Tips in Choosing a Web Host Provider for Philippine Business!
1. Make sure that the company is registered and is not likely to close business before your close yours.
2. Avoid turn-key web host solution resellers who are overselling cheap VPS.
3. Make sure your web host has real support team and is not being run by a one man team.
4. Avoid unrealistic huge packages at very low prices.
5. If you're expecting peak traffic during Philippine business hours, choose a provider whose main market is the Philippines and is not marketing its service globally.
6. Choose a web host who is concerned about security more than you do.
7. Conduct background check of how good or bad their service is.
8. Make sure your web host has a disaster recovery plan.
9. Know who's behind the web hosting provider.
10. Check their portfolio.
To know more about how to choose a web hosting provider in the Philippines, read http://www.zoom.ph/whyzoom.php
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ICONCEPT recently launched a new e-commerce website that aims to offer easier means in sending gifts to your kids in the Philippines.
LittleTikes Philippines debuts last October and is now beginning to establish it's reputation as a popular toy store in the Philippines. To know more about Little Tikes and to send toys to your kids today, visit http://www.littletikes.com.ph
The Little Tikes Story
Since 1970, Little Tikes has been encouraging children to be active and creative through a diverse portfotio of products including intant toys, popular sports, play trucks, ride-on toys, sanboxes, activity gyms and climbers, slides, preschool development toys, role play toys, creative arts and juvenile furniture. Little Tikes mission is to provide innovative products focused around active, physical and fun play that cater to a child's physical and developmental needs; stimulate curiosity, imagination and creativity; allow for active exploration and experimentation; support the development of independence; and promote social cooperation.Play is the integrative process which facilitates children's learning. Through play, young children develop physically, emotionally, socially and intelectually. little Tikes is committed to making safe, quality, durable fun toys that encourage children to play outdoors and "Get Up and Grow"!
Two days ago, we've started optimizing www.hairphil.com, a hair restoration clinic in Manila. Some of the corrections we immediately implemented are:
1. Meta elements corrections.
Although the original developer used the meta elements to hype the keywords, he however overdid it by putting more than 200 characters Meta Title. Suggested title length is more 80 to 100 characters. Meta title more than 200 characters is already considered SE spamming.
2. Code Correction based on W3C standards
The original code has 47 errors and 9 warnings. www.hairphil.com home page is now clean from errors. Proper use of standards and best practices makes sure that not only is the copy marked up in a semantic fashion which search engines can interpret and weigh without confusion, it also skews the content-to-code ratio in the direction where it needs to be while forcing all of the information in the page to be made accessible, thus favoring the content.
3. PageRank
The site has a poor PageRank at PR0. We have built relevant links pointing to the site from high PR websites related to hair treatment and hair transplant services and we're expecting PR0 to PR1 increase once all the new links have been crawled.
4. .htaccess optimization
Google has yet to clean up the inherent problem that arises when the www version of your site gets indexed along with the non-www version. This distributes the root page's PR and is detrimental in the site's PageRank.
In the next few days, we'll be restructuring the site to be able to put relevant and informative contents in the home page in order to increase Code-to-Text ratio, optimize internal links using NO FOLLOW tags, and rewrite articles to improve keyword density and positioning.
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A friend told me yesterday about an SEO campaign for a new resource website, http://www.immunityfoundation.com, sponsored by a Vitamin C brand for kids so I checked out the website out of curiosity to see how their SEO guys are batting so far. Here's my take on the home page structure.
Google smiles at the site's
- Use of H1 tags in the dynamic article title
- Use of image ALT tags in almost all images except for spacers.
- Dynamic title and description relevant to the article's content
- Use of SE friendly dynamic URLs
Google frowns at the site's
- Use of splash page.
- 27 HTML coding errors in the home page alone.
- Limited text content in the site's root page.
And by the way, let's not forget the site's value -- as to its advocacy and intention, i'll give it a thumbs up! Read more!
I was compelled to try out blogging last November when I became part of our Toasmasters club's blogging team and just last Month, I decided to launch this blog for our web design business. I didn't realize that blogging has already become a profession to some, until I met Anton last night at the PSI office during the Starshooters orientation.
While introducing himself in front, Anton caught my attention when he mentioned about his goal of giving people, specially Filipinos, the opportunity to enjoy the Philippines and appreciate not only the obvious but its hidden beauty.
After the short orientation, I approached him to know more about what he does and I learned that he's into Internet Marketing. I didn't have the chance to know more of his stuff but I did managed to exchange business cards with him.
His card almost says it all, it reads..
Slice of Manila's Hidden Places, Food and Travel Secrets through
Word-Of-Mouth. Shared through our Awesome Family Adventures
JOSE ANTONIO DIAZ, PMP
Internet Marketer and Professional Blogger
www.OurAwesomePlanet.com | www.AntonDiaz.com
Mobile: +63917-LOVEOAP (5683627) | Email: anton@diaz.ph
Immediately, I realized that he's not just one of those blogging hobbyist. He's a Professional Blogger and he earns a good living from it.
I suddenly dreamt of becoming a professional blogger myself. If only English is my strong suite! :D I probably would.
Visiting his blog surprised me even more, I came to realize the many possibilities in blogging and internet marketing in just a few minutes of reading. I checked out blogbank and his ads strategies and wondered how much Anton is making from Google Ads and his sponsors. He even got an SMS special access code, "OAPTRIVIA send to 2861".
After reading his blog, I came to the conclusion that he must be making a lot from Internet Marketing. After all, he can afford to travel around the country in search for great places, food and hidden dungeon.
Internet has indeed paved the way to a new dimension in marketing and advertising. Blogging and internet marketing have provided a great option for people during this trying times of financial crisis and job retrenchment when most people are struggling to make ends meet. I'd say that this is a good opportunity to start a home-based business specially for housewives, students or retirees.
Anton is a Philantropist and is very much willing to help people who would like to take their first step into blogging. He wrote a very informative ebook revealing his blogging secrets and decided to give it away for free. You may download it here. I'll spend time to read it too.
Thanks Anton for sharing years of blogging expertise.
You own a business and you woke up one day and thought, "I want a website for my business!". Even just the thought of it, I commend you for the brave move, for you now belong to the modern world. Thank you for leaving the club in the northern Himalayas who are still unfamilar with computers. So you picked up the phone and dialled the first web developer you found in the Yellow Pages. (Hey, I figured you'd dial and not Google. What do you know about search engines at this point, right?)
The person at the end of the line is very accommodating and friendly. You then blurted out "I want a website. Send it now!" That's where the trouble begins. And if not immediately remedied, will cause serious damage.
As a project manager for ICONCEPT, I've encountered clients like the one described above. Some people still look at web design firms like a pizza delivery restaurant. They just order the toppings and expected to be delivered right away. In a nutshell, the procedure is the same but the process is far too different. Web designing is not as easy as layering pepperonis, cheese, pineapples and what-nots to your perfect dough. Duh!
There are only three steps a web design company asks of its clientele. Follow these and we couldn't go wrong.
1. Decide on what you want. A web company usually asks for your color preference, image resources options and the like via their survey form. Please provide them with this info. As you progress, they may ask you about mastheads, banners, footers, favicon and terms that sounded like a lost ancient language to you than computer jargons. Do not, under any circumstances, guess what the term meant and provide them with a questionable response. Admit your ignorance. They will not hate you for it, nor laugh. In fact the web design firm will educate you about it. From your inputs, design firms sends you design studies to choose from, which you may tweak a little to suit your taste or needs. A word of caution though, once it hits development, there's no turning back. Actually, there is. But you've caused yourself and the design team wasted money. In my experience, women clients tend to be fickle-minded than men, who are firm with their decisions. But there are also some meticulous male clients who change their minds as frequent as the tick of the clock. And he is so specific he would know if we moved an element one pixel to the right. Talk about obssessive-compulsive behavior!
2. Don't insist on the impossible. You may ask, though, if what you want is feasible. But don't request something and expect the sea to part in half. The project manager usually confers your requests to his team composed of senior & junior programmers, developers, and artists. If there is a unanimous decision that your request can't be done, more often than not, they will present other options similar to your original request. If none works and you still feel your request can be done, cite an example you stumbled upon while browsing the net. The development team will likely scrutinize this example you set and emulate or even surpass it. Believe me, the team will also benefit from this as this is a new learning experience for them. And in this competitive industry, that'll give them the edge. Not to mention, you got what you requested!
3. Submit your web requirements. Don't just sit there waiting for accomplishments, do your part. Web development is a team effort. After all, what do we know about your business, anyway? If you're an architect, engineer, a doctor or a dentist, provide us a brief summary of your business, for starters. From there, we can play around with a design that will suit your business. Provide us with text contents and images if there's any. You can't just order a website and let us do the rest. Your web pages don't magically populate themselves. We are web developers, and not fortune-tellers. We need the text and image contents from you. Though sometimes, we get accused of typographical errors which is unheard of, since we just copy your text and paste it in the codes. So if there's a mistake somewhere, it came from the source. Incorrect spelling and grammatical errors, we can fix, but technical terms - we'll rely on you. So if the scientific name of an amphibian found mostly in tropical forests is included in your text inputs, be sure to double-check it.
Simply put: the more we know, the better we work. And once the website goes online, that'll be the only time to order a pizza! Extra pepperoni please...
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1. Your Business is Open 24/7, 365 Days a Year
Not just in your locality but take note, TO THE WHOLE WORLD! Unlike your business' physical office that may be open from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, your business' website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. This is specially useful if your business is operating on a different timezones or if you have potential clients worldwide.
2. It's Your Online Catalog / Brochure / Product Manual That Can Be Changed at Anytime
A website is much easier and cheaper to update than print materials. A website can have almost limitless feature in terms of modifying contents and information. This is very cost efficient in such a way that you can easily change information anytime without having to worry about distributing them.
3. Extend your market reach Globally
Once your business have a website, you aren't that local small business anymore. Your business is now visible to potential clients across the country and across the globe. Internet, without a doubt, is the most effective way to trade internationally.
4. Present a Professional Image
If you are a small or start-up business, a professionally designed website is a great way of making your business look bigger than it actually is. Nowadays, customers assume that you already have a website. In fact, your top competitors probably have a website.
5. Improved Customer Service
You make it easy for your clients to answer common questions about your business by publishing a Frequently Asked Questions. Many business website nowadays have the feature to request quotation, fill-up an application form, download invoices and other important documents such as product specification and activity reports.
6. Promote Your Services
Many customers nowadays refer to companies' websites when making major buying decisions. Even self-employed professionals such as lawyers, physicians, dentists, engineers, financial consultants or entertainers and many other service oriented business should let customers know that they have options.
7. Sell Your Products online
I know a many big online stores that enjoys the benefits of not having to pay huge office rent, electric bills and other costs that go along with running a business. Selling on the internet is much cheaper and is a good way go complement your offline selling strategies. Providing secure online ordering has become very affordable and can easily be set-up even for small businesses.
8. Gather Information and Generate Valuable Leads
Your clients' views and opinions counts a lot if you are to stay in business. By having online forms such as comment, poll and survey, you can gather information about your customers and potential customers. Instead of going out to get these valuable information, let them come to you by visiting your website and generate new leads from visitors who are potential clients.
9. Provides Instant Gratification to your Clients
Most people are so busy and don't enjoy waiting for information. A business website can give them what they want, when they want it. Clients use to ask for product specification, price lists or catalog and will have to wait 'til you fax it to them. But website makes it so easy for you to simply give your URL where they can see those eye-catching pages that says it all for your product.
10. Great Recruitment Tool
Many job applicants won't do walk-in application anymore without visiting the company's website to check out how they would fit in to the organization. By having a job posting page in your website, it becomes an instant recruitment tool. Both you and the applicant saves time because you can first screen the applicants
qualification before asking him to come to your office for an interview.
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To configure Outlook 2000 or Outlook express versions 5 and up, just follow the directions below. The configuration steps for both Outlook Versions of Outlook are nearly identical.
1. Select "Tools" and then "E-mail Accounts" from the File Menu.
2. Select "Add a new email account" in the next window under the "Email" Section, and select the "Next" button
3. At the E-Mail Accounts window, select POP3 as your server type. Click "Next"
4. In the E-Mail Accounts window (shown below), fill out all information completed similar to the information below. Be sure to use your full email address under the "Logon Information" section. Before clicking next, select the "More Settings..." button as highlighted.
Your Name: The Display name as you want it to appear in the recipient’s mailbox, usually your complete name.
Email Address: Your complete email address i.e. name.surname@yourbusiness.com
Incoming mail server: webmail.iconcept.com.ph
Outgoing mail server: webmail.iconcept.com.ph
Note: SOME ISPs block third party (smtp) Outgoing server to prevent spamming. If you are using any of the following ISPs and cannot send message using outlook, please use the appropriate outgoing mail server settings below.
Globe Visibility Wireless (HSDPA) smtp.globenet.com.ph
PLDT smtp.info.com.ph
SMARTBRO smtp.smartbro.net
If your site is hosted by ICONCEPT, an easier way to bypass this though is to set the Outgoing SMTP Port to 26, go to MORE SETTINGS, then ADVANCE TAB. Change the SMTP Port to 26 and click OK.
For other ISPs not included in the list, please inquire with your ISPs customer service.
User Name: Your email address i.e. name.surname@yourbusiness.com
Password: Your email password
5. The "More Settings..." button loads a new window with four tabs. Select the "Outgoing Server" tab as shown, and be sure to select the checkbox that reads "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication." Click Ok to verify these settings, and then click "Next" on the Internet Email email window. Lastly, click "Finish" on the summary window to complete you account setup.
6. Close down Outlook and then re-open. You should be able to send and receive messages now!
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Today, I checked our target keywords ranking in Search Engines and I was surprised to see a steep climb for many of our keywords both in Yahoo and Google. Finally, our efforts are beginning to pay off.
These are just some key phrases with that took a big leap in Google and Google.com.ph although there are many other keywords that are already in the first page.
GOOGLE.COM
KEYWORD POSITION PAGE OLD POSITION CHANGE
web site design philippines 4 1 28 +24
website design philippines 13 2 59 +46
website design manila 18 2 51 +33
GOOGLE.COM.PH
KEYWORD POSITION PAGE OLD POSITION CHANGE
website design philippines 10 1 57 +47
web site design philippines 5 1 27 +22
website design philippines 10 1 57 +47
You'll notice though that in Yahoo, our ranking didn't change much. But I guess, we don't need to since iconcept.com.ph already appears in most of our target keywords. Some of them even making it to position 1 and unmovable for the last several months.
YAHOO.COM
KEYWORD POSITION PAGE OLD POSITION CHANGE
website design philippines 1 1 1 same
website developer makati 3 1 4 +1
website developer philippines 3 1 1 -2
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