Posts Tagged ‘SEO’

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San Antonio IT Consulting Includes:

Computer Repair

* Laptop Repair
* Computer Help
* Computer Help Desk
* Computer Maintenance
* Computer Services
* Computer Support
* Computer Upgrade
* Software Installation
* Hardware Installation
* Computer Diagnostics
* PC Tune-Up/Speed-Up
* System Optimization
* Troubleshooting

* Virus Removal
* Spyware Removal
* Malware Removal
* Rootkit Removal
* Worm Removal

* Computer Security
* Wireless Networking
* Printer Support

Data Recovery

* Hard Drive Recovery
* Digital Media Recovery
* Disaster Recovery
* RAID Recovery
* CD/DVD Recovery
* Zip Disk Recovery

Backup

* Data Backup
* Data Redundancy
* RAID FAQ’s
* Disk Imaging

Transfer

* Data Transfer

Internet Marketing

* SWOT Analysis
* Competitor Analysis
* GEO Marketing
* Article Marketing
* Viral Marketing
* Social Bookmarking
* ECRM
* SMO
* ORM
* SERM

SEO/SEM

* SEO
* Back-Linking
* Organic SEO

Web Design

* Web Design
* Copywriting
* Copy Editing
* Proofreading
* Typesetting

Joomla CMS

E-Commerce

DIY How To Guides

* Hardware Repair
* Upgrade Memory
* Software Repair
* Spyware Removal
* Defragment System Drive
* Create System Restore Point
* Increase Startup Speed
* System Backup
* Format Hard Drive & Install Windows

Organic SEO – The Google 'Sweet-Spot'

SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing one’s website to improve the position in which the website will appear within the search results obtained from a search engine based on specific keyword phrases.

To operate a business today without the benefit of an online presence is very difficult. The convenience and abundance of information available over the Internet has created an expectation that any serious business should have a website providing at minimum contact information and a basic description of the services and/or products they have available.

Today nearly every business regardless of size or field of business has some sort of web site or blog available online. For the consumer this is a fantastic resource, available 24 hours a day and in the privacy of the home as well.

For the business owner having a repository to post detailed information about the services one provides, business philosophy, product catalogues, pictures, videos, and detailed descriptions of products including prices, provides a fantastic marketing opportunity.

Herein lies the rub; every single competing business owner knows these same facts. Even for somewhat obscure business’ there can be literally thousands of (if not more) competing web sites, providing similar products or services, vying for the same top billing spots.

When the average consumer decides to look up a business on the Internet 69.5 percent of the time he or she will use Google to perform the search (according to research firm Hitwise for f.y.2008). Yahoo and Microsoft make up the majority of the remaining search queries with AOL coming in a distant 4th (although AOL actually uses Google’s results).

According to marketing research conducted by Chitika, a search based advertising network, the top ‘organic’ position in Google drove 34.35% of all traffic in the sample. This was almost equal to the combined traffic from positions 2 through 5, and was more than the combined total of positions 5 through 20. Organic spot number 1 is worth almost exactly double what organic spot number 2 is worth, and the drop is precipitous thereafter.  This is what I like to call the Google ‘Sweet Spot’.

Achieving that coveted number 1 organic spot on Google for a specific keyword phrase can double the amount of traffic a website can expect to receive over the second position. For an online business today, with margins as small as they are now, this could be the difference between business success and business failure.

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How to Hire the SEO Company

If one is considering hiring an outside firm to perform SEO services (Search Engine Optimization) to help market their Online Business or Website there are several questions that need to be asked and some general concepts that should be understood to help make an informed decision while choosing a qualified firm.  Below is a list of 10 basic rules to SEO and hiring the right firm.

  1. The first rule to SEO is a good solid website design.  Make sure that the firm that is being considered has discussed and is aware of the many on-site SEO techniques that are essential to ensuring the website itself is SEF (Search Engine Friendly).  If the website is not designed utilizing the correct SEF strategy than it is much more difficult and in extreme cases may not be possible at all, to achieve significant SEO results.  SEF url’s, the correct keyword density, and logical Meta-Tag and Meta-Description information are a few of the on-site SEO pieces that should be employed before any other strategies are embarked upon.
  2. There are many companies out there that are offering ‘backlinking’ as a means of achieving SEO, and although back-linking can be employed as part of an SEO strategy, it is merely one piece of the puzzle so to speak.  Back-linking alone will never get a website to the top of Google, Yahoo or Bing, especially if it is merely random links strewn out across the Internet with no plan or context.
  3. Ensure that the firm that is being considered understands how to use backlinking in its proper context and effectively so that valuable resources are not wasted on a strategy that will not produce results.
  4. Ask to speak to a client that has had successful results through the use of the firm’s SEO strategy in the past (ask for references).
  5. Proper SEO should include high quality content included in the body of the website and posted at various authority external websites that link back to the target website.  This is the most effective way to ensure the website is viewed as an authority in it’s area of expertise.
  6. Ask to view reference sites that include content that has either been authored by the SEO firm or has been written for them for their client(s) by them.
  7. Determining the correct keyword phrases to target is the next most important aspect to effective SEO.  Choosing either keyword phrases that are already in an overly competitive niche or do not have significant search volume can render any SEO attempts ineffectual.
  8. A good SEO firm will provide a keyword analysis in the area of expertise for the web site’s key area of business to provide suitable options as to which keyword phrase or phrases should be focused upon to achieve the most effective SEO results.
  9. Be sure to ask for an analysis of competing websites and an estimate of the expected amount of improvement related to Google, Yahoo, and Bing and the cost in doing so along with an approximate expectation of the duration of time it will take to achieve the improvement.
  10. Most importantly, be sure to get everything in writing and in signed contract form.

 

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Newest SEO Strategies – Stay Up To Date

SEO is an evolving art or science, depending on how you look at it and is actually a bit of both.  Over time the Search Engines have refined the way in which they grade or determine which websites should be given the highest standing in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

What may have worked 3 years ago to push a website to the top of the search engines will not work the same today, and most likely will not work the same a year from now.

There is no way of knowing precisely how Google or Yahoo or Bing calculates their SERPs exactly but a solid strategy proven through trial and error does exist.

For the purpose of this article I will only discuss those techniques that would be considered ‘white hat’ or you might say ‘officially approved’ of by the Internet community.

There are many sources out there perpetuating the idea that you cannot get indexed quickly or rank near the top using only ‘white hat’ SEO.  This is simply not true.  In many cases site owners actually damage their ranking status and lower their SERP position by trying to use some ‘quick’ ‘Black Hat’ trick to get their website into the top position over night.

In some cases there could be a temporary increase in page rank and SERP position for some of the ‘black hat’ strategies that exist out there but in the long run those ‘quick ranking’ tools are only an illusion.  Over time the search engines weed out the ‘trash’ and give high rank and good SERP placement to those websites that genuinely provide quality content, outstanding service, or fill a vacant ‘niche’.  Usually, it is the websites that manage to accomplish all three of these requirements that sit in the number one position.

Ok everyone the lecture is over.  Let’s start talking about the things that we can do to get our website ranked high and stay at the top.

First, foremost and most importantly is the basic design and structure of the actual website itself.  A carefully planned out, user friendly, logical, and straightforward landing page or home page is critical.  Remember, this is the page that your first time visitors usually see first and it is the one that the search engines ‘bots’ see first as well.

‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression.’

Actually I tend to believe that the search engines are far more forgiving than a typical Internet customer.  The search engine’s bots will keep coming back to crawl your site no matter how bad it sucks.  Your website could be full of broken links, scripting errors, spelling errors and grammatical mistakes and the bot doesn’t care at all.  Well actually it does care, it reports all of these things back to search engine HQ.

Because it is only a bot, and bots do not have feelings, the bot does not hold a grudge for long and in a few days or sometimes weeks, the bot will come crawling back to you again (and yes, the pun is intended).

In all seriousness however, if a new ‘human’ guest lands on your site for the first time and runs into those same kind of issues: broken links, scripting errors, misspelled words or poorly worded content pages, they are more than likely not going to spend the time to come back and see if the website has been updated or corrected.  That particular ‘potential customer’ has just become a ‘statistic’ (definitely in the red and not in the black).

You will hear a lot of talk about ‘Meta Tags’ and ‘Meta Descriptions’.  These are actually words or phrases that are included in the website’s ‘code’ that are only visible to the search engines.  The Meta Description however, many people see quite frequently but probably didn’t know what they were looking at when they saw it.

I Googled ‘Search Engine Optimization’ and the top 3 results are listed below:

google results

What is placed in a Web Page’s Meta Description is normally what the search engine will use to display in the area just below a Web Sites title in the SERP.  I have highlighted this information in the first listing above. 

Using ordinary English and being descriptive in the Meta Description on each page of the Website will result in a good looking SERP listing.

Meta Keywords are also important.  Meta Keywords are the keyword phrases that best target the specific page that they are used upon.  These keywords should be targeted and be related to the content contained within the page body.

Keyword density refers to the ratio of a how many times a specific keyword phrase appears within a body of content to the total number of words that are within that content.  In the early days of SEO this number was very critical to ranking high is the SERP’s.  Today this number is much less important and while the appearance of a targeted keyword is important within article content, keywords phrases should be used in a natural sounding context and not ‘overloaded’ or ‘stuffed’ into the content.

Other practices that should be completely avoided are: the use of hidden content and the use of content that is completely unrelated to the overall website subject matter.  The technique of using very frequently searched for keywords but keywords with no relationship to the actual website they were embedded within was once a very common and effective tool to increase SERP rank.  This does not work today so do not be tempted to try using it.  Some Internet Marketers might try to convince unwary website owners to engage in this technique; do not bother as it will not be effective.

Use the H1 header tag to focus each web page on a particular keyword phrase.  Embedding the keyword phrase that best summarizes the content of a particular web page in the H1 header tag helps the search engine organize the content of your website and rank the importance of the content of the pages.  And, of course, if you have chosen a topically relevant and appropriate Keyword Phrase, it will help your Website guest know they have found the right page.

Maintaining a structured, easy to navigate, uncluttered and not overly complicated web design results in lower bounce rates.  A confusing or very unorganized web design will turn off most Internet Surfers really quickly.  The typical Web Surfer is expecting to find a website with information that is easy to find, well organised, and truly informative.

It can be highly useful to actually layout the design of a proposed website on paper before any computer design work even begins.  Using a graphical ‘flowchart’ also greatly helps keep things organized and makes the design much easier to understand for anyone who may not have been around during the conception of the design but will eventually be involved in the design, coding or implementation of the final project.

A flowchart is basically just a simple graphical representation utilizing directional lines, graphical symbols and pointer arrows that is utilized to depict the design characteristics of a websites menu-flow, page-order, and logic path.

In designing any website probably the most important thing to keep in mind during the actual development of the content is to include as much useful, high quality, informative data, about the business, industry, or focal point of the website as possible.  The more original content that appears within the body of the website the better the search engines will like it.  Your target market will appreciate this as well.

In addition to highly descriptive content describing the products and services that a website is providing, a glossary of terms related to the industry the website specializes in is a good addition to any website as well as a FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) page.

When it comes to SEO, there can literally never be too much information included in a website as long as it is all completely original unique content (or where appropriate, references are duly noted).

Original content means copying pages of data from the Wikipedia, or using content pages found on other websites or even ‘lifting’ excerpts of content directly from other websites simply will not work.  Plagiarized content ‘lifted’ from other sources without express consent can also be a source of legal concern.

This is one place where Google in particular, is extremely good at detecting copied content and will give no SEO advancement for such material included in one’s website.

If a business owner is not able to author original content themselves it would be advisable to hire someone to write original content for the website.  Original content is just as important if not more important than any other aspect of achieving good SEO results.

Additionally, there are many so called ‘article submission’ websites that are available to host uploaded content articles written about almost any subject.  As a matter of fact it is very possible that you may be reading ‘this’ article on an article submission site at this very moment.

The purpose, in SEO, to the process of uploading and submission of articles to these types of websites is twofold:  first, popular article submission sites have thousands of guests each day which is a huge potential market for readers of the submitted articles and second, as an author one is allowed to create a signature that can include a link that directs traffic back to the website of the author’s choice.

Posting articles with content that relates to the target website and then including links that have the keyword phrase tagged as the anchor text either embedded within the article or as part of the author’s signature, is an excellent way of building good high quality back-links. 

Blogs are another great place to submit articles where there is a good chance for a posted or submitted article to be viewed by a large audience.  Blogs also allow the author of the article to receive feedback through comments left by readers of the blog.

This brings us to the topic of links, and more specifically ‘back-links’.  The term back-link refers to a hypertext link, which is located on an external website that links, references, or points back to one’s own website.  A ‘back-link’ is made up of two parts:

  1. The ‘URL’ of the destination site (or the site the link is pointing to).
  2. The ‘anchor text’ which is made up of the ‘keyword phrase’.

An example of a ‘back-link’ written in html code would look like the following:

Your Keyword Phrase

When displayed this link would appear as:

Your Keyword Phrase

‘Your Keyword Phrase’ would be an active link pointing to the ‘url’ that follows the ‘href’ in the link statement above. (Please be sure to remove the asterisks – I used them only to prevent the link from becoming active.)

In the early days of the Internet back-linking was the holy grail of SEO.  One merely needed to acquire many, many links pointing back to one’s website to achieve a very high position within the result set of a search engine.  At that time it was mainly just the quantity of back-links that determined a websites PR and not the quality of the incoming links.

Those days, I’m afraid, are long, long, gone.  The search engines are much ‘smarter’ today and the number of back-links is not nearly as important as the ‘quality’ of the back-link in determining whether or not the back-link will provide any benefit to SEO at all.

To help prevent the misuse of link farming and other types of link manipulation the use of the ‘no follow’ attribute was created and has been implemented.  When the use of the ‘no follow’ attribute is applied to a link it directs the search engine to award no PR or ‘PageRank’ benefit to the landing site no matter how high the ‘PageRank’ of the referring site may be. 

The use of this attribute has only been somewhat effective in reducing the amount of spamming and ‘spamdexing’ that is used to try to boost SERP position.  The practice of simply blasting back-links out all across the Internet is on the decline as its effectiveness diminishes.

There is however, some benefit to having a good deal of back-links inbound to the target site.  Today it is more a matter of how to acquire numerous good high-quality back-links than simply an exercise in who can accumulate the most.

At this point it becomes necessary to discuss PR or PageRank.  PageRank is the method of grading a websites ‘authority’ or importance on the Internet.  The process was developed primarily by researcher Larry Page (hence the name ‘Page’ Rank) at Stanford University as part of a research project.

Page and another researcher named Brin later founded Google and took the technology with them and it is still the basis of the Google search engine and search tools to this day.

A website’s PageRank is a numerical weight ranging from 0 to 10 that is assigned to a website based upon, among other things, the quantity of and the PageRank of the external websites that link in or have inbound links that refer to the target site.  A website that has many inbound links from websites that have high PageRank themselves will in turn be given a high PageRank as well (at least that was the way it worked before the implementation of the no-follow attribute.)

According to Google’s website the PageRank is calculated by ‘considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms.’

Needless to say trying to understand an algorithm this complex exactly will never be possible but there are still many things that can be done to boost a sites PR and help improve its placement in SERPs.

We have discussed the importance of a high quality website design, the need for very informative original content, article submissions, back-linking and PageRank.  This would be a good time to begin discussing the process of determining keywords and keyword phrases.

Selecting the correct keywords and keyword phrases to focus the SEO efforts on can be the determining factor as to whether or not it will be possible to successfully achieve effective SEO.  It is very important to take the time to do some research on competition and keyword popularity.

In general the most common terms that describe a business would be the best place to start.  For instance if you own a business that provides roofing contracting services keywords that you might consider focusing on might be ‘Roofing Contracting’ or ‘Roofing Contractor’.

Google provides a tool that displays the average number of searches for selected keyword phrases.  You can find this tool by searching Google for ‘keyword tool’.  After entering the keyword or keyword phrase and pressing the ‘search’ button a page of results will be displayed that indicate the number of times the particular keyword(s) has been searched for on average each month.

Also displayed are many other similar phrases that most closely match the keywords that were searched for.  Take the time to scroll through this list and many good alternative phrases can be found in this way.  Choosing the phrase that has the most searches and most closely matches the website’s line of business is a solid practical approach. 

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San Antonio SEO

What is SEO and why do I need it? – SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization.  What this means, in a nutshell, is the process of improving the likelihood that your website will be one of the first results displayed by a search engine, based on the keywords used to generate the search.

Google and Yahoo – By far the vast majority of computer users out there use one of the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, or Bing to locate goods and services online.  Therefore, most SEO is geared towards achieving the best ‘Page Ranks’ on Google, Yahoo or possibly Bing. 

‘Page Rank’ – is the term used to quantify a websites’ authority on the internet.  ‘Page Rank’ is a number between 0 and 10, with ten being the highest possible score.  The more authority a website is deemed to have, the higher the ‘Page Rank’ and the higher the website will appear in the search query results.

Typically – the average computer user does not look further than the second or maybe the third page of search results when querying the internet for a business or service.  Most people assume if a business is within the first page or two of results then that business must be doing something better than the ones that get listed below it.

In Fact – According to research group Chitika, a search based advertising network, the top ‘organic’ position in Google drove 34.35% of all traffic in the sample. This was almost equal to the combined traffic from positions 2 through 5, and was more than the combined total of positions 5 through 20. Organic spot number 1 is worth almost exactly double what organic spot number 2 is worth, and the drop is precipitous thereafter. 

Clearly – if you plan to generate leads or increase business through the Internet by means of your website, it is critical that your website appear near the top of the list for the keywords associated with your business or service.

SEO – A Strategic Investment – The exact actual algorithm that Google and to a lesser extent Yahoo use to determine ‘Page Rank’ is known only to them and is a closely guarded proprietary secret.  However, enough is known generally about the criteria that the search engines deem important to ‘Page Rank’, that effective SEO is still possible assuming the correct strategy is followed.

There Really is no ‘Trick’ or ‘Secret’ – that will land you on the first spot on Google overnight (assuming you discount unique, rarely used, keyword phrases).   Now I know there are going to be some of you reading this article saying, ‘What about this trick or that trick that I read about on ‘Blue Hat’ or ‘Black Hat’ forums?”.  Well, this article is focused on the techniques that someone would use for an actual business website, not some SEO affiliate marketing site, and I will only discuss ‘White Hat SEO’.

Implementing – a complete, comprehensive, SEO ‘strategy’ is the key to improving ‘Page Rank’ and it takes time and some work.  The days of being able to simply ‘keyword stuff’ or use hidden content to boost page ranking is over.  Search engines are far more ‘intelligent’ today and effective SEO requires actual meaningful content pages, social networking, social bookmarking, articles submissions, and a focused marketing effort.

Start With a Solid Website Design – The first and most important factor in SEO is a well structured and well written website design.  This is the foundation upon which everything else is going to be built.  Trying to do SEO on a poor website design is like building a castle on quicksand!  No matter how hard you work at keeping things together, eventually it will all fall apart.

Marketing & Patience – Assuming that you have a solid website design the next step is doing a little market research.  It’s important to know what ‘keywords’ to optimize for.  Search volume is a very important factor in determining keyword focus.  There would not be much point in trying to focus on a keyword phrase if no one is searching for those keywords!  A determination needs to be made on two or maybe three keyword phrases that best describe your business or service.  Focusing on these keyword phrases will give you a ‘niche’ that you can target aggressively. 

How Long is this Going to Take? – Ok, so now that you have started a comprehensive SEO strategy, how long is it going to take before you will see results?  To be realistic, expect 1 to 6 months of intense SEO and marketing efforts before real significant results are going to be realized.  Remember, this is a long term solution and needs to be thought of as an investment.  Relax and be patient, the rewards of an effective SEO campaign and marketing strategy are too numerous to list!

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San Antonio Article Marketing

Article Marketing – This terminology is most commonly used to describe the practice wherein a business will use short articles written about topics that somehow relate to the type of work, service, or products that business is in, to benefit the business in one or more of the following ways: increase the business’ perceived credibility on a given subject or practice, increase the amount of traffic that the business receives at their website, or improve the business’ website rank or placement in SERP (search engine results pages).

High quality articles featured in the body of a website improve the chances that someone searching for the topic will find their way to that article on the website but this is not the only means of article marketing. By submitting articles to ‘article directories’, blogs, or forums, the potential number of views of that article is dramatically increased. Additionally, at the end of the article a byline or bio is usually accepted which will normally contain information about the business and a link back to the website of choice (including anchor text with keyword phrases!) This provides a business advantage in two ways: having many published articles related to a specific industry provides perceived authority in that field, and back-links with proper anchor text helps improve SEO.

Article marketing can be a superb way to build good, high quality inbound links or ’back-links’. Good quality back-links means higher SERP positioning!

Find out how our San Antonio Internet Marketing Team can help promote your Internet Business, E-Commerce Site, or Web Presence.  Click on the button below to receive a free quote.

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San Antonio Competitor Analysis

Competitor Analysis - is used in marketing to determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, and Threats posed by potential competitors. This information is used to formulate both offensive and defensive strategies and to identify possible advantageous Opportunities. This type of analysis is commonly referred to as SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and is a good foundation for a marketing campaign.

Find out how our San Antonio Internet Marketing Team can help promote your Internet Business, E-Commerce Site, or Web Presence.  Click on the button below to receive a free quote.

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San Antonio Internet Marketing | San Antonio Web Marketing

San Antonio Internet Marketing | San Antonio Web Marketing 

Internet Marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing or e-Marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

The Internet has brought media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of providing instant responses and eliciting responses are the unique qualities of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems are also often grouped together under Internet Marketing.

Find out how our San Antonio Copywriting Team can help promote your Internet Business, E-Commerce Site, or Web Presence.  Click on the button below to receive a free quote.

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San Antonio Copy Editing

Copy Editing – refers to the process of formatting, styling, and correction of written text. Copy Editing is the last step prior to proofreading.  The Copy Edit process does not involve any changes to the substance of the copy, only editing for grammatical errors, spelling, punctuation, semantics, and style. During the Copy Edit process, many times headers, footers, and photo captions are added to content.

The Copy Editor may also be responsible for making sure that an article flows well, is accurate and makes sense. However if there is confusing or ambiguous content, the Copy Editor will typically ask the writer to clarify the copy.

Find out how our San Antonio Copywriting Team can help promote your Internet Business, E-Commerce Site, or Web Presence.  Click on the button below to receive a free quote.

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San Antonio Copywriting

Copywriting - refers literally to the ‘writing of copy’ or ‘content writing’. However, copywriting is generally reserved for describing copy that is used to promote a business, person, opinion, or idea. The distinction between copywriting and ‘content writing’ is usually based upon the overall objective of the copy. If the copy is informational then content writing is generally used, when the purpose is promotional most often copywriting is used.

In the instance of web content the two terms seem to be used almost interchangeably as it is difficult to rationalize any argument that any website content is not at least somewhat promotional.

Find out how our San Antonio Copywriting Team can help promote your Internet Business, E-Commerce Site, or Web Presence.  Click on the button below to receive a free quote.

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San Antonio E-Commerce

What is ECommerce? – ECommerce or electronic commerce is the buying or selling of goods or services utilizing some form of electronic system such as the internet or other computer network.  What this means is that a whole new exciting way to both increase the amount of exposure your business has in the market-place, and a way to facilitate your ability to expand your business into just about any part of the world you wish, much faster and easier than it could have ever been before, is now available.

The internet has revolutionized the way the entire world does business.  Before the internet most small to medium sized business’ focused primarily on regional and local markets within a certain proximty to their physical location.  It was just logistically difficult and very costly to effectively market a business the farther you moved away from the physical address of the home office. 

Today, this is changing rapidly because of the intetnet.  More and more, people are no longer concerned with how far away the company they do business with may be located.  The biggest concern now is quality goods and services offered at a good price and excellent customer service.   This means that those business’ that do not move into this new arena are going to be left behind and the ones that move forward now are going to be that much better prepared for the future.

Joomla & VirtueMart – We have examined many different ECommerce, CMS, and Shopping Cart systems and after much testing and evaluation we have chosen to use Joomla with the VirtueMart Extension because the flexibilty and features were unbeatable.  Together these products allow the creation and design of the perfect online store for any application. 

For more information and documentation about Virtuemart, please visit www.virtuemart.net.

Virtuemart includes the following features:

General Features

  • Capable of using Secure Sockets Layer (https) Encryption (128-bit)
  • Flexible Tax Models
    • Model 1: Ship To Address-based Tax Calculation
    • Model 2: Store Address-based Tax Calculation
    • Model 3: EU Mode (Store Owner based Tax Calculation when Customer comes from an EU Country)
  • Shoppers can manage their User Accounts (registration required)
  • Shipping Address Management (Customers can enter their own Shipping Addresses)
  • Order History: Shopper can view all their previous Orders (and Order Details)
  • Order Confirmation Mail (customizable!) is sent to Shopper and Store Owner

 

Product Catalog Features

  • Powerful Web-Administration Interface (JavaScript-powered)
  • Manages an unlimited Number of Products and Categories
  • Can be used as a Shop or just as an Online-Catalog (you can even turn off Price Display)
  • Quick Search for Products, Categories and Manufacturers; filter by features or discounted Products
  • Product Ratings & Testimonials (moderated or auto-published)
  • Feature specific Products by setting them “on special”
  • Product Availability: show how fast a Customer can expect delivery
  • Handles downloadable Products (virtual Goods)
  • “Product is back in Stock”-Notification for subscribed Customers

 

Administration Features

  • Multiple Images and Files (like Spec Sheets and Flyers) per Product
  • Product Attributes (like Size or Color) can be added to Product
  • Product Types for ClassificationShopper Groups for Customers (allows different Price Levels and Payment Options)
  • Multiple Prices per Product (Quantity-based and/or Shopper Group-based Prices)
  • Flexible Price Display (number & currency formatting; including or excluding tax)
  • On-the-Fly Price Conversion between different Currencies using Live Rates from the ECB or other banks
  • Shop Statistics / Control Panel with a Summary of new Customers, new Orders….
  • Stock Level Control for Products and Item
  • Order Management with Order History, Customer Notification and Order Edit Functionality
  • Basic Reporting Feature: sold Items, monthly/yearly Revenue
  • Order Status Management
  • Manage different Currencies, Countries & States

 

Payment Modules

  • Capable of live Credit Card Processing
  • Pre-defined Payment Gateways like authorize.net®, PayPal, 2Checkout, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex
  • Eextend your Shop with other Payment Modules using the Payment Module API!

 

Shipping Modules

  • Flexible Shipping Carriers and Rates Configuration
  • Live-Shipping Rates using Shipping Modules (e.g. InterShipper, UPS, USPS, FedEx or Canada Post; Modules can use the Shipping Rate API).
  • Extend your Shop with other Shipping Modules using the Shipping Module API!

 

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Web Design For SEO

Proven Web Design Techniques for Optimal SEO Advantage

Effective On-Site or On-Page SEO can make a significant difference in your SERP placement when you are competing for the top spot on Google.  Be sure to take advantage of those elements that you can control within your website itself to help improve your SERP position.

Your top keyword phrase should appear in your domain name. This simple tip gives you an advantage if followed.

Your keyword phrase should appear in your URL.  This means that you should name your pages carefully to be sure that you match keywords with page titles.

Meta data: Meta Descriptions, and Meta Keywords.  These elements are not actually displayed on the webpage itself but they are used to tell the search engines about the webpage and its contents. 

When creating the Meta Description, use plain English in complete sentence form.

For example: You are creating the Meta Description for the About Us page on a website devoted to pet supplies, you might write something similar to this:

‘Founded in 2003, we are a Pet Product Supply Company that specializes in exotic Pets.’

It is very important to write your Meta Descriptions in complete sentences and to be sure that the content is relevant to the webpage because many times this Meta Description data is what the search engine will display in the SERP listing just below the actual link (between the link and the URL.)

Meta Keywords:  These are the keyword phrases that most closely match the content of the page they are used upon.  If you plan to use a Meta Keyword be sure that the keyword appears in the content body or you can be penalized for this.

Header Tags: Include your primary keyword for the page within H1 tags, secondary keyword in H2 tags, etc.

Use text that describes your images for alt text data.  Do not put unrelated keyword phrases in your alt text; you can be penalized for this.

Be sure to use anchor text for all of your internal links.  When linking from one internal web page to another internal web page you should use anchor text in the same manner that you would a back-link.

Keep your outbound links down to a minimum and link only to quality websites.

The following are things that you do not want to do on your web pages.

Do not use images that include text or phrases.  The search engines cannot read the text within an image file.

Keyword stuffing:  Over using a keyword phrase to the point where it starts to sound spammy will definitely get your page penalized.

Avoid vulgarity.  Do not use profanity in your page content.  This will get you penalized as well.

Do not use invisible text; that is, invisible to the website viewer but visible to the Search Engine Spider. 

Following these simple tips will give you a great advantage over the typical website.

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Keys to Successful Web Design

The key to a successful web design begins with a plan.  Below are 15 simple basic tips.

  1. Utilize a straight-forward simple design.
  2. Stick with a clean elegant aesthetic approach.
  3. Avoid blinking text and flashing text.  For a professional website this is merely an annoyance.  There are plenty of other methods to draw attention to important information.
  4. Use titles and headers that include your keyword phrases.
  5. Stick with one h1 header per page that includes one of your keyword phrases.
  6. Skip the background music.  No two people enjoy the same music so just forego the background music and avoid turning anyone off.  If you are absolutely insistent upon having a theme song or background music, at least embed a music player that allows the guest to turn the music down or off.
  7. Keep your theme consistent throughout your website (especially with the color scheme – stay neutral and if you have a logo, theme your website colors to compliment your logo.)
  8. Never use annoying pop-up windows.  This is the fastest way to lose a new guest.
  9. Stick to traditional navigation systems.  Use standard menu structures – either horizontally across the top or vertically along the left or right column. (Non-standard menu structures can confuse new guests and drive traffic away.)
  10. Create a site map.  Many people will use a sitemap to get a general feeling of a websites structure when they are viewing it for the first few times.  A sitemap also helps the search engines navigate your site for indexing.
  11. Do not center everything right down the middle of the website or align everything all to the right or all to the left.  Try to create a natural flow of text and images that flows from right to left and then back again.
  12. Never use all caps in your content body unless you are emphasizing something very important and only then when it is a few words at one time and in one context.
  13. Use italicized text sparingly as well.  This is a good way of displaying quotations and drawing attention to specific text, but do not go overboard or it will lose its effectiveness and just become distracting.
  14. Bold text is another fine way to draw attention to a sentence or keyword phrase but use it judiciously or it too loses its value.
  15. When using embedded images always included alternate text and apply the same rules as stated in rule 11 for the formatting.

Additional tips to keep in mind:

  1. Come up with original, creative, content that is relevant to your industry.  This cannot be emphasized enough.  Original high quality content is absolutely the most important aspect to a successful website.  If you have trouble writing content, please find a copywriter to write unique, quality content for your website even if you have to hire someone to do so.  Nothing else will improve your website’s success more than good quality, well written content.
  2. For a new website a great place to start for quality content could be a glossary of terms with definitions that are related to the site’s industry, products, or services.
  3. Another great thing to include for any website is a set of FAQs (frequently asked questions) with answers.
  4. Do not be afraid to share as much information about your industry as you can on your website.  Remember, the information is already out there somewhere, would it not be better for you to be the source of the information, the authority?

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San Antonio Web Design

Techheads is dedicated to providing each customer with the absolute best website design possible.    Let our team of San Antonio web design specialists evaluate your business needs and create a visually appealing, unique and functional, professional website that will set you apart from the competition.

All Website Designs Come Standard With:


  • Professional, High Quality, Web Design – A really good web design makes an impression. We customize each and every website design to compliment your business and your area of expertise.
  • Clean, Concise, User Friendly Website Interface – We emphasize a non-cluttered, easily navigated, page structure. No one enjoys overly complicated confusing website designs, yet it is very common to find that even some of the biggest hitters have really poor website designs.
  • Utilizing Joomla 1.5 CMS (Content Management System) – Joomla makes it easy for you to make basic changes and/or updates to your website even if you have no programming experience. Joomla core features include the following:
  • User Management
  • Media Manager
  • Language Manager
  • Banner Ad Management
  • Contact Management
  • Polls
  • Search
  • Web Link Management
  • Content Management
  • Syndication & Newsfeed Management
  • Menu Manager
  • Template Management
  • Integrated Help System
  • Powerful Extensibility
  • W3 Compliant CSS & XHTML – Cross browser compatibility for all common browsers. (Example: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc.)
  • Site Map – A sitemap provides an organized list of all the links on your website. (Search engines use this to facilitate indexing your content pages).
  • Excellent On-Time Customer Support – With every project that we take on, we offer complete customer support and service. We make it our business to keep our customers satisfied and happy.
  • Basic On-Page SEO Included – Keyword structure, page titles, meta-tags and meta-headers are all optimized ‘on-page’ to give your site an ‘SEO’ advantage even if you choose not to purchase any of our additional ‘SEO’ optimization services.
  • Additional Available Features

      The following list is by no means exhaustive – it is merely an example of some of the more commonly chosen website features that are available.

     Google Maps    Forums Blogs
     Event Lists Video Content Audio Content
     Guestbook RSS Readers Photo Galleries
     Slideshows Chat IM’s
     Weather Shopping Cart Product Catalogs
     Surveys Ecommerce Newsletters
     Currency Converter Social Communites Radio Channels
     Polls Article Feedback Tutorials

    Do you have something in mind that you don’t see listed? Don’t be afraid to ask! Just about anything is possible and we can probably do it. Find out how our San Antonio Web Design specialists can create a custom web design specifically tailored to your specific business needs.

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This blog is dedicated to SEO, SEM and Web Design discussion

I am starting up an SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), and Web Design blog for discussion about any topics relating to those topics.  Please feel free to comment if you like and if you are interested in submitting a blog entry please let me know.