May 2015 – McCord Web Services The Web Authority

May 27, 2015May 22, 2015

Business Phones – Think New Technology

Bright Idea Tips to Help With Business Phones

I am moving to the Fredericksburg, Virginia area in July and August this year and as I plan ahead for my move I am revamping my home and business phone technology used to use new things.

Currently, I have a fax telephone line, a business phone line, a residential phone line, two line phones throughout the house, hard wired CAT 5 cabling, and over 9 computers. With my new move, I am going to streamline my use of old tech and move to some new tech.

For example, I am thinking of:

1. Using a Word document/Office subscription fax interface that will allow me to fax using my smartphone as well as to receive faxes this way too. I like MyFax at MyFax.com as my solution. I selected this one due to ease of use and low price – $10 a month. I’ll be needing to have a temporary fax solution for three months before I move into my permanent office and so want something easy to use and usable on a smartphone.

2. I am actually thinking of not having a separate phone line for my business and using my smartphone as my office phone. I already have set up a Google Voice number and will most likely use this number on my website and have it forwarded to my smartphone or home phone on certain days. I have already purchased a new local phone number from Google for $10, as once you have a number you have to pay to change it. I like the ability to control when Google Voice forwards calls. You can even group contacts and then create different answering messages by group. You can have family and friends get automatically connected without delay which is a nice feature.

3. I know that I will have FiOS as my new office. I already have been using virtual phone numbers which really give a terrific cost saving and use VOIP. I may continue to use this for my business or at least for a dedicated fax line and now only one residential line, but I am still thinking of what is the best and most versatile option for my future needs.

With so many new technological choices what you used to think you had to have in your office phone-wise, you now get to think over and reinvent when you move. What technology have you moved to that has cut costs and streamlined your life? Make sure to let me know by clicking and leaving a comment. I guarantee that I’ll check it out and may use it too.

May 25, 2015May 22, 2015

Positioning Your Website to Own Your Location

My new Spotsylvania, Virginia office location.

I am getting ready to move this summer from Waldorf, Maryland to the Fredericksburg, Virginia area to Spotsylvania, Virginia. As a result I am already starting to plan and to position my own website to grab market share in the Fredericksburg region.

Here are a few of the things I will be doing in the upcoming months to my own website to position myself locally.

1. I’ve already bought for $10 a new Google Voice phone number with my new local area code. Instead of 301 I want my area code to be 540. I will be using this local Fredericksburg phone exchange on my website and expect to list phone numbers in both Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg on my website.

2. I will be using my full street address again on my website in the footer of all pages. Google loves location specificity and when you include your phone, address, city and state as well as zip code, Google understands more clearly how to categorize your website.

3. Google Local is an issue. Many business owners have real trouble updating their address in Google Places when they move. For some reason Google will continue to show your old address instead of your new address. As I do have full access to my old pages and new pages, and the ability to for a while to receive mail at my old location and phone number, I will be making my address change on Google before I move. I have found for some that try to do this after they have moved, it can be a problem when Google wants to send a snail mail update and they do not have access to mail.

4. I will start reworking my content to put Virginia in on my pages and to mention my location on blog posts more fully as I start to transition my business to its new location. Planning ahead is key and this blog post is simply the start of the process for me.

My new billing and office address in August will be:

10708 Chatham Ridge Way
Spotsylvania, Virginia 22551

5. Once I am landed in my new city, I will be joining the Chamber of Commerce. What a great way to connect with local business owners. Plus they will link to my website as a member and Google loves location specific links that are authoritative. This will help Google to know I have moved.

6. I am a Google Local Guide and have already started to write about Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Virginia locations. That will give Google another online cue as to my new location.

It takes a while to own your local location for your business, but with careful thought and planning you can start to appear in local searches at your new location if you plan ahead.

Need some help with smart solutions to position your own business locally. Contact me at McCord Web Services today.

May 20, 2015May 15, 2015

AdWords Express Gets a Thumbs Down Rating

It used to be that AdWords Express was easy enough for a business owner to set up and maintain and the results were pretty good for low budget accounts. But lately, Google seems to be delivering untargeted results.

Here’s an example. A client asked me to set up an AdWords Express account. They wanted to take a low budget route to get exposure on AdWords. Typically for clients with a $200 per 30 day ad spend who were okay with a 15 mile ad delivery radius around their business location, this seemed like a very low cost way to get fair results.

Now, Google has nearly totally automated keyword selection in AdWords Express accounts and if you really look at the 27 pages of keywords that Google is showing for one ad, you’d be shocked at what Google is delivering clicks on. The phrases and your ability to control what your ad shows on is now marginal at best.

With these changes, Google has automated the process, but at the expense of quality. On set up you can select one category from Google predetermined list, then select five or six predetermined terms by clicking a check box, but this is when the trouble starts. Google extrapolates high activity keywords for your account so if you selected permanent eyebrows Google now shows your ads for terms like semi-permanent makeup, eyebrow makeup, and cosmetics. Yikes!

Because of Google’s delivery change and inability to once and for all control the search phrases – ones you delete keep popping back into the account, I’ll be changing my program and recommending that only do it yourselfers who have loads of time on their hands use AdWords Express. The lack of controls is very concerning and makes me give it a thumbs down!

May 18, 2015May 15, 2015

The New World of SEO

Google Partner Badge — McCord Web Services is a Google Partner.

How organic placement is determined on search engines has changed significantly in the past two years. Google states that it evaluates over 200 different factors to determine website placement on their search engine including links, the age of the domain name, some types of social media activity, and quality of content.

A service firm can no longer optimize a website based only on a set of keyword phrases and expect placement to be the same for every reader. Now, search engine results are personalized; meaning that what one customer sees is not the same as what another sees, and can even be different from what you, the website owner, sees online.

This makes traditional search engine optimization, as it has been known obsolete. Personalized search results are impacted by the search history that you yourself make every time you do a search on Google.com, Bing.com, or Yahoo.com. Results are impacted by what you search for and what you click in to review.

Additionally, personalized search results are now being skewed even further by your social media interaction; such as your activity and friend network on social sites and Google+. And, even the authority of sites that link to your site. Add to that the emphasis that Google.com has placed on pushing local business listings, using Google+ Local, ahead of regular organic search listings and the art of improving search placement has become very, very complicated.

Today, a business must focus on organic and paid placement to garner leads and sales. There are still smart things that can be done to help to boost your website’s placement but gaming the system to grab top spots is a dead strategy and some actions can even permanently damage your search authority.

If you are looking for smart, ethical services to help improve your visibility, I invite you to visit our website for more information.