InspectorPages is getting another upgrade tonight

We are going to upgrade InspectorPages tonight (7/7/2011) with some user interface changes and some other speed improvements.  These changes will streamline the editing process by removing unnecessary options and making important options more prominent.  They also open the door for more improvements in the future as we continue to update the system.  InspectorPages may be inaccessible for an hour or two between 11pm and 2am EST.  Hosted sites will continue to be accessible for most of that time, but customers may not be able to edit their sites during that window.

Once the update is done we will be focusing on a new batch of ‘how-to’ videos and other help documentation such as FAQs, a support site, etc.

Update: Video Overview

InspectorPages sites up to 420% faster!

We recently implemented two new caching features that allow our client sites to load at incredible speeds.  InspectorPages was fast before this update, but now it’s blazingly fast.  Even complex pages that took 2-3 seconds to load before, now take less than a second (around 400-500 milliseconds).  Caching is only enabled when you’re not logged in as an administrator (for technical reasons), so log out if you want to test your site.

With our new dual-caching technology plus our CDN service, InspectorPages is the fastest web site host available for home inspectors.  And don’t forget: Google is now using page speed as a ranking factor, so the faster your site is, the higher it will rank in Google.

Upgrades to the free InspectorPages account

InspectorPages has rolled out a few changes to our free accounts:

  1. You no longer have to sign up for free accounts.  All InterNACHI members automatically have free InspectorPages.com accounts.  All you have to do is go to http://inspector-pages.com/yourusername (replace “yourusername” with your InterNACHI members-only username) and you’re good to go.
  2. If you have an existing website, your InspectorPages URL will automatically redirect to your current website.  To understand the reasoning behind this decision, take a look at the InterNACHI blog post SEO and the Inspection Industry and check out a recent discussion about our Choosing a Domain Name blog post.

These changes should help ensure that those InterNACHI members without websites have them, and those with websites don’t dilute their existing site’s ranking by having multiple websites fighting for the same search placement.

And remember, if you have a DIY account, we just upgraded your storage limit from 50 MB to 1 GB.

35 Local Link Opportunities

An important part of SEO is acquiring links, and for home inspectors, it’s especially important to find good LOCAL links.  Over the last year or so, search engines have begun to focus on local search results, which are heavily influenced by local ranking factors such as proximity and local links/reviews/etc (check out “Improve Your Local Search Rankings” at NACHI.TV for more great tips on how to improve your Google local search ranking).

A lot of the time, finding new links is about getting creative about where to look.  SEER interactive recently posted a great article focusing on a bunch of places to find local links that you probably haven’t though of.  A lot of these involve sponsoring local organizations/events, so you get the added benefit of knowing you’re benefiting your local community at the same time (and your company will get major karma/goodwill).

Check out the full list at 35 Local Link Opportunities You Missed.

Choosing a Domain Name

A lot of people have emailed us with the same question: What domain name should I choose? Obviously each situation is different, but it usually comes down to two types of considerations:

  1. Should I pick a domain name based on the keywords I’m optimizing for (SEO)?  Or should I pick a domain name based on my company name (branding)?
  2. How should I format my domain?  Short or long?  Hyphens or no? .COM or .INFO?

Continue reading “Choosing a Domain Name” »

Over 2000% increase in storage limits!

We just upgraded the limits of our DIY accounts from 50 MB to 1 GB.  That’s an increase of over 2000%!  We want our customers to have the best websites possible, and we think that means including as much rich media as necessary.  Enjoy!

Upgrade Details

Monday’s upgrade was a huge success.  We’ve quadrupled the capacity of all our database servers and web servers, migrated most of our static content to our content delivery network (for higher speed delivery of images, stylesheets, javascript, etc), added a few new plugins, upgraded our automatic SEO tools, updated our backup process to allow for daily and weekly backups, added mobile support (now all InspectorPages sites are iPhone-optimized!) and more.

Also, check out our new comparison chart of all the InspectorPages features.

Scheduled Down Time

InspectorPages will be down Monday, November 1st from 11pm EST through 12AM EST for a system upgrade.  We only expect the upgrade to take 15-20 minutes, but we’ve scheduled a whole hour just in case.

InspectorPages launch

We’re in the process of launching the brand-new InspectorPages.  Our members’ sites will continue to run as normal, but InspectorPages.com may act a little strange for the next few days as we get everything updated.

Satisfied Customer

“Wow! InspectorPages was a great find for me and my business. From the start of the sign-up process (which included 2 months free to get to know the system), to publishing my site, the customer service help was perfect. I could count on Danny to help me with any problems I ran up against. He was invaluable. I am very happy with my website and it’s continuing upgrades of functionality and ease of use.”

– Mike G. of Safety Home Service