Jun 30

In most cases, the first steps of establishing a web presence involve registering a domain name, then purchasing a web hosting plan and building your website.  The next crucial step is making your web presence known to the community of internet users, preferably those whom may be interested in the products or services that you offer.  There are a couple of ways to go about garnering exposure but two of the most effective methods are submitting your site to the popular search engines and making sure it is optimized to attract search spiders and increase your rankings.  While these are tasks that you can accomplish yourself, there are also a few companies that may be able to do so in a more efficient and time effective manner.  Here are three services to keep in mind:

CoffeeCup

CoffeeCup has a solution that can aid with your search engine submission and optimization needs.  Known as FireFactor, its service offers a custom, detailed optimization report based on more than 90 factors, a comprehensive guide on how to improve and better understand your website structure, access to powerful website comparison tools, and a site submission to over a hundred popular search engines and directories.  FireFactor examines factors such as keyword density and relevance, link popularity and ratios of website content to HTML code to determine how your site is actually viewed by the search engine spiders.  From there, it provides detailed recommendations on what you should to do enhance your search engine optimization efforts and visibility.  In addition to these features, the CofeeCup FireFactor service also offers a list of search engines you can manually submit your site to.

AddPro

The AddPro service gives you a free search engine submission to up to 18 of the top search engines.  The company also has a professional site submission package, which includes manual submission to the major search engines along with general submission to more than 120 of the most widely used directories.  AddPro offers an HTML guide that contains vital tips on how to optimize your website to achieve higher rankings in the search engine results as well as a detailed HTML submission report.

AddMe

AddMe offers you a free search engine submission tool that makes it easier to submit your website to up to 14 of the top search engines.  It also has a complete search engine submission package where the company submits your site once a month or an on-demand basis for a period of one year.  AddMe checks your website for a variety of issues that may prevent you from being listed, determines the best keywords for your site based on popularity as well as the lowest competition.  This service goes one step further by generating search engine-friendly meta tags for your site, a critical yet often overlooked element of good SEO.

Submit Your Site

For a while now, there has been the debate on how much, or whether or not submitting your site to the search engine even matters.  We are here to tell you that every effort helps and the tools mentioned in this article are worth looking into.

Jun 24

Whether you run a blog or e-commerce site, staying on top of all the management aspects can be a real challenge.  This is especially true if you are running more than one website.  There are several areas that must be tended to if you truly want your site to be a success.  Lucky for you, there are also a number of software tools that can make your job as a website owner a lot easier.  This article will introduce to a few programs that can help you manage your sites more effectively.

Search Engine Tool

If your site is already up and running, you are probably looking for a way to increase its visibility.  If not, it is very likely that your audience will never even find out what you have to offer.  One tool that can be very helpful at increasing your visibility is called the Cyber Fetch Website Submitter.  This powerful application makes it easy to submit your site to all the major search engines.  It can also aid in the process of managing your ads, that is, if your site is compatible with one of the three template sizes.  You can the use Cyber Fetch Website Submitter tool free for up to 20 sites.  After that you will have to pay for a $35 subscription.  This is a pretty decent trade off when considering that 20 sites will provide you with more than enough time to evaluate the product before you are required to pay to use it.

Website Update Tool

When it comes time to perform some self-updating, you can turn to an efficient tool such as Website Manager.  Now on version 5.3, this software is a powerful web publishing wizard that takes the pain out of updating a website.  Not only does it allow you update individual files, but also the entire contents of your site.  Website Manager is a great tool for owners of busy sites who want to save time when making minor or major adjustments.

Backup Tool

The more content you add to your site, the greater chance you stand of losing everything you worked so hard to build.  Of course we don’t wish any disasters upon you, but web servers crash and get hacked all the time; it’s just the way of the web.  Even if you have invested in what appears to be the most secure web hosting solution, it is still wise to employ a few security measures of your own and it all begins with backing up your website data.  There are a number of tools available for the job, but one of the most user-friendly is Website Ripper Copier.  This tool gives you the power to save individual files or backup your entire website.  You can also choose to perform manual saves or automated backups at intervals of your choosing.

A Word of Advice

When relying on software tools, you should use them to simplify your administrative tasks, not completely replace them.  If you become overly reliant on them, you just may end up with a site that has too much automation and doesn’t appeal to your visitors.  Until computers take over the world, the hardware and its associated software components will never be able to replace humans and perform every single management task.