Google making search more interesting
Search results are changing. Homestead users need to understand how the changes will effect their copy writing in order to gain the full potential of the way Search Engines are pulling results.
Posts tagged ‘Search Engine Optimization’
5 Ways to Lose Visitors
We all have a mental list of things that bother us about websites; things that send us scrambling to another site. The web is huge, competition is fierce and the best thing a webmaster 
can do is to adhere to the KISS principle. (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID). Users of the Intuit-Homestead SiteBuilder program to design sites need an awareness of what does and doesn’t work on the web. (more…)
Website Maintenance – Keep It In Good Shape
Spring is here! It’s a good time to get your Homestead-Intuit website in tip-top condition.
When was the last time you took a good close look at your website? We make quick changes now and then, but don’t usually pay attention to the big picture. A website can always use a bit of maintenance because errors tend to happen. A website that is error free is not only important for visitor retention, but is part of good search engine optimization as well.
Common Errors:
- Spelling errors – spell check is great but won’t pick up homonyms (two words pronounced the same, with different meanings); weather/whether, break/brake for example.
- Alignment errors – a misaligned list can make a site look sloppy and unprofessional
- Overlaps – the border and bullet elements in SiteBuilder add padding and can throw off the placement of elements. Finding these requires checking the site in different browsers as each browser handles coding a bit differently.
- Grammatical errors – Poor grammar can reflect negatively on your service or product.
- Outdated information or events that have passed scream site neglect.
- Broken links – they happen to the most diligent of webmasters.
- The dreaded red X – this happens too. An image name is changed or it’s moved from the original location breaking the link to the image/graphic.
- Stray element boxes should be eliminated. It’s easy to create a text box, get distracted and forget you made one. Using the Select All option will show all the elements on a page – including ones that shouldn’t be there.
- Check the spelling in your Meta Tags. Page titles, descriptions, and key words often contain errors. Copy and paste them either to Notepad or directly onto the page to check them.
We tend to see what we know/think should be there rather than what actually IS there. If you have a really good friend, willing family member or co-worker who has time on their hands, enlist them to help proof your site. A fresh pair of eyes can help pick out those errors that you might be overlooking. If you don’t have someone who can assist then look at your website in a different way when you proof it.
Proofing Your Site:
- Start at the back (last page) and work forward.
- Read from bottom to top.
- Copy the page content and paste it into notepad or Word and increase the font size.
Keeping your website in good shape will show visitors and the Search Engines that there is webmaster activity on the site making it more credible to both.
Download the free Website Design Guide to refresh your memory on the do’s and don’ts for websites and incorporate necessary changes when you are tuning up your site.
Lots of Website Visitors – Few Results
This is something we hear often. I get all these visitors to my site, but they don’t buy or they don’t fill out a form or they don’t do whatever it is that I am hoping they will do when they visit my site. These webmasters have well-optimized sites, all the t’s are crossed and I’s are dotted, they show up well in searches, but still the number of visitors far outweighs the resulting purchases or form filing or whatever action is hoped for.
Granted there can be mechanical or design flaws that might be preventing a visitor from becoming a customer/client, but that would be very obvious when some sales turned to no sales.
So how can it be that so many visit and only a few give us the results we had hoped for? Converting visitors to clients…
Search Engines Gone Astray
Simply having a website does not guarantee that the world will beat a path to your door (I’m sure I’ve said that before, but it bears repeating!). There are hundreds of millions (billions perhaps) of websites, so competition is fierce to try and place prominently in search engine results. Face it, if you aren’t on at least page 2 of the SERPS chances are good you just aren’t going to get much traffic.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a must if a site is ever going to improve in positioning. There are many basic components involved in optimizing a site – it can become a full time job and even then you can’t be assured of reaching the top of the heap. And the Search Engines make it harder all the time. In my opinion, they’ve gone over the edge of what truly constitutes a top site.
Things started going downhill when the SE’s began putting importance on the number of backlinks a site had. Supposedly it meant that the more backlinks a site had, the more visitors found it worthwhile which meant that it was a top notch site. Seriously? Is that really going to determine a quality site? You can buy backlinks so how does that prove the value of a site? And, really? how many webmasters are going to link to 100′s or 1000′s of other sites when it’s incoming links to their own site that are more valuable and particularly one-way links (non-reciprocal links – meaning they link to you, you don’t link to them) There’s something wrong with this picture.
It proceeded to get more convoluted with the advent of blogs. All of a sudden Blogs were the be all, end all. Everyone needed one and the SE’s began to put blogs on the list of how to improve link juice to your site. As a side note here I have a couple of clients who belong to a blog for a particular profession. They have begun allowing members to re-post other member’s previous posts. Why? Well with thousands of people posting about a specific profession I believe they’ve run out of original things to post about so they’re recycling! Go Green I say. Many blogs have really evolved into semi-websites. There are some awesome blogs out there, but for the most part they are just posts with little value and are merely taking up space – kinda like this one! 
The advent of social media sites was one things really tanked. Once again the Search Engines went off the mark and began putting emphasis on the nutworking sites as I call them. Again I can only say SERIOUSLY? Anyone running a business has their hands full already – the last thing they need is to have to belong to a dozen social sites where they have to tweet, or write on a wall or dig something EVERY DAY in order for it to do any good. And guess what happens? The information highway becomes more and more diluted and ridiculous. Tweet this! Many of these sites have their value for people who have nothing else to do than be social butterflies, some are a great way for families who want to stay in touch, but for the most part they are valueless. Get rid of them? No, because they do serve a purpose for some people. Make them part of SEO juice? NO!
Essentially there are four kinds of websites:
- Informational sites – sites that provide information about a specific topic or topics. Authority sites, government sites, library sites and so on
- Sites that offer a limited variety of products or a service they are selling such as real estate sites, pet sites, etc., but also provide information about the service or the target for their products.
- E-Commerce sites – These are internet stores that sell products and offer little or no information other than product descriptions
- Personal and Organization sites – Sites about family reunions, sports team sites, organizations, and the like
This is where the true value of the internet lies, not in twitting or facebooking or digging or stumbling. While those types of sites may hold interest or entertainment for some, I don’t feel that the Search Engines should be placing any value on whether or not a website is tied to one of these social networking sites.
Webmasters keep your focus and continue to make those websites strong, with good content and useful information. Add pages, update, add the site to directories and keep giving your visitors what they are really searching for.
Be sure you get listed in that Directory
Is your site being listed in directories or ending up in the trash? Directories all have specific criteria you must follow in order to get your site listed. Don’t be one of those who fall through the cracks because you failed to read and follow directions …
So you think you’re a website designer …
Being a website designer is about more than just putting up a template and adding a few pictures and text. To be successful you need to know the in’s and out’s of good design, usability standards, search engine optimization and what does and doesn’t work with the SiteBuilder program …
Continue Reading November 11, 2009 at 4:53 pm Leave a comment
Google – Too much Caffeine?
Google is in the process of a new algorithm change termed Caffeine. How will this affect your Homestead website and what can you do to lessen the impact? Read on ….
Help With SiteBuilder Program for Intuit – Homestead Users
Support for the Homestead SiteBuilder program is available from both Homestead itself and from Homestead users who have built a comprehensive system to aid both inexperienced and seasoned users in getting the most from their Homestead web site …
The Homestead Connection Forum has moved
The Homestead Connection Forum has relocated. Please join us at the Forum dedicated to helping users of Homestead Technologies sitebuilder software …
