Hawaii SEO

Most people know that I live and breathe Hawaii SEO but I also EAT it as well.

This is how I typically fix my lunch at the office.

I usually start with eatable text. Every SEO knows how much Google loves fresh, eatable text. The fresher the better! If you don’t have a small fridge in your office, you will need to make a special trip to the store on a daily basis. That’s what I do.

Keep In mind… You don’t want to overcook the text. It’s best to boil it down in an effort to achieve the optimum keyword density but it loses its flavor if you over-do it. For best results, chill in refrigerator until serving. (Since I don’t have a fridge in the office, I just blow on it for a while until it cools off.)

Next, I break out a jar of my “Hawaii SEO, Secret Sauce” and serve over the eatable text. Unfortunately… The SEO Secret Sauce doesn’t have much of a shelf-life and without proper refrigeration and it tends to go sour.

Spam is also one of my guilty pleasures but very SEO knows that Spam isn’t exactly “SEO health food”. It won’t kill you to have a small taste every now and then but don’t go crazy and eat the entire can in one sitting. Keep in mind… The can clearly states that you should refrigerate the unused Spam immediately after opening. (Or maybe that’s the cat food) Either way, it’s a good idea. [Note to self: The day-old Spam on the counter-top is starting to look a little rancid.]

Fore more information about “SEO Overkill” please see my cautionary post titled “I Think Therefore I Spam“.

Then I break out a bottle of lukewarm “Link Juice” and pour myself a glass to wash it all down. (BTW - Link juice is best served chilled.) Some of my friends seem to think I have a Link Juice “Drinking Problem” but I don’t see it as being a problem at all, unless the bottle is empty… Then that would be a real problem.

Also… If you’re fortunate enough to have a small refrigerator in your office, you should always keep an open box of baking soda in it because every SEO knows how much Google loves fresh content. (That’s what I would do if I had one)

My lunch hour would be so much happier if I only had a small refrigerator in my office but there is no need to grovel for one.

Dan Perry is giving away a Mini Google refrigerator. Dan just wants to know what people would do with it so he can pick a worthy recipient.

Barry Schwartz, Tamar Weinberg, and Matt McGee are helping Dan pick the winner.

Dave.

I would encourage everyone in the travel industry to rush out and buy this amazing book, but… I have no idea where you can get a copy. I was given a complimentary copy of the book today by the folks who put the project together at the PhocusWright travel conference in Orlando. And no… You can’t borrow it. Get your own.
So… This is a brief synopsis of the book. “A collection of thoughts, musings, quotes and recommendations from the most influential travel & tourism bloggers.”
The Tips from the T-List is being created and edited by Stephen Joyce, Jens Thraenhart, Mathieu Ouellet, Yeoh Siew Hoon, Kevin May, and independently published by Rezgo with articles from more great travel industry bloggers than I have time to link too.
What you can expect to find in the book… (If you can get a copy)

• Information, tips & tricks about destination and travel blogging
• Travel Marketing & Social media insights
• Internet marketing advice for travel blogs and websites
• Travel 2.0 – What it is and how it works
• Technology tips for small tour operators
• Links to great resources

Maybe someone involved with the project will post a link in the comments for where to buy it.

Aloha,
Dave.

Shiela at GoVisitHawaii.com just blog tagged me to post my desktop image & Google just added some cool desktop widgets so I thought I would post my screen shot.

I took the picture out the window of the HanoHano Room restaurant at the Sheraton Waikiki. All I can say is the automatic settings on the cheap, new digital cameras are getting better all the time.

Enjoy!

Google Reader now has cool trends.

I guess that works out to about 40 articles per day. Believe it or not… I read all 130 of these feeds periodically depending on the title of the post and how much time I have. I usually spend at least two or three hours a day reading about search engine and affiliate marketing. Blogs come and go from the list periodically as well. Almost all of these feeds are search marketing blogs except for Weird Asian News and a few others. This is where I get most of my search and affiliate marketing information.

I’ve been meaning to create a post about all the great blogs that I subscribe to and read but I’ve been procrastinating because I know it will take quite a while. Luckily… Lee Odden at the Online Marketing Blog did the job for me in a post called “Must Read Search Marketing Blogs“. Lee on the other hand tries his best to read 250 plus (and counting) SEO, SEM, social media and online PR blogs. (Amazing!) Almost all the blogs I read are listed there.

Barry Schwartz also has a great list of about 175 search blogs that he calls his Link Farm. It’s a real honor for me to be listed.

Happy Reading!

Aloha,
Dave.

Michael Jensen over at SoloSEO just blog tagged me so I’m required to list 5 things that most people don’t know about me, and then tag five more people. Michael Gray has a great summary of what this is all about and how it applies to internet marketing overall.

So… Here are the facts.

1) I grew up in Roswell New Mexico. (Yes… The place where the UFO crashed) I lived there until after I graduated from High School. I later moved from Roswell to Denver to go to art school.

2) I moved to Hawaii on an impulse. In 1998, I was working for my friend Todd Robertson in Denver doing 3D animation & technical illustrations when he decided to move to Hawaii on an impulse after returning from vacation. So… I had to make a choice. Be unemployed in Denver or Honolulu. (I chose Honolulu) About three weeks later… I had sold or given away almost all of my possessions, purchased a one-way ticket to Hawaii and landed in Honolulu with my computer, a duffel bag, a backpack, a box and about $250 in cash.

3) I collect “Magic The Gathering” game cards. (Great game) I used to play all the time back in 93-94 and spent a small fortune collecting the cards. One-by-one, all my friends stopped playing the game and sold their cards. (To me) I stopped playing as well but for some reason I never sold my cards or completely quit collecting them. (That’s what was in the box I moved here with) I hope to play with my boy in a few years or as soon as he’s old enough to play the game. (I sincerely hope he wants to play Magic and not Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!)

4) I was a Hippy. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them this, but… Back in art school… I was a huge fan of Phish & The Grateful Dead. I’ve seen both bands at least 20 times each. Back then I had some seriously long hair, made my own Tie-Die, T-shirts, collected bootleg tapes, the works. I don’t listen to them very much anymore but I’m still a big fan.

5) I met my beautiful wife Alice online. It’s a long story but… My friend mike posted a profile for me with his AOL account in an effort to help me get my mind off an ex-girlfriend who I had broken up with. We got along great and got married about a year later in 2001. We have a three year old boy named Shane and things are going great. (Shortly after that, my brother & sister both met their spouses online.)

Bonus Fact) My wife and I are Buddhist. Just like Christianity, Buddhism is not a single monolithic religion. There are many different variations. We belong to an organization called SGI (Soka Gakkai International) which is a very popular variation in Japan.

So… Who am I going to tag? Solo SEO has a “Blog Tag Tree” of people who have been tagged so far but there are quite a few great people still out there who haven’t been tagged yet.

Christoph Cemper, Mike Belasco, Brian Vuyk and Everett Sizemore… Tag! You’re It!

One of my readers asks, “I am curious what it would take to get on the first SERP for Hawaii Wedding photographer.”

It’s a simple question but the answer can be more complicated than you would think so I’m going to outline a few things that he can do in several posts in an effort to break it down into bite sized pieces.

First of all, I would like to take a look at the question being asked. My assumption is that his real goal is to economically increase the relevant traffic to his website and assumes that the #1 organic listing in Google will solve that problem. (It probably would)

However… There are other ways to economically drive relevant traffic to a website. If you pursue these alternative routes, you will usually find they also help you rank better in the search engines.

First I’ll be giving some basic SEO advice for how a Hawaii Photographer website should be built to please your two primary audiences, people and search engine robots.

After that… I’ll be covering alternative ways to drive traffic to a photography website which should also help the website rank better as a result.

One of the main things to remember about Internet Marketing is that it’s usually a long process. It’s a lot like working out or loosing weight. You need to be diligent and consistently work on it every day over a long period of time. Rarely have I seen someone make a small change that rocketed them to the top of the SERPS. Most people who are successful at driving traffic to their website tell me they have been actively marketing the website for several years to get to where they are.

That’s all for now,

Aloha,
Dave.

Barry Schwartz, had 100 promotional RustyBrick laptop bags made. Since he only has 100 of them & it’s almost the holiday season, I assumed I wouldn’t be getting one because they would all be going to clients, employees, friends, family and any one of a hundred or so search VIP’s.

However… a few are up for grabs. Barry mentioned on his personal blog that he needed to come up with some contest ideas so he could give some away. My suggestion was that he have a “Contest Idea” contest. Or… Whoever comes up with the best contest idea gets a bag and so does the person who wins that contest.
Barry liked the idea enough to send me one of the first bags filled with Search Engine Roundtable YoYos!
So… Help Barry come up with some cool contest ideas and get yourself a sweet new bag.

I’m going to keep at least one or two of the SER yo yos, but I’ll be giving the rest away. Just email me your address and I’ll send you one while supplies last.

davezuls at gmail dot com.

Aloha,
Dave.

Congratulations to Jim & Mary Boykin; the proud parents of their new baby boy, Nathaniel Thomas Scott Boykin! Great name! It has lost of possibilities for when he becomes an adult. I have a feeling that he will be known to his friends as Nate Boykin though. I have no doubt that he’ll be the #1 ranked person of both names on all the search engines.

Happy Birthday & Welcome to the world Nate!
Aloha,
Dave.

I’ve been experimenting with Yahoo! Answers for a few weeks to see what it was all about. Anyone can ask questions about anything they want and anybody who wants to; can try to answer the question.

The beauty of the system is that you can search for a topic like “Hawaii” and subscribe to all the incoming questions via RSS like it was a Blog.

Lots of questions are being asked by potential Hawaii visitors on a wide variety of travel related subjects. People want to know where to stay, what to do, where to get married, etc.

Here is a sample of some of the questions that have been asked and some answers that you might have been able to give.

Q: Does anyone have a recommendation for a condo or hotel in Waikiki Beach, HI area?
A: Stay at my condo.

Going to Oahu, we want to go to a Luau…?
A: Go to my Luau.

Q: Where’s your favorite place to hike on Oahu? Or other island?
A: I am a guide. I’ll take you there.

Q: Where can I find the best prices on flights to Hawaii?
A: I’m a travel agent. Give me a call.

Q: What are the best places to wed in Hawaii?
A: I’m a wedding Planner. Please visit my website and give me a call.

Unfortunately, you don’t see these kinds of answers. Most of the people answering these Hawaii Travel and Vacation related questions are not travel professionals. Most people answering these questions aren’t even from Hawaii. This creates and opportunity.

These types of questions come up over and over. If you answer a question once, you can re-purpose that answer every time the question comes up again.

Yahoo! Answers isn’t exactly a lead generating goldmine at this time, but it’s super easy to subscribe to a topic and be alerted when a potential customer is asking for your help.

Reach out to these people, give them a link to your website and start a dialogue.

Lee Dodd, Aaron Wall, David Taylor & Shoemoney are putting on a conference of their own called The Elite Retreat in San Antonio on December 18-19. They are trying to limit the attendance and keep it small so the participants can get the most out of it.

The Price - $4850

At first I saw this number and thought it was overpriced. But then I remembered that attendance is limited and people who do go will have access to four people who can seriously help them. One-on-one SEO and Online Marketing consulting at this level can cost some serious cash but I believe people who attend the event will have more then enough time bouncing ideas off of these guys to make it worthwhile.

I see this question all the time from people on the US mainland who are thinking about visiting Hawaii but are not sure about the procedure when traveling to another state that is not connected to the mainland.

Yes! You do need a passport but that’s not all!

A passport is required for all people who are not Hawaiian. Before you can apply to visit Hawaii, you must undergo a background check that includes your personal history for the last five years. Please bring the following documentation with you to the post office when you apply. Health records, Previous employment history, current contact information of all past sexual partners.

If you pass this screening process, you will need to get vaccinated for a range of diseases to protect the local Hawaii population. There are about 50 shots in all which are administered in stomach and kidney areas of the body. The process takes about four hours and is extremely painful. (Bring something to bite on)

Don’t forget! Before you leave the mainland… You will need to go to your bank to exchange your money for Hawaiian currency. Current exchange rate is 3 Puka shells to 1 US dollar.

I hope this helps!

Aloha,
Dave.

Sources: Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link,

What do I mean by “Reciprocal Link Ultimatums”?

I receive reciprocal link requests all the time. The pitch usually follows this line of reasoning: “If we link to each other, both of us will benefit.”

In many cases, this is true. We will both benefit. So why do people like me almost always delete these offers? How come this tactic almost never works?

Obviously, you don’t want to participate in massive link exchange schemes, but that’s not what I’m talking about in this post.

I’m talking about how I routinely delete seemingly legitimate offers.
For example: I will trade a link from my PR-1 website for a link on your PR-5 website and both of us will benefit.

In this situation, both parties will benefit somewhat, but one party will benefit much more than the other. (Inequitable outcome) So what? If both parties will benefit, then why not accept the offer and receive the benefit? Who cares? Something is better than nothing. Right? (Well… Not really)

Human nature dictates that even in seemingly self destructive situations, people tend to resist what is perceived as inequitable, yet positive outcomes. It sounds crazy but market-oriented societies tend to have a very high inequity aversion.

This is proved in experimental economics experiments like the Ultimatum Game.

This is how you play the ultimatum game:

The first player (Sender of the link request) proposes how to divide a sum of money (Link Juice) with the second party. If the second player rejects this division, neither gets anything. If the second accepts, the first gets hid demand and the second gets the rest.

For example:
If I have $10.00 and I offer you $5.00 and you accept, we both get $5.00.
If I have $10.00 and I offer you only $2.00 and you accept, you keep the $2.00 and I keep the other $8.00.

Most people will reject the second offer even though it’s $2.00 free money. They will reject the offer sometimes just to punish the person making the offer.

I’ve read in the book The Wisdom of Crowds where even people in third world countries will reject an inequitable offer even if it means not keeping real money in an impoverished environment.

So what can be learned about linking from these experiments?

Usually… People will reject reciprocal link requests unless the trade is equally beneficial.

Sometimes a website like a niche directory will want to link to you anyway but doesn’t know you exist. However… More often than not, you should do your homework and appraise the value of both your website and the target website and then evaluate the trade before you do anything.

Ask yourself if it’s a fair trade? If not, what can you do to make the offer more equitable? What kind of incentive can you offer? Cash usually works. If you don’t have cash, you can try some of these methods.

Don’t waste your time sending inequitable reciprocal link ultimatums. Do something that has a better chance of working.

I got back from SES and was immediately swamped by the backlog of work that usually happens whenever I leave for a few days.

However… The Google Dance this year was even better than last year. I took lots of pictures and had a great time so even though I should have posted this about three weeks ago, I still think it’s better late then never.

The Google Dance is an annual party that Google has to correspond with SES. Everyone attending the conference is invited.

As soon as we got off the bus and entered the “Googleplex” we were greeted by cheering Googlers who acted like we were some sort of celebrities about to take the stage and perform. It was very cool.

The Googleplex is a very cool place in general. They have each of the buildings connected via enclosed, overhead walkways. Once inside one building, you can walk to any other building like some sort of wacky habitrail for software engineers.

After picking up my souvenir t-shirt, I headed to the buffet to see what kind of food they had. As usual they had lots of great food but tiny plates. (I’m a big eater, so I needed several plates)

The door to the main kitchen was open and there were no signs that said to stay out… So I went in.

Here is a picture of the two Google chefs who were coordinating the food effort. I expected them to kick me out, but instead they asked me about the food quality, which was great.

Next stop was the area called “Meet The Engineers”. They had this in a small room and it was hard to find. They did have a small sign, but it was nowhere near the action. They didn’t promote it this year and there were very few people there to compete with. I got to ask Matt Cutts and Adam Lasnik all kinds of questions.

Here I am grilling Adam about how to get new website to show up.
Believe it or not… I stole this picture off the Google Website!

Greg Hartnett from The Best Of The Web (BOTW) was kind enough to give me a t-shirt earlier that day, so I was kind enough to wear it and get his logo on the Google Dance Gallery.

I also got to meet Aaron Wall - AKA SEO Book. (If you don’t read his Blog… You should start today. You should also buy his book.)

After they closed the session down, I found Hawaii local, Brent Norris from Aloha Workshops at the front of the line for the Dance Heads karaoke booth. This was one of those setups like they have at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet where they place your disembodied head on a professional dancer’s body and make a music video. Brent was with Bill Cullifer and need a third person to join them so I got a silly DVD of myself made. It was hilarious.

Google is great at developing a community around their services and maintaining great client relationships.

Aloha,
Dave.

I have two friends in the search industry who are visiting Maui soon and instead of posting a huge comment on their blogs or a gigantic email, I thought it would be better to just post about it here.

Here is the best website for Hawaii Vacation rentals on the net.
http://alternative-hawaii.com/

You’ve probably stumbled upon the website already and probably hit the back button because the website looks like its run by people who are not that savvy with web design… and it is. However… It’s absolutely the best website for this type of research. Great content created by great people with integrity. Tom & Laine are great folks. (Notice the total absence of advertising) This has always been very strange to me considering how I know for a fact they have a huge volume of visitors. But… They refuse to compromise. I need to admire them for that.

If you need a Maui Vacation Rental… Here is the exact page you’re looking for.
http://alternative-hawaii.com/accmau.htm

The next thing I would highly recommend is purchasing THIS guide book. Maui Revealed.

This book is written buy a local guy who is always getting in trouble with the local population for revealing all the best spots that were previously unreported. These books are the ultimate authority on the islands. The guy tells all in a common sense way with no fluff or marketing BS.

Another good resource that I’ve recently found is a website called Home & Abroad.

They have a set of “Wizards” where you use a check-box form to let the website know what you’re looking for. The results are great. I was very surprised the first time I used it. The results it returns based on your preferences is just about as good as I can do by hand.

You’ll be just missing Hawaii’s whale watching season takes place from late November to mid-April but you might still see some whales anyway.

Even if you don’t see any whales, I would still recommend getting on a boat for some sort of short cruise regardless which island you stay. Dinner cruises sound a bit cheesy but it’s a lot of fun. The food isn’t all that special but being with your wife out on a boat and watching the sunset & city lights is a great experience. The Maui Princess has the best dinner cruise.

The other type of cruise is the snorkel cruise. I can recommend two for Maui.

You should go on a snorkeling cruise to a place called Molokini. The best motorized boat to go on for that is the Pride of Maui. This motorized boat will take you to two destinations. Molokini & Turtle Town. Molokini is a crescent shaped volcanic crater that has collapsed into the ocean on one side. It’s the best amature snorkeling location in Hawaii. The other destination is called Turtle Town. Something about the coral formations and abundant food supply attracts dozens of huge sea turtles. They are also amazingly friendly and allow you to swim very close to them. It’s very tempting to just reach out and touch them but that’s a no-no.

The other boat cruise company on Maui is Trilogy Excursions. Also very highly recommended. They have sail boats which offers a completely different experience than the Pride of Maui. They also have Sunset Sails which is guaranteed to me a very romantic experience.

The other must-do thing when you visit Hawaii is go to a Luau.

Maui has the best Luau. This is the “Old Lahaina Luau“. This Luau is extremely popular. It’s not that big and it’s always sold out several weeks in advance so if you intend to go, you will need to book it when you book your hotel, etc. You can’t just show up and expect to get in.

If you like Golf… The best place to research that is at the Hawaii Visitors & Conventions website.

One of the other Must-do things on Maui is visit the Haleakala Volcano. (World’s Largest Dormant Volcano) The best experience is to get there before dawn and watch the sunrise. You’re well above the clouds at that altitude and the sunrise from that angle is spectacular. (It’s freezing up there before dawn, so bring a jacket)

If you enjoy riding bicycles. You can rent a bike coast down the Volcano, with only 100 yards of pedaling. There is only one company that offers “Self Guided” bicycle tours. Haleakala Bike. The others… You’re stuck in a group and can only go as fast as the slowest person. (That sucks) The Haleakala Bike Company drives you up to the summit, and gives you a mountain bike and a map to find your way back to the office. You can go as fast or as slow as you like and you can stop along the way and eat lunch or whatever you want. (Very Cool). The only down side is there is no hotel pick up and you might get lost if you can’t read a simple map.

The other Must-do activity on Maui is to drive a winding road called the Hana Highway to a small town called Hana. This drive is rated as one of the top 10 scenic drives in the US. You go from lava fields to dessert to a lush rainforest. The main attraction along the way is the “Seven Sacred Pools”. This is a stair step formation where each step has a waterfall with a large pool at the bottom. You can easily hike to each waterfall. It’s great. (It’s an all day drive)

Now that you’ve just driven ALL DAY to Hana… Why not stay the night there and relax? I can’t remember the names but Hana has some fantastic resorts and vacation rentals. It’s a very secluded place & very romantic. Oprah has a place there as well as several other celebrities.

Feel free to email me with any questions you might have. I’m always happy to help.

Aloha,
Dave.

ASK knows how to throw a party!

This is a clip of the party they had at the Fahrenheit Nightclub with Fire Breathing Bartenders juggling Molotov Cocktails. (WOW) After the bartenders put out the fires, the waitresses got up on the bar and pored shots directly from the bottle into people’s mouths. I love that place.

The photo links to the video on Google.
(I’m too lazy to install the WordPress plug-in)

I also got to meet a few more of my SEO roll models that I didn’t see at the Bogdog party.

Roger Montti - AKA Martinibuster, the moderator of the Link Development Forum at WebmasterWorld. (Yes… He was drinking a Martini)

Todd Malicoat - AKA Stuntdubl.

Todd and Roger are two of the best link building SEO’s in the business. If you don’t read their blogs, you should start today.

Today I had the amazing opportunity to tour of the GooglePlex with Matt Cutts & Adam Lasnik. It was a Very small group of webmasters and online advertising professionals. I can’t give any details about what was discussed because I signed a NDA. Even if I didn’t sign it, I wouldn’t have anything scandalous to report anyway. Still… Even though I didn’t get all of my questions answered, it was very cool to be able to check it out, look under the hood, and see how the people work.

I’ve been at this stuff for a very long time and I’ve always wanted to experience something like this. All I can say is that Google takes quality seriously and is working very hard to provide webmasters and online advertisers the tools they need.

Matt Cuts showing us one of the many scooters the Googlers have to zip around the campus on.

Still to go…
Party with the folks at ASK tonight.
Google Dance Tomorrow!

Aloha,
Dave.

Upon arrival in San Jose I went straight to the Bodog party which was packed with a real list of who’s who in the SEO world. It never ceases to amaze me how genuine the people involved in search marketing are. It’s a real pleasure to be in this line of work. Thank you Bodog for hosting the party and inviting me.

Here are some pictures from tonight, in no particular order.

Jim Boykin looks like he’s feeling lucky.

Matt Cutts and I look like brothers. I just need some glasses and a Beard & we would be twins.

Rebecca from SEOmoz was a totaly cool. Today was also her birthday. Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Gillian & Rand from SEOmoz. I’ve been reading that blog daily for about a year and it was great to meet the crew.

Chris Boggs from the Search Engine Roundtable. Chris was kind enough to take most of these pictures. Thanks Chris!

Shoemoney! This guy is one of my inspirations. One of the hardest working people in SEO. I don’t know many people who are more forthcoming when it comes to sharing information.

Michael Gray had an excellent post today about do-it-yourself online marketing projects.

A friend of his, who is a travel agent, asked for some advice to increase visitors to her website. Michael gave her several great ideas for a do-it-yourself project that I believe would be very effective for a travel agent.

Unfortunately, even though it’s a great idea, simple to execute and his friend seemed to understand the concept, he didn’t believe she would actually follow through for a variety of reasons.

(IMO) Most SEO work could be a do-it-yourself project. I many cases people are too busy to take action or simply have an aversion to they type of work involved.

Everyone has a pain threshold for certain tasks. We could all change our own oil if we wanted to. Even though it would save me some money, I would seriously prefer to pay someone else to do it even in the cost for that service quadrupled. I’m sure the owner of the garage feels the same about marketing his website.

Just about anyone with an internet connection can research, plan and purchase travel. It’s a very simple do-it-yourself project but many people prefer to go through a travel agent for a variety of legitimate reasons. Travel agents aren’t going to disappear anytime soon.

Even though you could do the project yourself, it might be faster and more economical for you to focus on what you do best and pay someone else to do what they do best.

Some Hawaiian words are easier to spell than others. This can be important when choosing a name or a domain name for your company.

People usually only search for things they can remember & spell.

If your business is based on the Big Island, you probably don’t have this problem. Kona and Hilo are both easy to memorize and spell. You’re probably safe with a geo-location based domain name. Businesses on Maui aren’t as fortunate. Both Kahului and Lahaina can be hard to spell properly for people on the mainland and the names aren’t as familiar or as easy to remember as Honolulu or Kona.

If a person can’t remember how to spell your company name or domain name they will be forced to guess or broaden the scope of their search to something more generic they Can spell like Maui. This can lead to increased competition in the search results. The search term Maui is extremely competitive for this reason. Instead of searching for “Kahului Widgets” they need to back up search for “Maui Widgets” where every widget maker on the island is struggling to be on top.

Instead of “Kahului Widgets”, you might be able to use “Valley Island Widgets” instead.

Google can usually differentiate multiple words in a URL that are bunched together.
(valleyislandwidgets.com) and credit the website for those words, but anecdotal evidence suggests that putting a hyphen between the words can increase your page rank slightly so I always place a hyphen in the URL when appropriate. (valley-island-widgets.com). Hyphens also usually work much better than underscores with Google. In my opinion, hyphens also help to make it slightly easier to read.

Sometimes you have a choice. I think humuhumunukunukuapuaa.com would be a cool URL to have, and it’s probably for sale but I wouldn’t expect a lot of people on the mainland to memories it. (I don’t think I would want it for an email address though.)

It’s always best if you can keep the URL short, descriptive, on topic, easy to remember and spell.

The Hawaiian Okina can also create problems in the search engines. It’s “Correct” but… if you are fortunate enough to have an easy to spell name, you might sabotage your website by using the Okina in the text of your page.

Search engines are looking for a text match. No one searches for Hawaii with the Okina, so if you use that character, Google will not be able to match the query to the copy on your page or page title.

Browsers also have a problem displaying it properly on the web. My Blog isn’t set up to display the character properly either. If you can’t avoid using it, you can usually manually insert the Unicode hex value 02BB (decimal 699) but it can still cause appearance problems in some browsers.

That’s all for now,
Aloha,
Dave.

Can you produce a useful and pleasing website that generates traffic and sales? If the answer is a big YES!… Keep reading.

If you can build yourself a website and drive some traffic to it, you can place Google or other affiliate ads on your site or sell links or whatever and earn yourself a few bucks. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to create a website that will generate at least $5 per day.

$5 a day is not a huge number for a person who is good at driving web sales and traffic, etc. It shouldn’t take forever to reach that kind of cash flow either. Just pick a topic like weddings, flowers, travel, golf, pets, real estate or whatever you like.

If you can make $5 a day with one website that focuses on something like “Hawaii Widgets” you can probably create a second website on “California Widgets” and make another $5 a day.

Once you’ve made your first one, it shouldn’t take you forever to create the second one… or the third… or the fourth…

If you have 50 websites that average $5 a day… You are making $91,250. per year!

I have met several people with hundreds of websites like this. They whip one out about every two weeks or so.

If you are NOT a great Webmaster or Online Marketer… This is just one of many reasons why finding a qualified person to help you build, design and market your website, isn’t usually very cheap.

Aloha,
Dave.