Pittsburgh SEO – SEM – SEA | Internet Marketing and Website Design | Blackball Online

Pittsburgh SEO and Your Web Hosting Company

The major Search Engines - Google - Yahoo - Bing

Pittsburgh, PA – If you want to rank well in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), planning is the key. Your web host can make or break your rankings. Researching you hosting provider can prove to be as important as your on-page SEO. This article explains a little about how search engines see your site and some criteria to get you started to finding the right Internet hosting company. We do not promote any hosting companies over any others. The research is up to you, unless of course you hire us.

First things first; Our article on picking the right name for your business to rank well in the search engines will help you to do just that. Next on the list is buying/registering your domain name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This is the dot.com, dot.net, dot.org that your business will use to be found by your customers on the Internet, Blackball Online can be found at http://www.blackballonline.com.

You should already have the perfect business name after reading the previously mentioned post so try to get the exact match for a URL. The whois database website is a very valuable resource for this. Your website host can also walk you through all of this but it pays to be informed. Tip; register your site for as long as possible. 10 years is the maximum allowable domain name registration as of this writing. Our recommendation is to register for at least 3 years – the search engines look favorably on this.

Do a search on your favorite search engine for “web hosting” or “web hosting providers”. Make a list and rate them; it helps. For the actual research of these companies you can visit their websites or call them directly. We usually do both. We find that we can weed out certain companies by the products they offer and their price points for the levels of service they provide online. Then we call. Another tip; if your contact method of preference is to call and speak to a human like ours is, make sure you call them.

What are your needs? Is this site a one time thing? Is this your flagship website? Do you have 30 other websites that you need a host for? Are you running a forum, blog, or online store? All these questions should be considered as they all require different technical capabilities. Do you know what language or CMS you are going to use to build your site or blog? Once again, planning and research are very important. When you pick a web hosting company keep in mind these questions:

1.) Service: Do they offer 24/7 technical support? Do they charge extra for it? Is it by email only? Are they pleasant? (Knowing this beforehand can save you time, money, and aggravation)

2.) Can they handle your business? (i.e are they technically capable? Do their products meet your specifications mentioned above for your CMS or databases? This is why it pays to be prepared and informed.)

3.) How is their track record? Research the hosting company by checking the search engines for complaints or rants. A pattern of complaints can be a giant red flag; steer clear.

4.) Do they offer up-time reliability guarantees? Your site is no good to you if the server is down. The search engine crawlers will pass you by and penalize you if they try to crawl your site and it’s not there. This is a sign of instability.

5.) Price: We mention price last because it really should be your final concern. Service, Capabilities, Reputation, and Reliability are all priorities over price.

We have many other criteria we check at Blackball Online but these should get you started in the right direction. You get out what you put in. Search engine rankings and SEO starts before you ever code a line. Why sabotage your efforts before they begin? Our job is to make sure you get the maximum out of your site/blog. Blackball Online has the capability to host client sites as well.

Pittsburgh SEO by Blackball Online has all the necessary skills and contacts to meet all your Web Hosting and Online Consulting needs. Just call (412)377-7280 or contact us through our website.

Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization by Blackball Online

Pittsburgh, PA - Social Media Optimization is now the hot new topic and favorite of the search engines. (Google, Bing, Yahoo) It used to be you could put up a website and get some traffic. Generate some leads and all was well. Then you needed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to rank because of the increased competition. Now it’s very important to use Social Media Optimization in addition to drive traffic to your website/blog.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a “set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites” according to Wikipedia. Google, Bing, Yahoo have picked up on these emerging trends and been ranking these mediums for some time now. These search engines index sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn including your profiles.

As the search engines evolve into what engineers believe is a more intuitive system, Social Media Optimization has taken center stage. This is by no means a substitute for a well designed site with SEO. It is an extension of the Internet Marketing strategy and the next logical step.

Blogs have been the design of choice for some time now. They offer the ability to add content at will with very little technical expertise. But, let’s face it, these are very competitive times. The more you put into your business, the more you get out. SEO coupled with SMO now rules the roost. A thorough grasp of how search engines view your site is necessary for your hard work to pay off as well as it should.

If you have a new / existing business with limited resources and this sounds like a tall order, it is. But taken in logical steps it can be more than manageable. Blackball Online works with small businesses to maximize their resources and achieve the best results possible given the assets available for their Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization campaigns.

Start slow and think this through. Formulate a strategy and stick to it. The Internet will be there. It is important to do the proper analysis of your business first to speed the way for your Social Media campaigns later. A good start is to leverage Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They are all valuable sites and mediums to start with.

For a free Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization by Blackball Online consultation email us at info@blackballonline.com or just call (412)377-7280.

Twitter Help Resources - The Twitter Help Files

Pittsburgh, PA - As our previous posts on Twitter mention at the Blackball Online Newsblog, the Twitter community has been very kind to us. We would like to return the favor by providing some Twitter resources that may be overlooked.

When we started our Twitter experience, like most, we didn’t read the instructions. (i.e. the Help Files) Help files are a very valuable resource. The same holds true for Twitter. No-one could have predicted all the scenarios or uses for Twitter that have been encountered to date with such a diverse user group.

We thought we would share some very valuable Twitter Help File links to common problems and save you some time:

The Twitter Main Help Page - http://help.twitter.com/portal

Twitter has developed this area with resources to aid in Getting Started, Finding People, Official Twitter Text Commands, and Frequently Asked Questions.

The sidebar of the main help page is a wealth of information. It contains this:

Help Resources

Getting Started (25)

Find answers to common questions!

Using Twitter with your phone (10)

Tweet by text: find help using your phone with Twitter!

Trouble Shooting (17)

Having problems? Check out some of our most common issues and what to do about them

Known Issues (22)

Find updates about open bugs and currently known issues. Click the 'subscribe' link to receive email updates when a new topic is posted by Twitter Support.

Impersonation, Trademark, and Terms of Service policies (13)

Find out how to report common Terms of Service or Rules violations, such as impersonation, copyright, trademark, user name squatting and more.

Some roadblocks we have faced and where we went to solve them:

Follow Limits - http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/14959

Contacting Twitter

More information about Twitter
*@spam: follow our spam profile and report Twitter spam via direct message
*Status Blog: check Twitter's current system status.
*Twitter Blog: what's new with Twitter
*Developer Blog: a technical blog from the Twitter engineering team
*Developer Group: if you're a developer, join our mailing list

A pleasant experience is what we all want from Twitter; we hope we have armed you with some suggestions to help your Twitter experience in the event you experience any roadblocks along the way. Using Help files when they are available is always good practice. Technical Support personnel are always very busy so if you can solve the problem yourself your time can be better spent Tweeting. If you cannot solve the problem or find the solution yourself, you’ll be armed with the information to assist the technicians in fixing your problem and get faster results.

Other helpful Twitter Resources:

This post is fabulous      à http://wiredpen.com/resources/twitter-resources/

Another Great Post       à http://online-social-networking.com/tons-of-great-twitter-resources

This post compiled by Pittsburgh SEO by Blackball Online. Happy Tweeting.

G-20 Summit, It’s Getting Closer

As Pittsburgh gets ready to roll out the “Red Carpet” for the G-20 Summit, we, as a city have the rare opportunity to display our innovativeness, creativity and our own unique “Burghness” and share it with the world. There are probably a few reasons to why Pittsburgh was chosen as the 2009 G-20 Summit host. Here’s what I believe a few of them are:

Pittsburghers themselves, I believe when all these diverse cultures meet for the G-20 summit in our backyard they’re going to be hard pressed finding a friendlier, more accommodating and engaging bunch of people. Topped off by the passion Pittsburghers have for their hometown.

The Rooney family, if there is any name or family that embodies the Pittsburgh spirit and truly makes us unique; it’s the owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A powerful aversion to giving up, it’s just not in our vocabulary. Pittsburgh’s history is built on a “plowing forward” attitude no matter how tough things get.

Technological innovation, Pittsburgh is right up there with Silicon Valley. And CMU is eyeball-to-eyeball with MIT. Pittsburgh has done more than its share with leading the way technically and medically.

Primanti Brothers, do you know how far some people go to get a Primanti sandwich? Well, maybe the G-20 Summit group is no different. They’ll experience one of the great tastes of Pittsburgh– literally.

On another G-20 Summit note, there’s been a lot in the news about what to do concerning all the protesters. Well, here’s one solution (and it would save some tax dollars); we could “Pittsburghize” the protesters via Primanti’s delicious sandwiches.

Instead of employing manpower ensuring and protecting the right to peaceable assembly, hand out Primanti sandwiches to the G-20 protesters. After we win them over with Primanti’s great chow, the only thing we’ll have to worry about is getting them enough Iron City to wash it down and desert. The only protesting we’ll be hearing from the protesters is “hey, we want more.”

So that’s about it. You may or may not see this as a “fluff piece” or something like that, but one thing is for certain, Pittsburgh was picked to host the G-20 Summit for a reason. It didn’t happen in a vacuum or at random.

Pittsburgh Internet Marketing by Blackball Online

Twitter Grader and Blackball Online Social Media

Twitter Grader by Hubspot

Pittsburgh, PA – Our efforts and posts are aimed at educating the small business owner as to the viability and effectiveness of Twitter and other Social Media platforms to increase their web presence and gain sales and brand recognition. If you have been following our Blog posts at the Blackball Online Newsblog about our experience with Twitter, you have a head start. If you haven’t been following us as of yet, no problem, the links to the Twitter posts are listed below.

Twitter tools are everywhere now. There are thousands of plugins, applications, URL shorteners, auto posting tools, the list goes on and on. A very effective analysis of Twitter accounts is provided by the Twittergrader tool shown above, written by Hubspot, an industry leader in all things digital. These folks know their tools and they are extremely pleasant as well.

We have already spoken of the value of Twitter to business. We wanted to show visually how effective our Social Media campaigns can be, and how we can put together a similar campaign for you. The screenshot is a graphic representation of this fact. For those of you with text-only browsers, Blackball Online (@blackballonline) scored 99.95 out of 100 on Twittergrader. Check it out here: http://twitter.grader.com/blackballonline. The ranking factors which go into this tool have been made transparent by Hubspot at http://grader.com/blog/how-does-twitter-grader-calculate-twitter-rankings/; And we think that is just a measure of how good the tools and the company are.

Contact Blackball Online or call at (412)377-7280 for a free consultation about your business on the Internet and how we can help you to get started or go to that next level.

Links to Blackball Online Newsblog Twitter posts:

Introduction to Twitter – How we got involved

Twitter Tools to help you get started

More Twitter Tools to increase your effectiveness

Cracking the Twitter 2000 Follow Limit

Pittsburgh SEO Your Twitter Tweets