The videos listed below give you detailed instructions on how to use iWeb SEO Tool the proper way. It is very important to follow these instructions in order to limit errors. The videos are in order and should be watched that way.
While these videos are very helpful in teaching you the proper ways of using iWeb SEO Tool, they cannot substitute the content that is in the SEO For iWeb Walkthrough Video Tutorial. That walkthrough video tutorial goes beyond the basics of using iWeb SEO Tool and can help you dramatically improve your website’s rankings in all major search engines. Your business is definitely worth it, so we highly recommend checking out that walkthrough video tutorial. It will also save you a lot of time and heartache in the future.
Since MobileMe is being discontinued, and the fate of iWeb is still up in the air, iWeb users have begun looking for alternatives for building their websites. There is no reason to panic, as long as you have iWeb on your Mac, you will still be able to edit your website.
iWeb users who publish their site to MobileMe may need to start looking for an alternative iWeb hosting company. As well, users who use iWeb’s blogging feature with comments enabled, might be out of luck with MobileMe’s departure.
Enter RAGE Software. We have developed a new tool, which we call “iWeb To WordPress”. With this new tool, you will be able to easily convert your iWeb blog posts, along with comments, to a WordPress blog. This means you will be able to continue blogging (more conveniently for that matter) and not have to worry about losing your comments.
To visualize how this tool works, and the simple steps involved, watch the video tutorial below.
We also offer iWeb and WordPress web hosting. Nobody supports iWeb like we do. We can get you all set up in just minutes for one low price and we have many free video tutorials to help you make the switch.
Video Transcript:
With Apple’s recent announcement of the discontinuation of MobileMe, iWeb users who rely on publishing their website to MobileMe with blog comments enabled will no longer be able to have those comments using iWeb’s blogging feature.
To combat this issue, we are introducing a new tool that will allow you to transfer your iWeb blog posts along with your users’ comments to WordPress. This means that you will be able to continue using iWeb as you normally do, and you will still be able to have your users make comments on your blog.
The first thing we have to do is export our website by publishing to a local folder in iWeb. Make sure your MobileMe URL has been entered in the URL field here. To make things easy, I am publishing the folder to my desktop. You can do the same if you’d like.
Now that the folder has been published, I am going to drag and drop it onto the iWeb To WordPress tool. When the Ready For Export message appears, click on the Export button and save the blog-feed. I am also going to save this to my desktop.
The next part of the tutorial is importing this file to WordPress. This part of the tutorial assumes you already have WordPress installed. Of course this might not be true for some of you watching this video for the first time. If that is the case, there is an instructional video showing you how to setup a WordPress blog on your RAGE Web Hosting account. That tutorial can be found at ragesw.com/webhosting.php . If you do not have a RAGE Web Hosting account, and want to get one, you can register for one at that same address.
So let’s import our blog and comments. In your WordPress Dashboard, click on Tools and then Import, followed by WordPress. If this Install Importer popup appears, click on Install Now. Then click on Activate Plugin & Run Importer. Then press the Choose File button, and locate your blog feed. Then press the Upload File and Import button. You might notice that it says Failed to import author. Don’t worry about that, this is normal. Press the Submit button, and you’re all set. You can now view your blog posts by visiting your website.
One last tip I want to give you, is to make sure you link to your blog on your website. A simple text link will allow your users to easily find your blog and continue reading. Linking back from your blog to your website is also a great idea.
We are extremely happy to announce the release of iWeb SEO Tool 2.0. iWeb SEO Tool is our popular SEO tool that allows iWeb users to easily add SEO elements to their websites such as title tags, alternative text, header tags and more.
After many of you sent in some of your suggestions, we have decided to release this version with a very popular request. Users can now easily add a favicon to their websites with a simple click of a button.
To learn how to add your favicon using iWeb SEO Tool 2.0 (and what a favicon is for that matter) you can view this video tutorial.
In our social networking world, having a Facebook page for your business can be extremely important. In this video, we’re going to show you how you can add a Facebook ‘like’ button to your site in iWeb.
To add a Facebook Like, button to your iWeb website, first go to the Facebook Developers Like Button page. You can pause the video here and type in this URL, or you can do a search for the phrase Facebook Like Button and click on the result for the Facebook Developers Like Button page.
In the Step 1 – Get Like Button Code form, first enter the URL for your Facebook page. If you are unsure of what this URL is, you can visit your Facebook page, and copy and paste the URL into this field.
If you would like to include this Send button, you can leave this box checked, otherwise, you can remove it.
For Layout Style, go through each option and choose the one that you like best.
You can leave the width at 450, or you can change it if you’d like.
You can also choose to show the faces of people who have liked your page. That option looks like this on a webpage.
And lastly, you can pick your font and colour scheme that you would like to use.
When you are done, press the Get Code button, and highlight the code that pops up in the window.
Now let’s open up iWeb, and drag an HTML snippet onto our page. Paste the code that we just copied into this HTML Snippet. You should be able to see your Facebook Like or Recommend button, and you can resize it and move it to a location on your site that fits best.
And that is how you add a Facebook Like button to an iWeb website. Be sure to check out our other helpful iWeb tips and tricks videos which are located in the SEO For iWeb Walkthrough Video Tutorial or our iWeb SEO blog
Ever wanted to add a forum to your iWeb website? Well now you can. This quick tutorial will show you a very easy way to add a forum to an iWeb website. Also see our post on how to add a mailing list signup form to an iWeb website.
Video Transcript:
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how you can easily add a forum to your website in iWeb.
The first thing we’re going to do is open our web browser and go to nabble.com.
Next, click on the Start a Free Forum button. Type in a username that you want to use on the forum, and enter your e-mail address and a password.
Then think of the name that you want to give to your forum. Don’t worry too much about making the perfect name as you can easily change this later on.
You can put a description in if you want, otherwise leave it blank and type in the Captcha, and then press Create Forum.
When you are done, you will be taken to your forum. You will need to then open the confirmation e-mail that you will be sent, and then click to confirm. When you have been confirmed, your forum will look something like this.
Next, click on Options, and then select Embedding Options. Now highlight this embed code that you are given, and copy it.
Now let’s open up our sites in iWeb. Add a page by clicking Add Page, and selecting your template and then highlighting the Blank page and pressing the Choose button.
Delete the text box that says Text in it. Drag the HTML Snippet widget onto the page, and paste the embed code that we just copied.
Adjust the snippet so that the forum fits nicely on your page.
When you publish your site, your forum will be live and your users can begin having discussions.
In the following video tutorial, we are going to cover how to add custom buttons to your iWeb website using ButtonDesign. With these custom buttons, you can create your own navigation menu, or include other buttons such as Buy Now, Learn More, etc.
Video Transcript:
To add custom buttons to your iWeb website using RAGE Software’s ButtonDesign, follow these simple steps.
First, choose the button template that you want to use. Next, type in your button caption. This will be the text that will appear on the button.
Adjust the button’s width and zoom as you want it to be.
When you are done, click on the Export To Web Site button in the top right corner of the application.
Make sure the option to Save As HTML Button is selected. Select PNG as the Image Type, select the location to save the button, and then press the Save button.
Next, open up iWeb, and drag and drop the .PNG button onto the page you want to add it to. Move the button to your desired location.
With the button still highlighted, click on the Inspector button, and then go to the Links tab. You can now link the button to your desired destination.
Repeat this process for as many buttons as you want.
This is what an all button navigation menu looks like.
As most of us know, iWeb was intended for personal use, but its extremely friendly user interface and vast template selection has led many small-medium businesses to use it as their in-house solution for web design.
In this quick start guide, I am going to give users some great suggestions on the best ways to use iWeb for business purposes, and how our products and services can help you.
1) First and foremost, having a professional business domain name with a professional hosting company is a must. We still see many iWeb business sites have a me.com address. While this may be good for a personal website, it can be a big mistake for a business site. Visit our hosting page and see how we can assist users with iWeb web hosting.
2) Getting listed in search engines often troubles many iWeb users. If you have an iWeb business site, this is certainly not going to help you get any new customers. The best way to get your site indexed in search engines is by creating an XML Sitemap. Think of an XML Sitemap as a blueprint of your website, designed specifically for search engines. It will list all of the pages on your site in an XML file. You can then publish this file and notify search engines of its existence. Some users have reported being indexed in search results within 24 hours of submitting their Sitemap. Sitemap Automator will allow you to quickly and easily do this. There is also an easy video tutorial to follow along with.
3) As mentioned earlier, iWeb was designed for personal use. So when using iWeb for business purposes, there are a few obstacles that we must overcome. One of which is the website’s search engine friendliness. This obstacle is pretty simple to overcome with our tool called iWeb SEO Tool. This tool will allow you to add many important items to your site, such as Title Tags, Page Descriptions, Alt Text for images, and analytical codes.
4) The speed at which your site loads can have an impact on where you rank in search results, as well as if your website visitors decide to hit the back button or not. If you notice that your site is loading at a slow rate, try out WebCrusher and see if it helps speed up your site. The simple drag and drop method will cut out the fat and make your site load much faster in user’s browsers.
5) Some users who visit a website buy a product or contact the business owner to conduct business. Some do, but most don’t. Stay in touch with the ones who don’t make a purchase by having a newsletter signup form on your site. You can build up your list and send out e-mails about new product launches, or sales, or whatever you want. MailShoot will allow you to easily embed a signup form by simply copying and pasting some code.
6) Using PayPal to sell your products is an easy way to launch your site quickly. You can follow this popular tutorial to see a step-by-step method for adding PayPal to an iWeb business site.
7) Everyone using iWeb for business purposes should do a complete search engine optimization makeover to their site. This includes everything from making the navigation menu search engine friendly, to creating great content, to adding headers and titles. You can learn everything you need to know about SEO For an iWeb site from the SEO For iWeb Walkthrough Video Tutorial.
This video tutorial will show you how you can easily add a Google Plus One (+1) button to your website in iWeb. For more SEO tips for your iWeb site, check out our SEO for iWeb Walkthrough Video Tutorial.
Video Transcript:
You might have noticed these +1 buttons next to your search results when in searching in Google. These buttons can tell Google that you like this link and essentially recommend it to all friends connected to you through Google’s new social networking service, Google+. When you plus one a link, and when someone connected to you does a similar search, any website you have +1’ed will appear at the top of the results for your friends. Your goal is to get as many people to +1 your website. In this video I am going to show you how you can add this button to your website in iWeb.
So to add a Google Plus One, first visit the Google Plus One page. You can pause this video to type in the URL you see here, or you can do a search for Google Plus One and click on the Google +1 button result.
Next, you will see a link on this page that says Get The Code. Click on that link.
On the next page, the first thing you will do is choose the size of the plus one button that you like best. You can then select your language. Next, click on the Advanced Options button, and type in your URL, in the URL to +1 field. I have noticed that it is best to include http:// and www in this field.
Now we can highlight all of the code and copy it.
Open up your site in iWeb, and drag and drop an HTML Snippet onto the page. Paste the code that you just copied. You should now be able to see your Google Plus One button. If you want to put the button on another page or pages of your website, then paste the code in another an HTML snippet on that page. If you want to leave the URL to your home page, you can do so, otherwise, you can add the page extension to the URL that is already typed in there.
If you paste the code and you don’t see anything at all, first, make sure you typed your URL in with http:// and www. You can also try publishing your site to the web to see if it becomes live once the site is published.
I just want to show you what happens when you either leave the URL field blank, or do not include http:// and www.
You will notice that the HTML Snippet shows up as this huge box which I am not dragging along with my mouse. I could minimize this box until it is the size of the the Plus One button, however, that can take me a while. So just take note of these things if the button is not showing up for you.
Otherwise, that is how you add a Google Plus One button to an iWeb website. Be sure to check out our other helpful iWeb tips and tricks videos which are located in the SEO For iWeb Walkthrough Video Tutorial or our iWeb SEO blog.
Earlier in 2011, we made a post/video about publishing a website to FTP in iWeb SEO Tool. We have recently updated that video to clear up some confusion that some users were having. The updated video is listed below for your viewing pleasure.
Video Transcript
This tutorial is going to strictly cover publishing a website to FTP using iWeb SEO Tool. We will cover all of the main points involved with publishing, and then we will discuss the biggest issue users have when publishing their website. That issue is the directory path.
So the first thing you will need to do is press the publish button, and then make sure Publish to FTP is selected, and then press the next button.
In the FTP field, here is where you will put your server address. Sometimes the server address may look like the one I have here, but more often than not, it will just be your domain. So if my domain were publishingtoiweb.com then that is what I would put in this field.
Do not include http, www, or ftp in this field. Just put your domain.com or .net or whatever the extension may be.
Your username and password must be accurate otherwise logging in will not work, and you will not be able to publish.
Next, I want everyone to check to see if you have all of your FTP login details entered in correctly. To do so, press the Browse button. If you are able to see files and folders like we see here, then you have logged in correctly. If you get an error similar to this, then your FTP information is incorrect. You must get the correct FTP information before proceeding to the next step.
Now we’re going to discuss the Directory Path field. This is the area where most users experience the most difficulty. Chances are, if you are watching this video, you need to enter something in this field.
Firstly, If you use RAGE Web Hosting, you should type in /public_html. For everyone else, please refer to the following method;
The first thing I want you to try to do, is publish your site in from iWeb SEO Tool by typing a forward slash in the Directory Path field. If that still doesn’t publish your site, refer to the next step.
What you want to do is open up iWeb, and go to the publish page of the website you want to publish in iWeb SEO Tool. Take a look at the current FTP information you already have. In the directory/path field, there may or may not be some text. If there is some text, I want you to copy it. If there is no text in there, don’t worry, just bear with me for a moment.
Go back to iWeb SEO Tool, and in the directory path field, paste the text you just copied. Make sure there is a forward slash at the beginning of this text.
This next step applies to everyone, even the users who did not have anything typed into the Directory Path field. Go back to the Publish page, and now copy the text that is in the Site Name field. Then go back to iWeb SEO Tool and paste this text beside the text we pasted earlier. If you didn’t paste any text earlier, then this will be the first time you are pasting anything into the Directory Path field. If you have multiple words in your site name, you will need to add underscores to separate each word. Underscores are the default word separator that iWeb adds to your site name.
Your site should publish properly now.
I want to make a note that this method should work for 95-99% of users. Since there are so many variations when it comes to publishing, some users may not achieve success using this method. For example, if you host multiple domains on one hosting account, or if you use our method for shortening your iWeb URL, this method might not work for you.
If this method does not work for you, submit a support ticket at ragesw.com/support and we will be happy to assist you. Be sure to include your FTP login details which includes your server address, username, and password, to help speed up the process.
With many iWeb users e-mailing us, letting us know that their websites do not look good in Internet Explorer, we began investigating ways to help iWeb users make their sites become a lot more compatible with Internet Explorer. In the video below, we will discuss and demonstrate seven different ways to ensure your iWeb website has a better chance at being more compatible with Internet Explorer. The following is a summary of the seven steps, with the video tutorial below.
1. Text based navigation menu (Better for all web browsers and search engines)
2. Web-safe fonts (Always a good idea to use no matter what)
3. No shadows and reflections for text and images
4. YouTube for video, not QuickTime
5. No embedded images from third-party websites
6. WebCrusher’s ‘Improve Internet Explorer Compatibility’ option (plus makes your site faster too!)
7. Check compatibility in all web browsers
Although iWeb makes it extremely easy to build websites, there are still things you need to consider when designing your websites. This video goes over many of these guidelines. Because of the nature of the web, we do have a few limitations but we can still design beautiful and professional websites with iWeb.
iWeb and Internet Explorer Video Transcript
Many iWeb users have been reporting that their websites appear abnormal when viewed in Internet Explorer. In this video, we are going to go over several ways of making an iWeb site more compatible with Internet Explorer. This doesn’t mean that everyone’s website will look perfect in Internet Explorer, but an iWeb site’s appearance in Internet Explorer can be greatly improved by following these steps.
Make sure to listen to each step carefully, and not leave any of them out. Especially one of the last steps we will talk about, which involves our application called WebCrusher, which most of you are familiar with. For those not familiar with WebCrusher, it’s an application that reduces the size of your site so that it loads faster in your users browsers. We have released an update to it, that specifically targets this issue with Internet Explorer.
The first way of making an iWeb site more compatible with Internet Explorer is to make a text based navigation menu. This is because, for security reasons, Internet Explorer may not have javascript enabled, which is what is needed to show the iWeb navigation menu. For both Internet Explorer compatibility, and SEO benefits, change your navigation menu to a text based navigation menu. So to change your navigation menu in iWeb you will first need to disable the current navigation menu. To do this click on a page of your website, open the Inspector window, select the page tab, and then deselect the option that says Include Page In Navigation Menu. Repeat this process for all pages on your site.
When this is complete, you will no longer have any links in your navigation menu. Now you will need to create a custom navigation menu using text links. Simply click on the Text Box button, type in your anchor text, resize the box, and move it to where you want it to be on your navigation menu. Then highlight the text, and press the inspector button. Then go to the link tab which is a blue circle with an arrow in it. Check the option to Enable As Hyperlink, and type in the URL or select the page from the drop down menu. Repeat this process for the remaining links. When you are all done, select all text boxes by holding down command and clicking on each text box. Then copy what you have selected. Now you will need to go to each page on your site and press the paste button. And your navigation menu will now be text as opposed to javascript.
The second step is very easy to do. Using a font that is considered web safe, will give iWeb users a much better chance at having their website load correctly in Internet Explorer. To find a web safe font, just press the Fonts button, and click where it says Web. Here is a list of about 10 different fonts that you should choose from to use on your site. These fonts should be used everywhere on your site that contains text. Using web safe fonts will increase the compatibility of your website with Internet Explorer.
The third step is also an easy one. Much like how we want to avoid using fonts that are not considered web safe, we also want to avoid altering our text and images by using shadows and reflections. Doing so will also increase our chances at having our sites load normally in Internet Explorer. So how can you check to see if your text and images have shadows or reflections? Simply click on the text or image, press the inspector button, click on the Graphics tab and see if Shadow, or Reflection are checked. If they are, you may want to consider unchecking them so that your site can be viewed better in Internet Explorer.
By default, iWeb uses QuickTime, which is installed by default on all Mac computers. This isn’t the case for Windows users, however. Instead of putting your videos on your site directly, it is a better idea to upload them to YouTube, and then embed them on your site using the YouTube Widget. This will ensure the best compatibility for users who might not have QuickTime installed on their computer.
To avoid Internet Explorer giving your users security warnings, do not include HTML Snippets that embed images from other websites. This might sound a bit technical, but basically to avoid any security popups for Internet Explorer users, only use image and media files from your local computer.
An example of something that would provide a security warning for Internet Explorer users is this;
What this does is tell the web browser to load an image from a third party website which it may interpret as a security risk.
This next step is the most important one, as I mentioned earlier in the video. In this step, we are going to be using WebCrusher. The version of WebCrusher I am using in this tutorial is 1.9. Make sure you have this version or later. It is always a good idea to make sure you are using the most recent version of any software. Visit our website at ragesw.com to make sure you have the latest version.
The first thing you will need to do is open the Preferences by clicking on WebCrusher in the menu bar, and selecting Preferences. Next, under the Tag Optimizations heading, look for an option that says Improve Internet Explorer Compatibility, and make sure it is selected. Close the preferences window, and drag and drop your website folder onto WebCrusher like you normally would.
In the bottom left corner, there is a button that says Options. Click on that button, and make sure that Only Optimized Modified Files is not checked. The reason for this is because we want to make sure we apply the Improve Internet Explorer Compatibility option to every page on our site. Then, you can press Go and optimize your site and publish it like you normally would.
Since every website is built differently, it is still very important to check your site’s compatibility by visiting your site in as many browsers as you can. The most important thing to understand is that your site will not be perfect in many browsers, especially older ones such as Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Following the above steps, especially the step involving WebCrusher will make your site look much better in Internet Explorer 8 and higher. It is important to note that you should not expect perfection, but combining all of these methods should result in your site looking very good.
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