I just want to clarify some things that our customers and future customers do not understand.

In recent months I have been involved with an existing customer wishing to make their website better than it was.  I gave a quote for a content managed website using WordPress totaling my hourly rate to build and set up a better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) website that would include more functionality than they already had and increase traffic to their website.  Since WordPress is an Open Source software I do not feel right charging what some companies charge for a custom Content Managed Website when they are using templates they purchased at a low price to reach a high profit.

Without my knowledge my customer went to a less expensive web designer that changed the DNS (Domain Name Servers) on the website that re-directed it to another host rendering it unavailable to the internet costing them their internet rank to go down as it was not being acknowledged by any search engines.

My client then fired that person to go to someone else that doubled the quote I gave them to begin with.  Results:  Website is still down and stuck in limbo because the person they first hired was new in the business and didn’t know what they were doing when they transferred the DNS to a new host.

I recently was contacted by a company that paid a high dollar amount for a WordPress site that they thought was custom built to their needs.  The result:  The web designer paid less than $30.00 dollars for a WordPress template and added some free plugins to the website to increase functionality.

This company thought they were getting a website compatible across all platforms only to find out it didn’t work with certain browsers.  They contacted their web designer and have yet to hear back from them.  They called me for damage control on their existing website.  When using an Open Source product such as WordPress I strictly charge by the hour and not for the technology since I did not create it.

WordPress is a great tool that many fortune 500 companies use.  I highly recommend using WordPress as it is very easy to use and highly customizable to suit your needs.  It takes some set up on the back end that people not in the business do not understand.

My problem is the lower end web designers that use WordPress to take advantage of customers as a Content Management solution when there are many web designers out there that will be up front with the service they are providing and not claim templates as their own creation.

If you are thinking about having a website built DO NOT go to your lowest bidder.  It may end up costing you more in the long run to get it running the way you want it.

Make sure your web designer knows how to update your server to the latest versions of software available.  If they have never transferred a website or MYSQL database to another server, move on.

As I have said, this is a content manage system.  Your web designer should take the time to show you how to manage it so you are self sufficient.

Their are plenty of WordPress templates to choose from that may fit your companies needs and work across all browsers.  Your web designer should be able to do this research and present it to you so you know exactly what you are getting.

As you can tell I’m A LOT disappointed in these new web design companies that claim these templates as their own.

For a WordPress basic set up and data package we can make your website a reality at a very affordable price.

Basic setup:
$250.00 a year for hosting and technical support.

$500.00 Basic Design, Mysql Database set up, basic, Unlimited email addresses, SEO and technical support.

$700.00 Advanced Design, Mysql Database set up, Plugins, Widgets, Unlimited email
addresses, SEO and Technical support.

Call today for a free web consultation. 302-540-8073

Some of our other services you may want to consider:

* Domain Name Consultation
* Computer and wireless network configuration setup
* Computer consultation
* Custom Website Creations
* Custom Graphic Web Design Services
* Basic Search Engine Optimization
* Search Engine Website Submission
* Google Maps
* Social Networking
* Onsite Training

Call us 302-540-8073

1. Do they have a portfolio?
Make sure they have some experience.  Take a look at their list of customers and designs.

2. Can they cater to any type of business?
Look through the portfolio for variety. Do their client’s websites all look similar in format and structure? Make sure you are paying for a custom web design service, not a cheap template.

3. How is their response time?
This is vital to the success of your website. Take note of their choice of response (e-mail, phone, txt, instant messenger) and how quickly they can respond to your inquiries. If you prefer to do business over the phone and the designer doesn’t, then it’s probably best to move on to your next choice.

4. Do they have a contract?
If it’s not written – it’s not true. Everything should always be put down in writing. Before you sign anything, make sure you read the entire contract, including all the fine print. If you have any questions on anything: ASK! Don’t sign a contract unless you understand everything in it. If the company’s representative makes you feel awkward or uncomfortable with your “bothersome” questions, then end discussions and find another designer.

5. How reasonable are their prices?
Make sure you get what you pay for and if you are on a budget, tell the designer you choose you cannot exceed it. (This is usually a question I ask a potential customer.  Not to find out how fat their wallet is.  It’s so I can visualize the project and give and accurate quote of the website I’m going to deliver.
Make sure you have a plan to continually invest into the website’s construction. Your website is going to be the link between you and your customers, so make sure it is the best it can be. These days you can find web design for $199.00 and up.

If your budget doesn’t allow you to put everything you want into your website you might want to settle for a smaller website and create it in stages. Don’t settle for a cheaper designer. You get what you pay for.

6. Can they help you market your website?
Online marketing is key to your website’s success, It is best to find a designer that knows how to promote the sites they work on whether it be through search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, or another method. Ask your design firm what they feel is best for your company. When talking to your web designer make sure you give them information of how you would like your website to be represented on the internet.  This isn’t content this is your market, who do you want to reach?  You should feel comfortable in their explanation and reasoning; otherwise ask some other firms what they’d recommend.

7. Are their clients satisfied?
Don’t hesitate to contact their clients to ask for opinions and get their feedback on how their service with that company went. It’s your money after all. It’s better to spend 15 minutes on the phone than months of hassle and pain with the wrong developer.

8. Are they able to meet all your needs?
Do you want an e-commerce store, Flash elements or a custom web application? Can they do everything you want? The last thing you want is different companies meddling with your website’s design. Choose a firm that has the full corporate solution for your needs – whether it’s Flash intros or database-driven websites.

9. Can they deliver on time?
Are they willing to meet reasonable deadlines? If you need your site done by a certain date, can the designer you choose get it done by then? Be sure to ask about delivery times if you talk to their customers.

10. Do they take a personal and friendly approach?
Is the designer willing to help and suggest his/her own ideas, or do they robotically go along hoping they got everything you want? It’s always best to find a designer that has some ideas of their own, with fresh ideas and that knows their limits and won’t insist something be done a certain way if that’s not what you want.

We hope this information was helpful for those that read this article.  We hope after reading this information you contact us via email, phone 302-540-8073 or even on Facebook if you have any questions.

Regards,

Bad Dog Web Design

When putting together content for your website site think about what you’re trying to sell and what you think your customers might be searching for? Junk filler content is exactly that.

Keywords

Probably the most crucial aspect of effective SEO copywriting is the density of your keywords. These are the keywords that you would expect people to type into Google when looking for the particular product or service you offer.

A paragraph should be written to incorporate these key words as early in the text as possible as search engines are more inclined to identify keywords that are placed near the top of a page.

Ideally, about 7% of your website copy should consist of your keywords. Never have more than 10% or search engines will punish your site for ‘spamming’ i.e. simply stuffing your copy with keywords.

Key Phrases

Search engine optimized copy is more likely to achieve good search engine ratings by creating key phrases than by single keywords. Key phrases are strings of words that people typically type into search engines.

A person searching for a ceramic mug or Ceramic Mugs is more likely to type Ceramic Mug i.e. two single key words then type “Ceramic Mug” with quotation marks to create a phrase; but you should cater for those who are savvy enough to specify the phrase.

Enter Ceramic Mugs into Google and it produces about 564,000 results.

However, “Ceramic Mugs” in quotation marks only returns 354,000 results, so by incorporating Ceramic Mugs into a proper sentence (without quotation marks) it is recognized by search engines as a genuine phrase.

The Bottom Line

If your website copy incorporates good SEO practice and is managed by a competent website designer, it will attract more visitors to your site and turn ‘hits’ into real business.

Ultimately, the golden rule for all website copy is that it must read well and that search engine optimization should not detract from the overall marketing message.

Backlinks, or ‘incoming links’ are a critical part of your website’s ongoing visibility in search engine results. If you couple this with quality incoming links, you’ll likely see benefit (increased traffic) from people clicking as well.

The game has changed over the recent years. Now, you see the fast emergence of the “social web”, and new tactics such as social networking, social bookmarking, blogging, social news has to be learned. Still, reliance on traditional marketing and public relations is a must, more than ever.

To become and continue to be a leading website, more thought and care must go into developing ‘link bait’ – quality content, tools, widgets and similar – that may receive faster/better links from other websites back to you, with less ongoing work – links just keep coming!

Creating content is not enough – you must promote and drive users back to your site from many channels, which can include PPC (Pay Per Click), for example. Running a quick campaign using Paid Search to send visitors to your content bait is one of the creative ways to build awareness and traffic. Think about your target audience before starting any of this.

Things To Remember When Link Building:

1) Rich Keyword Use – in the anchor text. This is the recognized “blue underline” link that points back to you. Get keywords in there!

2) Trust and Authority – incoming links from other significant sites – to send powerful ‘link juice’ and to help elevate your site as another professional, trusted site amongst users and search engines.

3) Natural Link Acquisition – no massive, short and spiked build up of links, no bad link neighborhoods, but a carefully distributed effort amongst varied IP#’s – to show breadth of sites. No black hat approaches or spamming. Also, remember that sites that have more trust and years established online, can get away with more than newer sites.

Manually searching for these authority sites can take time, but professionals do it all the time. Since relevancy is key, try to stick within your marketplace, but don’t over-analyze either, mix it up.

You can submit to directories, use article marketing, and locate blogs for a wider distribution, and I recommend picking a few strategies to start. Don’t try to do too much, too fast.

Some Tools and Ideas:

a. Keyword link search builder – Linksearch – type in a keyword, and it will build Google search strings to speed up the processs.

b. Directories – you should consider Yahoo Directory, Business.com (B2B), Botw.org, Goguides and JoeAnt to start. If you find 20-40 directories of higher quality and related to your niche, that’s good. Try dmoz.org as well, but it will take a while. To find more, use ISEDB.

c. Social Media Sites. The ‘link juice’ is often excluded on sites in this marketplace, but can garner secondary links and certainly visibility and traffic for your brand. Look into Delicious, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn (B2B), Twitter to start.

Quality of links are important, and you should check to make sure links don’t have a “rel=nofollow”, robots.txt exclusion, or javascript redirect code applied. Check also the Google “cache” date – to make sure the page has been recently included, and spidered regularly. As a general guideline – anything page older than 30 days or more is less quality.

These simple tactics and steps should get you thinking about how you must change your link building game for 2009.

Article By Jon Rognerud.

My first thought was “This must be a shady business”. Secondly I had to read the article.

I thought the write up on the Rip off Report website was actually going to give me some insight on the business I was going to deal with. Instead it was the opinion of ONE disgruntled person that was obviously off their meds.

After reading the article I decided to do a separate search “Is Rip off Report a reliable resource” you’ll find the only web resource saying that Rip off Report is reputable is Rip off Report.

Most of the content for Rip off Report outside of their own site is people trying to get fraudulent claims removed. I found it amazing that it was next to impossible to get things removed from the Rip off Report website.

So now I’m fairly amused and always looking out for the little guy so I decided to do another search “how to get something removed from rip off report”. I thought this might get me some answers from the Rip off Report website on how to get things removed from their website but there was nothing on their website about how to get something removed.

Instead I find websites discussing how Rip off Report is killing the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) world on the web. I really don’t want to get too deep in this discussion only because Google was mentioned.

I believe the best resource to find out the real truth about a business is the Better Business Bureau WWW.BBB.ORG

I genuinely hope the people that visit the Rip off Report website take it for what it is. It’s entertainment, much like wrestling on the television.

The way I see it is Rip off Report allows someone the avenue to talk about someone without any authentication process. Someone can have a bad day, post an article and cost a business a fortune.

You can read the articles for yourself.

http://www.97thfloor.com/blog/public-spam-report-google-your-honeymoon-with-rip-off-report-has-to-stop/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/chris-bennet-on-rip-off-report

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/ripoff-report-ripping-off-those-reported.html

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/03/rip-off-report.html

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=37131

http://www.distilled.co.uk/blog/reputation/join-in-and-do-your-bit-to-get-rid-of-ripoffreport-from-the-serps/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-wont-remove-that-page-you-dont-like-but-you-or-your-seo-can