The Webmasters Mind-Meld

‘Form follows function’ is a general rule of thumb when you decide on a layout. Try to stick to a standard layout, the 3 column is most prevalent. Also, it is important that all the pages are relatively consistent in regards to where much of the content is positioned from page to page, for example if content in the right hand column starts on line 100, then this should hold true throughout  the entire design. Using standard fonts is a safe bet,  Times New Roman, and Arial are the general standards. If you try different fonts, your site may look funky to people that use older browser versions, or not as popular browsers such as Opera. Flashing graphics should be used sparingly, or not at all because they can be very distracting. I have some on this site because I wanted to show people that I could create them. Static graphics, jpeg, gif, or png, should fit the content, and should have a small file size. This is important because you want your page to load quickly. 60% of the people using the internet in the US “never” have access to broadband including at work. Click here for an excellent web page analyzer, if your site loads longer then 60 seconds for a 56k connection, you may want to think about some adjustments. If you’re  thinking about a ‘Flash Website’, please read my ‘SEO Learning Tip’ because if  your web site loads slow, your visitors will leave. Good color combinations is also important, do a Google search on color schemes if you are not sure about the right combinations. Lastly, in regards to Navigation, you should be able to access every page from ‘every page’ on your site

I got very excited last night when I checked my website, and noticed Google had updated my PR (Page Rank) from 0 to 3. Also, my SEO Learning page got a PR 4 which was bonus. Later, I checked this Blog, and my 3 other websites, Bent Ridge Golf Club.com, 19Sixties60s.com, and GolfDiscounts4U.com, all got bumped up by Google. Although I feel that Page Rank is over rated, I will definitely consider this as a step in the right direction. After close to 7 months at a PR 0, this was a welcomed change. I had done allot of ‘on page’, and ‘off page’ SEO, finally it paid off. Some of the things I did was redo my page content, doing allot of research on keywords and phrases. My participation in a SEO Forum helped, there is a guy there that brags that he is a professional marketer, and although he is a jerk, flaming everyone, everyday, he did present some valid strategies. He challenged everyone at the forum that he could ‘out position’ anyone on content alone. He dispelled many of the SEO strategies such as ‘link trading’, ‘blogging’, or ‘directory submission’. His credo was ‘content’, lots of ‘content’; he said you need to tell the engines what your website is all about. Funny thing about this was that I did most of my SEO updates on Cheap Web Design In Elgin.com. The other sites, in my estimation had poor/avg SEO. Furthermore, I am helping someone from another forum with her SEO, and the PR at her website, www.mommysclub.com, jumped to a PR 3 also. This is unusual because her SEO is way below average, and has some backlinks, but they are weak. I posted this information on the SEO Forum, because I think this may be a fluke, but currently have gotten no responses.

In conclusion, this SEO stuff is a real roller coaster ride. That Google Algorithm is relatively unpredictable, and temperamental. I hope I can improve even more, and aim for the big prize, which is successful Conversion. Good Luck to all, and hey, anyone want to exchange links?

I would like to make a detailed Blog entry of all the customer requests made for potential  Wed Design projects but out the respect that the potential customer gave me a ‘shot at it’, I will speak only in general terms. For example, it still seems that people are really big on appearance, Flash, yes Flash, I hear it allot. Then I remind them that 60 % of people in the USA don’t have broadband, and they may leave waiting for your site to load. Ah yes, they have a solution for that too, “it will be a ‘Flash and HTML’ site, “oh”, I say. Then the customer goes on to tell me that they are looking for a reasonable design quote, the last one they got for their ‘super site’ was way too high. Jeez, surprise, surprise, so much for the ‘eye candy’, can I interest you in a ‘content driven’ SEO friendly website? Sure they say, that should take you only a few days to make I am told. Furthermore, I am informed by the potential client that he is the ‘IT Guy’ at work, and knows a bit about Dreamweaver. By this time, I am wondering why we are having this conversation because I want to tell this guy, ‘Why don’t you do it yourself, and in three days!’ I hear this kind of stuff so often, it doesn’t even phase me. Everyone seems to be an expert, and that includes me too I guess. Usually the civilized banter between the potential client and me lasts a few days then finally fades away. I believe that you have to be honest too, and tell them that you can’t do what they want, or what they expect. So the next time you get a request for a ‘PPC Campaign’ built within a ‘Flash Presentation’, that has ‘Warm Colors’, and can be completed in less then a week, lend it an ear because until you’re good enough to pick and choose you customers, they’ll always be ‘coming out of the woodwork’.

Ok, maybe you know SEO from top to bottom, but what if you don’t, and you want to learn? You start reading up, maybe visit some forums, and you then you run into all these SEO Lexicons (terminology), and you wonder ‘what the heck are they talking about’ !? Ok, I’m going to list some as a refresher, or a reference.

 Algorithm: A mathematical formula that a search engine uses to rank the listings in its index when a particular keyword is queried. Search engines do not release how their algorithms specifically work to protect themselves from competitors and spammers.

Cloaking: The practice of feeding content to a search engine that is different than what website visitors will see in order to improve a site’s rankings. This deceptive practice is against the guidelines of several search engines and can result in a site being banned.

Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action—such as making a purchase or requesting additional information—out of the total number of visitors to the website.

 Doorway Page: A web page designed only to appeal to search engines in order to increase rankings for specific keywords. These pages provide little content to visitors, who typically are forwarded to the actual site automatically or must click to enter it. Also referred to as bridge, gateway, and jump pages. 

Hidden Text: Words that are hidden in web pages by methods such as making the text the same color as the background. Designed to increase search engine rankings, this practice is against most search engines’ guidelines and can result in pages being banned.

Keyword Density: The number of times a keyword appears on a web page in relation to the page’s total content.

Keyword Popularity: How frequently a search is conducted on a particular keyword within a given time period. 

Landing Page: The web page by which a user enters a site when clicking on a search engine listing. 

Pagejacking: When high-ranking content is stolen from one site and placed on another with the goal of increasing search engine rankings. This illegal tactic can result in a site being banned from search engines.

Pay Per Click (PPC): A system under which an advertiser pays a search engine an agreed-upon amount every time a user clicks on the link to their website. The cost per click varies depending on the popularity of the keyword and the advertiser’s positioning in the results. 

Reciprocal Link: An exchange of links between websites.

SERPS:  The page or pages of listings displayed in response to a user’s search. Also referred to as a SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

Spider:  The technology a search engine uses to index web pages. The crawler follows links to sites and stores copies of the pages it finds in the search engine’s index. Also referred to as a spider or robot. 

Ok, there will be a quiz on this terminology next week. Lastly, the Lexicon Definitions were gathered from,  Francis SEO, www.francis-seo.com, check it out.     

I was checking my keyword positioning one day, and I happened to notice that a local competitor was always number 1 (at Yahoo, which has 33% of the web traffic) in regards to geographic keywords. For example, ‘web design in Algonquin’, ‘web design in Aurora’, ‘web design in Dundee’, etc, etc. So I took a peek-a-boo at each related search result, and noticed a pattern. Each page from the competitor’s site was identical but they were targeting different cities in the Meta Keywords, and Title Tags.

For Example:

website-design.php?comm_pk=9 (meta name=”keywords” Web Design in Aurora)
website-design.php?comm_pk=7 (meta name=”keywords” Web Design in Bartlett)

WTF ! I was on to them, but was this a legitimate SEO Strategy, or was it ‘Black Hat’? If it’s ok to do this, I will do the same, and try to sneak up on them. I went to the SEO Forum I participate in, and presented the above for opinions, and feedback. The response was unanimous, it’s ok as long as the urls are different, and some related content was added to each page.

In conclusion, it has been said that website is never complete, it has to be dynamic, constantly changing to keep up with the competition, and the ever changing Search Engine algorithms. I have currently added some additional pages to try to counter the strategy of this particular competitor. So keep an eye on your competition, and hopefully there will come a time when they will have to keep a close eye on you.

Get’em while they’re hot! I was referred  to this site for an excellent SEO ‘Keyword Suggestion Tool’ . Go here: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/ It’s worth a look becaue it may not be a free forever, and bookmark it. I have it as a resource on my SEO Learning page  . Lastly, I have over 50 free directories to list your site at on my Links page.  This is all ‘Tin Roof’ ! ( where do you find a ‘tin roof’? it’s ‘on the house !’ LOL )

Hope all is well with U !

Considering a Flash Web Site? If so, consider the following, a  Flash Web Site is a great thing if you use it correctly, but using it for eye candy will not achieve your goals. You should consider who you may rule out,  corporations that don’t allow plugins or addons, including java (a great majority of people surf from work). Also, 60+ % of people “never” have access to broadband in the US (this includes at work). There are tricks to getting flash web site pages placed higher but “load time” is always of first priority. Some Flash Web Sites have a high percentage of visitors that leave before the page loads. Form follows function is a principle associated with modern architecture and the term applies also to successful web site design. Those slow loading Flash Web Sites often have a low conversion rate because allot of them don’t have the content to make the sale or explain the service. And what is conversion?Web site conversion is strategies to turn web visitors into leads and customers. Please consider the above when you think about choosing a style for you web site.

If you are considering Cheap Web Hosting, you may want to think about the downside of an inexpensive host. Unless you are building a web site for a personal hobby, or perhaps to post the scores and information for your bowling league, there are significant things to consider when choosing a web host. Cost is one of them, free hosting often comes with ads that will display on your site, and you may have no control over them. Also, websites hosted by free web hosts do not usually rank well in Search Engines for competitive keywords. Furthermore, if your web domain is on a shared server that sends out spam, or adult content, you may get penalized by search engines, or your site may load slower because precious bandwidth is being hogged by these factors that are completely out of your control. Customer Service is another thing to consider. Will you be able to get Technical Support on a 24×7 basis, and what about their claim in regards to ‘up time’? If the host has a small operation in a remote area of the world, what happens if their equipment goes down? If you are building a website to make money these are significant factors to consider. The host should also have the ability to register a domain name for you, they should be ICANN Certified, and you should have the ability to transfer your domain ‘hassle free’. FTP access should be user friendly, and available. I personally had a bad experience doing some work for a customer where I, and the customer were refused access to the FTP Files. You don’t want to be held hostage by your web host. Lastly, security will be very important if you plan on any ecommerce. If this is the case, some people even suggest finding a host that has government agencies as customers because they will be required to meet strict security standards.

In conclusion, it all boils down to reputation. Do some research on your potential host, give their 800 number a test call to see how long you are on the line. Do a Google search using key phrases to find good and bad results, or go to www.hostsearch.com for a review. If the above seems all too confusing, surf over to www.webhostingpal.com, they have an excellent beginners guide to hosting, as well as reviews and pricing. Currently, I’m very satisfied with my web host,HostMonster, they’ve been more then I could ask for, and more.

Ok, you’ve starting to get traffic to your web site, but are the visitors signing on the line which is dotted? Did you ever see that movie ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ where the Sales Manager played by Alec Baldwin screams at all the lower level salesman because they aren’t making enough sales? Baldwin reminds them of the ABC’s of sales,A- Always, B-Be, C-Closing, or should I say Always, Be, Converting in regards to your web site. Web site conversion is strategies to turn web visitors into leads and customers, and here’s the formula, Traffic + Organized Landing Page = Good Conversion rate. A landing page is a lead capture or sales page that contains information that is relevant to that particular visitor and persuades a visitor to take an action. Does this mean that every one of your pages should be a ‘Landing Page’? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ Every page should load fast; people often forget that there still are a large percentage of people that use 56k Dialup. Those slow loading Flash sites often have a low conversion rate because allot of them don’t have the content to make the sale or explain the service. Be sure to make your content relevant so you can establish trust with visitors and offer solutions as well as making solid recommendations for your product or service. In order to do this, you need to identify the landing page goals. Furthermore, you need to apply good SEO by inserting your keywords in the landing page to achieve the optimization for success.

In conclusion, when it’s all said and done, conversion will make or break you, so off I go, to work on my conversion.

“Where’s my website!” bellowed the new  E-Entrepreneur that can’t seem to find his site on Google. Perhaps it’s in the ‘Google Sandbox’. If you’re wondering what the sandbox is, please read some helpful explanations I have provided below.

 From Wikipedia:“Sandbox is a measure taken by Google to avoid spam websites abusing search engine optimisation techniques to reach the top of the index, getting barred by Google, and then repeating the process using a different domain.”

From a Member of the V7N Seo Forum  www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum

It’s never easy for newcomers to enter a market and there are barriers of different kinds. For newcomers to the world of search engines, the barrier is called a sandbox – your site stays there until it gets mature enough to be allowed to the Top Positions club. Although there is no direct confirmation of the existence of a sandbox, Google employees have implied it and SEO experts have seen in practice that new sites, no matter how well optimized, don’t rank high on Google, while on MSN and Yahoo they catch quickly. For Google, the jailing in the sandbox for new sites with new domains is on average 6 months, although it can vary from less than a month to over 8 months.

While it might be considered unfair to stop new sites by artificial means like keeping them at the bottom of search results, there is a fair amount of reasoning why search engines, and above all Google, have resorted to such measures. With blackhat practices like bulk buying of links, creation of duplicate content or simply keyword stuffing to get to the coveted top, it is no surprise that Google chose to penalize new sites, which overnight get tons of backlinks, or which are used as a source of backlinks to support an older site (possibly owned by the same company). Needless to say, when such fake sites are indexed and admitted to top positions, this deteriorates search results, so Google had to take measures for ensuring that such practices will not be tolerated. The sandbox effect works like a probation period for new sites and by making the practice of farming fake sites a long-term, rather than a short-term payoff for site owners, it is supposed to decrease its use. 

 I hope this gave you a little insight into the Ups and Downs of SEO.