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If you are unsure what your log in is for your web stats, contact the office. Otherwise, if you have your link and log in, their are a few main items to look for:

• The summary page once you log in gives you a birds-eye view of your stats for the current month.
• Click on the top drop down menu where the month/year is to view different months for either 2006 or 2007, 2008 (previous months only).
• The Number of Visits gives you accurate number of traffic to the site. Do NOT view hits. They are not going to give you true data.
• Clicking on ‘referring search engines’ shows you directories and search engines all over the world who has referred traffic to the site.
• Search Keyphrases link gives you details on ‘keyword phrases’ that people have typed in a search engine or directory to find your site. A great tool to use!
• Click on ‘full list’ under the navigation area and you will see a breakdown of the top pages people visited on the site.

Many clients ask what kind of software should they use for designing their own website or maintaining a website we create for them.

Most of us who professionally design use software such as Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop to create the great looking sites you see in our portfolio, however software such as these can run hundreds ($600 +) of dollars.

The ‘cheaper’ software such as Front Page from Microsoft is widely used by many of our clients. Is it a good choice for you?

The first question to ask is how much updating or modifications do you plan on making on the website? If we designed the site and you have an older version of Front Page, there is a good chance Front Page will not correctly update the site and may throw tables out of whack. We also design in CSS and Server Side Includes (SSI). Front Page may not be as friendly of a software to handle such elements in our designs.

Should you need to update on a regular basis and Front Page is the only option, we can modify the site at the time of the design to make sure Front Page will work properly.

If you are designing on your own, and funds are limited, Front Page or Adobe GoLive is another great option. Both come with templates for quick layout choices, or you can take a stab at your own creation.

All hosting with HostServices comes with Front Page installed, so you can easily create, modify and publish sites using this method.

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