Archive for targeted traffic
What Type of Domain Will Best Serve my Online Endeavors?
Posted by: | CommentsDetermining what kind of domain would best suit your business is usually an easy task if you decide to go ahead and purchase a .com domain like everyone else. However, there are many domain extensions and each one serves it’s purpose. Simply using .com in every situation may not always be your best option, especially if you are going after highly targeted traffic. Aside from focusing on targeted traffic, you might not be able to find a .com domain that is suitable to your business domain, in which case you may have to settle for an alternative domain extension. But how do you know which domain extension to use with your website?
Which Domain Extension is Better Than .com?
This question can be a difficult one to answer, because it depends entirely upon a variety of factors such as what you intend to do with the website, your budget, and other factors such as traffic targeting. If you’re planning on starting a company online, then you’ll actually want to own every extension of your domain. The reason for this is to prevent capitalization by your competitors.
Owning Your Domain Name
There are many competitors that will use nefarious means to steal your traffic by using your popularity, and even your own domain name against you. To do this they will register a domain name that has a different extension than yours, yet the same domain name. For example, if you own examplesite.com, then your competitor may purchase examplesite.net just to steal some of your mistaken traffic. They may even purchase names that contain typos like exmaplesite.com just to trick your visitors into visiting their site when they are trying to type in your site names. If you’re planning on only buying one domain extension, then you’ll want to choose wisely. If you are starting an online business then you can use the .biz extension, although you may be better off using the .com extension. However there are instances when simply using a .com domain would not be your best option.
Using Region Specific Domain Names
Region specific domain names are domain names that pertain to a certain location. An example of a region specific domain name would be examplesite.co.uk. This site extension is meant to show that the site is based in the United Kingdom. Using a domain extension like this would be especially helpful if you were targeting traffic in the United Kingdom. If your site is built around offering a local service, then you would most likely reap the most benefit from using a geographical domain name like the one above.
The beautiful thing about these domains is that you don’t have to actually be based in that area. You can give your site visitors the confidence they need to do business with you and make them believe you are located locally, even though you are located across the world. For example, if you want ed to sell a product that was hot in India, you could open a site with an Indian domain extension to give the impression that you are located in India. This is one way region specific domains are used to attract geo-targeted traffic.
How Does Search Engine Optimization Relate to Your Web Host?
Posted by: | CommentsSearch engine optimization is perhaps the most important marketing aspect in online business. If you want a successful website, then you need to be at the top of the search engines. There is simply no other way to get tons of targeted traffic on autopilot. The problem that most people have regarding search engine optimization is the sheer density of it. There is just so much to know and it seems as if there is not enough time in the day to devote to it. As soon as you think you know it all, you find out you’ve been doing something wrong all along. Search engines have been developed over time to index and catalog every aspect of your website, both internally and externally. Therefore the factors that affect your search engine ranking are innumerable. One factor that most people overlook is the relationship between their hosting company and their search engine optimization effort.
Server Reliability
Perhaps one of the most fundamental aspects of your web host that will affect your search engine ranking is the reliability of your web server. The main problem that you need to be aware of is server downtime. Search engines crawl the web at various points throughout the day. No one can know for sure when the search engine spider will visit your site. This means you need to make sure your site is up at all times. If the search engine spider attempts to crawl your site while it is down, then all of the recent changes you have made to your website will not be indexed., This can greatly hinder your search engine optimization progression.
Robot Text
Another important factor of search engine optimization that closely relates to your web hosting account is your robot text. The robot text is a document that tells your server how it should deal with outside influences such as website visitors and search engine crawlers. This document will differ depending on the hosting company that you’re with. Some web hosts will have the document set to allow search engine crawlers while others will not. It is extremely important to make sure your robot.txt files allows crawlers to index your site, otherwise the site will not even be indexed at all!
IP Address Reputability
The final SEO factor that is directly related to your web host is your IP address. Every website online has an IP address that it is associated with. With some hosting plans you share an IP address with others, and some hosting accounts give you your own dedicated IP address. If you decide to share an IP address with others then you need to understand that you are taking a substantial risk to your search engine optimization efforts. Since you are sharing an IP address with other sites, if these sites are penalized by the search engines your site could lose some of its value within the search engine as well, especially if your site is in anyway linked to the non-reputable site on your IP address. For more information on this make sure you talk to your hosting company about dedicated IP addresses and how they can help you.
Improve Your SEO Efforts by Choosing the Right Web Hosting Plan
Posted by: | CommentsThe success and sustenance of every website begins with the server on which it is hosted, and the performance of that web server relies entirely upon the competence, reliability and capabilities of the web hosting provider. Perhaps even more essential to the success of a website is it’s ranking in the search engines. Without traffic a site may as well not exist, and it is a well known fact that having a high page ranking search engines is the bet way to get constant traffic automatically. Many people do not see the correlation between their web hosting plan and their search engine optimization efforts, but I assure there is a valid connection. Every web hosting plan comes with certain features and options, some of which can directly impact your site’s ranking in the search engines.
Geographic Targeting
Many people seem to overlook the importance of targeted traffic. Getting traffic to your web page can be easy, especially if you accept any kind of traffic. However, getting traffic that is actually going to convert into sales is another story. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative to go after traffic that will be beneficial to your business. One of the ways you can do this is by targeting your traffic geographically. If you are trying to sell a product or service that is going to be popular in the UK, then you wouldn’t want a lot of your traffic coming from China. For this reason it is important to choose a web a hosting provider that is located in the area you would like to target. I.E. - If you are in the US, then try to pick a web hosting provider in the United States.
IP Addresses
Another important aspect to consider is the IP address of your web site. Search engines often look at the IP address of a website to determine it’s relation to other websites, which may directly impact it’s rankings in the search engines. In other words, choosing a web hosting plan that offers only shared IP addresses may not be the best decision. You may find it too expensive to purchase a dedicated hosting plan, however you can still get a dedicated IP address with your shared hosting account. If you share your IP address with other websites then you are risking the search engine ranking of your site, since the actions of those websites could be directly connected with your site’s behavior by the search engines. When you have a dedicated IP address you will not have to worry about such occurrences, as your IP address will only be used by your website.
Site Building Tools
You’ll also want to make sure you have access to all of the website building tools and languages that are standard in today’s technology. For example, you’ll need to be able to use PHP, MySQL databases, FTP clients and other standard tools. You’ll also need access to your .htaaccess file and PERL if you want to have a fully functional and reliable website. These tools are also extremely important in the search engine optimization efforts of your website. If your web hosting provider does not offer these tools then you may want to consider a different web hosting company.