Aug
21
Stylesheets Advantages
08:22 am
Because you are able to create a separate Stylesheet and link it to all your webdocuments, you have great control over how your website looks. So if you want to change a certain aspect of your page, you only need to alter one file: your Stylesheet!
This Of course, generates some great flexibility. This flexibility is not available when your website is using tables for layout, inline font tags or inline defined colors.
A single CSS file can contain positioning, layout, font, colors and style information for an entire web site.
2. You site uses less bandwidth and loads faster
Because stylesheets are so lightweight, your website will load much faster. The main reason is because you do not need table layouts anymore for the positioning of elements. Since text loads really really fast your website will be visible in a flash.
This means that visitors will be happier when surfing your website. They only have to download the Stylesheet once, and it’s automatically reused for every page. So the only thing that needs to be loaded is the actual content.
On average a website will load five to ten times faster if it makes use of cascading style sheets.
3. Your website will automatically gain better search engine results
With CSS, you can position any element, anywhere you want. So if your menu is at the bottom of your HTML document, you can bring it up using absolute positioning. The reason this is useful is to make sure the search engine spiders pick up the main content first.
Another advantage you automatically gain is that your HTML code is much cleaner. So the search engine spider will not have to separate the junk code from the real content.
So make sure you put your logo text and your menu at the bottom of your HTML document at put it at the top using CSS!
4. CSS is compatible with newer browsers
Because more and more browsers are used other than Internet Explorer on a Windows machine, you need to be sure that your website is accessible by all major and newer browsers.
By using webstandards, defined by the w3c, you are making sure your content is viewable in the future.
Because there are so many browsers these days, it is impossible to test your website in all these browsers on different configurations. Coding to standards is then the only practical solution.
5. CSS can be used to display the same content on different media.
Because you are able to define different stylesheets for different media you have great flexibility in presenting your content.
The printer for example, is a medium on itself. If someone prints out your website, you will be able to modify the look of it. Add an extra black and white logo, remove the advertisements and change the colors to black and white values. It’s all done easily by using cascading stylesheets. And the best thing is, visitors do not even have to know you created a new Stylesheet especially for the printer.
Stylesheets can also be created specifically for PDA’s and such. As you will understand, this adds some great flexibility to the presentation of your web document.
Conclusion
Cascading Style Sheets are created to make things easier. It gives you great control of your website and makes your visitors happy when they are surfing your website.
You are prepared for the future and will gain better search engine results automatically. Start using CSS to its full potential today! It will suit you well.
Filed Under CSS, SEO Tips and Tricks and Web Layout Design | Add comment
Aug
13
The 10 Biggest Search Engine Optimization Mistakes
10:53 am
Your page title on your home page is the biggest indicator to search engines of what your website is about. If it doesn’t succinctly explain exactly what your website offers, as well as containing your keyword phrase as discussed in Search Engine Mistake #1, then you’re missing out significantly on website visitors.
What is a website page title?
The page title is the writing in the blue bar at the top of a web page, and originates in the Meta Tags, which are a set of instructions for search engines and technicians at the beginning of your web page. These Meta Tags are not displayed in the normal view of your website. However, (assuming your are using Internet Explorer) all you have to do is click on the ‘View’ tab at the top of the page and then select ‘Source’ to view the code behind your website.
Your page title will be in-between the two ‘HTML Tags’ and (which indicates the start and end of the page title).
Your page title is also shown as the clickable title link displayed in search results, if your site has been found using a search engine query.
The most common page title mistake that businesses make
Most businesses are proud of their brand name. Unfortunately that means that they want their brand name all over their website. Including all the areas that should be used for keyword phrases instead. Businesses HAVE to find a way to take independent advice AND act upon it without their brand coloured glasses on when deciding on their website page title.
How to write an effective page title
A page title should be between 10 and 60 characters long – including spaces. Any longer, and it may be cut when appearing in search engine results. It should ideally JUST be the keyword phrase that you have decided on for your page (Refer to The 10 Biggest Search Engine Optimization Mistakes: #1: Wrong Keywords).
A good example of an effective page title would be ‘Internet Marketing Consultant’.
The second best example of an effective page title would also include the brand name – for example, ‘David Bain - Internet Marketing Consultant’. This effectiveness of this title is however diminished compared to the first example.
The worst possible page title in this example would be ‘David Bain’. If found in search engine results, hardly anyone would visit the site because the title doesn’t denote what the website is about. In addition, the chances of appearing in desired search engine results would be reduced significantly due to the lack of keywords.
Remember to think about all your website pages – each page title on each page should be optimized. Not just your home page. A good example is the website http://www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz where all the business article categories have their own key phrase focused category pages. Take time getting your page titles right. It will prove to be an extremely beneficial tool for significantly increasing your future website traffic.
Filed Under SEO Tips and Tricks and Tutorials | Add comment
Aug
10
How to Promote Your Home Business On Internet Effectively!!!
07:20 pm
When you are just starting out with your home business, making it grow can be quite a challenge. You need to have money in order for you to install equipments and software to help you with your tasks. If you do not have these, then you might just as well give up, since you need something to make communication with the customers easy.
On the other hand, you also need marketing strategies to make your business known among the people. If you do not promote your business well, nobody will know that you are trying to sell them items or services. If you are running on a tight budget, you may need to scrimp on equipments and marketing ideas. When this happens, you might not be able to make your home business grow.
If you want to make your business expand, you have to remember that you need effective marketing plans. With successful and strategic promotion ideas, you will be able to direct several customers to your business. If you want to lead the competition, then the best place for you to market your home business is over the Internet.
There are a lot of home business Internet marketing strategies which you can use. Some of these require fees, while there are also some which require low or no costs at all. To get you started, you need to set up a website for your home business. If you are not an expert with website designing, then seek the assistance of a professional website designer. It would be better if you spend on a service which you are sure of, rather than develop a website even if you know little about it.
When you finally have your own site, submit its URL to different search engines. Once you are listed within the directories, possible viewers might be directed to your site, depending on its effectiveness. Most sites which receive a lot of audience are those which rank within the first page of search engine results.
If you want to rank high in page results, then you have to develop effective search engine optimization ideas. You can use keywords which are related to the content of your site, or to the services or items which you are offering. You can also develop a presentable design for your website content. Use graphic designs, although not too much to make downloading easy. The texts should be bold to catch the eyes of the viewers. The colors should be pleasing and warm. Avoid bright colors; no one would want to stick to a site which uses colors that hurt the eyes. Another effective SEO technique would be link building. If you want to build links with other online sites, then opt for those which has the same content topics with your site.
Other home business Internet marketing techniques include banner exchanges, wherein you can display your site’s banner at other online sites. You can also use newsletters, discussion groups and search engine tools. A variety of these are offered for free or at specific values. It is up to you if you want to spend much or not. You only have to remember that sticking to one home business Internet marketing plan is not effective enough. You have to use it along with other methods.
Filed Under SEO Tips and Tricks | 7 comments
Jul
28
A,B,C for SEO takers
01:06 pm
SEO is not rocket science, it just requires some serious research and work. In an ideal world, a website would be built around core SEO principles from the start…unfortunately this is not always the case! Sometimes we have to redesign elements of the site so that it performs at its best.
Here are the key steps in optimising your site:
*Research your keywords, and write lots of content around these keywords. All search engines love content, so the more the better. DO NOT cut and paste from other sources, as this will get your site tagged as duplicate content. Update this content frequently, as again this will impact favourably on your search engine rankings.
*Make sure that all your HTML tags are utilised fully. Title tags and alt tags are very important. Too often I come across sites that have not used their tags fully, and they wonder why they are not receiving good rankings!
*Add a privacy policy, contact page, and a good sitemap page to your site. All of these add to the trust factor with the search engines. A good sitemap shows the search engine how to crawl your site correctly, and will help identify any problems within the sites’ structure.
*Submit your site to all of the major search engines. Some companies will tell you that this is not neccessary; they are correct in that eventually the search engines will find your site. Submitting your site, however, will just speed the process along.
*Submit your site to lots of good quality web directories. Start with the big directories, such as Google, Yahoo, and Dmoz. There are literally thousands of other directories out there that can be useful to you.
*Find places that you would like to be linked from, contact the webmasters, and exchange links. This is the most time consuming part of any SEO campaign, but also the one that can produce the best results.
*Implement a good analytics tool and use the data to enhance your marketing thrust. Google analytics is a great, free, tool for doing this.
*As an ongoing process, write good articles about your industry, and submit them to article sites. This will provide a link to your site, and if the article is reprinted, will result in more visitors to your site.
These are the general guidelines for successful SEO, but I also recommend using a PPC campaign, especially with Google. It will take you a while to get this right, but when you do, will result in great results for you.
Happy “SEO”-ing
Filed Under SEO Tips and Tricks, Tutorials and Website promotion | Add comment