CINIVA SYSTEMS

The ClimaCushion is Gets You Ready For the Hot Summer

2008-05-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release

THE MAKERS OF THE FLOWCHUSION™ INTRODUCE THE CLIMACUSHION™

The makers of the FlowCushion™, VNM Group, Inc., are proud to announce the arrival of the ClimaCushion™, an amazing seat cushion that keeps you cool in the summer and warm in the winter with its unique cooling and heating features. The ClimaCushion™ is only sold on the internet, but it is a must-have for the sizzling summer heat that will be here before we realize it.

The makers of the ClimaCushion™ knew there was a real need for this product after enduring many hot, hot summers in Virginia. New advancements in cooling technology has made this product affordable. VNM Group, Inc., has obtained exclusive rights to manufacture this patent-protected cushion on a global scale and they are ramping up their advertising to accommodate the expected influx of orders.

Steve Van Leeuwen, the owner of VNM Group, Inc., states, "In vehicles, the cooling function of the ClimaCushion™ is perfect for cooling down those burning hot car seats. No more sweaty bottom from sitting in a too-hot car. The heating function works the same way, heating up those icy seats in the winter. Just press a button to switch from cold to hot. The ClimaCushion™ does both! Either function works just a well in your office or in your seat at home."

The ClimaCushion™ works great on any car seat, office chair, home lounger or outside on the patio. The target market for this product is endless. Sales people, delivery people, truck drivers, office workers, police officers, taxi and bus drivers, soccer moms while they are running errands and heavy equipment operators can benefit from a ClimaCushion™. If you sit, you will benefit.

But using the ClimaCushion™, drivers have the potential to lower their gas bill because they will run their air conditioner less often. Steve Van Leeuwen states, "This is a win/win for your pocket book and for the environment. You save gas because you may find you do not even need your air conditioner and not running the AC in your car will significantly improve your gas mileage. That protects the environment."

Each ClimaCushion™ comes with a high-tech Carbon Fiber interior that comfortably radiates heat away from your body in the summer and toward your body in the winter. Its high quality nylon fabric will last for years. The cooling system is a duel speed fan that draws air throughout the cushion. Air flow from 150 air "ports" help keep your skin comfortably cool and your clothes dry. 160 cushion "pods" guarantee you hours of sitting comfort. Each ClimaCushion™ comes with a 120-volt DC vehicle lighter adaptor with an AC adaptor for a wall outlet available through VNM Group, Inc.

The suggested retail of the ClimaCushion™ is $30.00. Compare this price to other cushions sold for four times as much.

VNM Group, Inc., Inc., is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. For general information, please call (757) 499-1990 or email to info@climacushion.com. Visit www.ClimaCushion™.com for additional information or to order online.

Internet Marketing Plan

2008-02-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

As with any plan, beginning is often the real challenge. The first step is gathering information about your company and your product, and also information about your competition, trends, and statistics. When gathering information about your company, remember, it doesn't matter what you think. Allow the facts to speak for themselves. Ask yourself a few important questions: What do your customers want? What do they expect from your product? Where are your customers located? How do you get in touch with them?

A marketing plan seems like a pain to do, and if a business owner is working alone, they are often too busy to create a marketing plan or to update their existing plan. If this is your company, you could be leaving profits on the table. Without a marketing plan, you can become unfocused in your marketing endeavors. You don't want to run your business by guessing what to do next.

Here is a list of some ideas for marketing your website.

Get involved in online discussions. Podcasts, webcasts, blog, RSS feeds and newsletters are all contemporary versions of the soapbox. If you are an expert in your field, volunteer for online interviews.

Identify bloggers in your category and then send them your product as a gift. Bloggers are the current influencers and can give your product a lot of exposure. To attract the attention of bloggers, comment on one of their posts. Bloggers are curious who is reading their work and they will reciprocate. By establishing a relationship with bloggers, they may mention you in their blogs. The idea is NOT to ask them to advertise. It has to be their idea.

Get involved with the Social Scene Online. Online social networks allow you to set up a profile page and interact with others who have interests that are similar to yours. Comment on their page and they will be curious enough to check your page out. If they like what they see, they will respond to you on your page.

Write a press release and distribute it through an online press release service.

Survey your visitors. Establish a survey on your site and ask a very simple question: How likely are you to recommend _________ to others? Then, ask they explain their answer. These answers can assist you in establishing a plan for improvement to your product or your website.

Your Online Reputation Matters - Watch Your Social Site Friends

2008-01-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of frenzy going on right now with people clamoring to increase their exposure online through the use of social sites. It has become an important part of Search engine optimization. Not only are people of all ages signing up for social sites such as MySpace, Linked-In and Facebook, many existing companies are putting up pages at these sites. Bands promote their work and some people have even started businesses on their pages.

Most adults realize there can be consequences to their actions, but there are young people who do not. They tend to look at the social sites as a private area where they can rant about friends, teachers, or bosses. They can post suggestive pictures of themselves or brag about drug and alcohol use. This does have consequences. We are hearing more and more about people who are denied college entrance, passed over for jobs, expelled from schools, kicked off of athletic teams and even arrested as a result of something they put on their MySpace or FaceBook page.
There was a joke going around that said possible credit card or mortgage lenders will check a MySpace page before they check credit ratings. It was a joke, with more truth than the public realizes. Potential employers are looking at the social sites before hiring individuals. Colleges are looking at the social sites to see what kind of character a person has. Law enforcement agencies are watching for serious law breakers. MySpace is not a private world or a private space.

I went to my own MySpace page, which is pretty innocent on its own. I have several bands on there because I like them and I support their efforts, and I have several friends. I am fairly selective and a person doesn't get to be my friend unless I actually know them. I do not have a long friend list. Recently I took a moment to check out the friends of my friends. I did get some shocking surprises. It was time to take a moment to decide what a potential employer may think of my choice of "friends." People can still be judged by the company they keep.

Of course, a lot of the bands have thousands of friends, so those aren't really the concern at the moment. My worry is some of the friends of my friends. I have to admit that some of what I found left a bad taste in my mouth. Friends of friends were strippers, beer stands, bongs, some of whom used racism, discussions of hard-core drug use, and some very objectionable language.
Time will come, and it won't be very long, when a social site will be as important as your reputation outside of the Internet.

Perhaps the time has come to take a look at your social sites and decide if some of the people who are your friends should remain on your page, particularly if you are looking for employment or trying to get into a school. You never know who will check out your page and for what purpose.

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company. Ciniva specializes in web design and SEO. Ms. Vertigan Pope is the President of the SEO Department of Ciniva Systems.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Vertigan_Pope

The Importance of Sitemap in Search Engine Optimization

2008-01-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Optimization-A lot of people are clamoring to know exactly what it is. SEO is the process of enhancing the presence and visibility of a website on search engine listings. Not only is it a process, it is about the tool required to make the enhancement happen. There are two main types of search engine optimization:

*On-page Optimization

*Off-Page Optimization

When SEO was in its infancy, getting back links to a site was the most important factor. In fact, many books and articles written on the subject will still tell people that getting back links is the only proper way to optimize a website. Back links with proper anchor text, of course.

As search engine optimization has a chance to mature, SEO specialists are becoming aware that using only back links is not at all the best way to optimize a site. In fact, if an SEO is only creating back links, the site is not getting optimized.

In On-page site optimization, there are techniques and tools that are related to your own website and in Off-page optimization, there are items which are related to the other websites. In On-page the old technique was Meta Tag Optimization, appropriate content, Alt tag optimization, proper navigation for the website and much more activities through which changes were made to the website, itself. In Off-page optimization, only back links were created.

Today, optimization is a little bit different. While using the old techniques are still appropriate, creating a Sitemap can be added to the list. Sitemap is something that came in existence a few years ago.

A Sitemap is a graphical representation of the architecture of a website. There are two kinds of site maps. The first is used to assist visitors to a site to navigate the site and the second is done in XML. XML Sitemaps--usually called Sitemap with a capital 'S'--are used by Goggle to gather information about the site.

Sitemap is especially important if your site:

* Has dynamic content

* Has pages with a lot of flash or AJAX

* Is new and does not have many links

* Has a lot of archived pages that are not linked well, or not at all

The use of Sitemap becomes doubly important if the site has pages that can only be accessed through user entry. Sitemap will assist web crawlers in finding and accessing the pages.

Google has a very nice Sitemap tool that will assist in the creation of Sitemap for a website.

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company. Ciniva specializes in web design and SEO. Ms. Vertigan Pope is the Project Support Manager at Ciniva Systems.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Vertigan_Pope

Four Questions You Should Ask Your Potential SEO Firm Before Hiring Them

2007-12-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

You have decided that hiring an SEO firm is a good idea for your website and your company, but around every corner is a firm, or individual, pretending to know all there is know on the subject. There are scams, black hat practices and frauds everywhere. It seems as if there are more of those than there are genuine SEO experts.

How can you tell the difference? The answer is simple. Ask the hard questions and gauge their answers.

What type of Search Campaign does your firm prefer?

Ask the company if they do Paid Search or Natural Search optimization. The major differences are, a paid search should include a huge variety of key phrases, even numbering into the hundreds. A Natural Search is much narrower and focuses on a small number of effective key phrases. Your SEO firm should be able to do to both.

The SEO firm will set up a Paid Search campaign to gauge which keywords or phrases are targeted the most as regards your site and then they will focus their efforts on those select keywords or phrases for the Natural Search campaign.

Unfortunately, many times, firms skip the Paid Search Campaign because it is more profitable for them. In a Paid Search Campaign, much of the client's money will go to Google or Yahoo to pay for the campaign, leaving little for the firm, itself.

The only time a firm should skip the Paid Search phase is if the client's site is a narrow niche that has only a few, well targeted keywords or phrases that are appropriate to that site.
Not only should the potential firm be willing to perform both tasks, they need to make certain that the keyword or key phrase campaign is in keeping with the goals of the website. If the client's goal it to generate leads, then the keywords and phrases should reflect that goal. If the client's goal is to generate sales, the campaign should keep that in mind.

Does your firm perform SEO copy writing?

SEO copy writing is the creation of website content that is written to attract the attention of search engines. If you have seen a site with a phrase that is repeated over and over, you have likely seen a page that has been created by an SEO specialist.

The downside is these pages do not go over well with humans.

The key is finding a happy medium, which is keeping your keyword and/or phrase density to about 17 to 20 percent and to make the sentences and paragraphs sound natural. Because the algorithm changes frequently for search engines, this will keep any SEO firm busy by making frequent site changes to keep up.

Your chosen firm should not be shy about making site content changes without loosing focus of your over all business goal.

What about link building?

This process is extremely important to raise rankings with Google, who gets about 65% of all search business, and somewhat important to Yahoo and MSN, the next two most popular search engines. Make certain your potential SEO firm engages in sufficient link building efforts. This is done by creating links to your site in a number of ways: blogging and social sites are just the beginning. A good SEO will write articles and post those articles to sites such as ezineArticles.com or Helium.com. This creates a link back to your site. These articles can then be posted other locations, such as blogs. If the system works well for you, someone else will find the article and post it to their site or blog, giving you an unsolicited link back to your site.

The problem is this method takes a long time (sometimes 2 to 3 months) for real results to be seen. The solution is to purchase links. Care should be taken to link to only reputable sites and not to link farms which sell links simply to make money for themselves. The more inbound links your site has, the better your rankings will be.

What keyword or phrase will be used to show my rankings?

It is a fact that if you do a search for an article by that article's title, it will show up as #1 in page rankings. If you search for the page's URL, it will be #1 because there is only one site with that URL. The real test of your SEO firm is if they can raise your rankings via a keyword or phrase that is a popular key word or phrase and not something so narrow that you are the only one who will have that particular search phrase. What are the odds that someone will do a search for "Four Questions You Should Ask Your Potential SEO Firm Before Hiring Them?"

The firm should focus on the keyword or phrase that will accomplish what your company is hoping to accomplish.

Don't Wait to Optimize Your Website

2007-12-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

Tons of information is available on the Internet about SEO and the best practices for web developers. As a two fold project, your website should be designed to be search engine friendly and then professional web marketers need to work on your site’s SEO. That is the best of both worlds because right from the beginning your site will be friendly to users AND to spiders.

But, what if you already have a site that isn’t producing the results you want? Help is still available and your existing site can be made more search engine friendly.

Too often, business owners complain, “We have a really great website, but we have no traffic. We love our website design, but we want more people to visit our site.” So, a competent SEO professional will do a site analysis, first. Frequently, they find a gorgeous, visually appealing site with terrific flash and loaded with elegance. Sometimes they find a site that is not user friendly, meaning it is difficult to navigate or so “flashy” that people simply don’t know where to click. A shopper will get very frustrated very quickly, in this instance and leave your site for something easier to use, loosing you a potential sale.

Second, the sites haven’t been optimized in any way to be spider friendly. It is not architecturally sound with regard to meeting the needs of search engines. The story SEO professionals hear is the web developer decided something looked really good and just went with it and did not take anything else into consideration.

If this has happened to you, it is time to stop and go back to square one. You will have to have your website totally revamped. Even if you spent a lot of money on your first website, if you aren’t getting traffic, then it is money wasted, anyway. Not reinvesting in your website will cost you a lot in terms of lost revenue.

The longer you wait to update your site the more money your company will loose. The worse thing you can do is nothing at all.

If you are presented with a proposal that is not search engine friendly and is not user friendly, then move along. The prettiness of the site is the last thing you should consider. It doesn’t matter if everyone in your company thinks the site looks good, business today depends on traffic to the site. It depends on exposure and high rankings. Allowing managers, or even a web designer who doesn’t know about web marketing, to design your site is a bad business decision. Ultimately, you will not achieve your goal of creating a web presence.

At Ciniva Systems, we design your website to be friendly to users and to search engines. A bonus is the site will look really nice, too. There is no way to loose.

What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

2007-11-28T07:40:00.000-08:00

The following article is from Google about the best--and worst--SEO practices. To read the article online, click here.

SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.

While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.

Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Google Sitemaps program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.

You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
Most such proposals require users to install extra software, and very few users do so. Evaluate such proposals with extreme care and be skeptical about the self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required applications.

Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.

Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they'd recommend the firm you're considering.
References are a good start, but they don't tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time individuals it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust. Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Google's spam guidelines.

Make sure you're protected legally.
For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don't be afraid to request a refund if you're unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEO's actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine's index. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion.

What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

owns shadow domains
puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
offers to sell keywords in the address bar
doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

Why is On Page SEO Important?

2007-11-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

SEO has two separate and distinct focuses –On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is executed at the web site itself. Getting improved search engine placement begins with the website. The opening paragraph on each pages needs to be keyword rich without repeating the title of the page. Meta-descriptions and Meta-keywords are important, too. Updating these on a regular basis is essential.

Websites with a high search engine rank have a couple of things in common. First, they have feature pages and pages of relevant content. This means if you're selling accounting services, you should have a lot of articles about accounting, taxes, and bookkeeping. These articles should be key word rich and designed to capture the attention of Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, AOL and other major search engines. The more keywords you have, the better your search engine rank. Another characteristic of successful websites is the number of inbound and outbound links they have to and from other sites. When other websites link to yours and when you link to others, it makes your website appear more important, significant, and genuine.

By adding articles to your website on a regular basis, you boost your rankings. The web crawlers and bots will see the changes and give your site a higher ranking because frequent changes means you care about your site and are willing to spend time changing it and adding to it.

Why is a high ranking important?

A high search engine ranking means you are on the first few result pages of a search engine. Most people, when they are looking for something on the web, rarely go beyond the third page. The first page is the most sought after spot, but there are only ten slots available for each of your keywords. There are millions of websites hoping for the number one position on a page, so it takes work and persistence to attain Page One ranking.

If you are an ecommerce site, it is even more important to have high rankings. You want people to find your site first. Even with a physical store location, a wise business person will sell his or her items on a website. You will be able to reach more potential buyers in a much wider area than if you use just direct mail or catalogs. Setting up a website is just the first step. Next, you will want to get traffic to your site and this means a high page ranking. A high page ranking is achieved by diligent Search Engine Optimization.

At this point, you may be thinking that only companies with a large marketing department are able to achieve high search engine rankings for their websites. That is not always the case. Because high search engine rank is so critical to web-based businesses these days, there are a lot of companies that specialize in getting you the best placement possible. These companies can provide you with original, targeted content for your site, and submit your URL to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other engines for consideration. Ciniva Systems, www.ciniva.com, an award winning Virginia based web design company specializes in search engine optimization, utilizing the latest trends and techniques to ensure your site gets the highest ranking possible.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

2007-11-15T10:50:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing traffic to a website by increasing the ranking and position of that website. It is not about who has the prettiest site with the most bells and whistles.

Sometimes the most gorgeous websites can have terrible rankings because they are not optimized properly, while a site that is basically simple and even horrible in appearance gets really high ratings. What is the principal difference?

There are some simple rules of thumb that you can use to optimize your website and all you need are a few simple web design skills. Whether redesigning a site or creating one from scratch, these rules should apply.

Never use frames when creating a website. If your site uses frames, you may want to think about changing to tables. If you are going to change your site, make certain your HTML is clean and free of unnecessary code.

Each page should include two to three paragraphs of keyword rich body text. For example, if you sell tanning products at your "The Tanning Place" website and the name of your closest competitor is "Up Town Tan," you will want to write a paragraph that goes something like this: Are you looking for an up town tan? Then come to the Tanning Place for that gorgeous up town tan. We feature only the best tanning products from the best sources to give you a beautiful up town tan. Not only are you promoting your own website, if someone enters the term "up town tan" into the search box, then your site will appear along with "Up Town Tan," and you can possibly convince someone who was looking for "Up Town Tan" to come to your site, instead.
The paragraph may seem a little repetitious and simplistic, but your goal is to attract web crawlers and not literary agents. Your high school English teacher will not praise your efforts, unless she has switch to SEO as her career.

Do not duplicate content on each page or even from site to site, if you own more than one site. Make certain each one is differentiated as far as content. It is better to have fewer pages with no duplicated text.

Use internal text links instead of images with links. Web crawlers will not find the link if it is buried behind an image. When you use images, make sure you include alt tags on all of them. This gives you an opportunity to tell the search engines what your site is all about, once again.
Splash pages may look impressive for visitors, but they do little to increase your rankings. Keep your graphics to a minimum because text is what improves your page ranking.

Do not try to attract or fool web crawlers by hiding text, such as making it the same color as the background. It may take a little time, but you will be caught and penalized for this and other black hat practices. I mention again, you are not being graded on your literary ability so do not be afraid to write a couple of keyword rich paragraphs.

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Vertigan_Pope

What Has to Be Done Before Your Site is Optimized?

2007-11-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

Ciniva Systems understands the importance of Search Engine Optimization in bringing your website to the attention of other people. Having a great website is just the beginning of the story. You want people to visit your site and to participate in whatever you have going on, whether it is selling a gadget, collecting names for sales leads, or simply informing people about something that is near and dear to your heart.

SEO is not easy. SEO is an ongoing project. Once your site is at the top of the list, you have to work to keep it there. SEO is so important and so time consuming, many site owners hire competent people to do the job for them. Here are a few tips we use to get us started.

Before we start any search engine optimization campaign the following question should be answered.

What are the site owners hoping to achieve with their site? More sales, more subscribers, more traffic, more publicity? Without a clear direction, optimization is very difficult. If the site owners don't have a clear focus, our trained staff will assist them in determined what they want to accomplish with their website.

The next step is to do a site review to determine what is needed for the site, itself. A site analysis will offer useful information, such as target keywords used, meta tags and other meta data used and general search engine compatibility. We find out if all the links are working, is the HTML code clean, what is the page load time and other useful information that will help us determine if the site is really ready for a full-blown SEO project. If not, we make it ready.

Determining the site's requirements is next.

When Ciniva creates a site, it is ready for SEO immediately. If Ciniva is doing a site redesign, a determination of the technology used to build the site is essential. Did the site's creator use frames? Flash, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, HTML, XML? Does the site have database driven content? How much content is there on each page and is it keyword friendly? All of this will be determined in the initial site analysis. Many things in a site may have to be changed before SEO will be effective.

Google Readies Social Network Apps

2007-10-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

It is well know that linking to social networks improves your ranking with Google. This article explains:

Belatedly recognizing the importance of social networking as an online service and advertising vehicle, Google Inc. this week will unleash its strongest response yet to the rising threat and skyrocketing popularity of MySpace and Facebook.
On Thursday, Google will announce OpenSocial, an initiative with a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) at its core that is designed "to spread social applications across the Web," the company said.
These common APIs have been designed to let developers create social networking applications that will run on multiple Web sites, simplifying the making and distribution of these programs.
Partners supporting OpenSocial include various well-known software developers and social networking sites: Oracle, Salesforce.com, Hi5, iLike, LinkedIn, Slide, Ning, Friendster and Plaxo. Neither Facebook nor MySpace is on the list of partners at press time.

Good news!

Read the entire article here.

Copyright cops to target YouTube, MySpace

2006-09-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, contends the wildly popular websites YouTube and MySpace are violating copyright laws by allowing users to post music videos and other content involving Universal artists.

"We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of US dollars," Universal Music CEO Doug Morris told investors on Wednesday at a conference in Pasadena. "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly."

How To Analyze Your Website

2006-09-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

By Jerry Bader (c) 2006

How good is your website? Does it do its job? Is it effective? These are all good questions that every business owner and marketing manager needs to ask him or herself. The website has become an essential tool for business. We all know we have to have a website, but are we using this venue to its greatest advantage?

Most people responsible for their company's websites have stats packages and counters to tell them how many hits, how many unique visitors, where they are coming from, what their IP
addresses are, what browser they're using, and of course the all important monitor resolution. So what! Who cares? The real question is do we have an effective website?

Now if you have a transactional website, commonly referred to as an e-commerce site, you know the number of sales you are generating from your site, which is important, but do you
really know how effective your site is? How many orders are you losing because of bad layout, awkward design, confusing navigation, and poor copy? How many potential clients have you
chased away because you haven't put a phone number on your site and an accessible real-person that can answer questions?

A website is your business' public face. Big businesses can look like mom and pop operations and mom and pop operations can look like General Motors. The design of your website should not
be taken lightly, its budget should not be an afterthought, and the designer you hire should be someone who understands more than code. Your Web-designer should be a multimedia-marketing advisor, someone who can counsel you how best to deliver your marketing message, and someone who can go beyond technical issues.

Read more at SiteProNews.

E-commerce on the rise

2006-08-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2006, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, was $26.3 billion, an increase of 4.6 percent (±1.7%) from the first quarter of 2006. Total retail sales for the second quarter of 2006 were estimated at $984.9 billion, an increase of 0.9 percent (±0.3%) from the first quarter of 2006. The second quarter 2006 e commerce estimate increased 23.0 percent (±5.4%) from the second quarter of 2005 while total retail sales increased 6.6 percent (±0.5%) in the same period. E-commerce sales in the second quarter of 2006 accounted for 2.7 percent of total sales. - US Census Bureau (read more)

As e-commerce sales rise, it becomes more apparent that retail businesses need to consider an online storefront to broaden reach and attract new customers. Why sit idly by as your competitors reap the benefits of selling their goods online, when an online store can increase the potential for sales and customer loyalty? Maintaining an online storefront is simple, economical, and allows for increased opportunity to advertise your business. CINIVA Systems can help you on the right track to launching the virtual end of your business with an attractive, user-friendly interface.

CINIVA Systems has designed e-commerce sites for several Virginia businesses, including The Bead Cottage, Ribbitt Toys, and RPM Custom Rods. We have also developed the online store for the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center and Anne Gimenez Ministries. From books to beads, diet pills to safety equipment, if you have it we can help you sell it. Contact CINIVA today to learn more about opening your new online store.

Introducing Compuslim

2006-08-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Compuslim weight loss products are specially formulated to suit different bodies and lifestyles. If you need or wish to lose weight, improve eating habits, and gain more energy for work and play, Compuslim invites you to enroll in their free evaluation program to determine which product is best to aid in your transformation to a healthier, more active life.

When you visit the Compuslim website you will find more than just a sales pitch for diet pills. You will have at your disposal a growing library of information on weight management, inspirational tips to stay focused, nutritional information for favorite restaurants, and updated news on the diet and health industry. Whether you need a stimulating fat burner pill to boost your metabolism, a powerful appetite supressant to help curb unnecessary cravings, or a non-stimulating formula to maintain blood sugar levels as you diet, the Compuslim evaluation program may help you on the path to weight loss. All products are ephedra-free and formulated with all-natural ingredients.

CINIVA Systems specializes in web design and hosting for e-commerce websites. We invite you to contact us today for more information on how we can create an attractive online storefront for your products.

10 things you should be monitoring

2006-08-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

Source: ProNet Advertising

Tracking your buzz is really something that is becoming more and more important over and will continue to increase in importance as time goes on. Everything is going social right now and messages fly around the web at a million miles by hour. In order to manage your reputation you need to track the right things, so here's a list of 10 things that you absolutely need to be monitoring.

Company name - Obviously your company name is one of the most important things that you need to monitor. Anytime your company or products are mentioned, you should know. Ex. Google
Company URL - It is also important to track your company URL for those times when someone links to your company but doesn't mention it by name. This happens a lot and is just another way to make sure you are covering all your bases. Ex. http://google.com
Public facing figures - Track the names of any key employees in your company that are public facing figures. What is said about these people also reflects on your company and usually when this people are talked about your company is tied in with that. Ex. Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Larry Page.
Product names - Track any of your company's product or service names as well. What are people saying about your products and services? Ex. Gmail, Picasa, Dodgeball
Product URLs - For the same reasons that you need to specifically track your company's URL you should also be tracking your product URLs as well. Ex. http://gmail.com, http://picasa.com, http://dodgeball.com
The industry "hang outs" - This includes blogs, message boards, important players, consumer review sites, and anything else that's related to your industry. Many times the industry feedback, that you can discover from the conversations at these "hang outs" can really help you improve your product or service. It is also a way for you to interactive with your potential and existing customers. Ex. http://searchenginewatch.com, http://seroundtable.com, http://threadwatch.org
Employee activity/blogs - Things your employees do online can affect your brand image. If you have employees that blog, it is smart to at least know about their MySpace accounts, Flickr accounts and personal blogs. I am not saying that you should spy on your employees but you do need to monitor these things just in case. It is not considered spying if they already make this stuff public. It might be safe to let your employees know you watch these things. The more well known your employees are the more important this is, many times these employee bloggers turn into company ambassadors. I've heard stories before where employers know an employee is quitting before he or she tells them because they blogged about it or put it on MySpace. Ex. http://mattcutts.com/blog, http://bladam.com, http://crazybob.org
Conversations - Are you tracking the comments from blog posts that are related to your company name, url, products, or any other buzz? These are great opportunities that allow you to participate in conversations about your company. Tools for tracking comments include Commentful, coComment, and co.mments. Ex. http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/62569.html, http://www.digg.com/software/Google_Talk_Adds_Voice_Mail_File_Sharing, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smash/36648272/
Brand image - What is the overall image of your brand. Do people think you're evil? Or do they love what you're doing. Ex. http://www.opinmind.com/search.jsp?q=google
Competitors - Track everything from 1-9 related to your competitors including; company name, URLs, products, key employees, etc. Everything. You need to be ready to move when any opportunity comes up. Ex. http://www.ysearchblog.com, http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/, http://www.opinmind.com/search.jsp?q=yahoo

Here is a list of a few of the websites / tools that can be used to track your buzz: Technorati, Sphere, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Google Blog Search, Rollyo, TechMeme, OpinMind, Alexa, and Commentful. Any time your company is referenced in any way it is best that you know about it. Track everything.

Converting RSS Feeds to Dynamic HTML

2006-08-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article picked up from the EntireWeb newsletter on RSS. We have noticed many websites now offer RSS feed options as part of their content, and the trend is growing. As people gravitate toward usage of a one-stop shop front page like My Yahoo or My MSN, RSS feeds on a multitude of topics may be implemented so one can find all the latest news on one page. You can check up on your favorite sports teams, movie reviews and local events, travel discounts, and even sales from your favorite stores. A number of sites we develop utilize RSS for parlaying information to customers - it can be a handy tool for e-commerce. If you decide to contact CINIVA Systems about designing a site for your business, ask us about Real Simple Syndication and how it can work for you.

Converting RSS Feeds to Dynamic HTML

Many webmasters have realized the benefit of using RSS to dynamically update websites. This means that the website content automatically changes when the RSS feed is updated. This allows for webmasters to serve dynamic content or a mixture of static and dynamic content on their website.

Syndication

Often, publishers, interested in expanding their base, will allow other webmasters to republish the contents of an RSS feed. Content providers that allow for syndication, receive additional exposure, and the webmasters serving the content, will generally see web traffic increase as a result of the new content. RSS feeds can be syndicated or displayed using a variety of different methods. Depending on the web host, server configuration, and the intent of the publishers, a variety of different syndication tools exist.

In most cases, providers convert RSS feeds to HTML in order to display the feeds contents. The following are some of the more popular methods to convert RSS feeds as web based content.

Hosted Services

The easiest of solution is not server dependent, a third party host displays the contents of the feed. The downside to using a hosted service is that you are relying on a third party. If the third party's website has problems, your content will not be displayed. Additionally, webmasters often cannot customize the way the contents are displayed on hosted servers and there is no real search engine benefit to third party hosting.

Examples: FeedBurner.com - http://www.feedburner.com and RSS2HTML - http://www.rss2html.com.

Scripts

Using scripts to display RSS feeds on a website is probably the most effective solution. In addition, the webmaster using ASP or PHP scripts to convert their feeds, maintain the control of the "look and feel" of the content displayed. Webmasters also realize the benefit of hosting the feed on a domain that is within the webmasters control.

Using ASP or PHP will allow search engines to spider the actual contents of the RSS feed as if it is part of the actual HTML. Pay particular attention to solutions that cache the RSS feed. If your RSS feed is popular this will save significant bandwidth.

PHP

PHP is a popular scripting language that is often used to dynamically update web pages. PHP support is available on most web servers that run on a Unix Operating System.

Example: rss2html.php - http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

ASP

ASP or active server pages is a scripting language similar to PHP but support is more often found on Windows web servers.

Example: rss2html.asp - http://www.bytescout.com/how_to_display_rss_using_asp.html

Javascript

Javascript is easy to use, and many sites will produce the code that needs to be inserted into the HTML web page, making implementation very easy for webmasters. The downside to the majority of the javascript solutions is that the webpage calls the script each time, and the actual contents of the feed is not able to be spidered or indexed by search engines. So while javascript is easy to use, there is very little benefit to the webmaster. Search engines will not detect any new content or keywords contained in the contents of the feed, so their is little optimization benefit to displaying RSS feeds using javascript. Additionally, while it is unusual, occasionally website visitors will have the javascript turned off in their browser, if that is the case they will be unable to view the contents of the feed.

Example: FeedRoll Pro - http://www.feedrollpro.com

Advanced Scripts/Merging Scripts

Webmasters will often find value in merging multiple RSS feeds in to a single feed. This is particularly useful when attempting to aggregate news on a specific topic. The script allows you to produce an RSS feed by taking the latest items from multiple feeds.

Example: RSSmesh - http://www.feedforall.com/rssmesh.htm.

Filtering/Newsmastering

Due to the enormous and ever-increasing information flow we are all submitted to, the only way to improve our ability to access and use the information that is really important to us, must take place by scaling up one notch our ability to filter, aggregate, and access relevant content.

Example: Newsmaster kit - http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/newsmasterstoolkit/

Prepublish Scripts

On occasion, webmasters will choose to build a large amount of content, and gradually release it over time. FutureRSS is a PHP script that when used properly will only display feed items that publish dates have passed.

FutureRSS - http://www.feedforall.com/future-rss.htm

A number of flexible solutions exists for webmasters to create, filter, and display content contained in an RSS feed. Using these simple solutions, webmasters can dynamically maintain webpages with unique content.

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

Introducing The Buzz Factory

2006-07-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

Does your business need a buzz? Why not employ the services of The Buzz Factory, Hampton Roads' premier public relations firm. Whether you seek to promote yourself or your products through local, regional or national channels, the good people at The Buzz Factory can get the word out with efficience and effectiveness.

The Buzz Factory is one of our newest developments, and in time you can revisit the site for informative articles on marketing and promotion, and learn how you can start your own "buzz" and get noticed.

Be sure, too, to contact CINIVA Systems today to learn how we can help get your business or organization noticed with attractive web design, search engine optimization and e-mail marketing.

Protection Against Credit Card Fraud and Loss for Ecommerce

2006-07-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

With CINIVA Systems and Cardservice online payment solutions, there is no need to worry about fraud and other issues regarding reconiliation of payments. CINIVA and Cardservice are aligned with LinkPoint® e-commerce payment services, through which fraud-risk ratings are delivered regularly to merchants. Each transaction made through a CINIVA website is protected and monitored, so that fraud is immediately spotted and reported, with provisions in place to assure merchants of safe, efficient online payment traffic.

Learn more about our card service solutions, and contact us today for an estimate.

CINIVA Web Design, associated with the best

2006-07-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

We at CINIVA Systems are proud of our portfolio, and of the clients for whom we design and host. That the people of Hampton Roads believe some of our clients are the best in the region comes as no surprise to us. Quality work and reputation allows us to create a professional, quality design for any business, non-profit organization, or group.

This year, we congratulate two of our clients for being chosen the Best of Hampton Roads in the annual readers' poll from the Virginian-Pilot. Ribbitt Toys took the Silver Award for Best Children's Specialty Shop in Norfolk, and Suffolk Insurance won the Bronze Award for the Best Place to Work in Suffolk. Sundays Tanning Resort won the Gold Award for Best Tanning Salon in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach - for the 14th straight year!

Contact CINIVA today to learn how you can enhance your business with professional design and custom programming, that you may join the Best of Hampton Roads on the Internet.

Introducing Final Kick Sports

2006-06-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

Biking, running, and swimming enthusiasts need only look to Final Kick Sports for the one-stop shop for all activities competitive in Tidewater. Final Kick is one of the top sporting good stores specializing in triathlon equipment - ranked highly by Inside Tri Interactive! Today, we are proud to relaunch their online presence.

Final Kick's site is twofold: there is a section for the community. Find out the latest news on area triathlons, bike races, and training clinics. Join the online forum and find a workout partner, or find out how to join the Final Kick team.

There is also an online store, where you can pick among the top brands in road bicycles, running apparel, shoes, and wetsuits. Keep an eye on closeouts and join the mailing list for sales information. You can even purchase bike shipping online and have your gear delivered to your next race.

Introducing CMI Technical Services

2006-06-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

For comfort, dexterity, and maximum protection in the workplace, look no further than CMI's wide selection of safety equipment. CMI's extensive catalog of safety gear is designed to protect the body from many dangerous elements.

CMI is proud to serve the many dedicated emergency medical technicians, doctors and nurses who work long hours to preserve our life and health. When you browse their online catalog, you will find over 5000 items designed to enhance workplace safety. Ventilators for buildings, tool kits, harnesses and protective gear is here and ready for purchase.

CINIVA Systems specializes in designing and hosting online retail sites like CMI. If you are interested in seeing your business grow on the Internet, contact us today for more information.

Track specific Adwords keywords with new tool

2006-05-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Free New AdWords Alerts Service

A free alert service kicks off with two alerts related to Google AdWords and AdSense. You can get daily email alerts with the costs of the most expensive AdWords both by bid and by cost per day. Today is a new alert by keyword that emails you when new advertisers appear for a keyword you supply. Assuming you don't mind a flurry of email when tracking popular categories, this can be handy.

Source: Search Engine Watch Blog

Are you the new trend?

2006-05-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

What is everybody searching for in Google, and how do you become part of the searched? Google is testing yet another handy tool for site owners called Google Trends. Enter a key phrase to find out from where the majority of searches on that phrase come, as well as the top links for that phrase according to date.

Introducing China / Brazil Consulting

2006-05-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

In a world becoming ever smaller and more integrated through globalization, the need for international presence and understanding is becoming integral to a successful business plan. Success in the globalized market depends upon firms’ capacity to address and capitalize upon the unique challenges and opportunities that exist in today’s multi-cultural, multi-national world market.

With on-the-ground experience in both China and Brazil, advanced knowledge of the cultural and linguistic environments in both countries, and a superior education in both economics and the environment, China Brazil Consultants can help you meet the challenges of the international business market and capitalize on the vast opportunities emerging in South America and Asia.

CINIVA specializes in the design and hosting of websites for consultants and other business organizations. We offer quick turn-around, varying levels of maintenance according to your needs, online credit card processing capabilities, and dedicated customer support. Contact CINIVA Systems today to put your business on the Internet.