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Archive for August, 2011

The Basics Of SEO

Websites That Get Traffic; the Basics of SEO part I

Whether you live in Seattle or Boston search engine optimization or SEO is a critical factor in your site’s success. Before beginning the search engine optimization process however it is important to understand that approximately 8085 of all web traffic is generated by the engines. When a person searches for anything on the Internet they will most likely go to Google or Yahoo and enter a word or phrase describing what they need. Based upon what is entered the search engine generates a page of relevant websites. This page is known as a SERP or Search Engine Results age.

The key to life on the web is getting your site ranked at the top of the search engine lists. Ideally you want your listings on the first three pages. Deeper listings are less likely to generate traffic to your site.

Keep in mind that search engines work for the Internet consumer. As such your assigned ranking reflects your site’s relevance and credibility to web surfers. To obtain a strong ranking a site must be built and managed with SEO considerations in mind.

All About Search Engine Ranking

How can your site secure the highest ranking possible on the SERP totem pole? The key is to understand that the engines have the ability to “read” web pages. This is why SEO is critical. The greater the amount of information that can be read and the higher its quality the more favorably a page will appear to the engines.

How do the engines “read” a site? Code sequences called “spiders” travel across the Internet to index and catalog each site. This information is processed through an algorithm to calculate SERP ranking.

The search engine algorithms consider and weigh several factors. Algorithms are proprietary and not available to the public. This is why a site can place strongly on one engine but less so on another. To make the matter even trickier algorithms are constantly updated as search engines strive to improve the quality of results generated and to accommodate the millions of new sites that come online.

Ranking and SEO

Two things impact a site’s ranking in the SERPs; onthepage and offthepage factors. SEO efforts need to address both factors to have the biggest impact.

Onthepage factors include coding practices used to build a web page how or if metatagging is used and how your page text and layout are generated. When it comes to SEO not all coding practices layouts or even web designs are equal. Spiders literally “read” web pages during indexing comparing keywords and phrases used in metatagging against the rest of the page’s text and code to determine how relevant the page is to those terms. If your tagging focuses upon ‘widgets’ for example but your page text and coding excludes this term or it is buried under lines and lines of excess code the page will not be “seen” as relevant to “widgets” and will be assigned low ranking on the SERPs.

Keep in mind that individual pages rather than entire sites are considered in the ranking process. For this reason it is possible for an interior page with strong relevance to earn a stronger ranking than a home page. To showcase your most important pages and place less significant pages in the best possible position however all pages should be coded and designed with SEO considerations in mind.

The other consideration for SEO is offthepage factors. This refers to the volume quality and source of links pointing to your site from other sites. If you have a significant number of links from highranking sites that are relevant to the topic you target spiders see this as vote of confidence and will rank accordingly.

Before you run out placing links anywhere and everywhere there is an important caveat about offthepage factors. Initiating an aggressive campaign of link building can actually damage your SEO efforts if not done wisely. For example if the majority of links pointing to your site are from sites that have nothing to do with your topic or from poor quality sites it will contribute to poor ranking.

About the writer:  About the Author : R. Harvey Bravman is the owner of Advanced Digital Websites Inc.; offering a full range of Boston web design and search engine optimization services

Three Useful Tips On Web Design

How to use custom 404 pages

You might be surprised to hear that 404 pages will probably be one of the most seen pages in your website! A 404 page is the page displayed if someone tries to reach a page on your website that does not exist. All web servers like Apache and IIS have a default 404 page that is displayed to people. Actually 404 pages are just simple HTML pages you can change the default 404 page to a page that displays anything you want. So instead of the common ‘this page does not exist’ message that tells your visitors nothing you can put up an informative page that will help them find what they are looking for. A good idea is to take your sitemap page and make it the 404 page for your website. Another idea would be to make your 404 page a search page where people could search your site. And how do you tell the web server where your new customized 404 page is sitting? This is something you have to ask your host do for you. Just ask them about allowing you to do this and they should be able to make the quick change to their servers.

Tip one:

Use contain files for repeating content
As you may already know there are lots of repeated content in a website. Things like page headers page footers and navigation menus come to mind. Include files are separate pages of HTML code that contain things like the ones I just mentioned; things that are intended to be used on many different pages; you should use contain file for all this repeated stuff. Main purpose behind using contain files is to save lot of time.

For example: if say you have the same menu on 30 different web pages include files will allow you to keep all your menus up to date on all your web pages easily since to update all your pages all you have to do is update the one include file rather than all the 30 pages individually. There are many different technologies you can use to ‘contain’ things this way; the most common are listed here:

Alternative: 1. Server side includes using either: PHP ASP JSP etc …

Alternative: 2. Using clientside includes tools like found in Dreamweaver.

To include a file with PHP all you need to do is insert this code in your PHP pages:

Here all you have to do is name the file that you want to ‘contain’ in your page. So in the above example the page we want to include is called ‘mainMenu.php’.

In ASP it is very similar:

Here the included file is in a folder called ‘contained’ and the file being included is called ‘header.asp’

Tip two:

having a site map for every web site
Both search engines and actual live visitors use site maps. They are almost essential for just about any website because they provide an easy to use macro view of your website. In a nutshell a site map is essentially a categorized page of links to all your websites’ pages. Many users will just go to a sitemap to find what they are looking for while search engines will ‘creep’ to your sitemap page to index your site and that is another nice If you are interested in SEO a site map is one of the key additions to your websites. It will not only help finding them your web pages but also increase your ‘hits’.

Tip three:

Having a steady footer It may seem a very small thing but Page footers are not less important. We had them in books forever. So it only makes sense to present people something they are familiar with. But in the case of the web you can provide a lot more useful information in the page footer. It will make your website more userfriendly. Some ideas include: your contact information: email address your phone number et cetera. Another good idea is to have a textonly navigation menu in your footer. Nothing fancy just a series of text links that can get people to the major sections of your website. Sounds simple? Of course but it is very helpful when you make your website more dependable and friendly.

About the writer:  Author: Mr. Charles K from www.scriptbean.com custom web development services desk. I hope you enjoyed the article. Find more affordable web design solutions at www.scriptbean.com and www.softbean.com

.com Or .co.uk- A Guide To Domain Name Extensions

There are many different extensions available today. The four most popular domain extensions in the UK are .com. .co.uk .org and .net. Of course the .com is the most recognisable and if available you should buy this immediately. Internet users will often guess a web address after seeing a company name and .com is the first one they will try.

There is an occasion when a .com should not be you first choice. If your business only operates in the UK then the .co.uk extension is the one for you. For instance if you have developed a home delivery business in the Midlands the .com will give the wrong impression that you operate globally. The .co.uk will also help the search engines to recognise your business as being UK based.

If by chance the .com and .co.uk are available then buy both. This prevents an unscrupulous rival snapping up the available extension and building a website to compete with yours or worse trying to sell it to you at an over inflated price.

There is a strong possibility that the .com and the .co.uk are already taken but the .org is available. Avoid buying this one unless your business is a charity or a not for profit organisation. It will give your business a bad image if you are profitmaking company with domain name extension usually associated with charities.

The .net extension is okay for a business but is often used for by online networks Internet service providers or forums. This may create the wrong impression about what your company does.

Many other new choices have now appeared for domain name extensions like .name .tv or .mobi. This are okay if used in the right context. For example .mobi signifies a website whose content can be easily viewed on mobile devices.

New companies are appearing on the Internet that offer what seem like excellent domain name extensions. For example .shop .travel or .ltd. New.net is one such company. These extensions should be avoided. They are not approved by ICANN the International regulatory body that controls toplevel domains and require additional software to work. This restricts the number of people who will be able to access your website.

If you are looking for an extension for personal not commercial use then choose .name. Commonly used for websites that display photos or personal information about an individual it also creates an easy to remember email address like meyourname.name.

In conclusion commercial organisations should aim for the toplevel domains like .com and .net. If you trade in a specific country then the countrylevel top domains like .co.uk are excellent to use. Avoid domain names that may give customers the wrong impression of your business like .org and .tv. And do not purchase extensions that do not have ICANN approval. Visit www.ICANN.org for more information.

Below is a short summary of the popular domain name extensions:

* .com represents commercial is highly recognised and signifies worldwide trade
* .co.uk for commercial businesses that trade within the UK
* .net represents network and often used by online networks Internet service providers and forums.
* .org represents organisations often used by charities and not for profit businesses
* .org.uk represents organisations based in the UK. Often used by charities and not for profit businesses
* .gov.uk used by the UK government
* .biz used by small business websites
* .info a resource website that provides informative or educational content
* .name designed specifically for personal websites.
* .mobi used by websites with content that can be viewed on mobile devices
* .tv used within the media industry for content rich and multi media websites
* .uk.com an alternative UK commercial extension but not widely used

About the writer:  James Todman is the founder of WebsitePA a website personal assistance service designed to help with all aspects website management and administration. Visit www.WebsitePA.com and sign up to our FREE monthly newsletter. packed full of useful website tips and information.