The good news for existing domain owners is that you are given plenty of warning and time to renew your website address (domain name) after it expires.
However – THEY HAVE TO BE ABLE TO CONTACT YOU! Which is exactly why you should have your Domain Name (AKA – “URL or Website Address”) registered in your ownership and with your contact info – You never know when your web designer is going to leave town (it happens). You should own your web address!
Usually, a domain name is not available for re-registration as soon as it expires. Most registrars allow a grace period that can be as short as one or two weeks or as long as a year for registrants to renew expired domain names. The actual grace period can be different for each individual registrar and domain name extension. That is, the grace period for a .com domain name might be different from the grace period for a .us domain name, even at the same registrar.
After the registrar’s grace period, most domain names have a redemption period. This period can last from two weeks to 30 days, and, during this time, the current registrant can renew the domain name by paying a redemption fee along with the domain name’s renewal fee.
If the current registrant does not renew or redeem the domain name, it might be auctioned. When a domain name is released to a public auction, you can participate and possibly capture the domain name by placing a bid on it.
If the domain name is not renewed, redeemed, or purchased through an auction, it is returned to its registry. The registry determines when the domain name is released again for registration. Once it’s released, you can register the domain name through us.
“Site looks good. FYI – search engine optimization is a part of what we do in providing website design & services and was indicated in our email of January 12″
My Concerns:
The standard answer and the “joke” among my peers is the one she gave “Search Engine Optimization is Included with our web design”. Then they proceed to design a website with zero input from the business owner as to what keywords might be important. Findability becomes an after thought.
However, my number one question would be – “How does Shelly know what keywords are important in your industry?” Apparently Shelly has not asked anyone – or maybe Shelly is an expert in commercial real estate, in Houston? I am not sure – but that’s the question I would ask.
According to all the real estate agents that take my class – you are exactly right by suggesting that y’all should focus on the AREA of town. I like your keyword suggestions.
You have to check out the Google keyword tool and it will tell you exactly how many searches are going on for your keywords and it even suggests alternate keywords – it will give you many ideas.
What we are talking about is “keyword strategy” and it’s the most important thing to think about when designing website. It can take weeks of research and should be ongoing.
After all “What good is a beautiful website in the middle of the desert?” I’d rather have an ugly website that is at the top of the search engines.
From what I can tell she has only “optimized” for the keywords of your business name (which is a common mistake because new prospects don’t even know your name).
He is the code at the top of your website:
I have underlined the “title tag” which is also what appears in the very top area of your browser when you open the website – it is absolutely the most important place to put your most important keywords and she has your business name there. Notice how she put Houston last, I would put Houston first – as we are finding that the order of the words is important – most important words first. My guess might be “Houston Commercial Real Estate”
<title>Interchange Houston | Commercial Office Space | Flex Space Houston</title>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”Houston Interchange,Houston Commercial Real Estate,Houston Office,Houston Office Lease,Houston Office Space for Lease,Houston Real Estate, Commercial Office Lease,Commercial Office Space, Commercial Properties,Commercial Properties for Lease,Office for Lease,Office for Rent,Office Lease, Office Real Estate,Office Space,Office Space Houston, Offices for Rent,Rent Commercial Real Estate”>
<meta name=”description” content=”Houston Interchange offers commercial office space for lease. Flex space for businesses including Medical Research, Architectural, Engineering, Government Agencies, Contracting companies, Accounting or Medical offices. premium services, quality office space and custom built interiors.”>
Next look at the keywords that she thinks are important under the “Keyword Meta Tag”. First of all, search engines do not even look at that any more, but it does not hurt to put them there. But most importantly - are those the keywords you want to focus on? Because that means she might?? be trying to focus on them in her other (if any) “Search engine Optimization” activities.
Also – we are finding that it’s beneficial to list your phone number in the “Description Meta Tag “- many folks are simply calling off the Google Search Engine Results page, without clicking to your website – especially mobile phone users. The description meta tag is what shows up under the first big bold blue line on your listing on the Google Search Results page. BTW – The title tag mentioned previously is the big blue line. You can read all about that in chapter 6.
BIG NOTE: Having said all of that – It’s going to be hard, if not impossible to be ranked high for “Commercial Real Estate Houston” Waaaaaay to competitive and you are fighting people that have been at it for years ahead of you.
So…. the next strategy is to focus on a special niche – or area – like you have suggested. I am guessing but maybe through your keyword research on the Google keyword tool, you might find that there are a ton of people search for “Astrodome Rent Property” that’s a Silly Wild Ass Guess, but you see my point – if that were the case – your could probably own those keywords. BTW – don’t get hung up on your industry jargon. Just because it’s called “Commercial Real Estate” does not mean that’s what the common public is searching for.
If Shelly includes “Search Engine Optimization”
Ask her if she plans to “Optimize” your images for the Google Image search?
Is she going to launch YouTube videos with your keywords in them and link them back to your website.
Most importantly – Y’all need to create a blog page on your website and post something once a week about commercial real estate in Houston – it’s easy.
In fact I am going to copy and paste my explanation here onto the blog on my book website www.GTROG.com - it’s that easy.
In Shelly’s defense - In most cases – web designers are more like IT programmers and they “include Search Engine optimization” But you are NOT actually paying Amy to do “Internet marketing” you are paying her to program your website – Internet marketing is a whole other animal and usually takes someone with some expertise in your field or common business / marketing knowledge.
Since the above situation is usually the case – I always recommend that business owners have the ability to take their website to someone else (after the initial design) for ongoing internet marketing activities and updates.
Online advertising spending will cruise past print in the United States this year for the first time, according to a new forecast by eMarketer.
Online ad spending in the U.S. grew 23% to $32.03 billion in 2011 and will grow 23.3% more to $39.5 billion in 2012, eMarketer said. That will put it above total U.S. magazine and newspaper spending, which will fall 6.1% to $36 billion this year, said the report.
2011 marked the beginning of a major shift toward mobile computing.
Smartphone shipments topped PCs for the first time ever last year, by 73 million units, according to figures published by research firm Canalys on Friday.
Last year a total of 487.7 million smartphones were shipped. Only 414.6 million PCs, which include tablet PCs, shipped. That’s a 62.7 percent increase on shipments of smartphones over 2010
……….It’s yet another important step on the road from isolated, search-oriented computing to a more social, mobile, and inter-connected web.
….. Apple is not mentioned at all during the rather thrilling contest between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. Instead, electronics manufacturer Samsung makes fun of Apple—without ever saying or showing its name or products………
The recent changes video sharing site YouTube has experienced are apparently paying off.
The site has boosted its daily page views by 25 percent in the last eight months — and gathering over 4 billion page views per day, reports Reuters. Also higher was the number of video uploads. According to YouTube-owner Google, 60 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute compared to the 48 hours of video uploaded per minute in May.
Here are the slides from the class – They are in PDF format which can be viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat reader (installed on most computers). Once you open this link in your internet browser, you can save the PDF (file - ”save as” in your browser) to a folder in your computer for future reference:
What we are talking about is the actual web address of your Facebook Business Page – commonly referred to as a “Vanity URL” (We’re not sure why Facebook calls it a “Username”)
For example: www.facebook.com/YourMostImportantKeywordsGoHere
We are not talking about the “Name” (sometimes referred to the “title”) of the page – however this same “keyword” strategy should be used when setting the name of your page. You set the “Name” initially when you set up the page. Pick it wisely also, because you can’t change it either (exceptions apply – if you have less than 100 fans).
Username versus Name ???? Clear as mud huh? Yeah, we think so too. Just know that they are two separate things.
We found a great step by step tutorial here (It’s a MUST READ):
A wise pick would be to name it with your most important keyword or keyword phrase – “Laptop Stand” in my case. An unwise pick would be to name it your business or personal name (some exceptions apply – movie stars, for example). The truth is, as much as it hurts – NO ONE IS SEARCHING FOR OUR BUSINESS NAME!
Utilize the Google Keyword tool to research what the public is searching for (hint – this might not be the same as our industry jargon – For example, why did I pick “Laptop Stand” over ”Notebook Stand”? After all, laptop manufacturers call them “notebook computers” right?
Go here for the free and easy use of the Google Keyword Tool and pay attention to the alternate keyword suggestions they give – it might surprise you:
Don’t forget to go to your competitor’s websites and see what Keywords they are focusing on. In the Internet Explorer or Google Chrome browsers you can do “Tools -> View -> Source” to see their HTML code and look at all the tags up top in the header area. Keyword tag, title tag, etc. BTW – BIG NOTE – Be absolutely sure to give your website home page a title using your most important keyword phrase, which is probably the same as what you decide for your Facebook user name. Do not make the common mistake of naming your Facebook page nor the “Title” tag of your home page with your business name. Again – no one is searching for our business name ; )
Final note – the order of the keywords is important. Put the most important keywords first. For example, if you are going after local business – ALWAYS put you city name first “New York Real Estate”
It’s More about the SEO and Less about the Polish” – Greg Bright – (The CEO of SEO)
This highly requested seminar is open only to FedEx + Me participants whose profiles have been published on mystoryaustin.com. (Instructions for uploading your profile are included in your welcome kit.) Enrollment is limited to 50 (no guests please).
This course provides hands-on, step-by-step instructions for getting websites found through high ranking on Google and other search engines. Using real world examples, SEO expert and local small-business owner and author Greg Bright will present search engine optimization lessons using non-technical, layman’s terms.
After taking this workshop, you will:
-Be motivated by the free opportunities to grow your business online
-Know how to get a free “Local Business” listing in Google and Yahoo! (the quickest way to get your local business listed at the top)
-Understand the basics of keyword strategy
-Know how to optimize keywords for “Google Image Search” (possibly the most overlooked technique for getting a website’s images on this fast-growing search tool)
-Know how to optimize keywords for internal site links
-Know what things search engines penalize for and how to avoid them
-Use YouTube videos to improve your ranking (the newest technique in search engine optimization)
-Increase “relevant” back links (the holy grail of SEO)
-Stand out and get chosen from the first page of search results!
Time: 7 – 9pm
Location: The Thompson Center at the University of Texas
Cost: Free
Registration: Email community liaison Nancy Shields at nancy@mystoryaustin.com
Great class folks – Thanks for all the great questions – Student participation make these work!
Feedback is welcome – Let’s start the two way conversations – please click on “comment” below to start a discussion.
As discussed in class – Let’s “Like” each other on Facebook (supporting local Austin business). Please follow the link below to my book ”Page” go ahead and “Like” it, then post a comment with a link to your “Page” Hint: – Just copy and paste the link from your internet browser address bar when you are on your own Facebook “page” and then paste it in the comment section on my Facebook page so we can all click on it – Please be sure to scroll through everyone’s comment on my page so we’re sure to go to each other’s pages and ”Like” each other. It’s a beautiful thing : )
(Hint: Follow the link form other students’s post to their “page” and like it, don’t just “like” their comment in my post on my page)
Here are the slides from the class – They are in PDF format which can be viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat reader (installed on most computers). Once you open this link in your internet browser, you can save the PDF (file - ”save as” in your browser) to a folder in your computer for future reference:
