acrbo feb magazine 2013
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Association of Computer Repair Businesses MagazineTRANSCRIPT
The Owen Lea Foundation….
Let’s Make A Difference!
Association of Computer Repair Business Owners…Now over
3,900 members!
ACRBO MAG
WHAT’S INSIDE Computers, Networking, Websites, Advertising, Marketing & Sales
ISSUE 014 | Feb 2013
“If you don’t have a competitive
advantage, don’t compete”…Jack
Welch
MSP Marketing Through Newsletters
Warranty Your Services
Password Security
Local Search How To Get Found
How To Deal With Windows Recovery Malware
Small Business Debt Collection Letter Writing
Keywords That Make Money
SEO Expert Ali Husayni
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9
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Association of Computer Repair Business Owners
CONTENTS
ACRBO
Are you a writer? Do you enjoy writing down your
experiences?
Would you like to be able to contribute each
month regarding your business model and give tips
to other business owners?
If so feel free to contribute to the magazine. Credit
is given to all writers in the form of links to your
website or any other way you would like.
Share your experiences!
Welcome to the latest edition of the
Association Magazine. I'd like to welcome
our new contributors this month.
The content we obtain for the magazine is
supposed to be unique. With that said it
was pointed out that a couple articles were
not. We are doing our best to rectify that
but unfortunately sometimes things just
happen.
We look forward to bringing you more
articles this coming year that can help you
grow your business.
Dan ACRBO Keep your valuable feedback coming. I try to reply to every email, I appreciate your input as it helps to make the ACRBO magazine possible. Write to me at: [email protected]
ACRBO Magazine Fredericksburg Virginia
Advertising enquires: Send an email to [email protected]
Contribute articles: If you would like to be a contributing author for the magazine then send an email to [email protected] and let us know what you would like to write about. Copyright 2012 ACRBO. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated or converted into machine-readable form or language without the written consent of the publisher. Articles express the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the publisher
ACRBO Magazine
Director: ACRBO [email protected]
Contributors Various experts in their fields
The instructions and advice in the
Magazine is for entertainment purposes only. The creators, producers,
contributors and distributors of the ACRBO Mag disclaim any liability for
loss or lack of results from following the advice expressed herein
Should I pay for SEO? You will get various answers to this question and most of those that say no will typically say things such as: “You don’t need to pay for SEO you can do it yourself”…The problem is typically those same people do not spell out exactly what you have to do. SEO is not a quick fix and an “oh that is all I have to do” type of thing. If you are serious about SEO and don’t want to do it either because you don’t know how or don’t have the time then yes pay an expert to do it properly and you never have to worry about it. Dan ACRBO
Are newsletter important? Absolutely they are. You will find they are very tedious to do, time consuming and a bit of a pain. How’s that for wanting to do them. In all seriousness they are important because you want your customer to remember you. You want them passing your information along to others and you want to keep them informed of things you are doing with your business. So it’s really a matter of are you doing to do them or get someone else to do it for you. Dan ACRBO
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ACRBO inbox
ACRBO 6
Have a question? If so email it do
[email protected] and we will be glad to
answer it.
It can be business related pertaiing to
marketing, setting up your business, growth of
your business or anything you can think of.
With 2012 ending the Association has shown that
MSP Marketing Through Newsletters: Best Practices
If you ask any IT business owner as to how effective is newsletter marketing you will certainly get the affirmative response that Yes it works. It has been researched that dollar for dollar, newsletter marketing is the most effective form of marketing in terms of cost and ROI to the tune of $57 for every $1 invested. Newsletter marketing can be done electronically or through print. Both approaches are important ideally a combination of both works best. However, if I had to pick one, I would definitely pick print. Printed newsletters are far more superior and effective for the following reasons:
1- Print newsletters are attention grabbers: they are mailed, handled, and opened through physical actions and as such they are more attention grabbing than email newsletters. You can’t delete or send them to a “spam folder” and they won’t look like all the other electronic junk that we all get.
2- Stick ability: they are physical artifacts and even if they’re not read on the spot, they tend to “stick” around your propsects’ desks; and therefore, have a greater impact in terms of top of mind awareness and effectiveness.
3- Refer ability: many times, printed newsletters are shared and passed around the office from person to person; or if your prospect finds some useful tips that he can use elsewhere, he will carry the newsletter with him.
4- Value: with valuable articles and tips, a printed newsletter provides great reading material and adds value to your company and services.
How do you plan and implement your newsletter marketing strategy?
Most important: make sure you carefully pick your list of audience. Include existing clients and future prospects.
Verify the address information to avoid wasting postage and mailing materials.
Implement a process to update your mailing list whenever you acquire new clients or prospects.
Make sure you have good and valuable content that’s relevant to your audience.
Regularly mail your newsletter, at least once a month.
Set a mail-out date and work your schedule backwards.
Set aside time for formatting, printing, additional mailer printing (coupons/promotions etc.), envelope stuffing, and postage.
So why is it that despite all its benefits, the majority of IT business owners do not use this excellent marketing tool? At the simplest level, this comes down to time! When you’re running around all day long between taking calls, managing issues, employees, receivables, collections, email, legal and administrative matters, let’s face it, you don’t have much time left for marketing, much less for writing newsletters! Managed Newsletters Services was created to fill this need by providing professionally written, edited and vetted newsletters for IT providers to market their businesses. Managed Newsletters provides the most content at the most reasonable price and gives you full authority to edit, change, and use the content in any way that suits your business. To get more information and get a free trial please go to http://managednewsletters.com
This month’s winner will receive the eBook “Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned”. We will randomly choose a winner and e-mail the winner. Just send an email to [email protected] and in the Subject line put: WinBook Last Month’s winner is Benjamin Whatley of ByteSmart.biz
ACRBO 8
ACRBO 9
Visit
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Warranty You’re Services
If you have a business then it’s expected that
you are going to offer a warranty on services
provided.
Now what you have to do is come up with a
warranty on the different services you
provide.
Here are a few examples:
Virus/Malware removal – Typically on the
service you will offer either 30 days warranty
or even 24 hours it’s really up to you. Problem
with this service is you have no control over
the customer leaving and going home then
going back to the same exact sites that got
them infected in the first place. I prefer a 30
day for this service and go with the
assumption that “most” people will not just
do the same thing over and over.
Hardware upgrades – For this if you put in a
new hard drive on a customer’s computer the
drive itself typically comes with a 1 year
manufacturer warranty. So you can offer that
exact warranty.
No if you have to reload the operating system
at the same time you will need to specify the
hardware warranty and then how the OS is
completely different. If you don’t do this you
might have the customer come back in 3
months’ time and say they are having a
problem with their OS but it has nothing to do
with what you originally did for them.
Obviously you want to always make the
customer happy but you need documentation
otherwise you will have people expecting
things for nothing based on your lack of
documentation.
ACRBO 10
Consumers should constantly know about your company moves. You will
not have to tell individuals about every little product or component you're
transforming, yet if you're making any kind of big changes, your consumers
need to understand. The very same is true with any type of intentions. Allow
your consumers to know where you stand and just what's to come in the
future.
Mobile marketing is a recurring process that's actually tough to regulate
unless you're consistently remaining on top of your game. This suggests that
you must work to supervise your successes and failures with your campaign.
Consistently keep a close eye on what you're doing in advertising.
If you desire to come across as a professional business to clients, you have
to deliver decent prices. You do this by supervising the market. You desire
to deliver prices that are within the market variety, leaving adequate space
to offer up various bargains to convince your customers to purchase from
you.
Consumers should constantly know about your company moves. You will
not have to tell individuals about every little product or component you're
transforming, yet if you're making any kind of big changes, your consumers
need to understand. The very same is true with any type of intentions. Allow
your consumers to know where you stand and just what's to come in the
future.
Mobile marketing is a recurring process that's actually tough to regulate
unless you're consistently remaining on top of your game. This suggests that
you must work to supervise your successes and failures with your campaign.
Consistently keep a close eye on what you're doing in advertising.
If you desire to come across as a professional business to clients, you have
to deliver decent prices. You do this by supervising the market. You desire
to deliver prices that are within the market variety, leaving adequate space
to offer up various bargains to convince your customers to purchase from
you.
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Have a story
to share with
others about
your computer
business that
might help
them in the
future. Submit
it and we will
publish it in
next month’s
issues right in
this location.
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ACRBO 11
In business time is one commodity that you do not ever have enough of. There will always be enough projects, meetings, loose ends, appointments and more, but never enough time. How to make time for things that you never found time for before.
How to not stress out at the end of each day because you did not finish what you started.
Start Today “Time Is Precious”…www.TimeIsPrecious.info
ACRBO 12
Inside this article we are going to examine what
needs to be implemented to be successful
online. This system is really easy and one that
people don't bother about too much. By telling
you what to search for online, this is going to
be a smart way for you to master how to set up
a small online business.
ACRBO 14
I could hear the frustration in Walt's voice over the
phone. "I'm looking at my website right now and
instead of a home-page, I've got a black page that
says I've been hacked." After restoring website from
a clean backup, I turned my focus to determining
how the hacker got in. As it turned out, Walt was
using his favorite password for his website - the
same password that he had used on many accounts
for years. He knew that he should update his
password, but he hadn't done so because until that
morning it didn't seem all that important. With cyber-
crime on the rise, let's take a quick look at one of the
most common ways that passwords are
compromised and what 3 things you can do to keep
your login information safe.
Brute Force Methods
Brute force, sometimes known as an exhaustive key
search, is a method that consists of trying enough
password combinations until the right one is found.
There are plenty of software programs available on
the Internet that make it relatively easy for a kid with
too much time on his hands to try and brute force his
way into your online accounts.
These software programs start with a dictionary - a
long list of words like you would expect to find in the
dictionary. This list contains lots of names, because
people frequently use someone's name as a
password. Birthdays and phone number are also
popular passwords and the "dictionary" would
include thousands of combinations of names,
numbers, and misspellings. Substitute spellings
where the numeral 1 is used in place of the
character L are included in this list.
Password Safety Best Practices
Longer passwords are better than shorter passwords. As you
would expect, an 8 character password is much harder to crack
than a 4 character password. This is because the resources
required for a brute-force attack grow exponentially with
increasing password length, not linearly. As a result, doubling the
password length does not simply double the number of possible
combinations, but rather squares them. This means than an 8
character password is 16 times harder to crack than a 4
character password. Make sure your passwords are at least 8
characters in length.
Using as many types of characters as possible greatly
strengthens your password and makes it much more difficult for
your login credentials to be cracked. This means you should use
upper case and lower case letters as well as numbers in all of
your passwords. Using symbols like exclamation point (!), period
(.), dollar sign ($), dash (-), etc., although not always allowed,
greatly increase the security of your password. To see the
difference that it makes in how long it would take for a brute-
force password cracker to guess your password check out this
table showing how long it would take for various lengths of
passwords and characters.
Changing your password regularly is a security best practice. I
know this is easier said than done, but this is one of those areas
where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Walt's situation is unfortunately not uncommon. Walt was lucky.
He discovered the problem within just a few hours of when it
happened and had access to a clean backup of his website. I
was able to restore his website by the time he opened his doors
for business in the morning. Most people in Walt's situation aren't
that lucky. With cybercrime on the rise for the foreseeable future,
it pays to be careful.
PASSWORD SECURITY Changing your password regularly is a
security best practice. I know this is
easier said than done, but this is one of
those areas where an ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure.
ACRBO marketplace
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> Want to see your ad here? Drop us an email.
Facebook Passes 1
Billion Users
Milestone Facebook has passed the one billion user milestone
underlining the dominance of the site in the social media
market.
Founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed the
figure in a post on the site on Thursday morning.
"This morning, there are more than one billion people using
Facebook actively each month. If you're reading this: thank
you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you,"
he said.
"Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by
far the thing I am most proud of in my life.
"I am committed to working every day to make Facebook
better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able
to connect the rest of the world too."
The firm revealed the figure was officially hit on September
14, and that to date some 219 billion photos have been
uploaded to the site.
The announcement is a significant milestone in the company's
history but comes as it struggles to reignite early fervor
around the firm after a disastrous flotation on the stock
market.
Much of its initial value has been wiped off after the share
price plunged in opening weeks due to concerns around its
mobile performance and rumors of alleged insider knowledge
being given to banks ahead of the launch.
Earlier this year, the firm revealed it had passed 900 million
members, underlining the speed of its growth, although
almost 100 million of the profiles were revealed to be fake in a
later filing by then firm.
Local Search, How To Get Your Local
Business Found On The Internet
A couple of years ago Google put the nails in the
coffin of the Yellow Pages by creating free business
websites for every business in the country. Now you
can simply go to Google and type the name of the
product or service you want to find and up it comes
with phone number and a lot of relevant information.
Google Vs The Yellow Pages
People seldom use the Yellow Pages these days.
Now, Google is where people go to find providers for
the services they want. This turned out to be a boon to
those businesses who came out on top of those
searches. For example, if I enter Dentist Louisville and
Google also tells me that 8100 people every month
enter that search. Is your practice in the top 3 or 4
results?
Searching on Google also reveals that the top 3 or 4
Google maps results get over 80% of the phone calls
from that search. So if you are not there you are not
getting any of those leads. How can you get there?
Optimising Your Google Listing
There are a couple of factors involved in getting to the
top of Google. The first thing to do is get your listing
optimized. Many companies haven't even bothered to
claim their listing let along optimising them. So
claiming your listing is the first step. You simply need
a Gmail account to allow you to claim your business
listing.
After claiming your listing you want to go into it and
flesh it out as much as you can. Add all the pictures
that it allows and all the videos. Fill in all the
categories that you can. Decide what it is you do and
begin to fill in the categories with this information. The
idea is you want everything filled in so you can have
the biggest footprint as possible. Google will probably
require that you verify your listing by mail. They will
send you a post card with a verification code you have
to enter. Make sure you do this or your listing will not
go live.
Getting Reviews
Next you want to encourage your clients or customers to give you good reviews. Don't
over do this, 3 or 4 reviews per month is a good number, more than that and they might
get filtered and you will lose them. Whatever you do, do not post fake reviews, this is
against the law.
Getting Referrals And becoming Relevant
Those are the on page optimizations that you need to do. As with regular SEO there is
also off page things to do. Instead of link building you want to build what are called
referrals. You should start this process by making listings in other online directories
such as Bing, Yahoo, Foursquare, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Superpages among others.
When you create the listings you will be entering similar information as you did when
you optimized your Google listing. An important point in doing this is to be certain that
the business name, address, and phone number is entered in exactly the same way as
in your Google listing. Google uses this information to correlate the listings.
You want to get as many referrals as possible and an easy way to do this, after you set
up the basic ones listed above yourself is to use a service like UBL.org. They have
several levels of service and price points that go all the way from providing basic
listings to premium services where they will actually claim your listings for you. This is
tedious work and you really should investigate UBL if you are doing this yourself.
Decide what it is you
do and begin to fill
in the categories
with this
information. The
idea is you want
everything filled in
so you can have the
biggest footprint as
possible.
The Industry
Site: www.TechNibble.com
Who Is Technibble For?
Technibble is a free resource for Computer Technicians and Computer Business Owners.
Technibble helps computer technicians with information and how-to-articles published a few times
a week and has a strong community of Computer Technicians to help one another.
Technibble helps you by covering topics such as:
- How to start a Computer Business
- Advertising, how to get clients and keep them
- Business and legal issues
- Streamline your computer repair work
- Technician related product reviews and discounts
- New opportunities to look out for
- Stories from “the trenches” from your fellow Computer Techs
Technibble also has a large database of Computer Repair tools and adds a new on to its database
every week.
Be sure to check out the Archives, Computer Repair Tools section and the Computer
Technician forum. .
www.Technibble.com
ACRBO 20
How SHOULD you deal with Windows Recovery? I'll get to
that in a moment. But first, there are several important
steps you should NOT take in dealing with this type of
infection:
Don't run Disk Cleanup, Ccleaner, or any utility program that deletes Temp files
Don't run ComboFix
Don't buy any program that claims to remove this infection
So, did any of these DON'Ts surprise you? Do you ever
think about what NOT to do when attacking a virus or other
malware infection? Most of the time our tendency is to jump
into action and start "fixing." Sometimes it's just as
important to know what NOT TO DO as it is to know what
TO DO.
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...
The rogue security program known as Windows Recovery
has become one of the most widespread examples of this
threat category in recent history. It is also more difficult to
remove than most programs of this type. There are many
variations on the actual name used for it, but the symptoms
are virtually identical in all variants.
The first symptom is a large pop-up, usually at Windows
startup time. Unlike many programs in this category, it does
not warn the user of a virus infection; instead, it claims to
have found errors on the hard drive, saying "Error fix is
required." At that point, of course, it asks the user for a
credit card to download a program that will allegedly fix the
errors on the hard drive.
The window contains no "Ignore" or "Cancel" option, and
clicking the red X in the top right corner of the window will
not close it. There is also no entry in the Taskbar, so
closing the window from there is not an option either.
The program usually disables Task Manager, removing
another possible way of closing this window. If the user
ignores the pop-up and attempts to run their usual
programs, that's when they encounter the more ominous
symptoms of this malware.
At that point it appears that all programs have been lost on
the hard drive, and all icons may have disappeared from the
desktop. They may not be able to see any of their data
files, either. That's when panic sets in.
.
As with most widespread malware, a search for "Windows
Recovery virus" in your favorite search engine will return
many links with supposed cures for this infection. These
links range from completely worthless to incomplete or
outdated, to some that actually offer a complete and
accurate, if time-consuming, solution.
Using the techniques taught in the Virus Remediation
Training workshop and some of the tools provided with the
course, this infection can be stopped in less than 5
minutes. Complete removal of the malware and restoration
of all files and shortcuts can usually be accomplished in less
than 30 minutes.
But, it could get worse...
On some systems infected by this malware, a Rootkit is
also installed. These infections typically are not detected by
anti-malware programs, even otherwise good ones such as
VIPRE and MalwareBytes. Removing these rootkits can
present a challenge for the most seasoned veterans of
malware repair.
Most of the common rootkits since early 2010 fall into the
category of TDL3 Rootkits, also known as TDSS
Rootkits. Another name they have been given is
Alureon. And recently TDL4 Rootkits have begun to appear
in the wild. In any case, it is easy to identify such an
infection based on its symptoms.
The average user will notice no obvious symptoms of a
TDL3 rootkit infection. But once you know the
characteristics of these infections, you can easily confirm
the presence of such a rootkit:
Results of a Google search are redirected to unrelated sites
Trying to run Windows Updates manually fails, most commonly with a generic error message “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” or the specific Microsoft Update Error number 0x80072EFF
Trying to install Service Pack 3 on a Windows XP system fails with a "system file in use" error
The Virus Remediation Training workshop includes detailed
procedures and tools for removing rootkit infections, as well
as traditional viruses, spyware, and rogue security programs
such as Windows Recovery.
How do you deal with the
Windows Recovery
malware?
Copyright 2013 by Ken Dwight, “The Virus Doctor™,” Houston, Texas. All rights reserved. Ken is a Computer Consultant, Speaker, and Trainer, and creator of the Virus Remediation Training workshop for computer support technicians. For reprint rights, information about upcoming workshops, or to inquire about booking Ken for your next Conference, Convention, or Company Meeting, contact us at www.thevirusdoc.com or phone (281) 537-0252.
Small Business Debt Collection Letter Writing
Writing a debt collection letter is one of the most important skills of any small business owner. Do you have what it takes to get the money you've earned? Debt collection letters--an overview "Debt collection letter" in the singular may be an oxymoron, since unfortunately, one is rarely enough. You should have a series of letters to send to deadbeat clients, each one becoming a little more insistent. Here are some ideas for a five-letter series. 1. Don't make your first letter look like a collection letter at all. Make it a friendly note. You're more likely to get money from someone who thinks of you as a partner than a dun. 2. If that first letter doesn't get a response--and usually it won't--send another the next week that's more urgent and directly asks for the money. Express your concern that you have not been able to contact the client. Ask if he or she is all right, and if he or she is having any trouble paying. 3. The next week, if you still have not gotten a response, send a letter referring to the payment terms in the agreement you and the client originally made (you did have some kind of written agreement, even if it was just on the back of your invoice, right?). Mention the effect this nonpayment is having on your cash flow, and that your business's cash flow is just as important as theirs.
4. Still no response by the next week? State plainly that you are
asking for the money for the final time before referring it to
collections. Include a copy of the entire agreement between you
and the client.
5. If you still have not heard back from the client, and are
confident that you do not simply have a problem with their
contact information, call a collection agency—in fact, you may
have wanted to have gotten a collection agency from step one
(more on that below).
More Tips for Successful Debt Collections
Tip: Don't wait to start asking for your money.
If it's been a week since the payment deadline passed, it's been
a week too long. Send out that first "reminder" letter today.
Don't hesitate to send these letters as little as a week apart
from each other. The longer your bill goes unpaid, the less
likely it is you will ever see that money again.
Tip: If you've been sending email, try sending paper.
For whatever reason, there are people who take a paper letter more seriously. There's also the real chance that your emails really are not getting through reliably, or are ending up at the bottom of an overflowing Inbox. If you do send email, make sure it's digitally signed. A digital signature proves that you sent the email to the specific recipient. In fact, you might want to make sure all your emails to clients and prospects are digitally signed, to have solid documentation of everything you said, and everything they owe. Unlike with regular emails, the date, time, "to" and "from" fields can't be forged, so the email has legal standing, even more than certified mail. While web-based email programs cannot send digitally signed email, there are third-party services that will let you send hundreds of digitally signed emails from a desktop email program for only a few dollars a month. Tip: Follow up your debt collection letter with a telephone call.
As any collection agency will tell you, telephone calls are useful if your debtor has ignored the collection letters. But with caller ID, Caller Blocking and voice mail - if people don't want to take your calls it is hard to reach them. This technique could be especially effective in the case of someone with whom you know will answer their own phone. Of course, your writing skills won't go to waste: you need to make sure you have scripted what you want to say. You should take the same attitude and touch on the same points as your letter. Whatever you do, don't let yourself get sidetracked, and don't be embarrassed. They're the ones who are putting you out. Don't know your deadbeat's telephone number? Try looking up the "Whois" record of the business's website, which usually has the owner's telephone number. Does all this sound like too much work? If you'd rather be writing proposals than collection letters, there are small business collection agencies that will take on debts for as little as $20 each. After all, your client had enough sense to go to you rather than doing your specialty themselves. Shouldn't you have as much sense when it comes to your debt collection letters?
Rajkamta –For more visit www.start-ownbiz.com
ACRBO 23
ACRBO 24
How Do I Find Keywords That
Will Make Money Online?
Hello now the above question is a pretty frequent one that appears on many internet
marketing forums, not necessarily with those exact words but that's the general drift
So today I want to try and answer that with a couple of tips that I hope will make
sense and get you started in the right direction.
When launching a marketing campaign for your website, traffic is the name of the
game. Traffic is the lifeblood of your website. The success or failure of your online
business depends upon how much traffic your website receives. And there is no
question that one of the best (if not the best for most of us) sources of free traffic for
your website is the search engines.
Search Engine Traffic is Vital
Here's just a reminder, basic information I know but many loose sight of, people rely
on the search engines for information. People have problems and are seeking
answers and solutions. So they turn to the search engines for answers. So if you
want your website to show up on the top of the first page of the search results for a
particular search term, then you need to develop your website in such a way that
when the search engines crawl your site, they will rank it well for the right keywords.
Here's a reality check
Let's face it: If your website isn't listed on the top half of the first page of the search
results for a particular search term, chances are very high that your website will not
be visited. People seldom click through to page 2 or 3 of the search results if they
can't find what they are looking for on the first page. They would rather click on the
back button and enter a different search term instead.
You may have heard the old axiom:
If a tree falls in a forest, but nobody was there to witness it, did it
really fall? Similarly, one could pose the question: If someone does a
Google search and your website doesn't show up on the top (or near
enough) of page one of the search results for that search term, does
your website really "exist"?
Can you see why ranking your website well for particular keywords is
of utmost importance?
Research, Research and More research
So the question arises as to how do you choose the right keywords
that will make money online? There are a number of things you need
to take into consideration as you do your keyword research:
Here's 3 Simple Tips to Follow
1. Put yourself into the shoes of your website visitors.
If you were serious about spending money online, what keywords
would you type into Google? Chances are that if you type in "Mega
Vacuum 3000 reviews", you are keener on buying the product than if
you type in "which vacuum is the best". The first keyword phrase
indicates that you already know what you want to buy, and you are
more focused on making a final decision on whether to buy a
product. The second keyword phrase, on the other hand, is indicative
of someone who isn't sure what to buy yet and is just browsing to get
information.
2. Is your choice of keywords actually being searched often enough
to drive enough traffic to your website in order generate sales? So it
is important to do the keyword research in order to determine how
many times per month a particular keyword gets searched. Google,
for example, offers a keyword research tool that can provide this
information.
3. Competition also plays a significant role in your website's ability to
rank for a particular keyword. It might be difficult for your website to
rank highly if the top 3 spots in the search result are already
dominated by big name corporations in your same niche. It might
also be difficult to rank well if there is a lot more competition than if
there is less competition. Google also offers information about
competition with its keyword research tool.
If you want your online business to thrive, then it is important to
optimize your website for the right keywords that will make money
online.
Competition
also plays a
significant
role in your
website's
ability to
rank for a
particular
keyword.
ACRBO 26
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ACRBO 28
Interview with SEO Expert
Ali Husayni, CEO at
MasterGoogle
In this interview, Ali Husayni (CEO, MasterGoogle)
shares his expertise on the subject of SEO. He
talks about the latest developments and the
upcoming challenges in the world of SEO. Also the
founder of Sinai Marketing Inc, Ali has invested a
lot of time and energy into establishing his
company’s stellar image in the online marketing
industry.
The biggest secret behind Ali’s entrepreneurial success is his capability to turn clients into long-term
partners.
Q1. Could you provide us with a description of your general SEO experience?
I was desperate for work when I was graduating from the University back in 2003. A friend of mine came to
our home and told me his company was hiring a project manager. I asked him what they did and he said
SEO. I asked “What”? And he said a few things that I didn’t understand a word of it. But I said I was
interested anyways.
That’s how I got introduced to SEO at Page 1 Solutions LLC. There, I was trained in SEO and Web
development and next year started Sinai Marketing, which is now known as Master Google.
Q2. Does PageRank (PR) really matter today?
Of course. PageRank is a generalization of how Google ranks site(s). It’s usually outdated, but it gives a
good indication of a site’s strength.
ACRBO 29
Q3. How many target keywords, do you think, a site should
focus on?
I answer this in a different way: each web page could be optimized
for 3-5 main words and the different synonyms or combination of
phrases using these words.
Q4. Recently, Google has made a lot of search algorithmic
developments to target ‘link spam’. How can SEOs avoid
penalties while building backlinks for their websites or blogs?
This is the million dollar question. The short answer is “stay natural”.
Don’t engage in link-building efforts that could be penalized by
Google. After all, Google doesn’t appreciate artificial link-building
development for the purpose of increasing a site’s ranks.
The long answer… well… that’s long and requires understanding of
what “natural” means to Google. Keep in mind, the definition of
“natural” could change as spammers learn new techniques and find
new short-cuts.
Q5. What’s the role of social media in an SEO strategy?
Social Media is not a new phenomenon in the internet world.
However, it’s effect on SEO is something very new. Google adopted
and then dropped Tweets in the search results. It couldn’t reach an
agreement with Facebook to get access to millions of its pages. And
finally developed Google Plus after a couple of unsuccessful
attempts with Buzz and Orkut. Google tried to integrate G+ with
Google search and users were not so sure about the improving
search results – so they backed out. Google still has not given up on
its fight against Facebook. We’ll see what the end will have.
Facebook and Twitter are also attempting to fight Google in the
search market by partnering with Bing. However, Google still remains
the search giant and Facebook the social media giant.
There are rumors that Google ranks socially shared pages better if
everything else is equal. But Google has denied this and I have not
seen solid proof of it.
So, what’s the role of social media in an SEO strategy? It’s hard to
tell, but one thing I would suggest your readers is to get socially
involved in Google Plus.
Q6. How do you deal with a client who doesn’t want to follow your
SEO recommendations?
Our clients normally trust my team and me when it comes to
recommendations. However, if we feel our relationship is not
benefiting our clients, we will end it.
Q7. Did you ever fail in an SEO project? Please share your
experience.
Of course! I’ve failed a few times. One of my two worst experiences
was with the first serious Google SEO client I got. He was a cosmetic
dentist in LA and I managed to get him ranked on the first page. He
was amazed by the results and offered me triple the pay if I could
use that to get him to the top. Not knowing enough SEO, I tripled my
efforts in link-building and other things and managed to get him
severely penalized by Google. He dropped to page 10 and I could
never get him back to the first page.
The second bad experience happened when I decided to rank our
own site on the first page of Google for the keyword “SEO”. For the
first time, I decided to buy links. Amazingly, we got the site to the first
page in less than two months… I let you guess the rest.
Know the basics of SEO. Study
your prospects. And be careful,
because you can only make this
decision once for each website
Q8. Why is Wikipedia so successful in terms of Google organic
rankings?
There is a recent article on this that I shared on my Google Plus page. That
answers the question fully. However, the short answer is that Wikipedia has all
the needed elements of SEO in place. This includes a vast ocean of content –
that is updated regularly, amazing optimization techqniues including keyword-
rich URL’s as well as beautiful inner linking structure, and millions of naturally
built back-links. The combination gives Wikipedia a killer SEO strategy.
Q9. What are the key steps that you would like to follow while optimizing
a website for keyword search?
The key steps are: updating meta tags, header tags and making sure there are
no spammy optimization techniques on the site – like keyword stuffing, etc.
Q10. What areas of SEO do you like the most?
I like all of it, but its ever-changing dynamic keeps me motivated.
Q11. What tools do you have in your SEO toolkit?
I personally use back-link checkers and Adwords Keyword Selector Tool. But
my team hasother tools they use.
Q12. Name a couple of your favorite SEO industry blogs?
SEOMoz and MattCutts.
Q13. What advice would you like to offer someone who’s looking for a
good SEO company?
Know the basics of SEO. Study your prospects. And be careful, because you
can only make this decision once for each website (if you make the wrong
decision, most probably the site will get penalized by Google).
Q14. What are some key features that set MasterGoogle apart from other
SEO firms or agencies?
Our clients speak proudly of us. They share their testimonials and phone
numbers with anyone who’s interested to enquire about us. We don’t sign any
long-term contracts, so we have to earn our clients business each and every
month. We study hard and work even harder to deliver the best possible
service to our clients.
Q15. How does your company plan to expand in the near future?
Traditionally, we’ve expanded slowly and naturally. I expect the same will
happen in future.
[Don’t forget to follow Ali on Google Plus or connect with him on Twitter.]
Thanks you very much Ali for sharing some of the most useful SEO tips with
our readers. I really hope that the readers will be able to gather all the best
recommendations you gave and use them to optimize their sites for better
visibility in search engines like Google.
