The Official LexiConn Blog

Unlimited Hosting – How Web Hosts Flat Out Lie (Part 3)

Rob Mangiafico — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:07:09 +0000

Last week we examined the truth behind uptime guarantees in hosting. A 100% uptime guarantee is not really what most people expect.

Today I’ll try to (briefly) rant discuss one of my pet peeves when it comes to hosting – The promise of unlimited hosting.

There is always a limit

Until they create the infinite hard drive or the never ending fiber optic connection, there is no such thing as unlimited when it comes to hosting.

But it sure sounds great as a slogan on a website (ones I’ve seen):

Unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth!

Never run out of space

Host as many domains as you want!

What’s the harm?

There are actually a number of drawbacks to unlimited hosting. Check out our blog post 15 Reasons to Avoid Unlimited Hosting for an in-depth look at the perils of this type of host.

The lie that is unlimited hosting

Here is what really bothers me about this marketing technique – IT’S A LIE!

That’s right, web hosts are falsely representing themselves and misleading their clients in an attempt to win their business. I’m amazed more lawsuits haven’t popped up. The unlimited claim has a whole slew of limits and restrictions. Here are a few I’ve seen:

Inode limit
The account is limited to 50,000 files. If you have an ecommerce store with a few thousand products, you’ll exceed this limit in no time

Bandwidth restrictions
Although they state it’s unlimited, the fine print includes statements that “bandwidth has a monthly allowance”.

CPU restrictions
The amount of CPU resources is severely restricted (percentage, cycles, impact, etc…). Any modest amount of traffic to your blog or online store could result in your site being down or limited to the point of it being unusable.

File type restrictions
Rules about what type of files you can have, how they can be used, etc… all designed to limit disk space

Unlimited disk space, very low bandwidth limits
This is the new trend for remotely hosted e-commerce applications. They say unlimited space, but then only provide 5 GB of monthly bandwidth. You can exceed this just uploading your images. And the overages can be $10 or more per GB per month!

Limits are a good thing

When clearly defined disk space and bandwidth limits are known, it’s easy to know what you can and cannot do with your account. It gives you boundaries for how to setup and use your site, and be able to have it run fast and always be available if you remain within those boundaries.

A good host that sets realistic limits will always allow any client to make full use of their space and bandwidth without fear of being suspended, or their usage interrupted. In our 14+ years of hosting, we have never had to suspend a client that was within their account limits (unless they had a script that was in a loop, or a poorly coded script that was monopolizing the server for long periods of time).

…

I hope my ranting wasn’t too much. What do you think of unlimited hosting?

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Meta Tags – Keywords Still Dead, Description Quite Important

Rob Mangiafico — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:45:05 +0000

Meta Tags. Those bothersome tags in the header region of every html page. Are they important? Which ones should you use? How does Google view them?

Meta Keywords are dead

Last year I posted about meta keywords no longer being used or needed. In fact, Mr. Google himself, Matt Cutts, explained that Google “disregards keyword metatags *completely*”.

Bing has a similar statement, saying these tags were often abused and carry little to no weight.

So, it is still valid today to say: “Meta Keywords are not helpful at all with SEO. The major search engines ignore them when crawling web pages.“

Meta Description is important

Google has stated they do not use the meta description in their ranking algorithm. Bing also does not use it for ranking purposes.

So it’s dead, right?

Well, for ranking, yes, it’s dead – useless – a waste of time. But this little tag is used as the snippet of text under a link in Google *if* Google finds it relevant to the content on the page.

The “snippet” makes it important to use and get right. Why? Because it can help people click on the link.

How important is it?

One study shows the snippet to be the most important

A recent eye tracking study demonstrated that people searching for information spent over 50% of their time looking at the text under a link in the search results. This was almost double the amount of time they spent looking at the title.

(yes, part of that is due to the text being longer to read, so more time is spent there, but it’s still noteworthy)

I thought about this, and realized that when I’m looking for information in Google, the text under each link is my “visual cue” as to which link will give me the best information. The title catches my eye first – but I quickly prioritize which link to click based on the snippet saying something relevant to my question.

In other words – The meta description is just as important as the title when I’m searching in Google.

Long live the Meta Description!

Based on the above, it makes sense to have a great meta description for each page. A few ideas to keep in mind when crafting the perfect meta description:

Make the description relevant and informative

Be brief (1-2 sentences at most)

Don’t keyword stuff it

And my most important rule:

Write the description for people, not search engines!

Since Google is ignoring it for SEO purposes, make your meta description appealing to people so they click on your link. Give it the importance you would give to the title of a blog post or heading of a web page.

Your “organic search results being clicked on” will thank you for it.

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The Basics – Online Credit Card Processing

Rich A. — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:53:45 +0000

One of the topics that customers often ask about when they are new at starting a business or just new at starting an online store – is credit card processing. While we’re all familiar with the process of using a credit card as a customer, the process for a merchant is a mystery to many. In this article we’ll review the basic steps and accounts needed to process credit cards online.

The Accounts

Three different accounts come into play when you process credit cards online. The payment flows through them in this order:

Gateway Account -> Merchant Account -> Bank Account

Bank Account

A bank account, usually a checking account, would be used for the automatic deposits of the credit card funds. You can open this account at the same bank you use for your personal banking.

Merchant Account

A merchant account is the name given to the account with a credit card processing company, which provides your company with the ability to process credit cards. Whether you accept credit card payments online, over the phone, or with a card-swipe terminal in a store, a merchant account is used to process the payment and transfer the money to your bank account.

A typical merchant account will charge a small percentage of the sale to the merchant, a per transaction fee, and may have a monthly fee. Once a day the successful credit card charges from that day will all be processed and the money electronically transferred to your bank account.

There are many merchant account providers available. Cardservice International also known as First Data is the company we partner with here at LexiConn.

Gateway Account

A Gateway Account or Payment Gateway, is a service which allows you to process credit cards online. Their service works in conjunction with your website and your merchant account to securely accept the credit card details and process the charge. The system will authorize the sale and return whether the charge was successful or if it was declined.

You can think of the gateway account as being just like a card-swipe machine at a store, except instead of swiping a card through the terminal in front of you everything is handled online through the internet.

When the charge is successful the payment is queued in your merchant account for deposit, but if the charge is declined the details are sent back to your website so your online store can inform the customer.

We recommend Authorize.net, which is one of the most popular payment gateways with support integrated into ShopSite and most other online store software.

…

While accepting credit cards online can start out as a mystery and it takes multiple accounts with different companies to do it, once you are familiar with the accounts and the roles they each play in the process it’s not as complicated as it first seems.

Uptime, Downtime, Run Around Time – How Web Hosts Twist The Truth (Part 2)

Rob Mangiafico — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:23:51 +0000

In part 1 of this series, we took a look at misleading claims by some web hosts with regards to the green movement. In today’s post, we’ll take a lot at the 100% uptime guarantee that many hosts proudly proclaim on their websites.

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be… not even close in many cases.

Downtime happens

If you have a website on the internet, at one time or another, it will suffer some downtime. Whether it’s a failed hard drive, a networking issue, or power issue, it will happen. And this isn’t limited to small websites.

Last year Google’s GMail service was down for two hours. This affected all the free accounts, plus their 1.75 million paying business customers.

American Eagle, a major clothing store retailer, saw it’s ecommerce site down for 4 days last month.

Even Rackspace, one of the industry’s best managed server providers, has experienced multi-hour outages in the past 2 years.

The 100% uptime guarantee

In the face of all this downtime, many web hosts boast a 100% uptime guarantee. It sounds wonderful! Choose this host, and your website will be up 100% of the time. Right?

Well, not exactly. The guarantee is: If they fail to meet that guarantee, they will compensate you. Ah, great! I get my money back?

Well, maybe some of it. And only under certain conditions. That doesn’t sound like much of a guarantee.

(hence the “twist” in this post’s title)

Loopholes and fine print

If you dig into the fine print of these uptime guarantees (and I did), you’ll find some surprising statements and qualifications:

One host who offers a 100% uptime guarantee has fine print that says:
“Network uptime, not server uptime…downtime may range into days…“

Another 100% guarantee has this fine print:
“excluding software or hardware malfunctions, network slowdowns, or any event not under our direct control“

Huh? So with the first host, the server your account is on could be down for days, but it’s still 100% uptime???

With the second host, if they exclude hardware and software failures, what else is there? Gross incompetence? If your site takes 45 minutes to load, that is still considered 100% uptime?

The complicated run-around

So you’re with a host offering a 100% uptime guarantee. And your site experiences downtime. How do you request your compensation?

Some hosts make you take herculean efforts to qualify for this guarantee…

One host’s policies state: The request for downtime compensation must be submitted within seven days, the email must list the exact start and end time of the downtime, must include three separate traceroute screenshots during this downtime, and the request must be submitted to a specific email address.
Failure to comply means the request is discarded.

Another hosts states the request must be received within 3 days of the downtime occurring.

You’re not really being fully compensated

So let’s say your website brings in $100/day in income. And your site suffers 1-2 days of downtime. You lost $200 in income.

Unfortunately, no web host will provide you with compensation that matches your actual loss. That would be unsustainable for any hosting provider.

If you’re with a host that offers a 100% uptime guarantee, maybe you think you’ll get your monthly hosting service refunded. Maybe, but you better read the fine print…

Many guarantees cap the compensation at very low levels:

One host says compensation is a maximum of 25% of the monthly hosting charge (after a full day of downtime). That’s $2 if you’re paying $8/month in hosting.

Another host states that the maximum compensation is 10% of the monthly hosting fee, the customer must meet all requirements, and the outage must be over 4 hours long, with 1% refunded per hour over 4 hours up to 10%.
Congrats! Your site was down 2 days and your host gave you 80 cents! (don’t spend it all in one place)

Sarcastic?… yes.
Realistic?… Unfortunately, yes again.

Not all hosts operate this underhandedly

Don’t let a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch. Some guarantees are actually quite fair, protecting both the client and the host. And other hosts may not have a formal uptime guarantee, but really take care of their clients when sustained downtime occurs.

Here’s what I recommend:

Read the fine print if there is an uptime guarantee
Make sure you fully understand what’s required in order for the guarantee to be valid. Don’t just assume because there is a guarantee, your web host will always be up, or they’ll refund your entire monthly fee.

Ask questions about uptime before signing up
Whether the hosts has a guarantee or not, ask about what happens if there is downtime, how is it handled, are credits offered, what are the procedures, etc…

Not having a guarantee is not a bad thing (in fact, it’s often a good thing)
Many of the most reputable hosts do not have a formal uptime guarantee (us included). Why? There are many reasons (too many loopholes, aren’t commensurate with actual losses, and really anger customers when they do not understand the limits), but what’s more important is that your host has procedures in place to keep customers informed when problems arise. Because problems WILL happen. Make sure your host has a good track record with uptime in the past, and is the right type of host for your business (paying $6/month when your website brings in $60,000/month is not smart).

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Many uptime guarantees are not worth the pixels they’re displayed on. Instead of looking for a host with the perfect uptime guarantee, look for a host that offers the services you need to succeed, has a proven track record of stability over the long haul, and demonstrates clear, no-nonsense communication with their clients that makes dealing with downtime manageable and understandable.

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ShopSite Tip: Using Customer Registration Effectively in Your Ecommerce Store

Rob Mangiafico — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:48:22 +0000

Customer Registration, when setup properly, can be an effective tool for any ecommerce store. However, there are a few pitfalls to avoid to make sure this enhances your online store as opposed to it driving sales away. These tips will have some ShopSite ® specific examples, but could apply to any shopping cart solution.

Don’t make it required

In 99% of all cases, it’s never a good idea to make customer registration a requirement in order to complete a purchase.

You know how you’re annoyed when the cashier at a store asks for phone number, zip code, blood type, etc…? It’s twice as bad online when a customer just wants to buy your merchandise as quickly and easily as possible, and is confronted with your roadblock.

Unless you have a very good reason to require a customer to login / register to complete a purchase (and I mean a valid business based reason), you want to avoid forcing the customer to register/login in order to pay.

In today’s competitive online world, one time purchases by people who found your website on Google in a complicated search may make up a large percentage of your orders. They do not plan on a repeat purchase at your store, so why would they register before checking out?

Not knowing it’s optional is just as bad

ok, so you set your store to not require customer registration. Hooray! (sort of). However, this is what is displayed on your shopping cart page:

Is it required? Nobody knows…

There is no indication that customer registration is *COMPLETELY* optional in order to checkout! The customer does not know they can skip registering to continue.

The default text in ShopSite does not make this clear. It’s up to you to make it clear to your customers. Like Hanks Clothing does:

Crystal Clear it's not required

…

To store or not to store…

In ShopSite, you can offer to store payment information for registered customers. This means their credit card numbers will be saved in the software.

Although this data is encrypted per credit card regulations (PCI Compliance), you have to weigh the added risk on your end of your website storing all of this card information. Unless you know your bottom line will be affected by repeat customers not wanting to shop with you because they have to type their card info in each time, I’d recommend disabling this feature.

The less sensitive data you have to manage, the better.

Bad links for sign-in / register

Many websites like to have simple links in their site’s navigation for signing in to customer registration or registering. This is a good thing.

Rexart.com sign-in / register header

One mistake we see a number of merchants make is they create these links by going to the sign-in page or register page in their store and copying the URL in their browser.

Unfortunately, what this does is create a link to a *specific user’s* cart / registration, as it copies a unique session ID in the URL. You do not want this, as everyone will be sharing a session (sort of), which results in confusing data in the cart and registration panel.

Here is the format to follow:

sign-in:
http://xyz.com/cgi-xyz/sb/order.cgi?func=2&html_reg=html&storeid=XXXX

register:

http://xyz.com/cgi-xyz/sb/order.cgi?func=1&html_reg=html&storeid=XXXX

Replacing “xyz” with your domain name and XXXX with your store’s id code.

Do NOT link to the secure URL with registration.cgi in the path. The “order.cgi” shown above is correct.

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What do you think? Anything else merchants should be doing with regards to customer registration?

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roadblock photo credit

Liar, Liar – How Web Hosts Stretch The Truth (Part 1)

Rob Mangiafico — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:03:38 +0000

I’m amazed at how far some large name web hosts will go in their advertising and marketing on their websites. It seems the word “truth” is not in their vocabulary. In this multi-part series, we’ll take a look at a few areas where hosts take too many liberties IMNSHO (In My Not So Humble Opinion).

Here are some things I’ve seen recently in the “Green” realm that reallllly sttttretch the truth.

100 % Green Hosting (Gone with the wind)

I was transferring a ShopSite ® ecommerce website last week from another web host, and when I went to the host’s website to log into the control panel, I noticed this statement on their home page:

Powered by 100% Wind Energy

Wow! Knowing how much power it takes to run a datacenter (think small town), I really wanted to see the thousands of windmills they must have, and the constant hurricane that would be needed to generate that much power (ok, slight exaggeration, but it’s still a lot).

As I dug deeper into their fine print, I found out that they simply purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). I’m not knocking REC purchases, which are generally a good thing.

I’m pointing out that they purposely mislead people into thinking they are using these windmills directly to power their servers. Not to mention there is no auditing / accountability to show they are actually purchasing enough RECs to offset their electrical usage for an entire datacenter plus offices.

Don’t Forget Solar Panels!

Another web host likes to have people assume they use solar power for 100% of their electrical needs. They never actually state this (just a few photos of solar panels on their roof), but they would need thousands of panels (and possibly much more) to fully power a datacenter and their offices.

However, the pictures and statement of “green, responsible, solar powered hosting” lead you to believe they’re off the grid and living with the Jolly Green Giant.

LexiConn – Powered by 100% Nuclear Power???

This would be like us saying that since the power plant that provides electricity to the cities our servers are located in is a nuclear power plant, let’s tell everyone we’re 100% nuclear powered. We can even put a sign on top of the building in the picture of the power plant with our name on it.

Ridiculous?… yes.
In line with some hosts’ marketing tactics?… unfortunately, yes again.

We’re proud to state that our servers are in datacenters that have dual power sources – Traditional electricity from the power company (with proper safeguards and redundancies) and backup diesel generator systems.

Our clients might be shocked to hear that this summer alone our servers ran on diesel generator power for many hours due to storms and various power outages. All of this with *zero* downtime!

…

Speaking of downtime (or uptime) – We’ll cover that “truth” in part 2 of this series.

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windmill photo credit

New Google Product Search Requirements

Rob Mangiafico — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:37:45 +0000

Google recently sent an email to all merchants using Google Product Search that contained the following:

Starting in late August 2010, we are making some changes to how your products in the Electronics, Books, and Media categories may appear on Google Product Search. In order to provide as much information as possible to our users, we need your help in matching your products to our “product pages” where users are able to view useful data such as product specifications or reviews. If you are submitting products in the above categories for the US version of Google Product Search, please start including unique product identifiers, such as MPN, Brand, UPC or ISBN. We will make similar changes to Product Search in the UK and Germany at a later date.

These attributes will not be required for your feed to process correctly, however, to avoid seeing a drop in traffic from Product Search, we urge you to start including these unique identifiers as soon as possible. You can find unique product identifier information on Product Search product pages, under the “technical specifications” section for Electronics items, the “Tracks” or “Details” section for Media, and the “Overview” section for books.

For more details, including what specific identifiers you should include for each category of item, please see our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161

What does this mean?

If you sell products that are books, electronics, or media, Google is now *strongly* encouraging merchants to include that product’s unique identifier (ISBN for books, MPN for media, UPC/Brand for electronics, etc…).

Although your feed will not fail, your products will likely be ranked below products in these categories that include these unique tags.

How to include these items in ShopSite?

If you are using ShopSite as your e-commerce software, here are a few things you can do to include these identifiers for products that fall under this new requirement:

1. Setting the extra field name to match the Google attribute (i.e. upc, mpn, or isbn)

Preferences -> Extra Fields
for example:
Extra Product field 3: upc
Extra product field 4: isbn

Extra Product Field Config (click image to enlarge)

2. Putting the appropriate codes for each product in the matching extra product field

Products -> Edit Product Info

Enter Unique Codes (click image to enlarge)

3. Sending these extra fields to google:

Merchandising -> Google Search -> Configure

Enable sending unique codes (click image to enlarge)

Note: The “brand” is actually set for each product under “Edit Product Info” so you do not need an extra product field for brand.

Brand is a default field

…

That’s all that is needed to include these new unique identifiers for products that are books, electronics, or media.

5 Things We Can Learn From Google Wave’s Demise

Rob Mangiafico — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:06:02 +0000

Recently Google announced that Google Wave would be discontinued at the end of the year. This was sad news for myself and thousands of other people that found this software application to be quite useful. We can, however, take away a few lessons about launching a new product or service…

What was Google Wave?

If you never had the chance to use Google Wave, it was a new offering by Google that was mainly aimed at a new way for communication and collaboration. Google made it easy to work with a group of people (on a wave), where it was point and click to add text, audio, video, links, etc… all in real time. Anyone in the wave could update information, create wavelets (side-projects), see typing as it was occurring, or even play back the development of the wave from start to finish.

I personally used it a number of times to work on complicated LexiConn projects, and found it to be very helpful in working with multiple people on a project. It made group tasks more manageable, and allowed everyone to see what was happening in real time. Jim Connolly also found Wave to be useful, and was dismayed at its end.

Crash!

Why did Google kill it?

In their announcement, Google stated that the adoption of the product was not up to the level they expected. Despite a loyal base, they did not get the millions of people they wanted to use the product heavily.

In fact, when they first launched Wave, Google made bold predictions about it replacing email and being the new standard for internet based communication. Bold indeed!

What can we learn?

Here are five things we can take away from how Google Wave ended…

1. Customers have to understand it

Even if you have the best product ever created, if people do not understand it or see the value, it will not be successful. Google Wave was shrouded in secrecy in its infancy. The Google Wave video was long and disjointed. The docs were not clear.

Although the potential was there for Wave to be a killer app, confusion and mis-understanding limited its broad appeal. If you are introducing a new product or service that is not widely recognized, you have to go to great lengths to make sure your marketing explains the clear benefits and uses of your product.

2. Marketing to your audience is key

Google Wave appealed to die-hard tech geeks, and Google catered to them. But they wanted Wave to be adopted by the general public! They were targeting the wrong audience.

Assuming you know who your target market is for your new product, make sure your message is getting to them. Use the right avenues and places where your target market hangs out. And tailor the message so it makes sense to them (see #1 above).

3. Your passion is not always everyone else’s passion

Google loved Google Wave. Its developers were head over heels in love with it. Google had grand plans for it. They saw so many possibilities. Unfortunately, the public did not share this love affair. Google’s energy level was not enough to propel Wave to the top.

Often times we think that what we like and love must be what others like. Although this can be true, this “passion” can often blind us when it comes time to figure out what our customers actually want. You have to step outside of your little world, see things from your customers’ eyes, and gauge whether the product or service will have the appeal you expect.

4. Hard work and passion are not enough

Google worked hard on Wave. They had devoted developers, and spent considerable time and money developing it. Although this level of work and energy is needed for super successful products, you cannot rely on that alone. It seems Google did just that.

Once the sweat and tears have been poured in, you have to market the product effectively. You have to adapt and adjust the product based on customer feedback. And you have to define the problem customers are having, and tailor your product to be the solution they desire. Then the hard work will pay off!

Bottom line – You must have clear direction and goals, but you must be flexible to adjust them to wow your customers.

5. Don’t be afraid to fail

Although Google Wave will end this year, Google stuck their neck out, created something quite revolutionary, and gained a whole tool-chest full of new applications. Sure, Wave did not succeed as a whole, but Google is already using the pieces of Wave in other applications. They learned what people liked about Wave, and will put that knowledge to good use.

Trying something new can be quite scary. Failing with your new product or service can be quite painful. But if you look closely, analyze the data, and see what you can get out of it, these “failures” can lead to better results down the road. Or be the piece to the puzzle you’ve been missing on a different project altogether.

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Did you try Google Wave? What did you think? What else can we take away from the life and death of Wave?

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Your Contact Us Page – Get It Right!

Rob Mangiafico — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:31:10 +0000

Just about every website has some form of a “contact us” page. They can range from a simple email address, a web form, or full blown contact details. Many times they are lacking crucial information that customers and potential customers require in order to make a purchase, ask a question, or obtain customer service.

Here are a few tips to make your contact us page as good as it can be…

Make it obvious to find

Your “Contact Us” link should be clearly displayed at the top and/or bottom of all of your pages, especially the home page. Don’t force visitors to hunt for a way to get in touch. Make it easy.

Don’t be like Facebook, that tries to avoid actual interaction at all costs:

How do you contact Facebook? You don't!

Bonus: Integrate your email address and/or phone number into your page header/footer if it works for your design and layout.

Offer minimalist web based form

You cannot assume everyone on your website has a full blown email program right at their disposal to send you an email. Maybe they’re surfing on their cell phone, or on a public computer. Offer a web based form as an alternate means of getting in touch.

The key to this form is to only ask for the most essential information that is required to contact your company. Avoid asking for too much personal information, or extraneous questions. Often times name, subject, and a textbox for their questions is all that is really needed.

If you’re a small business, this is where you can beat the pants off of the big girls and boys – You are easily reachable, whereas they are not. Do not make it hard for customers to contact you using the medium they desire.

If you offer phone support…

List both a toll-free and regular phone number if applicable
People outside of the country may not be able to use a toll-free number. List your regular number as an alternative.

List days and times it’s available
Do not expect your customers to be mind readers, or to work and sleep at the same time as your phone support. Make sure you clearly list the days and times when phone support is available.

List the time zone!
On the internet, time doesn’t mean anything. You have to list the timezone when your phone support hours are valid.

Bonus Tip 1: List both Eastern (ET) and Western (PT) timezones so your customers do not have to do “complex” math to match up your time with theirs.

Bonus Tip 2: Use javascript or a link to a timezone conversion tool so a customer can instantly translate your timezone into their local time. I know I love these handy tools. (During the World Cup, the FIFA website had the time conversion option on some pages, which was great. Some pages that displayed matches only listed a local time, which had my head swimming when trying to figure out when I could actually watch a game.)

Text and links please

If you list your email address on the Contact Us page, do so using two methods:
1. Your email address is a link that when clicked can open up an email program.
2. A plain text copy of your email address so users can easily copy/paste the address into an email program.

As many ways as possible

If you actively use Twitter, Facebook, Instant messenger programs, etc… and they are valid ways to interact with your company, then put those contact methods on this page as well! Don’t limit the ways your company interacts with its customer base on your contact us page.

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What other tips and ideas do you have for an effective Contact Us page? Please share in the comments below.

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The Official LexiConn Blog

Unlimited Hosting – How Web Hosts Flat Out Lie (Part 3)

There is always a limit

What’s the harm?

The lie that is unlimited hosting

Limits are a good thing

Meta Tags – Keywords Still Dead, Description Quite Important

Meta Keywords are dead

Meta Description is important

One study shows the snippet to be the most important

Long live the Meta Description!

Top Ecommerce Blog Posts and Articles for August 2010

The Basics – Online Credit Card Processing

The Accounts

Bank Account

Merchant Account

Gateway Account

Uptime, Downtime, Run Around Time – How Web Hosts Twist The Truth (Part 2)

Downtime happens

The 100% uptime guarantee

Loopholes and fine print

The complicated run-around

You’re not really being fully compensated

Not all hosts operate this underhandedly

ShopSite Tip: Using Customer Registration Effectively in Your Ecommerce Store

Don’t make it required

Not knowing it’s optional is just as bad

To store or not to store…

Bad links for sign-in / register

Liar, Liar – How Web Hosts Stretch The Truth (Part 1)

100 % Green Hosting (Gone with the wind)

Don’t Forget Solar Panels!

LexiConn – Powered by 100% Nuclear Power???

New Google Product Search Requirements

What does this mean?

How to include these items in ShopSite?

5 Things We Can Learn From Google Wave’s Demise

What was Google Wave?

Why did Google kill it?

What can we learn?

Your Contact Us Page – Get It Right!

Make it obvious to find

Offer minimalist web based form

If you offer phone support…

Text and links please

As many ways as possible