Do It Yourself Websites: Buyer Beware
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10 Proven Reasons Your Company Should Invest In SEO
Search engine optimization plays a key role in helping businesses grow. It improves traffic on their website and helps them reach a large audience. SEO marketing basically works on improving a website’s visibility in search engines, but in reality, it offers a lot more than this.
If your company hasn’t worked on SEO yet, you are missing out big! In the below article, we have listed 10 reasons why you absolutely need to have your website search engine optimized. Dive in to know all of them!
Organic Traffic
For small businesses, appearing in searches proves to be a difficult job. Paid search positions may work wonders for them, but to have long-term growth they need to have organic searches. Organic traffic starts with Google, where 75% of the search market resides. A vast majority of the world hits up Google almost every day to buy services. This means your business has a great chance to be found online by customers.
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Companies that find Google’s algorithms difficult to understand often try to have a better position in other search engines. The truth, however, is that if your website is sufficiently optimized for Google, it will automatically show up in search engines like Bing, Baidu, or even YouTube. This happens because Google has an organic search market where SEO optimized sites take root there. They naturally get more traffic, views, and clicks which help them grow to large levels.
Better ROI
ROI or return on investment is undeniable with SEO optimized website. It is not just a marketing cost but a real investment.
The real job of businesses is to gain organic traffic and it may take them months to obtain it. And this is exactly why we call SEO a long term strategy. A well SEO optimized website gives positive results and high-quality traffic for a long time, given that you keep on investing in your site.
For ROI to work properly, companies hire search engine experts. Their job is to build up every aspect of a business including the website and social media accounts. They ensure a well carried out optimization strategy which gives more traffic and conversions. Better the SEO, better the leads.
Trust And Reliability Along The Way
A strong website starts with the trust and security it offers to customers. If your website appears on top of the searches, you naturally gain your customer’s trust and reliability. The problem is that earning this trust takes a long time as the process of SEO asks for commitment and patience. All the same, if your brand has something great to offer, then you are automatically going to gain a lot of credibility from users. A positive user behavior or feedback on your site increases awareness of your business and gives you a larger audience.
User Experience
With trust and credibility comes a great user experience. Companies in the digital world truly know how much user experience matter in marketing. Your only job is to have a quality SEO website on search engines like Google. By doing this, the user experience at your site will increase and will bring with itself more positive rankings, conversion rates, and brand awareness.
Brand Awareness
You need brand awareness for your business to grow. The more people see your business in their searches, the more your brand grows. In today’s market, there is a lot of competition between businesses, especially small ones.
Without your own identity, you can’t be popular among them. This is where SEO comes in. It helps you compete with other companies by making you more visible in search engines.
Cost Friendly
It might be costly for small businesses, but in reality, SEO is cheaper than other things in the long run. It is more like an investment that gives you a lot of benefits in the end. All the input you put results in more clicks and traffic on your website. Many companies don’t optimize their sites because of the costs but trust us, having your website search engine optimized is a must for your company. And the cost will be worth it!
Social Media and SEO
Social media and SEO are said to be bi-directional. The more popular you are on social media, the more popular your business is going to be and vice versa. In other words, a top-ranking page in Google Search is the likeliest to be shared on social media.
Your business website gets more clicks when you are popular on social media because of the increased brand awareness.
Local SEO
In recent years, as mobile traffic has grown, searches have taken a more local turn. This allows businesses, especially small ones to grow significantly as word gets around more in their own area. Local SEO helps a great deal in this regard. If your website is locally optimized, you are most likely going to get the majority of customers from your vicinity because people find it easier and quicker to connect.
Long Term Strategy
Well, there is no question about this one. SEO has been around for a long now and is continuing to grow. The more properly it is done, the longer it stays. SEO demands investment, hard work, and patience but whatever input you give, it comes back in the end and benefits your business.
Lastly, A Digital World
It is not anytime soon that we stop living in a digital world. The market is growing, and so is the competition. People stay online for searching and browsing nearly half their day.
A clear majority of the world uses search engines daily for so many purposes. According to a report, 3.5 billion searches take place every day. This means your business always has a great chance to be found by customers online.
Conclusion
As said, SEO has a lot to offer in the market. It greatly helps all types of businesses and companies grow to large levels. If you are still missing out on SEO, join the search engine now!
If Your Website Was to Go Down, How Would You Actually Know?
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The Perils of an Unsupervised Website
Recently we had a past client of ours who noticed that their phone calls had drastically declined. You see, for a very long period of time, they were dominating in their industry and sat very comfortably at the number one spot for a couple of years. So much so that they sort of took their foot off of the gas pedal and moved on to other areas of their business.
To their dismay, their website was not even showing up anymore on Google searches. They asked us to take a look and see what was happening.
After we did a bit of research, we discovered that their website kept crashing. It would go off-line for about 10 straight minutes, and this was happening all throughout the day. So depending on what part of the day you visit the website, it could be working one minute, or the site would be completely down.
We also discovered that this behavior was going on for over 3 months, and went unnoticed by the business owner.
Google Flagged the Website
With so much disruption, Google decided that the site was unstable, and flagged it. They removed them from their strong rankings and pushed them way down, passed page 10 overall. They didn’t give any notice, but in reality, there really was no way for them to do so, even if they wanted to.
When Was the Last Time You Visited Your Site Through the Eyes of a Prospect?
Too many of us small business owners have our websites built and then just move on with business. We spend a lot of money to make sure our websites look better than our competitors’ websites, we get real gung-ho for a few weeks while the website is being built, and then once the website is completed, it’s almost like we don’t ever bother visiting the website ever again.
Is this you? If it is, don’t feel bad. As an Atlanta website design firm, we see this happen with most of our clients. It’s only natural. Running a business has so many tentacles that you don’t really have the time. And why should you?
My Website is Already Built, Why Would I have to Spend More Time on it?
You Had to Find Out Something Was Wrong with Your Site Because a Client Noticed it First
Sound familiar? Feel Embarrassed that a client had to point to point out your mistakes for you?
Why Do Sites Go Down or Suddenly Stop Functioning Correctly?
What Is The Importance Of Web Design For SEO?
Your website is what runs your business. It connects you with the world where people turn to the internet for basically everything. When you set up your website, you actually decide how successful your business will be because a website is what boosts a brand.
Unfortunately, most businesses are unaware of the importance of web design and often end up not getting enough traffic, whether it’s online or on spot.
A good web design creates a positive user experience and better search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, we have highlighted the importance of having a good web design that positively affects your SEO. Designing a striking webpage with a reputable Atlanta website design company includes several aspects and is very important if you want to have far-reaching SEO.
First Impression Lasts Forever
You all know of this phrase pretty well but it is time you thought about it seriously as a business owner.
The impression your website is going to make on its visitors right after they click on your URL should be engaging enough for them to stay there and come back again, or else the user would end up pressing the back button and moving onto a competitor’s website.
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This impression is literally built in seconds, during which the visitors decide to leave or stay even before they have read the content. To create a lasting impression, your webpage needs to be designed in a way that is appealing to the visitors.
User Experience
User experience on your webpage matters a lot. In fact, it is the key to having a successful SEO. This experience is only positive if your webpage is designed user friendly. The latter includes everything from your layout to design, webpage speed, content, and communication.
Besides, your page should be reliable and secure so that users feel no hesitation in signing up for notifications or newsletter. The page should maintain user privacy and enable cookies for better performance.
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Remember that user experience and SEO practices go hand in hand. The more your website engages users, the more it is going to show up in search results. So spend your time and money in making your page user friendly.
Display
By display, we mean the visuals of your website that the user will see. It includes font, color scheme, images, and/or videos. If your color scheme is outdated or flashy it is not going to attract many people.
Instead, it should be on a professional approach so that your users enjoy scrolling through your website. The same goes for the font which should be easy to read.
Apart from this, the images and videos on your webpage speak a lot. They convey what you offer in your business to the users so make sure to choose images that gather interest and are content-related.
Quality visuals greatly increase user engagement on a webpage and improve its SEO. To create quality visuals, please keep in mind the points mentioned above.
Mobile Friendliness
Another important factor is that nowadays people hardly have the time or patience for irresponsive websites when they are browsing on mobiles. If the webpage they are going through does not adjust accordingly, they would just go back and search for another webpage, bringing your traffic scores down.
To avoid this from happening, make sure you design a page that fits properly on mobile screens and at the same time looks interesting.
Navigation
Navigation is also useful in having a successful webpage because the easier your website is in handling, the more clicks it will have.
Make sure you do not mislead the visitors with complex search engine crawlers, pop-ups, or numerous categories.
Your website should have clear navigation either by a menu or a side panel leading to all the components of your page. Also, try not to make the page crowded because that would make users frustrated and would eventually reduce traffic on your page.
Website Speed
In a good website design, the page’s speed is a very important factor. No user likes to waste time waiting for a page to load. Remember that if a page takes more than a few seconds to load, then the users will stay on it for long.
This will have a negative impact on your website’s optimization.
To avoid this, focus on making fast and responsive pages. Do not store images or content that takes a lot of space because that will make the page slow. Likewise, an irresponsive page is going to lose you customers. So use strategies to give a responsive gesture as it will make customers stay at your page and keep them coming back.
Website Content
Website design may sometimes mean design visuals, but the content is equally important in having more users on your webpage.
Make sure that your content is organic and related to your business. Even if it is brief, it should be interesting to engage users because the more the latter, the more the search engines will like your website.
On the other hand, having bland content on your website will push away users and reduce your optimization as well.
Communication
Communicating with users is extremely important if you want to have a promising audience. When a user has browsed through your webpage, make sure that there is some way they can connect to you.
It could be a chat box in the side panel, an email address to write at, or even a phone number to call. If your website offers none of this information, then you are risking losing a number of followers.
Since user activity and search engine optimization are so importantly linked, make sure that you are available to your site’s visitors most of the time.
Conclusion
Lastly, in a wrap, your web page design has a lot to contribute to the amount of online traffic you are getting. If your page is giving a satisfying user experience, then your audience will increase, and accordingly, you will have a positive search engine ranking.
Think smart and invest in web design because it’s worth it.
Quick Design Tips to Enhance User Experience of Your Attorney Website
As a business owner, you want to improve user experience on your website and here we are talking about improving your site for marketing as an attorney. The user experience on your website is not only going to show your name up more in the search results but will also generate leads.
Previously Google didn’t pay much attention to user experience, but now it assesses carefully what the users are doing after landing on your website. If a user had a successful experience, and this is determined by the time spent on the site, the number of pages visited and low bounce rates, Google gives a five-star rating to your site.
In this article, you will find some really helpful tips to improve user experience on your attorney website. These tips are told by a legal SEO and Atlanta Web Design Expert, Ish Laos.
Ish Laos’ Bio
Founder Ish Laos has been creating attorney law firm websites for over 10 years. Over the years, many of his attorney clients turned to him for SEO. Webstuffguy.com has the expertise and the know-how to get websites to rank no matter if you deal with personal injury, family law, immigration, criminal law and bankruptcy.
Now, let’s take go through the tips
Area-Specific Sidebars
On your website, the sidebars should be in context with the main content of the site. They can include contact forms or any other broad information about your firm. Whatever it is, make sure that it is specific with your content and does not choke the user. Rather it should be thoughtfully placed to avoid user lassitude. So, even when the user had dived deep into a topic, they will have no problem and disruption in altering back.
- Read more on: How much does a website cost?
Lastly, your sidebars can be in accordance with the size of your website. For example, if you have a sidebar linking to pedestrian accidents, it should have information on what to do after the accident, how to attend to the pedestrian, and after-accident protocol.
Approachable Contact Forms
When a user browses through your website, contact forms are going to connect you and him. To make yours effective, you need to know the following:
They should be easy to find
For the ease of users, make sure your contact forms are easily accessible. They should be available on every page of your site. You do not need to put them up in sidebars or popups, but it is more convenient if they are just in range whenever a user wants to reach out to you.
They should be short
No one likes the hassle of filling in lengthy details. If your form is long, people may not go through the trouble of filling it. So make them short and precise.
Authenticate the data
To do things the right way, have the validation programming on your website that runs authenticity check on things like correctly configured emails, contact numbers, and that the data is filled where needed. But on the same hand, you do not want to be hard on your users so make sure your programming is not complex or annoying.
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A Clear Order
The more organized your website is, the more it appeals to the users. Your content should be set in a way that the user finds easy to browse through. Your site should be based on a theme, with headings and subheadings branching off the main page so that it is easy to go through the required stuff.
For example, for a lawyer’s site referring to road accidents, it can have pages divided into headings talking about the kinds of road accidents, legal matters related to the accidents, and so on.
Guiding Clues
Without clues guiding you in the right direction, you would be lost when navigating through the internet. To make things easy for your clients, try to give them indications on your website by using menus, colors, and other tactics.
Here are some ways you can improve your website.
Menu items
For users to know which page of the site they are on, the menu items are really helpful. Your page with the menu items should be active and have a different colored theme than the rest of the site.
Breadcrumbs
To help your clients even more, use breadcrumbs. As directional links, they are a great way to show people which page they are on. Attorney websites should guide people in the right direction, and breadcrumbs help people see if they are in the correct place. If not, they can always go back to the main page following the same breadcrumbs.
Page descriptions
When browsing through an attorney website, users expect to have all the information on legal matters right where the heading shows it to be. So, make sure that you fill in correct descriptions on your site to save users the unnecessary bother of searching too much.
Contact information
As discussed earlier, every page of your site should have contact information so that if users feel like contacting the attorney at any point, they find it easy.
Page speed
No one likes to wait so if your site is taking too long to respond, users will move on to the next. This may also lower your organic ranking so it is better to check your page speed at Google’s Page Speed Insights and amend the problems if any in your page loading.
All set
Last of all, go through your site again and again to check if everything is in order. Ensure that your contact forms, menu items, image links, and everything else is functional. A properly working site is going to increase your ratings and a lot of users are going to come your way.
Final Words
In a wrap, these user experience tips are no doubt going to work wonders for attorneys and their law sites. The effective the site is, the more ratings there are, and more the ratings, the more the leads.
Choosing the Right Color Palette For Your Website
Remember learning about the color wheel and ROYGBIV in elementary school?
Turns out that understanding primary and secondary colors, and the emotions each color evokes, can help you select the right colors for your website and brand. This is key when communicating with your Atlanta website design company. Let’s head back to art class to learn about the psychology of color.
The Basics
Blue, yellow, and red are primary colors. Secondary colors, orange, purple, and green and created by combining primary colors. For example, green is created by combining yellow and blue. Adding more blue than yellow adjusts the shade and creates tertiary colors like teal.
Complementary colors are directly across from each on the color wheel. These opposites create the greatest contrast when used in conjunction to create brand logos, retail displays, or websites.
On the basic color wheel, a line is created to separate warm and cool colors. Green, blue and purple make up the cool side whole red, orange, and yellow represent the warm side. The theory is that color affects depth perception in our eyes and warm colors advance ahead as opposed to cool colors that recede.
Psychology of Each Color
Each color conjures a different feeling and emotion. For this reason, it is important to consider the impact of color when designing your website or brand.
Warm Colors
In general, warm colors remind us of sun or fire. These colors are energizing, passionate, and reflect energy and enthusiasm.
Red: It should not be a surprise that red is associated with fire or danger. The color can also represent excitement, passion, and power. The truest of reds can be overwhelming when used as the foundational color for design. Red is best reserved for a dramatic accent color.
Orange: Similar to the changing of the leaves in fall, orange denotes movement and even creativity. The color orange reminds us of the fruit by the same name and therefore can be used to represent health and vitality. Orange is strong without being as overbearing as red.
Yellow: Channeling the warm of a sunny day, yellow represents happiness, light, and sunshine. Including yellow in your designs adds a bit of cheerfulness.
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Cool Colors
Cool colors remind us of refreshing water or serene relaxing feeling of grass between our toes. These colors tend to be more soothing and relaxed than warm colors. The inclusion of cool colors in your website can add a touch of professionalism.
Green: Combing the warm of yellow and coolness of blue, green provides stability and balance in design. This harmonizing color is often used for websites relating to nature or wealth.
Blue: Blue signifies calmness or responsibility, but the exact meaning can vary based on the shade. Dark navy blue is popular with corporate designs to represent strength. By contrast, light blues evoke calm and relaxation.
Purple: For centuries, deep purple has represented luxury and wealth. Inclusion of light purples, such as lilac, in your design adds a bit of romance.
Neutrals
Utilize neutrals in your website design to set the backdrop. From formal powerful black, to clean white, to wholesome brown, neutrals help to balance out your focal colors.
Selecting a Color Palette
Be deliberate when selecting colors for your website or logo. What impression do you want to send to your target audience? Use the psychology of color to select your primary website colors.
If you need help selecting coordinating colors and shades, use the Coolors color scheme generator.
Combine the science of the mind with the art of color to design your perfect website.
The Covid-19 CARES Act Gives Cash to Small Businesses
As an Atlanta website design company who works hand in hand with many small business owners, we see first-hand the strain this virus pandemic has put on all of us. Small business owners right now have no choice but to lay-off employees and even close down businesses for an unforeseen amount of time. One client in particular, a bankruptcy attorney in Atlanta, has seen an influx of new cases and thinks it’s only going to worsen.
According to Chase, the average business holds cash reserves to cover only 27 days of expenses. If this is you, you already know that the clock is ticking and soon you will run out of money to pay your bills and mortgage.
The CARES Act May Be Able to Help You
The CARES act (an acronym for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act) is a stimulus package that can help small business owners going through financial hardships. The key here is to figure out which one you qualify best for:
Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs)
EIDLs were created in the event of a natural disaster. The Coronavirus was recently declared a new type of disaster. Now businesses nationwide are eligible to apply for ‘Economic Injury Disaster Loans.’
The SBA (Small Business Association) Offers Some Very Reasonable Terms in Their EIDLs:
Here are some quick notes on it:
- Loans for up to $2 million with a 30 year term
- Interest rates at 3.75% for small business and 2.75% for non-profits
- Your first month’s payment is deferred a full year from the date of the promissory note.
The EIDLs Expanded Provisions Include:
- EIDLs can be approved by the SBA based solely on the appicant’s credit score and not repayment ability.
- No tax return required
- Bankruptcies do not disqualify you
- Loans smaller than $200,000 can be approved without a personal guarantee and real estate is not required as a collateral.
- Borrowers can receive up to $10,000 (even if you don’t qualify for additional funds since it’s based on the applicant’s credit score) in an emergency grant cash advance that could be forgiven if it’s spent on:
- paid leave
- maintaining payroll
- increased costs due to supply chain disruption
- mortgage or lease payments or
- repaying obligations that cannot be met due to revenue loss
- Sole proprietors and Independent contractors are eligible to apply
- You can apply even if you already have an open credit line.
- There are no loan fees, guarantee fees or pre-payment fees.
How to Apply for the Small Business Loan
To apply directly via the SBA go to www.SBA.gov/disaster. When applying, be sure to apply for Economic Injury for the Coronavirus rather than physical damage due to a disaster. You have to have been in business since January 21, 2020 to qualify. For more information, visit www.sba.gov/coronavirus.
As of now, there is no guaranteed timeline as to how fast you’ll receive the money, so the best advice is to apply now.
Don’t Fall for These Online Fraud Domain Registration Companies
Time and time again, I will have a concerned client forward me an email, and it always seems to be the same culprits. If you have several domains in your domain/hosting account, you have probably seen these yourself. I hope this article gets shared enough so that small business owners understand what this is and how to avoid them. We are going to walk you through it all. After each confusing message, we will translate it in highlighted text. Please share this article with your colleagues and friends who own domains.
What the Threatening Domain Registration Warning Says:
- From: DomainWeb Station <wordpress@yourwebsite.com> Here is the name of the online scam company to watch out for- ‘DomainWeb Station.’
- Date: March 27, 2020 at 10:59:59 PM EDT
- To: yourname@yourwebsite.com
- Subject: YOUR COMPANY NAME “yourwebsite.com Termination Notice” Here is the subject line that gets your attention. They somehow have all your data.
- Reply-To: noreply@domainwebstation.com Don’t bother trying to reply back to them.
- From: DomainWeb Station <noreply@domainwebstation.com>
- Phone: 1 They conveniently left out their phone number.
- Subject: yourwebsite.com Termination Notice
Message Body:
This message is to inform you that your invoice no. 815082095 to be due on 2020-03-28 is SUSPENDED. In this first paragraph they are doing several things. First they invent an invoice number as if you already have an outstanding balance that is due, and about to be suspended somehow. They want you tho think that your domain (Since they mention it so many times, will expire and be available to the public. There is no such invoice so don’t worry.
Please ensure that you make payment AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to avoid any TERMINATION of service to yourwebsite.com. Termination of what services, exactly? They are trying to make you think it’s about your domain. They are also making it sound as if you have an account with them that will be TERMINATED. There is a 100% chance that you have never done business with these con artists.
Do take note that if no payment is made in the next 3 business days, your data will be purged and deleted.
More scare tactics from a scam company. Here is ‘legally’ what they are telling you. That if you don’t pay this scam company, they will delete your information from their systems. 1st off, they won’t delete you, they will keep scaring you year after year. However, this isn’t how they make it sound. The idea is to have you think that your domain company (who they are trying to falsely perpetrate) will have no choice but to let your domain go and erase any of your information- so basically, your domain is free to anyone who wants it….if you don’t send them that check. Dirty scumbags.
https://domainwebstation.com/?n=yourwebsite.com&r=a&t=1585364304&p=v1- Here, they conveniently give you a link, personalized with your domain, to make a payment.
2nd Half of the Email
Disclaimer notice: We can not be held legally liable for any claims, damage or loss that you may incur because of the cancellation of yourwebsite.com. So this is the shameless part. Here we go again with the term, ‘cancellation.’ Nothing is getting cancelled, but the fact that they have all your information, and are trying to perpetrate themselves as your domain company could make it seem really scary. Scary enough to fork over a payment to the scam artists.
Any such damages may include but are not exclusively limited to: monetary losses, deleted data without backups, loss of position in search rankings, missed appointments, undelivered email and any other service, business or technical damages that you may incur. Gotta give them credit for their creativity of things that will happen if you don’t pay the scam artists.
For more information please refer section 19.a.3.f of our Terms of Service. As if it really existed (wink wink).
This is the final renewal message that we are required to communicate in regards to the expiration professionalofficesuitesllc.com. They say it’s a renewal message, although you never had a contract with them to begin with, so using this term is probably unlawful.
SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT: https://domainwebstation.com/?n=yourwebsite.com&r=a&t=1585364304&p=v1 Their fraudulent website seems pretty straight-forward, but you’ll notice there isn’t a whole lot of information about them. They do have an address on there but who knows if that’s real.
All online services will be restored automatically on professionalofficesuitesllc.com upon confirmation of payment. We thank you for your cooperation and continued business. In other words, services that never existed to begin with will be restored.
—
This e-mail was sent from a contact form on Your Company Name (http://yourwebsite.com)
Here’s What’s Really Going On
Your domain is sitting in your actual account. That could be Godaddy, Bluehost, Host Gator, SiteGround, or any other legitimate domain company. If you’re not receiving an email from any of the above, then everything else is garbage and spam.
If you are not sure exactly where your domain account is, then you really should make a note of it, so you could avoid scams like this. In case you don’t remember, do a search in your inbox or ask your website design company, who helped you set everything up.
Once you do access your account, be sure to check your settings so that you will always receive important messages from them. Set your products to auto-renew every year. This way you never have to worry about your domain every expiring. Also be sure to check the expiration date of the credit card on file.
Make it a habit to sign into your domain account every once in a blue to make sure everything looks as it should.
How To Avoid Receiving Scam Emails About Your Domain Expiring
Solution 1: Pay for Domain privacy in order to hide your personal info:
If you are receiving these fraud emails, it probably means that you declined the offer. Should you decide not to purchase the privacy add-on, you are choosing to expose all your information to opportunists, such as annoying web design companies who want to build you a website, or a graphic designer who wants to create your logo.
They now know your name, your domain, your phone number and maybe even your address. You will also expose yourself to scam artists who try to make you think that your domain will expire.
The easy solution is to pay the $10-$15 a year to privatize your personal information and do away with all the marketers and online scam artists.
Solution 2: Add Google ReCAPTCHA to your contact forms
When these companies cannot find access to your email, they resort to filling out a contact form on your website. So even if you do pay for domain privacy, you are not in the clear. To prevent spam bots from blowing up your contact forms, use Google reCAPTCHA. You’ll need a Gmail account to set one up.
Solution 3: If you’re still unsure, it’s best to contact your website designer. Personally speaking, we have been connecting domains, transferring domains, renewing domains for our clients, adding dns text records and much more. Therefore, we also usually know who you are, and who you’re not hosting with.
How To Fight Back Against Online Scam Artists
Ready to fight back and put these dirt bags in their place? Report them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Here is a link to their page. Click here.
SEO Plan for 2021- Fall Back in Love With Your Old Passion
A long time ago, it was easy to manipulate a website so that it got to the top of Google searches. I hear it all the time, “Ish, our website used to be number 1 all over the state or even the country, and now we have plummeted.” Since then however, Google has changed it’s stance on what matters and what doesn’t. Websites that are using the same formula from years ago that have awarded them in the past, are now being left behind in the dust.
Google has now adopted a formula that makes total sense in my opinion, and essentially, it’s this: The more love you put towards your website, the more Google will take notice.
As someone who builds websites for a living and offers search engine optimization (SEO) services in Atlanta, I can attest that this is truly the case, because I have seen it for myself. I have clients who ask for a website and once it’s done, they never bother to update it. On the other hand, I have clients who are always sending me new material to add to their site. Which person are you?
Forget the days of:
- Hundreds of sub-sites
- Thousands of back-links
- keyword-stuffing your website
Instead, do something that’s much easier– fall back in love with your old passion. You know what i’m talking about- your job, your profession, the business you run. Remember the early days when you discovered you were really good at that one thing, and you decided to leave your 9-5 to pursue your own business? And now years later, you’re running your own business doing what you love, but perhaps it has become a bit mundane. If this is you- then you’re not the only one who has taken notice- so has Google.
Google Search Algorithms Now Favor Passionate Business Owners
Google has learned to think the same way a person would think when they visit your website. The ultimate goal now has become- the longer we could keep a visitor on your website, the more Google will take notice.
When a visitor stays on your website and keeps browsing, this is an indication that:
- The visitor came in and found what they were looking for
- The visitor has found your website to be an invaluable source of all things (insert your industry here)
- Your website is easy to navigate, and easy to find all things from a glance (good navigation structure)
- You continue to provide good stories (blog articles) that answer the questions they were looking for
- Most importantly- You sound like an authority in your industry
Your SEO Plan, in a Nutshell
The more content you cook up, the more you enhance your website and your visibility. Me personally, I am ALWAYS ALWAYS thinking of topics to add to my website. I keep my phone as a handy device for when an idea quickly surfaces. I grab my phone and make a note of it before the idea leaves my head. By the end of every month, I have 2-3 new topics to discuss that I think people will find useful.
Most of my ideas spring into mind when I’m in the middle of performing my job.
Think about a typical work day for you. How many clients do you talk to? How many prospects call you asking questions. After a while, do you find yourself answering the same questions over and over again? Bingo- you’ve got a good topic.
How about a funny experience that occurred while on the job? Would that make a good article topic? Of course it would, do you know why? Because that’s a better topic than no topic at all. It also demonstrates to your visitors that you’re human, and not this big corporation.
Final Thoughts
Keep adding to your website. Think of new sections to add. Compose an FAQ page. Talk about an experience you had. Talk about common misconceptions. Sound like a human being, because this is what draws people to you. Always be alert for new topics you could add to your website. The more you do all of the above, the longer people will stay on your website, and perhaps they will keep returning for more. In the end, Google will take notice of the engagement your website produces, and in 2021, that’s what it’ll be all about.
Can Keyword-Friendly Domains That Are Forwarded to my Website Increase My Rankings?
I see a lot of business owners making the same mistake. They purchase dozens of domains and then they forward all of them to their main website. As an Atlanta SEO company, this is the equivalent of scratching a chalkboard with your fingernails.
When you ask them why they are doing that and what they are trying to achieve, they usually respond by saying something like, “It’s probably good for SEO…..Isn’t it?”
Why Do Small Business Owners Purchase Dozens and Dozens of Domains?
Wrong answer: If you’re doing it because you have very keyword-friendly domains (such as ‘atlantawebsitedesign.com) and you think, by having them forward to your main website, it’s going to help your SEO, then I feel bad that you’ve spent so much money and time. You should have spoken with your Atlanta website design company first! More on this below.
Correct answer #1: “I purchase dozens of domains because they are just variations of my website’s main domain and I don’t want anyone else to have them.”
Correct answer #2: “I buy a lot of domains and I create landing pages or websites with original content for each of them.
Correct answer #3: “I buy and sell domains for a living. This is my business.”
Is Forwarding Domains Good For SEO if They Are Keyword-Friendly?
The bottom line is no. So long as the domain is doing nothing but just forwarding, it’s considered completely obsolete to search engines. Forwarding your domain to a website does not give instant power to that domain. It’s nothing more than a “parked” domain that is being told to direct people to a different destination. So why would Google want to make these domains with “no home” relevant?
If someone does a Google search that matches word for word with the domain that you are forwarding, Google is not going to list your domain in a search result and then take the visitor somewhere else. How would that make Google look?
Also, think about it. If this did work, then everybody would be doing it. Google is too smart for that.
Forwarding Dozens of Domains to Your Website Will Actually Hurt Your Rankings
If you are forwarding a bunch of domains to your main website, let’s just say that you are muddying the waters and making it difficult for Google to understand who your true identity really is. You are essentially masking your website with the 20 domains that are forwarding to it. Let’s not confuse Google, okay?
When is it a Good Idea to Forward a Domain?
The only time forwarding a domain to another website is a good idea is if you had an old website, and for one reason or another, it was time to shut it down. You can then funnel anyone who was aware of that website to your new website. Or, if Google had that website indexed, you can send that traffic to the new site or new business.
So What Should I Do With All of My Extra Domains Then?
Well if you don’t want anyone else to have them, I suppose you could just hold on to them. You could try to sell them perhaps, but that’s a hairy business. Your only other option is to create websites for them, or maybe landing pages. Will they rank on Google searches? Only if you give them the same time, dedication, and love as your main website- or else, it won’t stand a chance against all of your competitors. Also, don’t forget to give it 100% original content. Perhaps you are starting to see all the work that you would inherit by doing it this way. That’s why Google will tell you that the best thing to do is to give your main website 100% of your focus.
WebStuffGuy Offers Competitive SEO Strategies
When customers search for a nearby vendor, they tend to be serious about making a purchase–according to Google, half of all local searches on mobile lead users to visit a store within a day. With that rate of potential sales generation, there’s a powerful incentive to push your web page to the top of search results for customers near you.
At WebStuffGuy, we can place your page to the top of local search results. We’re pleased that Clutch, a verified B2B ratings and reviews platform, has recognized us as one of the top five highest performing firms for SEO in Atlanta.
We have a keen understanding of the unique challenges small businesses face–after all, we’re a shop of three team members who share deep expertise in SEO and web design. You can count on us, as we offer our services exclusively to fellow small businesses. We’ve worked mainly with clients in the legal industry.
We recently received a five-star rating for our work. We engaged with a law firm to increase the exposure of their website. Our projects included building landing pages for improved SEO, managing pay-per-click campaigns, and maintaining their website.
Our changes contributed to a significant increase in their web traffic. Based on the success of our engagement, the law firm came to feel that they could depend on our work.
“We certainly wouldn’t still be using webstuffguy.com after 7 years if they weren’t producing. Over 30% of our business comes from online traffic and they are a big reason for that.”
–Founder, Law Firm
We’ve also received testimonials from other happy customers. For example, we ran a digital marketing campaign for another law firm and optimized their website.
“We hired Ish of webstuffguy.com. He is there with us when we have questions, he is dedicated to our firm in getting the most out of our website. Our business on the web had increased threefold since we hired him. I highly recommend his services!”
–Richard B, Blevings & Hong Law Firm
Interested potential customers can review some of our work on The Manifest, a company blog site. The Manifest wants you to know that they consider us one of the top 20 SEO companies in Atlanta! Our projects can also be seen in a visual format on Visual Objects.
Want to push your site to the top of local search results? Contact us today!