Internet Host Services Blog - Web Site Marketing

Similar Page Checker- Important!

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:46:44 +0000

In a previous post we discussed the importance of not having duplicate pages (same text but on different pages) within a website. Here's a great tool to use to check if you think you may have similar pages either on the same website or residing on two separate sites (both of which can harm current or potential search engine rankings)

Can Pay Per Click Work for You?

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:56:12 +0000

Pay Per Click (or PPC) can be a great tool to increase your sales or inquries for your business. The two most popular Pay Per Click programs are offered by the two giant search engines; Google and Yahoo. MSN has recently launched their own Pay Per Click service and is slowly taking off as well.

Just what is PPC? It is a way to pay for placement on a search engine using their sponsered results program. For instance, Google's AdWords displays PPC customers either in the top or right hand side of their results. You'll notice boxes sometimes with a blue, green or white background. People choose the keywords they want to show up under, and how much they are willing to pay. If someone clicks on their link, the amount they decided to pay for that keyword will come out of their budget.

Some of the beneifts of PPC advertising include instant placement (or usually within 1-2 days), control of a budget and keywords. You also can advertise specifically in a local, national or international market.

Each PPC program varies. Depending on where you are advertising and the keywords you choose, you can spend some cash. If you don't have time to maintain your accounts, you may be paying for more than you need to, or not maximizing your potential. With some of the strict guidelines that Google and Yahoo have on their ads, you may not be capturing your audience with the way your ads are written.

You can benefit from this program. If you have PPC accounts already, we can review them for you to see if it really is working, or set up PPC accounts and start driving more business to your site almost immediately.

Learn more here: http://www.hostservices.net/ppc.html

Do It Yourself Email Marketing- Save Big, Earn Big!

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:19:19 +0000

Build Customer Loyalty and Repeat Business with Do-It-Yourself Email Marketing®Send professional email newsletters, promotions and more in minutes with Constant Contact®.

Simply add your unique message to one of our professional templates and Constant Contact does the rest.
Includes a customizable visitor signup form for your website
Collects names and imports your permission-based list
Includes more than 100 professional templates that you can customize to match your brand
Hosts and manages your email database (including unsubscribes and bounces)
Automatically formats and delivers in HTML and Text
Tracks results as they happen

Try it free for 60 days! Click Here

Why Hide? Text that is.....

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:53:06 +0000

This is an old trick that appears to be evident on many websites today. Many years ago when I started online marketing it was a general practice to hide text on a website. It wasn't meant to be a bad thing, but a way to let search engines know what your keywords are (or target market) without cluttering the look and feel of the website. It also made it more appealing for visitors as they could not see it.

The idea was to take whatever color background the page was (typically a white one) and have white or the same color font.

Over time, search engines became clever (although sometimes I question that ). Most search engines know what to look for and if they do find out you are purposely hiding text (also referred to a keyword stuffing or spamming) they can penalize you. Being penalized by a search engine is really one of the worst things that can happen to your web business. I've seen sites lose rankings, have a hard time competing with other sites for top position, and even banishment.

The bottom line is, if you have hidden text, remove it ASAP. If a person or search engine company is using this technique, tell them to stop immediately. If they tell you it's ok, definitely leave!

If you are not sure, let us review the site for free.

Stealing Content? Better Consider a Few Things First...

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:22:26 +0000

OK, so some people use the term 'borrow' when it comes to using other people's website content. If you are a travel company for instance, what harm is it if you grab some text from a chamber of commerce website?

Well, let's first take into account (and many don't realize this) that using other people's content (or text) from a website can be considered copyright infringement.

If you still do not think this is bad, maybe this will do the trick; search engines are clever enough these days to detect sites using similar content as others. This can cause your site to either rank low, have a hard time even getting ranked, and the ultimate punishment; the site can get banned.. possibly forever.

Think about it... it may be worth the time and money if you have to hire a professional writer.

Difference Between a Hit and Visitor

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:07:32 +0000

Many people refer to their traiffic as 'hits' to their website. Many do not realize that a hit is no accurate data.

A 'hit' to your website can be anything loading on a webpage when someone types in the address including the images that load on the page. This means if I go to google.com and refresh my browser 6 times, 6 hits are counted. This is obviously not the data you need.

Placing a hit counter on your website is a great example of inaccurate data. If you have one, go to your site and hit refresh. You'll see the counter climb each time!

Page Views or Pages are typically the most accurate information you will find on your stats.

New Email Marketing Partnership

nospam@example.com (Sarah Chantigian) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:34:00 +0000

We are pleased to annouce the business partnership IHS has completed with Constant Contact; a pioneer in Email Marketing.

An easy to manage control panel, hundreds of templates to choose from (or let IHS custom design one that looks like your website) and so much more.

You can try a FREE 60 day trial with Constant Contact by clicking on the following link:

http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=internethostservices