As with many phone calls that I get, his prevous website designer had up and left him high and dry but this wasn’t the worst or unusual part.  His previous web designer was one of those “Joomla experts” and of course had built his website around, what I consider one of the worst CMS (content mangement systems) softwares available, Joomla.  This CMS was obviously built for the unorganized and sparatic thinking kind because finding something is like searching for a needle in mound of … crap!  At any rate, we were about to work out this gentlemans issues with his site but it left him with saying that he would defintely want me to redesign his website out of Joomla and into a CMS that works and is organized! 

To sum up why you should completely avoid joomla, Joomla is a waste of time (unless that’s all you have or know how to use), and know that there are alternatives available that will make you wonder why you ever used Joomla.   If your a client looking for a website design and have little clue as to what I am talking about, just remember to ask that the site isn’t built in Joomla if you value your ability to edit your website without massive confusion! 

As always remember if your looking for a quality website, built on rock solid or even custom CMS platforms then give me a call at 888-735-5559 or send me an email today to one of Jacksonville’s best website designers!

So, for starters, using a landing page is NOT wrong and is a great way to focus on one product or service and really highlight everything about it without talking about how your company got started or whatever else.  In terms of search engine optimizaiton however there is a big common mistake made when utilizing these landing pages.  Search engines don’t rank a website high, they rank Website PAGES high.  Often the supporting pages add credibility and from research search engines tend to favor this structure:

Landing / Sales Page

Blog Posting Page

Article Page

Affiliate Page

Contact Page

Terms & Conditions Page

So it goes to say if search engines like this structure then it IS important to have a sales page but it is also important to have supporting pages that link to it and NOT have the only links on that sales page be links to how to send money (buy the product or service).

In summary the common SEO mistake made by many when utilizing Landing / Sales pages is not having links to supporting pages, which would be blogs, contact information, terms and conditions and so on (refer to above structure).  Lastly remember to keep a close eye on your keyword density.  If your looking to rank well for “Jacksonville Flower Shop” dont put “Jacksonville Flowers for sale” 100 times on your sales page – keep it reasonable as you may be penalized in search results.

Hope you all enjoy this article and remember if your looking for professional website design or marketing services give us a call at 888-735-5559!

Website hosting is most easily described as the house for your website.  This is the place where all the pictures and text reside so that everybody can access and view them.  Without website hosting you could still build your website but essientially wont be able to (easily & efficiently) make it available for the whole world to view.   To sum it up and make it easy to understand, if you want a website, you need website hosting!

The second question that always arises from new clients is what hosting package should you get.  Most credible hosting providers now offer unlimited bandwidth for shared servers and there is not much of a difference between packages.   For example godaddy.com has 3 packages but the only main important thing that differs is the file space storage.  Their basic package has 10GB of storage and the top package offers unlimited.  I have been building websites for 7 years and never used more than about 300-400 MB so buying the top package just for unlimited file space storage is a complete waste of your money.

The last question I always get is do I need Linux or Windows hosting.  The answer is very simple, Linux and any developer will tell you the same most likely.

Things they offer in hosting packages

• Bandwidth  - Used when you or visitors come to your website, just like your internet bandwidth at your house from the cable company.
• Disk Space – Amount of storage space available for your website files.  Remember more than 500 MB is probably a waste of money.
• MySQL Accounts – This is needed for dynamic websites, typically only 1 account is really needed for most websites.
• Email Accounts –  Having an email address with your domain e.g. joshua@joshuawebdesign.com vice something like joshua@gmail.com

Cost Summary

Website hosting for everyday website owners (those who are not running big sites) hosting should really only cost you between $2-$8 per month, once you go over $8 per month I would venture to say your overpaying for something.

I hope this article helps some of you out, if you have questions or are looking to get a professional website email me at joshua@joshuawebdesign.com or call 888-735-5559. Websites starting from as low as $99!

A domain name is basically your websites address.  www.joshuawebdesign.com is an example of a domain name.  The process of obtaining your own domain name or registering is extremly easy and anyone can do it.

I personally always recommend my clients to go to instantdomainsearch.com because its the fastest way to find an available name.  In this day and age most the good names are taken so I also recommend if your having trouble finding an available selection is to go to godaddy.com and search for a .CO alternative.

The .CO alternative also brings up another good point, what about .NET, .ORG, .US ect…  If your running a for profit business you most likely will not want a .NET domain but that choice is up to you and most branding techniques focus completely around the possiblity of being able to obtain the .com domain name.

Registering the domain

Like I said registering a domain name is extremely easy and if you’ve ever purchased something online, then you’ll have no problem.  Simply go to a website like godaddy.com and enter in your domain name you’ve chosen and follow the steps of filling out your information and submitting payment.

How much should it cost?

Registering a .COM domain name should never cost your more than $13 or you’ve overspent.  Registering a .CO should typically cost around $20.  Lastly beaware of companies than will send you renewel notices for $30-$80 or more to renew your domain, this is a ploy that tricks many newbie owners into thinking they have to pay this amount to retain their name and hard work, which is not true, your domain (if selected) will auto-renew at the companies advertised regualar rate (around $13 for a .com).

Hope you all have a better understanding of what a domain name is and how to register one.

Whether you operate an e-commerce website or company website, using excellent SEO techniques will help The search applications and other google position your website greater in the search for webpages (SERP) when prospects or customers look for key terms relevant to your company.

1.  Look for long-tailed keyword phrases that have low competition levels.  An example of this for say a flower shop in Jacksonville Florida would maybe be, How to grow flowers in jacksonville florida vice growing flowers.

2.  It’s all in the name.  Search engines like google offer a great value to your position in search engine results IF your domain name incorporates one or all of your keywords.  A great example would be for a Jacksonville Florist, jacksonvilleflorist.com.  Now obviously most of these domains are already purchased, and if thats the case for you, search for other alternatives suchs as .CO domains or smaller regions, e.g. orangeparkflowers.com.

3.  Link to me please!  Links, Links and more links – its what holds the internet together and naturally its how many search engines determine how relevant to a search result your website really is.  If you links to your website on other websites then search engines will count that as a point towards your credibility.  Obviously enough the more “points” you have the better (theoretically) your website should do in search results.

4.  If your a newbie, dont look for software to magically solve your seo problems.  While in this day and age there are tons of software out there that attempt to automate this process of SEO, and I dont argue most are not great tools.  However, many can be very confusing, and if not used properly could actaully result in a negitive search engine outcome.  How can this be?  Spamming your links out there very quickly can be viewed as “unnatural” and thus harash penalties may apply sending your hard work to the toliet!

Use the SEO guidelines or if you prefer you can engage an SEO professional or SEO Solutions Company that can help guide you along the way. The skills and guidance offered by a professional SEO professional normally exceeds the cost 100 to 1 compared to you trying to do it all yourself and either never getting started or money in the wrong places. Look at the series on SEO technique that if followed almost always leads to success!