The Web Authority – Page 26 – From McCord Web Services – Google Partner and Web Visibility Experts

September 9, 2019February 9, 2019

How To Compete Against A Competitor With Deep Pockets

In Google Ads, you can compete effectively against large competitors who are spending a lot of money on Google Ads with a few creative approaches.

First, consider taking the gloves off. We will routinely target competitor names in very competitive spaces. Our ad text will show dynamic keyword insertion and phrases in the ad text like (Competitor’s Name) Too Expensive? Check out (Your Company Name) and then showcase features. Similar to (Competitor Name) is also another great way to get traffic and bleed off prospects who may have never known about you and were searching for your competitor.

Be watchful about the time of day your ads show. If you are competing against a company with a very large advertising budget, consider bidding down slow times of the day or times that do not typically convert for you and show your ads at your regular cost per click in peak times. This strategy keeps your name out there but focuses budget in peak decision making times.

Consider Display advertising and use In Market as a setting. This will show your ads in the Display Network and targets readers or browsing prospects that are actively looking for your competitor or services you offer.

If you are looking to boost your Google Ads exposure and be more competitive in your marketplace, I invite you to visit our website to find out more about McCord Web Services and what we do.

September 2, 2019July 27, 2019

Hackers Want Your Reputation and Credentials

Site reputation – that’s what hackers want to steal from you for their own personal gain. Don’t think that you need to just be using WordPress to become a victim. I’ve seen regular HTML website fall prey to hack attacks too.

It typically all starts with your user name and password being stolen. Hackers create a phishing page that looks legit that they hope you will click and then enter in your user name and password into. The best defense is to never click links in an email and if you do click a link, never share login information no matter how valid a site or form looks.

Instead, go to your login address using your browser and access your account without clicking a link. You will typically find that there is not a problem with your account or access. But the email you had received had some dire notice that you were going to lose access or your account would be closed. Be suspicious of everything.

Troy Hunt has it right in his article on how and why hackers want to get into your site and steal your credentials. His article is worth the read to allow you to make sure to stay safe. You will be amazed at the extent hackers will use, to mask their presence in an effort to steal your credentials and then your website reputation.

August 26, 2019July 27, 2019

What to Consider Before Doing Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is not for every website. Although search engine optimization can really improve the organic search results for some websites, there are a couple of considerations when search engine optimization should not be considered and maybe a full site redesign may be a better investment of money and time.

When not to do search engine optimization:

If your site is created in a template and the site layout becomes broken when new content is added.
Your site looks funny in browsers other than Chrome and Firefox.
You have a site designed using Flash or tables for your layout.
Your website looks dated or non-professional.

As search engine optimization is not inexpensive, in some cases the money that would have been spent on search engine optimization would be better spent on a new search engine friendly design with built-in optimization features.

August 19, 2019July 27, 2019

How to Get Rid of Ad Overlays When Posting Videos on Your Site

Here are a few web video tips you may find helpful as you consider if you are ready to expand your video postings on your website.

Google loves it when a site uses YouTube for videos, but customers hate putting web videos on YouTube due to the ad overlays.

I recently ran into an issue where we were putting a video on the home page of a website in a key position that is the very first thing any visitor will see. Once loaded to YouTube and embedded in the website my first reaction was URGH look at those ads mid-stream and at the end of the video that stay up obscuring my clients work.

There are two things that you can do to prevent ads on your videos. 1.) Turn off monetization in your YouTube account so ads do not appear on your videos. 2.) Use a free service like the Basic Vimeo account.

You can watch these videos for nice instructions on how to turn off ads in YouTube. It is a 2 step process. First turn off ads and then go into the info/settings of each video travel to the monetize section and turn off for each video. This video shows you how to turn off the pre-video ad in your channel settings. This is a nice video that explains the second process. What is important to know is that you are in control of the monetization of your own videos. But by default, it looks like if you don’t manually turn monetization off, Google will slap ads all over the start, middle and end of your video.

Alternatively you can use Vimeo. I like the interface and like that you can customize the player. The downside is that Google loves it’s owner properties. I see YouTube videos in the search results all the time, but would be hard pressed to say that I regularly see Vimeo videos in the search results.

The choice is yours which service you’ll use, but for now, I am actually using both.