Nobody is perfect… We all have heard about and this is correct upto
the mark. Everybody, no matter either he/she is any professional or any
newbie, always tends to make mistakes in his career.Same is the case
with bloggers and other business owners when they tend to setup a blog
or website for their product or service. Today we will deal with some
major mistakes made by these bloggers and business owners in details.
No matter in today’s world, if anybody want to promote his business,
there’s nothing better than the internet.We can easily create a blog or
website for our product or service we provide to our customers and
easily promote our brand overseas.As i previously said, Nobody is
perfect, there are many mistakes and errors made in this task.So, here
are some basic, simple and major reasons or mistakes made by bloggers,
webmasters and business owners.
1. Not Having A Domain Name
This is one of the
simple,basic and major mistake made by most of newbie bloggers and other
business owners. Today, till date, there are many businesses currently
using blogspot.com or wordpress.org or
any other domain name extension for their business. They don’t even
know that having a professional domain name help them turn their
business into a brand name. So, always remember to own a domain name for
your business.
2. Web Hosting
Similarly, like any domain name,
you should also own web hosting for your blog or website.Owning a web
host for your blog or website helps you make your website run
faster,smoother and have full control over your website in no
time.Remember, never ever try to host your blog on any free web
host.There are lots of limitations or you can say disadvantages of free
web hosts over paid web hosts. So, owning a domain name as well as web
hosting for your blog will help you make your business website run
faster, smoother and having full control over it.
3. CMS
CMS just means “content management
system”.This term simply comply with the software or tools which help
you to remove any error from your business blog or website, adding
proper images, content to your website and much more.We highly recommend
to use wordpress as blogging platform as its very easy to use, easily customizable and com
Sources: http://idealtechblog.com
Biggest Mistakes Business Owners Make With Their Blog Or Website
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Top 5 Things To Look At A Website When Critiquing
There are just so many ways available out there to make your website design as flashy as you want it to be. Similarly, there are just as many ways to make it look unappealing to the eyes, or even take a toll on a visitor’s patience. Whether it’s your own website or someone else’s, giving website critique gives valuable information to a webmaster, as book reviews do for authors.
Now before you start wreaking havoc and berate websites using your internet anonymity, or worse- get paid for inappropriate bashing, here is a step-wise strategy with the top 5 ways to give proper critique to a website’s design.
1. Enter the website and see how it loads.
The biggest reason why we use the internet is for its fast delivery of information, and loading a website is the first step to get that info. You expect any webpage to load at a good speed on any browser, even with slow internet connection. A slow-loading site could mean it has too much bulk in it like very large picture files, or heavy flash content (tip: allow a bit of extra time if the whole website is full-on flash, but only a few seconds) The best websites don’t even give you the time to notice it loading. Doubting on the speed? Compare it to Yahoo and Google, which both load almost instantaneously.
2. Just take a look at the website theme and give a first impression.
Is it too bright that your eyes feel abused? Or are the colours refreshing? Take note if the background colour/image improves the readability of the text or not. Do they use a font that’s supported by most operating systems, or do you see boxes have to download something new? Does it feel too cluttered, or is a neat and organized? If the website already talks about something difficult to understand like rocket science, the layout should not be as confusing.
3. Every website has a purpose.
And that purpose should be easily seen at the homepage. Users want to know if they’re at the right place the moment they enter. What the website is about and who it is intended for should be easy to determine. And there’s a number of ways for a webmaster to supply this info. She/He can explicitly tell them what the website is for using a statement or a catchphrase, create an “about” page, list the general topics of its content restaurant-style (e.g. dumplings, noodles, tea), or show it using a format (like how the Google homepage shows a single search box at the center). If there’s a big picture of a block of cheese pasted on the homepage, one should not expect the website to be about PET bottles.
4. Check if you can navigate well around the site.
From the homepage, one should be able to get to the information he/she needs without getting confused with the links. If it’s selling a product, the name, picture, descriptions, and especially the price should all be given easy access to. Many of us may have entered a service website that tells you how great a product is, but doesn’t tell you how to get it. Get clicking and see if there are any broken links or pictures that don’t load.
Also assess how the website divides the information it provides. Multinational companies and news providers tend to divide their content into the countries they give services to. Others would pick out details that they want to share by listing of their most popular topics.
5. Lastly, look for tools you could use to communicate with the people who run the website.
A “contact us” page is essential for all company websites. And they should include details like an address, telephone number, e-mail, or have a short form to give communication to. Are they social? Look out for like, follow, +1 and similar buttons that allow you to share details about them and communicate with them through social networks. If you’re looking at a blog, see if you can give comments or “favourite” a post.
A website represents half of a conversation. It’s someone’s pitch of ideas to the world. And it is important to make sure that it is effective in getting a visitor’s attention and giving the right information with fast loading, a theme that’s easy on the eyes, a well-defined purpose, and user-friendly navigation. The other half is the audience, and a website should make sure that the conversation isn’t just one way, or self-centered. Remember this when you critique a website.
Author bio: +Celina Conner
Top 5 ways to give proper critique to a website’s design.
A Look Into: Popular (Public) Site Ranking Services
There’s no denying that anyone who owns a blog in some way tracks the
statistics and rankings of their site. After all, one has to measure
growth somehow, one has to know if they’re on the right track of growth
and prosperity.
One way of doing this is simply to check the statistics on your site, either through an integrated tracking system, or an external one like Google Analytics. While this gives you an overview of your traffic
and visitors, it doesn’t give you a picture of how your site compares
to others. This is where traffic analysis services like Compete.com and
Alexa come in.
This article will cover the major players in the market of traffic analysis and ranking, and investigate how they operate, how and what kind of data they use to rank sites, and most importantly, their validity of their rankings. Full list at the click.
Like any traffic service, Compete.com’s rankings are as trustworthy
as the data they have, which in their case is compiled from several
sources, including a toolbar, data from ISPs, and online surveys.
Because data is compiled and estimated from several sources, it’s prone
to be less biased than if it was compiled from only one source, e.g. a
toolbar.
As Alexa ranks websites based on only one data source, it is often
cited as vastly inaccurate compared to other tracking services, and
rightfully so. Alexa only uses one source of data, and that data is
entirely based on whether the user has a toolbar installed, but some anti-virus applications even classify the Alexa toolbar as malware.
Finally, Alexa ranks are calculated on a 3-month basis, which is a relatively long time, especially in a fast growing online world. Despite all this, Alexa is used by many bloggers to rank sites, and is popular among advertisers to estimate traffic of websites.
comScore handpicks its users based on age, location, income, etc.,
which gives it a broad representation of web traffic and demographics,
something other traffic ranking services don’t. Because of the expensive
way in which the data is gathered, comScore’s traffic and rankings
aren’t publicly available besides a top 100 list. Users, and marketers
alike, have to pay for the data. What you get though, is of high
quality.
Quantcast tracks data directly from sites, and what makes it different than others is it can only compare sites that are both participating in the system, but it’s still somewhat of a “niche” service.
Quantcast’s traffic data is as accurate as it can get, since it has
direct access to websites and can track every single visitor (with the
use of Cookies as well). Because it gathers data only from websites that
participate, it doesn’t have a broad ranking system – you can rarely
compare sites that aren’t on Quantcast. But those that are, the data
could be valid. Quantcast does estimate traffic on some sites that don’t
participate via tracking cookies, but those aren’t nearly as accurate.
As you might know, Google Trends’ data is based on Google searches.
It’s used to view the volume of searches for a particular item, or
compare several items, which makes it a great tool for research purpose.
Google Trends can be used in a number of ways, for example, to compare how often a phrase is searched. It can also be used to compare different sites, e.g. Engadget vs. Gizmodo over time, or in different regions (e.g. the US).
It’s widely known that PageRank is used internally by Google, and it’s a popular standard of measuring a site’s importance on the web. Overall it’s updated 1-2 times a year, and the ranking algorithm is changed within certain time. The whole search engine optimization (SEO) industry has been built around to optimize the site’s PageRank.
Google uses PageRank as of its key measures to determine search engine results, and sites with a high page rank (6+) are considered “influential”. PageRank isn’t generally used to estimate site traffic, since it doesn’t rank websites based on traffic, but rather, based on the site’s importance. But that doesn’t mean PageRank isn’t useful – it’s still one of the most popular ways of determining a site’s genuine popularity.
But there are situations where your ranking on one of these services matters. For instance, potential advertisers will glance at your rankings in order to estimate what kind of traffic your site gets and estimate your site’s importance. Alexa rankings, for instance, regardless of their usefulness, are still used to gauge website popularity by advertising services such as BuySellAds.
Technically speaking, these services don’t matter to the individual site owner, but they matter to those (e.g. advertisers) who compare properties and decide where to put their money, especially those media companies looking to acquire sites. Even if the data isn’t nearly as accurate as it should be, most times, these services are all that’s available to measure one site against another.
a post from hogkiat.com
A Look Into: Popular (Public) Site Ranking Services
This article will cover the major players in the market of traffic analysis and ranking, and investigate how they operate, how and what kind of data they use to rank sites, and most importantly, their validity of their rankings. Full list at the click.
Ways of collecting traffic data
There are 3 major ways of collecting and estimating traffic for a website:- Track users with custom installed software (e.g. toolbars) and record the websites they visit, then use the data collectively to estimate how popular a given website is. The main problem with this method is that toolbars aren’t popular among users, especially tech savvy users, and the data is somewhat skewed towards the kind of people who would use the toolbars (the not-so-savvy Internet users). To make matters worse, some of the toolbars only work for certain browsers, while others are even classified as spyware/malware.
- ISP data tracking. A more direct way is to collect vast amounts of data from ISPs and inspect what sites broadband users visit. This option is by far the most accurate, but it’s also the most limited due to privacy laws.
- An internal ranking score based on different metrics, e.g. Google PageRank, which uses links and link quality to determine a site’s ranking.
Compete.com
Compete is a popular way of measuring traffic, and has been in operation since 2000. Compete uses traffic from users with its Compete Search bar installed to rank sites and estimate traffic, in addition to data from ISPs and other metrics. Compete also offers several paid services, including search analytics that compares site keywords.Alexa
Alexa, founded back in 1996, and now owned by Amazon, gathers data from only one source: its toolbar for Internet Explorer and plugins for Firefox and Google Chrome, and the ranks of website are calculated on a 3-month basis. Throughout these years it has become so popular that many advertisers and webmasters use it to estimate traffic.Finally, Alexa ranks are calculated on a 3-month basis, which is a relatively long time, especially in a fast growing online world. Despite all this, Alexa is used by many bloggers to rank sites, and is popular among advertisers to estimate traffic of websites.
comScore
comScore gathers data from a selected group of users who have comScore monitoring software installed on their systems, which tracks their website visits and activity. So far, over 2 million people send data to comScore, which uses it to create traffic rankings and estimates for marketing purposes (e.g. selling the data to large advertisers and researchers). Though its rankings and data are commercially available only, it’s popular among advertising agencies and online market researchers.Quantcast
Quantcast is one of the newer players in the market, and has been active since 2006. It gathers data from website owners who insert a code snippet into their HTML code, sending visitor data to Quantcast. The service only tracks US visitors for the time being.Quantcast tracks data directly from sites, and what makes it different than others is it can only compare sites that are both participating in the system, but it’s still somewhat of a “niche” service.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a service offered by search giant Google, which displays and ranks a particular search term compared to the overall volume of search. It’s also possible to compare several search terms against each other, and display the data from a period of a number of years. Additionally, the data can be narrowed down to country, city, language etc.Google Trends can be used in a number of ways, for example, to compare how often a phrase is searched. It can also be used to compare different sites, e.g. Engadget vs. Gizmodo over time, or in different regions (e.g. the US).
Google PageRank
PageRank, developed by Larry Page for Google in the late 1990s, is an algorithm for ranking websites in Google’s search engine. It uses data based on how websites link each other to create a ranking from 0-10.It’s widely known that PageRank is used internally by Google, and it’s a popular standard of measuring a site’s importance on the web. Overall it’s updated 1-2 times a year, and the ranking algorithm is changed within certain time. The whole search engine optimization (SEO) industry has been built around to optimize the site’s PageRank.
Google uses PageRank as of its key measures to determine search engine results, and sites with a high page rank (6+) are considered “influential”. PageRank isn’t generally used to estimate site traffic, since it doesn’t rank websites based on traffic, but rather, based on the site’s importance. But that doesn’t mean PageRank isn’t useful – it’s still one of the most popular ways of determining a site’s genuine popularity.
Conclusion
Should I be worried about my rankings? Should I even care? Well, the use of web traffic estimators and ranking services isn’t necessary to any site owner – most have some form of stats tracking like Analytics installed, and for the most part, that’s all that matters.But there are situations where your ranking on one of these services matters. For instance, potential advertisers will glance at your rankings in order to estimate what kind of traffic your site gets and estimate your site’s importance. Alexa rankings, for instance, regardless of their usefulness, are still used to gauge website popularity by advertising services such as BuySellAds.
Technically speaking, these services don’t matter to the individual site owner, but they matter to those (e.g. advertisers) who compare properties and decide where to put their money, especially those media companies looking to acquire sites. Even if the data isn’t nearly as accurate as it should be, most times, these services are all that’s available to measure one site against another.
a post from hogkiat.com
A Look Into: Popular (Public) Site Ranking Services
5 Goals To Website Development
The goal of your
website is to get the most traffic to your site that will turn from
potential consumers to buyers. Sometimes we forget that increasing
traffic on our websites isn’t enough. Search engine optimization will
help you get your website where it needs to be, but without the proper
techniques on website development you will still not make the sale. Keep
in mind that search engine optimization is intertwined with
development. At every step of website development you have to think
about getting your pages into the search engine where consumers can find
you. We will be looking at the top tips on website development below
in order to increase your traffic and make the sales.
Website development is about the content and styles of your pages. You have to have the right keywords, graphics, navigation, and pages on your site to interest consumers. By following the tips provided above you have a better chance of creating a better website to get you more sales.
Article from dotCOMreport Editor 5 Goals To Website Development
- Keywords can be broken down into two categories. You have short and long tail keywords. Many companies head straight for the short keywords because they have the most play. Short tail keywords are broad, and used by many consumers. For large companies short tail keywords work well. However, if you are a smaller business with no brand recognition you have to look at the long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are actually a phrase of words that match and narrow the focus of what you sell. For example pet supplies is generic, but pet supplies for cats tells the searcher exactly what you sell. The consumer with a cat knows they can shop at your store, while other consumers with other pets may not find what they are looking for.
- Once you have chosen your long tail keywords you have to decide where you will put them. Each page of your website must have a different topic. You will not mesh ideas on one page. If you sell cat and dog supplies, you should have two pages. Your keywords should reflect those choices.
- Keep your website development simple. Too many graphics and images will provide lower rankings and traffic. While many of us have upgraded our computers there are still 50 percent of the clientele with slower computers and internet. The time your site takes for downloading will get your lower rankings from the search engine which hurts your traffic volume.
- Web development allows you to use cells and tables on the pages. In fact a web page is like a spread sheet. You have specific areas you need to fill in on the pages whether you use templates or not. You will have a logo cell, menu, text, etc. to place your content.
- All tags, especially meta tags must be good and very descriptive. Each page should have different keywords in the meta tags. Make sure you limit the words you repeat in the meta tags as well.
Website development is about the content and styles of your pages. You have to have the right keywords, graphics, navigation, and pages on your site to interest consumers. By following the tips provided above you have a better chance of creating a better website to get you more sales.
Article from dotCOMreport Editor 5 Goals To Website Development
Does Article Directory Traffic Still Work? Using ‘Other’ Websites To Generate Traffic and Cash
Way back in the day (…a few months ago), an online marketer could
make hordes of money simply by writing and posting average articles on
article directories.
You heard that right, oodles and oodles of cash were ripe for the pickings if you could simply do a little keyword research, form simple sentences and upload very ordinary, very average articles; you didn’t need a website, you didn’t need to know any SEO, you didn’t need to know graphic design or HTML, or even how to collect e-mails.
Those were the salad days, my friends. Back in yesteryear, if you typed enough and uploaded enough, eventually you’d be making good money. That was the age of the article directory, an era shrouded in mystery, obscured by the mists of time long gone by.
Article directories are kind of like dinosaurs these days (legends that swim only in the deepest lakes of Google’s search engine results pages). The fact is, Google pretty much wiped them out with a few changes to their mighty algorithm. A few massive meteor impacts to the online ecosystem and poof – mass extinction.
OK, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. But, it’s not too far of a stretch. Many article directories were mangled by Google, and for good reason. All those average articles that folks were posting – most weren’t very good, in fact many of them were complete garbage. They certainly weren’t the best for Google’s most valuable asset – it precious users, so Big G slapped ‘em silly. Thwack. They’ve been doing that a lot lately, haven’t they?
Not only were these article directories filled with poor content, these websites were pretty much AdSense farms for the directory owners. There was no pride of ownership, and very little shall we say… editorial grace.
So, here’s the big question we’re posing today, in our modern day (A.D. Panda) does article directory traffic still work? Can you get folks to your websites and sell them stuff, make money off of ads, or gain subscribers, and so on and so forth?
Well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Here’s the deal: even though the directories got slapped, some of them quickly made some changes, like getting rid of ridiculous amounts of AdSense ad blocks and requiring much higher standards for publishing. A few of the directories have bounced back a bit and are now getting decent traffic again. Are they ranking really well? Answer: not really.
Some of the big directories, Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard and a few others do get some decent traffic. The other smaller directories (thousands of them) are now cyber fodder, they’re gone, wiped out and they’re now floating at the bottom of Lochness.
Of course, article directories aren’t the only players here, quasi article directories (free blogging platforms) sometimes called Web 2.0 sites also allow anyone to post content onto their authority sites. How are they faring these days? Well, to be honest some of them are doing quite well in the search engines. Surprise, surprise.
Tumblr seems to be leading the pack at this point (if you check Google’s SERPs you’ll notice them atop many search queries); Squidoo and a few others get good traffic and rank well in the search engines as well – and they are also a great platform for backlinks to your own websites (but that’s a whole other ball of wax we’re not going to get into here.)
Web 2.0 sites or public blogging platforms seem to be doing better in the search engines than article directories right now. OK, so why might that be?
Well, many of them do a great job of purging their websites of garbage content. In the days of yore – way back, a few months ago – tools like SENuke were throwing up badly spun content onto Web 2.0 sites all day, all night. Rain or shine, the floods just kept coming.
However, these sites have gotten wise and have deleted and still do delete hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of these spam pages a day. These measures are in place and getting tougher every day, thus making unintelligent spin and spam posting pretty much a thing of the past. Which, of course, is good for the search engines.
If your content is good and you don’t spam, Web 2.0 sites are good for traffic. Remember though, to really make it work, you’ve got to keep adding content to your blog pages and continue interacting with your visitors. Yes, you have to actually work for it. Imagine that.
All right, let’s now turn to the king of the hill in today’s satellite web property game. It will be of no surprise to those who regularly do SEO and monitor Google’s SERPs that the current king of the hill is YouTube. In fact, it’s kind of ridiculous right now.
It’s easier to rank a YouTube video in Google than it is to walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s easier than selling a glass of water to a man whose hair is on fire. And smart marketers jumping on this new Google algo wrinkle … they’re banking hard.
So, let’s re-frame our article directory/Web 2.0 discussion a tad and throw a wrench into this topic and declare the wave of the future (or foreseeable future) to be grabbing traffic from YouTube.
Here’s the bottom line: you need to learn how to work YouTube, like yesterday. YouTube is here to stay and Google’s darling isn’t going anywhere in the SERPs. If anything, it will get stronger and stronger in Google’s results pages.
Isn’t it interesting how Google loves to keep web traffic on it’s own properties? Weird, right?
So, learn how to work with PowerPoint, with Camtasia, learn video editing, and how to optimize YouTube for Google rankings and you are in business. No need to mess with article directories or Web 2.0 properties any more.
We might say that YouTube is sort of like the modern day article directory. If you don’t believe it, simply start doing some random searches and you’ll find YouTube right at the top. You’ll see the light and you’ll be on your way to generating some fast cash just like in the good old days of … a few months ago.
Glen Hooke, Post from: SiteProNews
Does Article Directory Traffic Still Work? Using ‘Other’ Websites To Generate Traffic and Cash
You heard that right, oodles and oodles of cash were ripe for the pickings if you could simply do a little keyword research, form simple sentences and upload very ordinary, very average articles; you didn’t need a website, you didn’t need to know any SEO, you didn’t need to know graphic design or HTML, or even how to collect e-mails.
Those were the salad days, my friends. Back in yesteryear, if you typed enough and uploaded enough, eventually you’d be making good money. That was the age of the article directory, an era shrouded in mystery, obscured by the mists of time long gone by.
Article directories are kind of like dinosaurs these days (legends that swim only in the deepest lakes of Google’s search engine results pages). The fact is, Google pretty much wiped them out with a few changes to their mighty algorithm. A few massive meteor impacts to the online ecosystem and poof – mass extinction.
OK, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. But, it’s not too far of a stretch. Many article directories were mangled by Google, and for good reason. All those average articles that folks were posting – most weren’t very good, in fact many of them were complete garbage. They certainly weren’t the best for Google’s most valuable asset – it precious users, so Big G slapped ‘em silly. Thwack. They’ve been doing that a lot lately, haven’t they?
Not only were these article directories filled with poor content, these websites were pretty much AdSense farms for the directory owners. There was no pride of ownership, and very little shall we say… editorial grace.
So, here’s the big question we’re posing today, in our modern day (A.D. Panda) does article directory traffic still work? Can you get folks to your websites and sell them stuff, make money off of ads, or gain subscribers, and so on and so forth?
Well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Here’s the deal: even though the directories got slapped, some of them quickly made some changes, like getting rid of ridiculous amounts of AdSense ad blocks and requiring much higher standards for publishing. A few of the directories have bounced back a bit and are now getting decent traffic again. Are they ranking really well? Answer: not really.
Some of the big directories, Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard and a few others do get some decent traffic. The other smaller directories (thousands of them) are now cyber fodder, they’re gone, wiped out and they’re now floating at the bottom of Lochness.
Of course, article directories aren’t the only players here, quasi article directories (free blogging platforms) sometimes called Web 2.0 sites also allow anyone to post content onto their authority sites. How are they faring these days? Well, to be honest some of them are doing quite well in the search engines. Surprise, surprise.
Tumblr seems to be leading the pack at this point (if you check Google’s SERPs you’ll notice them atop many search queries); Squidoo and a few others get good traffic and rank well in the search engines as well – and they are also a great platform for backlinks to your own websites (but that’s a whole other ball of wax we’re not going to get into here.)
Web 2.0 sites or public blogging platforms seem to be doing better in the search engines than article directories right now. OK, so why might that be?
Well, many of them do a great job of purging their websites of garbage content. In the days of yore – way back, a few months ago – tools like SENuke were throwing up badly spun content onto Web 2.0 sites all day, all night. Rain or shine, the floods just kept coming.
However, these sites have gotten wise and have deleted and still do delete hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of these spam pages a day. These measures are in place and getting tougher every day, thus making unintelligent spin and spam posting pretty much a thing of the past. Which, of course, is good for the search engines.
If your content is good and you don’t spam, Web 2.0 sites are good for traffic. Remember though, to really make it work, you’ve got to keep adding content to your blog pages and continue interacting with your visitors. Yes, you have to actually work for it. Imagine that.
All right, let’s now turn to the king of the hill in today’s satellite web property game. It will be of no surprise to those who regularly do SEO and monitor Google’s SERPs that the current king of the hill is YouTube. In fact, it’s kind of ridiculous right now.
It’s easier to rank a YouTube video in Google than it is to walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s easier than selling a glass of water to a man whose hair is on fire. And smart marketers jumping on this new Google algo wrinkle … they’re banking hard.
So, let’s re-frame our article directory/Web 2.0 discussion a tad and throw a wrench into this topic and declare the wave of the future (or foreseeable future) to be grabbing traffic from YouTube.
Here’s the bottom line: you need to learn how to work YouTube, like yesterday. YouTube is here to stay and Google’s darling isn’t going anywhere in the SERPs. If anything, it will get stronger and stronger in Google’s results pages.
Isn’t it interesting how Google loves to keep web traffic on it’s own properties? Weird, right?
So, learn how to work with PowerPoint, with Camtasia, learn video editing, and how to optimize YouTube for Google rankings and you are in business. No need to mess with article directories or Web 2.0 properties any more.
We might say that YouTube is sort of like the modern day article directory. If you don’t believe it, simply start doing some random searches and you’ll find YouTube right at the top. You’ll see the light and you’ll be on your way to generating some fast cash just like in the good old days of … a few months ago.
Glen Hooke, Post from: SiteProNews
Does Article Directory Traffic Still Work? Using ‘Other’ Websites To Generate Traffic and Cash
Content Syndication – The Way To Crush Your Competition In 2013
2012 – A Year Of Turmoil
In years gone by in the wonderful world of SEO, ranking for keyword phrases was quite a bit simpler than it is today. Can I get an amen, people? Can I get an alleluia?
Those were the salad days, the proverbial Garden of Eden. Those days are gone forever, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t crush it online.
We all need to simply acknowledge that some big changes have occurred in our industry. And remember, within big change there is big opportunity. So, let’s crush it, shall we?
If you’ve been doing SEO for any amount of time, you already know all about Google’s little, evil laboratory and all the changes they’ve been throwing at us. Things are getting more and more complex every day. And, you know what? That’s just fine. Things are peachy when you can measure what Google is up to through vigorous testing and roll with the punches. Think relevance, my lads and lassies.
Relevant Sites Didn’t Matter As Much In The Past
So, what is Google up to exactly? Well, in the past Google didn’t look very hard at off-page contextual relevance when critiquing where a website was getting it’s links from. They didn’t seem to care. A link was indeed just a link, no matter where it came from (barring receiving links from gambling and pornography sites, which have pretty much always been a big no-no, in case you might have been wondering.)
So, as the practice went, an SEO could get a link with the anchor text – “sports car” – on a website about giraffes and they’d be good to go, especially if the page was a high page rank (PR) page, with low outbound links, on an authority site, and so on and so forth. Most of you know the drill.
Things have changed a bit now. These types of links still work (raise our rankings for our chosen keywords) and, without a doubt, we all still need high PR links from authority sites. Outbound links on a page are still a factor as well. But the non-relevant links don’t work as well as they used to.
Google realizes that sites about giraffes may link out to sites about sports cars at certain times. If we take a look at big authority news sites, well gosh, these sites link out to and receive links from many different sites. With authority news sites, relevance becomes pretty much impossible – and, you know what? These sites still rank quite well for many various keyword phrases.
Google knows this, so it will probably never completely devalue links from less relevant pages/sites. Following me? It’s all about weight.
Now Relevant Links Hold More Weight – They Are Critical To Killing It In The SERPS Now
Google has become more sophisticated and is using a lot more discretion in “weighing” where we’re getting our links from. With rigorous testing, more and more professional SEOs are finding that getting links from relevant sites holds a lot more weight nowadays. If you do some testing for yourself, it’s very likely you’ll come to the same conclusion.
Links from relevant pages and relevant websites have more weight, no matter the anchor text or the PR on the page. It’s long been suspected that Google was heading in this direction, now it’s simply been confirmed. And SEOs that are using relevant sites for links are killing in the search engines right now. They’re crushing it. Game over.
Therefore, in 2012 (and beyond), getting links from relevant websites and relevant pages (relevant to our own site’s content) has become even more important to ranking highly. And it appears that the direction that Google is taking right now that this will become even more important in future updates.
Guest Posting Is So Much More Important Now – Cozy Up To Your Competitors
So, where do we get our links? Do we set up a bunch of Web 2.0′s (blogspots, tumblrs) with relevant content and link back to our money sites? No way! Not a chance! These are akin to link farms. These simply aren’t the best links anymore. Google knows these sites are often used by link spammers.
Right now they’re looking very closely for links from actual competitors, sites in your same niche. Doh! That sounds kind of scary, right? Competitor sites. That’s right, they’re looking for links from other sites in your niche. It’s time to get cozy with your competition and work together.
So, how are we supposed to get these sites to link to us? And why would they want to link to us? They are competitors after all. A-ha! Great questions, you’re one smart cookie, aren’t you?
You get sites to link to you by writing content for their site. Write high-quality content for other sites in your niche and give it to them, in exchange for a link back to your site. In fact, you can do guest posts for other sites and have those webmasters guest post on your site as well, it’s very much a win-win situation. The more the merrier.
Google really wants sites to link to each other. Gone are the days when we don’t want to link to other sites (this has been true for quite some time). We actually rank higher when we link to sites in our niche. Of course, many of you may have known that already, just a refresher.
Bottom Line – Links Are About Traffic Not The Link
The old guest post is more important and valuable than ever before. People are killing it with guest posts right now, because these links are so powerful. It’s much less about the amount of links right now with Google – it’s about funneling traffic to the right places from the right places. Google loves that. They love relevance.
The fastest and easiest way to find guest post opportunities is by using software. With a good, speedy, reliable piece of software, you can scrape Google for potential guest posting opportunities. And while many other sites are building crappy Web 2.0 links that don’t count for much, you’ll be building links with real weight. You really are a smart cookie.
Glen Hooke, Post from: SiteProNews
The Way To Crush Your Competition In 2013
In years gone by in the wonderful world of SEO, ranking for keyword phrases was quite a bit simpler than it is today. Can I get an amen, people? Can I get an alleluia?
Those were the salad days, the proverbial Garden of Eden. Those days are gone forever, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t crush it online.
We all need to simply acknowledge that some big changes have occurred in our industry. And remember, within big change there is big opportunity. So, let’s crush it, shall we?
If you’ve been doing SEO for any amount of time, you already know all about Google’s little, evil laboratory and all the changes they’ve been throwing at us. Things are getting more and more complex every day. And, you know what? That’s just fine. Things are peachy when you can measure what Google is up to through vigorous testing and roll with the punches. Think relevance, my lads and lassies.
Relevant Sites Didn’t Matter As Much In The Past
So, what is Google up to exactly? Well, in the past Google didn’t look very hard at off-page contextual relevance when critiquing where a website was getting it’s links from. They didn’t seem to care. A link was indeed just a link, no matter where it came from (barring receiving links from gambling and pornography sites, which have pretty much always been a big no-no, in case you might have been wondering.)
So, as the practice went, an SEO could get a link with the anchor text – “sports car” – on a website about giraffes and they’d be good to go, especially if the page was a high page rank (PR) page, with low outbound links, on an authority site, and so on and so forth. Most of you know the drill.
Things have changed a bit now. These types of links still work (raise our rankings for our chosen keywords) and, without a doubt, we all still need high PR links from authority sites. Outbound links on a page are still a factor as well. But the non-relevant links don’t work as well as they used to.
Google realizes that sites about giraffes may link out to sites about sports cars at certain times. If we take a look at big authority news sites, well gosh, these sites link out to and receive links from many different sites. With authority news sites, relevance becomes pretty much impossible – and, you know what? These sites still rank quite well for many various keyword phrases.
Google knows this, so it will probably never completely devalue links from less relevant pages/sites. Following me? It’s all about weight.
Now Relevant Links Hold More Weight – They Are Critical To Killing It In The SERPS Now
Google has become more sophisticated and is using a lot more discretion in “weighing” where we’re getting our links from. With rigorous testing, more and more professional SEOs are finding that getting links from relevant sites holds a lot more weight nowadays. If you do some testing for yourself, it’s very likely you’ll come to the same conclusion.
Links from relevant pages and relevant websites have more weight, no matter the anchor text or the PR on the page. It’s long been suspected that Google was heading in this direction, now it’s simply been confirmed. And SEOs that are using relevant sites for links are killing in the search engines right now. They’re crushing it. Game over.
Therefore, in 2012 (and beyond), getting links from relevant websites and relevant pages (relevant to our own site’s content) has become even more important to ranking highly. And it appears that the direction that Google is taking right now that this will become even more important in future updates.
Guest Posting Is So Much More Important Now – Cozy Up To Your Competitors
So, where do we get our links? Do we set up a bunch of Web 2.0′s (blogspots, tumblrs) with relevant content and link back to our money sites? No way! Not a chance! These are akin to link farms. These simply aren’t the best links anymore. Google knows these sites are often used by link spammers.
Right now they’re looking very closely for links from actual competitors, sites in your same niche. Doh! That sounds kind of scary, right? Competitor sites. That’s right, they’re looking for links from other sites in your niche. It’s time to get cozy with your competition and work together.
So, how are we supposed to get these sites to link to us? And why would they want to link to us? They are competitors after all. A-ha! Great questions, you’re one smart cookie, aren’t you?
You get sites to link to you by writing content for their site. Write high-quality content for other sites in your niche and give it to them, in exchange for a link back to your site. In fact, you can do guest posts for other sites and have those webmasters guest post on your site as well, it’s very much a win-win situation. The more the merrier.
Google really wants sites to link to each other. Gone are the days when we don’t want to link to other sites (this has been true for quite some time). We actually rank higher when we link to sites in our niche. Of course, many of you may have known that already, just a refresher.
Bottom Line – Links Are About Traffic Not The Link
The old guest post is more important and valuable than ever before. People are killing it with guest posts right now, because these links are so powerful. It’s much less about the amount of links right now with Google – it’s about funneling traffic to the right places from the right places. Google loves that. They love relevance.
The fastest and easiest way to find guest post opportunities is by using software. With a good, speedy, reliable piece of software, you can scrape Google for potential guest posting opportunities. And while many other sites are building crappy Web 2.0 links that don’t count for much, you’ll be building links with real weight. You really are a smart cookie.
Glen Hooke, Post from: SiteProNews
The Way To Crush Your Competition In 2013
Know Your Landing Pages
By identifying your best content, you quickly learn two things:
1. Which pages are most worth promoting.
2. How you can improve on your future content.
But how can you identify your best content? With this article, I’ll avoid weighing in on which metric in particular is most important (be it sales, pages per visit, etc). Instead, the focus will be on how to interpret your analytics without relying on “most” as an indication of “best.”
For example, a page that results in more sales may simply be doing so, because it has more visits. That says nothing about whether it’s the piece of content most worth promoting.
This is going to be an advanced article, involving spreadsheets and standard deviations, so it might not be for everybody. I’ll try to keep it step-by-step and fairly easy to comprehend but, even then, it’s worth asking how much time you want to invest in analytics, as opposed to outreach and other activities.
Take what I’m saying with a grain of salt, and choose your time wisely. This is going to be most useful for sites with a decent amount of resources and a lot of analytics data to work with. With that in mind, let’s get started.
Analytics
Building Your Spreadsheets
There’s no denying it, this step’s a pain. If you can build an application to pull this off for you, I’d advise doing it. The steps below assume you selected pages/visit, but it could be a metric.
Why can’t you just sort it this way in analytics? Well, you can, but the problem is that analytics (and this infuriates me) doesn’t offer any data on statistical significance. When you sort the pages by pages/visit, most of the pages you see have just one or two visits.
If you have limited resources and don’t have time to use the method discussed above, it is possible to filter the results by a higher number of visits. For example: Above the results, click on advanced, and change landing page to visits. Adjust the command to say include visits greater than 50, or whichever number you feel works best.
The problem with this is you are forced to “feel” your way through the data, and work off your hunches. Is 2.6 pages per visit with 56 visits really better than 2.2 pages per visit with 1,036 visits, or is there a good chance it’s a statistical fluke? You have no way of knowing without using the procedure discussed above.
You will have to weigh your options to decide where your resources and time are most valuable. Sometimes it’s best to simply identify what appear to be your 10 best pages and focus on them, knowing that some of them are probably flukes. As you promote those pages you will collect more data so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Don’t forget to pass this along if you found it useful.
Carter Bowles, Post from: SiteProNews:
1. Which pages are most worth promoting.
2. How you can improve on your future content.
But how can you identify your best content? With this article, I’ll avoid weighing in on which metric in particular is most important (be it sales, pages per visit, etc). Instead, the focus will be on how to interpret your analytics without relying on “most” as an indication of “best.”
For example, a page that results in more sales may simply be doing so, because it has more visits. That says nothing about whether it’s the piece of content most worth promoting.
This is going to be an advanced article, involving spreadsheets and standard deviations, so it might not be for everybody. I’ll try to keep it step-by-step and fairly easy to comprehend but, even then, it’s worth asking how much time you want to invest in analytics, as opposed to outreach and other activities.
Take what I’m saying with a grain of salt, and choose your time wisely. This is going to be most useful for sites with a decent amount of resources and a lot of analytics data to work with. With that in mind, let’s get started.
Analytics
- Start by getting as much data as possible. Head up to the top right portion of analytics and expand your date range. I would advise expanding it to include everything from the day you first set up analytics on your site up to the present day.
- In the left sidebar, click through content, site content and landing pages.
- Stick to comparing apples with apples. At the top left corning of analytics, click advanced segments and select search traffic, then click apply.
- Make sure the data you’re going to export includes more than just the traffic. Above your graph you will see a visits vs. select a metric. Click on select a metric and choose your metric of choice, such as pages/visit.
Building Your Spreadsheets
There’s no denying it, this step’s a pain. If you can build an application to pull this off for you, I’d advise doing it. The steps below assume you selected pages/visit, but it could be a metric.
- Make sure you are only viewing search traffic (or a different source if you prefer, just make sure all the data is from the same source). Click on the page at the top of the list, then go to the top of the page and click export. For a spreadsheet, you will typically want to select CSV.
- Open up your CSV and scroll way down the page to the bottom of your day, visits, and pages/visit stats. In the cell below your pages/visit data, type “=stdev(” and highlight the data from this column, then type “)” and hit enter. Make sure that you only highlight the data that comes after analytics started recording data from the page. This will give you the standard deviation of the sample, which is basically a measure of how much the pages/visit fluctuates.
- Repeat this process for all the landing pages that you want to consider. I know, it’s a pain and not always worth it.
- Go back to analytics, and export a list of all the pages you are considering.
- Create a “standard deviation” column. Copy the standard deviation of each page and paste it into this column.
- Create a “confidence interval” column. A confidence interval tells you how reliable your data is so that you can avoid favoring statistical flukes. Excel has a function for this. At the top of this column, type “=confidence(”
- Excel’s “confidence” function requires three values. The first one is the “alpha,” which determines how accurate you want the results to be. To understand what this means, if you type “0.01” you can expect one out of every 100 of your results to actually fall somewhere outside of your confidence interval. There’s a good chance you don’t want more than one fluke in your data. If you were comparing 50 pages, then, you would want your alpha to be 1/50, or 0.02, or smaller. Type “;” after you enter your alpha.
- The next thing Excel needs is your standard deviation. Click on the cell from your standard deviation column, and type “;”
- The last thing Excel needs is the sample size. In this case, it should be from your visits column. After you click on the cell from this column, type “)” and hit enter.
- Click on the square at the bottom of your “confidence interval” cell, and drag it down to the bottom of your data.
- 11. Now create one more column, called “minimum pages/visit.” Subtract your confidence interval column from your pages/visit column to get this value.
- Select the full table and sort your spreadsheet in descending order by “minimum pages/visit.”
- That was a chore, wasn’t it?
Why can’t you just sort it this way in analytics? Well, you can, but the problem is that analytics (and this infuriates me) doesn’t offer any data on statistical significance. When you sort the pages by pages/visit, most of the pages you see have just one or two visits.
If you have limited resources and don’t have time to use the method discussed above, it is possible to filter the results by a higher number of visits. For example: Above the results, click on advanced, and change landing page to visits. Adjust the command to say include visits greater than 50, or whichever number you feel works best.
The problem with this is you are forced to “feel” your way through the data, and work off your hunches. Is 2.6 pages per visit with 56 visits really better than 2.2 pages per visit with 1,036 visits, or is there a good chance it’s a statistical fluke? You have no way of knowing without using the procedure discussed above.
You will have to weigh your options to decide where your resources and time are most valuable. Sometimes it’s best to simply identify what appear to be your 10 best pages and focus on them, knowing that some of them are probably flukes. As you promote those pages you will collect more data so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Don’t forget to pass this along if you found it useful.
Carter Bowles, Post from: SiteProNews:
The Importance of Website Analytics
Tracking analytics is a polarizing subject. On one hand, its precise
measurements and metrics can provide invaluable, scientifically-tested
information crucial to fine-tuning your website.
On the other, its very precise nature can quickly escalate into a dim haze of confusing lexicon – a bewildering amount of metrics, and complexities that surpass even many so-called specialists.
So why bother? What can analytics provide for me and, furthermore, how is it worth the steep cost – whether that is in money, time, or sanity.
A Numbers Game
Analytics is all about the numbers. There are several services out there that serve analytics metrics, such as Google, Adobe Omniture and others, but the one thing they all revolve around is numbers. Actually more like tallies.
In its simplest form, analytics are the grown up, lab-coat wearing children of hit counters. Tracking services tell you one thing in a seemingly infinite amount of different ways: how many people visited my site?
But it gets deeper than that. And do buckle up for this.
Let’s say your website received 10,000 hits in one month. Simple enough, right? But wait, just in navigating a website a person is likely to visit the same page more than once. Maybe a single person visited your homepage several times in the course of their visit. OK, so 10,000 hits isn’t quite accurate enough. You need to know how many people came to your site, not just how many visits were recorded.
So it’s several thousand people. But wait, how often did a person visit? It’s one thing if they came back to the homepage multiple times in the span of an hour, but another matter entirely if they went to the homepage the next day. How long can a “duration of a visit,” or a session, be defined?
For that matter, how much time have people been spending on your site? Seconds, minutes? Milliseconds? If it’s the latter, then you’re being visited by search engine spiders and bots, not people. That doesn’t really count as “web traffic.”
But even on the other hand, if all those numbers were of genuine people, are they spending a healthy amount of time on your website or are they simply stumbling across it and then ducking back out? Can a visit of a few paltry seconds really hold weight against a session of half an hour? The latter is quite a visit, while the former can barely qualify as one.
For all these people, spending at least a decent amount of time on your site, are they spending it only on the homepage or are they taking the time and effort to explore the other sections of your website. How can you be sure these visitors are truly seeing what you have to offer? Are they coming into peruse your wares, or essentially window shopping, practically bouncing off your homepage as fast as they came.
So from just this most basic of levels we have unique visitors, sessions, duration, and bounce rate. See, not just mumbo jumbo after all.
Proving Its Worth
Why would a website need to keep track of what browser people use to view it? Aren’t they all the same?
Not quite. Obviously desktop and mobile layouts differ. But did you know that how the Web is displayed is not truly uniform across all browsers? The Big Four: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari all display web pages a bit differently. Also, different versions of those four browsers often display pages differently from other versions. To make matters even worse, the same browser running the same version but on different operating systems can display pages differently as well.
Sometimes these differences are slight, literally pixels off. Sometimes it is major, like whole portions of the web page not formatting properly or consistently. This can, and often does, lead to throwing the entire alignment of the page into disarray. What may look fine in Chrome and Safari may look off in Firefox. What looks all right in IE9 may look terribly wrong in IE6. What looks OK on Firefox 12 on Windows may be only slightly off as seen on Firefox 12 on OS X.
With inconsistencies like this, it’s a wonder anyone can view the Web at all. At this point, you really ought to effusively thank your web design team for making sure that doesn’t happen.
This is where tracking really shines: let’s say after looking at your metrics you notice visitors who use Firefox, Chrome and Safari all seem to be mostly equal, but IE users are sharply low by comparison and have a large bounce rate. This is a huge red flag that you ought to check your site’s compatibility with IE browsers. Chances are, your page isn’t rendering correctly; perhaps it’s even grossly off. This would explain why traffic is so low – people get turned off by broken websites.
Testing… 1, 2, 3
In another instance, one of your graphic designers has proposed a new layout. Some people in your team think the layout is too confusing, others think that it looks more modern and trendy and will better increase traffic and visitor retention. Which do you choose?
Obviously either decision is risky and could jeopardize your site’s traffic. If only there were some way to test which version people liked more before permanently deciding on one design or the other. But wait, you can.
It’s called A/B or multivariate testing. Half your incoming audience sees one version, and the other half sees the other layout. Now you can judge how people react. If the new design seems to retain more visitors and exhibit more in-page exploration, then you can easily make a decision.
Heatmaps can literally show you what people tend to click on the most. If you discover people are frequenting one portion of the layout over the other, the question to ask yourself is: why?
Perhaps the other sections aren’t clearly labeled, or are inconveniently placed. Or, perhaps something about that one section is just really attractive to your target audience, so why not take that cue and make your whole website more like that?
Science: Always Worth It
Analytics can be tricky to set up and even trickier to interpret. It’s very much all about statistics and constant fine-tuning.
Nevertheless, it provides an invaluable tool to glean feedback through user behaviors, detect and isolate potential trouble spots and perform much-needed testing.
The examples covered here are but the most basic, simplest examples of what web analytics can do. Like any instrument in the hands of a master, it can manipulate your medium to no end, limited only by the imagination. It can perform tasks you may not have always conceived of, but now surely cannot live without.
What are your thoughts on analytics? Quantum mechanics voodoo, over-hyped statistics, or something no website at any scale can live without?
Vince Ginsburg, Post from: SiteProNews
On the other, its very precise nature can quickly escalate into a dim haze of confusing lexicon – a bewildering amount of metrics, and complexities that surpass even many so-called specialists.
So why bother? What can analytics provide for me and, furthermore, how is it worth the steep cost – whether that is in money, time, or sanity.
A Numbers Game
Analytics is all about the numbers. There are several services out there that serve analytics metrics, such as Google, Adobe Omniture and others, but the one thing they all revolve around is numbers. Actually more like tallies.
In its simplest form, analytics are the grown up, lab-coat wearing children of hit counters. Tracking services tell you one thing in a seemingly infinite amount of different ways: how many people visited my site?
But it gets deeper than that. And do buckle up for this.
Let’s say your website received 10,000 hits in one month. Simple enough, right? But wait, just in navigating a website a person is likely to visit the same page more than once. Maybe a single person visited your homepage several times in the course of their visit. OK, so 10,000 hits isn’t quite accurate enough. You need to know how many people came to your site, not just how many visits were recorded.
So it’s several thousand people. But wait, how often did a person visit? It’s one thing if they came back to the homepage multiple times in the span of an hour, but another matter entirely if they went to the homepage the next day. How long can a “duration of a visit,” or a session, be defined?
For that matter, how much time have people been spending on your site? Seconds, minutes? Milliseconds? If it’s the latter, then you’re being visited by search engine spiders and bots, not people. That doesn’t really count as “web traffic.”
But even on the other hand, if all those numbers were of genuine people, are they spending a healthy amount of time on your website or are they simply stumbling across it and then ducking back out? Can a visit of a few paltry seconds really hold weight against a session of half an hour? The latter is quite a visit, while the former can barely qualify as one.
For all these people, spending at least a decent amount of time on your site, are they spending it only on the homepage or are they taking the time and effort to explore the other sections of your website. How can you be sure these visitors are truly seeing what you have to offer? Are they coming into peruse your wares, or essentially window shopping, practically bouncing off your homepage as fast as they came.
So from just this most basic of levels we have unique visitors, sessions, duration, and bounce rate. See, not just mumbo jumbo after all.
Proving Its Worth
Why would a website need to keep track of what browser people use to view it? Aren’t they all the same?
Not quite. Obviously desktop and mobile layouts differ. But did you know that how the Web is displayed is not truly uniform across all browsers? The Big Four: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari all display web pages a bit differently. Also, different versions of those four browsers often display pages differently from other versions. To make matters even worse, the same browser running the same version but on different operating systems can display pages differently as well.
Sometimes these differences are slight, literally pixels off. Sometimes it is major, like whole portions of the web page not formatting properly or consistently. This can, and often does, lead to throwing the entire alignment of the page into disarray. What may look fine in Chrome and Safari may look off in Firefox. What looks all right in IE9 may look terribly wrong in IE6. What looks OK on Firefox 12 on Windows may be only slightly off as seen on Firefox 12 on OS X.
With inconsistencies like this, it’s a wonder anyone can view the Web at all. At this point, you really ought to effusively thank your web design team for making sure that doesn’t happen.
This is where tracking really shines: let’s say after looking at your metrics you notice visitors who use Firefox, Chrome and Safari all seem to be mostly equal, but IE users are sharply low by comparison and have a large bounce rate. This is a huge red flag that you ought to check your site’s compatibility with IE browsers. Chances are, your page isn’t rendering correctly; perhaps it’s even grossly off. This would explain why traffic is so low – people get turned off by broken websites.
Testing… 1, 2, 3
In another instance, one of your graphic designers has proposed a new layout. Some people in your team think the layout is too confusing, others think that it looks more modern and trendy and will better increase traffic and visitor retention. Which do you choose?
Obviously either decision is risky and could jeopardize your site’s traffic. If only there were some way to test which version people liked more before permanently deciding on one design or the other. But wait, you can.
It’s called A/B or multivariate testing. Half your incoming audience sees one version, and the other half sees the other layout. Now you can judge how people react. If the new design seems to retain more visitors and exhibit more in-page exploration, then you can easily make a decision.
Heatmaps can literally show you what people tend to click on the most. If you discover people are frequenting one portion of the layout over the other, the question to ask yourself is: why?
Perhaps the other sections aren’t clearly labeled, or are inconveniently placed. Or, perhaps something about that one section is just really attractive to your target audience, so why not take that cue and make your whole website more like that?
Science: Always Worth It
Analytics can be tricky to set up and even trickier to interpret. It’s very much all about statistics and constant fine-tuning.
Nevertheless, it provides an invaluable tool to glean feedback through user behaviors, detect and isolate potential trouble spots and perform much-needed testing.
The examples covered here are but the most basic, simplest examples of what web analytics can do. Like any instrument in the hands of a master, it can manipulate your medium to no end, limited only by the imagination. It can perform tasks you may not have always conceived of, but now surely cannot live without.
What are your thoughts on analytics? Quantum mechanics voodoo, over-hyped statistics, or something no website at any scale can live without?
Vince Ginsburg, Post from: SiteProNews
Tools and Downloads to Make the Web Faster
There are many variables that affect a site's performance. The tools
listed below can help you discover those variables and improve your
site. We recommend that you experiment with these tools. Multiple simple
changes can improve the experience for your users around the world by
several seconds.
Chrome Developer Tools - Tools included in Google Chrome that let you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. You can also use them to optimize web page performance by profiling CPU and memory usage.
Speed Tracer - Google Chrome extension that helps you debug performance problems with AJAX applications.
WebP - Reduce image file sizes and download times.
Google Web Toolkit - Toolkit that allows you to build rich web applications in Java, and then compile into highly optimized JavaScript.
Hammerhead - Firebug Add-on for measuring the load time of web pages.
OOCSS - Development environment and framework for creating fast, reusable CSS objects and modules.
mon.itor.us - Provides a personalized Ajax dashboard interface, checks server performance and availability, generates uptime reports, tracks visitors, checks CPU, memory and other systems resources, and alerts when it detects abnormalities.
Pylot - Open source tool for testing the performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, verifies server responses, and produces reports with metrics.
Wbox - Performs various tests, including page load benchmarking, web server and web application stress testing, and verifies correct configuration of virtual domains configuration, redirects, and HTTP compression.
XHProf by Facebook - Instrumentation-based hierarchical profiler for PHP.
JSLint - Tool that looks for code quality problems in JavaScript programs.
Smush It - Online tool that allows you to upload images for lossless compression and optimization. Provides a report of bytes saved and downloads a zip file containing the optimized versions of the files.
SpriteMe! - Tool that determines background images to sprite, groups and sprites them, and generates resultant modified CSS.
YUI Compressor - JavaScript minifier designed to yield a higher compression ratio than other tools.
Firebug - Firefox Add-on that lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
HttpWatch - HTTP viewer and debugger integrated with IE and Firefox to provide HTTP/S monitoring without leaving the browser window.
IBM Page Detailer - Graphical tool that assesses web page performance and provides details include the timing, size, and identity of each item in a page.
Microsoft VRTA - Tool that visualizes web page download, identifies areas for performance improvements, and recommends solutions.
MySpace Performance Tracker - Internet Explorer browser plugin that helps improve web page performance by capturing and measuring possible bottlenecks.
WebPagetest - Tool that provides a waterfall of your page load performance as well as a comparison against an optimization checklist.
Show Slow - Open source tool that helps monitor website performance metrics over time. Captures the results of YSlow, PageSpeed and dynaTrace AJAX Edition rankings and graphs them, to help you understand how various changes to your site affect its performance.
Yahoo! YSlow - Firefox/Firebug Add-on that analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance, based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.
From Google
Web page analysis
PageSpeed - Open source Firefox/Firebug Add-on that evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement.Chrome Developer Tools - Tools included in Google Chrome that let you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. You can also use them to optimize web page performance by profiling CPU and memory usage.
Speed Tracer - Google Chrome extension that helps you debug performance problems with AJAX applications.
Resource Optimization
Closure Compiler - Optimize the speed and size of your JavaScript.WebP - Reduce image file sizes and download times.
Development tools
Closure Tools - Use the Closure Compiler, Closure Library, and Closure Templates to build rich web applications with JavaScript that is faster, more powerful, and more optimized.Google Web Toolkit - Toolkit that allows you to build rich web applications in Java, and then compile into highly optimized JavaScript.
Site Services
PageSpeed ServiceNew! - PageSpeed Service is an online service to automatically speed up loading of your web pages. PageSpeed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices and serves them to end users via Google's servers across the globe.From other developers
Development
Cuzillion - Tool for quickly constructing web pages to see how components interact and how behavior differs across browsers, sometimes in unexpected ways. Also lets you share sample pages with others.Hammerhead - Firebug Add-on for measuring the load time of web pages.
OOCSS - Development environment and framework for creating fast, reusable CSS objects and modules.
Performance benchmarking
httperf - Tool for generating HTTP workloads and measuring web server performance, and constructing micro- and macro-level benchmarks.mon.itor.us - Provides a personalized Ajax dashboard interface, checks server performance and availability, generates uptime reports, tracks visitors, checks CPU, memory and other systems resources, and alerts when it detects abnormalities.
Pylot - Open source tool for testing the performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, verifies server responses, and produces reports with metrics.
Wbox - Performs various tests, including page load benchmarking, web server and web application stress testing, and verifies correct configuration of virtual domains configuration, redirects, and HTTP compression.
JavaScript profiling
dynaTrace AJAX - Full tracing analysis of Internet Explorer 6-8 (including JavaScript, rendering, and network traffic). (Related blogpost)PHP profiling
Xdebug - Extension for PHP that provides profiling and code coverage analysis, as well as debugging information including stack and function traces, and memory allocation.XHProf by Facebook - Instrumentation-based hierarchical profiler for PHP.
Resource optimization
CSS Sprite Generator - Generates a CSS sprite out of a number of images.JSLint - Tool that looks for code quality problems in JavaScript programs.
Smush It - Online tool that allows you to upload images for lossless compression and optimization. Provides a report of bytes saved and downloads a zip file containing the optimized versions of the files.
SpriteMe! - Tool that determines background images to sprite, groups and sprites them, and generates resultant modified CSS.
YUI Compressor - JavaScript minifier designed to yield a higher compression ratio than other tools.
Web debugging
Fiddler 2 - Web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP/S traffic between your computer and the Internet. Inspect HTTP/S traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.Firebug - Firefox Add-on that lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
HttpWatch - HTTP viewer and debugger integrated with IE and Firefox to provide HTTP/S monitoring without leaving the browser window.
Web page analysis
BrowserMob - Tool for website performance monitoring and alerting.IBM Page Detailer - Graphical tool that assesses web page performance and provides details include the timing, size, and identity of each item in a page.
Microsoft VRTA - Tool that visualizes web page download, identifies areas for performance improvements, and recommends solutions.
MySpace Performance Tracker - Internet Explorer browser plugin that helps improve web page performance by capturing and measuring possible bottlenecks.
WebPagetest - Tool that provides a waterfall of your page load performance as well as a comparison against an optimization checklist.
Show Slow - Open source tool that helps monitor website performance metrics over time. Captures the results of YSlow, PageSpeed and dynaTrace AJAX Edition rankings and graphs them, to help you understand how various changes to your site affect its performance.
Yahoo! YSlow - Firefox/Firebug Add-on that analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance, based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.
5 Ways to Boost Response
The first (highly inadequate) title of this article was: “Five Quick
Tips for Making Your Website More Effective”… and then I woke up. Thank
goodness. What does that even mean?
Website conversion, put very simply, is how well your website “converts” a casual browser into one who acts.
Although the specific “action,” depends on your goal and site type – blog/informational, direct sales/mini-site, e-commerce retail shop, etc. – a website can only be considered effective when it achieves your intended goal. That’s the key.
I’m redundantly breaking down website conversion in this way to get you thinking about the critical question: “What is my website designed to do?”
What goal do you expect it to achieve? Get specific and keep this objective in mind while we cover five website conversion basics below. To be considered effective, your website must:
1. Use Navigation and Design to Direct (actions) and Serve (audiences)
And not just any audiences – yours. When people come to your website, they are there to achieve a goal. The good news is the action you want them to take and the action they are there to achieve is the same, but articulated differently.
For example, you want visitors to buy your grant-writing book. Visitors want information about grant writing. What a match. And while they probably didn’t come “to buy,” they have come in search of information.
According to expert Jakob Nielsen: “Users don’t see stuff that’s right on the screen. Selective attention makes people overlook things outside their focus of interest.”
You can capitalize on that fact by leading potential customers right to the goods:
* Is your site designed in such a way to allow them to easily achieve their goal?
* Can they navigate easily … or are they easily lost?
* Does your site load sluggishly, causing visitors to bail before seeing your offer?
* What information does your average user most want, and is this provided in the right away?
In other words, is the path to your desired goal – a sale – perfectly clear?
If you’re even slightly uncertain, meet with a business Web designer who has a marketing background – or one who at least understands website conversion and results-focused design – to discuss ways to streamline, focus and direct your Web traffic.
2. Remove Anonymity to Boost Credibility
Does your site offer an e-mail address or a contact form? Does it offer a phone number and a P.O. box?
There’s nothing wrong with having those things, but having them and ‘embodying’ them are two very different Mohicans. Website conversion suffers drastically from excessive anonymity.
Exactly what are you hiding from? Better yet, why?
According to Stanford Web Credibility Research: “Make it easy to contact you. A simple way to boost your site’s credibility is by making your contact information clear: phone number, physical address and e-mail address.”
Hint: Solopreneurs can use a service like Mail Boxes Etc. for a physical address.
Remember, most customers in most industries don’t want that “big business” feel; they want to be able to associate a face and a name with the company to which they’re about to give their money.
3. Choose a Website Size and Layout Suitable for Your Audience
You don’t want your visitors to say your website doesn’t suit them, do you?
Analyze your website’s stats. Find the most common screen size and use that information to make design and layout decisions.
No website just yet? For a simple site with seldom-changing content, try a resolution of 1024×768 to accommodate the narrower screen widths of those running a little behind the times.
Don’t feel pressured to use “responsive design” if all you have is a simple three-page website for a service-based business, with content that never changes. A fluid-width website with a companion mobile site can be more than sufficient.
Likewise, if you have a blog or frequently changing news section on your website and want this information reflected across all media channels – desktop and mobile – it may then be in your best interest to take your “fluid width” website a step further, to consider a completely responsive design.
Here, website conversion rates hinge upon how well your content adapts to the user’s needs and how accessible you’ve made it.
4. Use Font to Convey Credibility… and Personality
Font choices add character to webpages and logos. They play a very important role in your audience’s perception of your business – and of you.
Don’t think something as silly as the appearance of words on a page would have any effect on website conversion?
Think again.
“Research has shown that the typeface (i.e., font) that is chosen for a website conveys mood, attitude and tone; and can impact the perception of a company’s credibility.”
“Web pages presented in either a neutral or inappropriate typeface resulted in lower ratings for trust, professionalism and believability.”
[Source: S. Furman, Usability.gov - "Credibility"]
Unless marketing directly to children, avoid using kiddy-style fonts like the dreaded Comic Sans (good heavens!). Even when marketing to children it is not the best choice.
5. Use Colors to Influence Action
Color plays a critically important subliminal role on your website. For example, green is often referred to as a “concentration” or “harmony” color. On long-copy sales pages that feature a lot of text (where website conversion increases the longer they read), use of a green border, highlights, or background could be a very good move.
However, take care to note the nuances between meanings in different shades of the same color. For instance, in some sources, dark green is seen as a money color, while only the standard Kelly green would be the concentration color. Sometimes, the effects you want can be interchangeable between color shades, but not always.
You can use color to your advantage, to make your website visitors feel energized, relaxed, focused, scared, angry, more prepared to buy – almost any effect you can think of. The important thing to note when attempting to increase website conversion in this way, however, is to use colors that contrast enough to prevent parts of your website from becoming invisible for color-blind users.
Color blindness is definitely a consideration when using this website conversion tip. When designing with this disability in mind, you should avoid green because the most common type of color-blindness (99 percent) is the red/green deficiency.
For more information on color psych, read the Psychological Properties of Colors. It offers interesting details on how color can influence.
The Reveal: There are certain foundational principles every website must implement to be worth an organization’s time and investment.
Does your website make the grade? If not, begin tackling and testing the above five aspects one-by-one. Website conversions will surely, and quickly, increase.
Harmony Major
Website conversion, put very simply, is how well your website “converts” a casual browser into one who acts.
Although the specific “action,” depends on your goal and site type – blog/informational, direct sales/mini-site, e-commerce retail shop, etc. – a website can only be considered effective when it achieves your intended goal. That’s the key.
I’m redundantly breaking down website conversion in this way to get you thinking about the critical question: “What is my website designed to do?”
What goal do you expect it to achieve? Get specific and keep this objective in mind while we cover five website conversion basics below. To be considered effective, your website must:
1. Use Navigation and Design to Direct (actions) and Serve (audiences)
And not just any audiences – yours. When people come to your website, they are there to achieve a goal. The good news is the action you want them to take and the action they are there to achieve is the same, but articulated differently.
For example, you want visitors to buy your grant-writing book. Visitors want information about grant writing. What a match. And while they probably didn’t come “to buy,” they have come in search of information.
According to expert Jakob Nielsen: “Users don’t see stuff that’s right on the screen. Selective attention makes people overlook things outside their focus of interest.”
You can capitalize on that fact by leading potential customers right to the goods:
* Is your site designed in such a way to allow them to easily achieve their goal?
* Can they navigate easily … or are they easily lost?
* Does your site load sluggishly, causing visitors to bail before seeing your offer?
* What information does your average user most want, and is this provided in the right away?
In other words, is the path to your desired goal – a sale – perfectly clear?
If you’re even slightly uncertain, meet with a business Web designer who has a marketing background – or one who at least understands website conversion and results-focused design – to discuss ways to streamline, focus and direct your Web traffic.
2. Remove Anonymity to Boost Credibility
Does your site offer an e-mail address or a contact form? Does it offer a phone number and a P.O. box?
There’s nothing wrong with having those things, but having them and ‘embodying’ them are two very different Mohicans. Website conversion suffers drastically from excessive anonymity.
Exactly what are you hiding from? Better yet, why?
According to Stanford Web Credibility Research: “Make it easy to contact you. A simple way to boost your site’s credibility is by making your contact information clear: phone number, physical address and e-mail address.”
Hint: Solopreneurs can use a service like Mail Boxes Etc. for a physical address.
Remember, most customers in most industries don’t want that “big business” feel; they want to be able to associate a face and a name with the company to which they’re about to give their money.
3. Choose a Website Size and Layout Suitable for Your Audience
You don’t want your visitors to say your website doesn’t suit them, do you?
Analyze your website’s stats. Find the most common screen size and use that information to make design and layout decisions.
No website just yet? For a simple site with seldom-changing content, try a resolution of 1024×768 to accommodate the narrower screen widths of those running a little behind the times.
Don’t feel pressured to use “responsive design” if all you have is a simple three-page website for a service-based business, with content that never changes. A fluid-width website with a companion mobile site can be more than sufficient.
Likewise, if you have a blog or frequently changing news section on your website and want this information reflected across all media channels – desktop and mobile – it may then be in your best interest to take your “fluid width” website a step further, to consider a completely responsive design.
Here, website conversion rates hinge upon how well your content adapts to the user’s needs and how accessible you’ve made it.
4. Use Font to Convey Credibility… and Personality
Font choices add character to webpages and logos. They play a very important role in your audience’s perception of your business – and of you.
Don’t think something as silly as the appearance of words on a page would have any effect on website conversion?
Think again.
“Research has shown that the typeface (i.e., font) that is chosen for a website conveys mood, attitude and tone; and can impact the perception of a company’s credibility.”
“Web pages presented in either a neutral or inappropriate typeface resulted in lower ratings for trust, professionalism and believability.”
[Source: S. Furman, Usability.gov - "Credibility"]
Unless marketing directly to children, avoid using kiddy-style fonts like the dreaded Comic Sans (good heavens!). Even when marketing to children it is not the best choice.
5. Use Colors to Influence Action
Color plays a critically important subliminal role on your website. For example, green is often referred to as a “concentration” or “harmony” color. On long-copy sales pages that feature a lot of text (where website conversion increases the longer they read), use of a green border, highlights, or background could be a very good move.
However, take care to note the nuances between meanings in different shades of the same color. For instance, in some sources, dark green is seen as a money color, while only the standard Kelly green would be the concentration color. Sometimes, the effects you want can be interchangeable between color shades, but not always.
You can use color to your advantage, to make your website visitors feel energized, relaxed, focused, scared, angry, more prepared to buy – almost any effect you can think of. The important thing to note when attempting to increase website conversion in this way, however, is to use colors that contrast enough to prevent parts of your website from becoming invisible for color-blind users.
Color blindness is definitely a consideration when using this website conversion tip. When designing with this disability in mind, you should avoid green because the most common type of color-blindness (99 percent) is the red/green deficiency.
For more information on color psych, read the Psychological Properties of Colors. It offers interesting details on how color can influence.
The Reveal: There are certain foundational principles every website must implement to be worth an organization’s time and investment.
Does your website make the grade? If not, begin tackling and testing the above five aspects one-by-one. Website conversions will surely, and quickly, increase.
Harmony Major
Timely First Impressions in Any Zone
For personal brands, time management is critical. Nothing shows your
brand in a poorer light than being someone who’s always late, who’s
never on time, and who doesn’t meet required deadlines. Who will want to
continue working with you if you manage your time so poorly?
Time management is essential, even in the online world. There are just no excuses to being late, especially when it comes to business. People’s time equals money, and you will be taking a lot of time and money if you always make people wait for you. Even if you live in a different time zone, it’s important that you coordinate with others as well to ensure that meetings and conversations go smoothly.
As a growing personal brand, your schedule may be quite hectic. You have your life, your job, your social media accounts, your emails, your website, your blogs, and so on. You’ll also have interviews, meetings, and conferences in the course of your professional life, and most of them may not even be in the same time zone as yours.
There will be days when managing your schedule can be quite overwhelming, and you really don’t know how to finish all the things you need to do. So how do you manage it all?
Time management is the key. And there are many tools that can help you with it.
Time and Date:
Time and Date is an excellent tool that really helps you manage your schedule, meetings, and events. It has a wide array of features that include:
• Calendar – Make sure you never miss a meeting by making use of the calendar. Include events, meetings, holidays, family trips, and so on, so you can assure that you always know what you have scheduled.
• World Clock/Time Zones – If you keep missing meetings due to the difference in time zones, then these features will definitely help you never be late to a meeting again.
• Weather - Planning a trip? Then make sure to check the weather at the place where you’re going first. It would be silly after all to pack summer clothes when you’re going to a place where it’s snowing and the temperature is negative Celsius.
There are many other features that this site offers in order to help you give your personal brand timely first impressions.
Doodle:
Doodle is another site that helps you manage your personal and business life. It has a slew of features that include:
• Connect calendars – This allows you to connect your calendar so you can start and answer requests for meetings. It integrates with different calendar systems such as Google, Outlook, Lotus and a lot more, so you don’t have to input your schedules all over again.
• MeetMe – You can create your own MeetMe page where people can see when you’re available so they can submit requests for meetings on your calendar. You can simply send people the link to your page and they can propose meeting requests on your available date and time.
These are just two of the free features that Doodle offers. They also have Doodle mobile, Doodle in Google Apps, and a Premium Doodle accounts for additional functions and theme possibilities.
Agree a Date:
If you’re looking to schedule meetings, events, and conference calls, consider using Agree a Date. Using this site helps you avoid the hassle of having to call or email people in order to find out what dates and times they are available for scheduling a meeting or event. With Agree a Date, you can choose specific date and time options for the meeting, and you’ll be given a special link that you can share with people who will fill out a quick form so you know when they are available. People get to see the time in their own time zones, so it’s easy to schedule your meeting at a time when they’re free.
Afterwards, you will be able to see a grid that shows the status of each person for the proposed date and time slots. This helps you decide which will be the best schedule for the meeting, and really removes the stress of having to call, text or email everyone just to figure out when they’re all available.
Meeting Wizard:
Meeting Wizard offers you another online scheduling solution. It’s incredibly easy to use because there are no downloads required, so it’s simple to set up and schedule a meeting. The site guides you step by step to setting up the date and time of your meeting or proposing certain dates and times, even up to viewing the results and confirming the event. Everything is quick and neat, removing a lot of hassle in scheduling meetings.
Maria Elena Duron,
Post from: SiteProNews:
Time management is essential, even in the online world. There are just no excuses to being late, especially when it comes to business. People’s time equals money, and you will be taking a lot of time and money if you always make people wait for you. Even if you live in a different time zone, it’s important that you coordinate with others as well to ensure that meetings and conversations go smoothly.
As a growing personal brand, your schedule may be quite hectic. You have your life, your job, your social media accounts, your emails, your website, your blogs, and so on. You’ll also have interviews, meetings, and conferences in the course of your professional life, and most of them may not even be in the same time zone as yours.
There will be days when managing your schedule can be quite overwhelming, and you really don’t know how to finish all the things you need to do. So how do you manage it all?
Time management is the key. And there are many tools that can help you with it.
Time and Date:
Time and Date is an excellent tool that really helps you manage your schedule, meetings, and events. It has a wide array of features that include:
• Calendar – Make sure you never miss a meeting by making use of the calendar. Include events, meetings, holidays, family trips, and so on, so you can assure that you always know what you have scheduled.
• World Clock/Time Zones – If you keep missing meetings due to the difference in time zones, then these features will definitely help you never be late to a meeting again.
• Weather - Planning a trip? Then make sure to check the weather at the place where you’re going first. It would be silly after all to pack summer clothes when you’re going to a place where it’s snowing and the temperature is negative Celsius.
There are many other features that this site offers in order to help you give your personal brand timely first impressions.
Doodle:
Doodle is another site that helps you manage your personal and business life. It has a slew of features that include:
• Connect calendars – This allows you to connect your calendar so you can start and answer requests for meetings. It integrates with different calendar systems such as Google, Outlook, Lotus and a lot more, so you don’t have to input your schedules all over again.
• MeetMe – You can create your own MeetMe page where people can see when you’re available so they can submit requests for meetings on your calendar. You can simply send people the link to your page and they can propose meeting requests on your available date and time.
These are just two of the free features that Doodle offers. They also have Doodle mobile, Doodle in Google Apps, and a Premium Doodle accounts for additional functions and theme possibilities.
Agree a Date:
If you’re looking to schedule meetings, events, and conference calls, consider using Agree a Date. Using this site helps you avoid the hassle of having to call or email people in order to find out what dates and times they are available for scheduling a meeting or event. With Agree a Date, you can choose specific date and time options for the meeting, and you’ll be given a special link that you can share with people who will fill out a quick form so you know when they are available. People get to see the time in their own time zones, so it’s easy to schedule your meeting at a time when they’re free.
Afterwards, you will be able to see a grid that shows the status of each person for the proposed date and time slots. This helps you decide which will be the best schedule for the meeting, and really removes the stress of having to call, text or email everyone just to figure out when they’re all available.
Meeting Wizard:
Meeting Wizard offers you another online scheduling solution. It’s incredibly easy to use because there are no downloads required, so it’s simple to set up and schedule a meeting. The site guides you step by step to setting up the date and time of your meeting or proposing certain dates and times, even up to viewing the results and confirming the event. Everything is quick and neat, removing a lot of hassle in scheduling meetings.
Maria Elena Duron,
Post from: SiteProNews:
7 Best Web 2.0 Tools for Webmasters
Webmasters constantly have a lot on their plate, what with all the
simultaneous urgent projects, not to mention the constant updating and
maintenance of their websites’ content and code or the inevitable need
to care for the user community that blossoms around successful websites
and web businesses. So it’s no wonder that they are stressed-out and
complain about not having enough time in the day. The solution lies in
online tools.
With the sheer abundance of Web 2.0 tools available these days, there will always be an app or a website that can help ease the workload by offering webmasters a set of instantly useful options.
Here is a list of seven of the best tools online:
1. CSS Button Generator
Produce effortless CSS buttons without even needing to upload images. This free online tool gives you loads of options to play with, from button colors to font and border sizes to text and box shadows. Fiddle with the settings and once the button is to your liking, export the code and simply copy-paste it to your HTML page.
2. JotForm
Looking for an easy way to build sign up forms, satisfaction surveys, or even document uploader forms? In the simplest terms, this is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) form builder, which means even those with no HTML or web design knowledge can use it. Simply drag and drop the elements of your form then copy-paste the necessary code into your website. They have a free plan which allows you to get 100 form submissions a month, but if you need more submissions a month, they have two more tiers of payment for your needs.
3. Grid Designer
Here’s a free online tool that allows you to create grids (columns, gutters, margins) that will hold your web content. Select the typography and fonts for your body text and headings, and then easily export the whole thing to copy-paste ready CSS, and even a sample XHTML template.
4. FavIcon Generator
Yes, favicons (favorites icons) are those unique and tiny graphics used to identify a website in your browser bookmarks menu, location bar, or your tabs. And yes, there are many other online tools that can generate a favicon for your site, some even let you draw it from scratch, pixel by pixel. This one however allows you to upload your own image and magically turns it into a 16×16 image.
5. Loader Generato
Need some loading graphics? Those typically spinning animated gifs that tell you something is loading are easy enough with this tool. Pick a spinning icon and customize characteristics such as image size, transparency and color scheme, then download the final animated gif.
6. ThemeRoller
Create customized jQuery UI themes using a WYSIWYG web tool called ThemeRoller. Custom themes are created by adjusting settings and seeing the UI components on the page update instantly. Then simply download the theme when your tweaking is done.
7. MultiColor Search by TinEye Labs
The last tool is simply a dead-easy way to find creative commons images on Flickr that you can use for your website. By specifying your color scheme color by color, the tool searches through the database of images on Flickr and shows you a large number of images you can click through to. It’s a color search engine and it works effortlessly.
With the sheer abundance of Web 2.0 tools available these days, there will always be an app or a website that can help ease the workload by offering webmasters a set of instantly useful options.
Here is a list of seven of the best tools online:
1. CSS Button Generator
Produce effortless CSS buttons without even needing to upload images. This free online tool gives you loads of options to play with, from button colors to font and border sizes to text and box shadows. Fiddle with the settings and once the button is to your liking, export the code and simply copy-paste it to your HTML page.
2. JotForm
Looking for an easy way to build sign up forms, satisfaction surveys, or even document uploader forms? In the simplest terms, this is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) form builder, which means even those with no HTML or web design knowledge can use it. Simply drag and drop the elements of your form then copy-paste the necessary code into your website. They have a free plan which allows you to get 100 form submissions a month, but if you need more submissions a month, they have two more tiers of payment for your needs.
3. Grid Designer
Here’s a free online tool that allows you to create grids (columns, gutters, margins) that will hold your web content. Select the typography and fonts for your body text and headings, and then easily export the whole thing to copy-paste ready CSS, and even a sample XHTML template.
4. FavIcon Generator
Yes, favicons (favorites icons) are those unique and tiny graphics used to identify a website in your browser bookmarks menu, location bar, or your tabs. And yes, there are many other online tools that can generate a favicon for your site, some even let you draw it from scratch, pixel by pixel. This one however allows you to upload your own image and magically turns it into a 16×16 image.
5. Loader Generato
Need some loading graphics? Those typically spinning animated gifs that tell you something is loading are easy enough with this tool. Pick a spinning icon and customize characteristics such as image size, transparency and color scheme, then download the final animated gif.
6. ThemeRoller
Create customized jQuery UI themes using a WYSIWYG web tool called ThemeRoller. Custom themes are created by adjusting settings and seeing the UI components on the page update instantly. Then simply download the theme when your tweaking is done.
7. MultiColor Search by TinEye Labs
The last tool is simply a dead-easy way to find creative commons images on Flickr that you can use for your website. By specifying your color scheme color by color, the tool searches through the database of images on Flickr and shows you a large number of images you can click through to. It’s a color search engine and it works effortlessly.
Is Your Web Content Worth Less Than Horse Poop?
Like most little kids, I was fascinated with Disney World growing up.
I used to make my parents set up shop on Main Street in the Magic
Kingdom, an hour before the afternoon parade started so that we would
have the very best view.
During all of those parades, I saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and the rest of the gang. I also saw a man — a very happy-looking man — walking behind them all with a giant shovel and a rolling metal trash can.
His job? To scoop up the horse poop left behind by the magical Clydesdales that towed along Mickey’s caravan. (Bet you didn’t read about THAT in the brochures your travel agent gave you!)
Every time I saw this man, people cheered for him. Not in a sarcastic “sucks-to-be-you” way, but in a genuine “thanks-for-working-so-that-
Now, I can’t imagine this man was paid a whole lot for this job. Today, the man doing that job probably makes close to minimum wage — which, as of mid-2012, is $7.67 per hour in Florida.
My point in all of this?
If you’re one of those business owners who thinks he can get quality web content for $5 or $10, you’ve set the value for your content at a lower value than the value the Magic Kingdom has set for its horse poop.
Here’s how:
If you go out and order a 500 word article from a professional content writer, you’ve just given them a lot to do. After all, they have to email you to confirm your payment, research the topic, write an interesting and informative article, make sure your target keywords flow naturally through it, proofread the article, and email a finished product to you.
For the sake of argument, let’s say all of that takes two hours. That’s actually a low estimate, since most writers can’t work that fast. But, we’ll go with two hours for this example.
If you’ve paid your content writer $5, their hourly rate is a whopping $2.50. That’s about one-third the hourly rate of the Magic Kingdom’s horse poop scooper.
If you’ve paid your content writer $10, their hourly rate is $5. The horse poop scooper is still making 1.5 times what your writer is making.
OK, so your content writer is surviving off Ramen Noodles and living with 12 roommates. Why is any of that your problem?
Because your content writer isn’t going to settle for a steady diet of Ramen Noodles and share a bathroom with 12 other people! Instead, he’s going to do whatever he can to turn your payment into a livable hourly rate.
How?
By cutting down on the amount of time it takes to write your 500 word article. When your payment comes in, here’s how he’s going to approach your order:
- Email you to confirm the payment? Eh, that’s no biggie. You sent the money, so he probably got it. It’s not like PayPal eats money, so why does he need to confirm anything with you?
- Research? That’s not really necessary, is it? I mean, you want him to write about mining tires. Your content writer has driven a car before, and cars have tires. Therefore, your writer can skip all of that time-consuming research and just write something off the top of his head.
- Writing something that will engage your readers from start to finish? That takes a lot of time, and your writer simply doesn’t have time for it. Remember, he wants to go out for dinner, not microwave some Ramen Noodles. So, your article is going to be written very quickly, in a very bare-bones way. Don’t count on seeing any personality in it. But, hey, it will have 500 words in it, and that’s what you’ve paid for.
- Making sure your keywords flow naturally? Whatever. Shove ‘em in wherever you can.
- Proofreading? That’s for suckers. After all, your content writer uses Microsoft Word, and it’s nice enough to put a squiggly red line under each misspelled word. He can fix some of those as he’s typing, so that eliminates any reason to go back over his work later to make sure it’s perfect. I mean, you don’t actually expect his work to be perfect, right? No one’s perfect!
By the time all is said and done, your content writer was able to shave a ton of time off your order and give himself a better hourly wage. Unfortunately, you’re the one who has to put your name on the article he wrote. Your link is going to be at the bottom of it. Your target audience is going to see it.
Is that article really what you want to show off to the world? Something that cost less to create than shoveling horse poop off the streets of the Magic Kingdom — and smells just as bad?
Do you really think horse poop is worth more time and money than your business’ reputation?!
Nicole BeckettGoogle+
During all of those parades, I saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and the rest of the gang. I also saw a man — a very happy-looking man — walking behind them all with a giant shovel and a rolling metal trash can.
His job? To scoop up the horse poop left behind by the magical Clydesdales that towed along Mickey’s caravan. (Bet you didn’t read about THAT in the brochures your travel agent gave you!)
Every time I saw this man, people cheered for him. Not in a sarcastic “sucks-to-be-you” way, but in a genuine “thanks-for-working-so-that-
Now, I can’t imagine this man was paid a whole lot for this job. Today, the man doing that job probably makes close to minimum wage — which, as of mid-2012, is $7.67 per hour in Florida.
My point in all of this?
If you’re one of those business owners who thinks he can get quality web content for $5 or $10, you’ve set the value for your content at a lower value than the value the Magic Kingdom has set for its horse poop.
Here’s how:
If you go out and order a 500 word article from a professional content writer, you’ve just given them a lot to do. After all, they have to email you to confirm your payment, research the topic, write an interesting and informative article, make sure your target keywords flow naturally through it, proofread the article, and email a finished product to you.
For the sake of argument, let’s say all of that takes two hours. That’s actually a low estimate, since most writers can’t work that fast. But, we’ll go with two hours for this example.
If you’ve paid your content writer $5, their hourly rate is a whopping $2.50. That’s about one-third the hourly rate of the Magic Kingdom’s horse poop scooper.
If you’ve paid your content writer $10, their hourly rate is $5. The horse poop scooper is still making 1.5 times what your writer is making.
OK, so your content writer is surviving off Ramen Noodles and living with 12 roommates. Why is any of that your problem?
Because your content writer isn’t going to settle for a steady diet of Ramen Noodles and share a bathroom with 12 other people! Instead, he’s going to do whatever he can to turn your payment into a livable hourly rate.
How?
By cutting down on the amount of time it takes to write your 500 word article. When your payment comes in, here’s how he’s going to approach your order:
- Email you to confirm the payment? Eh, that’s no biggie. You sent the money, so he probably got it. It’s not like PayPal eats money, so why does he need to confirm anything with you?
- Research? That’s not really necessary, is it? I mean, you want him to write about mining tires. Your content writer has driven a car before, and cars have tires. Therefore, your writer can skip all of that time-consuming research and just write something off the top of his head.
- Writing something that will engage your readers from start to finish? That takes a lot of time, and your writer simply doesn’t have time for it. Remember, he wants to go out for dinner, not microwave some Ramen Noodles. So, your article is going to be written very quickly, in a very bare-bones way. Don’t count on seeing any personality in it. But, hey, it will have 500 words in it, and that’s what you’ve paid for.
- Making sure your keywords flow naturally? Whatever. Shove ‘em in wherever you can.
- Proofreading? That’s for suckers. After all, your content writer uses Microsoft Word, and it’s nice enough to put a squiggly red line under each misspelled word. He can fix some of those as he’s typing, so that eliminates any reason to go back over his work later to make sure it’s perfect. I mean, you don’t actually expect his work to be perfect, right? No one’s perfect!
By the time all is said and done, your content writer was able to shave a ton of time off your order and give himself a better hourly wage. Unfortunately, you’re the one who has to put your name on the article he wrote. Your link is going to be at the bottom of it. Your target audience is going to see it.
Is that article really what you want to show off to the world? Something that cost less to create than shoveling horse poop off the streets of the Magic Kingdom — and smells just as bad?
Do you really think horse poop is worth more time and money than your business’ reputation?!
Nicole BeckettGoogle+
Submitting Articles to Web 2.0 Sites
There are many ways to get links. You can write awesome content that people will want to link to, submit your site to directories, submit press releases, comment on blogs, post on forums, syndicate articles, guest post, etc. But one of the most hassle-free and controllable ways of getting links is by submitting articles to Web 2.0 sites.
What are Web 2.0 sites or Web 2.0 properties? Web 2.0 was a phrase coined after the turn of the millennium to describe the second phase of the internet. The web stopped being a one-way conversation where users consumed information and turned into the social and dynamic space where users would contribute to the information available.
So blogs, wikis and social sites are all parts of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.
However, here we are talking about specifically posting to Web 2.0 sites for the purposes of getting links to your site. To do this you need sites where you can set up a blog or site and post articles with dofollow back links quickly.
Feeder sites: When you create Web 2.0 properties they should not always be created equally. You should create 3 to 6 “feeder sites” which will link into your money site and will have other Web 2.0 properties linking to them.
Here are the best Web 2.0 sites you can use for your feeder sites:
Hubpages - Once signed up with an account, it is very easy to set up a “Hub” or page.
WordPress.com – For those of you who have self-hosted WordPress.org blogs and are familiar with the WordPress interface, setting up and posting to these sites is as easy as pie.
Squidoo.com - One of the best Web 2.0 sites out there. Started by marketing genius Seth Godin.
So with your feeder site successfully set up and linking back to your money site, you can start linking both to the money site and the feeder sites with other Web 2.0 properties.
The relationship between Feeder sites and Web 2.0 properties
List of Web 2.0 Properties
Here is a general list of other Web 2.0 sites where you can publish articles – or blog posts – with links that can act as a “second layer” of links.
- Zimbio.com
- WetPaint.com
- Quizilla.com
- Tripod.Lycos.com – OK.
- Webs.com
- Xanga.com
- Gather.com – OK.
- Zoho.com – OK
- Jimdo.com – Difficult interface.
- InsaneJournal.com
- Blog.com – WordPress interface, super easy!
- WikiSpaces.com – Nice and easy!
- Thoughts.com – Nice and easy!
- WikiDot.com – OK
- Blogger.com – Google’s blogging tool, super easy!
What Articles Do You Need?
In order to post to Web 2.0 sites to get back links you are going to need some articles. I like to make these at least 450 words long although some post only 300 word articles. They should also be of good quality and readable.
You should always be posting unique articles.
Further Important Tips for Posting to Web 2.0 Properties
Here is a list of do’s and don’ts for posting to Web 2.0 sites.
- Don’t cram the articles with links. Say you have 450 word articles, only have one link to the money site on the feeder sites, but maybe two links (one to the money site and one to a feeder site) for a Web 2.0 site.
- Don’t always use the same anchor text. OK, you are targeting a particular keyphrase but don’t use it all the time, maybe only 40% of the time on the outer layer of Web 2.0 sites. Otherwise use the same keyphrase with words added on or taken away from it (as long as it makes sense) or other relevant keyphrases.
- Don’t always link to the home page. Don’t have all your links going to the home page particularly on the outer layers of Web 2.0 sites. Link deep. Google likes a site that has people linking to various pages within it.
- Link out to an authority site. Don’t just link to the same money site. Link out to Wikipedia – you can make it a rel=nofollow link if you want.
- Add images. Make sure they’re your copyright, relevant and with pertinent file names, captions and alt text.
- Don’t just post one article and then forget about it. These Web 2.0 sites weren’t set up for you to leave your dirty links on them. They want thriving, quality sites that are constantly updated. And they’ll delete the accounts of people who are obviously link building. Return to the Web 2.0 site a week or two later and post another article, maybe without any links. Keep on topping these sites up with quality, relevant text.
Article by Rob Cubbon.
Keyword Research Tips for New Websites
Keyword research is one of the cornerstones of building an SEO
campaign. The keywords you target on your site will determine what kind
of searches your site gets pulled into the SERPs for, and what kind of
visitor will ultimately find your site. New websites doing their keyword
research for the first time don’t have the luxury of analytics to help guide their keyword selection process, so they have to start from scratch and use their best judgment.
Here are 5 keyword research tips for new websites to help ensure they get off on the right foot.
1. Don’t Let Search Volume Dictate Your Keyword Selection
A keyword like “software” gets almost 25 million searches a month in the US alone. There is no denying the powerful potential of what ranking #1 for “software” could mean to a company, but new sites owners need to remember two very important things about search volume. First off, the higher the search volume the more competition there will be for that keyword. Your new website is going against big brands that have been online and doing SEO for a lot longer than you. The odds of your website jumping to the top of the SERPs for such a broad keyword anytime soon are slim to nil.
Secondly, just because a keyword has a high search volume that doesn’t mean it should be your priority keyword. What kind of software do you sell? Is it computer software? Accounting software? Are you offering software training classes? Do you create custom business software? Yes, you may sell software, but that doesn’t mean it’s 100% on point with your business. Computer software gets a measly 550,000 searches a month, but the searchers are a much better customer for your site because they want exactly what you have to offer.
2. Go After the Long-Tail But Plan for the Broader Terms
Part of having a successful SEO campaign is building trust with the search engines. Unfortunately, the age of your site plays a big role in that trust factor and new sites just don’t have it. To work around this, new websites should be sure to incorporate long-tail keywords (“computer software engineering classes for beginners”) into their content. These long-tail keywords may have a much lower search volume, but that also means there is less competition and a more targeted searcher who is closer to converting. By targeting these long-tail keywords you will help your site survive long enough to build that trust so you can start to go after some broader keywords down the road and do well.
3. Choose Keywords on a Page by Page Basis
It’s so important that you target completely unique keywords on each page of your website based on the content of that page. For instance, your homepage might target “computer software engineering classes,” but you should target “java programming for beginners” on the page about Java programming, not the homepage which focuses on general courses. The content on your site is what is going to back up your keyword selection and help that page do well in the search engines. If you try to put a keyword on a page where it isn’t the main focus of the content you’ll never do as well for that keyword as you would like. Best practice dictates that you can target 2-5 keywords per page on your site, so make sure you’re sticking with the most relevant options!
4. Remember to Factor User Intent into Your Selection Process
When someone searches for “apple” are they looking for information about the fruit or do they need a new computer? User intent determines what someone means. Different keywords can be used to search for the same thing, while the same keywords can be used to search for different things. It’s very important that you keep user intent in mind when choosing your keywords because that will determine the kind of visitor that comes to your website. Having more visitors is great, having targeted visitors is better.
5. Your Keywords Aren’t Set in Stone
There is no rule that your first round of keywords have to be your last and only keywords! I’ve been in the SEO industry for nearly 13 years and in that time the language of the industry has evolved. Certain terms which are now commonplace, like “inbound marketing” didn’t even exist when I started in this industry. Social media marketing and any keyword related to it only popped up in the last few years as the technology developed. My point is that as your industry evolves the lexicon is going to change with it. You have to be willing to work those new keywords into your website and SEO program or you risk becoming outdated and getting left behind.
Search behavior also changes with time. How people search for things online today is no guarantee of how they will be searching five years from now. If you don’t adapt your keywords to reflect user behavior, then your site will get lost in the shuffle.
These are just a few of the things that new website owners need to keep in mind when conducting their keyword research and keyword selection process. Remember, the keywords you target will shape the scope of your SEO campaign and impact the kind of people that find your site. Even though you can always reoptimize your website for new keywords, it better to get your site off on the right foot from the get-go!
Nick Stamoulis is the President of Massachusetts SEO company Brick Marketing. With nearly 13 years of experience,
Here are 5 keyword research tips for new websites to help ensure they get off on the right foot.
1. Don’t Let Search Volume Dictate Your Keyword Selection
A keyword like “software” gets almost 25 million searches a month in the US alone. There is no denying the powerful potential of what ranking #1 for “software” could mean to a company, but new sites owners need to remember two very important things about search volume. First off, the higher the search volume the more competition there will be for that keyword. Your new website is going against big brands that have been online and doing SEO for a lot longer than you. The odds of your website jumping to the top of the SERPs for such a broad keyword anytime soon are slim to nil.
Secondly, just because a keyword has a high search volume that doesn’t mean it should be your priority keyword. What kind of software do you sell? Is it computer software? Accounting software? Are you offering software training classes? Do you create custom business software? Yes, you may sell software, but that doesn’t mean it’s 100% on point with your business. Computer software gets a measly 550,000 searches a month, but the searchers are a much better customer for your site because they want exactly what you have to offer.
2. Go After the Long-Tail But Plan for the Broader Terms
Part of having a successful SEO campaign is building trust with the search engines. Unfortunately, the age of your site plays a big role in that trust factor and new sites just don’t have it. To work around this, new websites should be sure to incorporate long-tail keywords (“computer software engineering classes for beginners”) into their content. These long-tail keywords may have a much lower search volume, but that also means there is less competition and a more targeted searcher who is closer to converting. By targeting these long-tail keywords you will help your site survive long enough to build that trust so you can start to go after some broader keywords down the road and do well.
3. Choose Keywords on a Page by Page Basis
It’s so important that you target completely unique keywords on each page of your website based on the content of that page. For instance, your homepage might target “computer software engineering classes,” but you should target “java programming for beginners” on the page about Java programming, not the homepage which focuses on general courses. The content on your site is what is going to back up your keyword selection and help that page do well in the search engines. If you try to put a keyword on a page where it isn’t the main focus of the content you’ll never do as well for that keyword as you would like. Best practice dictates that you can target 2-5 keywords per page on your site, so make sure you’re sticking with the most relevant options!
4. Remember to Factor User Intent into Your Selection Process
When someone searches for “apple” are they looking for information about the fruit or do they need a new computer? User intent determines what someone means. Different keywords can be used to search for the same thing, while the same keywords can be used to search for different things. It’s very important that you keep user intent in mind when choosing your keywords because that will determine the kind of visitor that comes to your website. Having more visitors is great, having targeted visitors is better.
5. Your Keywords Aren’t Set in Stone
There is no rule that your first round of keywords have to be your last and only keywords! I’ve been in the SEO industry for nearly 13 years and in that time the language of the industry has evolved. Certain terms which are now commonplace, like “inbound marketing” didn’t even exist when I started in this industry. Social media marketing and any keyword related to it only popped up in the last few years as the technology developed. My point is that as your industry evolves the lexicon is going to change with it. You have to be willing to work those new keywords into your website and SEO program or you risk becoming outdated and getting left behind.
Search behavior also changes with time. How people search for things online today is no guarantee of how they will be searching five years from now. If you don’t adapt your keywords to reflect user behavior, then your site will get lost in the shuffle.
These are just a few of the things that new website owners need to keep in mind when conducting their keyword research and keyword selection process. Remember, the keywords you target will shape the scope of your SEO campaign and impact the kind of people that find your site. Even though you can always reoptimize your website for new keywords, it better to get your site off on the right foot from the get-go!
Nick Stamoulis is the President of Massachusetts SEO company Brick Marketing. With nearly 13 years of experience,
Creating High Quality Web Page Content
Quality web page content is integral to your online business
development, providing substance and generating interest. People are
attracted to your web pages for the information they can deliver and,
together with your website’s ease of use and intuitive navigation,
written content will encourage site visitors to stay, and move through
your site.
Benefits of Quality Web Page Content
Exhibit Relevance:
Internet users are attracted to web pages that are interesting and brimming with information that will educate them, solve their problems or manage their situations. By understanding the needs and wants of your prospects, and identifying how you can deliver solutions to their problems, your content, when well written, will be both relevant and engaging.
Build Credibility:
Every website owner is challenged by the sheer volume of information online, particularly from competitors, so it’s important to achieve ‘authority’ status within your market. Having your readers’ trust is integral to you becoming an authority – and this is achieved by having a strategy of publishing ongoing, high quality, web page content. Well-written web page content which observes grammar rules commands respect among a sea of DIY writers, spun articles and hastily worded posts.
(Spun articles are created through software applications which take original content and automatically replace certain words with synonyms often without regard for how they are used in context. Other types of content found on the Internet include articles that are rewritten pieces of original content, hastily reworded and intended to pass uniqueness tests or avoid charges of plagiarism.)
Over time, consistent development of original and high quality content will not only promote future return visits and a loyal following, but will also help establish a web page as an authority in a particular field, and, as a consequence, increased social media awareness.
Provide Business Information:
Internet users often view a website’s content relating to the business, its products, and the people behind them, before deciding to make a purchase or determining its ‘authority’ status. Therefore, the ubiquitous ‘About’ page should contain sufficient details about the business, its goals, objectives, location and the people supporting it. Key website pages should also include Services, Products, Home and Contact links – which should help your prospects to connect easily with your business.
The Privacy Page, too, is extremely important – not just for site visitor information, but the search engines also look for this when determining the authenticity of the site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
SEO refers to steps taken to improve the ability of a web page to be ranked well in search engine results pages (SERPS), particularly on Google. Having your site delivered by the search engines when people search for your keyword is crucial to the success of your online business. This is achieved by including premium web copy on your site. Search engine algorithms are closely guarded by Google, Yahoo etc, however the former has been very clear in saying that high quality, original, unique content rates very highly with them.
Encourage Action – Subtly:
The more savvy Internet users tend to avoid sales pages and obvious sales pitches, unless the product or service is answering a specific need that they have, at that moment. Authoritative blog posts, sometimes created as Pillar Articles, are more detailed, information-rich content. They allow online businesses to market in subtle yet very effective ways. Pillar articles build interest, stir emotion and eventually close the deal with a call to action that sounds like a natural next step for the reader.
Use a Content Writing Service
Writing content for one’s own website is possible only when a business owner has excess time, marketing know-how, and the creative juices necessary. High quality content must meet writing standards for grammar, sentence structure and punctuation, while providing unique and
interesting information in a manner that allows search engines to view, index and rank content accordingly.
Not all business owners are equipped with writing skills or are able to write about their companies, products, and services in an objective manner, without sounding too self-serving. A professional writer with vast experience in writing various types of web content, good reviews, word-of-mouth referrals from sources and previous clients who may be verified online is the best person to create high quality web page content.
Developing web page content is important, but it can take plenty of time to brainstorm ideas, research information, and craft words into sentences and paragraphs. The time it takes to write website copy can be considerable, so even if you are skilled at writing, you need to consider if in doing so you will take yourself away from your core business too much. A great content writing service will be supported by a team which has been trained to create web page content, regardless of its clients’ business model or niche. This will allow you focus on more important activities such as product development, and business growth.
A professional web page copywriter will be obviously dedicated to writing, and value uniqueness – every single time. Content planning precedes the writing process and requires an investment in the time necessary to understand clients’ businesses, their goals, needs and the challenges surrounding them. By doing this, opportunities for new content can be identified and used to subtly promote products and services.
The result is premium web page content, that assures readers of your authority, professionalism and credibility. Not only does it build trust, but it also enhances visibility with the search engines.
Benefits of Quality Web Page Content
Exhibit Relevance:
Internet users are attracted to web pages that are interesting and brimming with information that will educate them, solve their problems or manage their situations. By understanding the needs and wants of your prospects, and identifying how you can deliver solutions to their problems, your content, when well written, will be both relevant and engaging.
Build Credibility:
Every website owner is challenged by the sheer volume of information online, particularly from competitors, so it’s important to achieve ‘authority’ status within your market. Having your readers’ trust is integral to you becoming an authority – and this is achieved by having a strategy of publishing ongoing, high quality, web page content. Well-written web page content which observes grammar rules commands respect among a sea of DIY writers, spun articles and hastily worded posts.
(Spun articles are created through software applications which take original content and automatically replace certain words with synonyms often without regard for how they are used in context. Other types of content found on the Internet include articles that are rewritten pieces of original content, hastily reworded and intended to pass uniqueness tests or avoid charges of plagiarism.)
Over time, consistent development of original and high quality content will not only promote future return visits and a loyal following, but will also help establish a web page as an authority in a particular field, and, as a consequence, increased social media awareness.
Provide Business Information:
Internet users often view a website’s content relating to the business, its products, and the people behind them, before deciding to make a purchase or determining its ‘authority’ status. Therefore, the ubiquitous ‘About’ page should contain sufficient details about the business, its goals, objectives, location and the people supporting it. Key website pages should also include Services, Products, Home and Contact links – which should help your prospects to connect easily with your business.
The Privacy Page, too, is extremely important – not just for site visitor information, but the search engines also look for this when determining the authenticity of the site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
SEO refers to steps taken to improve the ability of a web page to be ranked well in search engine results pages (SERPS), particularly on Google. Having your site delivered by the search engines when people search for your keyword is crucial to the success of your online business. This is achieved by including premium web copy on your site. Search engine algorithms are closely guarded by Google, Yahoo etc, however the former has been very clear in saying that high quality, original, unique content rates very highly with them.
Encourage Action – Subtly:
The more savvy Internet users tend to avoid sales pages and obvious sales pitches, unless the product or service is answering a specific need that they have, at that moment. Authoritative blog posts, sometimes created as Pillar Articles, are more detailed, information-rich content. They allow online businesses to market in subtle yet very effective ways. Pillar articles build interest, stir emotion and eventually close the deal with a call to action that sounds like a natural next step for the reader.
Use a Content Writing Service
Writing content for one’s own website is possible only when a business owner has excess time, marketing know-how, and the creative juices necessary. High quality content must meet writing standards for grammar, sentence structure and punctuation, while providing unique and
interesting information in a manner that allows search engines to view, index and rank content accordingly.
Not all business owners are equipped with writing skills or are able to write about their companies, products, and services in an objective manner, without sounding too self-serving. A professional writer with vast experience in writing various types of web content, good reviews, word-of-mouth referrals from sources and previous clients who may be verified online is the best person to create high quality web page content.
Developing web page content is important, but it can take plenty of time to brainstorm ideas, research information, and craft words into sentences and paragraphs. The time it takes to write website copy can be considerable, so even if you are skilled at writing, you need to consider if in doing so you will take yourself away from your core business too much. A great content writing service will be supported by a team which has been trained to create web page content, regardless of its clients’ business model or niche. This will allow you focus on more important activities such as product development, and business growth.
A professional web page copywriter will be obviously dedicated to writing, and value uniqueness – every single time. Content planning precedes the writing process and requires an investment in the time necessary to understand clients’ businesses, their goals, needs and the challenges surrounding them. By doing this, opportunities for new content can be identified and used to subtly promote products and services.
The result is premium web page content, that assures readers of your authority, professionalism and credibility. Not only does it build trust, but it also enhances visibility with the search engines.
Outraging Website Owners By Omitting Image Content
There’s an old saying: The more things change, the more they remain the same. I would agree with that in today’s culture if just one word were different.
As a child of the sixties, yes, a flower child, I was a product of Timothy Leary’s mantra which served as my generation’s guiding light: “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.” Translation: “Get Enlightened and Be Your Own Person.” Reinforced by every countercultural phenomenon during that generation, from Woodstock to the Beatles, from Andy Warhol to Peter Max, from Mick Jagger to Twiggy, the more different you were, the more famous you became.
When I embarked on my marketing career, some ten years later, this mode of thinking was still de rigueur, the prevailing cultural trend.
In today’s world, however, being different is no longer a good thing. At least, not when you are a business on the Internet. If you aren’t on Facebook and Twitter, you’re considered so last century. Keeping up with the latest on Pinterest or Tumblr? No? Better get with it. If you blink, you may miss something! And, above all, Google rules. If you don’t abide by all things Google, there are stiff penalties to pay.
As a new twist on SEO, (search engine optimization, for those of you who are still back in the sixties), Google has recently introduced Instant Preview, an image of a representative web page which can be conveniently activated by hovering over the trigger arrows which appear to the right of search results. For some, this has been a wonderful enhancement, allowing people to quickly scan the page to decide if they should commit to a visit. For others, like me, my website home page has suffered the indignities of Google’s image editing process which has resulted in a page with a large empty white space where my newly created slideshow should appear, something I worked on for months to replace my previous Flash files which were problematic for Google to recognize in addition to browsers on mobile or other Flash-phobic devices.
I admit I was late to address the Flash problem, to “dumb down” my site as I sarcastically alluded to it, but, hey, I work for a living and often find myself immersed in some industrial detail for weeks on end to earn my paycheck. I find it incomprehensible that only two months after launching my new website, I am discovering that my Flash fix has created a new problem. After some extensive research, I have learned that if your website includes an image of a cat, for example, and your website is all about cats, then Google will gladly allow the cat image in its Instant Preview. However, if your website is only using the cat image as a pictorial analogy or symbol for some abstract idea, then Google will omit that image to avoid misrepresenting your page. Okay. Begrudgingly agreed. I see the logic.
The solution would be to have Instant Preview capable of showing my creative slideshow in its animated entirety so that its composite images add up to the correct representation of the website as they were designed to do. But for now, I suppose Google hasn’t arrived at that technological juncture so I am now stuck with the job of redesigning (further “dumbing down”) my website (again!) to stay competitive in the Instant Preview market. So much for trying to be different.
But, how dare they! One disgruntled web owner asks how Google has the right to tamper with his copyrighted material. Another large corporation rebels by choosing to bar Google from applying its Instant Preview technology on its website altogether through specific coding since its site is primarily Flash content. I, on the other hand, just shrug and resign myself to the realities of the twenty-first century. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
The lesson here is that the name of the game nowadays is conform, conform, conform. But, as an only child who has spent a lifetime doing her own thing, marching to the beat of a different drum, and blazing her own trail through the quagmires of life, swimming in a sea of sameness truly violates the soul.
Yet here we are. The more things change, the more they become the same.
Marilyn Bontempo, president of Mid-Hudson Marketing, based in Holmes, New York, has been developing strategies for business success for more than 35 years. A professional writer and graduate of Bard College, she has won numerous awards for excellence in marketing, photography, graphics and web design. As a specialist in branding, many of her clients rely on her expertise to manage their social media and public relations initiatives. In addition, she handles e-commerce for a number of online merchants not only on their own websites but through eBay, Amazon and others. View her work at http://www.midhudsonmarketing.com
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