About those META commands

Some of you have heard by now that fewer search engines are looking at META commands to determine search engine ranking. While this may be true, don't give up on META's. At some point in the future, META's may play a role once more, so be sure to properly set META's up when optimizing your web pages.

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

File names as keywords

Another way to market your keywords on a specific web page is to make sure your file names include the keywords for that page. You can do this with image files, .pdf files, your html files, etc. It is best to do this for new pages more so than existing pages, but if search engines aren't seeing you anyway, go ahead and give the existing pages a shot as well.

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Are your keywords in your page title?

Remember to get your page-specific keywords into your page Title! Make it unique for each page. Search engines really like this one (as do your visitors) and it can definitely help in your web site page rankings.

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Side bars are on your side!

Don't forget to use side bars when designing your business web pages. Side bars help to organize your site and you can put all your menu links in a side bar as well. Most people look for a side bar of some sort when surfing the web and you want to make it easy for them to navigate your site. Let us know if you have questions.

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

You need a site map for your web site!

Do you have a map of your web site that a search engine can find and easily navigate? For a free utility that will help you create a site map, check this out: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

This neat little program will also find broken links on your site. Check it out and let me know what you think!

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Font-iquette

When picking text fonts for your web site, make sure they are widely used, like Times New Roman, Arial, Sans Serif, or Comic Sans MS. Also, go with one font as your main font and then a second font for emphasis. This will keep your web pages looking professional and organized.

Happy web paging!
-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Use text and images for menu items

Be sure to offer both a text selection and an image/button selection for your menus or links. This way, if the visitor's browser does not load the image (or if they have images turned off), they can still navigate your web site. Just a little thing, but it may be the difference between them staying or leaving.

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

The value of content

You have seen all the stuff about adding your keywords to alt-text, making them part of filenames, etc. However, if you don't make sure those keywords are part of your actual tectual content and near the top of the page (bolding and making them links is good, too), you may be missing a great opportunity!

I saw a site recently whose text was entirely contained within image files. The only searchable text was the word "image," over and over again. That just won't work if you want to be found on the web.

Give this some thought when you are working on *your* web site! Until next time...
-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Colorized your text yet?

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads out there!

Don't forget that you can use color in your text and backgrounds, not for the search engines, but for your customers once they find your site. Use it to emphasize (or even deemphasize) text and to make it easy for the viewer to be drawn to what you want them to see on your web page.

Be sure to do this tastefully, of course. You want to attract visitors and even repeat visitors to your web site. It is little things like these that can set your web site apart from other sites.

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Web site optimization is important!

Do you have a web site that no one can find? You may need to optimize your web site using the keywords people are typing in when searching for a web site like yours. Search engines are constantly changing the way they rank web sites. In fact, Google is reported to have made some major changes recently as to how they rank sites. On-going tracking of your web site position in search engine rankings can help you determine how you are doing and where you need to make changes.

Give Golden Webs a call if you need professional search engine optimization expertise. We want you to be successful on the Internet!

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Don't forget those RSS feeds!

Heard of RSS yet? RSS means 'Rich Site Summary' and is a neat way to get a lot of fresh content on your web pages. If the RSS 'feed' is relevant to what your web site has to offer, you can catch the eye of Googlebot and other bots as well. Let us know if you are interested!
-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Linking your keywords

A great way to improve your keyword relevance is to have keyword links to the correct pages on your web site from other pages. For example:

Instead of "Click here for more information on keywords."

Say, "You can really help search engines find you through the effective use of keywords.

Give it a try. It really makes a difference!
-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

One keyword - one page

Be sure to create a separate web page for each significant keyword you use on your web site. This will ensure that you have a page that is keyword-relevant. Use your special keyword multiple times throughout the text body, headers, alt text, etc. This takes a little time, but is well worth the effort in your web site design!

-Bill

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Googlebot update - now a daily check!

Thanks, I believe, to the blog, Googlebot is now checking www.goldenwebs.biz daily. This is an excellent tool for search engine optimization because, if you get Google to check daily, changes you make to any part of your web site should be updated daily as well.

For web site design, web site maintenance, and search engine optimization, think of Golden Webs. We are based in Columbus, Ohio, but have clients throughout the United States.

http://www.goldenwebs.biz

My Googlebot visits are increasing!

Here is an update on the test involving a daily blog post of tips related to your web site and search engine ranking efforts.

In just 5 days, I have increased Googlebots visits from 15 days to 4 days to just 2 days. My goal is to get a daily visit from Googlebot. I believe that other bots will use a similar algorithm. This is good stuff! Let me know what you think.

-Bill
http://www.goldenwebs.biz

About "white space" on your web site

Hello! Ever surf a site and had problems just trying to figure out where you were or where you wanted to go? Make sure your web site design has plenty of "white space" and that in your design, you draw the reader's eyes where *you* want them to go! This really works!
-Bill

www.goldenwebs.biz

Tracking Googlebot visits to your site

Today, I researched into tracking Googlebot visits to my sites and found a neat .PHP solution as well as a site that tracks changes for you. I am not sure how these things will work, but I got notification of three Googlebot visits to one of my sites over the past two days. Time will tell, but let me know if you want to know more about this!
-Bill

www.goldenwebs.biz

Blogging is a great way to add visibility to your site

I know I am just beginning to experiment with this, but it looks like blogs are great ways for search spiders to like your site, in terms of keyword relevance. Our site focuses on web site design and development, web site maintenance, and search engine optimization.

The neat thing about using blogger.com for this is that Google owns it. ;-)

It is possible to make it seamlessly appear as part of your site, but I am just happy to use it at all. The other thing is that you need to update your blog daily if you can, but no less than weekly.

Check it out!

-Bill
http://www.goldenwebs.biz

Golden Webs Blog is now open!

Feel free to ask questions about designing, maintaining, or optimizing your web site and we will try to point you in the right direction!

Golden Webs BLOG is now here

Welcome to Golden Webs BLOG!