Summer is officially upon us, and that can mean a lot of things for some people:

• Kids are out of school and finding things to do (Good & Bad 😉 )
• You are heading to the shore to visit or your shore house that your own
• You are heading on vacation somewhere
• You are heading to the local pool, or you own
• You are blasting your air conditioning
• You are getting your grass mowed
• You are doing more things outside like running, hiking, sports, and more…

What do all of these things have in common?

They All Cost Money In Some Way & You Can Find Help For Them All Online!

~Examples~

Kids are out of school and finding things to do:

• You have to find ways to keep them occupied – You can find things to do online
• Maybe they are getting into things they should not and break something – You can buy replacements online

You are heading to the shore to visit or your shore house that your own:

• You can buy swimsuits, umbrellas, chairs, sunglasses or find a store that sells what you need
• You find a place to rent, book a room, or find things in your area to do online

You are heading on vacation somewhere:

• You can book it online
• you can find anything you need for your trip online

You are heading to the local pool, or you own:

• You can buy anything you need online
• If you need your pool serviced, you can find a contractor to do that online

You are blasting your air conditioning:

• You may need your air conditioning serviced, and you can look for a contractor online
• You may need to buy a new window unit, you can do that online or find an appliance store online to go to

You are getting your grass mowed:

• You can find a landscaper online
• You can buy a lawnmower or find a local place online that sells them

You are doing more things outside like running, hiking, sports, and more…:

• You might need to buy new sneakers online or other activewear
• You might want to search for places to go with outside activities online

Point is that millions of transactions happen everyday online, both locally and nationally.  Buying products online, searching for stores to do business with, and looking for events or things to do online has never been easier.

With the readiness of computers, laptops, tablets, phones, and voice activated search modules are at our fingertips and play right into a consumer based driven market.

This is not only important for consumers to know, but also for businesses to know!  If a business can put themselves in the right place at the right time to be found online for their product or service, they can connect themselves to the buyers as the sellers. It is that simple!

That is done by having an effective online marketing strategy. 

• SEO
• Pay Per Click
• Social Media

are 3 great ways to get yourself in front of these buyers as a company. 

That is where we come in! We are a full service Digital Marketing Agency located in Philadelphia, specializing in Website Development, SEO, Pay Per Click, and Social Media Management.

We customize programs to fit our clients needs and to connect buyers with sellers.

Contact us for a free Website & SEO Audit. 

So you might read the title of this blog and think that I’m going to discuss a bunch of things that a website should have in this day and age to make it effective.

You would be wrong in thinking that!

Instead I’m going to tell you some things to protect yourself, your company, and your brand.

I’ve been in this industry about 15 years now, which means by now I should know what I’m doing? Yes, and I do by the way!

–> but it is also means I can tell you a lot of horror stories and nightmares that I have heard and dealt with on my own when dealing with other Web Design Companies.

So over the years I’ve had to have encounters with other web companies when a client chooses to have us build their new website. When doing so, you need access to the clients current hosting account and domain register account to eventually make the switch. Now there are a few ways this can play out:

• The best case scenario is that the client has access to their own hosting and their own domain, and can give us access when needed to switch everything over to the new website once it is coded. It’s important to choose hosting in your own country. For example, if your website targets Canada, then look for the best hosting canada to ensure you give your customers a lightning fast connection.
• Another scenario is that your old web company is cooperative even if they set up your url or hosting in their name and they are willing to transfer everything over smoothly.
• The lasts scenario and the absolute worst of the 3, is that your former web company is unprofessional and practices unethical business practices to either handcuff you to their services or charge you outrages fees to transfer anything to your name.

Over the years I have unfortunately dealt with companies in scenario 3. In this last month I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with that situation yet again, twice:

1. I’m building a website for a client and the old website company was informed that we were switching everything over. We called him to let him know we would need access to the url once the site is done being coded so that we can link it up. This business took it poorly, reacted very professionally. immediately took their current site down leaving them with no web presence. Furthermore, he refuses to transfer the url into the clients name, refuses to transfer the current site to a new server that we set up for them, unless the client pays them around 5 thousand dollars. These are the kind of bogus companies that are out there, and you must be careful! In the end the client does not have access to their url that they have had connected to their website for years, and we had to secure them a new url to build the new site on.
2. I’m doing SEO for a new client, once the client informed their old company that they were canceling their SEO services with them and that they needed all of the access to their current websites that they built, the company reacted poorly, refused to give them access, refused to make it smooth transition. Anyone that knows SEO, knows that you need access to a website to change meta and do other things to a website to optimize it properly, but we could not do that because their former company is terrible and runs their company as crooks. In the end it cost my client more money because instead of just starting a new SEO campaign, they have to build a brand new site first, and they are losing money in the meantime while waiting for the new site to be finished.

These are just two stories I can tell you of how bad it can get!

So now I’m am going to tell you some best practices that my company does when we build a website for a new client. Any business can ask for these same processes to be done and should actually demand it in writing from your new website company:

1. Ether buy your own url with one of the major domain registry companies. Now that may sound very difficult to a person who might not be very web savvy, and if that is the case, ask your new web company to purchase the url for you, but to register it in your name and with all of your information for the account so that you totally own it.
2. Purchase your hosting with one of the major hosting companies. Again if this out of your skill set, have your new web company set up a hosting account in your name, with your information so that you totally own it. Or you could do some research into something like linux web hosting if you want fast hosting and security. Be sure to do your research to find the right hosting provider for you and your website’s requirements. The disorientating nature of web hosting means that it is often difficult to make a judgment. For that reason, it may be helpful to view some comparison sites. An example of a comparison review that is viewable online is siteground vs bluehost vs hostgator. Having comprehensive comparison points might help you evaluate which is the best option for your needs.
3. Make sure when you purchase a new website that YOU own the website and they are not copyrighting any files, make sure that once you pay for the website in full, that you totally own the website.
4. Make sure all of this is in writing before you sign or agree to anything!

Those four things will safeguard you from having to deal with the agony of dealing with one of these shifty web companies that prey on companies by putting them into bad situations to steal money from innocent people just trying to do business the right way.

I hope this can help to educate businesses of what to watch out for, and how to safeguard themselves to not be railroaded by one of these bad web companies that use these fraudulent and deceitful tactics.

Feel free to contact me directly with any questions: info@mimc-online.com

Thank you for reading,

David Di Paolo

Hello all, thank you for stopping by. Let’s face it the world of SEO is ever changing, but there are some core factors that have been a relevant part of SEO for a long time. I use the world “RELEVANT” almost as a pun in this situation because really SEO is the art of making a website “RELEVANT” to the SERPS (Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other smaller and affiliate search engines). These core factors are the foundation to an effective SEO program and if you do not do them correctly, you are setting yourself up for failure. Read more and discover how to grow your business with seo!

Let’s Jump Into it..

Core Factor One:

Keyword Research – I start with this because it really is that important. Hate to sound cliche, but “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” ~Yogi Berra. What I mean by this is how in the world can you ever target your right customer base and geography when you are targeting the wrong keywords. You must do extensive and proper keyword research to find the best keywords with good monthly traffic to target and devote your SEO efforts towards.

Core Factor Two:

Keyword Strategy – This piggybacks slightly off of factor one, but it needs it’s own point. What I mean by a keyword strategy is that when you do your keyword research you need to understand that your keywords should be broken up into 2 groups: It is important to have both a long-term and short-term strategy with your keywords.

Why?

You need to understand that SEO is a process and it is more difficult to rank for some keywords than it is for other depending on the competitiveness of that keyword and of course other factors. For Example: If you are an attorney in Philadelphia that practices personal injury this would really come into play because the keyword “Personal Injury Attorney Philadelphia” might be your “Grand Slam” keyword that you want to rank for and will yield the best results, but you need to know by the level of competition for that keyword that you might be 2-3 years out from ever making it to the first page of google for that keyword if you are just starting SEO now. There is nothing you can do about that, and you have to move up organically and compete with other attorneys who have been competing for those spots on the first page for many years before you, so essentially you are starting at the back of the line! That would be a long-term keyword strategy. Now, an example of a short-term keyword strategy for the same client. Let’s use a key phrase like: “Best work injury attorney in Philadelphia”. This keyword is not as competitive, does not have as much traffic, but will still yield you very good results because it is very specific and still has good traffic. Long Story-Short… You need to have a mix of both. Keywords that will pay dividends in the future, and keywords that you can win at in the short-term for faster ROI.

Core Factor Three:

Proper Meta Data & “On Page” – So you have your keywords picked, you are ready to rock. What is next? You have to do your “On Page” properly. Each page should have different meta, and you need to write natural Page Titles and Descriptions for every page on your website with a consistent NAP, without excessive keyword stuffing or spammy looking text. Also, Proper H1 and H2 tags and Alt tags. Make sense? Yeah I know it can be confusing. I can write a whole blog about “on page SEO”, so I’m not going to go into full detail of these, but you can easily do some research online about them, or if you have additional questions, feel free to reach out to us.

Core Factor Four:

Content – Content is super important to your website and SEO. In recent years content has actually become more important, and some will argue it is the most important factor now. Regardless of your opinion:

• You must have good natural content on your website.
• You must have a good “Text to HTML Ratio”.
• You must have at least 300 words on just about every page.
• You must not have duplicate content both onsite or offsite
• You must not keyword stuff, but still have a good keyword ration on the designated pages.

Again, I can write a whole blog on content, but they are just some good factors to keep in mind.

Core Factor Five:

Blogging – And I could have added this above with content but I want to elaborate further, because I’m actually writing a blog right now. So what is the main purpose of a blog when it come to SEO? Aside from it being an information source for your clients and potential clients, it is really an easy way of pumping fresh new content to your website on a regular basis.

Why should you do that? It prompts google and the other major search engines to come and crawl and index your website making it RELEVANT for your keywords online!

In Closing

So we basically have come full circle with making your website relevant and that really is the main objective, but the things I mentioned above are core factors that have held true for SEO for a long time now and they are core factor that must be done properly and although they are probably the least tedious part of SEO in the long run, they must must be done correctly from the start. You may notice I did not even get into link building and other “off page” SEO tactics because those parts of SEO have changed so much more in the last few years and will continue to change, but the core factors I mentioned above must be done, and must be done correctly.

If anyone has any further questions about this, please feel free to reach out to us: info@mimc-online.com

Thank you,

Dave Di Paolo