Posts tagged as:

search engines

Keeping Your Small Business Website Updated

by Jon on June 18, 2010 in Miscellaneous · 0 Comments

I know I’ve said this before but I thought it would important to emphasize the importance of updating your small business website to make sure that your content is up to date with your business. Updating makes sure your site doesn’t seem neglected, as the whole “build- a-website-then-forget-about-it” mentality doesn’t work anymore. Building a website just for the sake of having one is obviously a waste of the time and resources you invested in its creation. Instead, you should remember that your site is an important part of your business and demands your attention and proactive participation.

First of all, you should remember that updating your site helps to keep you on the good site of search engines like Google and Yahoo!. This shows that there’s always something going on in your site and activity is always a good thing.

Try to update daily if you can, add links or new images or something to keep your site up to date with your new products or services or any new content that you think should be on it. Don’t wait for the start of a new week or month especially if you think the content will capture the interest and attention of clients and boost your business.

Conduct regular site maintenance at least once a month. Be sure to check if your images and video are loading properly, read through the content for grammatical errors, and if your articles and write ups are still talking about things that say “recent” but are actually years or months old. If you still have these, remove from your NEWS section and put them in your archives section.

A little checking never hurts as you can’t have people visiting your site, wanting to see something that you say is there but it really isn’t. This can have a negative effect on your reliability for prospective clients and unless your product of service is unique, on the internet, it’s so much easier for visitors to just look for another site for similar products or services.

Similarly, you should also check the links on your site if you’ve got any. Whether it’s a video, picture, social networking site, or new article of our latest accomplishment, you should be sure that these links are up and running all the time. You can use sites like RankChecker.com to check the responsiveness of your existing links for you. Also, if you signed up for Google Webmaster Tools, they regularly send you updates on the condition of your links so it’s a good way to stay abreast with your links. You can also check if the sites which you put your links on are actually linked back to your site via Yahoo Site Explorer, it’s free.

Don’t be afraid to look for new sites which you can link to your own if you think it’ll help boost the number of visitors, just be sure to keep these links organized and not have them cluttering up the place.

Be sure to keep updated on your copyrights, licenses and security certifications, to ensure that these aren’t expired. The renewal of said documentation will make it easier for you in the long run as lack of certification can often lead to search engines notifying users that your site isn’t certified as secure and convincingly scare them away.

If you regularly put in designs for holidays and important dates like Valentine’s Day, Halloween or Christmas, be sure to take these down once the said date or season is done. Its fine to be festive and get into the spirit of the season but its altogether different when people expect you to be working instead of celebrating.

Remember that whether it’s a new year or a new season, monitoring and updating your site is something that you have to do if you want your site to prosper. Your small business website isn’t merely an investment, it is often a commitment so be sure to take the time to work on it so that the site, in turn, can work for you as well.

Tagged as: anymore, building, business, computing, content, emphasize, forgotten, google, human-computer interaction, hypertext, internet, keeping, mentality, neglected, search engines, small business website, the links, updated, website, world wide web, yahoo!, your small business

0 comments

WordPress Themes: Making Your Website Stand Out

by Jon on May 8, 2010 in WordPress · 0 Comments

Creating a website may take a lot of hard work – no matter what content management system you use to facilitate the process. But when you know the shortcuts available to you, there is a lot you can do to make the process pain-free.

An increasing number of people are using WordPress to build their websites, and as this continues, there will be more people who know that by making it easier to create a good WordPress site, there is money to be made. The most obvious example of this is in the responses you will get if you type WordPress themes into a search engine.

A basic WordPress site will be functional. If you wish to create a blog that will be easy to read and simple to navigate, then you really need do no more than register on WordPress and start writing. However, if you wish to define a specific identity, WordPress on its own will only take you so far. There are a few themes you can choose from, and these can be selected as simply as making a few clicks of a mouse. However, these are designed for non-specific mass appeal and by that logic they are limited in terms of real identity. If you want to be more innovative and stand out more, you may need to look elsewhere.

There are many people who create WordPress themes specifically to give wider options to users who have a specific need. Some of these people make their creations available for free, hosting them on their own sites which, due to their popularity, can then be hives for advertisement space. Others will design WordPress themes to a specific brief. So if, for example, you want to run a site which deals with a particular sports team, you can define the look you want to a person who will then design a WordPress theme that is identifiably influenced by that sports team.

You yourself can create WordPress themes, if you have enough knowledge of CSS and HTML coding. Because of WordPress’ ease of customization, you need only make a few changes to the coding it provides and tailor the look of your new site to a specific need. This is one of the major selling points of the software. It does a job for those who would not be able to operate without it, but also supports the more defined needs of those with a little more knowledge. Those who cannot write code at all will enjoy the fact that they are free to concentrate on content, while those who can are grateful for the framework.

These days, people are aware that there is a lot of competition for attention, and therefore it is valuable to be able to stand out from the crowd. Using the right WordPress theme will make this a whole lot easier, and finding the right theme is only going to get easier as skilled designers realize the potential to showcase their work and make money that WordPress provides.

Tagged as: blog, blog software, competitions, computing, content management systems, distinctive, making, php programming language, premium quality, premiums, search engines, stand out, stands, themes, WordPress, wordpress themes, world wide web, your website

0 comments

Helpful Joomla Tips And Tricks

by Jon on April 17, 2010 in Joomla Maintenance,Miscellaneous · 0 Comments

A content management system like Joomla is as beneficial for what you can do on an ongoing basis as it is for the original creation of a website. When it comes to troubleshooting your website “in progress”, there is an array of tips and tricks that will make the process a lot easier, and this is just one of the reasons why Joomla has become such a popular site for people who would otherwise find the maintenance of a website to be a headache they could do without.

The following are some of those tips and tricks.

  • For sites where you have a registered list of users, Joomla allows you to block problem users rather than delete their account. This means that you can “suspend” users rather than simply banning them.
  • Joomla separates the HTML for content and design. This allows you to make smaller specific changes without having to change the whole coding of your website.
  • If you are using Joomla for sales purposes, then you can install a PayPal module into an article, allowing you to streamline your sales process by keeping the sales content and the payment screen on the same page.
  • During the spells when downtime is unavoidable, you can display your own “Site Offline” page which is relevant to your site. This allows you to make the experience more personal, and to include updates on when the site will be back up and why it is down.
  • Joomla allows you to edit your “favicon”. This is the little icon that shows up on the corner of a tab in your web browser. Therefore, instead of having the default Joomla favicon showing, you can have your own personalized one, making for a more distinct site identity.
  • When writing articles on Joomla it is possible to include an alternative title. This title will not be seen by your readers but is used for SEO purposes – so if you want to have a specific title showing to interest or amuse your readers, and another one to attract search engine “crawlers”, you can.
  • Although it might be tempting to load a “splash” entry page as the first thing people will see when they come to your site, forget about it. You can have one of those on a set-piece secondary page if you really must, but these pages have no text on them and that means that search engines will wander on by – ruining your traffic numbers.
  • Always fill out the Meta Description and Meta Keyword fields when you are updating a page on your site. As a default, these are loaded with Joomla-specific information and it means that when people search for the terms which apply to your site, they will find … sites that are not yours. Even if your site does show up, there is a chance that the description underneath will read “Joomla – the dynamic portal engine and content management system”. Which won’t make them visit, most of the time.

Tagged as: array, blog software, computing, content management, Content Management System, content management systems, favicon, free software, joomla, php programming language, processes, sales process, search engines, system software, tips, tips and tricks, tricks, troubleshoot, uddeim

0 comments

Creating an Article in Joomla

by Jon on March 25, 2010 in Joomla Content · 0 Comments

Probably the most popular usage of Joomla is by content creators – particularly writers – who know what they are good at and know that it is not web design. There has for some time now been a wide range of blogging platforms which allow good writers to create content and display it in a way which makes it easier on the eye. However, up until now that has rather been the problem. There is a certain amount of (largely unjustified) snobbery directed at blogging which has had the effect of discouraging some people from reading and others from writing blogs.

Although some people view Joomla as a blogging platform – and it certainly can be if you want it to be – it does have the advantage over a wide range of other sites in that it is really a lot more than just a blogging platform. Although the stigma attached to blogging is an unfair one, if you are capable of writing informative and interesting articles, you may find that they are better displayed in another way. Joomla allows this kind of versatility and is, for that reason, very popular among content creation experts.

When creating an article in Joomla, the first place to go to is – unsurprisingly – the “Add Article” button. This will take you to the “article composition” screen, where you will be presented with a range of options for your article. On a step-by-step basis, you create your article as follows:

  • Enter The Title: This will be the heading for your article, and will show in bold at the top of it. Search engines give titles more prominence than the body of the article, so it should be a relevant title. You may also add an “alias”, which will not be seen by your readers but will be used by search engines.
  • Select A Category: You have the option here to choose a “section” and a “category” for your article. This is helpful for navigation (for your readers) and for categorization (important for search engines).
  • Type Your Introduction: When you look at articles written online, you will note that often, after a paragraph or two, there is a link saying “Read More”. This allows the display of your site to be tidier, while still making it easy to find and read longer articles. Your introduction is everything that is included before that point.
  • Write The Rest Of The Article: A major point in Joomla’s possibility is its ease of use. When you want to move from the introduction to the main article, you click the “Read More” button. In the text box this will be illustrated by a red line underneath the intro text, so you know what is in the open and what is under the link.
  • Say Who Wrote The Article: On the right-hand side of the screen there will be a section for information about the author. Into this you can type an author alias (which may be your real name, if you wish). If you leave this blank you will be identified as “Administrator”.
  • Update Metadata Information: This is not an obligatory step, but allows you to include keywords and a description which will get you a better search engine ranking.
  • Save Your Article: It won’t display unless it is saved.

That’s it! You have created your first article in Joomla.

Tagged as: article, article writing, articles, blog, blog software, blogging, blogging platform, computing, content management systems, creating, describe, especially, joomla, php programming language, search engines, web designs, wide range, world wide web

0 comments