Happy New Year!
We’re so excited because we know 2005 is going to be a productive & prosperous year for all of us! As usual, we bet you made a few resolutions. We did J Most of us resolve to work out, or to eat right in order to prevent sickness. Have you made a resolution for your website? If not, we have a suggestion for you!
Preventive Maintenance for your Website
This year, resolve to prevent website downtime – it only takes 5 minutes! Yes, we know your hosting company is mostly in charge of that. BUT, the most common reason websites are going offline lately is not the host’s fault. It’s yours. WHY?
Because your domain name expired.
Many tech saavy individuals forget that hosting fees and domain name fees are separate. Hosting fees are the fees you pay in order to keep your website on the internet once its built. Domain fees are different – they secure your website’s name. They are typically paid yearly or even for 10 years at a time. Some people pay the same company for hosting and domain name services, while others use separate companies. If you used separate companies, do yourself a favor and make sure BOTH have your updated contact information.
A great reference to see WHEN your domain name expires and IF your contact information is correct is a whois database. Our favorite is: http://www.geektools.com/whois.php . If you take 5 minutes now to check, it can save you hours of headaches in the future. Just click the link above (right now!), put in the security key, and plug in your domain name. The main items to look for are the expiration date and the administrative email address. All important notices are sent to the administrative email address, so if you see an outdated address there, its essential you change it. If you need to make a change, and you can’t remember the company you registered the domain with, don’t worry. It’s listed there too!
If your domain name does expire, it goes into a redemption period where you have to pay a substantial amount of money to get it back. Your website goes down. Your email masks won’t work. Your search engine status goes away. This year, resolve to take preventative measures so this doesn’t happen to you!!!
Keyword Update
All Cal Coast SEO websites will be undergoing a keyword update in the next month or so. It’s a new year, and we are going to add some new keywords to your meta tags! We feel its important to take a look at your keywords every once in awhile to see if there’s anything new to add, or anything obsolete that needs to go away. Plus, the more phrases we add, the more traffic will pass through your website! If you know of a few phrases you would like us to add, feel free to email us, or add it to your “To Do” list at CCWDsupport.com.
Tsunami Relief
We’ve noticed there’s TONS of websites out there supporting various charities to help with the recent Tsunami. Its so nice to see prominent relief effort links on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. If you would like to add a link to your website, let us know. We’d be happy to link to the charity of your choice. After such a terrible disaster, every little bit helps!
Well, that’s it for this month! Cal Coast appreciates your business, your time, and most of all YOU. Take care until next time 🙂
Thanks Cal Coaster Subscribers!
Sincerely,
Cal Coast Web Design, Inc.
http://www.CalCoastWebDesign.com
