Google-powered email

Back when Google first launched its Gmail program, you could only get a gmail account if you had an invitation. It quickly became hip to have a gmail account because only people who were “in” could get one. It also helped that Google incorporated some very cool features in its email service. It wasn’t just another email service — it was an advanced email service.

Nowadays anybody can get a Gmail account, so it is no longer in the exclusive domain of the cool techies. Also, Google has added Gmail to its suite of free business applications, so not only can you get a Gmail account, you can use Gmail to manage the email at your domain.

If you would like to have email with your web site (recommended), we will set you up with Gmail. For more information, visit Gooble Apps.

Getting Google search results

Yesterday I posted “Los Angeles non-techie needs web site” and today, when you do a Google search for “Los Angeles non techie” it comes up in the number two result.

Easy, right? Well, not so fast. While I am a little surprised at the quick results, it is not easy to make that happen. Here are the things that I did to make it happen:

1. “Los Angeles non techie” is not a common or competitive search term. There are not thousands of web sites that are trying to get to the top of that search result, therefore it was relatively easy for me to slip in there.

2. That post was designed to get a Google search result. The key term was right there in the headline, in the url, and in the page title — all places where Google looks for key terms.

3. The post was delivered from a WordPress blog, which is intentionally designed to make it as easy as possible for the search engines.

4. And finally, here is really the only reason that it showed up in Google search results so well and so quickly: I posted a link to it on my other site, West L.A. Online, with the key term in the anchor text (the hyperlinked text).

The reason the link on West L.A. Online was so effective is that it is a web site that I have been working on for over five years. It is well established on the web and in the search engines as a news and information site for West Los Angeles. It takes time and effort to establish that kind of reputation.

The point of this exercise is three-fold. First, it demonstrates that I have some expertise in search engine optimization (SEO). Second, it’s not easy to get get meaningful results from SEO. And third, it’s not too hard to make it look easy. Beware of SEO snake oil.

Los Angeles non-techie needs web site

If the message you are trying to communicate is local, then location needs to be part of your SEO strategy.

Websites for Non-Techies is most valuable when we can meet face-to-face with our clients. That makes us a local business, and in our case, that means Los Angeles.

In recent years, search engines such as Google have been putting a lot of effort into capturing what they call “local search.” If you are looking for a dry cleaner, entering simply “dry cleaner” in a search engine won’t get you very good results, so people have learned that if they want something local, they have to indicate something in their search term about location. The simplest thing to do is include the city in the search term. Search engines are working hard to ensure that they can recognize place names entered as a search term.

If you want your web site to be associated with a particular location, you can help search engines by using your place name on your web site — just like this blog post.

Getting serious about email

When you have your own domain (e.g. yourdomain.com) and your own web site, you also get email at that domain.

Your email address sends a signal. Right or wrong, your email address can indicate how serious you are about your online presence. It may not be a fair assessment, but whenever I see an AOL email address on a business card, it tells me that this person is, shall we say, unsophisticated about the web. The same goes for email addresses that are provided by an internet service provider, like a telephone company or cable company.

If you are serious enough about your online presence to register a domain and get a web site, you must also signal that seriousness by having an email address at that domain.

Having a business email address doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to give up the personal email address you have been using, nor does it mean you have to learn a new email program, or monitor it seperately from your personal email. We can set up your business email address to forward to the email address you actively use, so that nothing has to change in your current email routine.

It is absolutely imperitive, no matter what email address you use, that you read your email on a regular basis. Nothing is worse that allowing email to go unread for more than a long weekend. In the other hand, those who really want to make an impression will monitor and respond to email on an hourly basis at least. You have to decide for yourself what level of responsiveness is right for you.