Doing a Keyword Research is one of the most important parts of building a succesful website. You can find many tools on the internet, which help you doing a Keyword Research.
Some of them are free of charge and some not. Jenny Halasz from SearchEngineLand has tested three of the ones which are for free. You can read her article at SearchEngineLand.
If you plan to use Buttons for Facebook in your Blog you should definetly want them to be shown in your Blogs language. But don’t worry too much about it. The Facebook Button will always appear in the language, in which the viewers browser is set or if he is logged in to Facebook, they will be shown in the language the users Facebook account is set.
Nowadays it is getting more and more important to create your own website for mobile devices too. In the future most users will access the internet with their mobile devices like smartphones or tablets.
You have many opportunities to create a mobile version of your website. You can use a responsive webdesign, a special mobile theme for your CMS or even building your own app. Today Google presented a new website, which supports webmasters to to build and test their own mobile version. You can check your website and get additional information why a mobile website is important at How to go mobile!
Most of you should know the basic search operators for the Google websearch. There are some tricks, which can help you to get the most relevant search results for your enquiry. The most common operators are: Continue reading
We already wrote about some measures you might take to get more people visiting your website. A good possibility to raise awareness is becoming active in internet forums and social media portals and social bookmarks. Discuss, gain trust and every now and then, let the people know about your website and what people might derive from it. Continue reading
If you are an entrepreneur, the happiness of your customers should be one of your main priorities. The effective use of Facebook allows you the opportunity to get instant feedback from your customers and provide quick support or guidance.
It will of course depend on your business, but if there is a need for customer support, why not use Facebook, too? Depending on the demand you may need a couple of employees to assist in answering questions that are posted.
Remember though if you decide to offer such a service you need to ensure you satisfy the needs of the customers. If you show that you are committed to their needs and that you take them seriously, your customers will feel appreciated and are more likely to return.
If a customer has something to complain about then this is a good way to get to know about it and please your customers. You may fear a negative impact if your company gets criticised publicly but note that this can take place anywhere online without knowing about (forums etc.). Regard critical posts as an opportunity to monitor and deal with your customers concerns and desires.
Be natural, polite and committed and you will see a customer support page will pay off.
Beyond that, you arecreating new organic content!
Open Graph is like a family tree but far more complex. Imagine all connections there are between everybody and everything. In this sense it is likely you would be connected to R.E.M., Back to the future and Bill Murray if you “like” any one of them. The Graph Rank applies to Open Graph applications, not to page posts.
If page posts are shown in your newsfeed these get determined by the Edge Rank. Notice that each user gets to see different activities of friends or bands or politicians you like etc.
The activities that are shown depend on the following factors: Continue reading
Why is there all this hype about SEO? What does it even do?
SEO – Search engine optimisation – is an umbrella term for the various methods you can use to improve your website rank in search engines. There are several approaches to achieve this but you won’t need to decide on just one because they all complement each other. In this entry we are going to focus on giving you the top tips since it’s impossible to discuss the whole subject in one article and furthermore, SEO is ever-changing, so you need to make sure you keep up with all the latest developments. A driving force behind these constant changes is Google, the most important and influential search engine. The reason why Google changes the algorithm of its search engine is to prevent so-called black hat SEO, there are many people who try to “trick” search engines to improve their website ranking. For Google its comparable to the ongoing cycle of inventing a new copy protection and the guys cracking it. For example: Google invented the “nofollow” attribute, meaning an admin of a website can implement this attribute to make sure posted links won’t be acknowledged by Google to prevent link spamming of a website that someone wants to get ranked higher. To get to know more, click here.
Getting started with on page optimization
Everyone wants to rank highly in Google. We will present the basic elements to you without going in too unnecessary detail. There are many so we will give advice and hopefully inspire you on a regular basis. There are two main parts you can work on. The first one is called on page optimisation and the second one is off page optimisation. Before even launching your website you could start with on page optimisation, this includes HTML codes, the correct description on pictures, permalinks, the usage of certain keywords in a certain volume and other possibilities we will present you shortly.
About off page optimisation
After setting up a high quality website you can (and should) start with off page optimisation. All in all you want to get visitors, this is in general the purpose of most websites. To get visitors you need people to know about your website. This is hard work, you need to spread the word and there are several ways to do so. Some strategies to optimise your website are recommended by Google and others are not. As already mentioned Google is constantly working on improving their results in showing websites with good content on top. How irritating would it be to search for a certain keyword and only finding cheap, irrelevant websites just because someone used dubious methods. This doesn’t help Google popularity stakes so they are keen to deliver what a searcher hopes to find. Sooner or later Google will find any unjustly top ranked websites and punish them by removing them from their index or putting the website into the nirvana of search engine page results. So, if you want to be successful in the long run be smart and refrain from any black hat approaches or even worse, pay a “pro” a huge amount of money to push your website.
The Page Rank
An indicator of the relevance of your website is your Page Rank. The algorithm behind it was named after a guy named Larry Page, fact of the day! Simply put, the Page Rank is the result of incoming links to your website. These are external links referring from other website to yours but it is not the quantity that counts. 56 links from website more or less nobody visits are worth much less than one link from a very reputable, high ranking website. So back links from relevant websites are very important and one of the main aspects you want to concentrate on, since ultimately your Page Rank is connected to your ranking in Google. Rank 10 symbolizes the highest amount of relevance. To ascertain your Page Rank you could add the plug in “seoquake” into your Firefox browser, just click “page information” and you can get some decent information about every website you are on. Note: Make sure to activate seoquake when you are on the homepage, not a subpage.
So stay tuned and follow our blog to get basic as well as professional tips to boost your website. There is plenty to do and tell.
1. If it takes a long time for your page to load then your visitor will have more time to do other meaningful things like doing the dishes, watching a movie or even working out. This will result in a greater feeling of well being once your page finally loads.
2. It is always very satisfying to gain a reward after putting in hard work so don’t just write black text on a white background. Give your readers a challenge so that they may earn the joy of deciphering your text. Yellow on white is a great choice.
3. Use background music on your website. Everybody loves to listen to music, so raise the mood of your visitors by presenting them music of your choice. But don’t allow them the option of turning the music off or your website will lose its sense of atmosphere.
4. Adobe has decided to not release any more updates for Flash, instead, the future belongs to HTML5. All these years it was Flash that made it possible to watch multimedia content in a web browser but now it shall perish. But why should it, simply because it puts a strain on resources? No way. Implement several videos using Flash to a) entertain your visitor, b) show commitment and c) …well…read number 1 again.
5. You have a favourite browser? Great! Show your devotion and don’t optimise your website for any browsers other than yours. “There can only be one!”
6. Advertising is the best way to show your visitors what they need in life to be happy. So make sure you offer as many banners and links as possible to ensure that everyone sees something they like.
7. Quality is everything. If you use pictures (and you should use a lot), make sure to offer the best quality and highest definition available. The pictures you want to share will certainly be worth the wait.
8. Use Pop-ups. Don’t be predictable, a sudden pop up is a welcome distraction for your visitor. He will be thrilled, especially when it contains interesting content like…advertising.
9. Create random and complex URLs. It’s important to be unique.
There are millions of people now who own devices with internet access and the ability to present websites. If you run a business it is essential to optimise your website for mobile use. But even if you have a website just for fun, you might want to offer a website that meets the technical standards of smart phones.
However, this should not be a completely new website. Don’t sacrifice your Google rank and overall page rank. Simply post a link on your website directing to a mobile version of your website. Since owners of smart phones use different web browsers you need to ensure your mobile website is shown accurately, so you will want to use a user agent detection, adjusting the dimensions of your website depending on the browser your visitor is using.
Keep in mind that it takes longer to open a mobile website, so avoid flash videos or other traffic hungry applications. Note also, a smart phone doesn’t necessarily have all the buttons at its disposal like a keyboard. Try to think of elements you could implement in your website to make the visit of your mobile website convenient. How about a back and forward button? Also, don’t make the user type in anything that is not necessary, it’s not really fun to enter text with a mobile.
Even more important: the relevant content has to be viewable on first sight. The less the reader needs to scroll your website the better. The easier it is to get the information the more likely it is the visitor will return.
If you consider creating a mobile version of your website, you might want to get some information about tools helping. Check out the list on mashable.com.