tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76329962049893136562024-03-13T14:47:58.907-07:00Web Solutions Hot SpotSelect Web Solutions is an Orange County website developer in Rancho Santa Margarita. We will be blogging about real-world, web oriented situations encountered by our team, our customers and our friends. Our goal is to provide a place to learn about us and the ever evolving web we all live in.Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7632996204989313656.post-52117210003715815432014-09-30T13:26:00.000-07:002014-09-30T13:26:28.895-07:00Is There a Purpose or Are You Just Trying to Get Attention?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By Stacy Bass</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In days gone by, the landing page of a website, often referred
to as a home page or welcome page, was designed to be flashy, using animation
and music to grab a viewer’s attention. The
goal was to grab enough attention to make a viewer want to stick around and
read everything you had to say. In current
times, however, our viewing habits have changed. We are tied to the web 24/7 and if we can’t
find what we’re looking for within seconds, we just simply move on to another
site where we can. It’s wonderful to
find a website that entertains you or grabs your attention, as long as it doesn't detract from your purpose for visiting the site in the first place. We are inundated with internet access; we have
it on our phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. As a result, our attention span and patience
have diminished and we want to achieve our purpose expeditiously, being
entertained by the website is secondary.
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what does that mean for your website? The answer to that question begins with you. Ask yourself the following questions. </span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What
is your goal for your website; is it just a marketing tool or is it an
electronic store front?</span></span></li>
<li style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="line-height: 16.8666667938232px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you selling a product or service?</span></span></span></li>
<li style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you informing people of something or conveying a message to your audience?</span></span></li>
<li style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you seeking members for your organization?</span></span></li>
<li style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What actions should visitors be able to perform on your website?</span></span></li>
<li style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can visitors accomplish their goals from your landing page?</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once your goal is clearly defined, you can create a landing
page strategy better suited to meet your goal.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
A landing page should contain these critical elements:</span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Briefly introduce your product, service or
message.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Contain graphical images to grab attention.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Provide a call to action, such as “buy now”, “schedule
an appointment”, “join now”, etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Make sure that people know how to contact you by
phone, mail, email and social media.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Allow users to easily navigate to other pages
for additional information.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">C</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">ontain keywords that will allow search engines
to find your website.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, if your landing page is only designed to grab attention,
or even worse, if it doesn't garner any attention at all, it is time to find its
purpose. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Select Web Solutions is
always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our
clients. We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your
existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world.
Select Web Solutions is an </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/about-us.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange County website development
company in Rancho Santa Margarita</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, CA. Our products
include </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/website-solutions.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange
County custom website solutions</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, WebZeo </span><a href="http://www.webzeo.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">affordable websites in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,
MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange
County mobile websites</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, ProZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/prozeo.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange
County social media profiles</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, ListZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/listzeo.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange
County Website Business Listing Service</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, SendZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/sendzeo.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange
County newsletter marketing</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, MailZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/mailzeo.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">hosted
email services in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, SEOLight </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/seolight.php"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">affordable
Orange County SEO</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and much more. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry.
Follow us on </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SWS_Websites"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Twitter</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Select-Web-Solutions-LLC/266450920061712?ref_type=bookmark">Facebook</a>, </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/select-web-solutions-llc?trk=nmp_rec_act_company_photo"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">LinkedIn</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> or </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110329847474400011120/about"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Google
Plus</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Select Web Solutions,
LLC, an </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orange
County, CA website developer</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in Rancho Santa
Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">provider of web services in Orange
County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; including </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">custom website design in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, MobZeo affordable </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">affordable website development in
Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">mobile
websites in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">website hosting</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">online
marketing in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">search engine optimization in Orange
County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">social
media services in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, newsletter services,
email services, logo design and </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">web consulting in Orange County</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, California.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7632996204989313656.post-12236459928171477092014-09-04T16:27:00.000-07:002014-09-04T16:27:16.751-07:00Embrace Your Negative Reviews…SAY WHAT?!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By Stacy Bass</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m not really suggesting that you should be happy about
receiving a negative review on Yelp, Google, Bing, etc., right? Who in their right mind would say that? Maybe ‘happy’ is not the best choice of word,
however I am suggesting that negative reviews do not have to be…negative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all have immediate access to information at our
fingertips 24/7. A few keystrokes and we
can learn all about a company, a product or service, a person, and so on, without
any tremendous effort. More and more,
people are using technology in every facet of their life, including decision
making. <a href="http://websolutionshotspot.blogspot.com/2014/08/do-you-work-for-your-website-or-does.html" target="_blank">I recently wrote about how I used reviews in making a simple luggage purchase</a>; it is just a sign of the times. Looking through reviews really shows how
right poet John Lydgate was when he said, “You can please some of the people
all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t
please all of the people all of the time.”
While none of us are pleased when something goes wrong, the reality of
business (and life) is that sometimes things don’t happen according to plan and
sometimes people get upset about that. The
thing about reviews is that while you have no control over a person who feels
the need to write a negative review, you do have absolute control over how you
choose to respond. In short, you should
embrace negative reviews as an opportunity to shine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A negative review presents the opportunity to turn a dissatisfied
customer into a happy customer, and better yet, you have the opportunity to
demonstrate for those who are not yet customers just how much you value your
customers and how you will treat them as a customer. To begin, the length of time it takes for you
to respond to a negative comment is the first opportunity to demonstrate your commitment
to satisfaction. It is very important
that reviews and social media accounts are monitored frequently. Ignoring negative reviews will not make them
disappear; instead ignoring a negative review gives some credence to whatever
the issue causing the dissatisfaction was.
Respond to the review publicly and professionally. Acknowledge the customer’s comment and
apologize for whatever led to their negative feelings; showing your concern and
intent in rectifying the situation.
However, NEVER engage in a verbal sparring match with the reviewer, even
if they are wrong in their claim, are being nasty or are flat out just trying
to cause trouble for you. You have
nothing to gain by responding in kind, and everything to lose. There are several horror stories that have
gone viral when companies have responded poorly and in each instance the company
gets the blame regardless of whether the initial issue was justified or not,
simply because of their poor handling of the matter. After you have responded to the initial
review publically, take the issue offline and bring it to a full
resolution. Be open and listen to the
issue; you may just discover an opportunity for improvement. Once you have resolved the issue, follow up with
the customer and see if they would update their review now that you have
resolved the issue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Transparency goes a long way in building customer
satisfaction. If you consistently
address and resolve customer concerns in a public manner, it shows others
researching your company, products or services it builds confidence that when
stuff does go wrong that you care enough to make it right. As a consumer, would you choose the company
who ignores their negative reviews or would you choose the company who makes
the effort and treats their customers with courtesy and professionalism?</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 9pt;">Select Web Solutions is
always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.
We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web
strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world. Select Web
Solutions is an </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/about-us.php">Orange County
website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita</a><span style="color: #666666;">, CA. Our products include </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/website-solutions.php">Orange County custom
website solutions</a><span style="color: #666666;">, WebZeo </span><a href="http://www.webzeo.com/">affordable websites in Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/">Orange
County mobile websites</a><span style="color: #666666;">, ProZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/prozeo.php">Orange
County social media profiles</a><span style="color: #666666;">, ListZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/listzeo.php">Orange County Website
Business Listing Service</a><span style="color: #666666;">, SendZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/sendzeo.php">Orange
County newsletter marketing</a><span style="color: #666666;">, MailZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/mailzeo.php">hosted email
services in Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, SEOLight </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/seolight.php">affordable
Orange County SEO</a><span style="color: #666666;">, and much more. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 9pt;"><br />
We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry.
Follow us on </span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SWS_Websites">Twitter</a><span style="color: #666666;">, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Select-Web-Solutions-LLC/266450920061712?ref_type=bookmark">Facebook</a>, </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/select-web-solutions-llc?trk=nmp_rec_act_company_photo">LinkedIn</a><span style="color: #666666;"> or </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110329847474400011120/about">Google Plus</a><span style="color: #666666;">. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Select Web Solutions,
LLC, an </span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">Orange County, CA website
developer</a><span style="color: #666666;"> in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.
Select Web Solutions is a </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">provider of web services in Orange
County</a><span style="color: #666666;">; including </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">custom website design in Orange
County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, MobZeo affordable </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">affordable website development in
Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/">mobile websites in Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">website
hosting</a><span style="color: #666666;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">online marketing in Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">search
engine optimization in Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">social media services in Orange
County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, newsletter services, email services,
logo design and </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">web
consulting in Orange County</a><span style="color: #666666;">, California.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7632996204989313656.post-78108072886280058152014-08-27T16:31:00.002-07:002014-08-27T16:31:29.143-07:00Argh! My Website Has Been Infected!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Written by Stacy Bass</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We’ve
all read the headlines when cyber attacks occur; Company X had millions of
their customer credit card transactions compromised, Company Y had millions of
people’s personal information accessed, Hacker Z gained access to some
government agency, and so on. It is a
widely accepted fact of life that we must all take measures to protect our sensitive
information to keep it from those who would use it for nefarious purposes. You follow all the rules, take the
precautions, but one day you receive a call from a customer letting you know
that their anti-virus software won’t let them access your website because it
has been hacked. Argh! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of
course, the first thing you ask is how did this happen and why was my website
targeted? Your website may not collect
sensitive information or process credit card transactions, but that does not
mean that you are any more immune. The
reality is that no website or company is immune from being infected. Type “hacking attacks 2014” into your search
engine and you’ll see big names like Sony PlayStation, JP Morgan & Chase,
EBay, and so on, and that’s just for this year!
You may think that those are big companies, surely they are more
profitable targets than your small business, after all it’s not like some
hacker is going to hit pay-dirt by hacking your website. Most often the intent is to create havoc by
gaining access to your host account, uploading malware, accessing databases,
etc. The truth is that it is unlikely that a single hacker is sitting behind
his or her computer with your website locked in the cross hairs. Instead, today’s ill-intended hackers are
creating botnets, </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a
network of computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group
without the owners' knowledge. Bots, infected
computers sometimes also referred to as zombies, are then used for purposes
such as sending spam, distributing viruses and spyware, stealing personal and/or
financial information, launching DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, and creating
clickfraud to boost web advertising revenue by auto clicking on internet
ads. The unfortunate reality is that it
is virtually impossible to 100% protect yourself from becoming a victim. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So armed with this
knowledge, how do you protect yourself as much as possible? First, make sure that all of your computers
are updated with anti-virus software and that your anti-virus software is kept
up-to-date, scans all emails and runs in the background at all times. Second, make sure that your local servers
have adequate firewalls in place. Third,
if the anti-virus software alerts you to a potentially harmful email or
website, take heed of the warning.
Fourth, make sure that all your passwords are strong. A strong password should contain a
combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. For example, “Password1”, your user name,
etc. are NOT considered strong passwords, while something along the lines of
“aWp*45-zbK” would be recommended. Fifth,
change your passwords regularly, including the passwords on your website’s host
account control panel, content management system and FTP access, and keep you
passwords private at all times. Lastly,
there are companies that provide website scanning services for a monthly fee
ranging from $29 - $139 per month for those willing to incur a monthly expense
for an additional added layer of protection.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Any host provider would
love nothing more than to be able to provide guarantees to their clientele that
they will never fall victim to an infected website. With a reported 1.7 billion plus of
web-originated attacks in 2013, it is not unlikely that any of us could
experience such an infection. The best
advice is to follow is to adhere to the protections outlined above. We hope that you never find yourself having
to deal with an infected website, however should you find yourself in that
unfortunately position, immediately change all passwords then give us a call
and we’ll get through it together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients. We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world. Select Web Solutions is an <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/about-us.php" target="_blank">Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita</a>, CA. Our products include <u><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/website-solutions.php" target="_blank">Orange County custom website solutions</a></u>, WebZeo <a href="http://www.webzeo.com/" target="_blank">affordable websites in Orange County</a>, MobZeo <a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/" target="_blank">Orange County mobile websites</a>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ProZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/prozeo.php" target="_blank">Orange County social media profiles</a>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ListZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/listzeo.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Orange County</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Website Business Listing Service</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SendZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/sendzeo.php" target="_blank">Orange County newsletter marketing</a>, MailZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/mailzeo.php" target="_blank">hosted email services in Orange County</a>, SEOLight </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/seolight.php" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">affordable Orange County SEO</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and much more. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry. Follow us on </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SWS_Websites" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Twitter</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Select-Web-Solutions-LLC/266450920061712?ref_type=bookmark" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/select-web-solutions-llc?trk=nmp_rec_act_company_photo" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110329847474400011120/about" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Google Plus</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Select Web Solutions, LLC, an </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">Orange County, CA website developer</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">provider of web services in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">; including </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">custom website design in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, MobZeo affordable </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">affordable website development in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">mobile websites in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">website hosting</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">online marketing in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">search engine optimization in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">social media services in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, newsletter services, email services, logo design and </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">web consulting in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, California.</span></span></div>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7632996204989313656.post-29725895448421918272014-08-12T10:18:00.001-07:002014-08-22T14:08:39.145-07:00Is Social Media a Necessary Evil?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Contributed by Stacy Bass</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On any given day, I can rant for hours about my feelings
regarding social media. How the
anonymity makes people behave in a manner that they otherwise would not. How social media provides a playground for
the proliferation of rumors and gossip mongering. Plus, I don’t really care what someone else
is having for dinner, unless of course, they are making it for me. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve been known to wax poetic about how
social media is harming society and eliminating people’s ability for free
thought. I can go on and on and on, and
according to my husband, often do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, here I sit writing about how I dislike social media on
our blog. When I’m done with my blog
post, I’ll post it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and so on. I’ll hope that people “like” it, "friend" us, "follow" us, and so on. Go ahead and say
it…hypocritical much? Yes, in fact, it
is hypocritical because as much as I can complain about social media’s impact
on individuals, I cannot deny that as a small business owner I must embrace
social media and tout its importance to our own business and the businesses of
our clients. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The number one goal of any marketing campaign is to reach as
much of the intended market as possible with a specific message that is
intended to drive a positive response.
Enter social media. Not only does
social media provide the platform to get a message out to a targeted audience,
it can easily be shared with others with a single click and, most of all, IT IS
FREE. Free marketing…every small
business owner’s dream. Very simply, the
only cost to marketing your business via social media is your time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If free marketing is not enough to convince you of the
importance of developing a social media strategy, effective social media use
also significantly increases search engine ranking. As we all know, it is very important for your
business to rank high on search engines.
Anything that can increase this ranking is very important, and again, it’s
free. Posts, likes, tweets, retweets, +1’s,
pins, etc. create what Google refers to as “quality signals”. “Quality signals” are a key component of the
algorithm used by Google to drive ranking.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To summarize…</span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Social media is free marketing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Social media is targeted to your specific
audience.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">People can easily share your message with others
via social media.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Consistent use of social media will boost your
ranking in search engines.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, is social media a necessary evil? As much as it pains me to say, yes, it is undeniable that social media is a necessary evil for any company's marketing plan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients. We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world. Select Web Solutions is an <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/about-us.php" target="_blank">Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita</a>, CA. Our products include <u><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/website-solutions.php" target="_blank">Orange County custom website solutions</a></u>, WebZeo <a href="http://www.webzeo.com/" target="_blank">affordable websites in Orange County</a>, MobZeo <a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/" target="_blank">Orange County mobile websites</a>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ProZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/prozeo.php" target="_blank">Orange County social media profiles</a>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ListZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/listzeo.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Orange County</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Website Business Listing Service</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SendZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/sendzeo.php" target="_blank">Orange County newsletter marketing</a>, MailZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/mailzeo.php" target="_blank">hosted email services in Orange County</a>, SEOLight </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/seolight.php" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">affordable Orange County SEO</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and much more. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry. Follow us on </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SWS_Websites" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Twitter</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Select-Web-Solutions-LLC/266450920061712?ref_type=bookmark" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/select-web-solutions-llc?trk=nmp_rec_act_company_photo" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110329847474400011120/about" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Google Plus</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Select Web Solutions, LLC, an </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">Orange County, CA website developer</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">provider of web services in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">; including </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">custom website design in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, MobZeo affordable </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">affordable website development in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">mobile websites in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">website hosting</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">online marketing in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">search engine optimization in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">social media services in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, newsletter services, email services, logo design and </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">web consulting in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, California.</span></div>
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Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7632996204989313656.post-59233688343360164812014-08-05T14:37:00.002-07:002014-08-05T15:25:52.183-07:00Do You Work For Your Website or Does Your Website Work For You?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you work for your website or does your website work for you?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Will you try a quick mental exercise with me? I want you to think for a moment about your own habits. If you want to find someone or something, you most likely use a search engine (possibly on your phone), and you probably don’t have the time or the inclination to scroll through pages and pages of results. Am I correct? I recently needed some new luggage for an upcoming trip, so I pulled up Amazon, Target and Kohls, typed in the type of luggage I wanted, compared what each had to offer, scanned though product reviews to make sure I wasn’t buying something that would fall apart before I made it back home, made my purchase from the one with the best offer and it was delivered to my house two days later, on a Sunday no less. It was all done within 30 minutes at 11:00 on a Friday night while I was wearing my PJs and sitting in the comfort of my own home. This is the reality of our world today. I won’t need luggage again for a while, but I may need a plumber, a dentist or a haircut. I may want to buy some t-shirts with our company logo, a kitchen table or have my master bath redone. Regardless of what I want or need, the given is that I will start the process online long before I venture out of the house or pick up the phone, and if I can complete the whole transaction online, well that’s even better. Now, think about your company’s website…how does it measure up to your own consumer habits?</span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in the day (like 5 minutes ago) it was enough to just have a website. A company’s website was much like an electronic business card. All that was needed was a little bit about your company, the products and/or services you offer, and information about how to contact you. You could either build it yourself or pay someone to build it for you, then just pay for the domain name and hosting and you’re all done. Easy enough, right? Well…those days are gone! Now-a-days, you should not have to work to pay for the costs of your website; instead your website should be an extension of your company, working for you. It should not simply convey information about your company; it should also perform as a sales and marketing employee, a customer service representative and more. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what does all of this mean for your business? It means that you need more than just a website. You need a web strategy that includes:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A website that is more than just an electronic business card</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A mobile version of your website designed for people using their cell phones</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A cost effective means of getting your website to rank high on search engines</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A way for people to tell others about your products and/or services</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A means of sharing information with your customers and gaining the interest of potential customers</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients. We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world. Select Web Solutions is an <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/about-us.php" target="_blank">Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita</a>, CA. Our products include <u><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/website-solutions.php" target="_blank">Orange County custom website solutions</a></u>, WebZeo <a href="http://www.webzeo.com/" target="_blank">affordable websites in Orange County</a>, MobZeo <a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/" target="_blank">Orange County mobile websites</a>, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ProZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/prozeo.php" target="_blank">Orange County social media profiles</a>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ListZeo </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/listzeo.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Orange County</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Website Business Listing Service</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SendZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/sendzeo.php" target="_blank">Orange County newsletter marketing</a>, MailZeo <a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/mailzeo.php" target="_blank">hosted email services in Orange County</a>, SEOLight </span><a href="http://selectwebsolutions.com/value_services/seolight.php" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">affordable Orange County SEO</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and much more. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will be posting on this blog with musings on the web industry; follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/SWS_Websites" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Select-Web-Solutions-LLC/266450920061712?ref_type=bookmark" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/select-web-solutions-llc?trk=nmp_rec_act_company_photo" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> or <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110329847474400011120/about" target="_blank">Google Plus</a>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Written by Stacy Bass</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Select Web Solutions, LLC, an </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">Orange County, CA website developer</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">provider of web services in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">; including </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">custom website design in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, MobZeo affordable </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">affordable website development in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, MobZeo </span><a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">mobile websites in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">website hosting</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">online marketing in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">search engine optimization in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">social media services in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, newsletter services, email services, logo design and </span><a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/" style="font-size: x-small;">web consulting in Orange County</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, California.</span></span><br />
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Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7632996204989313656.post-52263783309571975242014-07-30T13:47:00.001-07:002014-07-31T15:28:36.000-07:00Is WordPress Really Free?<div style="text-align: left;">
Type “making a WordPress website” into Google and it will return over 318,000,000 results. For millions of people trying to create a website on a shoe string budget, WordPress is where they go. After all, it is free! WordPress is an open source software without any licensing fees or proprietary code limitations, plus there are thousands of free plug-ins that can make your website perform all kinds of exciting functions that would otherwise cost you thousands if you went to a web developer. You can do-it-yourself with a plethora of online tutorials, forums and YouTube videos to offer support. As long as you’ve got the time, how can you go wrong, right? Unfortunately, it can go wrong…very wrong. More and more often we are hearing of WordPress sites that are slow, are no longer working correctly, have become infected with malware, and on, and on. </div>
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To put it in very simplistic terms, WordPress websites consist of a core content management system and a plethora of plug-ins that people add like wildfire to make their website do new and exciting things. The challenge of plug-ins is that you are putting the reliability and security of your website and any attached databases in the hands of unknown developers. While there are many very reliable and trustworthy developers of WordPress plug-ins, there are unfortunately also many unscrupulous developers who either simply write bad code or purposely provide code that is intended to cause harm. To provide an added assurance, it is always recommended to purchase plug-ins from reputable developers with a proven track record. <br />
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In addition, as WordPress is updated, many plug-ins become incompatible with the newer version. It is up to the user to maintain their website. Translation…if something breaks, you need to find it on your own, get rid of it and replace it with something that does work. We receive inquiry calls all the time from people with WordPress websites that aren’t working. These calls are the most challenging for us because our mission is always to find the best solution for our clients, and while we’re always happy to build a relationship and help people find solutions to their problems. Can we fix their issue, yes. Will we fix their issue? Yes again. Is this the best solution for them? Probably not. Very simply, if you have a WordPress website, you will encounter this issue and will continue to encounter this issue. It is the nature of the beast with only two options…acceptance that from time to time you will have issues to resolve (or pay a web developer to resolve for you) or create a website in another platform. <br />
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Finally, one of the largest risks associated with a WordPress website is its vulnerability to attack. To be fair, all websites are vulnerable to attack, however the risks of a WordPress website are simply greater. To begin, the WordPress platform itself is susceptible to brute force attacks. A plug-in can be used to add additional security to your site, but that brings us back to the beginning, doesn’t it? Just last week, there was a report on pcworld.com of an estimate 50,000 WordPress sites were hacked because of the vulnerability of a newsletter plug-in. There are a ton of bots running around 24/7 searching through login possibilities just trying to come up with the magic combination that will let them access the website and distribute malware, spam, etc. to unsuspecting website visitors. The Sucuri blog posted some staggering statistics last week about the recent rise in usage of these bots. I highly recommend that anyone with a WordPress website read this post: <a href="http://blog.sucuri.net/2014/07/new-brute-force-attacks-exploiting-xmlrpc-in-wordpress.html">http://blog.sucuri.net/2014/07/new-brute-force-attacks-exploiting-xmlrpc-in-wordpress.html</a>. <br />
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So, we have to ask…is WordPress really free?
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Select Web Solutions’ WebZeo product provides <a href="http://www.webzeo.com/">affordable website solutions in Orange County, CA</a>. WebZeo is designed to meet every budget, from a do-it-yourself package for $9.95 per month, including hosting, to several full-service options. Our commitment is to build a <a href="http://www.webzeo.com/">cost effective website</a> strategy that meets the unique needs and budget of every client.
Click on the links to the right to learn more about us.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">WebZeo is a provider of <a href="http://www.webzeo.com/">affordable websites in Orange County, CA</a>. WebZeo is a division of Select Web Solutions, LLC, an <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">Orange County, CA website developer</a> in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">provider of web services in Orange County</a>; including <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">custom website design</a>, <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">website development</a>, <a href="http://www.mobzeo.com/">mobile websites</a>, <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">website hosting</a>, <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">online marketing</a>, <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">search engine optimization</a>, <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">social media services</a>, newsletter services, email services, logo design and <a href="http://www.selectwebsolutions.com/">web consulting in Orange County</a>, California.</span>
Select Web Solutionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13057393159359355449noreply@blogger.com0