Before starting any website, I always suggest going to Google’s keyword tool and looking at what keywords in your industry are most searched for in Google. For example, say you are a floral designer who primarily does weddings and special events.

Before you register a domain name, go to Google’s keyword tool, and search for keywords related to your business.

1. You’ll need to answer the security check first, by typing in the word you see in the box.
2. In the main screen, in the “word or phrase” box, enter a single keyword for your business.  In this case, “floral” and then click search.  Once you see the results, customize them by deselecting any categories in the left column that don’t apply to your business.  In this example, “delivery”, “flower delivery”, and “flowers online”.
3. Then, in the left column, select “exact” for the Match Types.  And, click on Global Monthly Searches to arrange the results in order of greatest to least searches.
4. What you have now is a great list of keyword ideas for your website.  Follow the same steps for other words related to your business, such as:  flowers, weddings, etc.

Now that you know what phrases have the most traffic, consider choosing a domain name that includes some of those phrases.  In this example, our floral designer, Ann, could choose the domain name:  annsfloraldesigns.com.

Once you get ready to build your website, go through the lists of keywords you’ve found, and highlight the ones that seem most appropriate for your business.  Then, give this list to your web designer, so they can set up your new website making conscious use of the keywords in your page names, headings, and titles (all very important in your google search rankings).

If you set up your website with a blog, you will also want to use this list of keywords when you write new blog posts.   Using keywords effectively in your blog, can definitely boost your rankings in Google.

Search is a huge part of any web design project, and discovering what keywords your customers might be using to find you, is a great place to start.

Lately Facebook.com has been all over the news (again) for the changes it’s made to the privacy settings on individual accounts.  Did you realize, that the default privacy settings on your individual Facebook account, aren’t actually very private?  That means that unless you have gone in and changed your settings, you are probably “over-sharing”.

There’s lots of talk on the web about people leaving Facebook over the privacy changes, but don’t kid yourself, Facebook isn’t going anywhere for now.  The reason Facebook is so popular is because it is changing the way information is shared on the web.  It’s competitors would love to see it back down right now.

Personally, I don’t care that Facebook shares a little information about me with other sites like TripAdvisor.com and Yelp.com.  I use these sites all the time, and this information allows those sites to offer me a more personalized experience, and I like that.

However, I don’t want all of my personal photos visible to the world, so I’ve changed my settings so that only “Friends” can view my photos (except of course my profile photo).

This is great tutorial from BusinessInsider.com that I went through: How To Put Facebook On A Privacy Lockdown

Anyone who has worked on the web knows that different browsers display pages differently, and that Internet Explorer can be a problem. It doesn’t really follow the rules. A site that looks fine in a standards compliant browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome) can look downright broken in Internet Explorer. To complicate matters each version has its own set of issues. For Internet Explorer, I limit myself to checking how a site looks in IE 6, 7, and 8. Since I work on a Mac, the options for testing a site in all these browsers (IE for Mac is completely different) comes down to:

Using an online browser preview site browsershots.org
I can see how this might work for some people but for me it’s too slow. If I’m trying to figure out what went wrong I want to be able to jump back and forth to check my changes. It’s also just a picture of  what the site would look like, not how it behaves.

Using a PC
This is what I’ve been doing up until now. I have an extra computer, a Dell Inspiron 5100 using IETester. IETester lets you preview IE 6,7,8 on a PC (even on a PC you can’t have all three versions installed). Using an extra computer works, but sometimes I can get pretty far into a project before I remember to check.

Installing virtualization software
This creates a virtual computer on your Intel Mac. Once it’s installed you can run Windows on your Mac. There are two contenders, Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. According to mactech.com, in a side-by-side comparison Parallels looks the clear winner.

So I ordered a copy of Windows XP Home Edition and Parallels Desktop 5. Parallels installed fine, but getting Windows XP to install was problematic, and once it was finally installed doing updates would cause disk errors. I don’t know how many times I tried to get it to work, or how many support forum posts I read, but it took up most of my day.

As a test, to see if it was Parallels or XP that was the problem, I downloaded the trial version of VMware Fusion. XP installed on the first try, and all my updates so far have worked without a hitch. Zero errors, wow that was a huge difference.

Now I’ve got XP running on my Mac, IETester for previewing sites, and if something comes up where I need to install a Windows program, I can.

Anyone want to buy a sweet used Dell?

Chances are, like most business owners, your domain name is a key part of your overall marketing strategy.  It is in your best interest to know when it expires.  Don’t rely on anyone else to keep track of this information for you.

So, how do you find out who your domain name is registered with, and when it expires?  Go to www.betterwhois.com and enter your domain name in the look-up box.  You’ll have to enter a 4-digit code to verify that you are a real person requesting this information, not a machine.

In the results look for the following information:

Registrar

This is the company you registered your domain with.  This is the ONLY company you should respond to regarding domain name notices.  You will most likely receive a notice from Domain Registry of America (droa.com) that your domain is about to expire, and chances are they are NOT your registrar. They are simply trying to trick you into transferring your domain to their company.   Go to the search for “droa scam” in Google to see what I mean.  While we’re talking about scams, look at “ilscorp scam“, and “dnrcenter.hk scam“.  If you get an email about your domain name that you don’t trust, do a google search to find out if it’s legitimate or not.

Expiration Date

This is the date your domain name will expire.  You can renew your domain name for more than one year at a time, and search experts often say that Google gives extra weight to domain names that longer expiration dates (it shows you have staying power).  Simplify your life and renew your domain name for 10 years at a time.

Administrative Contact

This should be you, or someone you trust.  This is the person who will receive the email notifications that your domain name is about to expire.  If you change your email address, make sure you update the email address at the domain registrar so you receive any notifications from them.

Make it your business to know what is going on with your domain name!

Are you a facebook user?  If so, it’s really easy to create a page for your business. While this page isn’t tied in anyway to your personal page, you will administer it with your existing individual facebook account.

Don’t panic… it isn’t tied in anyway to your personal page, it’s simply being created and administered by you.  Once you’ve created the page you can add multiple page administrators, so many people in your organization can add photos and update the status or your page.  Status will always appear to be posted by the business, not by any of the individual page administrator.

To set up your page go to:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Once you’ve created the page, add it to your website by getting a facebook widget here: http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/

Then, paste the code into your web page, or copy it into a text document (not word, or it will add extra characters, use NotePad or TextEdit instead) and send it to your web designer.

If you haven’t done it yet, search for your business in Google Maps, and then follow the steps to “claim your business.”

1). Go to Google.com and click on “Maps” in the top left.

2). Search for your business, for example, Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, Nevada City, Ca.  Then, click on your listings.

3). In your listing, you’ll see a link for “Edit.”  Click “Edit”, and then you’ll see a link for “Are you the owner?  Claim your business.”  Click this link.

4). When you click “Edit” you will be prompted to sign in to your Google Local Business Center Account.  If you don’t already have a Google account, set one up now (not to be confused with a gmail account, your Google account can be set up using your existing email address).

5). Once you’ve logged in you’ll have the option to “Edit my business information.”  Then click “Continue” below “Validating your listing.”  To validate your listing, Google will call the listed phone number for your business (right away) with an authorization code.  Write down the code, and then enter it into the box in the Google Local Business Center screen.  If you aren’t able to answer the phone right away, select the mail option, and the code will be mailed to you instead.

6).  Once you’ve claimed your listing you can add photos, hours of operation, your web address, and services.

7). Finally, embed your Google maps listing on the Contact page of your website by clicking the “Link” option in the top right of your Google map listing.  Then, below that, select “Customize and preview embedded map.”

6). Select the size map you want (I usually choose medium), choose map or satellite view, and then zoom in or out until you like the look of your map.

7).  Copy the code and either paste it into the code on your website, or send it in a text document (not word, or it will add extra characters, choose Notepad or TextEdit) to your web designer.