The answers to all your burning questions
Domain names / Hosting
[accordion title=”What is a domain name and how can I buy one?”]
A domain name is an address on the web like limecuda.com or facebook.com. It can have many different endings, .com, .org, .tv, .ca, .me, etc. Buying a domain name means that you control it and pay a yearly fee to continue to use it. A domain name usually costs between $15-25/year. We recommend buying a domain name through a service like GoDaddy or Network Solutions
[accordion title=”What’s the difference between a domain and hosting?”]
Think of a domain name like a book title for your website, say The Great Gatsby. Now you can buy that domain name from a place like GoDaddy or Network Solutions. The shelf that you choose to put that book on is the server. This is where the website is hosted and the data actually physically resides. You can move that book to different servers and the book title stays the same.
[accordion title=”My site just went live on a new server. Why can’t I see it?”]
Your Internet browser, computer, and ISP all cache (store) the information that tells them where a domain name lives (server). A domain name has nameservers that tell on which IP address the data resides.
When you switch servers, the domain name stays the same but the nameservers and the IP address behind the name will change. It sometimes takes some time for this change to propagate across the Internet. Here are some tips to see your site on the new server.
[accordion title=”What is a sub-domain and sub-directory?”]
If you own a domain name like limecuda.com you can have content or different sites that are on the same domain name but separate. A sub-directory would be something like limecuda.com/blog or limecuda.com/subdirectory . A sub-domain looks like blog.limecuda.com or pizza.limecuda.com
[accordion title=”Why does my site look different on a friend’s computer?”]
This is generally one of two thing.
1) You have an old version of the page loaded on your browser. Your browser will cache (store) parts of a website so that it will load faster. To flush this cache you can do a “hard refresh”, which on Windows is usually ctrl+f5 (command + R on Mac) or you can delete your browser cache/cookies in the browser’s settings. Restarting your browser and computer will often solve a cache issue.
2) You might be using a different Internet browser to view the web. (See next question)
[accordion title=”What Internet browser is best?”]
You have lots of great choices to browse the web. The best one, is one that you enjoy using. We do have some recommendations…
We strongly recommend against using Internet Explorer by Microsoft. Version 9 isn’t too bad but 6,7,8 all have severe issues with web standards and do not display sites correctly. The older versions also have security risks. If you must use IE, at least use the latest version. (more info)
[accordion title=”What is my IP address?”]
Your IP address is a unique number that identifies your computer on the Internet. They usually look like 172.16.254.1 One of the ways you can tell your current IP is by searching IP in Google. Your IP address will be different when you are on different Internet connections. If you go to a coffee shop you will have a totally different IP than at home.
[accordion title=”Why WordPress?”]
We use the WordPress Content Management System for 98% of our projects. It is a truly amazing open-source platform that allows us to take advantage of tens of thousands of development hours people have spent building the software, themes, and plugins. (Learn more)
We are then able to pass that value on to you in the form of lower-cost development, quicker site builds, a terrific SEO architecture, and lots of amazing bells & whistles.
It is used on 15% of the top million websites, including giants like: Ford, Best Buy, Nikon, Samsung, Wired, Southwest Airlines, TechCrunch, and Network solutions. (Fortune 500 sites running WordPress)
In short, it rocks.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
[accordion title=”Black hat and white hat SEO?”]
This concept finds it origin in the old good spy, bad spy cartoons. Black hat SEO is trying to get better rankings using practices that might be unethical, against Google’s policy, or just a bit shady. White hat SEO is the good stuff, these are practices encouraged by Google and are ethical.LimeCuda only does white hat SEO, so if you are looking for shady tactics, we’re not the right place. Why don’t we? A) it is unethical B) these shady tactics generally only have a short-term impact on ranking and they put you at risk for being banned by Google.
[accordion title=”I got an email about my site’s SEO, is this legitimate?”]
Regrettably, the SEO industry is filled with many scam artists and snake-oil salesman that will promise you #1 rankings and tell you that your current SEO is weak.
Most of the time these emails/form submissions are automatically done by bots. Ironically LimeCuda.com gets these too.
We’re very transparent about how we handle Search Engine Optimization. No magic tricks or gimmicks. If someone is sending you emails promising #1 rankings and quick/easy SEO, they are likely not reputable.
Here is what a credible SEO company looks like. (we heartily recommend them for large SEO projects).
[accordion title=”Why does my site rank differently depending on who searches it?”]
In its quest to serve the most relevant results, Google personalizes search to whomever is searching. They do this by giving location based (IP) results that might be more pertinent from where the user is geographically searching . They also personalize based on who the person is connected to socially. This second factor is why it is helpful to use social media.
[accordion title=”Where did the name LimeCuda come from?”]
While in college, Blake was doing SEO consulting and building websites on the side. As an Entrepreneurship major he of course entered Grove City College’s business plan competition. Partnered with David Kuhta they placed first in the For-Profit category.
For this business plan they needed a company name. Since their ethos revolved around fast, aggressive, cutting edge tech they decided that a good representative animal was the Barracuda. But that was too simple, not memorable enough, and would be hard to get a good domain. So they decided it could be shortened to Cuda but that had its own problems. Pairing it with a color seemed like a good call. OrangeCuda, TealCuda, BlueCuda, many combinations were tried and then we hit Lime and loved it. This naming and design process shockingly only took about 15 minutes and we ended up with this logo…
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Glossary of Terms
GWT = Google Webmaster Tools
KW = Keyword
SEO = Search Engine Optimization / Optimizer
SERPs = Search Engine Results Pages
SMO = Social Media Optimization / Optimizer