The page Title

The title of your page can be seen in the top left hand side of your browser. The title of each page should be relevant to the information on the page and be unique for each page. The title is a very important part of the web page and must be treated accordingly.

Meta Descriptive Tags

The Description meta tag is normally used to describe your listing in the search engines. It is important that this description entices people to click on your link. Have the same listing description for each page is not gonna help so make sure each page has a unique description.

Content

Unique content is king. The more relevant content you have on your website the better it is. Make sure that the topic of that page, the page title, paragraph headings and text relate to each other. The content should be well written and semantically correct. Headings actually have an order within the code, so ensure that this rule is used. It is the content that will be catalogued by the search engines and this is how they will understand what each individual page is about.

Sitemap

It is important that the search engines can see all your pages. A good way of doing this is to add a sitemap which is accessible from the homepage. This sitemap will list all your pages by the topic of that page allowing a search engine to find every single page on your website.

Navigation links

Ensure that your menu links contain the text of the topic or page they are linking to. Do not forget the links that are within your content. Try and use relevant text with your content to link to other pages within your website.

Dynamic page names

Search engines have difficulty reading sessions (sessions are codes appended to the web address to identify users on the website). If you have session variables on your site, search engines may not index your pages.

Fast loading pages

Are your pages quick to load. If they are not the search engine may not hang around to index them. The average age size should be less than 110Kb. If it is not then it is important to identify what is increasing the size of the page and correct it.

Web Standards

Have you updated your website to the latest web standards. The Internet is a forever changing media and standards have been suggested by the World wide web consortium (www.w3c.org) . By rebuilding a website using the latest standards you have the ability to separate the content of the website from the design. Benefits of this include being able to supply search engines with clean text, not blurred by coding. Also the ability to change design more regularly becomes affordable.

Summary

These are on site areas to look at and will allow the search engines to determine what your site is all about. Never forget the need to look at off site promotion!

The Google Sitemap Protocol allows you to inform search engines about URLs on your websites that are available for crawling. A Sitemap that uses the Sitemap Protocol is an XML file that lists URLs for a site. Sitemaps are particularly beneficial when users can’t reach all areas of a website through the browseable interface. Also by submitting your site’s sitemap to the search engines you will help the search engine crawlers do a better job of crawling your site.

Everytime you add/delete webpages on your site, you should update your sitemap.xml too. But if you just update your current webpages i.e adding contents or articles,

Go to Google Webmaster Tools - sitemap page
Login into your account
Choose your sitemap of your website
Check the box at the left of your sitemap name and click Resubmit Selected button. Your sitemap status become “pending”.
Logout from Google sitemap page. After a few minutes the sitemap status will become “OK”.

Alternately, you can also use a Sitemap generator to update your sitemap whenever needed.

Cheap websites are abundant these days and there are many web design companies and web hosting companies out there who offer sitebuilders that allow you to build a website in a relatively short period of time. Sitebuilders are normally extremely user-friendly advanced website builders that let nearly anyone create and handle a successful website quickly, and are extremely affordable.

Sitebuilders are a package, some allow you to change almost every aspect of your site and there are some that will limit you to only a few modifications. Pricing varies according to the features they offer. Some have upfront setup fees while others will allow you to jump right in and start building without any setup fees. Most good sitebuilder offerings will allow you to try the sitebuilder out for free, build your website and when you are ready to pay, you sign up and then publish your site to your destination.

The one thing that people get hung up with with sitebuilders is that they can never find the right template that matches their site or business. Many people forget that they are using a sitebuilder and start to move to the custom world. One thing not to forget if you choose to go with sitebuilder technology as opposed to a custom designed system is that you will be locked in to what the sitebuilder offers. Some builders will allow you to edit the HTML after you have published while others will not. The general recommendation is to go with a sitebuilder that will allow you to edit the HTML once you have published so that you can make your site search engine friendly. Make sure your builder provider doesn’t include those annoying tags linking back to their site at the bottom either. They shouldn’t stick their link on your site unless you give them permission so read the terms of service before you sign up.

The bottomline with sitebuilders is that if you need a quick site put up, they are great. However, if you need special functions or features on your site, a sitebuilder may not be the best solution to your needs. A custom design will always give you more movement to do what you want and make your site stand out from the rest.

Protect Your site from playing in Sandbox

Sandbox is a filter added to the Google algorithms sometime back around March 2004.
It is pride for Google to ensure that the results it displays to its users within the SERPS lead to highly relevant, up-to-date, useful websites. Relevancy is key to the search engines success so it will take all steps it can to ensure the relevancy of its search results. Filtering out new websites and monitoring them may allow them to provide more accurate results within the real SERPS.
So most new websites under newly registered domains will get relegated to the sandbox.Google will find these newly created site by following an Inbound Link (IBL) from another site that the Googlebot crawls. You will then see the website in the normal Google SERPS if you search for the actual domain name. Now Google know that your pages exist and knows what they contain, but doesn’t list them in the main SERPS. In other words, because your website is new, it is under probation in the ’sandbox’.

But one question may arise in your mind,How Long Will My website Stay in the Google’s Sandbox?
It is difficult to say how long a website will stay in the Google sandbox.It totally depend on the types of keywords a site is completing for in the real SERPS. It can be up to 6-8 months and the only way to get out of the sandbox is to wait.

While Google sandbox is not something you can control, there are certain steps you can take in order to make the sandbox effect less destructive for your new site.There are ethical and unethical tips and tricks and unethical tricks can get you additional penalties or a complete ban from Google so beware for unethical tricks and as a new comer don’t go for that.You cannot fight the sandbox the only thing you can do is to adapt to it and patiently wait for time to pass till Google crawls your site.

There are many initiatives you can take, while your site is playing in sandbox :

1) Actively build content and good links : –
Try to build relevant and fresh content and good links for your site which take you to the top.When getting links don’t over do that. keep in mind that they need to be from trusted sources or from reputable places.If possible try getting links from .edu, .gov, and .mil domains this might help you because these domains are usually exempt from the sandbox filter. Don’t get 500 links a month – this will kill your site! or you would consider as spam. Instead, build links slowly and steadily.

2) Buy old or expired domains :–
The sandbox effect is more serious for new sites on new domains, so if you buy old or expired domains and launch your new site there, you’ll experience less problems.

3) Plan ahead :–
Try to launch your site when couple of pages are completed don’t wait for its total completion,This will start the clock and some traffic parallel to your site development efforts.

4) Host on a well Established host :-
Take care to host your new site on a subdomain of a well-established host (however, free hosts are generally not a good idea in terms of SEO ranking). The sandbox effect is not so severe for new subdomains (unless the domain itself is blacklisted). You can also host the main site on a subdomain and on a separate domain host just some contents, linked with the main site. You can also use redirects from the subdomained site to the new one.

5) Concentrate on less popular keywords :–
Try to find keywords which are less popular for your site and use them at different places.You could top the results for less popular keywords , it is better than nothing. And while you wait to get to the top for the most lucrative keywords, you can discover that even less popular keywords are enough to keep on traffic for you, so you may want to make some optimization for them in future.

6) Rely more on non-Google ways to increase traffic :–
It is often reminded that Google is not the only search engine or marketing tool out there. So plan your SEO efforts to include other search engines also, which either have no sandbox at all or the period of stay there is relatively short, this will also minimize the damages of the sandbox effect.

Progressive enhancement using SWFObject

Most websites today uses some sort of Shockwave/Flash animation components
but just think “What if some of web surfer doesn’t have the Flash player
installed on their system, - what do they see?”
Unfortunately, they just see a big, blank space! It may happen due to
absence of Flash player or due to their security settings set to block
ActiveX components. Another issue with Flash movies is that the code used to
embed a Flash file into your web page does not validate according to the W3C
HTML or XHTML specifications.Due to these reasons we normally avoid Flash,
deleting all that beautiful Flash work off our web site.But now you can venture into the arena of Flash detection by using SWFObject.

If you are building Flash sites professionally, you probably move all your
content out of your Flash movie and into an XML file or keep it in a
database. This makes it much easier to allow Google to index this content by
using progressive enhancement.

Progressive enhancement is a method of web development that goes hand in
hand with Web Standards. You start with your HTML (your content), then add
CSS (your look and feel), then add in additional behavior (Javascript, Ajax,
Flash, any other interactivity that isn’t handled automatically by the
browser).
The best way to add Flash progressively is by using Javascript, or more
specifically, a script like FlashObject (SWFObject).
SWFObject is a small Javascript file used for embedding Macromedia Flash
content. The script can detect the Flash plug-in in all major web browsers
and for different Platforms ( Mac and PC ).SWFObject can make embedding
Flash movies very easily.It is also very search engine friendly,can be used
in valid HTML and XHTML1.0 documents.
SWFObject is used for detecting the Flash plugin and embedding it into your
web page.

First you lay out your page as if you are not using Flash. If you are using
a database for your content, you can spit out that data as HTML where the
Flash movie will go on the page (or maybe just a preview of the content, it’
s up to you to show Google the content you would like indexed). Then you use
SWFObject to replace this content.This causes Google to skip the Flash swf
files and only index the HTML (the content!) you place on the page. You can
place links to other pages, images, whatever you want Google to index, and
when a viewer with a browser that supports Flash visits your site, they will
then see the Flash content. This gives you full control and much greater
predictability over what content Google will index…..and its done.

The popularity of blogs has been on a constant rise since the past few months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on their latest product and services news and reviews.

Blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing was done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included in newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.

Nowadays many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, people may even rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.

Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

A writer who has just launched his/her blog would want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues.

This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

* Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog.

* Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page. It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates.

* Add a favicon

Sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL adds a certain attraction. Many people do use such favicons  as it adds a professional look to the URL.

* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs online

* Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

* Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

There is a lot of scepticism online when it come to using Flash to design your website. The general view is websites which are designed in Flash are generally not as search engine friendly as websites which are designed in HTML. However, Flash has become very popular, and it is possible to create websites which have spectacular visuals. But there are certain steps to be followed to effectively optimize your Flash website.

One technique you could use is placing your Flash files within HTML files. By doing this, you will be able to add your META Tag data. You can also add some HTML above the Flash elements to add content to your pages which can effectively be spidered by the engines. It is important to make sure that you add large amounts of text within the Flash files. Search engines that read Flash will only be able to detect the text. Because of this, it is important to make sure your text is rich in keywords. It is also crucial to make sure the text you place in the Flash file is something you want the search engines to detect. Some phrases are not good for the search engines. The Google bot will travel through the links within your Flash files. This is why it is important to make sure you use anchor texts which have high quality keywords.

Another technique you can use to make you site more search engine friendly is to create a version of your site which doesn’t use Flash. By doing this, you get the best of both worlds. This will also help visitors who may not have the Flash plugin installed on their computers. It is important to remember that not everyone has high speed internet connections. Your site should be optimized for those with slow and fast internet connections. When you name your files, make sure they are correct. The keywords within the file names should always be split using dashes. An example of this would be google-engine.html.

While most SEO experts will warn you against using Flash, it is possible to use it on a site which is properly optimized. However, it requires you to make sure it is rich in text and keywords.

Many new webmasters, and even seasoned web designers sometimes create web sites that are very inefficient in regard to updates. Updating your site keeps visitors coming back day in and day out, while at the same time giving search engines plenty to index. Yet if the task of updating your web site is not an efficient one, hundreds and thousands of hours can be lost. Using simple solutions, such as content management systems, the efficiency of updating a web site can be improved dramatically.

The Trap of a ‘Simple’ Web Site

An inexperienced webmaster makes a web site using HTML with no Content Management System, no Style Sheets, no includes, then finds things need to be updated and goes through and changes every single page on the site. Meanwhile, an experienced Webmaster using includes or a CMS is able to update his or her site in a fraction of the time.

Fortunately, the trap is very easy to escape, and if the problem is addressed right away, not much time is lost at all. The downside is that if you get stuck in the trap, you can spend countless hours making changes to your site that otherwise could have taken minutes.

Getting Out of the ‘Simple’ Web Site Trap

To get out of the ’simple’ site trap, simply transfer your site to a CMS or use includes and style sheets. There are huge numbers of CMS solutions available. Some are free, some charge a one-time fee and others charge a subscription fee. Having someone there to answer your questions when you need them answered is a huge plus. Spending the extra money to get the extra service is often well worth the investment. If your budget is tight, Open Source CMS solutions are available for free. A good programmer can do a basic installation of such a system in a few hours. PHP Nuke is an example of one popular Open Source CMS.

Conclusion

Many CMS solutions do much more than just allow your web site to be updated easily. A top-notch solution will include email marketing, web forms, e-commerce, members’ areas, lead management, and more.

Having a good design for your landing pages is one of the most important aspects of web designing. The visitors do look at how a page looks and how quickly it loads, and this can even determine whether they leave the site or end up either bookmarking it or making a purchase. In order to improve the design of your landing pages, you should follow a few recommendations.

First of all, the page should load fast. Not everyone has broadband Internet, so you can’t assume that it will load fast for everyone. If a page doesn’t load in quick time, the visitors might get bugged up waiting and will leave.

The font for the text should be very easy to read, the font size should be proportionate, not too big not too small. Nobody likes to go to a site and have to squint to read the information. Most visitors will leave if that’s the case. Remember that the background should not obscure the text. Choose your colors carefully to make sure it is easy to read.

Your landing page should be easy to navigate. The buttons and call to actions should be easy to access and easy to read and use. It would be sad to have someone leave because they couldn’t figure out how to use your page.

Be sure to have a consistent layout and design. If you use more than one design type on your landing page, it won’t look neat and tidy. You want something visually appealing to the eye that flows together.

Avoid music or sounds. Visitors don’t necessarily appreciate music being blared at them, especially if they were already listening to something else. This just isn’t necessary. If you truly feel you need to have music, turn it off by default, and let them turn it on if they choose.

You should design your landing pages to be compatible not only with Internet Explorer, but also with Mozilla Firefox and Opera and other browsers.

Remember to design for all screen resolutions. Something that looks perfect in high resolution could actually be impossible to view in an 800×900.

The best way to make sure your landing pages are good is to test them out over and over again. Use people who are not familiar with your site to help you look for things you may have overlooked.

With so many websites already online and new websites popping up every single day, the competition level has rised to such an extent that a visitor can make a decision in a second whether to browse the internal pages of the site or leave after just browsing through the homepage. As a result of which many websites nowadays have extremely busy home pages. Webmasters nowadays try to sqeeze in every important information into the homepage of the site. So once you get there, you’re so overwhelmed with text and images that you have no idea what you want to do. So what can you do to ensure your website does not get that cluttered?

First off, how can you tell if your site is cluttered? While none of the following necessarily is an indication in and of themselves, they may be a sign that your site is getting cluttered.

- You have to scroll down a lot to view the whole page.

- There are more than three columns.

- The column count across the width of the page changes as you go down.

- Your site’s pages are not organized into categories.

Your site may have been growing this way for years, and now it seems impossible to fix. But there is always a way out of the mess.

First, archive anything on the front page that you have to scroll down pretty far to read. At the bottom of your page, you can put a link to older news.

Reorganize the layout of the front page so that there are three columns or less, and so that the columns stay the same all the way down the page. This will make the front page much less cluttered, so it will be easier for site visitors to pick out the information they need.

Make a list of all the pages in your site and separate them into categories. You may even need subcategories. Rework your menu system so that everything is organized into those categories. It may even help you to organize your site’s folder/directory structure so that they reflect the new categories and subcategories. You can also take the original list and create a page that is a site map. While not always necessary, this often helps search engines like Google index your entire site.

It might even be time to implement a content management system if you have enough information. Having a dynamic site ensures that this sort of thing will be unlikely to happen to your site again.