It is easy to do a vanity URL for your profile page, but how do you do one for your Fan Page and can you even do one. Yes you can! Here’s how.

1. Log into your Facebook account. Make sure you have set yourself up as an administrator for any Fan Page that you work on as well or you will need to login to each account as the owner separately to do the following.

2. Go to this URL: http://www.facebook.com/username/ Select your Fan Page name from the drop down if you have multiple pages your work on. If your fan page is not selectable you may not have 25 fans yet and so you will need to get a minimum of 25 friends first to be able to have a vanity URL. If your page name shows up, enter your desired easy to remember name in the field and then click check availability.

3. Confirm that this is the URL you want and then update your Facebook Fan Page badges and links on your website.

Sometimes the name that matches your business is not available. There could be several reasons why.

1. Facebook may not be allowing this name.
2. Someone may have tagged this name but not published the Fan Page yet.
3. The name is too generic.
4. The name selected may be a recognizable trademarked name.
5. The name or combination of words may be considered offensive.
6. Some other unknown Facebook criteria has prevented you taking the name.

If this happens to you, you can visit the Facebook Fan Page support center: http://www.facebook.com/FanpageHelpCenter where you may be able to get additional help with your problem.

Have fun with this tip and leave a comment with your new Facebook Fan Page vanity URL below! Mine is facebook.com/mccordweb

This has just happened to a prospect, and I wanted to share the situation in case you ever come across it. First the prospect is using WordPress for their blog. They had recently moved to a new web host and mentioned to me that when you clicked the blog post title of any posts on their blog their browser returned a blank Internet Explorer page.

I have seen this before where a Word character such as a long dash or an ampersand has not set well with the version of MySQL on the hosting server and then the post needs to be deleted and totally reentered to make the title be clickable, but that was not the case with this client. The title of the posts were simply not clickable.

What ended up happening was that the client had to actually reenter all the blog posts on their blog after they had upgraded to a new version of WordPress. I am not sure if this was due to an issue on the MySQL server, the blog template, or as I suspect the permalink settings that were not updated to match the database when the blog was moved, but it was a very thorny problem.

If you have seen this and have a recommendation for other readers on what you have done to repair this issue on your own blog, just leave a comment below.

Wow, Reddit is tough! If they don’t like your content or you don’t get enough article views, just plan on getting your account closed, all your links dropped, and your user account banned. All without letting you know anything short of “we don’t like the quality of the content you are linking to.” In my case, the content was in real estate!

What I have found is that Reddit will not like you if you are using their service to create backlinks to content that although may be unique is not catchy, trendy, or from their view point newsworthy.

Although Reddit has a Google PageRank of 8 and does allow dofollow links, be very careful what you ad. You can identify if they are targeting to drop you by the note that says you are adding too many links when you are simply adding three links a week. Additionally they will display a note you are adding links too fast add this link in one hour. Hey, the last time I added a link was Monday and it is now Wednesday, how is that too fast?

Well enough on my rant on Reddit. Just be cautious what you add is your very best quality and you may want to consider not using this service for clients where you can’t control content.

Effective September 15th AdWords is changing who can be emailed reports. In fact after that date AdWords won’t even be emailing you a report, rather will email you a link to view the report online.

For me this has totally wreaked havoc in the way I do reporting. I have an assistant who does reports for me. She takes the Excel data and pastes it into a letter where I have noted important comments about an account monthly. Previously she was emailed a zip file by AdWords on the first of every month.

Now I will have to add her as a read only user on every AdWords account so that she will be able to now manually and repetitively login and download a report. Worse yet is that there is no real column control on the report as there was before which means that adjusting the columns in Excel becomes a task that must be done for each report for each client.

Man, I hate this change! I have tried inviting her to my My Client Center, but that does not give the report access she needs, so I will now need to add her to each individual account. I understand the security issues involved but AdWords should have polled professionals such as myself before making this seriously bad change!

Web authority with search engines is built based on authoritative content that is unique and informative. The content you create for an authority site should not only clearly and transparently detail your services, but should provide more in-depth informational content on topics that dovetail with your service offerings.

Search engines reward large content-rich websites with organic search placement. This depth of content is not built over night, but should be considered a work in progress with new pages added on a monthly basis. For new websites we recommend that a client start with a minimum of 25 pages of content and immediately start blogging three days a week on site launch.

Over time as your website grows, you naturally establish authority on your selected topic as you build keyword density. For many websites, in a year or less, they will start to see good organic improvement. Continue that process for years and your website can grow to over several thousand pages of interesting unique informational content that is targeted around your service offerings. Not only does this make a better website for readers, but search engines reward these sites with better organic placement.

Social bookmarking can be time consuming, but if you break adding your links down into manageable posting chunks you can receive the link benefits with less effort. I like www.SocialPoster.com for my posting help.

First, I prepare my links and descriptions in Notepad. Make sure to turn off word wrap to prevent posting spacing issues.

Second, make sure before you start that you have logged into all your accounts and set your login cookies.

Third, copy and paste your posting information from Notepad into the SocialPoster interface. Tick off the social bookmarking sites you will be using and then click “Start Posting”.

No submissions are automatic, but for some sites, SocialPoster will autofill your submission allowing you to work more quickly. You may only have to enter the tags or a description instead of the full link submission.

P.S. Social Poster has not paid me for this blog post. I just think that their free online application is a real help and wanted to share it with you.

Social bookmarking is a great way to easily start building one way inbound links to your website. There are a few things that I have found out that I wanted to share with you from my use of social bookmarking over the last several months.

1. Don’t waste time using automated software or services. All the sites have worked to defeat the use of any automated entries with catchpas and other scripting techniques including even sensing the time and quality of your submissions.
2. Don’t add all your bookmarks on one day. I space mine out on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule with one link per service per day.
3. Use your top pages or blog posts that are on viral newsworthy topics to generate incoming traffic.
4. The sites that generate the most traffic for me are Reddit and Stumble Upon. I use others, but in my referrer logs these are the most active services that send me website traffic in addition to links.

One more tip I use SocialPoster.com to make this labor intensive process of adding bookmarks a wee bit easier.

Social bookmarking is still a new service for us, but we are finding that for link generation it does have value and is less expensive for the client than article marketing.

Social bookmarking is a new smart way to create inbound links to your content, but is it worth the time and effort? So far based on client studies it appears to be a very workable approach. However it is labor intensive.

Here are a few client results from the Google Webmaster control panel after just 30 days of social bookmarking three pages a week.

Client A
inbound links before: 5,099
inbound links after: 5,107

Client B
inbound links before: 9,964
inbound links after: 10,162

Although this is not a super fast way to grow links, clearly it is growing links nicely over time. But the link growth depends on the topic and quality of content. Client B’s site appears to be growing faster as the quality of content is more newsworthy and is of better quality when compared to Client A’s.

I have found that the social bookmarking sites have worked very hard to defeat automated entries and so our links are all generated manually which is labor intensive. However social bookmarking can be done by any site owner with a bit of extra time. I find the benefits in the short term are measurable and easier and more efficient than contacting website owners asking for a one way inbound link or even a reciprocal link.

If you are interested in our social bookmarking program, I invite you to visit our social bookmarking services page for pricing and more information.

Let’s say you own a fairly new business, where should you spend your time and money to generate sales – social networking or pay per click?

I feel that social networking is an excellent way to connect with prospects and engage clients. I love Twitter, Facebook, and blogging, but will these avenues generate immediate sales for a new business? I have to say from my personal experience using all these tools that although they are important for immediate sale generation, these tools can simply not compete with the power of sales generation that Google AdWords provides.

Does this mean you shouldn’t be involved in social media? No, not at all, but I feel that for new startups of a business that wants a return of immediate sales from their monetary investment that pay per click using Google AdWords is a better investment. I feel that social media involvement is key for positioning, search engine placement, customer engagement, and overall web authority, but this is most important for established businesses.

Startups typically have a short fuse – you have to generate some business quickly in order to stay in business. The more business you generate the more you can invest in your web presence. Here’s where social media involvement for the typical startup may simply be too far sighted. Although these are important things in which to invest your time, they may not return placement and sales for six months to a year or longer. These social avenues may not generate sales at all, they may help with authority and organic placement.

So if your need as a new business is to generate sales and you have a limited budget, I recommend investing in pay per click specifically using Google AdWords to get the jump start that you need. Then later as you are more established and have more cash to invest in growing your web presence consider blogging, Facebook and Twitter.

Find out about our Google AdWords services and pricing to see if we would be a good match for your needs.

Well I am finally back, cured of jet lag, and ready to go. I loved Russia and the river cruise. The people are very open and friendly and the countryside is beautiful. Fortunately I did not have much trouble with the smoke issue as I left Moscow and headed to St. Petersburg before the smoke was really a problem. However the heat is a totally different story!

I particularly loved St. Petersburg and would definitely go back there to visit. I have to say after having toured a bunch of palaces that I can see why the general population rebelled. The opulent lifestyle of the royal and extended court were unbelievable at the expense of the peasants. I think I might have been on the side of the rebellion as well.

I have inserted one of my photos from the beautiful Katherine’s Palace so you can see one of my most favorite places outside of St. Petersburg.

For an easier way to tour Russia than by bus and a new hotel every night, I would recommend a river cruise. My stateroom was like a nice room at the Sheraton. But best of all was the interesting and diverse global company of travelers that made cruising and touring a real delight.

Nancy McCord will be back blogging on Monday. This article is one of her reprints.

Do visitors hit your home page and stay less than 10 seconds? Do your visitors rarely return for a second visit? Is your your home page bounce rate over 90%? If so, you may really need some help to improve stickiness and your visitor’s web experience. Your website may be one of the Web’s “one night stands” — never good enough for the “second date” or return visit.

Put your website to work for you by concentrating on providing great informational content. If your website is just about you and your services, and does not provide any interesting, conversation building content, you are missing the boat when it comes to what moves customers to contact you. You will never get the “second date” or sales call from a client or prospect when your focus is not on them, meeting their needs, and working to exceed their expectations.

It used to be that a website was like a brochure, but now we have gotten jaded by the “Web experience”. We want, crave, and demand interaction. Every website needs to engage visitors into conversation. Set the stage to become the authority for your clients and prospects and be their ”go-to person” with excellent content and transparency of what you do and how you do it using your website as your platform.

Don’t fall into the rut of being a one visit website. Break out and become the voice of your industry and watch your business grow!

Nancy McCord is almost back from Russia. This article is one of her previously published pieces.

There are many things that you can do to benefit your website, but have you thought about the things that can kill your website? Here are my five top website killers – things you clearly should stay clear of doing to get good organic search engine placement and impress viewers.

1. Don’t build your website all in Flash. It looks cool, but search engines cannot catalog the information contained in .swf files or for that matter .flv files. Google has just announced in early August that it is working with Adobe to try to rectify this problem, but that doesn’t help you now.
2. Don’t ever steal your content from another website. You need unique content, don’t scrape someone else’s site. Not only will Google penalize you for duplicate content but you may get sued for copyright infringement. You can’t use the content even if you give credit – that’s still infringing.
3. Don’t test your website in Firefox. If you don’t check, you won’t know and you really should. Firefox is an important browser and the browser of choice for nearly 25% of the browsing readers. If you don’t look good in IE AND Firefox, you may alienate a large part of your readers.
4. Don’t make your web page layout too big. Although there are actually still some people surfing the web with 800 by 600 pixel resolution, the bulk of people are at 1024 pixels wide and larger. For my own site, still nearly 30% of my viewers are at 1024 pixels wide. Make sure you have website statistics that track this and then make sure to design your site to accommodate this important segment and not alienate viewers by having scroll bars at the bottom for 1024 pixel resolution viewers.
5. Don’t use webmaster tools. Google, Yahoo and MSN have webmaster tools, make sure you are using them so you will know how the various search engines see your website. If you have problems, these tools can be invaluable in order to diagnose problems.

Yes that is right Nancy McCord is still in Russia. This is one of her previously published articles. She is back on August 16.

This is an interesting topic for blog owners and I have changed my own mind on this point over the years.

It used to be with most of our client blogs on Blogger, we set the blog to show 30 posts on the home page. Now with most of our clients using WordPress and many more home page options, we recommend having five blog posts on your home page.

I have seen some blogs where they just show one blog post on the home page or some that show three, but I personally like showing five blog posts.

If you have WordPress, you can even select to have a static page for the entry page of your blog and I have even seen some blogs where they simply show categories and snippets of posts like a magazine portal page. There are many flavors of what you should use for your home page.

Darren at ProBlogger did a review of this topic and I thought that the comments written in by other bloggers were very good. Here is the vote on the number in a nutshell.

Two Posts 1 Blogger

Three Posts 4 Bloggers

Four Posts 3 Bloggers

Five Posts 13 Bloggers

Six Posts 3 Bloggers

Seven Posts 1 Blogger

Ten Posts 6 Bloggers

More Than 10 Posts 2 Bloggers (1 had snippets the other had 35 posts)

So the consensus seems to match my thoughts five blog posts on the home page seems about right.

Nancy McCord will be back blogging on August 16. This is one of her previously published articles.

Here are my top five web design myths and answers to each one.

1. Search engine spiders can index Flash so I’m okay if my website has been built in Flash.
2. How long it takes to load a website page doesn’t matter – everyone has DSL anyway.
3. I like an entry page for my website that is all graphics it’s pretty and sets the tone.
4. I was promised by this firm top placement on Google if they overhauled my home page and website.
5. I want my website to have a lot of video why are viewers complaining to me that they can’t see my video.

1.  Search engine spiders can index Flash so I’m okay if my website has been built in Flash.

Wrong, sorry, even Google states that they aren’t good yet on indexing Flash even though for nearly a year they have said they can index Flash. I can tell you that I get more calls for pay per click promotion and search engine optimization from websites done in all Flash. It is far better to use Flash judiciously say a hybrid html site with a Flash banner. What’s the purpose of having a website if no one can find you on search engines and if they can’t even bookmark a content page on your website?

2.  How long it takes to load a website page doesn’t matter – everyone has DSL anyway.

Wrong, sorry, even Google AdWords is now counting how long it takes for a page to load. The industry standard is a load time under 10 seconds. The faster your load time the better.

3.  I like an entry page for my website that is all graphics it’s pretty and sets the tone.

Whoops, so sorry this one is wrong too. Splash pages are old news. Now search engines want content and they want it fast. Readers don’t want to watch a movie about your business. It is the Burger King Syndrome – my way right away!

4. I was promised by this firm top placement on Google if they overhauled my home page and website.

Hmm, the home page IS really important, but no one and no firm can guarantee top placement on Google. Google very closely guards the secrets of placement to prevent others from spamming the system. If they are not on the Google payroll, they simply cannot know how to guarantee top placement.

5. I want my website to have a lot of video why are viewers complaining to me that they can’t see my video.

Video is great, but the home page should be about spiderable content. When you do provide video make sure you provide options. I have found that videos turned into Flash are the quickest loading on the Web, then comes Windows Media Player files, and last of all QuickTime. If you are going to have video use only one on your home page and make it a Flash video. Try a preloader option in your body tag for other important videos and provide viewing options.

Nancy McCord is still in Russia. She will be back to blogging on August 16th. This is one of her previously published articles.

There are three web design layout types. Use our information below to find out which one you want to use.

Liquid Layout

This layout style resizes to fill your browser screen regardless of your screen resolution.

Fixed Layout

This is the most popular layout style on the Web. It is a fixed size determined by the web designer. It gives excellent graphics control but may make your website appear dated as larger screen sizes become more popular.

Elastic Layout

This is a new design layout. One that resizes based on on screen resolution but rather resizes based on the font size that your viewer selects to view your site.

To complicate things even further there a wide variety of hybrid layouts that are popular on the Web. Some are:

• liquid content section with elastic left and right sidebars
• fixed side bars with an elastic content section
• fixed side bars with a liquid content section

My own business site is currently done as a fixed layout. I am currently in the early stages of redesign and am leaning toward a liquid content block with elastic sidebars with padding around the whole container.

Choosing the layout style for your website is best not left to the novice but to the web design professional who can discuss which option is best for your viewing clientèle and type of content you will be displaying on your website.