Web4u - Peachtree City Web Design

Google releases search engine ranking tips

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Google released a fairly lengthy PDF covering many areas of Search Engine Optimization. This is a very exciting release by Google because it pulls back the curtain a bit on how Google works. Now that this document has been released, it would be silly to do anything different than this document suggests. Google is literally telling us how to optimize our websites for it's search engine.

If you want to see the document, you can download it from the Web4u web site. Google SEO TIPS

Enjoy the reading.

If you need any help implementing the content. You know where to turn.

Michael Tigue
Web4u Web Design
www.web4uonline.com
404-425-9648

Have you taken the SEO quiz?

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:31:00 +0000

How well do you know Search Engine Marketing? Take the quiz.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Michael Tigue
Web4u Web Design
www.web4uonline.com
404-425-9648

Search Engine Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:17:00 +0000

Search Engine Optimization is a buzz phrase these days and everyone one wants to do it. But, what is it and how does it work.

To Optimize your website means to create and edit it in a such a way that is most viewable by search engines and most likely to be returned in search engine requests. Think of it this way. When someone asks Google a question they are basically asking the all knowing Google for a referral. Google wants to be well known for great referrals, so it puts a lot into its recommendations (highest ranking search results). To Optimize your website is to shine it up and make it look pretty for Google in hopes that Google will recommend your website to more and more searchers.

Of course, like any good referrer, Google wants to make sure that you site is also popular and enjoyed by other people. How can Google find this out? - By studying how many other websites link to your website and by examining how many people a day visit your website and from where they came.

Lastly, you can create popularity for your website by directing people to your website yourself.

With that last point, we then have 3 major means of Optimizing your website.

Coding Optimization - editing the html code of the website in every possible way to highligh the targeted keywords and descriptions
Organic Optimization - building a reputation for your website by any means possible, especially by blogging, answering questions in forums, publishing articles, and using social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, and linkedin.
Pay Per Click Optimization - paying for a link to your website to appear in the sponsored results of Google and Yahoo searches. This is a great tool because you only pay when people actually visit your website. And, of course, each visitor helpl boost your organic search ranking.

Web4u Web Design in Atlanta, Georgia offers all three types of Search Engine Optimization.

You can view our Search Engine Optimization offerings at http://www.web4uonline.com/pricing.html#search

Thanks,

Michael Tigue
Web4u Web Design
http://www.web4uonline.com

Search Engine Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:20:00 +0000

Search Engine Optimization is all the rage right now. But, what is it?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of coding your website in a such way that it is most easily found by search engines. However, many people include website promotion into the definition of SEO.

Web4u Web Design of Peachtree City Georgia divides SEO into three major categories.

1. Coding Optimization - editing the actual code of the website to appeal to the appropriate search keywords. Some examples of coding related categories include page titles, description tags, alternate image tags, page organization, site maps, heading text, paragraph text, reliable content, and search engine registrations.
Organic Optimization - promoting the site via blogs, news articles, personal contacts, forum discussions, and other natural means of web site promotion. The natural incoming traffic to the website impresses search engines and improves search ranking.
Pay Per Click Promotion - You can pay for a link to your website to appear in search results in the sponsored results section. This is not a bad idea, as you only pay when people actually click on your link. You can set your monthly budget for this kind of promotion.

A combination of all 3 Search Engine promotion and optimization categories will yield the best results. Web4u Web Design of Peachtree City, Georgia offers services in all three areas.

Don't buy Quickbooks, get it free...really.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:33:00 +0000

Quickbooks is a very popular small business accounting program. It's cheapest version retails at $99.00 and there are versions well over a $1,000. But, hidden in the recesses of the Quickbooks website, is a free version. It's actually not that hidden, but they don't advertise it on the front page.

The free version is not a trial and it only differs from the $99 version in one way: it does not come with physical checks to put in your printer or the training CD. Other than that, the free version is the simple start version.

A few tips on the free version:
They are going to try and get you to upgrade quite often and they are going to send e-mails to you frequently. However, the e-mails are automatically generated and thus they have an easy to use "opt out" feature. You can find the opt out feature at the bottom of the e-mails. After opting out to a couple e-mails, I made the e-mails stop completely.

Using the Software
Webu offers over the phone or on location quickbooks instruction. An hour or two of training can get a new business owner off the ground and running! Now that you can access the free version, you can use that savings to hire professional training.

Link to the Free Version:
Here is the link to the free version: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/free-accounting-software.jsp

I found the link by using the search box on the quickbooks.com website. I searched for "simple start free edition". Several results were provided, and I clicked on the one that mentioned the free edition. The free edition page shows the comparison between the free edition, the $99 edition, and the next one up. As you will see, the free and $99 are almost exactly the same.

On the free version page, you can find the download link on the top right, where you would normally find the "buy now" link.

Good Start
The free version, called "Quickbooks Simple Start Free Edition", is an amazing product for a small business owner who needs to be tracking finances and preparing for taxes. If you end up needing additional services, you can always upgrade. However, most businesses, especially service businesses do not need any other version.

Web4u Web Design
Atlanta Web Design
Peachtree City Web Design
Affordable Web Design

Multiple Accounts in Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:11:00 +0000

Many Web4u customers own or operate more than one business or organization. Having more than one organization often means more than one website, business card, and yes, e-mail address. It's very professional to have your e-mail address end with @yourcompany.com as opposed to @gmail.com. But, having multiple e-mail addresses can be difficult to manage, so many people result to just using one address. However, this compromises the professionalism of your e-mails matching your business name.

The hard and old solution is to open up different e-mail accounts when you want to send an e-mail from a specific address. A better solutions is a program like Microsoft Outlook, but this is not perfect becuase Outlook runs on your computer, which you may not always have with you, especially if you run more than one business.

So, what is the contemporary, fast, and mobile solution? The answer is multiple accounts inside Gmail. If you already have a gmail account, click on settings on the top right of the screen. Then select "accounts", followed by "add e-mail address". After filling out the details of your second e-mail address, gmail will send a verification code to that "new" or "other" e-mail address. Check that other address and obtain the verification code. Enter the code into the first gmail verification code box. Once you do this, gmail believes that you do in fact have control of the new e-mail address and will not allow you to "send" e-mail from that address. To do this, select the drop down arrow or the word "change" next to the "from" field when you are writing an e-mail. This way, you can send e-mails from any of your gmail accounts. There appears to be no reasonable limit to how many addresses you can be running through gmail.

How do you check your other accounts? Make sure your other accounts are now forwarded to your main gmail account. By doing this, you will now only need to login into gmail to send and receive e-mail from any of your multiple accounts. You will have 6GB of storage, so just "archive" don't delete. You also have access to all this anywhere in the world that you can access www.gmail.com. It's quite a powerful tool. Just remember to change your "from" address when it applies.

Web4u Web Desgin - Atlatna Web Design

Free HTML Templates

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:04:00 +0000

Not everyone knows that Web4u has a database of free templates. Most customers know about the massive template database accessible from the Web4u website, but not everyone (until now) knows about www.web4uonline.com/freetemplates.html.

What does it mean that the templates are free? It means no template fee is worked into your final bill. These templates might also serve as a great starting point for a do-it-yourself website builder. Web4u encourages do-it-yourself web building and offers consulting and teaching services to help. If you want to sign up for an hour or more of web design consulting, you can have access to a couple of the free templates.

Web4u Web Design, an Atlanta Web Design Company

Don't pay for GotoMyPC.com

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Tigue) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:48:00 +0000

I just came across an amazing free product today. It functions just like GotoMyPC.com and Microsoft Remote Desktop. However, with these two products, you have to pay for their service. The Microsoft Remote Desktop is only part of some Vista and XP OS's.

The free product, however, is called LogMeIn (www.logmein.com). They offer a free version which allows you to access and control any of your computers from anywhere in the world, assuming both PC's have internet access. I did a quick test by trying to access an old laptop on the kitchen counter from another part of the house. Even though both PC's were in the same house, the internet connection through LogMeIn had no idea. The connection was made beautifully and there before my eyes, was the screen of the kitchen laptop. I had access to everything on that computer as if I were sitting in front of it.

Another cool part, was that this virtua terminal was being run inside a Mozilla Firefox Tab. I had to download and install a Firefox Plugin, but the prompts to do so came automatically.

The only downside I can see is that you cannot move files directly between the host PC and the client PC. However, you could get around this by sending yourself an e-mail from the host PC or by uploading a file to server to which you have access from the client PC as well. You also cannot print from the host PC to a printer on the client PC. These features can be added for a monthly fee. Because of the e-mail workaround, I don't personally have a need for the additional features, so I'll be happy with the free version. Sorry to GotoMyPC.com and Microsoft, but I'm going with LogMeIn.com.

There is the scary issue of the fact that it seems someone at LogMeIn.com would have access to my host computer. It's possible all of the connections are made automatically and that the login information is kept confidential. Nevertheless, I make it a point to keep my PC's free of any sensative material as it is.

So, go to LogMeIn.com and stop lugging that laptop around.

Web4u Web Design, an Atlanta Web Design Company