Simply sign  up (not a trial – no CC required), download and install their program on your computer, choose the folder(s) you want to sync with your account… and you’re done.

Recognizing the right keywords for your site, page(s), and post(s) is one of the most vital methods used to improve search engine rankings. Selecting suitable keywords for your site is critical when it comes to visibility. This is how the search engines deliver potential customers to your site.

Selecting . . . → Read More: Keyword Selection]]> Keyword Strategies

Recognizing the right keywords for your site, page(s), and post(s) is one of the most vital methods used to improve search engine rankings. Selecting suitable keywords for your site is critical when it comes to visibility. This is how the search engines deliver potential customers to your site.

Selecting Keywords:

Improved search engine positioning starts with proper keyword selection. Study your business and consider the words and phrases that connect best to the products or services you offer.

Consider the following while creating your keyword list:

Who is the target customer that would need or want your product or service?
Let’s pretend your site sells makeup. Think of all the terms that may relate to this product – moisturizer, buffer, collagen, bronzer, etc., and also imagine the uses for these products – cover up acne, hide scars, age lines, skin imperfections, etc.

People search using all forms of keywords and phrases. Improving access to your site includes the use of misspelled and pluralized keywords like moisteriser, bronser, pimpels, colagan, cologen, etc.

TIP – place misspelled words in your meta-tag keywords along with other keywords and phrases. These will not be seen by humans. The search engines will pick them up along with the other keywords placed within the content of your site, page, or post.

Don’t use minor words like “the,” “and,” “with,” or common terms such as “makeup” or “coverup.” The more specific the better.

A better selection in this case would be:”blemish scar makeup” or “acne coverup makeup.”

Use your keywords and phrases in the:

• Page title
• Page content
• Meta-tag description
• Meta-tag keywords
• Image ALT tags (relative to the image)
• URL names

DO NOT Spam. The search engines will eventually discover what you are doing and drop you.

• The keywords you choose must relate to, and exist within, your site and content.
• Keyword stuffing via hidden text, css coding, JavaScript, URL’s, or any other form – No
• URL re-directs – No
• Page cloaking by way of JavaScript re-directs or 100% Frame – No

Once you have your keyword list, see what else is available and how competitive these keywords are.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a good start. This free tool will show you many variations of the word(s) and phrases entered along with the level of competition for each word or phrase including hit volume.

Essentially you want words and phrases that are relevant, high in volume, and low in competition.

Although useful, Google’s Keyword Tool is not the most up to date, or accurate measure available. For the best results you will want to use an advanced program.

The most effective program we have found, and use, is IBP from Axandra. It is one of the strongest, most recommended SEO tools available. There is a constantly updated suite of tools designed to optimize your site… and your rankings are guaranteed.

You can download the free version of IBP here.

Developing a solid keyword strategy is good business management and essential for your site’s success.

Should you need additional help with optimizing your WordPress site… please contact us.

Please don’t fall into the trap of hosting with GoDaddy because it seems convenient. Their user interface is terrible and their servers can . . . → Read More: Recommended WordPress Hosting]]> To begin with, it is strongly recommended by us and the majority of web professionals, that you purchase your Domains from a reputable Registrar like GoDaddy, and host your Domains elsewhere.

Please don’t fall into the trap of hosting with GoDaddy because it seems convenient. Their user interface is terrible and their servers can be quite slow at times. GD ranks near the bottom of most hosting recommendations.

HostGator is our recommended hosting service and has been for many years.

Packages available:

→ Hatchling (around $4/month)
→ Baby (around $7/month)
→ Business (around $11/month)

“Baby” is most preferred because you can host unlimited domains, subdomains, and parked domains.
“Hatchling” only allows you to host 1 domain while the “Business” package includes everything the “Baby” package does, you also get a Toll Free #, dedicated IP, and private SSL (most people don’t need these).

The “Baby” package includes:

• Unlimited Domain Hosting (host as many sites as you want)
• Unlimited SubDomain Hosting (same as above)
• Unlimited Parked Domain Hosting
• Unlimited Databases (you need a database for each WordPress site)
• Unlimited Diskspace (no restriction on file size – images, audio, video)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (no restriction on your monthly traffic)
• Unlimited POP Email accounts (webmail, aliases, catch-alls, autoresponders, and mailing lists are also included)
• Streaming Audio/Video (very useful to host your own audio and video)
• Fantastico Deluxe (auto install WordPress and many other platforms like – phpBB / SMF forums)
• Instant Backup (backup your entire site and database with one click)
• $100 free Google Adwords credits
• Much more

All packages include:
24/7 Live Support – We have used this many times and they are terrific. You can contact a real live Tech Support person using “Live Help” who will troubleshoot and fix your problem with you while you are online.

Cpanel for navigation – Cpanel is by far the most “user friendly” way to work with your site tools as everything is in one place.

Reliable server with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime – Hostgator runs its own data center and every web hosting plan comes with a 45 day money back guarantee and 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Green Hosting – Hostgator powers and cools their server using wind power.

Bottom line… there are many hosting services available and we have had to interact with most of them because of the number of clients that we deal with year after year. Some are slow, some have too many limitations, some are near impossible to navigate, and some have no tech support whatsoever.

Your site(s) will be easily managed, faster, and more secure, with HostGator.

We have been using HostGator since 2004 and have nothing but praise for their service.

Visit HostGator and compare the plans >>>

Let’s say I wanted to place . . . → Read More: How to Link Images and Text]]> There are times when you will need to use HTML to create a link (aka Hyperlink) or add an image to your WordPress site, for example: in a widget.
I am going to show you how to do this and explain the different aspects of this particular code.

Let’s say I wanted to place a link to a my FaceBook Page in a Text Widget on my sidebar. The first step is to drag a new Text Widget to the sidebar.

Creating a Text Link

In the text area I am going to place a link to my FaceBook Page:
<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/ComputerTactics/114880818523455″>My FaceBook Page</a>

The result would be: My FaceBook Page

This is called a Tag and the details of this code are as follows:

< is how you begin a Tag and > is how you close it. This tells the browser that this is a specific type of HTML.

a href= is an instruction. This particular instruction tells the browser that you are inserting a URL to send the user to.

The URL itself is an element of this Tag and MUST be placed between quotation marks “complete URL goes here including http://“

The Text or Image you want to link to goes after the Tag closing > Text or Image

Finally we need to activate this link by placing </a> after the Text or Image we wanted to link to.

So Remember… whenever you want to link to something, whether it is a word, sentence, paragraph, or image, you need to place the <a href=”full URL”> BEFORE what you want to link to and place </a> AFTER it.

Adding Images

Adding an image uses a similar Tag.

Let’s say I wanted to add a Facebook icon to my sidebar. I would again use a Text Widget, or place the code inside a Text Widget already in use.

The Image I want is already in my WordPress Media Library so I locate the Image there, click “Edit” for this Image, and copy the link contained in the “File URL” box at the bottom of the page.

Now, my Tag for the Image looks like this:

<img src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png”>

Again, we begin our Tag with < and img tells the browser that we have a special HTML action to perform which is to show an image. The next instruction is src which tells the browser the Source Location of the Image (where the Image is hosted).

In this case, the Image is hosted in my WordPress application so I use: “http://wpservices.computertactics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/facebook.png” (surrounded by quotation marks) which is the URL address of the Image so the browser knows where to fetch it from.

I close the Tag with a > and this is the result:

You can add other elements to this Tag such as:

title=“WordPress Pro Services on Facebook”

Title= tells the browser to display whatever text you placed, to the user when they hover their mouse pointer over the Image. The full code would look like:

<img src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png” title=”WordPress Pro Services on Facebook” >

And the result would be:

If you notice that when you place your mouse pointer over the Image, the text I placed in this element pops up like a small description. (This is not a required element but could be useful at times)

Another element that you SHOULD use for every Image is alt=

The code would look like:

<img src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png” alt=”wordpress pro services facebook button” >

This element does not show up visually but is important for sight impaired people that may visit. Their computer will tell them what the Image is by using the text you placed in here.

The Search Engines will also read this but there is little SEO advantage, and please DO NOT stuff this with Keywords as it will not help the sight impaired person and would actually penalize you with the Search Engines.

Image Alignment

There are also alignment elements that you can place in your Image Tags.

These would look like:

class=”alignright”
class=”alignleft”
class=”aligncenter”

Say I wanted to place the Image to the left of the words My FaceBook

My FaceBook

My code would look like:

<img class=”alignleft” src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png”>My FaceBook

class= is telling the browser that there is an action to perform. This is usually a CSS function that should already be included in WordPress.

Center alignment would normally be used for placing an Image between paragraphs and Right alignment would place the Image to the far right of the content area.

A Complete Image Tag…

Using all the elements described above, the code (with center alignment) would look like this:

<img class=”aligncenter” src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png” title=”WordPress Pro Services on Facebook” alt=”wordpress pro services facebook button”>

And the result would be:

The image is what I want but does not take me to my FaceBook Page yet… on to the final step.

Linking an Image

Now I want to link this image to my FaceBook Page. I need to first use my Link Tag that has the URL where I want the user to go (this is the very first Tag we created):

<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/ComputerTactics/114880818523455″></a>

Now I need to place my Image Tag <img src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png” title=”WordPress Pro Services on Facebook” alt=”wordpress pro services facebook button”> in the activation area of this Tag so I copy my Image Tag and Paste it in place.

<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/ComputerTactics/114880818523455″><img class=”aligncenter” src=”http://wordpressproservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/facebook.png” title=”WordPress Pro Services on Facebook” alt=”facebook button”></a>

Notice that I pasted the Image Tag AFTER <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/ComputerTactics/114880818523455″> and BEFORE </a>

Here is the result:

Feel free to contact us if you are having any trouble with this, or any other HTML coding for your site.