Website Development Training

I would venture to guess that one of the most common questions on any webmaster forum involves someone asking, “When is the next Google update?” Although they are probably asking about visible PageRank updates in the Google toolbar, the answer involves a bit more than that.

Visible PageRank is what you see in your Google toolbar. At this point, that has been updating an average of every three months or so.

HOWEVER, real PageRank is continually updated and continually factored into how the search results are determined. By the time you see a change in the toolbar, any effects of that change have already long since been included in the search results.

Google updates its index data, including backlinks and PageRank, continually and continuously. We only export new backlinks, PageRank, or directory data every three months or so though. (We started doing that last year when too many SEOs were suffering from “B.O.”, short for backlink obsession.) When new backlinks/PageRank appear, we’ve already factored that into our rankings quite a while ago. What Is An Update by Google Engineer, Matt Cutts

For a few years now people have been confused as to what the cache date on page actually indicates. It used to be that if there were no changes on the page since the last cache date, then often Google would only change the cached version of the page about once or twice a month. If there had been changes, people would see the cached page updated much sooner.

Google has now changed the cache date to reveal the last date the page was accessed by Google. (Updated September 6, 2006)

“We’ve recently changed the date we show for the cached page to reflect when Googlebot last accessed it (whether the page had changed or not). This should make it easier for you to determine the most recent date Googlebot visited the page.” Google Webmaster

How often a page is crawled is determined by the number of links that are out there bringing the robots back to your website again.

Search engine spiders crawl the web on a continual basis by following links. The more links that are pointed to your site, the more often your pages will be crawled.

This means that websites with very few links pointed to them, will notice it taking longer for Google to find and index their new pages.

Websites with a large number of links pointed to them will likely see their new and updated pages added to the index quite rapidly.

The search engine result pages update continually. As Google finds new information, it is added to the index. The goal of the search engines is to display the results in the exact order of relevance to the search query. The more relevant your page is to the search query, the higher your page should show in the results.

Since the information going into that determination is continually changing, so are the results you see in search engine results. When you combine all that with occasional changes in how Google factors page relevance (algorithm) to the search query, you end up with results that are continually fluctuating.

In the end, all of this should mean very little to you as a site owner. The more time you spend focused on what Google is up to, the less time you are spending on building a website filled with quality content for your visitors.

If you follow the basic guidelines and develop a quality site that invites incoming links naturally, you can focus on your results over time, rather than day to day search engine fluctuations.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

I believe that the number one way to find financial success is to first find what you love doing, and then find a way to get paid for doing it.

I see people that spend weeks asking everyone they talk to for online business opportunities that they can make money at. It never crosses their mind to ask about specific business ideas or opportunities.

The only true criteria they have for a business venture, is just one that makes money. The next week or so, I see the same individuals asking how to know when it is time to throw in the towel.

When you are trying to make a success out of doing or promoting something you are not truly passionate about, and the only goal is money, you are not likely to survive the growth period of making that business successful.

Throwing in the towel was just never an option I made available to myself because I truly believe in the things that I do. For me it has always been simply a matter of working until I found what worked.

I think where people get into trouble is that they jump from one new idea to another, without ever truly taking the time to find out what does and does not work. They want overnight results and often give up right before they may have seen the success they were looking for.

The flip side of that coin is those people who blindly stick to one way of doing things, even if it is not working, and expect different results.

You have to find the balance between sticking with a method long enough to give it a chance to work, and adjusting your plan of attack as needed. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar tells a story about how plans change, decisions don’t. That story really sums it all up for me, by teaching us to keep our eyes focused on the destination, but not to be afraid to take a few detours when we need to.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

What keeps you going on days when you feel like giving up and throwing in the towel?

Are you the biggest difference for your business?

Many years ago, a motivational speaker told me that the surest way to financial success was to find something that I absolutely love doing and then find a way to get paid for doing it.

This is probably the best advice that I have ever received, and advice that I continue to pass on to others.

When you are passionate about what you do, it comes across to your visitors. When you truly believe in the product or service that you provide, people can sense this, and feel more confident about doing business with you. When you are passionate — and good — your customers become your advocates turning their experiences into powerful word-of-mouth advertising.

This is something we try to get across in our Successful Website Marketing class. Part of this training process involves an interactive assignment in which I ask the students a few simple questions.

• Tell me about your business.
• How did you happen to choose your specific business?
• Are you passionate about your business? Why?
• What do you feel makes your business different from others?

I also ask that they (the students) write from their hearts and not concern themselves with spelling or grammar. I want them to just talk to me as if we were sitting together having a conversation. Many times the key to their personal quest for success can be found within their writing. This process also makes it easier for students to learn how to write in a way that speaks directly to their site visitors.

Although our classes have grown to more than 1,200 students, I still continue to read every response and watch for any changes as their businesses grow. This session, one response in particular caught my attention. With the full permission of the student, I would like to share this response with you.

“Well Hello and welcome Cricket! Sorry I missed our original appointment. As you can see it’s a ‘zoo’ here lately! Do come in and be to home. Don’t mind the 110# Shepherd barking at you, or the Cocker begging for a cookie.” <Shoo’s cat & rooster off porch> “Here, sit down at the kitchen table, OOPS, let me clear a spot.” <embarrassed grin> “Can I offer you something? Coffee, beer, water?” <sets glass down> “Now. . . . Where were we? OH YES! Of course, you asked about my web/home based business. Well I make and sell (or try to sell) Homemade Scented Soy Wax Tart Melts, and Air Fresheners. I have done a couple of booths at the local parade and for the PTO, but so far I haven’t broken into the black. *sigh* But as you can see <waves hand to show every counter/table covered with supplies and work in progress> I try hard. Here. . . . smell this one. It’s Cotton Candy. Good huh? <SQUAWK!> LOL…That’s Tango my parrot, just ignore her, she is jealous”

“Excuse me?” Oh, you asked how did I get into this? “Well, let me get you a refill, this might take awhile” <yells at kitten, “MAJICK GET DOWN!”> “Sorry, she is young yet, just put her off the back of your neck and on the floor. Need a Band-Aid? Sorry. Anyhoo . . . you see, soon after our son Tommy (that’s his pic above TV) died from cancer, I returned to a couple of my old jobs. 1 as a cook in a church camp, then lunch/dinner as a waitress/cook/barmaid. I worked just till Colleen was born. HUH? Oh, she is in her room, she is a bit shy. I tried a couple years ago to return to work, but for 2 years, the childcare WHEN I could find quality care, made more that I did! Plus Colleen wasn’t happy, neither was my hubby Tom, and if you can believe it the house was messier than it is now and my laying hens HATE Tom. I own or co-own a number of Yahoo Groups, My favorite being Hummingbird Lovers Club, & a parenting group. Sad to say, I lost my parenting co-mod to cancer, she was 34 and had two small kids, but I digress . . . 1 of my ‘moms’ asked if anyone would like to try her tarts. So I bought a couple from her, and when I got them I LOVED them. I love candles anyway as you can see. To make a long story short <a bit late for that eh?> I researched candle/tart making and studied it all. Then I bought some supplies. I slapped up a website and gave baskets of product to friends for Christmas. I also left a basket of samples at the local bar and lots of folks bought from me there. So here I am, trying to market my product mainly on the web. I haven’t driven since my son died <pts> and that makes it hard to market in the real world.”

“To answer your question, YES, I love making tarts and if I ever get out of the red, I hope to get more supplies and move into candles, esp. in jars, as I like those myself. Colleen my dd . . . COLLEEN! Come here please! Colleen meet Cricket. Colleen here, helps me as well. When I make a new scent, she helps me choose a color or shade. Like the cotton candy. 1st batch I made pink. Colleen thought it should have been blue . . . lol! So now I make pink, blue, purple and yellow in that scent. She even crumbled the black wax to make chips for my chocolate chip scent. She helped me fold and bag up vouchers and candy to attach to my business cards for MomPacks. Excuse me . . . what Colleen? <Colleen whispers> Yes, you can go in the pool. Where was I? Oh and my DH helps too. He does the math for me. Otherwise, I’d undersell myself.”

“Shall we take our beers and move to the picnic table? I want to watch her in the pool. Don’t mind the chickens. They will leave when they realize we have no food for them. <sets pep/cheese/cracker plate down> BISMARCK NO! We don’t feed dogs to the table in OR out! Go Lay down . . . good boy. Why thank you Cricket. I AM proud of my garden! Yes we have 10 acres, 1/2 acre is my garden and we have many animals here.”

“Now I could go into the spiel of how petroleum products used in candles sputter, smoke and are bad for you and the US. Or I could expound the virtues of buying American soy products from American farmers and how it is cleaner burning/melting and I feel it smells better too. But I wont keep you, as I know you are very busy. suffice it to say, that is why I believe in my product. not to mention, I test each and every new scent to make sure it is something I would like to buy. I am not a ‘Yankee candle’. I am just a SAHM trying to sell a homemade quality product at an affordable price. COLLEEN! NO Jumping!! <KIDS! LOL!> ”

“Well, Cricket, I hope I have answered all your questions. Feel free to drop by anytime! I hope you don’t have any trouble finding you way to the main road. OH and here <hands Cricket a box> Here is a couple doz. fresh eggs and some produce from the garden. Enjoy! It was a pleasure spending this time with you. Sorry it’s such a zoo, but that a sample of the norm around here.”

{{Hummer Hugs}}

Misty Loges
Misty’s World

It didn’t take but a moment for me to see that the biggest difference (beyond selling a superior product) that will set this business apart from all the other businesses out there providing similar products, is the owner. Her attitude is absolutely contagious.

I will be keeping a very special eye on this woman’s work, as I fully expect her business to grow by leaps and bounds.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Equally important with knowing your target audience is finding ways to let your target audience know you as a person.

Many times when we run an online business, we forget the power of talking with our target audience. Handing people a business card in casual conversation is a common courtesy, but it is unlikely to create the connection needed for them to remember you later. For this to happen, you must stand out above the others. The more people talk about you and what you do, the more you will see your business grow.

I witnessed this in action at the Thunder on Water Festival in Grenada, Mississippi this weekend. As the temperature approached 100 degrees, I found myself searching for a place to cool off for a few moments, when I came across the smiling face of Chancery Court Judge candidate, Vicki B. Cobb.
 
She was handing out free snow cones and ice water, and just talking with the people. Not only was she out there among the people getting to know her target audience (the voters) she was also giving us an opportunity to get to know her as a person, instead of just a name on a ballot. The truth is, I was not familiar with even her name before meeting her at the festival. Guess what? I will remember her when it comes time to vote in the elections this fall.
 
Taking the time to get to know our target audience is something we can all do, both on and offline. Here are some examples.

An online gift shop could provide gift giving tips and ideas, either through a newsletter or blog. Another option might be to create an eBook about gift giving etiquette and give it away free. When it comes time for these people to choose and buy a gift, they will be more likely to remember the company that helped them.

A motorcycle parts company could provide free maintenance tips and minor tune up tutorials. Another option might be to spend time in online motorcycle forums, not specifically marketing their company, but just talking to people and helping answer questions. A simple forum signature (linked) will let folks know what you do. The more they see your name, the more likely they are to remember you.

Think out of the box and you will find virtually unlimited possibilities to talk with people and create the connection they will remember.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Generic advertisements such as Google AdSense absolutely do not belong on a professional business website. No matter how you look at it, it will not help improve your business and may very well have a devastating impact. Is it really worth the risk?

Those people who have no clue what Google AdSense is, will likely become confused when they click on an ad and it takes them away from your site. If they see something that catches their eye on the new page, they will not come back looking for you.

You have lost these potential clients over a few cents a click. Where I am from, they call that tripping over dollars to pick up pennies.

Those people who are familiar with the AdSense program will likely assume that you NEED to place this type of advertising on your website because your business is struggling.

People want to do business with a company that is doing well. It gives them a sense of confidence that if others are doing business with you, then you must be an okay company to do business with.

If they feel you need the income from this type of advertising, they may very well begin to wonder if something is keeping others from doing business with you. They may also wonder how long you will remain in business if they believe your website is not doing well.

How many reputable brick and mortar stores have you walked into that advertise their competition on the front door and all of their windows? I bet you could count these types of stores on one hand.

Now if they are serious about building a successful business, they may refer you to another company if they do not have what you are looking for. This is AFTER they have already had the chance to meet your needs. They do not send you away the minute you walk in the door.

At some point you need to ask yourself what business you are in.

If you choose to use this type of advertising to generate revenue, you must also be willing to accept the consequences of that decision and not begin to wonder why your business is not growing as you expected.

Does this mean I am against this type of advertising or affiliate sales programs all together? Of course not, but like most things in life, there is a time and place for everything, and we must approach those things with moderation.

On your business website, I see no issues with recommending a quality service or product to your visitors, provided this is something that you would have likely recommended even if they did not pay you to do so.

These products or services should be limited to only a few and blend into your website naturally, such as providing well written review articles. I also feel that these products or services should be highly relevant to your own business and you must take much care to assure that they do not become the focus of your site.

On an information website where you are providing information at no charge to your visitors, people have come to expect some advertising and are rarely put off by it. They are comfortable in knowing the site is supported through the ads. It is vital that the advertising programs you choose does not become the primary purpose of the site and that the ads blend into the content quite naturally.

People are pretty smart. They can tell when a site has been created for the sole purpose of earning advertising dollars and may begin to question the credibility of the information you are providing. When this happens, they will move on rapidly.

Do not create an informational website specifically for the Adsense revenue. Create an informational website because you are passionate about the topic, and use AdSense as the icing on the cake.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

I had been anxious to check out Microsoft’s new Expression Web Designer, not because I had any issues with FrontPage 2003, but because I like playing with new programs. I was thrilled when I received the download notice for the initial private beta, which they have since offered to the general public.I am probably not one of the best people to work with a beta program. As much as I like playing with new programs, I am definitely a creature of habit who tends to be quite resistant to change. This means I tend to be overly critical of a new product, especially if I really liked the program it is designed to replace.

The big benefit I kept reading about was Expression Web Designer producing standards-based code. Since I had already learned how to do this with FrontPage 2002 and 2003, I was not yet real impressed.

Myself being an old dog that is pretty tough to teach new tricks, once I downloaded the beta, it just sat on my computer for a few days while I stared at it, wondering what made this new program for designers so special. In defense of Microsoft’s Expression Web Designer, I did the very same thing when I downloaded the newest version of Paint Shop Pro, and now I cannot keep my hands off it.

In FrontPage 2003 I worked almost exclusively from the code view with my style sheet open right beside me to make needed changes as I went. Now all of the sudden this new program wants to create CSS for me automatically. I have to admit that when someone says something is going to happen automatically, I am pessimistic. I fully expect that anything happening automatically is going to screw up.

Sure enough, when I set out to create a very basic page, Expression Web Designer began automatically adding a class for the heading styles I set instead of simply changing the default for heading tags in my external style sheet. No matter what I tried, the results were the same. The longer I tried, the more choice words I began using toward this new fangled program.

Eventually I gave up and put it all away for the night, all the while assuring myself that it couldn’t possibly be my fault. Of course this is always bound to lead in the direction of me feeling like a fool at some point. This time would not be an exception. Once I calmed down and took another look, the answer was right in front of me.

Good lawd, could it really be this simple? Oh wow! I am impressed. The Microsoft team really has created a nice program here that will make a huge difference for many people and save a ton of time. All this, while still using standards-based code! What more could I possibly ask for?

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Why are so many websites having a large number of pages removed from Google’s index? They are discussing this topic in every SEO and webmaster forum on the internet.

As always, everyone has a different opinion as to why this is occurring. The only clear indication of what is truly going on has been answered extensively by Google engineer, Matt Cutts in a recent blog post.

“If your site has very few links where you’d be on the fringe of the crawl, then it’s relatively normal that changes in the crawl may change how much of your site we crawl.” Indexing Timeline

What about those websites that do not fall within Matt’s explanation though? Is it possible that this time Google is really broken?

Heck, I don’t know. The answer to this question is clearly only known by those people directly involved at the Google complex.

When Google goes through changes, burps, and blunders, your response should always be the same.

• Make sure your site follows quality guidelines.
• Make sure you have plenty of quality content.
• Focus on increasing incoming quality links.

Reciprocal linking should never be the ONLY source of incoming links to your website. The best links are those that happen naturally simply because your site provides quality information or services that people want to share with their site visitors.

Beyond that, often the only thing you can do is to patiently wait it out, or you will drive yourself completely crazy. Keep doing what you know is right, and things always have a way of working out in the end.

Update May 27, 2006

Many websites that had pages suddenly disappear from the Google index have slowly begun to recover. Those websites not seeing recovery over the next few weeks should begin to consider taking a second look at their websites for any methods used that do not fall well within the quality guidelines set out by Google.

I personally believe that increasing your natural incoming links is the number one way to insure that your site is fully indexed.

Natural links are links to your site that develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links are links to your site placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines. Inside Google

Those website owners who have had their site completely removed from the index should carefully follow instructions posted by Matt Cutts for filing a reinclusion request. I do not recommend sending this request before correcting issues that may be violating the guidelines.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Started as a hobby by Charley Silverman in 1999, the QFLEA Virtual Flea Market is a community of more than 400 vendors working together to create the largest online flea market in the world.

These vendors are hard-working people that sell a variety of items from their websites, including crafts, jewelry, clothing, personalized gifts, teddy bears, soaps and candles, and many services.

Vendor tables and community support are provided to small business owners free of charge. Advertising revenues received by QFLEA go back into the operation of the community to continue the quest of helping mom and pop stores compete with big retail stores online.

My hat is off to you and your community Charley. What a wonderful resource for small business owners and shoppers alike!

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you. We all remember that familiar schoolyard chant, but does it hold true on the internet? Can your words hurt you?

The words you write in public groups, forums, and of course on your blog, can have a negative impact on your business. Often people believe that the internet world is so vast, that the odds of their internet conversations ever being found by the wrong person are similar to finding a needle in a haystack.

With the search engines indexing every word in public discussion areas, this is simply not true. It is only a matter of a few minutes of targeted searching to track down those conversations. This can be especially true when you leave your website signature, along with your user name all over the net.

Do you want potential customers checking out the credibility of your business to come across your last flame war in a political forum? Although it should not reflect on your work ethic, can you see how a potential employer may reach unfavorable conclusions about your character based on a few embarrassing conversations on the net?

Your best bet is to use common sense with what you write in public groups, forums, and your blog. Ask yourself if you would want your family, clients, or employer reading what you are writing. If not, save it for the private groups and forums.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

For some reason people keep thinking that ecommerce sites are somehow different and do not need much content, beyond a brief description, similar to what you might see with a catalog.

The search engines do not change HOW they evaluate the relevance of pages based on “what kind” of a page is being displayed. They could care less if it is an article, a journal, products, or a page filled with images. They evaluate each page in the same manner.

The more relevant your page is to the search requested, the higher your page will be shown in the search results. Your content may determine a big part of this.

No matter how you look at it, every page that you want optimized to do well in the search results is going to need solid content. This is not only becoming more critical for the search engines, but it is also becoming vital for increasing the sales on your website.

Your visitors will have various buying habits. Some of your visitors will just want a few facts and then to be shown how to make a purchase immediately. Other visitors will want to know EVERYTHING before they even consider making a purchase on your website. The key is finding ways to meet the needs of each of these styles of buyers.

At the top half of the page (also known as, above the fold) make sure you have provided a basic overview of the page, along with enough information for your buyers to make the decision to purchase rapidly if they choose to. There should also be a link for them to click to make the purchase, at this point, without needing to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

After that section, you can break the overview information up into sections that provide more content and information. This caters to your visitors that NEED tons of content and time to decide.

If you do not have more information because you stopped at the point listed above, they may move their search to another site that does give them more information. They will end up making their purchase on the site that gives them enough information to meet their needs.

Scanning the page should still be easy for these visitors, (short paragraphs with headers) along with additional thumbnail images, as applicable. Continue to make sure that they can easily find a purchase button when they are ready, without having to scroll back up to the top of the page.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

With so many new search engine and marketing resources hitting the net, sorting through all the rubbish to know what sites you can count on for quality information can be difficult.

Like most of you, my time is limited. However, a big part of my business depends on my research and keeping up to date, so it is vital I can count on the information I am reading. When I can find a way to accomplish this in as little time as possible, I get pretty excited about it, and tell everyone who will listen!

Peter Da Vanzo, a well known search marketing strategist and industry commentator, is doing an incredible job bringing this information all together, as editor in chief of Search Marketing News. Peter, along with other guest authors keep this new resource updated daily, saving a ton of research time and legwork for the rest of us!

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

As a measure to help prevent comment spam, many blogging platforms automatically add the nofollow attribute to all links found within the comments section of a blog. The thought was that if Google no longer gave “credit” for links using the nofollow attribute, we would see a tremendous decrease in comment spam.

“From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when we rank websites in our search results.” Official Google Blog

Initially bloggers were well informed about the issues surrounding the nofollow attribute because it was such a hot topic. They could easily make an educated decision on how they chose to deal with everything.

With more than a year passing since the initial announcement from Google, many new bloggers may not even realize what the nofollow attribute is, let alone that the blogging platform they choose may automatically assign the nofollow attribute by default.

WordPress version 1.5 and above automatically assigns the nofollow attribute on all links within the comment section by default. Perhaps a better answer would have been to add a feature in the admin panel to include the nofollow tag as an option, along with a link for more information. This would have allowed users to make an educated decision either way.

I am personally not sold on, nor do I use the nofollow attribute as a measure to prevent spam. It feels as if this attribute is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Certainly, as a blog owner, I have no desire to have my blog filled with comments from spammers.

However, I feel there are multiple alternative solutions (including moderating comments) that do not punish those leaving legitimate comments right along with the spammers.

I personally chose to disable the default nofollow attribute by using a WordPress Plugin to strip these tags from the code.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

The biggest mistake I see made by site owners who provide one service or product, is that they try to give their website one single focus, instead of looking at each page individually, each with a potentially different target audience.

If you look at your website from only one aspect, you are likely to ignore the vast majority of your potential target audience. When this happens, you become one very small needle in a very large haystack, severely limiting your opportunity for success.

Imagine for a moment that I own vacation rental homes on a specific lake in New Hampshire that I want to promote on the internet.

If the entire focus of my site centers around only that specific lake or area, I lose out on all those visitors who have no idea what the name of that lake or area is. You have to step outside the box and think from the viewpoint of your visitors.

Maybe they only know they are considering spending their summer vacation in New Hampshire and would really like to have a lake nearby. They might not have a specific area of New Hampshire in mind.

Perhaps they only know that they want to find a winter vacation spot in New Hampshire. These same visitors might not have even yet considered the option of renting a home. They only know they heard that New Hampshire is a great place to vacation in the winter.

You absolutely, positively, without a doubt have to step outside the box and look at things from the viewpoint of your potential target audience. What are THEY looking for when they search for topics involving spending their vacation in New Hampshire?

This is not something you should be guessing at, or you will end up in a hit or miss situation. Use keyword tools that will give you a list of phrases that people are actually searching for.

- Winter Vacation New Hampshire

- New Hampshire Kid Vacation

- Family Vacation in New Hampshire

- New Hampshire Lake Vacation

- New Hampshire Summer Vacation

- New Hampshire Golf Vacation

- New Hampshire Vacation Home

- New Hampshire Vacation Guide

You will need multiple pages on your site, each focusing on just one of your chosen phrases. Done correctly, these pages will all fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

For example, your homepage which is generally a basic overview of your site, may have a sentence or blurb blended into the page about how beautiful the area is for winter vacations. You would of course link this to the page you created for winter vacations in New Hampshire.

Maybe as an added benefit for your visitors you have invested the time into creating a unique vacation guide for New Hampshire. Again, you would likely mention this on the homepage (or other pages of your site) which would link to the vacation guide page, and maybe even a download version of the vacation guide.

Every page you create must provide your visitors with unique quality content specific to the theme of that page.

On the flip side of the coin, do not create pages to use phrases that are not a perfect fit for your business. In our example above for instance, if the vacation rentals you are promoting do not openly welcome and cater to children, do not create a page focused on a family or kid oriented vacation.

The ultimate goal is not just to drive massive visitors to your website, but rather to increase targeted website traffic.

Does this all mean that you should neglect the name of the specific lake or area where your vacation rental homes are located?

Absolutely not!

In fact that will probably be the focus of your homepage, but it should not be the only focus of your website as a whole.

When you take the time to develop your website from the viewpoint of your visitors, you are already well on your way to success.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

It seems like everywhere I go, everyone is looking for shortcuts. People jump around from one affiliate program to the next, with little thought given to the product.

It is all about which affiliate company pays the most, or which get rich scheme promises the most, the fastest.

I see website owners scrounging for ways to buy thousands of articles at the lowest possible cost, with little concern as to if those articles will provide an actual benefit to their readers. They just need pages to place their paid advertisements on.

Others trying to increase their incoming links, jump from one linking scheme to the next, always looking for the magical answer that will build thousands of links to their website with little or no effort. Little thought goes into the quality of the links. It is all about finding the most links with the least amount of effort.

Doesn’t anyone realize that in the time that they waste looking for shortcuts, they could have been well on their way to building a rock solid business they could count on, both now and in the future?

What ever happened to good old fashioned hard work?

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Search engines return search results in the exact order of their perceived relevance to the search phrase requested.

The more relevant your site appears to be, to the search requested, the HIGHER your page will show in the results.

You have a page that you want to be found easily in the search engines for the phrase, custom red widgets.

Now let’s think about this for a minute…

The page title is about custom red widgets.

The description is about custom red widgets.

The content is unique quality content (800 – 1000 words) about custom red widgets.

The page displays images of custom red widgets and the alt text and file names selected for those images demonstrates that fact.

A sufficient number of links point to the page using the phrase custom red widgets.

The page points (links) to other pages on the net somehow related to custom red widgets.

Now let me ask you …

Do you think the search engines will think that maybe the page is highly relevant to the search phrase, custom red widgets?

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Major search engines are cracking down on websites that use sneaky redirects or point multiple domains to the same content without using a proper redirect. The 301 permanent redirect is known to be a search engine friendly redirect when needed.

Creating a 301 Permanent redirect with the htaccess file requires that your website is hosted on an Apache (Linux, Unix) based server. If you are unsure, a simple header check will indicate your server type. If you are not certain you understand the server information provided from the header check, please contact your web host for assistance.

The following basic 301 permanent redirect tutorial will walk you step by step, through the basics of setting up your first .htaccess file and adding the proper coding for the redirect.

Creating the .htaccess File

- Right click on an empty area of your desktop
- Select: New > Text Document

See Screen Shot

- Open the new text document
- From the menu, select: File > Save As

See Screen Shot

A box will open. At the top of the box make sure it says Desktop next to the Save in area.

- To the right of File name type in .htaccess
- To the right of Save as type, select All Files
- Click the save button.

See Screenshot

You should now see a new file on your desktop that does not display a file name with it.

Adding 301 Permanent Redirect Code

If you want to redirect all pages of an entire site to the main page of another domain, add the following code to the file, on a single line.

RedirectMatch 301 (.*) http://www.yournewdomain.com/

Make sure to save the changes to the file. The .htaccess file would now be uploaded to the same location where you uploaded the index page to your OLD domain that you are redirecting from.

If you want to redirect one page to another page, add the following code to the file, on a single line.

redirect 301 /old-file-name.htm http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/new-file-name.htm

Make sure to save the changes to the file. The .htaccess file would now be uploaded to the same location where you uploaded index page to your site. If the old page is within a different directory (folder) as your index page, then you would need to adjust the path of the old file name accordingly.

For example, if the old file name is located within a directory named category, your code would be as follows:

redirect 301 /category/old-file-name.htm http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/new-file-name.htm

If the old page is within a different directory (folder) as your index page, and you also want the new page within that same directory, then you would need to adjust the path of the old and new file name accordingly.

For example, if the old file name is located within a directory named category, and the new page will be also, your code would be as follows:

redirect 301 /category/old-file-name.htm http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/category/new-file-name.htm

Again, make sure you save changes to the file and upload to the same location where you uploaded the index page of the old location.

Enter your domain and file name info into the above codes!

This is an extremely basic tutorial for creating a .htaccess file to add a very simple 301 permanent redirect for a page or site. For advanced tutorials and codes, consider the following articles:

- 301 Permanent Redirect by Brian V. Bonini
- Apache HTTP Server Apache Module

Once you have completed uploading your new .htaccess file, it is imperative to that you verify everything is working correctly.

Try the old URL and confirm that you are being redirected to the correct page. You also need to verify that your server is returning the proper information (301 Permanent) for this redirect by doing a header check of the old page or domain.

Update: March 19, 2006

There have been a ton of questions about the with and without www linking issue. Once you have selected which you are using, then you would add a 301 permanent redirect for the other.

I recommend sticking with the www unless you have already established not using it on your site.

To tell us which version you want the content indexed under, we recommend you do a 301 redirect from one version to the other. If your site runs on an Apache server, you can do this using an .htaccess file. You can also use a script. Inside Google

This should be done even when your server is set up to display your site either way. This prevents some of the (canonical) issues that happen when someone (including yourself) accidentally links using the opposite of what you use and are indexed as.

This is the code I use. I am sure there are others. This is simply what I use on a Linux (Apache) based server. Make sure to replace the generic domain information with your own.

To Redirect mysite.com to www.mysite.com

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

To Redirect www.mysite.com to mysite.com

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Once you have completed the change, VERIFY that everything is working properly and conduct a header check to verify a 301 is returned for the incorrect version.

If for any reason the above code doesn’t work, remove it from your htaccess file and request assistance from your web hosting company

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

The Google PageRank update has begun. It will likely take some time to show in all the databases, so don’t panic if you see new PR one day and it disappears the next.

Often times people expect this to cause a major change in the position of their sites in Google, but it simply doesn’t work that way.

Google is continually updating, but they only choose to show us the PR update (in the toolbar) an average of 3 – 4 times a year. Any effect this may have on your position in the search engines would have already been taken into account and showing in the results.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2007 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved