We are now designing Custom Wordpress Themes starting at $596.

See our latest creation at MaggieMcCormick.com

There are a few key things to remember when trying to create links to you web site

• Are they related to your business? You need to have some kind of content in your web site that relates to the site you are linking to otherwise the search engines will not consider this a subject relevant link.
• How popular or how much traffic does the site you are linking to generate.  By linking to sites that already have a high Google ranking pull your ranking higher.  Some examples would be your local Chamber of Commerce.  As a member, your company name is on their site and creates a relevant link
• It’s also important that they too are linking back to you.
• Have your site listed in as many directory’s as possible.  Yellow Pages would be one example.  There are many directory that are out there for about every business you could image.  Some require a fee, but many are free.  Yahoo Local or Google Local are a must. Take the time to sign up for these and update them regularly.

Yesterday, Wordpress released version 2.8.4 in response to a new worm that attacks self-hosted Wordpress Blogs. Check out this article by Mashable for more information. http://mashable.com/2009/09/05/wordpress-please-upgrade/

Read up on the top 5 Social Networking sites and Microblogging in this article by SitePro News. http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/sep/2.html .

After talking to many business people here in Homer, I keep hearing the same story. Business is down. the B & B’s, the Charters, Restaurants, even the King Salmon Fisherman had a bad season. All are facing a difficult winter. Those who survive will have to think outside of the box to survive. For a chance to survive businesses must be willing to think outside the box and willing to make changes.

There are several resources here in Alaska that can help you do this. One is the SBDC (Small Business Development Center), they have many ideas that can help you find new sources of advertising and revenue. They also have workshops to help small business succeed. Visit http://aksbdc.org/  and see what they have to offer your business

We are looking forward to hosting a couple of workshops here in the fall focused on Starting a Web Site and Marketing on the Internet so watch the AKSBDC or use our RSS feed to find out more information. These workshop may make the difference  in whether your web site will make or break you next year.

You can visit our web site at http://gtlenterprises.com .

The Internet is changing,  All of the search engines are putting less emphasis on static web sites that don’t have changing content to those that are dynamic and change regularly.  Good news is you can do it for much less that before, however it does require much more of your time.

For blogging to be extremely effective but it needs to be done regularly. The best results come when you do it daily.  It takes a lot of effort on your part but I know from experience it does work.

Here are a few of the thing I have done to promote my business on the web that can work for you as well.

Try joining BuyAlaska, it’s free, put it on your list of friends on your blog and update BuyAlaska daily, it only takes a few seconds. When you have your business and it’s URL listed on web sites that have high “Google” ranking, it lifts the ranking of your site. The same goes for joining your local Chamber of Commerce and having a hot link to your site. I have not got any business directly for either source, but they have been instrumental in how my web site ranks on the search engines.

 Join social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin.  There is an addon you can add to your Wordpress Blog that allows you link your blog to any social networking site you wish.  Again, this kind of linking helps your site rank higher on the search engines. Make sure your blog is attached to your websites URL not that of the blog site.

 Web 2.o is the future of the Internet.  It’s all about social networking, blogging.  When the Interstates Highways started traversing our nation many businesses went under. The main road that carried vital traffic by their bussiness was now several miles away. Your static web site, without the adding of some kind of dynamic support, will be like having your business located on that old untraveled highway.

Yahoo and Bing (msn’s search engine) both recently updated their search engines. Now Google last week tested it’s upgraded search engine “Google Caffeine”.

The one thing all of these search engines have done has added emphasis to Web 2.o.  Blogs and Social Networking sites are getting greater recognition.

Bad new is your static site may not rate as well with the search engines as it used to.  But the good news is, with the use of Blogging and Social Networking you can increase the visibility of your site without paying for constant updates of your web site.

Have a Blog attached to your web site.  Your URL should be http://mywebsiteurl/myblog/,  not that of the blog site. Then sign up to Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, mySpace and whatever Social Networking sites fit your business,  link your blog to each of your Social Networking sites.  Wordpress has a great plug-in that helps you do this.

For more information, you can visit our web site at http://gtlenterprises.com.

I recently talked to someone who was very frustrated while trying to tranfer their domain name from GoDaddy. 

So, in an effort to help, I spent several hours looking over GoDaddy’s site (which is a very busy place with lots of links) with much frustration.

In order to tranfer you domain name you must first get an EPP Code (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) from your present registrar.  This prevent fraudulent domain transfers and domain hijacking. 

I decided to Google “epp godaddy” and found this great tutorial showing you how to get your EPP Code from GoDaddy. If you want to transfer you name from GoDaddy check it: http://www.meetarpit.com/how-to-get-epp-code-from-domain-registrar/

What do these three things have in common?  They are all three Key Elements to your SEO package.  If you don’t have an SEO package and don’t have the money to pay someone else to do SEO for you, at least make sure these three basic elements are covered!

Keywords.  Google and other Search Engines use Key Words to rank your Web Site.  If you don’t know what your Key Words are, go to your Web Site and right click anywhere on your Web Page.  Click on “View Source” and look at all that gobbilty goop!  Up towards the top you should see a ”Meta Tag” called “Key Words”.  These are your Key Words.  Take note of them! 

If you really are serious, Google your generic business category (don’t Google your name, google what you do – your business).  Now click into several of your competitors.  Look up their Keywords.  How different are theirs from yours?  Contact your Web Master and make changes as needed!  For more information on Meta Tags and Keyword Tags, read: http://gtlenterprises.com/blog/?p=37 For more info on “Your Competition” (and some great SEO tools to help you) read: http://gtlenterprises.com/blog/?p=131 

Linkbacks.  These are becoming more and more important in SEO.  If you haven’t joined in the Social Networking bandwagon yet, get to it!  Yes it takes a bit of work, but these give you free linkbacks and more web exposure.  The moreweb exposure you have, the more Google and other Search Engines realize that you are a legit business and they rank you higher.  This is good.  The higher you are on the Search Engines, the more legit you look to potential customers – and in this economic state you need to grab any and all potential customers you can.  For more info on Linkbacks, read: http://gtlenterprises.com/blog/?p=35 

Quality Content.  Most Web surfers will look at your Web Site for 17 – 20  seconds … make those count!  In a nutshell, tell/show your potential customers why they should stay on your Web Site and become your customer!  Use your Keywords in your content – but make sure it is readable.  For more info on writing your own content read: http://gtlenterprises.com/blog/?p=95