As I lecture around the country, one thing I have shared time and again with attendees is that "people DO judge a book by its cover." Though our parents and teachers told us not to do that, the truth is, we all do it. Especially on the Internet.
Prior studies have shown that people make a decision about whether or not to continue browsing a website after just 3 seconds. If you thinks that's fast, things just got faster. According to a recent report from Google's Research blog, it actually takes just 17-50 milliseconds (blinking your eyes once takes around 100-400 milliseconds).
The research also concludes that "...users strongly prefer website designs that look both simple (low
complexity) and familiar (high prototypicality)". In other words, users love simple and familiar designs.
The full post can be seen at: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/#!/2012/08/users-love-simple-and-familiar-designs.html
Lance McCollough is founder and CEO of ProSites.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Monday, February 28, 2011
ProSites Selected as Endorsed Website Solution for Arizona Dental Association Members
Temecula, CA (Vocus/PRWEB) February 24, 2011 - Leading dental website provider, ProSites, has been chosen as the endorsed website design firm for the Arizona Dental Association’s 2,500 members. ProSites, known for their innovative WebEngine Technology, provides an easy and affordable website solution that helps doctors attract new patients from the Internet.
Recognizing the importance of a strong online presence, AzDA Services was compelled to assist doctors in their search for the best dental website design firm. After carefully evaluating several website design companies, AzDA Services selected ProSites as the preferred website provider due to their high-quality website designs, excellent patient-focused content and overall ease of use. ProSites’ experience in working with the largest state dental associations in America was also an important factor in the selection process.
“After reviewing numerous dental website design firms, ProSites stood out as the obvious leader,” remarked Dr. John Biddulph, President of AzDA Services, Inc. “Their technology is truly amazing.”
ProSites is the innovator that introduced the first content management system (CMS) for medical and dental websites. A CMS gives doctors greater control over their website, and makes customization as easy as point & click. Unique among their competition, ProSites continually develops new features and website enhancements, and then releases them as free upgrades to their clients.
“Once again, we find ourselves honored to be selected by such a prestigious dental association,” said Lance McCollough, ProSites Founder and CEO. “We know how much due diligence associations like AzDA perform before making an endorsement, and we sincerely appreciate the trust and confidence they have placed in us.”
Thoroughly impressed with the ProSites WebEngine Technology, AzDA Services engaged ProSites to redesign their corporate website. The new website (http://www.azdaservices.com) gives AzDA management the same easy to use interface that allows them to customize the website at any time, free of charge. “When reviewing dental website designs firms, I was impressed at how remarkably easy it was to customize a ProSites website,” remarked John Lighthizer, Director of Business Development for AzDA Services. “As the person in charge of maintaining the AzDA Services website, I immediately knew I wanted a ProSites website too!”
About ProSites
ProSites, Inc. is the technology leader in website design and Internet marketing services specifically tailored to the needs of medical and dental professionals. The company's exclusive WebEngine Technology fully automates the creation of medical and dental websites that help doctors to market their practices on the Internet and attract new patients. In addition to engaging patient education content, ProSites websites include interactive features that help streamline patient communications and increase appointment requests. ProSites has received numerous endorsements, including all three of the largest state dental associations in America (CA, NY, and TX) for their excellence in dental website design. Headquartered in Temecula, California, ProSites is a privately-held corporation. For more information, or a free test drive, visit http://www.prosites.com or call (888) 932-3644.
About the Arizona Dental Association
The Arizona Dental Association (AzDA), founded in 1909, assists the dental professional in the pursuit of personal and professional excellence in the ethical delivery of the highest level of care to the public by providing educational, leadership, communications and charitable opportunities. AzDA is one of 53 constituent/territorial societies of the American Dental Association, and represents over 82% of all licensed dentists in Arizona. More than 2,500 members, comprising every dental specialty, collectively exemplify the AzDA mission of establishing the highest standard of care for the public and inspiring members in the pursuit of professional excellence through education, leadership, and communications.
Recognizing the importance of a strong online presence, AzDA Services was compelled to assist doctors in their search for the best dental website design firm. After carefully evaluating several website design companies, AzDA Services selected ProSites as the preferred website provider due to their high-quality website designs, excellent patient-focused content and overall ease of use. ProSites’ experience in working with the largest state dental associations in America was also an important factor in the selection process.
“After reviewing numerous dental website design firms, ProSites stood out as the obvious leader,” remarked Dr. John Biddulph, President of AzDA Services, Inc. “Their technology is truly amazing.”
ProSites is the innovator that introduced the first content management system (CMS) for medical and dental websites. A CMS gives doctors greater control over their website, and makes customization as easy as point & click. Unique among their competition, ProSites continually develops new features and website enhancements, and then releases them as free upgrades to their clients.
“Once again, we find ourselves honored to be selected by such a prestigious dental association,” said Lance McCollough, ProSites Founder and CEO. “We know how much due diligence associations like AzDA perform before making an endorsement, and we sincerely appreciate the trust and confidence they have placed in us.”
Thoroughly impressed with the ProSites WebEngine Technology, AzDA Services engaged ProSites to redesign their corporate website. The new website (http://www.azdaservices.com) gives AzDA management the same easy to use interface that allows them to customize the website at any time, free of charge. “When reviewing dental website designs firms, I was impressed at how remarkably easy it was to customize a ProSites website,” remarked John Lighthizer, Director of Business Development for AzDA Services. “As the person in charge of maintaining the AzDA Services website, I immediately knew I wanted a ProSites website too!”
About ProSites
ProSites, Inc. is the technology leader in website design and Internet marketing services specifically tailored to the needs of medical and dental professionals. The company's exclusive WebEngine Technology fully automates the creation of medical and dental websites that help doctors to market their practices on the Internet and attract new patients. In addition to engaging patient education content, ProSites websites include interactive features that help streamline patient communications and increase appointment requests. ProSites has received numerous endorsements, including all three of the largest state dental associations in America (CA, NY, and TX) for their excellence in dental website design. Headquartered in Temecula, California, ProSites is a privately-held corporation. For more information, or a free test drive, visit http://www.prosites.com or call (888) 932-3644.
About the Arizona Dental Association
The Arizona Dental Association (AzDA), founded in 1909, assists the dental professional in the pursuit of personal and professional excellence in the ethical delivery of the highest level of care to the public by providing educational, leadership, communications and charitable opportunities. AzDA is one of 53 constituent/territorial societies of the American Dental Association, and represents over 82% of all licensed dentists in Arizona. More than 2,500 members, comprising every dental specialty, collectively exemplify the AzDA mission of establishing the highest standard of care for the public and inspiring members in the pursuit of professional excellence through education, leadership, and communications.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Google Spanks JC Penny for Suspicious SEO Activity
Every business wants to rank at the top of the search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo! In order to improve a website's rank within the search engine results pages (SERPs), many website owners will hire a search engine optimization (SEO) speciliast. Search engine optimization is a term used to describe a series of techniques used to improve a website's rank on the SERPs for particular chosen "keywords".
While SEO is a good thing and can really help a website obtain great rankings, there are literally thousands of "seo experts" that do nothing more than use "black hat" seo techniques to try and game the system. For example, everyone knows that having good keywords within the body of your content can help your website show up in searches for those keywords. Some shoddy seo firms will try to trick the search engines by over using keywords in an attempt to make the page seem more relevant.
Some even go so far as to repeat certain keywords dozens of times at the bottom of a page, and then change the font color so it matches the background color of the website. So, if you have white text on a white background, humans won't see the over used keywords, but the search engine robots do (since they only read code and don't see in color). This is called "keyword stuffing" or "spamdexing", and it can get your website booted off the search engines.
Another important factor in getting good search engine rankings is to have a lot of legitimate incoming links TO YOUR SITE (i.e., links from other websites TO your website). The idea is, if more people link to your website, it must be important. Google and the major search engines place a high importance on the number of incoming links your website has. And, naturally, this is another area of abuse.
Many seo firms will try, once again, to game the system by creating hundreds of incoming links to your website (for a fee of course). They often link YOUR website to all of their other client's websites, and conversely link their other client's websites to YOUR website. It's like a giant link orgy. The search engines call that a "link farm", because the links have only one purpose - to game the system and trick the search engines. DON'T DO IT!
JC Penny recently got in big trouble with Google for having a bunch of these bogus incoming links. Allegedly the company hired a seo firm that created a bunch of artificial websites and then linked them all to JC Penney's main website. Google has algorithms that check for this kind of suspicious activity, and JC Penny got caught. In fact, Google has an entire Web Spam Team devoted to detecting search-result spam and then altering their algorithms to protect against it.
Even unscrupulous website design firms have utilized these deceptive tactics (i.e., linking many of their client's websites to each other in order to create bogus incoming links). If you're a dentist, for example, it's OK to link to another dentist's website (perhaps you refer patients to each other). But would it make sense for you to trade links with dozens of dentists? Probably not. Especially if dozens of dentists all linked to each other in a giant circle (you see how that would look very suspicious?).
Is your website part of a link farm? How do you know what incoming links your website has? There's an easy way to find out. Go to any major search engine and type the following (substituting your domain name for YOURDOMAIN.COM) - link:www.YOURDOMAIN.COM
This will show you how many incoming links your site has according to that search engine. You may have links from sites you don't even know, and that's usually fine. Most incoming links are a good thing. But if you see a bunch of links from other websites that your designer created, then you're treading on thin ice!
Be careful who you choose to do your seo. Your first tip off to whether a seo firm is a scammer, is in the method they use to contact you. Did they email you "spam"? Did they use a contact form on your website (reserved for current and prospective patients) to get their message into your inbox? Do they promise to get you on the top of the search engines, or get you lots of incoming links? If so, run from them! Even Google warns about firms that make such promises. Nobody can guarantee top placement!
Good quality SEO, done by a reputable firm that understands your business and your industry, is a good thing and can dramatically boost your site's ranking in the search results. Legitimate seo experts will focus on your website content, landing page quality, and generating relevant (and legitimate) incoming links. ProSites offers advanced seo services that include only "white hat", legitimate seo techniques that focus on creating a better visitor experience - and that's what the search engines love and encourage.
Go with the wrong firm, like JC Penny, and your site can get demoted in the search results, or possibly banned entirely.
For more information about dental website design or search engine optimization visit http://www.prosites.com/ or call (888) 932-3644.
While SEO is a good thing and can really help a website obtain great rankings, there are literally thousands of "seo experts" that do nothing more than use "black hat" seo techniques to try and game the system. For example, everyone knows that having good keywords within the body of your content can help your website show up in searches for those keywords. Some shoddy seo firms will try to trick the search engines by over using keywords in an attempt to make the page seem more relevant.
Some even go so far as to repeat certain keywords dozens of times at the bottom of a page, and then change the font color so it matches the background color of the website. So, if you have white text on a white background, humans won't see the over used keywords, but the search engine robots do (since they only read code and don't see in color). This is called "keyword stuffing" or "spamdexing", and it can get your website booted off the search engines.
Another important factor in getting good search engine rankings is to have a lot of legitimate incoming links TO YOUR SITE (i.e., links from other websites TO your website). The idea is, if more people link to your website, it must be important. Google and the major search engines place a high importance on the number of incoming links your website has. And, naturally, this is another area of abuse.
Many seo firms will try, once again, to game the system by creating hundreds of incoming links to your website (for a fee of course). They often link YOUR website to all of their other client's websites, and conversely link their other client's websites to YOUR website. It's like a giant link orgy. The search engines call that a "link farm", because the links have only one purpose - to game the system and trick the search engines. DON'T DO IT!
JC Penny recently got in big trouble with Google for having a bunch of these bogus incoming links. Allegedly the company hired a seo firm that created a bunch of artificial websites and then linked them all to JC Penney's main website. Google has algorithms that check for this kind of suspicious activity, and JC Penny got caught. In fact, Google has an entire Web Spam Team devoted to detecting search-result spam and then altering their algorithms to protect against it.
Even unscrupulous website design firms have utilized these deceptive tactics (i.e., linking many of their client's websites to each other in order to create bogus incoming links). If you're a dentist, for example, it's OK to link to another dentist's website (perhaps you refer patients to each other). But would it make sense for you to trade links with dozens of dentists? Probably not. Especially if dozens of dentists all linked to each other in a giant circle (you see how that would look very suspicious?).
Is your website part of a link farm? How do you know what incoming links your website has? There's an easy way to find out. Go to any major search engine and type the following (substituting your domain name for YOURDOMAIN.COM) - link:www.YOURDOMAIN.COM
This will show you how many incoming links your site has according to that search engine. You may have links from sites you don't even know, and that's usually fine. Most incoming links are a good thing. But if you see a bunch of links from other websites that your designer created, then you're treading on thin ice!
Be careful who you choose to do your seo. Your first tip off to whether a seo firm is a scammer, is in the method they use to contact you. Did they email you "spam"? Did they use a contact form on your website (reserved for current and prospective patients) to get their message into your inbox? Do they promise to get you on the top of the search engines, or get you lots of incoming links? If so, run from them! Even Google warns about firms that make such promises. Nobody can guarantee top placement!
Good quality SEO, done by a reputable firm that understands your business and your industry, is a good thing and can dramatically boost your site's ranking in the search results. Legitimate seo experts will focus on your website content, landing page quality, and generating relevant (and legitimate) incoming links. ProSites offers advanced seo services that include only "white hat", legitimate seo techniques that focus on creating a better visitor experience - and that's what the search engines love and encourage.
Go with the wrong firm, like JC Penny, and your site can get demoted in the search results, or possibly banned entirely.
For more information about dental website design or search engine optimization visit http://www.prosites.com/ or call (888) 932-3644.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
ProSites Recognized on Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies
ProSites Ranks No. 1254 on the 2010 Inc. 5000 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 236%
Temecula, CA August 31, 2010 — Inc. magazine today ranked ProSites #1254 on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. Thelist represents a comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America's independent-minded entrepreneurs. Domain name registrar Go Daddy (#1788), retail giant Toys“R“Us (#4932), Music website Pandora (#253), and convenience store chain 7-Eleven (#4929), are among the prominent brands featured on this year's list.
“The leaders of the companies on this year's Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”
ProSites, founded in 2003, is the innovator that introduced the first content management system for medical and dental websites. The company's exclusive WebEngine Technology fully automates the creation of high-quality, graphically-compelling websites that help doctors attract new patients by marketing their practices on the Internet. Unique among their competition, ProSites continually develops new features and website enhancements, and then releases them as free upgrades to their clients.
“We're so honored to be recognized among America's fastest growing companies,” stated ProSites founder and CEO, Lance McCollough. “It's a testament to our team's hard work and passion for helping doctors to grow their practices. Our continuous development of innovative web technologies has also helped our doctors to prosper during a difficult recession, and that's something we are very proud of.”
The 2010 Inc. 5000, unveiled today on Inc.com, serves as a unique illustration of the profound changes taking place in the U.S. economy. Despite the fact that most of this year's measuring period of 2006-2009 took place during the latest recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $321.6 billion, up more than 50 percent from last year. Business Products & Services is the top industry by number of companies on the list (640) and total revenue ($80.7 billion); ProSites ranked #111 within this category. This year's Inc. 5000 employ a record 1.4 million people, up from one million on last year's list. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high, policymakers and business leaders will do well to look to the Inc. 5000 companies for fresh ideas on achieving growth and creating jobs.
“For more than 30 years, Inc.'s list has served as evidence of the significant accomplishments of enterprises such as ProSites. And, more than ever, this year's list is a testament to the creativity, resilience, and tenacity of America's top entrepreneurs,” states Jane Berentson, Editor of Inc. magazine. Over 27 million businesses are registered in the USA and thus eligible for consideration. Previously recognized honorees include such notable alumni as Intuit, Microsoft, Visa, Timberland, Oracle and Jamba Juice.
Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2010.
About ProSites
ProSites, Inc. is the technology leader in website design and Internet marketing services specifically tailored to the needs of medical and dental professionals. The company's exclusive WebEngine Technology fully automates the creation of medical and dental websites that help doctors to market their practices on the Internet and attract new patients. In addition to engaging patient education content, ProSites websites include interactive features that help streamline patient communications and increase appointment requests. ProSites has received numerous endorsements, including all three of the largest state dental associations in America (CA, NY, and TX) for their excellence in dental website design. Headquartered in Temecula, California, ProSites is a privately-held corporation. For more information, or a free test drive, visit www.prosites.com or call (888) 932-3644.
Temecula, CA August 31, 2010 — Inc. magazine today ranked ProSites #1254 on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. Thelist represents a comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America's independent-minded entrepreneurs. Domain name registrar Go Daddy (#1788), retail giant Toys“R“Us (#4932), Music website Pandora (#253), and convenience store chain 7-Eleven (#4929), are among the prominent brands featured on this year's list.
“The leaders of the companies on this year's Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”
ProSites, founded in 2003, is the innovator that introduced the first content management system for medical and dental websites. The company's exclusive WebEngine Technology fully automates the creation of high-quality, graphically-compelling websites that help doctors attract new patients by marketing their practices on the Internet. Unique among their competition, ProSites continually develops new features and website enhancements, and then releases them as free upgrades to their clients.
“We're so honored to be recognized among America's fastest growing companies,” stated ProSites founder and CEO, Lance McCollough. “It's a testament to our team's hard work and passion for helping doctors to grow their practices. Our continuous development of innovative web technologies has also helped our doctors to prosper during a difficult recession, and that's something we are very proud of.”
The 2010 Inc. 5000, unveiled today on Inc.com, serves as a unique illustration of the profound changes taking place in the U.S. economy. Despite the fact that most of this year's measuring period of 2006-2009 took place during the latest recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $321.6 billion, up more than 50 percent from last year. Business Products & Services is the top industry by number of companies on the list (640) and total revenue ($80.7 billion); ProSites ranked #111 within this category. This year's Inc. 5000 employ a record 1.4 million people, up from one million on last year's list. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high, policymakers and business leaders will do well to look to the Inc. 5000 companies for fresh ideas on achieving growth and creating jobs.
“For more than 30 years, Inc.'s list has served as evidence of the significant accomplishments of enterprises such as ProSites. And, more than ever, this year's list is a testament to the creativity, resilience, and tenacity of America's top entrepreneurs,” states Jane Berentson, Editor of Inc. magazine. Over 27 million businesses are registered in the USA and thus eligible for consideration. Previously recognized honorees include such notable alumni as Intuit, Microsoft, Visa, Timberland, Oracle and Jamba Juice.
Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2010.
About ProSites
ProSites, Inc. is the technology leader in website design and Internet marketing services specifically tailored to the needs of medical and dental professionals. The company's exclusive WebEngine Technology fully automates the creation of medical and dental websites that help doctors to market their practices on the Internet and attract new patients. In addition to engaging patient education content, ProSites websites include interactive features that help streamline patient communications and increase appointment requests. ProSites has received numerous endorsements, including all three of the largest state dental associations in America (CA, NY, and TX) for their excellence in dental website design. Headquartered in Temecula, California, ProSites is a privately-held corporation. For more information, or a free test drive, visit www.prosites.com or call (888) 932-3644.
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