Everything Internet Blog

Attention All CEO's - SEO has changed

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:46:36 -0500

In fact, Search Engine Optimization has changed beyond belief. Not so long ago, it was all about stuffing content with keywords, and then hoping those web crawlers straight out of The Matrix would be looking for them. Now, of course, it isn't so simple.

And what is infuriating for a lot of people who have a presence on the Internet in a legitimate sense - in other words, your real, honest business concerns who want to market themselves online in a real, honest way - is that the unscrupulous spammers and black hats out there have pushed SEO to new, highly complex levels.

If you are unfortunate enough to own or run a business whose online presence is slipping, chances are you won't even know how to stop the decline. You just don't have the knowledge. And if you don't know how to use good SEO to stand out from the crowd, you my as well not be online.

Some websites use good SEO, some use bad. For years now firms have been enjoying the feeling of having their pages at the top end of Google, apparently with minimum effort. It seems that they know exactly what to do. They know the secret.

The secret to Good SEO

So what is the secret to Good SEO? Easy, don't do it.

Remember that great idea you had at the kitchen table? That is your company. That is what you are in charge of. The vision. Remember that? Savor it once again. Your vision. The thing that gets you up in the morning.

Then, once you have remembered why you started the whole thing (and you're all fired up about helping people again) you'll be eager to think up some new keywords. Don't.

Take a step back, think about the goals and objectives for your website, and give your firm's marketing to the experts.

Give it up because an SEO expert has two things going in their favor, two reasons why you should hire them to make your site noticeable. Reason number one is easy. SEO experts are perfect because they can look at your firm from the outside; they have the commercial perspective, the detached view, whatever you want to call it. In other words, when it comes to your firm and its online marketing, while they weren't present at the birth, they can smooth it over, smarten it up, and get it a date for the prom.

Reason number two is even simpler. An SEO expert knows exactly what to do to make your firm's website shoot up high in the rankings, and then make it stay there. They know about image searches and logos, about linking (the Holy Grail of SEO, and an aspect that will have a whole post dedicated to it soon), about content management, and so on. All things that, while you may well know something about them, you can't honestly say they're your business. They're not what you do.

The Bottom Line

SEO experts need not be expensive. And the job they can do for you and your firm will bring results. There are a lot of cowboys out there, and we'll deal with that in a later post, but get your hands on a company who know online marketing inside out (as well as you know your firm), and you will see business growth. Guaranteed.

We will spend the next few posts exploring the bottom line, looking at aspects of SEO that companies need to be on top of. By the time we're done, you'll know how a good SEO expert can make those web crawlers straight out of The Matrix cling onto your sticky site for dear life.

July 4th Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:30:24 -0500

Our office will be officially closed on Friday, July 4th in observance of the Independence Day holiday. If interested, one can read the official document online. Can anyone tell me everyone who signed it in 1776?

The crew at CWS will be spending the day with our friends and family in observance of this national holiday. Our support team will respond to an emergency if needed. If there is one, please call (888) 426-7793. If you have a non-emergency issue, let us know by sending us an email.

May your travel be safe, and your good times plentiful.

Best Wishes,
The CWS Team

Site Launch: Boys & Girls Club of Rochester

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Schmidt) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:45:29 -0500

"The Boys & Girls Club of Rochester is a community-based organization that provides young people with a fun, safe, and constructive environment when they are not at home or school. The Club has a lineup of tested and proven nationally recognized programs that address today's most pressing youth issues, teaching young people the skills they need to succeed in life."

CWS has recently launched a new website for The Boys & Girls Club of Rochester. The site's design reflects the club's atmosphere of fun in a positive environment, while maintaining the structure needed to serve a large volume of information.

The Boys & Girls Club serves an important role in our community. Want to know how you can help? While visiting the site, you will see many paths you can take to contribute to the organization. Some of these options include volunteering your time, attending one of many events, or donating something from the wishlist. You can also choose to donate money to their KidStock program securely from the Web. Remember that these donations, no matter how small, will have a positive effect on the life of a child in our community (Read about success stories).

We would like to thank Jill, Jodi, Jeremy and Larry from the Boys & Girls Club of Rochester for the opportunity to develop their new site, and we look forward to further helping them increase community awareness of their work with our RapidNewsletter application and Search Engine Optimization.

Site Launch: Nursing Analysis & Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Schmidt) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:36:21 -0500

CWS is pleased to present you with Nursing Analysis & Review's (NAR) new home on the web. NAR provides professional consulting services in the areas of nurse care, transitional placement, legal nurse consulting, geriatric case management, and more.

Searching for senior care facilities for loved ones can be a stressful task. The last thing any of us want is to place our elderly parents in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable environment. NAR helps to alleviate this stress by addressing many of your questions and concerns right from their website. Helpful information and frequently asked questions are only a click away.

We thank Kimberly with Nursing Analysis & Review for choosing CWS to create her new image on the web, and we look forward to our continued business relationship.

Recruitment

noreply@blogger.com (Lyle Mullican) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:52:09 -0500

As the region's leading Web development firm, CWS is growing and continues to seek additional Web programmers to join our team. We offer competitive pay and benefits, a flexible work environment and great opportunities for growth. Our standard development platforms include PHP (LAMP stack), ASP.NET and Ruby on Rails. If you have experience with any of these technologies, we want to hear from you. Apply online at cws.net/jobs.

Site Launch: RoederCattleServices.com

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Schmidt) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:03:12 -0500

Roeder Farms has a long tradition of integrity, honesty, and a sincere concern for those with whom they conduct business. Combine this with extensive knowledge and experience in the international, domestic purebred, and commercial cattle industries, and Roeder Cattle Services (RCS) is the perfect choice for managing your next sale, or as a consulting service for marketing/adding to your herd.

When visiting the site, you will notice it was designed to evoke the feeling of the old west, while maintaining the professional image that RCS has become known for. The site offers a glimpse into the history of Roeder farms, their sales catalog, upcoming sales events, and a list of marketing services offered.

RoederCattleServices.com was designed on our Do-It-Yourself plan*. And aside from the hunger pangs experienced while discussing burgers, steak, and other fine beef products, it was a pleasure working with Cindy and Robby, and we look forward to our continued relationship as we further optimize their new site for accessibility to search engines.

* Under the Do-It-Yourself plan, the site owner creates all text using Adobe Contribute. We provide professional design services, setup and training.

CWS Welcomes Mike Resman

noreply@blogger.com (Lyle Mullican) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:27:53 -0500

CWS is pleased to introduce Mike Resman as a summer intern. Mike is a recent graduate of Lourdes High School and completed a mentorship program with us last semester. He will be assisting with website design and development projects and can be reached by email at mike (at) cws (dot) net.

Mike is an active outdoorsman and enjoys running, skiing, soccer, hiking and camping.

Site Launch: PatrickArendt.com

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Schmidt) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:13:08 -0500

Being charged with a criminal act is a serious, life changing experience. It's important for anyone in this situation to choose an attorney who has the experience and knowledge needed to win your case.

Licensed by the Minnesota Supreme Court since 1996, attorney Patrick Arendt has been successfully representing individuals in these kinds of circumstances throughout Southern Minnesota. The focus of Patrick Arendt Criminal Defense (PACD) is solely on defending those faced with criminal charges.

This site design attempts to communicate the serious nature of the task of criminal defense. But as the tagline "Freedom's Last Defense" reminds the visitor, the constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair hearing is one of the core foundations of American society, and Patrick Arendt is committed to winning your case.

Throughout the site you will find many resources relating to Minnesota law, with specific topics including DWI and other charges.

It was a pleasure working with Patrick Arendt, and we look forward to working with him again in the future.

The Changing Face of Software

noreply@blogger.com (Lyle Mullican) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:56:57 -0500

The right software can greatly enhance the productivity of business users. However, traditional tools are not always suited to the modern business landscape, where people may work from home or a local Starbucks as easily as a cubicle. Likewise, associations and nonprofits may have committees and boards who lack access to the same physical network, creating a barrier to collaboration.

Software as a Service

Fortunately, the last two years have seen a remarkable level of growth in decentralized, Web-based applications, often described by the term "Software as a Service" (SaaS). Because this type of software is accessed through a Web browser, it's available to anyone with an Internet connection. Even better, many of the most useful tools are available at no cost. When there are fees, SaaS applications have an additional (and significant) advantage over traditional offline software. Pricing usually takes the form of a subscription which can generally be changed or canceled at will, making the cost of commitment very low.

Alternatives to Existing Software

With a driving interest in technology (not to mention enormous resources), Google is a leader in providing excellent tools for free. One of its most notable offerings is a collection of applications called Google Docs. This system provides an online alternative for creating and editing text documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It can open and save standard Microsoft Office documents and makes it very easy to share them with others for review and collaboration. Google provides a number of other tools (nearly all free) which provide Web-based alternatives for email, calendars, and even payment processing.

New Opportunities

Web-based software also offers new possibilities for accomplishing tasks that traditional office applications don't handle well. For example, many people resort to email for group communication when it's really better suited to one-on-one correspondence. Services such as our own GroupLoop.com, a committee management tool, aim to solve this problem by organizing discussions and providing specific features for certain kinds of communication like RSVPs and reminders. A business-oriented group chat application called Campfire provides an excellent way to hold a discussion in real time while maintaining a permanent, searchable archive. Blogs and email newsletters provide much more economical and timely methods of communicating with members than traditional printed mailings.

Integration

A common question when considering the adoption of new technologies is how well they may integrate with existing systems. Specifics vary, of course, but in general this is an area that SaaS vendors have worked hard to address. Many services provide open access for developers to write software that extends features or provides access to data so that systems can work together. New data standards are making exchanges of information easier than ever. For example, using Google Calendar to schedule events automatically makes a data feed available that can be used to display those events on a website.

Privacy and Security

Many business users are also concerned about the security of data hosted by Web-based applications. Working this way does mean giving up a certain amount of control. However, it's worth noting that the network-level protection offered by service providers like Google is typically far more robust than what an average business employs to protect its data. The same common-sense guidelines apply to Web applications as offline ones, such as choosing strong passwords. Many providers make their services available over encrypted connections for additional security. It's always a good idea to review a service provider's policies before trusting them with sensitive information, and when the Web browser becomes a platform for delivering software, it's also critical to keep up to date on patches.

The Bottom Line

The modern software landscape offers many new ways of delivering both existing and innovative services through the Web. Adopting SaaS technologies can be an excellent way to gain efficiency while reducing software costs. With a generally low cost of commitment, there's almost certainly at least one area where Web-based software can benefit your business. If you're able to identify such an area but can't find software to meet the need, CWS specializes in developing custom Web applications and we encourage you to contact us for a risk-free discussion.

Site Launch: AlgalBiomass.org

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Schmidt) — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:57:38 -0500

With rising gas prices and the record-breaking cost of oil, research in alternative energy sources is becoming ever more urgent. A number of organizations have formed to advance the cause. The Algal Biomass Organization, is one such group -- a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of algal biomass production technologies through research and education.

Tom Byrne (of Byrne & Company Ltd.) looked to CWS for a solution to make these research efforts known worldwide.

Throughout the site you will find an array of information dealing with algae production technologies, including events, summit details, and what the Algal Biomass Organization is doing to expand and develop new technology. You will also find documents available for download that have been submitted by independent researchers.

We have enjoyed working on this project with Tom Byrne and the Algal Biomass Organization, and we're excited to see important research being done in the field of alternative energy.

Memorial Day Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:04:07 -0500

Our office will be officially closed on Monday, May 26th in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

For our international customers, here's a brief history of this U.S. holiday:

Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. These observances eventually coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.

The name of "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882, but did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967.

The crew at CWS will be honoring this tradition and spending the day with our friends and family. Our support team will respond to an emergency if needed. If there is one, please call (888) 426-7793. If you have a non-emergency issue, let us know by sending us an email.

May your travel be safe, and your good times plentiful.

Best Wishes,
The CWS Team

Site Launch: OhThoseGuys.com

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Schmidt) — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:37:27 -0500

In 1997, Savage, MN based Total Promotions was created as an ASI company that supplied corporate apparel and promotional items to small, medium, and large businesses. In 2001, they purchased the domain OhThoseGuys.com. In 2005, they officially changed their name to OH Those Guys. Now, in 2008, OH Those Guys still sells the same quality corporate apparel and promotional items; but with the addition of their athletic supplies, team apparel and spirit wear division "OTG Athletics," they were in need of an online facelift.

After viewing a Rochester based sporting goods website, OH Those Guys gave us a call.

The new site needed to incorporate both divisions of the company. The abstract shapes and sports photography created an edgy feel for the sporting goods division, while the soft blue gradients and inviting corporate photos appealed to the needs of those looking for corporate apparel.

However, OH Those Guys and OTG Athletics are not limited to just corporate and team apparel. Throughout the site you will find a variety of content ranging from team order forms, suggested links, and a blog, to a page that offers fundraising services for free to non-profits, charities and benefits.

It was a pleasure working with Bill from OH Those Guys and OTG Athletics, and we look forward to our continued relationship as we further increase their visibility online with our search engine optimization services.

4x4parts.com - Less Talk More Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Johnson) — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:04:43 -0500

Alan recently posted about emailing customers who have abandoned shopping carts in an e-commerce website. One of our clients thought this was a great idea -- Automotive Customizers (4x4parts.com) added this feature to a project already in development. Last week we took their new site live. If customers begin the checkout process and don't complete it, they will receive a helpful email asking if they encountered any problems. This is a great way to focus on user needs. It's obvious when someone walks out of your brick-and-mortar store, but with the anonymity of the Internet, a site owner could be losing sales over a simple issue and never know it.

Automotive Customizers is based in Florida and specializes in supplying aftermarket Nissan parts to 4x4 enthusiasts. We have a long-standing relationship with their team, and the site was due for an upgrade. Both the front and back end systems were completely redesigned, and we built a number of custom features specifically tailored to their business.

One of these tools allows users to specify what Nissan vehicles they own in a profile. This allows administrators to verify that customers have ordered the right parts for their vehicles, saving headaches for both customers and staff. They can also use this information to identify which customers own a specific vehicle in the event that something special is available for that model.

My favorite feature is the lightbox photo gallery where customers can upload photos of their customized trucks. In the previous version of this site, users were restricted to uploading a very small image. The new gallery allows a much bigger image to truly show off all of those customized vehicles. Just one more user-focused feature to illustrate Automotive Customizers' commitment to their customers.

Drop by 4x4parts.com to check out the new site. Our thanks to the AC team for a great project.

Now Hiring: Web Developer/Programmer

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:30:24 -0500

Corporate Web Services is now accepting applications for a Web developer to join our highly motivated design team. This person will be an integral part of our web development efforts and will be responsible for creating custom Web-based solutions for our customers. Good communication skills are a must. This is a full-time position. Compensation is based on experience.

Corporate Web Services is a leader in providing web development services on a national basis. As a developer with CWS, you'll have the opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment with opportunities for both personal and professional growth.

Applicants who meet the qualifications below should apply online at our website. This position is located in Rochester, MN.

Development

Able to code, rigorously test and deploy Web applications.
Pursues best practices and standards-based development
Able to work with clients to effectively determine project requirements
Familiar with standard Web development tools including Photoshop and Dreamweaver (additional software is always a plus)
Understands basic relational database design concepts.
Strong working knowledge of at least one of our standard development platforms, which include LAMP (php), ASP.NET and Ruby on Rails.
Strong working knowledge of HTML and CSS

General

Excellent communication skills
Ability to work independently
Ability to prioritize and balance simultaneous projects
Attention to detail in all areas
Desire to learn

Ask CWS: Should I buy links to my web site?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Bernhardt) — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:49:36 -0500

I have received a couple of questions about paid links and whether one should consider them. As you may know, inbound links are an important element in search engine optimization. However, the priority should be to have quality links to your web site and not just quantity.

The offers that I have seen claim to be from many web sites and websites that they own. To be honest, links from a lot of web sites can help only if the sites are truly different (content, design, and links) and are on different web servers.

Google even has guidelines about paid links and link schemes. One article states that:

"Examples of Link Schemes can include:
Links intended to manipulate
PageRank
Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods
on the web
Excessive reciprocal links or excessive
link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
Buying or selling links that pass
PageRank"

Google and the other search engines have started to seriously focus on the issue. In cases where they have good reason to suspect links being bought and sold, both the selling and the buying web sites are usually dropped in rankings or have a penalty which downgrades the ranking. This may mean nothing to the big company that has 1000's of web sites, but most small companies have one site. To be dropped in the rankings for a domain means, transferring to a new domain, or reworking your links and that can be a long process.

Google does not forbid paid links. They have this to say about links for advertising:

"Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:

Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the tag
Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file"

I have read posts and emails that say there are ways to hide the paid links, and experts show that the search engines cannot see all of the paid links. Google has made it easy for just about anyone to report paid links. They have an anonymous form to point out a web site that someone suspects of buying or selling links. There are two way to do this:

Sign in to Google's webmaster console and use the authenticated spam report form, then include the word "paidlink" (all one word) in the text area of the spam report. If you use the authenticated form, you'll need to sign in with a Google Account, but your report will carry more weight.

Use the unauthenticated spam report form and make sure to include the word "paidlink" (all one word) in the text area of the spam report.

Paid links can help a web site move up in search engine rankings. A sudden increase in inbound links can looks suspicious to the search engines and hurt your ranking. In SEO there really are no set rules to abide by right now. The search engines all operate under slightly different guidelines and what they like and don't like can change more than daily. Most SEO experts frown upon doing something that is questionable now and could cause a drop in rankings later.

What does this mean for me and my web site? Well, some paid links can help your rankings, be very wary of getting a lot of paid links. If a company offers to have links on a number of "their" web sites for a fee, remember that a sudden increase of links from a couple of web sites may look suspicious to the search engines. Trading links are not the best way to go, but if you are doing your own SEO, it is the most cost effective and safest way to build links.

CrossLoop Unveils Helper Marketplace

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:26:50 -0500

Back in 2006, I informed you about a new piece of software called Crossloop. As you may recall, they specialize in connecting two computers together for remote management. For example, I could easily connect with my brother in Texas if he needed me to assist with installing software on his computer.

But what happens if my bother needs help and I'm too busy helping my sister, my parents, my brother-in-law, and my uncle? Don't laugh, it could happen!

Earlier this week, they added an interesting component to their business model called the "Helper Marketplace". The idea is that you can connect with other "tech savvy" individuals who are experienced and can help you solve a computer problem. So, when my brother runs into an issue, he can search for a "geek" to log onto his computer and assist him.

As a "techie", I have the option to register with them and get paid for assisting others. I might make a little money and you get your computer fixed... it's a win-win for everyone.

From a business perspective, I'm impressed by CrossLoop's innovation in this area. When I first wrote about them they barely had a concept, and as of today they have served 30 million desktop sharing minutes and received some excellent recognition - CNet's Download.com recognized them one of The 10 Best Downloads for 2007, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal recommended them and InformationWeek recognized them as one of the Top Tech Sites for 2008. That's fantastic for a little start-up with a big idea.

Ask CWS: Should I register this domain?

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:48:18 -0500

Every few weeks, I'm asked a question about a domain name and if it should be registered and/or renewed from a particular vendor. Most recently, I received the following email which had been forwarded to me from a confused customer:

Dear COMPANY, Inc.,

We are Beijing Inveis Network Information Technology Co.,Ltd which is the domain name register center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register "COMPANYinc" as their domain names and Internet keyword on April 19th, 2008. Because this involved your company name or trade mark so we inform you in no time. If you considered these domain names and internet keyword are important to you and there was necessary to protect them by registering them first, contact us soon.

Kind Regards,

Kevin zhang
Tel:+86-10-82476192 ext.604
Fax:+86-10-62477798
Beijing Inveis Network Information Technology Co.,Ltd

While I do not believe this to be a complete scam, I do find it hard to believe that COMPANYinc.cn is in high demand. They are probably simply trying to persuade the owners of the popular .com domain name into purchasing the .cn domain (by creating a sense of urgency). On a side note, I also found it interesting that the company was not using a .cn domain name themselves, they preferred the .com domain name too.

I advised the customer that there are literally hundreds of domain name extensions available (for nearly every country) and that you can't possibly register them all. Nor would you want to, as the cost of doing this far outweighs the benefits.

To keep it simple, here are a few tips to remember when it comes to domain names:

1) Know who your domain is registered with and keep this information in a safe place.
2) Know who to call if you have questions about your domain.
3) Know when your domain renews. You will receive solicitations from other registrars as much as 6 months before it will expire. If the notification is not from the company listed in #1, ignore it.
4) Have one primary domain and do your best to get it listed with search engines. Avoid trying to market/promote several domains at once. If you do have several domains, use them for testing and measuring ad campaigns.
5) If you have multiple domains, consolidate them at one company to avoid confusion.
6) When in doubt, refer to #2.

Case Study: Mayo Medical Laboratories

noreply@blogger.com (Lyle Mullican) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:13:38 -0500

Last summer, CWS worked with Mayo Medical Laboratories to redevelop the structure of MayoMedicalLaboratories.com, and we have continued to support the expansion of its offerings. We put a lot of effort into the architecture of this site's codebase, and recent statistics have shown that these efforts are paying off.

Overall traffic to the site has doubled, but even more interesting is a six-fold increase in traffic specifically referred by search engines over an eight-month period. More recently, we've worked to develop a system for public access to the catalog of medical tests offered by MML, and this tool is already drawing nearly half of the site's traffic.

Here are a few of the strategies employed to achieve these measurable results:

Good separation of content and style. Most people know that a Web page is driven by some underlying code that's not usually displayed. But what's not always understood is that not all code serves the same function. Of course the actual text you see on a page is included, but a good portion of the code that's loaded into your Web browser is about style -- the way a page looks. When a search engine looks at the page, it doesn't care about style; content is king. In modern Web design, it's possible to almost completely separate style code from written content, but this practice isn't always followed well. When it is, the results can be dramatic. In addition to giving search engines a clearer picture of content, code separation can significantly reduce the time required to load pages and make changes far easier to implement. It also opens the possibility of repurposing content for alternative devices, like mobile or print versions, without duplicating the content.
Appropriate use of structure. The third type of code that makes up a Web page represents its structure. Many types of structure can end up yielding the same visual result. Looking at a building from the outside, you might not know if its studs were made of wood, steel, or Styrofoam. But that doesn't make all three building materials equally sound. The same is true of Web pages; the underlying structure can have a big impact on accessibility and maintainability. It's also particularly helpful for allowing search engines to assign context to words. For example, human beings rely on visual cues like text size and color to identify headings and other important words on a page. Search engines (not to mention visually impaired human beings) can't do this, so they rely on the document's structure to determine what's important.
Internationalization. When websites aim to attract a global audience, it's important to correctly encode and structure multilingual content. This improves performance with international search engines and also ensures that pages display consistently across a diverse range of platforms and browsers.

CWS believes in producing Web sites and applications that are focused on meeting business objectives and producing measurable results. Contact us for a risk-free assessment.

THIS IS A SOLICITATION

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:03:16 -0500

OK, it's not. I selected that title for this article because it is important to know these four words and look for them on all invoices you receive. Two years ago there was a Search Engine Optimization scam that people asked me about often. Today, I've had two customers send me emails asking if the "invoices" they have received are legitimate. Take this one for example:

Now one might say to themselves, "this looks an awful lot like a bill." However, if you read carefully you'll see the following mixed into the text:

THIS IS A SOLICITATION FOR THR ORDER OF GOODS OR SERVICES, OR BOTH, AND NOT A BILL INVOICE, OR STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT DUE. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO MAKE ANY PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF THIS OFFER UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER.

Well, that's nice of them to make their "flyer" look just like an invoice. The only reason they put that text in there is because it's what keeps them out of prison. I checked out their website, which had no phone number to contact them, and they are located in Nassau, Bahamas.

Apparently they don't have jails in the Bahamas... because that's where these guys deserve to be. Their legal disclaimer may make this type of activity legal, but it's far from morally correct.

Personal Touch From 1,000 Miles

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:00:55 -0500

As I mentioned back in February, my family is gearing up for the March for Babies walk on April 26th. We've been actively fundraising and spreading the word as best we can for a cause that is very close to our hearts.

This year, we decided to do something a little different and order t-shirts for everyone who joined "Team Carson". Since we were ordering a very small quantity and needed a quick turnaround, my wife decided to order them online from CustomInk.com. They had a cool web interface that allowed her to "build a design" online and send proofs back and forth with me. She ended up with a nice design (below) and placed the order.

This is where her "automated" online ordering experience turned personal. Within a few days, Kim received an email from Robin at CustomInk.

Hi Kim,

I noticed that you have designed shirts for an upcoming March for Babies charity event. We think it's terrific that you are participating in such a worthy cause! CustomInk would love to help you reach your fundraising goal by making a small donation to your team.

Could you please reply to this e-mail with the link to your individual sponsorship page, team page or an address to which we may send a check?

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Warm Regards,

Robin Matheson
CustomInk.com

In a matter of hours, we had received a donation from CustomInk via our online fundraising website. This small gesture was enough for me to become a raving fan of CustomInk.com for life. It's nice to know that other online companies have been able to connect with their customers in a personal way. Keep up the good work!

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

noreply@blogger.com (Lyle Mullican) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:37:03 -0500

One of the great things about the current generation of Web-based software is that much of it is available for free. Even fee-based services will frequently offer unpaid plans as a way of letting people try the software, and these free offerings can be quite useful on their own.

All of this is great news for nonprofits, who have limited financial resources and often rely on volunteers who don't share a physical office and can't take advantage of traditional business software. These organizations are uniquely suited to Web applications, which can be used from any computer with Internet access.

Google, with its drive for innovation (and deep pockets), is often a leader in providing terrific Web-based software for free. Recently they launched a portal site that specifically highlights resources for nonprofits.

Noteworthy offerings include:

Google Docs - Create text documents, spreadsheets and presentations in a Web browser, and easily share them with others for collaborative writing. Supports opening and saving Microsoft Office documents.
Google Calendar - Sophisticated calendar management that integrates well with other software
Google Checkout - Collect donations via credit/debit card for free. Google offers a special service for nonprofits that waives all processing fees.
Google Grants - You can apply for free advertising on Google's network

If you work for or with a nonprofit, any or all of these services could be a huge boost to your productivity. It's great to see corporations like Google supporting people's efforts to give back to the community.

SEO Yourself?

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:47:17 -0500

After the last post about SEO, we received an anonymous comment about the article which said:

Hello, I agree with you, Alan, that it is important to use SEO, but I do not think that it is neccessary to hire a SEO Firm.

This got me thinking about the perceived value of hiring a professional SEO firm. Is it really absolutely necessary to hire a firm like CWS for search engine optimization?

Amazingly, the answer is "No."

I must concede that one can perform SEO on their own website and not hire a professional firm. With enough research, analysis, and a little bit of luck any intelligent person could achieve measurable results without professional help.

However, I'll also argue that a professional can do it much better and faster than any novice who doesn't have the software or knowledge that comes by working with it every day. For example, a few years ago I decided to build my own deck. I studied websites on the subject, I reviewed the requirements of my local planning and zoning department, and I carefully built a deck with the help of a few friends. It took me nearly a month but turned out satisfactory.

A few weeks later my neighbor had his deck built by a professional deck builder. It took them only 3 days to finish a deck similar to mine, as they knew exactly what they were doing and were highly skilled.

To strengthen this point, I received an email from one of our hosting customers who had been doing his own web design and search engine optimization for the past few years. Frustrated, he turned to us for some help. I think his thoughts sum up the situation best:

"I just wanted to mention that working with Jon on SEO objectives and with Ryan on design for my website has been a real pleasure. I am very happy with the results so far both in terms of current rankings, which are greatly improved, and functionality of design.

For the past several years I and my wife have designed and optimized our site. This was the first year that I decided to hire professional assistance and I am very glad to have had your firm fulfill our current objectives. I came to you because of your consistent hosting of an older site, ascencionrecordings.com, which has been with you for several years."

Gordon Kreplin
Ascencion Recordings/Photography

This is an excellent example that not everyone has the patience, time and tools to perform SEO themselves. Just as some will never try to build their own deck, finish their own basement, or fix their own car. Some things are best left to a professional -- the choice is yours.

Importance of Search Engine Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:54:28 -0500

For anything and everything, the Internet users today go to search engines, and type in what they want to find out. They get the result pages (SERPs), and click and visit some of the first results. This is what is happening everywhere; millions and millions of users access Google every day for information.

When a website offering a particular service gets a hit (traffic), it has a chance to make a sale. So, all of the companies out there try extra hard to make their websites hit the top of the search engine result pages. The simple set of procedures for this purpose is known as Search Engine Optimization, the art of getting a website to rank high on search engine search result pages.

Search Engine Optimization is done through various steps, and if not done properly, it can backfire.

Basic Steps of Search Engine Optimization

For a site to be well optimized for search engine traffic, its content should be understandable to the search bots (the program used by search engines to index a particular site; also called web crawlers, search spiders, etc.) The content in the site has to be generally useful to the reader as well as understandable to search engines; keywords and descriptions in metadata help you achieve this. An important step of Search Engine Optimization is creating Meta tags for each page, with keywords and descriptions. Also the title tag should have your most important keyword.

Search Engine Optimization requires keyword-rich content. People search for keywords on the search engines. And the search engine bots look for these keywords on the indexed pages. So, keyword-dense content easily scales up the search results. However, overuse of the keyword will blacklist the site as spam. Search Engine Optimization, hence, requires an expert to prepare good quality search engine-optimized content. Also, highlighting the main keywords with such formatting as bold, italics, underline, etc., is very advantageous.

A minimum keyword density of about 2-4% is effective. And the content is best optimized targeting only one keyword or two at the most.

Another important aspect of Search Engine Optimization is the number of incoming links to the page. The incoming links convince the search engines that the page is important enough to be displayed as a result. The incoming links, however, have to be from reliable sources (there are unreliable sources like link farms, which are websites solely made for linking to other sites). So, it is very important for Search Engine Optimization to create some links to whichever page you try to optimize.

These methods just introduce you to what you should do to achieve good Search Engine Optimization for your sites. There are, however, so many other important aspects in Search Engine Optimization. Google itself is known to count hundreds of different metrics to calculate the PageRank of a site (Google's measure of the importance of a site).

Conclusion

The potential business a firm can acquire on reaching the top of search engine results is amazing. Search Engine Optimization, as I said earlier, is an art by itself. It should be done methodically and painstakingly. If done properly, you will enjoy great profits from it; on the other hand, malpractices can get you undermined very easily. Hence, it is important for you to hire a reputed, reliable professional for the purpose.

CWS Acquired by Google

noreply@blogger.com (Alan De Keyrel) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:31:49 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Today we're excited to announce that CWS was aquired by Google for $80.5 million. "It's an exciting day for us", said Alan De Keyrel, who was playing Guitar Hero when we called. "We were holding out for $100 million", said De Keyrel, "but then we decided that another 20 million wouldn't affect our ability to play video games all day."

Continuing its trend of gobbling up promising Web 2.0 startups, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) acquired CWS, the developers of GroupLoop.com. GroupLoop allows users to store and work with text documents on the Web and had been hailed a threat to Google Groups. Users can share selected documents, manage a group calendar, and post messages.

Google declined to discuss its plans for GroupLoop. "We acquired GroupLoop for the innovative technology and talented design team", Google spokesman Larry Fudder said in an e-mailed statement.

Google has become an aggressive acquirer of innovative software startups in recent years. Last year, it snapped up Measure Map, a blog traffic tracker. Other recent Google purchases include radio advertising platform dMarc and video sharing social platform YouTube.

"Nothing will change here at CWS", said Lyle Mullican, "except it might take a little longer for us to answer the phone". When questioned as to why this would be, Lyle said, "It takes time to pause the game console".

Ask CWS: How do Online Credit Card Payments Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Lyle Mullican) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:42:16 -0500

As more and more business is being done online, we've seen an increase in the demand for applications that include real-time processing of credit cards. To make smart decisions when you're setting up a payment solution, it's helpful to have an understanding of how these transactions are handled. Although the whole process happens very quickly (usually just a couple of seconds), there are several different components involved that all have to work together.

Step 1: A customer submits payment information to your website. This connection must be encrypted with SSL, a sophisticated technology that prevents anyone from intercepting the contents of the request while it's being transmitted from the user's local computer to your server. As a website owner, you'll need to purchase (and renew annually) an SSL certificate for these connections.

Step 2: Your Web server takes the payment information and opens a second SSL-encrypted connection in the background to a payment gateway. A gateway is a secure server that acts as a bridge between Web applications and the payment processing network. There are many different gateway providers, though your bank may have a partnership with a particular vendor. Some popular gateways include Authorize.net, LinkPoint and Payflow Pro. Although they all perform the same essential funcion, each has its own set of features (and fees), and many factors may influence your decision. For example, if you're using an off-the-shelf shopping cart, it likely supports a particular set of gateways. Some gateways handle particular types of transactions that others do not.

Step 3: The payment gateway contacts the processing network to determine if funds are available for the transaction. The cardholder's issuing bank relays a response back to the gateway.

Step 4: What happens next depends on the type of transaction. An authorization simply gets approval for the purchase, with the actual charge to happen at a later time. For example, when shipping hard goods, the sale is not complete until the order has been fulfilled. A final sale, on the other hand, immediately charges the customer. Examples would be payment for a service or electronic download, where fulfillment occurs immediately. The payment gateway has details for the merchant account provided by your bank and will route the payment accordingly.

Step 5: The results of the transaction will be passed from the payment gateway back to your Web server. For approved payments, this typically includes a unique ID that can be used to reference the transaction later. If the transaction failed, a status code or other message will be given to help determine the cause (insufficient credit, incorrect expiration date, etc.). The Web server will then display an appropriate success or failure screen to the user.

The entire process happens very quickly under normal circumstances, and the customer never sees what's happening in steps 2-4. However, all this background infrastructure is critical and the pieces must work together. As a website owner, you must have the following to accept payments online:

An SSL certificate (see step 1 above)
A merchant account that supports Internet transactions. If you don't have one already, apply with your bank. One notable exception is a service offered by PayPal called Website Payments Pro, which bundles merchant and gateway services together and does not require a separate merchant account.
A payment gateway that supports your merchant account

Each of these services will have its own set of fees, so shop around and find the best set of features and value for your needs.

A helpful summary of the entire process can be found here. CWS specializes in developing Web applications that make businesses work better. If we can help you implement an online payment solution, contact us at support (at) cws (dot) net.