out the rank of any and all the pages on your site. Find the best pages and try to enhance them, and boost the rank of your poor performance pages by optimizing content and page copy.

4. iWebTools - Multi-Rank Checker Keep track of your rank, and all your competitors - at the same time. This tool saves you time by checking the rank of multiple sites in one go.

5. Google Analytics/Google Webmaster Console Last, and possibly the most used free SEO tools out there, Google Analytics provides more information than you'll probably know what to do with, and their Webmaster Console lets you look into what Google sees about your site.

Check out the comments in this post too, a few developers leave information on other free tools similar and complimentary to SEO Position's list. It's great to get some tips on what the SEO pros are using, and while it may not replace a full assessment and plan from an expert, this is a great jumping off point to try and improve your site.

Last updated September 2009

It certainly won't land you on the first page of Google if your website has poor content and is not well optimized for search engines, but registering and/or renewing your domain name for a longer term might help your SEO. 

How? Credible websites have certain things in common, for example their domain names tend to be registered for longer terms - 2, 5, 10 years - indicating a commitment to their online identity and business.

In an effort to weed out spammers from legitimate websites, it's suspected that Google and other search engines look for indicators of legitimacy gleaned from analyzing common traits of so-called 'good' websites, ie. websites that bring value to the Internet. 

Domain registration information is readily accessible - therefore it is easy for a search engine such as Google to find out how long you have registered your domain.

 According to a 2005 patent filed by Google,

"Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith."

Click here to see the original patent application

The quote places a greater value on domains registered for longer terms, viewing them as more legitimate than those set to expire after one year. 

With spammers registering one year disposable domains at low cost registrars, it makes sense that search engines would consider the length/age of a domain registration. Anyone who has submitted a website to Google knows it takes time to build up respectable page rank on relevant keywords and terms. Spam websites tend to be short lived, resultantly a website's age and domain registration could be considered as indicators of credibility.

To be fair, there has been quite a lot of debate among SEO experts as to whether or not a longer registration term is worthwhile, however most seem to agree it can't hurt and might even help. John Glick, a former member of the Yahoo search team, is on the record as saying "there is a minor benefit to domains with longer registrations. It shows that the site is planning on being around a while."

More recently, SearchEngineLand.com editor Mark McGee put it very reasonably -  "My gut feeling, based on what the Googlers have said, is that if you build a great web site that attracts lots of people, lots of links, lots of attention, etc., it won't matter if your domain is only registered for one year. But if you build an iffy web site with iffy content and questionable links ... a one-year registration just might matter."

While it's not going to make or break your SEO game, our take is this: if you plan on being around for a while, why wouldn't you secure your name for longer? It will save you money, save you from renewing yearly (or worse yet, forgetting to renew) and might even boost your SEO ever so slightly.

Further Reading on the Topic:

SEO & Length of Domain Registration - Does It Matter?  - VerticalLeap SEO Services

Does Registering A Domain Name for 10 Years Help Search Ranking? - Search Engine Roundtable

Search Ranking Factors Study 2009, Site-Wide (non-link based) Ranking Factors - SEOmoz.org

Google Says Domain Registrations Don't Affect SEO, Or Do They? - SearchEngineLand.com  

Small business owners and independent contractors alike will find the Freelance Switch blog helpful. While much of their content is targeted at freelance writers and designers trying to make the leap to full-time independent work, the blog offers great insights on how to make the most of your work day, generate business leads and manage different types of clients - useful advice for any business.

Freelance Switch has a great post this week on Getting Exposure On Search Engines. Focusing on four key areas - Choosing your keywords, Making the content of your website searchable, Fulfilling the needs of browsers and Getting other sites to link to you - this post is an excellent overview of how to use some simple SEO tactics to gain exposure and get new clients. If you have looked at other SEO sites and thought it seemed confusing, too time consuming or difficult, this post is for you, it focuses on small concrete things you can do to promote your business.

Below is an excerpt from point #4 - Getting other sites to link to you:

 

Promote your website as a resource.
Having an armory of visuals or articles is important for obtaining good quality incoming links.

Lots of top-ranking websites have ‘Resources’ or ‘Useful links’ sections. You need to be in there. So write up a description of your resources and send to the web editors of high-ranking sites. Try to include your main keywords within your link description copy, so meta-crawlers identify it as a ‘good link’.

Send out articles.
Be a featured writer on a website that prospective clients hit on every day. You’ll not only get quality links to your site, you’ll also get your name out as an expert in your field.

Your articles can be adapted from your website or your blog entries. Just make sure they are useful and informative, leaving your website address and service description for your bio at the end of the article. Be sure to add a ‘call to action’ line at the end of your bio, persuaded interested readers to contact you (e.g. “Need a fresh new look? Ask about my design services. Email jon@callmewoo.com”.)

 

The key point here is to provide value for your current and potential customers. By establishing yourself as an expert and a resource, your business will gain positive exposure and give something back to your customers. Admittedly, writing is much harder than most people realize, so sending out articles may not be the easiest or best fit for you. If you have the budget, don't be afraid of hiring someone to help you. As this blog shows, there is a wealth of talented freelance writers available for contract work, so this might be a great opportunity to gather your ideas and work with an independent consultant to bring them to your site.

If you are interested in learning more, check out the full article, or the book it was adapted from The Freelance Designer's Self-Marketing Handbook, available for download at www.marketing-designers.com.

A great website is like a panda bear - rare and specialized at doing several things well (eating bamboo, hanging out, you get the idea). Most websites however are more like farm animals, not especially elegant or refined but they generally get the job done.

All websites get old and ornery if you let them go long enough without critical attention. It's important for business owners look at redesign as an incremental thing, rather a major overhaul every 2 or 3 years. Full-blown redesigns can sometimes alienate your users and leave them feeling lost. This is why most of the Web's largest retailers - Amazon and eBay for example - don't redesign their websites; rather, they choose to roll out major changes slowly.

We acknowledge however that many small-to-medium sized businesses – and small business websites for that matter - are DIY. Not every business has the resources or technical skill-set to be continuously improving their websites. If you fall into this camp, it's important to keep an ongoing list non-critical bugs, fixes and improvements and try to implement through regular schedule of review, design and development. This can be scheduled quarterly, semi-annually, annually, or whatever best suits your website’s complexity and budget.

If you've let things go for too long or your online business requirements have changed a comprehensive rebuild is sometimes necessary. If you’re going to do a redesign of an existing website, here are some important things to address while in the planning stage.

1. Define your goals
Don't undertake a full-blown redesign simply to keep up with your competitors. You should have quantifiable goals motivating your redesign – for example, a 10% increase in conversion rates from an improved shopping cart, or updates to your content/pages/menus because of new products or services. Clearly define and document the goals of your redesign project so you have them to refer to and guide the process.

2. Know your current website inside and out
Find out as much as possible about the current state of your website. Know your webstats, analyze your traffic data and compile feedback you have received from users. Also cavass your users about their needs via an online survey or person-to-person interviews. If your website has ecommerce or other interactive components, usability tests can help you understand where your users are having trouble and what areas are working well.

3. Research your competitors
While you don’t want to emulate your competitors, this is a golden opportunity to incorporate the best features of their web presence into your own. Study competitor websites for design ideas, communication style, dynamic features and technology. Have they incorporated a blog, or other interactive resource that brings value to their website? What type of keywords are they using? What are their key messages?

4. Manage the process and consult with experts  
Even if your website is small, a redesign is an important project that needs to be actively managed with a well-defined scope, budget and the right help. Create a realistic schedule for your webcopy, design and technical changes. You wouldn’t hire an inexperienced designer or developer, so don’t cut corners on your content - consider contracting a professional writer to design the voice of your webcopy and write your important pages, even if you undertake the remainder yourself.

5. Review and update your content
A website redesign is the best time to thoroughly review, reorganize and rewrite your website content. Assess the gaps in your current content and reevaluate your information architecture - Can your customers find the information they are looking for quickly and easily? Is important information missing? Is your content structured according to your user’s needs and expectations? Now is the time to eliminate unnecessary steps, superfluous copy and redundant information.

6. Add value and get value
Do your visitors feel like they are visiting an active site? When redesigning your website try to incorporate tools and features to keep it current – for example, a blog you update several times per week where visitors can leave comments, or an area you update with advice or helpful resources. Remember that regularly updated content also helps improve your search engine ranking. Think about what you can do to keep visitors coming back for more and situate yourself as an expert in your field. An online cookware retailer has a great ‘recipe of the day’ RSS that keeps me visiting regularly; as a result, I have made impromptu purchases because of exposure to time-limited promotions.

7. Address search engine optimization
Your redesign presents a unique opportunity to optimize your website for search engines. Write your page content with keywords in mind - this will help index your pages under relevant search criteria. Also create short and descriptive urls for your pages, or consider using mod-rewrites. Mod rewrites will allow you to submit descriptive and meaningful URLS – for example  to search engines while using still directing visitors to dynamically generated html typical of perl, PHP, or ASP.  Also be sure to create an html version of your sitemap to help guide search engine spiders to all of your webpages.

8. Test as you redesign
Make sure your redesigned website works by having visitors and/or customers view your layouts early and test your functionally before launch. Leave a buffer for refinements.

9. Schedule regular reviews
As mentioned in the introduction, establishing a schedule to review and address design updates and non-critical bugs, fixes and improvements will save you money in the long run by keeping your website well tuned.