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Search Engine Placement Increases Traffic To Websites

Posted By on April 17, 2012

What is SEO? Search engine optimization is the process of getting your website ranked on the front page of major search engines.  The process takes making a website that is easy to maneuver with relevant content so that it is easily recognized by search engines.  As you guessed there is a lot more to it than that but in general that is what it takes to get your website on the front page of Google, Yahoo or Bing.

You may ask yourself why it is in your best interest to rank on the front page.  Why is this important?  How often are you searching Google and find yourself looking at the results on page five? Never!  That is because the most relevant information to your search has come up on the front page.  Within the top ten results you have an answer to what your search was.  It is proven over and over again that ninety-five percent of all traffic to a website comes from front page search results.  People are impatient.  They want to get the information they need without searching any further than they have to in order to get it.

What does this mean to you, a business owner with an ineffective online presence?  You must work toward a long term SEO solution.  Many times this involves working with a search engine placement team of experts to analyze, fix and maintain your website and develop an online marketing plan.  The forefront of the plan involves making sure your site is functioning optimally.  This means looking into the content, the backend, the website design and the overall ease of maneuvering through the site.  Look at it from a customer’s point of view not as a business owner.  Sometimes too much information can be as off putting as too little.

It is helpful to go into any new business venture with eyes wide open.  The same is true when hiring a search engine optimization team of experts for your online marketing presence.  There are some key terms that get thrown around a lot that can be confusing to someone just entering the search engine race.  Below you will find terms and definitions to help you come out on top when finding a search engine placement team to work with for your SEO needs.

  • SEM – This acronym stands for search engine management.  This entails the process of designing and marketing your website for the best online presence possible.  The goal is to position your website in both search advertising and paid advertising.  Paid advertising is a whole other beast we can talk about at another time.
  • SEO – This is the acronym that represents search engine optimization.  This is what we talked about earlier, making the sites content and design relevant for search engines to index and appeal to users.
  • PPC – This acronym is all about paid advertising and stands for pay-per-click.  This is, in very general terms, when someone places an ad and pays each time someone clicks on the ads.
  • Natural Rankings – A term that is used for any listing that your site comes by in the free or unpaid sections of the web.

The following terms are used for the design element of the site that really is not relevant to the visual aspect of the site however is needed for indexing purposes.

  • Meta Tags:  This is the information that is seated in the backend of the website.  The Meta tags are not really relevant to the person searching in any aspect other than they help with the indexing of your site within search engines.  Many people will never even have knowledge that such tags and back end info exists.
  • Title Tags: This is a Meta tag that briefly describes what the page is all about in short.  This is a perfect spot to use the keywords you are aiming your search engine results towards.
  • Description: This is a description found on each page that describes the content in detail.
  • Keywords: These are the exact terms in word or phrase form.  These keywords will be entered in the text as well as the back end of the site in an effort to improve your search engine rankings.

More Information on the Mac Flashback Virus.

Posted By on April 9, 2012

Most Mac users think they are safe from the more malicious viruses out there.  However, as the Mac’s popularity grows, it becomes more and more of a target.  As we posted Friday, over 600, 000 Macs are now infected by it.

So here’s some quick facts about the virus to keep yourself informed including how to determine if you have it.

We’ve already received numerous Mac’s into the office for virus removal dealing with the Flashback. If you think you may be infected or know you are, bring your Mac by for a quick evaluation.  It’s only $29.95 and we can see what’s going on. If you are infected we can clean it up for $69.95 with the $29.95 going towards the removal.

More than 600,000 Macs infected with Flashback botnet

Posted By on April 5, 2012

A new virus is infecting Mac’s at an alarming rate. It’s called the Mac Botnet.

Russian antivirus company says half the computers infected with malware designed to steal personal information are in the U.S. — with 274 located in Cupertino, CA.

The malware was initially found in September 2011 masquerading as a fake Adobe Flash Player plug-in installer, but in the past few months it has evolved to exploiting Java vulnerabilities to target Mac systems. A new variant that surfaced over the weekend appears to be taking advantage of Java vulnerability for which Apple released a patch yesterday.

The virus is installed when a someone visits a malicious sight and is asked to install flash. The full article can be found here. Be aware of what sites you are visiting and proceed with caution.

If you do get infected, stop by CPS with your Mac and we’ll take a look at for you. We get is cleaned up and virus free in just a couple days.

Improve Your Online Presence With Search Engine Optimization

Posted By on March 15, 2012

For all businesses it is important to have an online presence.  Having a website is one step of this valuable process however not an end all.  In order to have success your website needs to be easily found, attractive and easy to navigate.  Search engine placement is the one thing that allows your site to be easily found when using major search engines.  SEO will not come from having a site up and running.  Your search engine placement will only come out on top with consistent upgrades and consent changes to match your site to current algorithms to increase recognition on major search engines.

The basics in search engine come down to four basic steps; finding keywords, optimize individual web pages, current and high ranked pages that contain inbound links to your site and submission of your site to search engines.  It sounds fairly simple however it is truly better to set yourself up with a professional search engine company.  This will help ensure your site does not become black listed.  Blacklisting often happens when a company uses “illegal” tactics to get ranked quickly which causes Google to blacklist the site.  Search engine rankings can only come from consistency and progressive upgrades.

The first issue to deal with is keyword optimization.  This is incredibly difficult.  I know it sounds like a simple step, if you are working on fixing computers you would think simply all people type computer repair in Google.  This is not always true.  Yes computer repair is a real term that should be connected but there are others to consider as well.  There are specific repairs people often think about when visualizing what needs to be done to their computer.  For instance, virus removal, screen repair, internet connection issues and so on.  The same happens in every distinct field.  When you are close to the field your website is designed around you often forget about the non-technical aspects that people will use to find you.

Each page within your website should be directed at a keyword phrase up to four phrases can be included to maximize the effectiveness fro search engines.  It is important to include the key word you are after in the text, headings and code within the pages.  Another important trick to the trade, if you are not a global company is to also work the area you are working within into the backend and on page keyword optimization.

Next is to think about the inbound links.  These are the pages that you use to promote your keywords.  This can be done through article marketing, business listings, blog post or several other options.  It is important that your inbound links come from pages with increased page ranks.  It will not help if you use pages that are not ranked or ranked below a two for your inbound links.  It is possible to find page ranks of every page you are considering using by checking with a page ranking tool that can be found on Google.  Your inbound links are better received by Google if they are ranked in the range of three to six.

Lastly the issue of submitting your website there are several ways you can do this.  The best, but most time consuming is to hand list your website individually throughout different search engines.  Hiring a company to do this for you will save you a ton of time plus they are aware of each and every search engine that will benefit your site.

CPS Wins Pinckney Library Bid.

Posted By on March 12, 2012

CPS has won the IT contract for the new Pinckney Library building. Demolition has started on the old Village Education Center. CPS will be managing all of the low voltage wiring and network and sever installation including ongoing IT support for the library. The building is designed by Ron Cieslak, Architect at Merritt Cieslak Design and Frank Rewold & Son, Inc will be managing the construction.  We look forward to being a part of this build.  Construction is expected to last the rest of the year.

Time To Upgrade To a Professional Website

Posted By on March 5, 2012

A great article on why it’s time to ditch the homemade starter website and have it professionally done.  Basically more and more people are going online to handle their shopping and research. In fact, 53 percent of Americans made an online purchase in 2011 and 58 percent are expected to make an online purchase in 2016. That accounts for $200 billion online in 2011 and $327 billion in 2016.

What are customers looking for in a website? They was ease of use and functionality along with a stable platform. Nobody wants to fumble around on a  site trying to make it work.  A customer wants to get in and get out with their product or information as easily and as fast as possible. You can read the article here. And call CPS to set up your website consultation 810-224-5252.

Is your company at risk?

Posted By on March 2, 2012

 

Today Chase Payment Services released info on a possible security hole in pcAnywhere’s code. It states that anyone using pcAnywhere to remote into an office is opening up the possibility for someone to hack into the network through a loophole in the code. It is advised to not use pcAnywhere until a fix has been released. The press release can be found here.

Google’s new algorithm to penalize some pages.

Posted By on February 24, 2012

Google has released a new algorithm which will penalize website with too many ads above the fold. What does this mean? Well, the fold is the natural sceen break at the bottom of your screen when you access a website.  This will be different for everyone as computers run in a multitude of resolutions and screen dimension.  If this sounds confusing, check out Google’s visualization of what they’re talking about here.

Any site with an “excessive” amount of ads displayed in this area will be penalized.  Google does not state what that percentage exactly is.  However, if you check Google’s own search engine for this, they fail miserably. Check out this graphic.

CPS is proud to announce the launch of DaRoche Jewelers Website

Posted By on February 14, 2012

 

DaRoche Jewelers knows and understand that a jewelry purchase is an emotional event. They are not the large national leading diamond retailer. Their philosophy has evolved by giving customers the attention and support they need to make the right decision at the right time.

DaRoche Jewelers is a local shop in Brighton, Michigan that leads the community in sales and repair of all types of diamond jewelry. Their website will bring that same philosophy to clients via the Web. When you contact DaRoche Jewelers you will speak to either Dan or his wife. Customers can be 100% assured that they will have the answers right then; not hours or days later!

Check out their site at http://www.darochejewelers.com

CPS Involved In Anchor Printing’s Move.

Posted By on February 6, 2012

CPS will be handling the installation and maintenance of Anchor Printing’s IT network in their new 80,000 square foot printing facility.  This will include the initial building wiring and setup of all computers and servers in the facility.

Anchor Printing is sole printer of Valspar, The Detroit Tigers and Five Hour Energy to name a few.  Their new facility is located in Novi, MI and will allow Anchor to expand its printing capabilities and output.