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Websites that Changed the World

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Preparing to start a website for your company or organization? The odds are good that you are more interested in brand building, marketing, and ROI more than changing the world–but still, a little inspiration can go a long way toward achieving any goal. In the spirit of starting a new website, here are a few websites that have changed the world forever!

Google. The most obvious pick of all. A search engine that truly can find the highest-quality, most relevant results on the web really makes the web a lot more useful!

Amazon. E-commerce owes a lot of its success to Amazon.com. Founded back in 1994 as Cadabra, Amazon remains the largest e-commerce site on the web today.

Wikipedia. Though Wikipedia is often criticized for a perceived lack of oversight, accountability, and accuracy, the truth is that the idea to compile all human knowledge into one multilingual, easily accessible source was quite important.

Hotmail. What’s so special about Hotmail? It certainly isn’t the biggest email provider, and it wasn’t the first. However, Hotmail did change the world forever: they were the first web-based email provider to gain widespread popularity. Before hotmail, email accounts were tethered to specific computers–meaning an email sent to your work computer would be completely inaccessible unless you were at work, and a home email would be inaccessible unless you were at home.

Facebook. Another no brainer. Once again: Facebook was not the first website to do what it did, it just did it so well that it became the standard bearer.

Youtube. Hosting video used to be rather cost prohibitive, and YouTube was the first company to truly allow its users to upload video freely and free of charge. This obviously had a very profound affect on the way that we all use the internet.

Getting Started. If you’re ready to embark on your own website adventure–whatever your goals may be–then one of the first issues you will need to address is hosting. Visit RFE Hosting online to learn more about what hosting options may be right for your needs.

8 Tips for Promoting A Company Website

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Getting your website up and running smoothly is only the first half of the battle. Though getting this far certainly signifies a great deal of hard work and dedication, your new website will ultimately fail to meet its goals unless you continue working hard to promote it. Here are a few of the most important steps you can take in order to do just that.

  1. Social media. In case you haven’t noticed, social media is the place to be in today’s online world. Social media accounts are a near necessity in today’s market–and with a smart campaign, you can attract hundreds of visitors (read: potential customers) to your site.
  2. Social media advertizing. In addition to attracting “natural” social media traffic, you may wish to invest in social media ads (particularly Facebook advertising, the tried-and-true options for most industries.)
  3. Word of mouth. Connections between friends, families, professional contacts, and other acquaintances–sometimes jokingly referred to as “the original social network,” remain invaluable for promoting your new website. Be sure to recommend your site in-person to customers and clients–especially the regulars!
  4. Encourage sharing. Encouraging your customers, clients, and online contacts to share your website via internet and/or recommend it in person can also be effective–especially when a creative discount program or sweepstakes is involved!
  5. SEO. Ensuring that your website is search engine optimized with good keywords, quality content, and professional web design is the only way to ensure that those who look for you online find you.
  6. Harness the power of blogging. Speaking of SEO, a blog can boost your search engine rankings while also giving visitors a reason to keep coming back to your site. Moreover, it will open the possibility of writing guest blogs for other companies in the industry–as well as the possibility of accepting guest blogs. Both of these options are great promotional tools.
  7. Include your URL on business cards, letterheads, email signatures, promotional materials, and in any other location that could drive potential traffic to your site.
  8. Paid Advertising. Though this requires the largest investment, ROI on paid search engine advertising is generally high–especially when campaigns are well managed.

For more important tips for website owners, visit the RFE Hosting blog!

Common Mistakes That First Time Website Owners Make

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Starting a website for your company is one of the best investments you can make for the future. Not only are websites necessary for building trust and facilitating consumer research in this day and age, they can also become profitable online marketplaces for many businesses. Unfortunately, business owners are not always web experts–and all too many first time website owners fall into the same predictable traps. With a bit of research and education, however, you can avoid most of the common mistakes that lead small businesses to lose money investing in the web. Here are a few things to look out for.

Building a website with no business plan. Although websites offer many potential benefits to businesses of all stripes and colors, it is a fallacy to assume that simply building a website with no clear goals is going to do your company any good. Websites can boost brand awareness, drive sales, educate consumers, offer instant customer service and more–but it is important to know what your particular goals are before you being.

Failing to offer mobile adaptability. A significant portion of all web traffic is now mobile traffic–and Google has even incorporated mobile compatibility into its relevancy algorithm. Even so, a surprisingly large percentage of businesses continue to build websites that don’t provide seamless mobile adaptability–costing themselves time, money, and untold numbers of potential customers.

Choosing the wrong hosting service. Though hosting might seem like an insignificant detail compared to the broader vision of your online strategy, it is important to realize that the host you choose will play a large role in determining the quality of your visitors’ online experience. Moreover, choosing an overpriced hosting service that doesn’t offer great customer service is ultimately a waste of funding that could instead be invested in critical components of website growth, development, and promotion! Choose a hosting service that works for you–visit RFE Hosting online today to learn more!

The SEO Basics

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After hosting, site design, and e-commerce, SEO ranks as one of the prime concerns of website administrators. Although hiring writers to conduct keyword research and produce SEO may eventually be a good investment, it is important to remember that there are many simple steps that anyone can take in order to boost their website’s search engine rankings. Here are a few of the basics of SEO.

  1. Quality. Google (as well as its competitors) are always updating their algorithms with one objective in mind: ensuring that their search engines pull up the highest quality, most relevant content. In case you haven’t noticed, they are getting pretty good at it! This is why the best SEO advice anyone can give is to simply produce high-quality content that really answers the questions your visitors have. Keywords and SEO-friendly formatting is obviously important, but there is no sense in trying to “trick” Google into giving you good rankings by filling a poorly written web page with keywords and expecting results.
  2. Diversity. No matter how good the writing in your website is, you will not achieve maximum SEO results without also including a diverse array of content in your website: i.e. images, video, audio etc. Text is certainly the bedrock of SEO (as search engines still lack the capability to index the content of videos and audio), but text alone is not enough.
  3. References. Remember those research papers you wrote back in high school and college? If you were to write one without citing any sources, your teacher or professor would have certainly failed you! Search engines work in a similar fashion. By citing your claims and linking appropriate content to high-authority websites, you can boost your credibility and pass the SEO test with flying colors! Similarly, if other websites link their information back to your website, you can boost your own authority and, thus, you search engine rankings.
  4. Freshness. Websites that are updated frequently are given a boost in SEO rankings because they are more “fresh.” While updating each page every day is not necessary (or even a good idea) posting regularly to a blog is a great way to stay ahead of the crowd!

Give your website the host it deserves

You work hard to keep your website running smoothly and ranking well on search engines: make sure you invest in a host that supplies the functionality and reliability you need! Contact RFE Hosting today to learn about our top-notch hosting solutions!

6 Web Design Tips That All Small Businesses Should Consider

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Sometimes it’s the small things that matter. SEO, conversions, bounce rates, and a number of other important metrics can all be affected by very simple components of your website. Here’s how you can get things right:

  1. Use a professional logo that links to homepage. This is a hallmark of virtually every well-constructed website. It will help build trust among visitors while making your website easier to use.
  2. Offer easy and intuitive navigation. The easier it is to get around your website, the faster visitors will find what they are looking for (and, hopefully, make the decision to make a purchase or sign up for your mailing list.)
  3. Reduce website clutter. Sidebars, excessive advertising, and even multiple columns of text can result in a stressful and unproductive visitor session.
  4. Write short paragraphs. Internet paragraphs are typically far shorter than the paragraphs you might find in books or even newspapers–and for good reason! Short paragraphs are far easier on the eyes (especially for mobile users) and thus make for a more pleasant experience.
  5. Use colors strategically. Keep your website colors mostly neutral–and if you do decide to use bright, bold colors, use them in the places where you truly wish to draw attention.
  6. Take original photography. There’s nothing wrong with a well-placed stock photo or two, but make sure your visitors know that you’re willing to invest the time and effort into taking original photos that really show off your business, your products, and your services.

Bonus tip: Quality Hosting. Sometimes, the infrastructure of your website matters even more than the superficial design. By investing in a quality web host, you can guarantee that your website works smoothly and gives off the best first impression possible.

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