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Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?

Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?

I got an official-looking document via snail mail today from IDNS – Internet Domain Name Services. The registration for one of my domains, MitzvahStudio.com, is scheduled to expire July 10.

If I “Act Today!” I can re-register MitzvahStudio.com for just $45/per year, $80/2 years (Recommended), or $180/5 years (Best Value).

IDNS is telling me this as “A courtesy…switch today…take advantage of our best savings.” They tell you upfront what the pricing is and for how long, when your domain expires, and if “you accept this offer” you’ll be switching your domain name registration to IDNS. The language is so friendly and helpful, the document is so official, they even offer suggested companion names with .net and other extensions.

Is This a Domain Renewal Scam or Just Doing Business?

So is this a domain renewal scam, or is ISDN just getting new business in guerrilla marketing fashion? Technically, they aren’t offering anything they won’t provide. But if you get a letter like this don’t fall for it. ISDN will lock you in at exorbitant prices and make it difficult for you to leave. ISDN is all over the Internet and with a little searching I found many mentions of them.

Because I’m in the web business I happen to know that those “best savings” are far above what you’d normally pay, 3-4 times above going market rate. The expiration of my domain isn’t imminent and I prefer to register, and keep, my domains where they are currently registered. Plus my current registrar frequently sends me emails with discounts.

If you look closely on the document under Domain Name Expiration Notice, their domain name is www.idns.ag ~ I never heard of .ag so I looked it up. It’s an extension for the country Antigua. When I went to the IDNS site after clicking around on a few pages I realized it had changed to www.ins.to. I never heard of that extension either, so I looked it up ~ it stands for the country Tonga.

ISDN also leads you to believe that “Privatization of Domain Registration and Renewals now allows the consumer the choice of Registrars when initially registering and also when renewing a domain name.”  You’ve always had the right to register and renew your domain name anywhere you want.

If you get a letter like this from IDNS, or any other company you don’t know, offering friendly and helpful service don’t send any payments or credit card info. Contact us ~ or your web design company or website host ~ in case you are not sure about a reminder email or snail mail you receive.

 

 

 

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Tips for SEO

Tips for SEO12 Fundamental Tips for SEO To Increase the Number of Visitors to Your Website

The amount of information about SEO or Search Engine Optimization is endless. It can be easy to get lost in the plethora of information you can find on SEO. This important website marketing strategy has been proven to enhance your audience’s experience on your website, as well as draw them there in the first place. Before SEO your website might have never reached your audience when they searched on Google and the other search engines; but now, SEO targets your website’s key words so specifically that it is near impossible that your audience won’t be reached. Here are some of the most important tips for SEO today.

1. Know Your Topic

Your website needs to have a topic with content that people can find. This concept sounds simple enough, but you need to know what your topic is so you can optimize SEO to its full potential. If you aren’t correlating your topic with the right SEO strategies, you could be attracting the wrong audience. That being said, although it’s the simplest concept, it’s a crucial aspect when utilizing SEO.

2. Use SEO for Individual Pages, Not Just Your Homepage

One of the biggest misconceptions about SEO is that you only need to utilize it for your homepage. The information your audience is looking for isn’t always on your homepage. What the visitor is looking for could be found on one of your website’s individual pages. Instead of making the visitor search your entire website for what they are looking for, when you use SEO for all your pages, the visitor can be taken right to the page they need.

3. Develop a List of Key Phrases

Before making your list of key phrases that relate to your website, you need to understand what your specific audience is searching for. Consider what they would search for when using a search engine to find what your website offers. Now, compile a list of key words they would use to find your website. Make sure your keywords are simple and words that your audience would use when searching the web. Refrain from using jargon that your audience wouldn’t use. These keywords will become what appears when visitors search for your site, so make sure they are relevant to what your website is about. Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to help you with this.

 

Contact NuZoo for help with SEO on your website.

4. Utilize Webmaster Tools

Webmaster tools can be very helpful when wanting to get more traffic to your website. Search engines such as Google and Bing have Webmaster tools that are easy and free to use. Through these tools you can see what keywords websites are already using and what keywords tend to bring in the most people to websites. When using Webmaster you can also check your websites search traffic and analyze how many people are visiting your site daily.

5. Sign Up for an Analytics Account

Similar to Webmaster, analytics can help you inspect your website’s statistics, traffic and more! The most widely used analytics service is Google Analytics. Through Google Analytics you can discover how many people are finding and engaging in your website through search engines. Not only are you getting a number of search engine visitors, but you can also find out what people are doing on your website when they get there. Free web services such as Webmaster and Google Analytics are free and help and grow websites so there is no reason not to take advantage of these amazing resources.

6. Know How Your Pages Appear to Search Bots

Different Search Engines may view your site differently. You want to make sure that your website is consistent and appears the same on each browser. One tool you can use for this is Webmaster. With this tool, you can see how your website appears to visitors in search engines such as Google and Bing. This makes sure your website is consistent when using all search engines and browsers. Don’t forget to test this for each individual page within your website!

7. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

Having a mobile friendly site is one of the most important tips for SEO. Nowadays, people are using their phones constantly, which is why mobile compatibility for websites is so crucial. To have a successful website your site needs to be computer AND smart phone friendly. It is important for you to know how many of your visitors are coming to your website via mobile devices. You can find out an exact percentage of mobile visitors your website gets through your Google Analytics account as well as how it compares to computer and tablet visitors. It is important to distinguish between mobile and computer users when it comes to website visits. How do you know if your website is mobile compatible? You can use Google’s free mobile friendly tester to find out. Once Google verifies your website, they will tag it as mobile friendly. This will also make your website appear in more mobile searches instead of just web searches. Another important thing to note is to avoid using flash for videos on your website. Instead, use html 5 player – this works on both computers and mobile devices whereas flash just works on certain devices and certain browsers. Or you can use YouTube videos which are viewable on everything.

8. Use Responsive Web Design

Using Responsive Web Design, or RWD, is a great way to guarantee that your website looks great on every device whether it is a tablet, laptop, or Iphone. RWD provides the optimal viewing and interaction experience. It includes easy reading, convenient navigation, and a limited amount of scrolling and resizing. The important thing to remember about RWD is that what your website looks like on a phone will be the same layout and design on a computer. You will save tons of time and energy coding for both computer and mobile when you choose RWD.

9. Concentrate on Page Performance

The first thing you should do when analyzing your page performance is measure your page load speed. Slow web pages are annoying to visitors and often make them leave and search for something else, so you want to make sure your website is fast and efficient. When measuring your page load speed, you want to know your page’s Time to First Byte (TTFB). Google recommends your website to have a <200 ms TTFB.

10. Analyze and Fix Slow Page Loading

You can check your website’s load speed through Google Page Speed. Through Google Page Speed you will find out what areas or aspects of your website are causing the slow speeds. Google Page Speed will give you suggestions on how you can fix your website and alternatives for a faster website. Once you change and fix your website you can compare and find out how your website has improved in speed.

11. Measure Organic Search

What is your search intent for your visitors? Do you want them to buy a product? Download a link? Watch a video? Whatever your intent is, you want to know if your visitors are converting to outcomes that you want. You also want to measure how many of these visitors are organic, which means they didn’t come to your website because they saw an advertisement, instead they came to your site because your site correlated with their search terms. You can easily find and analyze this information through Google Analytics.

12. Fix Any Problems and Execute Strategies

Through this list of tips for SEO you probably have noticed something you could improve about your SEO strategy. SEO is all about driving people to your website and accumulating results. As long as you follow these tips for SEO your website will increase in visitors and accumulate the results that you want. To put SEO in the simplest terms possible, the higher SEO ranking you have results in more people finding your site which results in more and better outcomes for your website.

Contact NuZoo for help with SEO on your website.

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Understanding SEO

Understanding SEOHaving a website for your business can be exhausting, especially if you aren’t getting the results you want.

Understanding SEO helps your website get better traffic and at NuZoo part of our mission is getting you (our audience and loyal customers) to understand what it is and why it is so important to use as part of your marketing strategy.

The Most Overlooked Point About Understanding SEO

SEO is all about giving your audience and visitors what they’re looking for. Sometimes we forget about this when we think about what keywords best describe the content on our websites. You should always ask yourself “Is this word something that a potential customer would use to search on?”

Optimize Each Page

When you ask yourself this question make sure to avoid business jargon or “keyword stuffing” (using too many keywords without really describing your business). Each of your website pages should be optimized. Pick different and specific keywords for each page, this will help bots crawl through your web page as well as make your website much more efficient because it will be organized.

If you aren’t sure if you’re picking the right keywords you can sign up for Google Webmaster and/or Google Analytics. Both of these tools will give you valuable information about your website traffic and organic searches. Use the information provided to create reports and goals, and change your website content and key words. This gives you better control of where your website is going in the search engine rankings, and measuring the outcome of any changes you make.

Responsive and Mobile Websites

Making your website “easy to find” on search engines isn’t the only SEO aspect you should concentrate on; you also have to make sure your website’s appearance is always spot-on.

Mobile has increased in popularity so quickly that making sure your website looks great on any mobile device or browser is vital for survival. Using a responsive theme for your website is your best bet at ensuring your image is never faulty on both mobile and desktop. Paying attention to the size of a font or color of a button for better “finger-access” can end up making a huge difference for your mobile audience.

Website Load Time

A key part of website functionality is load time. How fast your website loads (mobile or not) the better for you and your business. Our patience is extremely thin for loading time and the best way to avoid losing customers because of slow loading time is having less things to load in your page.

For example the more images, videos, infographics or intricate scripts you might have in a page the longer it will take for it to load. Pick your plug-ins and images the same way you pick your keywords wisely and specifically.

To help you measure your loading time you can use tools like Google Pagespeed or Yslow Plugin.

Understanding SEO Is An Ongoing Process

Understanding SEO and how it affects your website, organic search results and customer base is an ongoing process. If you  start with these basics of identifying your keywords, optimizing each webpage, measuring traffic, and having a responsive and mobile website you’ll be on your way up the organic search results.

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