I was asked earlier today what happens to domain names which are not renewed or which we have no intention of using again. I have explained what happens in some circumstances but what happens if we just know that we will not be renewing a domain name but that we may want to wreck it for a competitor? A case in point is lanzarotebusiness.com (which I searched for today and found a blog post about) which was registered back in 2003 and which we took over in 2004 as an offshoot of Whitestar I.T Ltd - we ran it as our main brand in Lanzarote for while but decided to switch the brand to lanzabiz.com and propertyinlanzarote.com.
At the time a lot of new people with "web skills" were moving to the island and, truth be told, were the sort of anoraks who really believed that a free copy of Coffecup HTML Editor or Notepad was better for building web sites than Visual Studio and an MSDN subscription. Worse still, this "hand coded is better approach" was being bandied about by people who would charge €50 for a site (which was paid up front) and then many customers would never see them again; these idiots did a lot of damage to the reputable companies on the island.
I will stress that the domain name lanzarotebusiness.com is now owned by someone else and the company who built the site on it are one of the very few design companies in Lanzarote who I respect as competitors (although in different markets). However, before we let the domain lapse we wrecked it by:
- Sticking completely irrelevant content on it for a while (including a massive picture of Bagpuss)
- Leaving it with the default IIS "Under Construction" page for a few months
- Pointing it at some hard porn for a week and then linking it to a pirate music site
This was done because one of the local dickheads offered us a tenner for the name so we let is lapse assuming that they would buy it. Of course, we also knew that they would be very unlikely to sort out the mess we left behind and we would therefore be screwing any chance they had of using it productively! A reputable company would, of course, know how to deal with it and that's what happened in the end.
I would like to set one point straight - in their blog, the current owner of the domain says that we got the domain banned in Google by using "black hat SEO tactics". This is absolutely not the case and the wreckage of the domain was 100% deliberate; as someone who develops using Google API's (including Ad Words, Maps, and AdSense this would really not be commercially sensible.
I feel that sometimes a domain needs to die unless it's going to be looked after and I have no hesitation in sticking the boot into a domain if it will hurt a crap company thinking they can use it - a good competitor will know what to do about it and, if they pick up one of our discarded domains, I wish them all the luck in the world.
We have a customer who is very keen on putting as many links as possible onto his site. This was fine in the bad old days as even the mighty Google loved incoming links (which of course had to be reciprocated with outgoing links) but this is absolutely no longer the case. This particular customer decided to add himself to a link farm and then added said link farm to his links page using our Control Panel - then he wondered why he slipped down Google very quickly.
I have said it before and I'll say it again : link farms are a monumentally bad idea and you should avoid them at all costs.
If a site with relevant content links to you then by all means link back but think very carefully about the context of the links.
In fact, from now on we might just ask customers to sign a disclaimer or ban them from being entered into the Control Panel - they are that bad.
I really should pay more attention to marketing - we build sites and then forget to shout about them! A case in point is our portfolio at www.webmerized.co.uk which has been sadly neglected. From now on, whenever a site is finished, I PROMISE that I'll remember to update the portfolio. I will, of course, remember to use appropriate link text and keywords so that the clients mentioned on there will benefit from increased page rank on Google. After all, businesses mentioned here get traffic so it should work from our portfolio as well.
So, if anyone is promoting us to friends and other business owners please mention the following sites:
We are delighted to announce the completion of Jack Dempsey Music - a site designed to promote the album "Elvis Rocked The People Then". The site includes flash players and is linked to an e-commerce platform allowing visitors to purchase individual tracks, the whole album as a digital download, or purchase a physical CD for shipment.
We have undetaken all of the work including installing and configuring the nopCommerce package, setting up and configuring the PayPal gateway, converting the album to the correct sample formats, and building the public facing web site. We are also providing full email services. The entire project (including configuration and domain registration) has taken three days of development and we are very pleased with the way the underlying technology platform works to deliver samples.
If you need an electronic commerce solution (whether you are shipping physical products, digital files, or both) please contact us for more information about the possibilities our platforms offer.
See www.jackdempseymusic.com for more information (and listen to some of the music).
We still have not received payment and so this customer can expect a County Court Summons to drop through his letterbox in the next few days. We will, of course, be pursuing this to completion even if it means sending the baliffs in. We do what we say we'll do and that's all we expect of anyone else.
We are delighted to announce that Jack Dempsey and Mozart's Ghost have chosen Ladybird Internet to deliver their first album (released in the mid-80's) via our e-commerce system. The music has echoes of Queen, ELO, and massive orchestral arrangements that lift the spirits. The album "Elvis Rocked The People Then" is his first album release (following an aborted contract with EMI). WIth a MySpace group with hundreds of fans, Jack felt the time was right to deliver his music via downloads as well as shipping CD's.
We will be providing a site which will offer samples of the tracks and allow users to purchase individual tracks or the album online. The original CD with artwork is also available as a physical shipment.
This site is a great example of how our e-commerce system can be used to deliver digital products as well as physical shipments. The site launches in the next seven days and we recommend the title track (sing it ... "Elvis rocked the people then.... Rockalujha")
Our new bathroom is now fitted and we'd like to give a huge thanks to Billy from Tyne Plumbing. Visit his site at
www.tyneplumbing.co.uk an tell him we sent you! Highly recommended if you need a plumber in the North East.
I love it when I get a better service than I expected and we just got exactly that from Bill Quay Joinery Service who operate in the North East. Not only did they install two new joists, they strengthened the existing ones, and managed to clear all their mess away well within the time they said. We now have a solid bathroom floor and I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them if you need any kind of joinery or building services; we've asked them to quote for the rest of the wall coverings, tiled floor, ceiling and lighting. They don't have a website (yet!) but if you need a quality service please contact Ben on 0191 4691381.
Suppose you own a hostel or hotel and you host your web site with us. Now suppose that you want to make it more visible in Google - we recommend a new XHTML / CSS compliant site and the marketing we do works. However, now suppose that you believe that a link on the Google Map displayed as part of the search results is very important. Now suppose that when you perform a search for your keywords that you come up at Number Four as part of our marketing efforts (which is free) and you are listed twice on the map (under 2 names and 2 different and non-related domains). Next to your name is a link saying "82 Reviews" - and ALL of them (apart from a few obviously planted ones) are negative in the extreme. And then wonder why you don't get the bookings you think you should be getting?
Your competitors are spending money on Adwords by Google and you are not spending any money at all. We put you at number four just by building a standards based site. People click the map (because it is served by Google at the top of the results) and they see 82 mostly negative reviews before they get to your "official" site link (which isn't linked to the map by the way!). And then wonder why you don't get the bookings you think you should be getting??
If you need advice relevant to Search Engine Optimisation please ask - we are always happy to recommend an alternative to our own service and all update recommendations issued by an SEO Specialist are free of charge for sites hosted with us. If we give advice and you ignore it then please don't complain if your online marketing goes pear shaped. I don't care if it's a "competitor" or you've given someone a free night in the hostel in return for "expert advice" - when you mess up you mess up for as long as Google holds the reference (which might be forever).
Here are some of our hotel sites who follow advice and get the results they want - these people are not stupid and they are not receiving bad advice as their organic positions in Google clearly demonstrate:
We recommend any of the above if you need a break!
It's my birthday today and due to a massive waterleak we are having our new bathroom fitted over the next couple of days (assuming all goes to plan). For that reason (the bathroom, not the birthday) I will be working from home mainly and site visits will be kept to a minimum - unless it's really urgent I would like to schedule all site visits for next week if possible.
Yes, I am 41 and yes, by all means buy me a beer! The bathroom story will wait for another day......