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Thursday, January 31, 2008

A domain tool for you!

I know all about it. Domain names are complicated. From switching website hosting, setting up email for a domain name, finding out where a domain is located, figuring out who is in charge, trying to locate a user name and password can be frustrating.

There are many online resources for domain names, but one of my favorite is Domain Tools.

Step 1 - go to Domain Tools.

Step 2 - enter a domain name into the Whois Lookup field and click 'Search'.

Step 3 - look at all the glorious information retrieved!

Domain Tools gives you a lot if information about domain names.

(Click Thumbnail To Enlarge)

You can look up valuable information such as when the domain was registered, when it will expire, what server it is pointed to, who it is registered to and through what company it is registered. Domain tools even provides indexed information about the domain name's performance and includes a thumbnail of the website design.

To summarize, if you need information about a domain name - Domain Tools is the place to go.

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posted by Noël McDonnell at 8:30 AM 0 comments

Friday, January 25, 2008

Pay Per Click

As more and more clients begin taking their practice nationwide its important to discuss the benefits of Pay Per Click, or commonly called PPC. For those unfamiliar with PPC, you can find these listings on your major search engines highlighted above the natural positioning and/or running down the right column of the window such as with Google.

The benefit to running a PPC Campaign on a national level is that you don't have to spend a lot of time waiting to show up on the natural listings. In addition, PPC offers the flexibility to control how much you spend, who you target, and what you want your listing to say.

Of course, there are downsides to PPC in comparison with natural listings. Primary that you have to pay for each click to your website. However, as we all know it takes a commitment and long term investment to reach the first page naturally.

If you have any questions about Pay Per Click contact your account manager and they will be happy to review this option with you.

Check in later this month for Common Misconceptions about Pay Per Click.

posted by Peter at 1:08 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Wanna Trade Links?

I sometimes get calls and emails from clients who were solicited for a link request through their website contact forms. The request generally goes like this:

"Dear Sir/Madam. Your site is informational and it would be mutually beneficial for us to place links on each others sites. This is my site. Here is the information you can put on your site. Once I have seen that you have added my link, I will add a link to your site.
Sincerely,
Dude or Chick"

After receiving this request, the question I get posed is 'will this help my SEO efforts'? Because the search engines take who links to who seriously, credible relevant links can play a major role in a websites visibility on the search engines. Unfortunately, a lot of these requests come from Link Farms.

What is a Link Farm you ask?

A link farm is a site that is created for search engine ranking reasons only and contains numerous unrelated links. These types of pages will get recognized and penalized by almost all search engines once they are found.

Things to be cautious of if you get one of these requests:

1. Notice if it is addressed to anyone in particular. If it just says "Hi" they are just trying to get in touch with someone who will listen. These types of unsolicited requests for business relationships can be shady.

2. It is not a good idea to respond to these requests, even if you say "don't contact me again." If you respond, they have your email address and can bother you further with these requests or resell your email address for spamming lists.

3. Be wary of anything that doesn't look immediately credible.

If you have questions about whether a request is legitimate, forward it to your account manager. We see things like this all the time and will be able to help you determine if it is worth your time.

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posted by Noël McDonnell at 8:21 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Is search engine optimization marketing, or technical?

Search engine optimization is a specialty many people claim to have skills for without fully understanding both the marketing, and technical perspective. Yes, it definitely a marketing tool, but without the technical skills, and a commitment to ongoing research and development your marketing dollars may be wasted. If a marketer doesn't understand the importance of coding, registrations, blogs, electronic press releases, and link building campaigns then they are not doing a complete job.

Here at Page1Solutions we strive to have strong mix of proven marketing strategies, technical expertise, and ongoing research and development. The search engines make it impossible for anyone to deploy a single strategy, neglect research, or forget about tracking metrics. Many webmasters do not have a complete understanding SEO when they design websites. They may produce a beautiful website that is difficult for the search engines to index. We work with websites designed by other companies in addition to designing our own websites. We understand we need to keep the customers goals in mind whether it is our design or not.

So the next time someone calls your to sell you their optimization services consider these questions:
  • What is their marketing background?
  • Do their designs win awards?
  • How will they prove you have received value for your dollars? Do they have strong tracking programs?
  • Do they continually monitor your account for success?
  • Are they strong with technology?
  • Do they offer a variety of products to help reach your SEO goals?
  • Do they do ongoing research?
Anyone can read SEO for Dummies and claim to understand the business, but unless they work in the business day after day, and year after year they cannot claim to be an expert.
The account managers, and entire staff at Page1Soultions is here to see that all your web needs are met.

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posted by Kelley at 1:07 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 3, 2008

About Mike P

I finally blogged! To learn a bit about me check out my new blog at:

http://mikepetersonsworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/loving-my-new-job.html

posted by Mikey P at 11:04 AM 0 comments