Easy to Use and User Friendly:
You don’t have to be a computer expert, or geek to master it. This CMS (content management system) is easy to master. The administrator is easy to navigate and makes managing your website content a snap. If you can manage publishing text documents, attaching files, and inserting images…you got this!

Search Engine Friendly:
A critical element of any website, search engines must be able to access and read your website to refer site visitors. WordPress is search engine friendly right out of the box and there are extendable add-on features (plugins available) custom tailored for organic SEO.

Plugins Extend Functionality:
There are thousands of plug-ins and widgets available for use. If your website needs something special, its pretty likely that someone else has already built it and is willing to share. From pre-formatted design themes to easy social media add-ons this world wide supported shareware is worth checking out!

Large community Support:
WordPress is widely used around the globe. There is a large user community and contributors adding to development of this software everyday. There are WordPress forums and communities where you can find answers and solutions.

What’s the catch?
You will need a few things that every website needs no matter which software or platform is used:a domain name, a hosting account that supports PHP and MySQL and a copy of the WP software (free to download at wordpress.org). If this sounds like a foreign language, keep in mind that most non-technical people hire a web designer/developer to initially set it up, but then do their own website updating and maintenance. It’s like buying a car for the Internet. A web developer may create a custom vehicle for your business, put a pretty finish on it (design) and upload it to a server that is connected to the Internet (hosting account), but once you take control … you get to drive, decide where to go and how to get there.

Check out their new website to learn more about Kate Foss and 4 Paws Pet Grooming located on College Street in Lewiston, Maine.

Some great ways to promote your website:

• Make use of the vast availability of social media forums. (IE. Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, etc.)
• Write press releases and submit to local publications (announce anything new with your business- new  business start up, new product lines, new employee, new website, etc.)
• Create a links page and ask complimentary businesses to link to your website – one hand washes the other- I’ll add a link to your website, will you link to mine? Think of other business that would be good referrals sources for you, or compliment your services.
• Make sure that any membership organizations that you belong to have current data and a link to your website – (IE local Chamber, business associations, etc.)
• Make sure your web address is included on ALL printed materials (IE letterhead, business cards, vehicles, advertisements, brochures) that you use – and are included in all media outlets.
• Make use of business directories and free business listings

Other things to do to help you identify where you should spend your time and money for promoting your website:

• Surf and search the Internet to see where your competitors are coming up. Investigate to find out how much it cost to be there too.
• Search online to see who comes up first in the non-paid section of search engines results. Click the link to see if they offer free listings, free advertising, or low cost membership.
• Search the Internet to see where your business name appears. Contact the reference source and ask them to update your information.

A Content Management System (CMS) website uses an online database for managing the site’s content. Utilizing a user name and password, the site’s owner can login directly to the database on the hosting server to modify, add, delete page contents at will. Once the website owner/administrator , “saves” or “updates” any changes to a page, the new content is immediately available to your online audience.

Our CMS employs an easy to use administrator that does not require any specialized computer knowledge and comes with built in video tutorials and a written manual for reviewing and modeling simple updating tasks. A rich text editor (similar to using MS Word) automatically converts the text and files into HTML format to be diplayed online. Image handling and file management capabilities can easily be added to the administrator for handling non-text content. Our CMS also enables the use of an internal search engine , so your site visitors can find what they are looking for quickly and easily. By building CMS websites, we provide our clients with the ability to easily maintain their websites in-house… no waiting for production time, no additional fees every time something in your business changes and your site needs to be updated. Our sites are built with an expandable foundation to easily accommodate future growth and modern features.

SEO: A history lesson…

In the old days, major search engines primarily relied on meta-tags containing keywords and keyword phrases. The search engine robots (computerized scripts) would go out to crawl the web and copy website meta-data and retrieve content, or text, from the websites pages and copy it back to their central database. The central data base was then searched by Search Engine users and the most relevant results, or matches were sent back to the user. While good in theory, this arrangement didn’t work out as well as hoped, because frankly it was too easy and too tempting for website owners, or developers to cheat or try to outsmart the robots.

People started adding tons of keywords and phrases to their meta-data tags that had nothing to do with the products, services, or information being offered. For example, people would add the most popular or trendy words they could think of in hopes of getting more website traffic. For example, words like sex, drugs, rock and roll, Nascar, apple pie, The Beatles and Chevrolet were added. More crafty developers would even add white text to a white page background to embed some of the same words to fool the SE robots. In response, the SE owners had to implement a more sophisticated plan, which included a variety of checks and balances. So what now?

Content is KING

Today, several factors are considered in determining which results will be offered back to the user. Keywords and keyword phrases do not hold the same weight as in the past. Here is what Google has to say about it:

Google does no longer use the meta keyword and they confirm this in their Webmaster Central Blog: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking. Some search engines don’t use the meta tag information any more because many people abused it. In fact, meta tags may not represent the content of your site, but, it still doesn’t hurt your status with search engines if you make use of these little bits of information, and do so truthfully.

So what do we need to do?

• Develop content using a variety of words and phrase that include our key areas, that will cater to your desired results.
• Have a domain name, or generic domain name(s) that contain your keywords.
• Use descriptive page titles that include your primary keywords.
• Evaluate your results by looking at your website stats and add to, or change, content accordingly.

Easy to Use and User Friendly:
You don’t have to be a computer expert, or geek to master it. This CMS (content management system) is easy to master. The administrator is easy to navigate and makes managing your website content a snap. If you can manage publishing text documents, attaching files, and inserting images…you got this!

Search Engine Friendly:
A critical element of any website, search engines must be able to access and read your website to refer site visitors. WordPress is search engine friendly right out of the box and there are extendable add-on features (plugins available) custom tailored for organic SEO.

Plugins Extend Functionality:
There are thousands of plug-ins and widgets available for use. If your website needs something special, its pretty likely that someone else has already built it and is willing to share. From pre-formatted design themes to easy social media add-ons this world wide supported shareware is worth checking out!

Large community Support:
WordPress is widely used around the globe. There is a large user community and contributors adding to development of this software everyday. There are WordPress forums and communities where you can find answers and solutions.

What’s the catch?
You will need a few things that every website needs no matter which software or platform is used:a domain name, a hosting account that supports PHP and MySQL and a copy of the WP software (free to download at wordpress.org). If this sounds like a foreign language, keep in mind that most non-technical people hire a web designer/developer to initially set it up, but then do their own website updating and maintenance. It’s like buying a car for the Internet. A web developer may create a custom vehicle for your business, put a pretty finish on it (design) and upload it to a server that is connected to the Internet (hosting account), but once you take control … you get to drive, decide where to go and how to get there.

If you are looking for a vacation spot with beautiful scenic views, close to historical sites, lighthouses, salty sea air, boat rides, amusement parks and plenty of shopping nearby…this is a place for you.

If you are looking for a vacation spot with beautiful scenic views, close to historical sites, lighthouses, salty sea air, boat rides, amusement parks and plenty of shopping nearby…this is a place for you.

www.durhamme.com – The new website format enables the town staff to manage the content in-house, which aids in communicating local news and developments, as well as provides a well-rounded stopping place for visitors from all over the world-wide-web (www) that make an inquiry regarding Durham, Maine.

This website uses modern technology, including a Blog component for highlighting news & announcements and top stories. It also employs a live weather feed, an events calendar, offers a subscriber newsletter and has automatic feeds to Facebook and Twitter accounts, with automated scheduled reminders for upcoming events. Its’ internal search engine further provides visitors with a new method for navigating the content rich site. Complete with an active image gallery, local history, local business listings , town departments, town government and online services information, this website has a lot to offer.