When you set up your online business, it is absolutely imperative to have a web presence.  So, unless you’re a web design and marketing pro, it would seem like a great idea to hire the right company that will give your brand that extra leverage.

Most e-commerce stores fail to have that because they don’t hire the right web host.  So, what aspects do you need to consider when hiring the best online store hosting company?  We have the answers!

1.     Assess their Services & Features

Take a closer look at what they have to offer you.  If you’re looking for an interactive website with dynamic graphics, can they make it possible?  Do they have the resources?  It would be most suitable to pick a company who will design, develop and market your website. Once you have the features listed down, you can make a comparison easily.

2.     The Price

There are several web host companies who will offer you ‘reasonable’ rates, but beware!  There may be a catch. These companies offer the right rate, but with incomplete services.  So you may not end up getting what you initially paid for.  Look for good rates, and make sure you know what you’re getting with at this price.

3.     Take a Look at the Portfolio

It is highly recommended that you work with a company that has past experience in web hosting.  Ask for references.  How long have they been in the business?  Take a look at their work.  Does it match your requirements?  If they fail to display past work, then it is best you move on to the next host.

4.     Support after Project is Completed

Websites may have bugs or errors.  Most companies who have had their website developed complain that their web hosts are difficult to get in touch with after the completion of the project.  Therefore, ensure that the web host you choose provides an excellent customer support system if any unforeseen circumstances arises.

Looking for the best web design company?

Earth Skater is an innovative and creative e-commerce company that will design, develop, and market your online store.  They provide a complete online store setup, web design layouts, customer support system, and so much more.

The company has an impressive portfolio, with experience working with one of the leading brands in the USA.   Furthermore it is also accredited by the BBB with an A+ rating.

For more information check out the following details:

Website: http://www.earthskater.com/
Phone Number (toll free): 877-627-2492
Email: info@earthskater.com

On attrition and innovation… “at some point your techniques will fail because of the changes the competition makes.” Schroeder #business

— Sener Sean Korkusuz (@SenerKorkusuz) May 20, 2014

Because of the competitive nature of online business and the low barrier to entry for anyone who desires to sell their products or services online, continuous improvement is necessary to stay ahead of your competition and newcomers alike. Continuous improvement for your website / online business means:

• Always working to increase traffic
• Always working to optimize for conversions
• Always working to increase the efficiency of your work processes
• Always seeking, identifying, and developing new strategic partners
• Always researching expansion into new markets whether through new products or new niche marketing efforts

Follow Earth Skater on twitter to keep up with the latest trends in E-commerce and insights into improving your online business.

Favorite Tweets by @earthskater

The content below was first seen on the Google Webmaster Tools account Help section and is edited here to clarify the term SEO as defined by Google.

SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization”.   Deciding to hire an SEO person or company is a big decision that can potentially improve your site rankings but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation.

Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.   Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

• Review of your site content or structure
• Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
• Content development
• Management of online business development campaigns
• Keyword research
• SEO training
• Expertise in specific markets and geographies.

Keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisement (denoted as “Ads” or “Sponsored”) as well.

Advertising with Google won’t have any effect on your site’s presence in our search results.

Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results.

Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion forum can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search.

Before beginning your search for an SEO, it’s a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work.  We recommend starting here:

Google Webmaster Guidelines
Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.

If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better.   A great time to hire is when you’re considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site.   That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up.  However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways.

Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site’s presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index.

Here are some things to consider:

One common scam is the creation of “shadow” domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects.  These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client’s behalf.  However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor’s domain.  If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place “doorway” pages loaded with keywords on the client’s site somewhere.  The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords.  More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO’s other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.

Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for “burn fat at night” diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google.  There is no priority submit for Google.  In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear.  If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or “throwaway” domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google’s index.  Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it’s best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to “help” you.  If an SEO has FTP access to your server, they should be willing to explain all the changes they are making to your site.

You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of “free-for-all” links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don’t affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines — at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

Choose wisely.
You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO company:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html.

Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results.

What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO.

• owns shadow domains
• puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
• offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that
  appear on search results pages
• guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
• operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
• gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
• has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google

Steps to Obtain EV Authentication (GeoTrust)

1. Complete the EV Enrollment to obtain a GeoTrust Order ID.
2. The Organization’s approver (identified in the EV certificate order) must sign and submit the appropriate Acknowledgement of Agreement form (PDF)
3. Following receipt of the AA form, the following authentication requirements will be carried out to ensure your order can be expediently processed:

A. Organization Authentication Requirements

GeoTrust must be able to confirm all of the following organizational registration requirements:

• Official government agency records must include:
  • The organization’s registration number.
  • The organization’s date of registration/incorporation.
  • The organization’s registered address.
• A non-government data source (such as Dun & Bradstreet) must include the organization’s place of business address if it is not included in the Government agency records
• If the organization has been registered for less than three years, GeoTrust must verify operational existence through one of the following means:
  • Through a non-government data source (such as Dun & Bradstreet)
    – or –
  • By verifying the organization has an active demand deposit account (such as a checking account) with a regulated financial institution through a Lawyer’s Opinion Letter or directly with the financial institution.

Some notes on completing the EV form:

Why Use a Subdirectory for your Blog instead of Sub-domain

• They make it easier for visitors to click between your blog and home page or other section of your main website
• Your main domain name gets the search engine SEO benefit from anyone linking to your blog
  
• Each new blog post gets the benefit of your main domains existing search engine rank, so new blog posts usually get indexed higher faster
• Publishing new content on your blog that is within a subdirectory of your main domain like earthskater.com/blog/ has direct effect on the SEO of your website.
  
  Google’s Matt Cutts uses subdirectories for his blog as well.

1. Target The Right Audience

Target the right audience by selecting the language, countries, cities, or counties you want to target.

2. Refine Your Keywords

Use square brackets “[…]” around your keyword/s.

For example:

[car parts]
[diamond jewelry]

Your ad will only show when the search is for the exact keyword phrase you have included within the brackets.

The ad will not show for searches that include other keywords.

3. Test Multiple Ads Simultaneously

Always test 2 (or more) ads simultaneously. This is what is known in as an A/B split test (comparing the test results of 2 tests to see which performs better and continue to optimize and adjust accordingly).

4. Track The Return-On-Investment Of Each Ad

Use conversion tracking to track your ads conversion ratios. Make sure each ad produces a return-on-investment, remove the keywords and advertisements that do not.

5. Include Targeted Keywords In Your Ad

Include the targeted keywords in the headline and the description of the ad.  Google will highlight searched keywords in bold in the ad.

When people scan search results, they look for the keywords they have entered.  Searched keywords highlighted in bold certainly help to catch the user’s attention. For this reason, ads with searched keywords usually perform better than ones without.

6. Sell The Benefits

Spell out one or more major benefit in your ad. For example, make more money, stay younger looking, lose weight, get healthier, live happier, etc.

7. Include Attention Grabbing Words In Your Ad

Start your headline with an attention grabbing word. For example, “Free:, New:, Sale:, etc.”  You must stay within Google’s editorial guidelines.

8. Use Words That Provoke Emotion & Enthusiasm

Use power words or call-to-action phrases that provoke emotion, enthusiasm and a response.

Here are some examples of power words:

free, cheap, sale, special offer, time limited offer, tricks, you, tips, enhance, discover, fact, learn, at last, free shipping, etc.

Here are some examples of call-to-action phrases:

* Buy Today – Save 50%
* Download Free Trial Now
* Sale Ends Tomorrow

Make sure the phrase specific to your business, otherwise Google may reject the phrase.

9. Sell Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

What makes your product or service better, or different, from the competition? Spell them out in your ad.

For example, one of Amazon.com’s first taglines was “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” That’s a powerful USP!

10. Link To Relevant Landing Pages

If an ad is for a specific product or service, create a landing page for the ad. Include relevant and useful information to convert the customer. Generally, a well designed landing page will almost always convert more visitors than if you simply sent the visitor to the home page.  This is the secret to AdWords Quality Score.

11. Remove Common Words

Remove common words, such as “a, an, in, on, it, of, etc.” Remove every word that does not absolutely need to be in the ad. Make every word count.

12. Deter Freebie Hunters

Deter freebie hunters by including the price of the product or service at the end of the ad. This will improve your overall conversion ratio and lower your average customer acquisition cost.

This may reduce your click through ratio, but that’s OK. After all, you’re not trying to target every body, only potential customers. In most cases, freebie hunters will never become paying customers.

 Author: Michael Wong is the editor of GoDefy.com – the world’s first internet marketing comparison shopping search engine and Mike’s Marketing Tools. Michael is also the author of the leading SEO book and numerous marketing tips. Visit his web sites at http://www.goDefy.com & http://www.Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com

Edited by Earth Skater 2/6/2015.