So, today I spent most of the day learning about Local Search tools and maximizing website positioning in local searches. Projects by Peggy, Inc. is now listed in the top 3 (Google, Yahoo and Bing). But I learned a few new ideas and am hoping to be able to help clients use these free tools to improve their visibility on the web. ;-)

To check your local listings, visit www.getlisted.org and type your business name and town, state in the search box. This will show you where you are in 5 search engines, as seen for Projects by Peggy below:

GetListed.com shows local listings for Projects by Peggy claimed in search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo; not in Yelp or Best of the Web.

GetListed.com provides links to five search engines, where you can add free local listings but it can be confusing.

A Few Local Listings Tips

1) Google Is Confusing! – Google Places (local search) and Google Maps are 2 separate applications, so you should claim both. I had claimed local search, but not my map listing.

2) Registration Is Required – All of the local listings services REQUIRE that you register an account with them (including an email for verification). I chose to use “info@projectsbypeggy.com” to keep it separate from my usual business email. This will also allow me to hand the reigns over to an employee if desired.

3) No Quick Fix – It won’t happen overnight … verification may take up to 6 weeks for some search engines.

4) Free Directories – The more competition you have in your service area, the harder it is to be at the top. An organic search may show directories in the top pages when searching. If that’s the case, it may help to add your listing to the free directories.

A Few Warnings

1) More than one business with the same address may hinder rankings.

2) Watch for FRAUD in the local listings and report it to Google.

   - Competitors may claim your listing.
   - Competitors may add false reviews, which can be quickly seen if the same user is adding reviews to sites in various locations geographically. You can report this to Google.
   - Repetitive use of keywords (known as keyword stuffing) will have a negative impact on your listing.

Check out the GetListed Resources

A final note – The more you help Google by providing valid reliable information about your business listing, the more Google helps you in placement in the search engines.

For more information, visit www.blackbearpottery-finearts.com.

by Bob Cohen, Senior Vice President, Career College Association.
Reprinted with permission.

Web Designer Peggy Shields

A native of Mifflinburg, PA, Hartman-Shields spent many years working as a clerk and administrative assistant for a local home healthcare agency. While she liked her jobs, changes in federal reimbursement policy shrank the organization’s workforce of 400 employees to about half its size. Mifflinburg is Amish country, better known for horse drawn carriages than its economic horsepower. In looking around for other work in a tight job market, Hartman-Shields says she found herself “over qualified or under educated.” With the home care agency in turmoil, the hand writing was on the wall.

For Hartman-Shields, at least part of the message was go back to school. She selected a web design program from Westwood College Online for several reasons. She says other academic programs might have cost less but did not offer a curriculum attuned to the most contemporary web software technologies. She found the real world instructors “awesome,” and, with a son getting ready to graduate from high school, Hartman-Shields found the flexibility of Westwood’s online program extremely important too.

Hartman-Shields began getting clients while she was still finishing her bachelor’s degree and, by the time she graduated from Westwood in 2006, her book of business was practically full, and her company, Projects by Peggy, Inc. was ready to launch.

Hartman-Shields describes small business as her niche, focusing on companies who cannot afford the big budget efforts of large design firms or the payroll cost of maintaining an in-house IT professional staff. Hartman-Shields literally launched her business in her living room, although a remodeling this year turned a garage into a home office. With the help of two part-time employees and a consultant, she now has over 100 clients at present, and has even produced the town of Mifflinburg welcome page.

Of her Westwood education, Hartman-Shields says it was not only a confidence builder, but it also helped her better understand the web design area itself: those things that she knows she will never want make a personal specialty (like object oriented programming) and those that she might never have tried otherwise. And without Westwood? “I would probably still be at a homecare agency and playing [at web design] on the side,” Hartman-Shields says.

Her income level has tripled since those homecare days and there are other benefits. Hartman-Shields suffers from fibromyalgia, a debilitation that among other things disturbs sleep patterns. Un-tethered from an 9-5 job and a daily commute, she says owning her own business gives her a better work-life balance and the ability to knock off for a nap as the need arises.

Napping or not, Hartman-Shields is certainly awake to the possibilities of turning education into a life changing experience: “Get an education. Find out what you are good at. Then make it your business,” she advises others.

]]> http://projectsbypeggy.com/blog/2010/07/designing-woman/feed/ 0 http://projectsbypeggy.com/blog/2010/05/web-statistics/ http://projectsbypeggy.com/blog/2010/05/web-statistics/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 22:59:32 +0000 admin http://projectsbypeggy.com/blog/?p=185 Viewing Web Statistics Online

The Site Statistics section of your Control Panel supplies information about how to access statistics gathered for your website. You can access the Control Panel of the site at http://your_domain.com/cp/.

Control Panel Screenshot

Click on the Site Statistics Link (last column/3rd row) to access statistics for all domains/subdomains, which are listed in table format. The table contains four columns:

1. WEBSITE – This column lists the main domain and all available subdomain(s).
2. WEBALIZER – Contains links to the default statistics for each domain/subdomain. Click on the Stats link to get a list of available statistics by month. Clicking on the listed URLs opens a new page containing the stats data.
3. AWSTATS – Allows you to enable or disable optional statistics generation per domain/subdomain. Once you enable AWStats, a Stats link will appear in the same column. The list of available statistics includes current stats as well as stats by month. Clicking on the listed URLs opens a new page containing the stats data.
4. ACTION – This column contains a Protect link for each domain/subdomain. Clicking on Protect lets you add limited access users who need to view statistics without having access to the Control Panel.

Users who do not have access to the control panel can view statistics at the following links:

• Webalizer Stats – http://your_domain.com/stats/
• AWStats – http://your_domain.com/stats/awstats/

PLEASE NOTE: All Statistics are password protected and only accessible with user login and password. Site owners can use Control Panel Login for accessing statistics.

If you need help or have questions, contact Projects by Peggy, Inc. for assistance.

Let’s look at some facts and my thoughts on Joomla –

1) I am not at all familiar with Joomla so it will take longer to do updates and the learning curve will create frustration for me. I might also be asked to change things and not have a clue how to do it.

2) I chose not to embrace Joomla because it is built with templates and I feel it limits your creativity. It also has a steep learning curve. One developer told me they used it knowing the client will have problems and fixing them will create more income for the developer. IMHO, setting up clients to fail so I can generate more income is just plain wrong. Furthermore, I didn’t go to school to build websites with templates!

3) No one can learn and use every technology out there AND while it might be tempting to try, it will likely only result in mediocrity, rather than a job well done.

So, what does one do?

OPTIONS:

A – Take the job and wing it … NOT!
B – Take the job but be honest about my lack of experience with Joomla and/or my willingness to get help and from whom? Would the original developer be available to assist? If not, do I have any other resources to learn from?
C – Hire a good PHP Guru to do the job and outsource it. I already have someone in mind who does work for me routinely.
D – Suggest a makeover to create the site in regular XHTML/CSS. This will ensure I am able to make any and all necessary changes and updates.
E – Talk with the client, explain the options and let her decide if we switch or not.

Are there any other options? What would other creative people do in this or similar situations?

A few years ago, Google banned a client website that had experienced a phishing attack, where the info displayed for search engines was NOT the same as that seen by the regular visitor.

PHP and similar programs used to create dynamic content on a website are vulnerable to attacks such as described above. There are ways to minimize or prevent issues, including the most important, which is to keep the software you’re using up to date. More often than not, minor updates are created to correct the issues that arise from attacks such as described here. The key is to minimize the risk and keep the site scripts up to date to block any program vulnerabilities.

What programs might be affected?

1. Word Press Blogs (one of the most popular blogging tool used by many) – newer versions allow you to update with just one click and it is automated. Does not require help from the developer!
2. PHP Easy Calendar – this program will email you when newer versions are available and it happens pretty often. This one isn’t automated and you will likely need assistance from a web developer or programmer.
3. Custom PHP Programs – there is a slight risk to custom scripts, but since they aren’t as common or used in high volume, they are less likely to be targeted.

If you are using scripts on your website, check with your developer to ensure they’re up to date (at least twice a year or so). It is a worthwhile investment and much easier than being banned and cleaning up from the consequences.

ANSWER: Beware any renewal notifications from Domain Registry of America or similar companies that create a solicitation piece that looks like a bill and indicates that your domain is going to expire. If you read the small print, it says that it’s not a bill, it’s a solicition.

Most registrars actually handle renewal notifications by email. If you receive a notification by mail, check with your web design team.

NOTE: If your payment for the domain and hosting was through Projects by Peggy, you will be billed by us.

No matter how much I know about this job, I am always learning new things that help me grow in my role as a web designer. This week was no exception.

Let me share 2 cases of potential web havoc that I had to deal with this week:

1. FIREFOX PLUGIN ADDS JAVASCRIPT AND SESSION ID CODE IN WYSIWYG EDITORS: I use the Snippetmaster Webpage Editor, a PHP program, to allow clients to update their websites. It’s easy to use and allows the customer to manage their own websites, saving them time and money. This week, I received an email from a customer indicating that his page was no longer available for editing and he had no clue why. So, I downloaded the pages and took a look. Much to my chagrin there was excess code in the page … code that wasn’t needed and didn’t belong!

   I thought for sure the site was hacked into! The bad guys on the web (hackers) will use PHP scripting to add garbage to a website. I had this occur once before in a blog and Google had actually stopped indexing the pages of that site. It was quite the ordeal to clean it up and get back into Google’s good graces! But, I digress.

   I considered my options – who should I ask for help to straighten this mess out? Immediately, I thought of Justin Smith, my PHP programmer, but he wasn’t online. And just as quickly, I thought of the hosting support at ICD Soft, Ltd. I posted my questions for support and had to wait for the Fraud Dept. to investigate. In the meantime, I was searching the strings of code online and figured out what was going on myself.

   I love the Firefox browser and had recommended it to the customer. I had never had any issues with it, however, a plugin which highlighted text on webpages actually was the culprit responsible for injecting the code when the customer was using the WYSIWYG editor in Snippetmaster. It was a quick fix to delete all the bogus code (thank God it wasn’t a 100 page website!) and instruct the customer to disable or uninstall the plugin. Problem solved and I’ve come away a little bit more knowledge to boot.

2. FLASH PLAYER NOT SUPPORT IN 64 BIT BROWSERS: I am always looking for free or low cost solutions for the web and was in need of an MP3 player to play a jingle. Although a player isn’t needed, it allows the customer to turn the sound on or off, so it is more user friendly than just loading the sound with no controls. I came across premiumbeat.com which offers Free Flash Music Players, exactly what I needed. And the bonus – it was so easy to install and use the player! Unfortunately, when I was testing the player, it worked in all browsers except Internet Explorer (I call it the Idiot’s Exasperating browser) on my PC. UGH!

   I contacted the developer, who suggested I reinstall the Flash player from Adobe. I also noted my chagrin on Facebook … who doesn’t need a pity party once in a while? … and asked friends for ideas and suggestions.

   Needless, to say, when I tried to reinstall the Flash Player, I found out that it is not supported on a 64 bit browser. I switched to the 32 bit browser on my PC, only to find it had been working all along!

I love my job. It’s challenging and exciting with many bumps along the way. Technology is ever changing and there is no end to what one can and must learn to deal with in this industry. It keeps things interesting … and yes, sometimes it’s real frustrating … but when you see the end result of a user friendly website that the client loves, it’s all worth it.

1. Log in to Facebook.
2. Click on the Account dropdown menu (top right corner of the screen) and select Application Settings.
   

3. Click on the NOTES Application.
   

4. In the top right corner of the screen, you will see the Notes Settings. It will indicate if you have imported posts from an external blog.
   

5. Click on “Import a blog” and add your RSS feed URL.
   

6. Be sure you check the box to indicate you have the right to import the blog (and make sure you do!) and click on “Start importing,”

If all goes well, your blog is now linked and you will receive a success message to prove it.

If you run into problems with the feed, you may want to validate your blog feed to look for possible errors that might hinder its rendering properly.

And, if all else fails, you can always ask your favorite web guru for help!

Replace the www.url.com with the web address of the link. Between ] and [/url], type the words you wish to display. – [url=http://www.url.com]Link Text[/url]

EXAMPLES:

• Source: [url=http://www.standard-journal.com]Standard-Journal[/url]
• [url=http://www.dailyitem.com]The Daily Item[/url]
• [url=http://www.projectsbypeggy.com]Projects by Peggy[/url]

This is what the links will look like – you probably want to put “Source” before the links for credit, like the first example:

Source: Standard-Journal
The Daily Item
Projects by Peggy, Inc.

Just be careful not to delete any of the code around the link or they won’t work.