March 5th, 2010
Clean html code throughout your web site is one of the most important steps toward improving your rankings with the search engines.
Broken links, extraneous code, unvalid html — all of these will increase the likelihood that your web site will fall down the rankings with the major search engines.
And just because your web site looks clean on the OUTSIDE (within the browser window) doesn’t mean that it is clean on the INSIDE.
Dreamweaver offers a validator and other tools that allow you to test the code on your pages, searching for broken links, invalid code and just plain messiness.
Google Analytics and Google tracking also offer tools that help you locate those problem areas and fix them.
Simply use these tools to scan the pages of your web site, and these tools will locate the problems by indicating the line number, and how far from the left margin the offending code resides. They will also recommend actions you can take to fix the problems.
Remember, a clean web site is a POPULAR web site!
Tags: code validators, link validators
Posted in Marketing Your Website | No Comments »
February 28th, 2010
Warning: Web design templates CROWD the top of your web site!
Web design templates don’t work because they crowd the top of your web site with images, forcing the navigation structure and text to be low on the page, so that users continually have to scroll down on the page to see important information.
The images may be fantastic (and that’s what they tempt you with, the lovely designs), but these designs come at a BIG price because all you see on each page is the lovely graphics and not the navigation structure: you can’t see the navigation structure, because it is too low on the page. Or perhaps the navigation structure is higher, but you can’t add links to it, making the design useless to you in the long run (never assume you will not need more links at some point in the future).
Many design templates also severely limit how you can edit the title and description metatags, making search engine optimization difficult, if not impossible.
Before you decide on that web design template that you think will be perfect for you, think again: you may be paying too high I price (and I don’t mean in money) for that template if you can’t edit it freely, and if your site is not user-friendly.
Posted in General Web Design Tips, Starting Out | No Comments »
February 17th, 2010
Here’s something that you can do on your own to optimize your web site — and you won’t have to pay any money to a website optimization service in order to do it:
Limit your title tag to 12 words, or between 60-90 characters; and limit your description tag to 25 words, or approximately 125 characters.
The days of being able to jam the title and description metatags with as many keywords as possible are long gone. The algorithms set up by the search engines can detect this ploy, and will penalize you for it.
In your source code, simply find the information between the title tags, which look like this:
<title>text here</title>
and the information within the description metatag, which looks like this:
<meta name=”description” content=”text here.”>
and fill these tags with keyword-rich text that does not go beyond the limits I just described.
Be sure to insert unique title and description tags on each separate page of your website as well.
Tags: optimum length of description tags, optimum length of title tags
Posted in Marketing Your Website | No Comments »
February 12th, 2010
Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing process, and not a one-time deal (that is, if you want lasting results).
Like The Little Engine That Could (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!), a small website that regularly posts new (and valuable) updates will outlast the fly-by-night websites built by start-up companies that assemble a site, launch it, and never touch it again. Warning: If you are in the if-I-build-it-they-will-come mindset — think again.
Search engines give preference to web sites that are regularly updated with valuable information. The biggest mistake people make in marketing their web site is to fail to make regular updates. Imagine yourself in Google’s place: you’d give preference to web sites that are ALIVE AND CHANGING rather than web sites that have been launched and then never amended.
It’s a common misconception to think that one can launch a web site, and then the visitors will come. Unless you are a celebrity (or suddenly infamous), simply launching a web site will not bring in clients. Sure, your rankings may jump temporarily after you have launched the site (because the search engines know that you are new), but what’s new quickly (very quickly) becomes old on the worldwide web.
If you are unable to update your web site yourself, consider starting a blog (one that resides on your server, along with your web site files) as a way to continuously provide new and valuable information that will attract the search engines, and new clients as well.
Posted in Marketing Your Website | No Comments »
February 7th, 2010
Marketing experts advise web site owners to keep in touch with their clients by sending out an email newsletter on a regular basis.
I recommend sending out web newsletters once a month. While it may be tempting to send out the newsletter more frequently, I advise caution, since some users might consider receiving a newsletter more often an irritation, and may be tempted to opt out of your newsletter if they sense it contains information that may not be useful to them.
To receive the search engine optimization benefits from your newsletter, be sure that it contains a minimum of images (assuming you are developing your email newsletter in html) and a maximum of keyword-rich text relating to the main topic of your web site.
Constant Contact is an excellent choice for developing and maintaining your email list. Also, many hosting companies offer options for distributing bulk emails. While the learning curve for all of these options can be daunting to some, if you are interested in really following through on your newsletter, it can be well worth the effort to understand and be comfortable with the options provided by the email program.
Virtually all bulk email programs will have fairly strict anti-spam policies, so I strongly advise against purchasing email address lists and sending out blind email invitations.
Once you’ve established your newsletter, you can post a link to join the newsletter on your web site, allowing users to join at will (and also to leave at will). This way, you can keep track of who is on your list.
I can help you design your newsletter in a manner that will strike the right balance between visual appeal and SEO (search engine optimization).
Join my newsletter to see an example in action.
Tags: bulk emails, constant contact, email newsletter design
Posted in Marketing Your Website | No Comments »
January 29th, 2010
“But I don’t have anything to say!” is the response I usually get when I suggest to clients that they consider starting a blog to promote their web site.
However, in your line of work (or any line of work, for that matter), it’s likely that you learn something new every day — I know I do. So, why not share what you’ve learned with others, and boost your rankings at the same time?
Gathering information to post on your blog is more of a frame of mind than anything else: if you get in the habit of writing down those little tidbits that come to you in the middle of project, you can then come back to these notes later on when you are searching for material to write in your blog. Keep adding to your list every time an idea comes to you (no matter how small) and pretty soon you will have more to write about than you can keep up with!
When blogging, be sure to stick to issues that have to do with the material on your web site (though diversions now and then to add interest are fine too). See how to power blog for more information on effective strategies for boosting your rankings with the search engines.
Another important advantage of having a blog is that it allows you to update your web site on a regular basis without having to know html. You can also send links to your blog to your clients whenever they ask you a question that you have already answered on your blog — this sends them back to your web site a second time: yet another plus for marketing your site and boosting your rankings.
If you would like help in setting up a Wordpress blog on your web site, Contact Christopher Merrill.
Posted in Marketing Your Website | No Comments »
January 22nd, 2010
Believe it or not, there might be times when you DON’T want the search engines to find certain pages or folders of your site.
For example, if you have folders on your web site that you want to be available only to your customers, you can insert a robots.txt file into that particular folder — so that when the search engines spider your entire web site, they will skip this particular folder.
To create a robots.txt file, simply use your web authoring program (or even Notepad) to create a text file. This text file must have a file extension of .txt in order to work properly. And then, in the body of the text file, insert the following:
User-Agent: *
Disallow: /
Then, simply upload your robots.txt file into the folder that you want protected from the search engines.
To shield an individual file from the search engines, insert the following code inside the HEAD tag:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow”>
Robots.txt files or coding allows you to post pages to your web site that you only want people certain people to view (without the need for password protection). Also, you won’t have to worry about any of the content on these pages competing with those all-important keyword-rich pages that you have throughout the rest of your web site.
For more information regarding search engine optimization, see SEO.
Posted in Advanced | No Comments »
January 15th, 2010
For Web sites, I recommend a design width of somewhere between 800 and 900 pixels.
I generally recommend against using a liquid layout format, except in cases where the web site is meant to be highly searchable and is connected to a database that has a large number of important fields to be referenced.
A width between 800 and 900 pixels will fill much of the screen at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, allowing you enough room horizontally to build navigation menus that can contain ten or so links. This will also allow you to build a vertically oriented navigation structure on the left or the right side of the page, in addition to the horizontal navigation structure, giving you room to grow and expand content in the future.
Having this fixed width of 800 to 900 pixels also allows you to preserve the integrity of the design elements across several screen resolutions, and ensures that your design elements will remain in the same proportions regardless of what screen resolution the user has selected.
Posted in General Web Design Tips | No Comments »
January 8th, 2010
Tiled background images are images that are repeated in the background of web pages so as to give the page background texture and visual interest.
They are useful in that the single image is small in size and downloads quickly. When a single image is tiled in the background of a web page, the image repeats itself from left to right and then continues down the page to the next row, and the next row, entirely filling the background of the page immediately. The concept is similar to the way floor tiles work to cover a floor — however, with web pages, only one “tile” is needed as a reference, and the coding does the rest.
Experienced web designers know how to use tiles in various configurations to give startling effects that can be realized with a minimum of download time.
Tiled images are sometimes referred to as “wallpaper” because the concept is similar. Original images can be found online for free or for purchase for use on your web site — or, if you are feeling adventurous, you can design your own.
Questions? Contact Chicago Web Designer Christopher Merrill for answers.
Posted in General Web Design Tips | No Comments »
December 28th, 2009
Many of my clients are hesitant to look at any of the substantial number of search engine optimization (SEO) tools available to them. Google Analytics, for one, can reveal a wealth of information to you, from what keywords are being used by people to find you, to which search engine or web site they were using when they came to your page.
Yes, a gmail account is required.
Most web hosting packages also offer free statistics-viewing software for each account hosted with them.
Also available online are software and tools – with names like the following:
meta-tag analyzer
rank checker
keyword analyzer
link popularity
keyword popularity
keyword suggestion
keyword density
page rank check
Don’t let these names scare you: they’re a lot more technical sounding than they really are.
Some web sites that contain some of these free online tools are:
http://www.seocentro.com
http://www.seochat.com
and of course there are many others. Keep in mind these are free tools, and no tool is likely to be 100% accurate.
In fact, it’s a good idea to consider a variety of tools when analyzing your web site statistics, so as to see overall trends, rather than exact numerical amounts. Then, once you’ve identified the trends, you make strategies for the future.
Posted in Marketing Your Website | 2 Comments »
