Small Business Resource Center Blog

Stats by Browser and SE Referrals

2009-06-23T02:57:00.000-05:00

The latest podcast episode entitled Web Design Visitors Analysis provided a review of stats by browser and Search Engine (SE) referrals. Visitor traffic to my website for custom cms web design reveals interesting data on user browser and search engine referrals. Tracking details of short term traffic may help web developers in making strategic decisions for future custom cms web design techniques. Consider the following visitor stats:

Comparison of Visitor Traffic and Web Design by Browser

55.4% IE6,7,8
30.2% FireFox
08.4% Safari
03.2% Chrome
00.4% Opera

Internet Explorer, or Microsoft IE, continues to dominate collectively while IE7 represents 33.8% in the IE total. Compared to my traffic stats in December 2008, Safari grew slightly, Chrome remained about the same, and Opera lost market share. If nothing else, this data supports cross browser compatibility testing of your website design to make sure it displays well for all visitors.

Web Design and Comparison of Search Engine Referrals

85.5% Google
10.1% Yahoo
04.4% Bing

Google sends more than 85% of the total search referral traffic to my website, so I periodically track my position for "custom cms web design" on page one. After paid ads, my site has remained at number 1 on Google page one for that phrase for more than two years. You may want to Google the phrase custom cms web design, and see if I've been bumped or listen to this podcast episode to learn more about stats by browser and SE referrals.

TAGS: advice browsers cms cms web design web design

DIY Do-it-Yourself Web Design System

2009-05-14T01:18:00.002-05:00

The most popular DIY Do-it-Yourself web design system for managing websites is called a cms, or content management system. It allows the owner to take over and add unlimited new pages to their site without learning advanced technical skills. For example, you write content in plain text and enter info in a few boxes from an admin area and it publishes that text in xhtml with zero code errors. Easily upload photos to insert in the page, too. Google rewards sites that add original quality content often, so imagine having a site with 450-500 pages without paying for changes each time.

My specialty is custom cms web design. Go to Google search and type in that phrase: custom cms web design. Next, look at the search results (after the paid ads) and my site should be listed #1 worldwide (maybe #1 and #2) for companies who offer custom cms web design. Besides the initial design, technical setup, and launch, my clients get a 50 page pdf ebook showing how I made page one, so they can use the same seo search engine optimization principles and strategy to dominate their niche.

View or download the 50 page DIY CMS Web Design and SEO Ebook for an overview of cms plus advice on writing content optimized for search engines. The ebook includes links to free online tools and software plus advice for best practices in search engine optimization.

Most small business owners get started with a small website as a good "starter" site, yet converting that to the cms will allow them to take over to easily add, edit, or delete content. Other designers who offer seo services will charge as much as $5000 to $20,000 just for the search engine optimization advice contained in that ebook download.

I give that seo advice away at no charge to my clients as part of a custom cms web design project. My current published rate for adding pages to an older static web design is $250 per page, so 20 pages would be $5000. Imagine a do-it-yourself website and having a 100 page site. Instead of $25,000 at $250 a clip for each new page, the custom cms design and technical setup plus converting existing pages into the system is yours for a one-time fee as little as $2500.

Compare older static web design services and the latest custom cms web design price list, and then contact me with questions or to learn more about custom cms web design and search engine optimization.

TAGS: advice cms content management system seo search engine optimization web design

Follow Back Strategy on Twitter

2009-04-25T16:01:00.002-05:00

The choice to follow back "a select group or all" should depend on your reason for being on Twitter. I prefer a network of people in web design or graphics to learn trends for my core business, plus meet interesting or entertaining people. I'm on Twitter to learn and contribute as I interact on a professional level plus more informally on a personal level to keep it real.

I'm not selling, so I'm not building a list or feeding the ego by acquiring a large following for the sake of numbers.

I don't follow back 100%. If a follower tweets to provide value and interact on a personal level (even if not directly to me), that's ok. Others who don't reveal a real name, company, or organization, never @ or RT, only tweet hard sell and self promotion, or offend my sense of morality won't be followed.

While the real character of someone you follow on Twitter can be disguised behind false information like age, gender, job title, photo, and more, I tend to follow those who I would be just as likely to entertain or interact with in a real world situation and assume their online personna is accurate.

I have talked by phone or Skype with a handful of followers, and actually met the very first person who followed me when they visited Florida recently. Their real information was easy to confirm, and the nature of their tweets was mature and professional. Still, we met over breakfast in a public setting as opposed to a truly private meeting. Otherwise, I urge caution for anyone considering a one on one tweetup.

Want to learn more about my tweets or those I follow? View my web design related Twitter account @JimDegerstrom for a preview.

TAGS: advice followers following Twitter

Vacation Rental Custom CMS Web Design

2009-03-31T22:35:00.002-05:00

Final tweaking and launch of an Orlando vacation rental cms web design took place within the last month for anOrlandoVacationVilla.com. This custom cms web design is a content management system in xhtml with css and features a flash photo slide show on the home page, virtual tours, contact reservation forms, plus a visitor comments guestbook, and more.

The custom cms web design website photo gallery created entirely in css includes searchable text for seo search engine optimization benefits compared to flash. Mousing over thumbnails presents an enlarged view with text captions that can be indexed by search engines.

The advantage of a custom cms web design is the owner may add, edit, or delete content without any knowledge of xhtml by simply creating plain text files, entering content in the admin backend, and selecting publish to update content. A cms, or content management system, is the easy way for a website owner to update a web design optimized for seo without paying each time for changes.

TAGS: content management system cms design launch design seo web design

Website for Hispanic Small Businesses

2009-02-19T17:20:00.004-05:00

Hispanic small business owners represent nearly half my clients for custom web design. I'm pleased to announce a valuable resource by Juan Silvera including his Hispanic Small Business Blog at HispanicSMB.com. El Blog de Juan has been online since 2006 providing valuable insight for Latino small businesses.

Some of my clients contact me for a quality custom website that is designed with bilingual content. Once the English version is launched, site owners have the option of translating all pages for visitors who prefer reading content in Spanish.

In addition to announcing the HispanicSMB site, a link has been added to the Small Business Resource Center blogroll for the benefit of my clients interested in learning more about business trends for US Hispanic businesses. Visit their main site for more content including a Latino small business forum, how-to videos, directory, and library for Latino small business owners.

TAGS: advice blog Hispanic small business small business advice web design

Time Sensitive Marketing Offer Mistake

2009-02-16T05:42:00.000-05:00

Besides offering custom web design services, I create custom matching graphic artwork for print, as well. Over the weekend an incoming email with a time sensitive marketing offer for a "printing special" was poorly handled, and the mistake is a good reminder of how automated email messges can affect credibility.

In an email received dated 14 February at 7:53pm a weekend printing promotion that began at 5:00pm on 12 February was announced with an expiration at midnight on the 14th. Where was the email for two days before arriving 50 hours after the start time? Obviously the automated mailing broadcast date and time were improperly set.

Learn from the mistakes of others. For a business that depends on automated email campaigns be certain that time sensitive marketing offers are sent early enough for recipients to react. Besides annoying the prospect, your reputation and credibility as a professional source for your product or service could be at stake.

TAGS: advice advertising email campaign email marketing promotion

Tableless XHTML Web Design Tips

2009-02-14T06:48:00.000-05:00

You decide your site design in xhtml code will be tableless. The term tables in a database and tables in xhtml are different. One refers to content and the other presentation, or how that content is displayed on the actual web page. Data belongs in columns and rows, so tables are an exception to the concept of a tableless xhtml web design.

If you have a dynamic site that uses tables in a database, that is different than tables for layout. Don't be confused by the difference. A MySQL database happens to use tables to store data hidden on the server and extracted as needed. That is content. Think of those as storage bins for data necessary to drive the engine if your site uses a cms system. That use of the word "tables" is entirely different from the xhtml method of table layout using a matrix of rows and columns to present content.

The use of tables for layout in xhtml does not refer to the content. That is presentation. If your site will be tableless yet is a cms web design, that means the system extracts data from the database table where it is stored, and it is automatically assembled into the xhtml document which is what search engines and visitors see. For my custom cms web designs there will not be any tables code in the xhtml unless it is required for presentation. That conversion of data from a cms database to a tableless page means pages will not be presented with the outdated technique of bloated code using a table matrix of columns and rows.

Would a design in xhtml that I create ever use tables for layout? Not for the entire page, but perhaps sometimes for a portion of page content, yet rarely, and only when actually displaying some type of chart. For example, if a page needed a matrix displaying prices by quantity presented in rows and columns, in that case using a table for layout for just that section of the page would be appropriate. The mistake designers make is trying to precisely control the layout of a page by putting everything in "boxes", or table cells, in columns and rows.

TAGS: advice cms tables web design xhtml

Launch and Forget It Web Design

2009-02-13T02:46:00.000-05:00

The clients I service for custom website design who return for changes or upgrades "get it" when I advise people to add orignal quality content often.

Having a website with over 650 Google page one listings for web design related phrases in less than a year since consciously optimizing my site last June, I share how-to with clients for duplicating that success, and in a phrase the secret is "add original quality content often".

A strategy of launch a site and forget it violates that principle for success because Google rewards websites with better ranking in search results if they update continually to provide an improved visitor experience.

If you don't track statistics for your site visitors and let your service provider update you, those stats could be misleading. A client I first met had one of those reports stating their site had "over 1500 hits a week", yet the client was surprised having zero new prospects contact them.

The important number is not hits which is a call to the server for content including graphics, but the number of unique visitors. One page with 10 graphics visited by 10 people gets 100 hits just for those graphics. If you can't make the time to track stats, at least insist on reports of page loads and unique visitors.

Measuring effectiveness of an advertising campaign compared to your website traffic requires metrics with factual data. Knowing how people found you allows you to make decisions about the best way to allocate your advertising budget. If your website draws the traffic print ads do not, the focus and budget may be better spent on adding new content to your website.

Search engines treat sites differently than 4-5 years ago, and how people find you has changed, too. Today the majority of people looking for a product or service search online first. Business owners who routinely ask "How did you find us?" can measure site performance compared to print advertising. Tracking trends, a major local newspaper downsized the layout and number of pages and the pinch in ad revenue goes beyond the current economy.

Know what works. If the return on investment for print ads is less than you pay, and your website brings new prospects, it is time to invest those dollars into expanding your site to avoid the pitfalls of a launch and forget web design.

TAGS: advertising advice hits statistics web design

Web Design Sitemap URL Advice

2009-01-21T15:57:00.001-05:00

From a client email inquiry earlier, advice was requested for how to evaluate their web design and specifically their sitemap URLs listed versus indexed by Google. Changes should not be alarming, especially when a custom integrated blog is included in the design. Here was the explanation for the benefit of readers.

Perhaps some of the previous URLs were archive files for the blog. That is duplicate content and not penalized but no reason for Google to index into their directory, so no worries about your overall ranking. Continue to post to the blog and I expect the PR to remain positive. I do caution, however, that PageRank fluctuations are no indication of how well your site will perform in search results. It is only one indicator of the value you provide.

The PR of my key pages "bounce" up or down year to year and recently down, yet traffic from Google continues to rise. Long term your traffic and certainly conversions despite the economy from month to month and year to year remains the key trend to analyze. Short term fluctuations should be studied for reference only unless something nose dives.

Strategy is a long term look at results whereas tactical tracking is day to day. My advice to all small business website owners is view your stats strategically. PageRank is not the cureall, and certainly losing sleep over one aspect of overall online success needs to be avoided. Changes in URLs indexed by Google are likewise normal, so be aware all site pages may not be indexed and don't panic.

TAGS: advice pagerank sitemap web design

Cross Browser Compatibility in Web Design

2009-01-21T01:47:00.001-05:00

Here's a link to a 2008 blog post on testing cross browser compatibility of your web design with links to the current version of 4 of the 5 major browsers including some advice and 2007 usage stats by browser for my site for all of 2007:

It's good to know the setup of site visitors to know pages in your web design display well for the majority while 100% is the real goal. I can't wait for IE6 to get below 10% as it continued to plunge in 2007 and 2008. This post is an update of IE6 based on visitor statistics for 2008. IE6 is at 22% of visitors now, and down from 42% a year earlier. You can download all 5 to test and remove desktop icons of ones you don't use.

Forget Netscape. They're defunct and no longer supported. However, be careful where you download. There are phishing sites (scams, virus trojans, spammers) that offer "downloads" that may be malicious and infect your pc. My advice is always going to the official sites as listed in the blog post linked above. They should be current.

A new browser from Google branded "Chrome" was introduced in September 2008. It has made gains yet not as well as I predicted at the time of the release. They made initial inroads for about a month then stalled. It had minor problems and resources to improve beyond the initial release though minimal have increased their share to 4% since last September. That is significant for a newly released browser brand.

My Sept 2008 review of Google Chrome includes a link to the Google Chrome download page.

For small business owners who contract to have their custom web design outsourced, my advice is requesting evidence of cross browser compatibility testing to the latest version of major browsers as a minimum.

TAGS: advice browsers small business advice testing web design

December Podcast Contest Results

2009-01-03T18:47:00.001-05:00

The December podcast contest asking listeners to write 25 words or less about a favorite episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast ended at midnight on December 31, 2008. With $500 and $250 prizes to be given away for design credits for web design, seo services, or matching graphic artwork, visitors may have had too much to do or writers block. Perhaps some doubted their writing skills thinking they couldn't win and gave up before trying. Regardless, zero entrants were received which means no one won by writing in.

After considering a drawing of current clients, I came up with another method for picking a winner and decided how before looking at my email inbox for the last day of 2008. Both prizes would go to the last client who emailed me for any reason on December 31st. The last message received in 2008 was for a vacation rental web design in progress for www.AnOrlandoVacationVilla.com, and the email arrived at 1:04 p.m. local time.

Advanced options discussed outside the scope of the custom cms web design project will be done at no charge. Stay tuned to the web design advice podcast and future episodes. New contests may be announced.

TAGS: contest news podcast promotion web design

Custom Flyer for Insurance Company

2008-12-22T10:51:00.001-05:00

The illustration below is a custom flyer for an insurance company in Florida with a custom map of Kissimmee, space for an address label and stamp, yet appropriate for a handout as well as mailing.

The background image of the company building is actually a collage with significant photo edits for a more attractive presentation. Not seen are utility poles and wires, background signs from nearby businesses, the original sky (replaced), and the card back which is identical except in Spanish.

View additional examples of custom post card and flyer artwork for print in the custom post card gallery, and then email or write about affordable custom flyer artwork and printing options for your small business.

TAGS: custom artwork graphic artwork photographs photo edits post card

Podcast Anniversary Feedback Contest

2008-12-17T05:27:00.001-05:00

The next podcast episode being released later this week will include a Podcast Anniversary Feedback Contest, and prizes with $750 in value. To celebrate the one year anniversary of the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast, listeners are encouraged to provide feedback on their favorite web design audio advice program. Contestants identify 1 of the first 52 episodes in an email with an explanation in 25 words or less why a particular show was their favorite.

The winner will be selected based solely on my judgment and announced on January 3rd, 2009. The first prize $500 design credit may be used in 2009 towards any and all web design related services that I provide including custom web design, blog design, seo services, video production, or even custom graphics.

You do not have to be a current or past client to enter. In addition to the first prize, a runner up will receive a free custom business card and a post card flyer design worth $250. The deadline is December 31, 2008 and winners will be announced on this blog on January 3rd, plus be mentioned in the podcast episode for that week.

TAGS: contest news podcast prize web design

Welcome to Our Website in Web Design

2008-12-14T01:04:00.000-05:00

From experience in web design and seo, the phrase Welcome to our website in web design would be my last choice for a page title. Search engines like key words in titles and "Welcome to our website" doesn't really define what to expect when following a link to that page. Let's have some fun.

The latest podcast episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag launched earlier entitled Website Title and Description with audio advice about web design and seo including tags for title, META description, and META keywords.

To explain effective title tags that help define a site theme and enhance search engine optimization, the podcast episode points out the phrase "Welcome to our website" as a poor choice for a page title.

For an effective page title tag in web design your choice needs to include key words about what you do because people searching online are more likely to search by product or service rather than brand name.

While it is VERY unlikely anyone would search for "Welcome to our website" looking for a product or service, I decided to test that phrase in Google enclosed in quote marks. Someone has to be #1 on page one, right? As of today's date, the winner is the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Congratulations!

In my opinion as a specialist in custom web design, people struggle to acheive a #1 Google page one listing, so if asked I would advise the staff at the university to keep their "Welcome to our website" page title. They deserve an award!

TAGS: advice content podcast seo search engine optimization web design

Custom Integrated Blog Design Launch

2008-12-06T08:59:00.005-05:00

A second custom integrated blog design launched this week for author Ben Furman of Black Hawk Press. Mr. Furman is an independent publisher and writer, and former FBI Counterterrorism Chief who writes two genres of fiction. The audience for his mature content blog on counterterrorism is adults, and the latest blog features information about his fantasy adventure series for young adults.

Each custom integrated blog matches the pre-existing web design and each sidebar features a custom logo graphic as shown above to illustrate the theme of each blog. The original blog included posts on both themes, and the new blog separates content based on the target audience. Included in the custom integrated blogger template design is an audio player so visitors may listen to book excerpts, also.

The main site has more information on all books including reviews and links to purchase online.

TAGS: blog blogger blog template launch web design

Restaurant CMS Web Design Launched

2008-11-28T23:26:00.002-05:00

A custom restaurant CMS web design launched earlier this week for Kabob Place, an Indian food restaurant in Orlando, Florida. The initial launch is a home page plus 3 pages with their Indian food menu of soups, appetizers, side dishes, main dishes, desserts, and beverages. In addition to the home page and menu, the site features a custom Orlando map of their location.

The above screenshot of the Indian restaurant home page with custom web design graphics is shown smaller than actual size. The Kabob Place Indian Restaurant is near MetroWest in Orlando and caters to local residents with quality Indian food at modest prices.

The custom web design is valid to XHTML and CSS2 and complies to W3C standards with zero code errors or warnings. The CMS, or Content Management System of web design, allows a website owner to add unlimited new pages to their site without knowing XHTML or CSS code.

TAGS: cms content management system website launch website design

Quality Web Design and Low Price

2008-11-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

A new podcast episode on the Small Business Website Mailbag released on Saturday with advice when comparing quality web design and low price. The advice for small business owners presents how to judge web design quality and then the right questions to ask when requesting a custom web design price quote.

The audio program is entitled "One Tough Web Design Question" and includes a checklist of features to look for when asking for quotes for a custom web design. Site quality and search engine optimization value goes beyond aesthetics, and this podcast episode explains how combining a professional look with quality xhtml code in a cms web design provides value and long term website performance.

The podcast emphasizes the secret to web design and seo, or search engine optimization, and attracting visitors to your website including search engines: Add original quality content often.

TAGS: cms podcast seo search engine optimization web design

Two New CMS Web Designs Launched

2008-11-20T23:54:00.000-05:00

In the last week two new CMS web designs launched with a Florida insurance company website for Harmony Insurance in Kissimmee, Florida, offering auto insurance, home insurance, plus life, health, and business including workers comp. The other web design is an Orlando Florida real estate website for Henry E Epinsel, Realtor, offering homes for sale in the Orlando and surrounding Central Florida area.

Each is a CMS web design, or Content Management System, which allows adding unlimited new pages. The insurance site features an online insurance quote request form and the real estate web design has info for sellers and buyers with a mortgage calculator on the buyers page, plus a link to search all Florida MLS.

The launch of each initial site cms web design will continue to evolve as new pages are added. The Harmony Insurance site will have additional online forms beginning with a fast quote form and then individual quote forms for other insurance products. The English version of the real estate site will be translated and reproduced in Spanish in the near future.

Each site web design meets W3C for XHTML with CSS2 and zero code errors or warnings.

TAGS: cms content management system website launch website design

CMS Web Design Client Audio Feedback

2008-11-18T02:13:00.002-05:00

Another custom cms web design client has recorded an audio testimonial with feedback after the recent launch of their custom website project. Follow this link to the Atlanta recruiter cms web design project overview, and then listen to the audio recording of the customer's comments. A text transcript is posted with the audio, also.

Remarkably, within a month of the launch of this custom cms web design and matching blog, their site achieved Google page one listings for some very generic search phrases related to recruiting services in the Atlanta area. I never guarantee any client page one in search engines, yet following the search engine optimization advice for natural seo quality worked quickly for them.

The secret to search engine optimization is still "add original quality content often". Success begins with a quality web design as the foundation for performing well online. The kind comments from Fidelis Search LLC owner Brian Swaney about the custom cms web design are certainly appreciated.

TAGS: audio cms content management system testimonial website launch web design

Blog and Ping Tutorial Update

2008-11-01T02:20:00.000-05:00

The podcast episode in August 2008 with the do-it-yourself desktop blog and ping tutorial presented a potential problem of broadcasting blog updates for owners with multiple blogs. From testing the free software it was apparent at the time that listing multiple blogs would ping all of them even if only one was updated.

Owners with multiple blogs faced the problem of announcing updates to blog tracking services when in fact only one of several blogs were updated. The solution given at the time was to have separate installations and icons on your desktop for each blog. From my experience since then, and facing this very problem, the solution was simpler than I imagined.

Rather than multiple desktop icons I only list one blog in the program and feature just one blog and ping icon on the desktop. When updating one of my 6-7 blogs I do a quick edit using copy and paste as follows. From the top tool bar select "Menu" and then "Your Blogs" from the drop down menu, and then "Edit Blog" for the single blog listed.

Next, change the title and then copy/paste your blog URL into the next 3 boxes being sure to leave the trailing RSS link in the last box. Save, exit, and then ping and you're done. Exit the program and then edit the title and URL with copy/paste the next time you update one of your multiple blogs.

This simple method takes 60 seconds to edit each time you post to one of your blogs, so it is efficient without the extra clutter of multiple software installation icons on your desktop.

TAGS: advice blog blog and ping tutorial update

GoDaddy Makeover and Email Tutorials

2008-10-24T02:49:00.000-05:00

With the recent GoDaddy web design makeover for a revised look including new navigation, their email tutorials provide a great tool for customers who favor this very popular domain registrar and hosting service company. Follow this link to the list of GoDaddy email tutorials to learn how to setup email service on your personal computer.

Often my web design clients opt for the free email forwarding included with a new domain or hosting purchase. While you may easily have email for info@(your domain) forward to your free email account at services like Google GMail, Yahoo!, or AOL, there is a downside. For small business owners in particular your image as a professional organization will be enhanced if your return emails are sent directly from an email account that matches your domain name.

Customers emailing you from your website where an info@ or sales@ email link includes the domain name may feel you lack sophistication, or even be unpleasantly surprised, if the return message uses a free email service provider. The GoDaddy email tutorials make enhancing your corportate image easier than ever. The strategy of creating a favorable first impression will be reinforced with a gorgeous web design and matching email to your domain, and then make sure to send return emails from that same address.

TAGS: advice email setup GoDaddy web design

CMS Web Design for Atlanta Recruiter

2008-10-22T02:38:00.002-05:00

A custom cms web design launched last week for Atlanta recruiter Fidelis Search, LLC, and includes an integrated matching Blogger custom blog template. Fidelis specializes in assisting Atlanta area corporate clients recruit qualified job seekers for accounting and finance related positions.

The custom recruiting web design includes the ability to easily add unlimited new pages using simple text content and graphics that are converted automatically to xhtml with css to meet W3C standards.

Visit the accountant and financial recruiter website of Fidelis Search, LLC, and check out their new Atlanta Job Blog custom matching blog.

TAGS: cms custom blog web design website launch

Google Search and Poor Spelling

2008-10-06T09:35:00.002-05:00

Web design and search engine optimization strategy to misspell keywords to maximize Google search results for poor spelling is unnecessary. Graphics shown below provide evidence for a web design related search phrase that brought a visitor to my website earlier today. Google continues to improve processing of search requests for the most relevant results even if you cannot spell. In addition, Google will cross reference for similar terms to provide results based on synonyms.

The two graphics below display Google search result examples for the phrase "tutorial ebook web design" without quote marks. Each graphic has circled labels numbered 1-4 as follows: 1) underlined search box phrase (incorrect spelling and then correct), 2) position at #1 on Google page one, 3) total number of search results, and 4) the #1 result in Google.

Some SEO consultants would advise adding misspelling of key words to keyword lists anticipating that some people cannot spell. I disagree with using that tactic for search engine optimization. In this first graphic below, the visitor Googled "tutorial ebook web design" with commas between each word, except the word "design" was spelled phonetically as "desain".

In the second graphic shown below the correct spelling returned the same #1 result, and total results were similar except with 20,000 more results when spelled correctly.

The first screenshot graphic was taken after following Google search results while checking visitor statistics for my site. While on that SERP page I then corrected the spelling for "web design" and took the second screenshot. The total results were similar at 351,000 when "web design" was misspelled and 371,000 when "web design" was correctly entered, and each returned the same #1 result.

Next, testing each search without any commas provided identical results. Keyword lists for search engine optimization, or seo, in your web design META code are given very little importance by Google. Yahoo and others may still index keywords hidden in the META tags to determine the theme of your site; however, each key word in your keyword list should appear somewhere in the text that displays to visitors on that page.

Why would anyone intentionally include misspelling in their web design and risk offending their visitors? First impressions are important to keeping people on your site. If they see you cannot spell it could affect your credibility, so some visitors will leave immediately to the next Google result. Trust Google search results for poor spelling to bring traffic without trying to second guess potential visitor typing skills.

Finally, doing grammar and spell check of your web design text content is highly recommended before launching new web pages or blog posts. Poor spelling or grammar will strike a nerve with visitors and intentional errors are unnecessary as search engines become more sophisticated. The secret to success in web design and search engine optimization is summarized in my favorite phrase "add original quality content often". Misspelling violates the word "quality" in that advice for successful web design.

TAGS: advice Google seo search engine optimization spelling web design

Custom Blogger Author Blog Launch

2008-10-04T17:25:00.001-05:00

A new custom blogger template launched earlier this week for the publisher and author blog of BlackHawkPress.com. The new integrated blog design color scheme and graphics match the pre-existing web design for a consistent look. Adding a custom integrated blog to any small business website enhances search engine optimization, or seo, and helps attract search engines.

Black Hawk Press is an independent publisher of counterterrorism novels by Ben Furman, publisher and author, as well as another genre with an adventure series of fantasy novels for young adults. Mr. Furman provides an inside look of worldwide intrigue and suspense based on real world experience aimed at adult readers. The childrens series of fantasy adventures offers excitement while providing positive messages for young readers.

The Black Hawk Press blog will feature posts with audio excerpts from their books, insider information about counterterrorism, and professional writing tips by Ben Furman. Follow this link to the custom integrated blog design for Black Hawk Press author Ben Furman to compare the look to their original web design.

TAGS: Blogger blog custom blog launch seo search engine optimization web design

Google PageRank Update Q3 2008

2008-09-29T02:29:00.000-05:00

For small business website owners who like tracking site performance, the Google PageRank update for Q3 2008 took place over the weekend. Now forums will fill up with PR topics including replies by site owners wondering why their small business website PageRank remains unchanged, or dropped. Some will go up.

Google did a great job 11 months ago sending sites to oblivion who were involved in buying and selling links. Backlinks from other websites are still like votes when done naturally, and a related site linking to your site adds value. However, PageRank is only one factor of seo, or search engine optimization, in determining the success of your website.

Compare expectations with actual performance, and if you convert traffic and are at least modestly satisfied with site performance, my advice is don't get too hung up on PageRank. Some owners use social networks to boost traffic, yet high traffic is useless without converting visitors into buyers.

A better web design strategy is still my favorite 5-word phrase: "Add original quality content often" as the secret of search engine optimization and to improve the performance of your website design. The words "original" and "quality" within that phrase will get visitor's attention, and then those plus "Add... content often" will attract search engines. PageRank as well as performance is more likely to deteriorate if you build a site and let it sit without updates or new content.

Like anything, begin your web design with a good foundation as in quality code and content, and then continually improve on both as you apply natural seo strategies, and you should be smiling at future Google PageRank updates. An ongoing annual budget for website revisions will be key in staying ahead of your competition, while launch-and-forget-it web design strategy is bound to fail.

TAGS: advice PageRank seo web design web design strategy