Mac SEO Blog

We recently released a popular video tutorial that demonstrates how to create a full width header that can resize as the user scrolls down the page. This can make your website have a more modern feel to it, as this type of header is becoming more widely used on professionally built websites.

This effect not only will make your site look and feel more modern, but it also adds a bit of convenience to your website visitors. Rather than having to scroll all the way back up to the top of the page, visitors will be able to access your website’s navigation menu at all times, making it much easier to navigate from page to page.

Check out the video below and see how you can add this feature to your website. The widget can be found at EverWebCodeBox.

Video Transcript

With the help of a very powerful widget, you can add a sticky header that resizes when you scroll down the page of your EverWeb site. Here is an example of a basic sticky header that I will show you how to create in EverWeb.

The widget that we will be using to create this header was developed by a third-party EverWeb widget developer named Roddy. The widget is available for purchase at a modest price on Roddy’s website everwebcodebox.com

You can locate it by clicking on the Widgets 3 link, followed by hovering over Responsive and selecting resize header. Scrolling down this page will show you another example of this widget in use.

In this tutorial I am going to show you how I created this header using the widget. This widget is powerful and comprehensive, so I will be skipping over some of the controls that I don’t need to use or ones that I accept the default values for. I am making sure that I cover the most important aspects of the widget, and provide you with enough information to be able to move forward with creating your own header.

I also want to point out that Roddy actively updates his widgets, so if you see a control in your widget that you do not see here, it is because the widget has been updated after the release of this video.

The header that we will be creating has 4 main parts to it. There is the background, the logo, the text, and the navigation menu.

So starting with a blank page for the purpose of this demonstration, I will drag and drop the widget onto the page. This is what appears by default.

The very first thing I will do is make the header full width. I do this by clicking on the Metrics tab, and then enabling the Full Width option.

I will now click on the Widget Settings tab.

The Background

The first thing I will do to the widget settings is change the background color of the header. This is done by clicking on the color control next to where it says Background. You will also notice that there is a Background B. This is because by default, the background will be a Gradient. Since I want a solid color, I will also make Background B the same color as the one I chose before.

The Logo

Next I am going to add the image. I have already added the image to the assets list, so I just need to click on Choose and then select it.

My logo appears much smaller than I want, so I will adjust the value next to width, until my desired width for my logo is displayed.

I also want the logo to be closer to the top of the header, so I will adjust the value next to Top.

The logo is also a bit further to the left than I want it to be so I will adjust the value next to Left.

I will also adjust the Resize Width so that the logo is my desired size once it has been resized.

I will also adjust the Resize Top value so that the logo is a bit further from the top.

The Text

The next thing I will do is replace the heading with my own.

I will also type in my desired Font Family. Since this is a Google Font, I will check the option for Google Font.

You will also notice that the text is overlapping with the logo, so I am going to adjust the value next to Left to move it a bit to the right.

I will also modify the resize left value.

The Navigation

The next thing we will do is add the navigation menu. This is done by adding the navigation menu widget by dragging and dropping it onto the header.

Next, I will click on the Metrics tab and enable the Full Width option. Back on the Widget Settings for the navigation menu, I am going to change the alignment from Left, to Right, since my navigation is on the right side of my header. I will also position the navigation menu somewhere around the middle of the header.

I will also click on the Fonts button to open up the fonts window to select my font.

The rest of the modifications that I make to the navigation menu will be done using the controls on the Full Width Resize Widget, so I will click back to that widget, and then select the Widget Settings tab in the Inspector, and then scroll down to the navigation menu section.

I am going to increase the value next to Resize Top so my navigation menu is bit further away from the top.

I will now adjust the link color, as well as the hover color. You will notice that some of the changes made to the navigation menu will not appear in EverWeb. This is normal. Your navigation menu will appear much different when your site is previewed or published.

I also do not want there to be a background for my navigation menu so I will select Transparent background.

I will modify the font size since I want it to be a bit larger.

I am going to decrease the minimum width for the links in the navigation menu because I want this spacing between links to be a bit smaller.

My navigation menu does not contain a drop down menu so I will skip over the drop down menu style controls.

The last thing I will do is check the boxes to fix the header and navigation and activate the resize on scroll.

We have now just re-created this header.

Just a quick reminder about all of the values that I just set. These values correspond to my logo and the way I want it to appear. Your values will all differ based on the logo and based on how you want your header to look. The way you will determine most of the values that you input will be through trial and error, which is how I determined the values for this header. For most of values that we adjusted, you will be able to see the result of changing the values right away. But for the values that have Resize next to them, you will need to preview the page in order to see the change.

And even though I skipped over some of the controls, you might still find them useful for you, so feel free to play around with them when creating your header.

When you start using EverWeb your focus will most likely be on learning the product as quickly as you can so you can get down to the task of creating the web pages you want for your website. One thing you may not immediately think of is how to attract visitors to your web pages once you have published your website to the Internet. This is where Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, comes in as it is the process by which you make your website as visible as possible to Internet search engines. EverWeb lets you easily add SEO in to your web pages but knowing what SEO is and where to use it effectively in EverWeb is essential. Once you have this knowledge you will vastly improve the likelihood of having  your web pages found by potential visitors.

About SEO…

When talking about SEO we typically think of Google which is natural as it’s the world’s most popular web search engine with 67% of the US search market according to Search Engine Journal. However, Google is not alone as the Microsoft’s Bing/Yahoo! search engine alliance also has a strong presence with a 29% market share. SEO applies to all search engines, although their approaches towards implementing SEO strategies may differ.

In addition to the sometimes differing SEO approaches of the search engine giants, SEO itself is constantly evolving as our needs and requirements change. Today we use mobile devices more than desktop ones and so perform more search on mobile devices then we did ten years ago so all mobile websites need to have SEO. Google has even prioritised SEO for mobile over SEO for desktop devices. Social media is also more in our lives than ever before and Microsoft’s Bing search engine weighs this factor moe in it’s search results than it used to. Such factors as these, driven by advances in technology, influence how search engines need to rank search results when you are looking for something on the Internet. For example, Google uses over 200 factors to determine how a web page is ranked and these factors are constantly in flux due to the factors outlined above. The ever increasing paced complexity of change can make SEO appear to be a minefield to navigate.

Making A Complex Problem Simpler

The ever changing dynamics of SEO can be bewildering when starting to work with it. However, successful SEO can be achieved once we realise that SEO is a just a process that helps improve websites and/or web page visibility in search engine results page rankings. There are good and bad practices to be aware of that will either help promote, or penalise, your page rankings. There are also no guarantees either with SEO as to the results rankings you will achieve. As mentioned earlier, the science behind SEO is constantly evolving so the best you can do is to stay up to date with SEO developments from Google and Microsoft/Yahoo! and the possible effects of such developments on your website’s page rankings.

Doing Your SEO Homework

SEO works by looking for ‘Keywords’ to help search engines find your website’s pages using specialist software known as web ‘crawlers’ or ‘spiders’. These software tools keep search engines indexed and web content up to date.

As such, using the right kind of Keywords will benefit your website as search engines will find your web pages more easily. So you will need to take some time to do your homework by researching what Keywords are best to use. Using generic words for your Keywords, e.g ’software’, will result in your website never being found. Google ‘software’ and you will get over 2,350,000,000 results. So be specific with your Keywords e.g. if you are a software vendor you may sell specific software, e.g. EverWeb, so use ‘EverWeb’ rather than ‘Software’ as a Keyword. This approach helps narrow the search focus and increases the chances of potential visitors finding your website. When thinking about Keywords for your own web pages, try to think about the words you would type in to find your own website quickly.

As Keywords are important it’s necessary to choose the best words to help your website stand out from the rest. Both Google and Microsoft have Keyword Planning tools for just this purpose.

When you have found your list of Keywords, select just a few of them to actually use. If you have too many Keywords you will probably lower the impact of your SEO. Google, for example, penalises websites that use ‘Keyword Stuffing’. It’s also good to remember that too many Keywords may impact your visitor experience in a negative way. Always prioritise your website content over the need for SEO.

Putting It All Together In EverWeb

When you have done all of your SEO homework, how do you translate it into practical use in EverWeb? There are a number of places to target for your SEO, most of which you can find on the Page tab of the Inspector Window.

1. File Name: Each web page has a file name which you can use to act as a Keyword.

2. Navigation Menu Display Name: SEO likes to find links to other pages so this is a good place to use your Keywords. Remember not to sacrifice the usability of your website for the sake of SEO.

3. Web Page Title: This is the text at the top of the browser window which is an ideal place to add in Keywords. Again, remember prioritise your visitor experience over better SEO.

4. Web Page Description: Although not directly used in SEO it’s a good idea to include some Keywords in your Page Description if it is relevant and appropriate to do so.

SEO Good Practices

When using SEO remembering to follow a few good practices will help promote your web pages…

1. Your Website Content

Your web page should contain original, good quality content. Both Google and Microsoft’s Bing look for fresh, quality content that is well written and easy to search for by their web crawlers. Your page content should be relevant to what web page, and website, is aiming to achieve. Always focus on good content rather than on SEO. Whilst SEO is important, the content and visitor perception of your website is more important.

2. Use Images Effectively

Use images properly in your website. Using appropriate quality images can instantly convey your meaning, or message, better than words can. When using images remember to add in some text describing the image in the Alt-Text section of the Shape Options Tab. The description should be brief but descriptive of the image itself. The Alt-Text function is also useful if an image does not appear on the page as it will be replaced by the descriptive text you have added in. Using Alt Text in your website may help search engines find and promote your website better.

3. Use Hyperlinks

Web crawlers like to see links in your pages to other pages within your website or to pages on other websites. So, use EverWeb’s Hyperlinking to do this. When you create a Hyperlink try to make the linking words something that is unique. Many websites say things like ‘click HERE’ where ‘HERE’ is the linking text. However, as we mentioned earlier, ‘HERE’ is used everywhere on the Internet! So if I want to take you to a video tutorial on Hyperlinking I could say click on the link here or I could say look at the Video Tutorial on Hyperlinking in EverWeb. For SEO, the second approach is much better.

4. The Heading Tags Widget

The Heading Tags Widget can be used to explicitly draw search engine attention to specific title text and headings in your web page. Whilst it may be useful to your SEO, it is something for advanced EverWeb users some HTML to use. The  Heading Tags Widget video tutorial will get you acquainted and we will discuss the use of this Widget in a specific blog in the near future.

Useful Resources for SEO in EverWeb

In addition to the Good Practices outlined above, you can find out more about using SEO in EverWeb using the following resources:

Blog Content

How To Use EverWeb’s SEO Features

Video Tutorial Content

The SEO for EverWeb Course

Adding Alt Text, or Alternative Text to Images in EverWeb

SEO For EverWeb – Heading Tags

Meta Keywords – SEO For EverWeb Video Course

Webpage Content – SEO For EverWeb Video Course

Using SEO in EverWeb is easy to implement using the above guidelines. Creating and maintaining good practices will help you successfully optimise your website to achieve the best search page rankings possible. Keeping abreast of Google and Microsoft/Yahoo!’s developments in SEO will also help you, and your website, up to date in the future. And remember, as always, to always keep your visitor experience as your number one concern over SEO rankings.

Next Time: In our next instalment we will look at the Web Page List and build navigation menus for your website.

As always let us know if you have any comments and questions. We’re happy to help. You can also find EverWeb on the following social media platforms:

Facebook

Google+

Flipboard

YouTube

Twitter handle @ragesw

With the release of EverWeb 1.8 we included a lot of new features. I know some may get lost in the release notes so I want to outline three great new features we’ve included.

1. Support for Social Media Images and Favicons.

The Social Media image is what you see when you post your page to sites like Facebook. You can select any image to be the ‘Social Media’ image for each page on your site. If this is not specified then Facebook and other sites will use the first image on your page, or non at all.

To se the Social Media Image go to the Inspector->Page Settings. You’ll see the Social Media Image under the ‘Page Details’ section.

The Favicon is set on a per site bases and appears in the path bar in your web browser. It should be a small, 16 by 16 image but EverWeb will resize and convert an image you select. To set the Favicon go to the File menu and select ‘Edit Publishing Settings’. Scroll down until you see the Favicon button and select your image.

Sometimes you need to clear you browser cache to properly see your Favicon.

2. New stretch and stretch to fill background image settings

If you go to Page Settings->Browser Background you will see new Image fill options for ‘Stretch’ and ‘Stretch To Fill’. These options will stretch an image across the entire browser background and resize it as the browser window is resized.

The new Templates that come free with EverWeb 1.8 (Go to EverWeb menu->Check for New Templates) will show these new features.

Combined with the new Full Width and Fixed Positioned options for shapes, you can really make some really modern and cool designs

3. New option in Arrange Menu -> Always On Top

This option places the object over all other objects even if it is from a Master template. If you have multiple objects with this option set, the order comes from the bring to front, send to back etc… options under the Arrange menu. This is useful for having a navigation bar on a master page always on top on the child pages, especially when using the all new Fixed position option.

BONUS: Check out the new options in the Image Slider. You can now set a caption and a specific URL for each slide. That means you can redirect users to a specific page from each slide.

Pro Tip: Change the font styling of the captions by using the ‘Fonts’ button in the toolbar when the Image Slider is selected. It’s really easy to add nice styling to the Image Slider.

iWeb SEO Tool was first released back in 2008. It’s been over 7 years that we have been developing the most popular search engine optimization software for iWeb.

Since iWeb has been discontinued officially for over 3 years and hasn’t received an update since 2009, it is well past the time to move on and start looking towards the future. Most users of iWeb have had problems using iWeb and the latest Mavericks and Yosemite version of OS X.

We need to focus all our attention and resources on building the best web site builder for OS X. So today we are officially discontinuing iWeb SEO Tool and will no longer be providing customer support for it. Of course, we still have tons of free video tutorials on how to use it, as well as out free SEO for iWeb video tutorials which you are certainly free to continue using.

When you’re ready, and if you haven’t already done so, come check out EverWeb, our new, modern iWeb replacement that is built specifically for designing professional websites. We have more themes, more features and more updates that we continue to release on a regular basis.

Even more so, every license of EverWeb comes with access to our free discussion forums, free video tutorials and 24/7 email and phone support.

When it comes to website building, we have you covered and we’re working extremely hard to push out updates with amazing new features as quickly as we can.

So if you haven’t already done, download the free trial of EverWeb and learn how to easily move your iWeb site to EverWeb.

With the recent announcement of OS X 10.10 – Yosemite – many iWeb users are wondering whether or not iWeb will still work on the latest release. Apple has opened up the Yosemite beta to the public, which means that many every day users will be downloading the new operating system a few months ahead of schedule.

So the bottom line is does iWeb work with Yosemite? We have tested iWeb on systems running Yosemite and iWeb does appear to still work with some limitations. Users may come across a few bugs here and there. For example, we came across this small bug when adding a blog to our site. The ‘Add Entry’ and ‘Delete Entry’ buttons that appear when on the blog page now appear when on any page on the website. Other issues we encountered were missing images for some widgets and incompatible widgets (such as Google maps & the MobileMe gallery).

Though most iWeb features do still work with Yosemite, there are a few things that iWeb users should keep in mind. iWeb has not seen a major update since 2009. One day, iWeb 09 will stop working on a future update of OS X, just as iWeb 08 no longer works on OS X 10.9 or later. In addition, no future updates to iWeb will be released.

EverWeb, our iWeb replacement is compatible with OS X 10.6 through OS X 10.10, Yosemite. In addition, we have continued to update it with new features such as drop down menus, mobile websites, mouse over effects, master pages and much more. Our goal with EverWeb is to provide a modern replacement for Apple’s discontinued iWeb. Plus, we’ve made it really easy to transition your iWeb site to an EverWeb site.

EverWeb is currently being used by thousands of ex-iWeb users and they are very happy with it. Check out what EverWeb customers have to say about EverWeb. Still not convinced? Read the third party EverWeb reviews.

If you are thinking about switching from iWeb to another website builder, we encourage you to give EverWeb a try. You can download it free of charge. You can try EverWeb for an unlimited period of time. We guarantee that you will love it (so much that we have a 60 day money back guarantee when you decide to place your order).

Remember, EverWeb also comes with our free SEO for EverWeb video course to help you get more visitors to your website.

And of course, as always, if you have any questions about EverWeb join the thousands of EverWeb users on the EverWeb discussion forums.

EverWeb 1.5, our powerful drag and drop iWeb replacement is now available for download. EverWeb 1.5 focuses on improving the Image Gallery and improving the overall stability of the software.

This new version of EverWeb includes Publishing improvements for slightly faster publishing and to remove files from your local published website folder.

It also focuses on fixing some issues with certain widgets and iOS devices, importing images, and the contact form.

About EverWeb
EverWeb is a fully featured yet extremely easy to use web site builder of OS X. Without writing any code, users can create beautiful and professional websites. EverWeb includes modern features like drop down menus, mobile websites, mouse over effects, built in search engine optimization features and much more.

EverWeb can be downloaded and tested free of charge.

Let us know what you think of this release, or come over to the discussion forum and meet other EverWeb users.

Full Release Notes

[NEW] Image Gallery setting to set the size of images (small, medium, large or no change)
[NEW] Publish Entire Site will now remove all unused pages, assets and directories for a fresh upload. (note: this will not remove any files from the server, it just won\’t publish unused items anymore)
[NEW] Optimized creating new websites and adding new pages so the templates window is more responsive
[NEW] Inspector is automatically hidden when in publishing settings
[NEW] Optimizations for publishing sites with large image galleries
[CHG] Previewing goes back to using online version of jQuery instead of using local version to help improve publishing speeds
[FIX] Pages no longer marked as changed just by clicking in the design area
[FIX] Fixed an issue with converting curly quotes
[FIX] Fixed a rare issue where images would not publish properly if project file was in a directory containg a \’ or \”
[FIX] Image dragging widget now works when there is no pagination
[FIX] Contact form will now work no matter what your publish settings are set to
[FIX] RSS Widget links now work on iOS devices
[FIX] Duplicate and Delete page commands in menu bar now work properly with Master Pages
[FIX] Changing the name of a directory properly publishes the child pages
[FIX] Deleting all passwords from a directory will properly remove password protection
[FIX] Fixed an issue with mobile websites not loading properly if they weren\’t explicitly set to a page on your site
[FIX] Fixed some crashes with the undo function
[FIX] Fixed a crash when right clicking on the site name
[FIX] Fixed issues with drag and dropping assets onto EverWeb
[FIX] Internal CSS files are only published if their content has actually changed
[FIX] Fixed issue with re-opening a website that was in fullscreen mode when quitting
[FIX] Fixed issues with exporting the image gallery. Sometimes they wouldn\’t export with the correct number of columns
[FIX] Fixed an issue where images copied and pasted or dropped from another source may appear darker in EverWeb

EverWeb 1.4 is here with one of the most requested features, Image Gallery Captions. The Image Gallery got a lot of attention with this release adding the ability to limit the number of images per page, remove the social media buttons, center the image gallery and much more.

We focused our attention on making a very powerful, feature rich Image Gallery for this release. From photographers, to artists to just showing off family fun, EverWeb now includes one of the most powerful and highly customizable image galleries. In addition to the new settings and features, users still have the option of adding cool image frames (from under the Shape Settings tab in the Inspector) to add some extra flair to their photo collections.

For users looking to add a Gallery of Image Galleries, we have a cool and unique video to show you how you can easily set up your Photo Album Galleries in EverWeb.

EverWeb 1.4 also includes improvements to the navigation menu, HTML Snippets widget, Image Slider and so much more!

TIP: You can change the font styling and alignment for your image captions using the ‘Fonts’ button in the Toolbar.

Download EverWeb 1.4 now, or use the ‘Check for Update’ feature from under the EverWeb menu and get started with it today.

Let us know what you like about this update, and what you want to see for future updates. Join the discussion on the EverWeb Discussion Forums.

We’re very excited once again to be exhibiting at Macworld 2014.

This year we have a lot to demo including EverWeb, our all new website builder for OS X. We’ll be showing off some new features and discussing what we’ll be working on over the next few months.

We’ll be set up in the Appalooza section under EverWeb. If you will be attending, we’d love to hear from you.

Macworld takes place in the Moscone Center in San Francisco from March 27th – 29th.

Looking forward to another great Macworld show!

We’re pleased to announce an update to EverWeb (formerly known as EasyWeb), our easy to use, drag and drop website builder.

The major features in EverWeb 1.1 are grouping and locking objects which makes website design a lot easier. Objects can be locked in place so they can’t be moved or resized. They can also be grouped with other objects so all objects move around together when dragged.

EverWeb 1.1 also comes with a lot of bug fixes and improvements.

Come join us on the EverWeb Discussion Forum and let us know what you think. We’d love to get your feedback!

About EverWeb

EverWeb provides everything you need to create professional websites. Whether you want to start from one of the built in themes or start from scratch, EverWeb has the tools you need to create modern websites.

With a similar interface to Apple’s iWeb, EverWeb makes it easy for iWeb users to transition over.

You can download EverWeb for free to try it out.

When Apple stopped updating iWeb we immediately started working on a replacement. For the users that have used iWeb, we know that there is currently no suitable replacement that is as easy to use. That is, until now!

We took iWeb’s ease of use and design freedom and turned it into a more powerful, modern website builder called EverWeb.

EverWeb has the same familiar iWeb interface but with more features which includes;

1. Image slideshows
2. Mobile websites
3. Drop down navigation menus
4. Built in Search Engine Optimization features
5. HTML5 Video/Audio
6. Optimized websites for faster loading
7. Mouse over and mouse down effects
8. Social media integration including Facebook, Twitter and Google+

Download EverWeb

Now’s the time to move your iWeb site over to EverWeb and take advantage of all the new, modern website features.

EverWeb is free to try and comes in two versions. A standalone version that lets you publish to any web host and a One-click publishing solution that includes web hosting and email addresses.

Download EverWeb

Let us know what you think in the comments below.