SEO can be broken down into 2 main categories, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves the changes that are made on your actual site, like through a CMS such as MODx. Changing heading tag, title tags, alt tags, etc., are all examples of on-page optimization. Off-page involves anything and everything that isn't actually done on your site, such as social media, blogs, forums, etc.

Let's start with on-page optimization. This is a lot shorter process than off-page optimization, and a lot less time consuming as well, but requires just as much attention and focus while doing. First lets talk the meta description tag. Your meta description tag gives search engine crawlers a quick hint and preview about the site. It needs to be keyword rich, not stuffed, and relevant to the content of the page and/or site. Stuffed meta descriptions are a big "no-no", and won't get you anywhere.

Real quickly, think about how many images you have on your website... did you know that Google does not crawl images? But there is still a way to get your images crawled for some rankings. You apply something called alt tags. Alt tags go within the img tag, and tell users and/or search engines what the image is. Make sure that your alt tags have a keyword in it, and be descriptive if you can.

Like I mentioned earlier, relevant content for you site needs to be keyword rich, but not stuffed. Ideally, everything from your title tags, heading tags, body tags, alt tags, etc., should contain keywords if possible, and appropriate. But try to avoid using Flash in your site, because it won't be searchable, and search engines don't like it.

Have you ever seen a page that looks like this in the address bar? site/aslodjknaiuq34821q3ur09u2n30h?ASD?!... That's all extra junk on top of a page that can replaced to become a more search engine friendly URL. Simply by using your CMS, or content management system, you can change it so that your URLs that get published, use "friendly" URLs, which will take the page name and end it with .html or .php, whichever you select as your default. And trust me, Google will like you for it. And on the side of URLs, did you know that there's a difference between sites with a www and without a www? Even if it looks like the same site, links going to one could be missing the other, and search engines could rank them differently, so how do you change it so that the search engines recognize them as the same site? Canonical tags, essentially a 301, are added to a site to tell Google and other sites that "site 1" and "site 2" are the same site and all off-page optimization should be considered to both, for they are the same site.

Whoa, this seems like a lot so far, but don't forget, that was only the "easy" part, and less time consuming part. Off-page optimization is where most of your time and efforts are going to be spent. So lets go into subjects about that, and discuss some dos and dont's of each.

An important tool for SEO, are blogs. Blogs are made to spread information about a company, get people familiar with you, as well as keep people updated on what's going on and current deals and specials. Blog sites can be found all across the internet, and the more the merrier. You should try and make a new post every day in your blog, and try to include some links back to your site and specific pages within your site to raise their PR as well as your domain's PR. A lot of people will grab the RSS feed, or follow your blog to keep updated with new posts that you make, so posts should be made "neatly" and professionally. Another part of blogging, are comments. The majority of blog comments are going to be "nofollow" comments, which means that the links and content will not be grabbed by a search engine crawler. This doesn't mean that they aren't useful though. You can gain reputation with an author, and who knows what down the road could bring, possible advertising and other things they could do to help your efforts out. Blog commenting can also bring referral traffic if posted correctly, but avoid being a spammer and post links only when necessary.

Social Media for SEO has exploded in popularity, and is practically necessary for SEO nowadays. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Technorati, Squidoo, and Digg are only a few sites which many companies and sites are posting on these days. And once again, they are used for backlinks to your site, if they aren't nofollows, as well as building popularity and grabbing some referral traffic along the way. Profiles can be made on each site with great information about your company, and even include links within your profile back to your site. These sites need to be posted on daily, and kept up with current content about your site, otherwise they're pointless.

Online directories such as dmoz and pegasus, are a great way for some free backlinks. There are hundreds, even thousands of free online directories where you can submit your site. Remember though, to always post only in relevant and appropriate categories within that directory. You can submit to multiple categories as long as your site fits in the description of that category.

Backlinks are links from other sites, that point towards your site. These are important and remember the Pokemon days where you wanted to collect as many holographic cards are possible? Well this is pretty much the case as well, but instead of holographic, redirect that to sites with a high PR. You want as many backlinks from relevant and high PR sites as possible. The more you have, the more search engines will think that your site is well constructed and trustworthy, giving you a higher PR and ranking. The 2 key factors in backlinks though, are links coming from a site with a high PR, and links coming from relevant content. If you're a cloud hosting company, backlinks from a site about monkeys and bananas aren't going to help you out whatsoever.

Forums, forums, and even more forums. Forums can essentially make or break a company. These should be posted on everyday, and make as many posts as possible. First off, after usually your first ten posts, a unique and keyword rich signature should be made with a link or two back to your company. Think of it as a short version of a meta description. Forums are a great way to earn popularity, and earn some massive referral traffic. And if you are on relevant forums to your site and/or company, those people coming from those forums, could be a customer. Always post on forums with a high sense of professionalism, as well as maintaining a friendly and approachable manner. Whenever possible, ads should be placed within the appropriate thread only. When I said that forums can trash your company, here's an example. Many forums are very popular on Google and other search engines, and if someone types something on Google, and a post about your company comes up in a negative manner, you could be in big trouble, because you can't remove that post. Keep in mind, you always catch more bees with honey.

There are many other sites out there to help you with your SEO, such as:
Google Analytics - a great source and tool to track your SEO progress
Google Trends - an amazing tool to decide keywords, and see what is getting searched
Site Yogi - gives a complete breakdown of an entire site

There are plenty of other sites out there that are designed to help you, all you go to do is find them.

While there are still other factors in SEO, these are some of the "core" ones, and all should be done correctly. But don't expect anything to happen overnight, as SEO is a time consuming process, that requires a lot of patience.

A site is like a bride, and SEO is her makeover...leaving Search Engines to be the groom.

SEO is like a garden. First you need to fertilize and prepare the soil. Then fertilize it, and plant your seeds, or foundations. Then as it's growing, trim it and tend to it. Once fully bloomed, any gardener knows, that your job doesn't end there.

What puts CariNet ahead of competition?

CariNet's competitive advantages are numerous. Some things that set us apart are that we build, own and operate our own datacenters. We own the real estate so we have been able to install all of the generators and other redundancy measures that we want, without limitations. Because we own all of the real estate, we can provide tailored networks and infrastructure that the canned server rack companies can not provide. CariNet has remained a privately held company since our founding in 1997 and we have customers in our datacenters from over 150 countries, providing us with financial strength in a fluctuating global economy. CariNet can provide you with multi-gig uplinks and HSRP if you need it. Most importantly, CariNet works hand in hand with all of our customers with the realization that we are partners. We start every working relationship with the full knowledge that if our customers don't succeed, neither will we; whereas when our customers grow, so do we. We are all on a first name basis.


CariNet stays ahead of competition by staying ahead of changing technology. In our partnerships with Intel, 3tera, Blade Network and others, we are able to beta test hardware and software before it makes it to market. One example is 3tera's AppLogic Cloud OS. CariNet recognized the paradigm shift from traditional server clusters to cloud computing, so we searched far and wide for the best cloud solution on the market. We decided to not just sell, but fully partner up with 3tera in providing their AppLogic Cloud OS on our hardware in our datacenters. CA recently purchased 3tera for an estimated $100 million dollars, verifying for us once again that we made the right choice at the right time.

While there are plenty of server and/or cloud hosting companies out there, CariNet excels in clustering and clouds. We work hand in hand with all of our customers with the realization that we are partners. Additionally, we always offer the latest technology available as well as HSRP and multi-Gig uplinks. We have sister companies and partners that provide services including website and application development as well as system administration. If you need something that is not on our website, just ask.

Five Reasons Your Company Needs A Dedicated Server

Five reasons your company needs a dedicated server.

If your companies data is not on a dedicated server you are taking a big risk. Think about it if you are hosting your companies site on an internal server you run the risk of theft, electrical outages and many other possible threats that can be completely avoided by simply renting a dedicated server. The advantages far out weigh any disadvantages that you feel may feel will accrue. Think about the amount of money you will save in electricity alone. Now lets go into the five reasons you should have a dedicated server for your business.

1.Should you go with a dedicated server or should you rent a shared hosting account.?

Shared hosting accounts are good for putting up your son or daughters web site or if you simply want to test your tech knowledge. However if you are serious about security you have to go with a dedicated server. On shared plans you are sharing your space with other people. Think about it do you really want your accounting records to be on the same server as the people who are trying to get your customers ?

2.How is a dedicated server going to help your website ?

If you site is currently on a shared plan or on a companies server you may have experienced times when your site was slow. This simply may have been caused by to many people on your server at one time. If the whole server is dedicated to your site than this will eliminate this issue all together. .

3. Flexibility and Software With shared servers, you will have limited access to the operating system, and software applications will be limited to those, which are provided by the host. If you want to be able to install run your own advanced, customized ecommerce or database applications you will probably need a dedicated server.

4.Scalability As your site grows, your traffic grows and your applications become more demanding, you will need to upgrade your server. If you are using a shared server, your upgrade options will be limited. Your host will usually allow you to increase the amount of disk space available to your site -- but that is all. You will not be able to upgrade the hard drive, Ram processors, platform or software applications yourself. When you are using a dedicated server, you can do all of these things.

5.Security Information on a shared server is likely to be less secure than information on a dedicated server. A dedicated server can also be provided with its own firewall. If you are storing highly sensitive information on your server, this increased security will obviously be a high priority.

Choosing A Backup Plan In Your Disaster Recovery Situation

Your livelihood may depend on your business and its success. Protect your business with a Disaster Recovery Solution. You may be thinking that a disaster could never happen to you or your business or that you would be fine if you lost your data, but the fact is disasters happen and the recovery process is slow and expensive. If you do not already know the value of a good disaster recovery solution, you will after you have experienced a crashed hard drive/Virus/Natural Disaster/Disgruntled Employee, etc...

There are many different solutions available however some of the solutions are better then others. When deciding on a disaster recovery solution you need to re-evaluate your business plan. Take into consideration what you would absolutely need in order to stay in business, then decide how important this information is to your business. Examples of the mission critical files you would need to backup would be your sales and marketing data, accounting data, engineering data, and your client database.

If you do not already know how costly a disaster could be to your business, you should know that even a mediocre disaster could put you out of business. The cost is far to great to ignore, According to the National Computer Security Association, it could take a month or more and several tens of thousand of dollars to replace all of your lost data. Having a backup plan in your disaster recovery solution is the best sense of insurance you could ever get for your business. Just to replace 20MB of your sales and marketing data it could take up to 20+ days and cost over $17,000. To replace 20MB of your accounting data would take about 21 days and almost $20,000. Lastly but not in the bit the least, to replace your engineering data you would be looking at 42+ days and roughly $100,000 for 20MB of data.

One way to backup your data, which I would not recommend, is via Cd's, Zip Drives, and Tape Backups. I can not stress enough how failure prone these methods of backing up can be. Cd's can be damaged in so many ways weather it be heat, scratches, cracks, or corrupted data. Zip Drives are very unreliable and have a low shelf life much like Cd's. However unreliable Tape Drives can be, they are still a popular way that Data Centers offer a backup solution for their clients. In order for tape drives to function when they are needed they need to be cleaned very carefully and often.

Many businesses back up their data to a Hard Drive. This method of backing up to a hard drive is the most popular and most reliable way to back up your mission critical files. Businesses that backup data to hard drives usually use two different options, Removable Hard Drives and/or Remote Backup Servers stored securely in a Data Center.

Backing up to a removable hard drive is a decent way to backup your businesses important data, however, these removable drives can be subject to harm as well. The issue with the removable hard drive would be the fact that you would be removing it from your computer and taking it home with you everyday. If you actually remember to bring it off site everyday, which you should, the hard drive is subject to being dropped, weather conditions, and theft.

Without a doubt, the most secure choice when deciding on a backup for your disaster recovery solution, is to backup your data to a remote location preferably to a secure Data Center. Companies like Cari.netoffer what is called a Remote Backup Dedicated Server. When you see all of the words like; Remote, Backup, and Dedicated Server, you know that you are backing up to a remote backup server that is dedicated to you and only you. No one else is sharing the hard drive space with you and your data is available to you any time that you wish, where ever you wish. Not only can a backup server be used as means to backup your files, it can also be used as a file server that you and your employees can access from anywhere they like. With Cari.net's Remote Backup Dedicated Server you can create directories, set permissions on who is able to access certain directories and from which IP address they would be able to connect from.

This diagram shows the many ways that you are able to access, backup and/or restore from your Remote Dedicated Backup Server. You may backup your computers from home, work, and even at remote locations where you would be able to connect to the Internet. For example, if you were working on a project from home/coffee shop/etc.. and you needed a certain file simply connect to your backup server and grab the file that you would need. This just goes to show that a Remote Backup Server that acts as a vital part in your disaster recovery solution, can be easily used as a file server as well.

Maybe you will choose to stay with your current solution and hope that nothing happens, however when you experience a disaster and loose your data you will then truly know how important it is to have the best backup solution available. Remember, for you and your business, the big difference between a complete disaster and a minor inconvenience is good disaster recovery plan. It's your data, Cari.net's Remote Dedicated Backup Server is your best solution

Reliable Backup Solution

When running a business one of the first things that you should look for is a good disaster recovery plan. A strong point in a disaster recovery plan is a reliable backup solution for your important data and mission critical files. You may have already been online searching website to website looking for a backup solution with a reasonable price tag that would offer you the protection you would need for your important data. Cari.net's Remote Dedicated Backup Server is a secure offsite solution for you to back up your website, server, workstations, and your personal computer that will easily fit in your budget, Using this backup solution on the Windows Operating Systems could not be any easier. Simply download the netdrive program or the WebDav update for online folders. Take advantage of Microsoft's Backup Utility Program to make this solution automated by selecting what you need backed up and when. This product offers mapped drive access using WebDAV, Windows Network Configuration, as well as HTTPS access. You can add a virtual hard drive for backup to your computer without actually having to go through the trouble of installing a physical hard drive or dealing with a removable hard drive.

If you use a Linux Operating System, all you would have to do is simply run a cron job to your server/directory for your backup solution.

It takes a lot of work to get your business up and running. Think about all of the time you spent to get your business established. All of your Sales & Marketing Data, Accounting Data, and Engineering data rest in your hands and in your disaster recovery plan. Also think about your client base, their important information that you hold for business purposes.

Depending on your line of work, you may be developing a project for your client, or securing important information. Take a look at some of these data loss facts. 25% of all PC users suffer from data loss each year. 7 of 10 small businesses that experience a data loss go out of business within one year 15% of all laptops or stolen or experience a failed hard drive $55,000,000,000 Annual Virus damage to Businesses in the US alone All disks and tape drives will eventually fail, almost a 100% chance.

What would happen if you lost all of your clients critical files? Would you be able to keep them as a client? Would you be able to recreate the files, if not, would you be held legally liable? Would your business be able to survive a major data loss? Do you have the time and money that it would take to recreate all of your lost sales, marketing, accounting and engineering data?

The only difference between a small inconvenience and a complete disaster is a secure remote backup solution. Its your data, Cari.net'sRemote Dedicated Backup Server is your recovery solution.

Why CariNet?

CariNet provides the best private cloud hosting services period. We provide hosting, training and consulting on private server clusters, private clouds and hybrid cluster / cloud hosting environments. We provide custom hosting solutions with seamless scalability, increased reliability, and unparalleled ease of management. While our focus is trained on the future, we never lose sight of what made us the premier cloud hosting provider we are today; top-notch support for all of our customers. CariNet has continued growing since 1997 primarily on word of mouth referrals from our global base of customers. CariNet’s datacenters host customers from over 150 countries. We know that all of our customers are our partners because our continued success and growth is 100% dependent on your continued success and growth.

CariNet has become a leader in the cloud hosting field with a wide variety of cloud offerings to supplement our traditional servers and server clusters. Whether you work in Linux or Windows, you will love CariNet. We are partners with 3tera in offering their AppLogic Cloud Operating System and we are the only hosting company in the world with an Intel Premier Partnership. We have hosted the world for well over a decade, and are fluent in all things Internet and server related. We build, own and operate all of our datacenters and facilities in the United States and are capable of handling customers and demands of any size. We have also expanded our global footprint through partnerships with other datacenters around the world. Contact CariNet; your Complete Cloud Computing Center.

We are SAS 70 certified!

SAS 70

In February 2010, CariNet passed the stringent auditing controls necessary for a SAS 70 certification, as determined by NDBLLP, an independent accounting and auditing firm.

CariNet’s Certification Statement

We have examined the accompanying description of general controls supporting CariNet’s cloud computing platform in San Diego, CA. Our examination included procedures to obtain reasonable assurance about whether

(1) the accompanying description presents fairly, in all material respects, the aspects of CariNet’s controls that may be relevant to user organization’s internal control as it relates to an audit of financial statements;

(2) the controls included in this description were suitably designed to achieve the control objectives specified in the description, if those controls were complied with satisfactorily, and user organizations applied the controls contemplated in the design of CariNet’s controls; and

(3) such controls has been placed in operation as of February 4, 2010.

The control objectives were specified by management of CariNet. Our examination was performed in accordance with standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and included those procedures we considered necessary in the circumstances to obtain a reasonable basis for rendering our opinion.

—NDB Accountants & Consultants, LLP

What is SAS 70?

Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70, Service Organizations, is a widely recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). A service auditor’s examination performed in accordance with SAS No. 70 (“SAS 70 Audit”) is widely recognized, because it represents that a service organization has been through an in-depth audit of their control objectives and control activities, which often include controls over information technology and related processes. In today’s global economy, service organizations or service providers must demonstrate that they have adequate controls and safeguards when they host or process data belonging to their customers. In addition, the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 make SAS 70 audit reports even more important to the process of reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.

For additional information please visit http://www.sas70.com