Web Page Keywords – The Rules Have Changed
Years ago, the keywords meta-tag embedded within a web page was everyone’s virtual ticket to a page one listing in Yahoo (long before Google was ever heard of), HotBot and other search engines of days gone by. It didn’t take long before everyone caught on to the trend of “keyword stuffing” which is basically adding non-relevant but highly searchable keywords into the meta-tags of a web page. The main purpose for doing this was to get people searching on popular keywords like “sex” or “Britney Spears” diverted to your website via a top ranking page in Yahoo.
Imagine how discouraging it would be for someone searching for “Britney Spears” to land on your page about house training aardvarks, etc., simply because of your deceptive keywords. As you can imagine, somewhere along the line the rules would have to change. There is a line in a Roger Water’s song that says “if you give the human race enough rope soon or later they’ll **** it all up”. How true. Then Google came along and said “Guess what? People have misused the keywords meta-tags so we’re simply going to ignore them from now on.” Ultimately, this would negate the effects of “keyword stuffing” and rightfully allow the search engines to index web pages based primarily on a given web page’s actual content.
In other words, if your page is about house training aardvarks that is exactly how you would be found in a search. Wave goodbye to Britney Spears! Thus, the death of the keywords meta-tag.
To this very day, the legend of the keywords meta-tag refuses to die. 8 out of 10 of my new clients always ask if we can “put some really big keywords” into every page, so that they’ll come up high in the search results. And yes, I have to explain all of this to them just as I have mentioned here, so maybe now, I can simply say “check it out on our blog” and hopefully some day the great keywords myth will be laid to rest.
However, legends die hard so I can only imagine that in the year 2050 there will be a couple people still hoping to do a bit of “keyword stuffing” for “Britney Spears favorite wheelchair”.
PayPal’s Not So Easy Credit Card Payments
You’ve probably noticed that many websites, etc. accept credit card payments via PayPal. Because PayPal is a relatively inexpensive payment gateway system, many beginner e-commerce shopping carts use them to get started. The problem is that accepting credit cards utilizing PayPal may not be as easy as you think.
If you already have a basic PayPal account and you try to make a credit card purchase on a website, you may be in for a nasty surprise. PayPal will use your bank account for funding and if you have a credit card listed as a backup, it will be grayed out, meaning that you will not be able to select the credit card for funding. PayPal wants to take the money out of your bank account, not your credit card.
The “dirty little secret” is that if you don’t use or have a PayPal account, the first time you make a purchase, you are allowed to use a credit card, one time only. PayPal makes you create an account and will later request that you add a checking account, etc. for funding future payments. The credit card will only be used as a backup in case your bank account is closed, etc.
You’re probably thinking, “well, I’ll just use another e-mail address the next time I make a credit card purchase with PayPal”. Yes, that will work and will create yet another PayPal account BUT if you attempt to use the same credit card, forget it. You will get a message from PayPal something along the lines of “this credit card is already being used by another PayPal account. For security reasons, you must use a different credit card”. So the bottom line is that in order to continue to make credit card payments using PayPal, you will need both a new e-mail address AND a new credit card that has not been used to make a PayPal purchase before.
For the above reasons, I am now recommending to all my clients that they spend the extra money for an Authorize.net or other payment gateway account. First, a buyer checking out at your shopping cart may not want to be forced into signing up for a PayPal account and second, if they make another purchase on a cart using PayPal and the same e-mail/credit card, there only option will be a withdrawal of funds from their bank account.
Buyers don’t want to be forced by PayPal to use their bank account rather than their credit card, especially if your cart prominently displays the credit card symbols. This could easily frustrate your customer resulting in a lost sale and a customer that may never return.