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The expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” is truer today than ever before. Adding the right images to your EverWeb made website can save you time and effort that would be used on crafting text that perhaps, is unnecessary. When you have found the images that you want to use, adding them to your EverWeb website project, is easy, but before you do, there are some important things you may want to check first. Here are some recommendations for preparing your image before you import them in to EverWeb.

Optimizing Image Size

When choosing images to display in your website, always check to see if any of them should be optimized before adding them to your project file. Properly optimized images will display properly on screen and will avoid problems such as dragging on the page’s loading speed in the browser. As most display devices today are ‘retina ready’, i.e. can display high quality, high definition images, you can easily create retina ready images for your site.

Optimized images are those that are of the smallest file size possible, but in the highest quality possible. For example, you may have a photo file that you want to use that is 16MB in size, 4096 pixels wide and has a resolution of 600 dots per inch. This would be a large file to load on a page, and if I had many image files that had the same type of attributes, my page load time would seriously drag. Additionally, the consequence of using such large files would impact your website traffic, your SEO and your website’s server resources. 

The first step to optimizing the image is to decide how to scale the image width. In our example, the original width is 4096 pixels. To display this on my website I can reduce the width down to 400 pixels wide. However, as most displays today are retina image, I will make he image 800 pixels wide instead.

Use an image editor, such as Apple’s Preview app on a Mac, or just open the image file in Windows, to adjust the image’s dimensions. When changing the width dimension from 4096 to 800 pixels, remember to check the image editor’s ‘constrain proportions’ option. This will keep the image height in proportion to the image width during the resizing. 

In our example, the image is scaled down to 800 pixels wide, and not 400 pixels wide. This is so that it will appear properly on retina quality devices. 

Optimizing Image Resolution

Reducing image dimensions can bring down the size of the image file considerably. In addition to this, you can also check the image resolution. In our example, the resolution is set as 600 which is overkill when displaying an image on screen. Typically, this resolution would be used if you were printing the image. So, we can reduce the image resolution from 600 dpi (dots per inch) to, for example, 72 dpi or 144 dpi, which should be more than adequate for displaying the image on your website.

If you are using image editing software, see if the software has an ‘Export for Web’ option. This will optimize the image file when you save it. Remember to save the changed photo as a new file so you do not overwrite your original file as you may need it later.

When saving your changes, you can reduce its file size further if the image is in a PNG file format by saving it as JPG format instead. PNG files are useful if you want to preserve a transparent background, but if this is not necessary then a JPG file type will be preferable for display on the web. 

When you use you image on your page in EverWeb. resize it so that it is equal to, or less than, half the original saved size.

Use Image Optimisation Software

Use image optimization apps to further reduce the file size of your images. Many image optimization apps strip away non-essential data from the file without noticeable degradation in image quality. Obviously use such software before importing the image file in to EverWeb.

Using Edited Photos

Image editing software can be very advantageous for enhancing an original image file. When editing such your image, the end result can be a much larger file. Remember to check the file size of an edited file before importing it in to EverWeb. As we mentioned previously, check to see if your app has an ‘Export to Web’ option. 

Naming Your Image Files

Giving your image files good descriptive names has advantages. First, they will be easier to locate on your computer or in the cloud. Properly named files will also make it easier for you to find them in EverWeb’s Assets List.In addition, a descriptive file name will benefit your website’s SEO. Where possible name, or rename your image files importing them in to EverWeb. This will maximize your SEO. If you have already imported your images in to EverWeb, you can still rename them in the Assets List. Just double click on the file name in the Assets List to do so. Doing this will still be of benefit to your SEO although renaming the image file before importing it in to EverWeb is more efficient and effective.

Time To Publish…

When you come to publish your site, you can further optimize your images using the project file’s Site Publishing Settings. To access these features, either click on the project file name in the Web Page List or use the File-> Edit Publishing Settings option. Check the option ‘Export Optimized Images’. This will further optimize your project file images but requires EverWeb 4.1 or later.

You can also improve your page loading times when using images, but selecting an image on your page, then using the Shape Options-> Fill -> Lazy Loading option.

Optimizing image for the web is an important consideration when you use images in your website! Make sure that you do your best to make your images lean for the web!

If you have any questions about this post, or anything EverWeb, please let us know in the Comments below!

In the first part of this blog, How EverWeb Can Keep Visitors Interested in Your Site, we looked at how you should prepare before going live with your EverWeb made website. We also looked at how to create an SEO strategy so that your website’s chances of being found on the Internet are the best that they can be. In this second, concluding part, we look at things that you can do in EverWeb from a design and content approach that will help keep visitors interested in your site.

Create and Maintain a Dynamic Landing Page

Perhaps the most important page of your website is the Landing page, also known as your site’s Home page. This page, typically, will be the first page which new and returning visitors will access. So, it is important to keep it up to date. For example, anything that is time sensitive should only be on the landing page whilst it is relevant. If you have, for example, an event on your page that is three years old, chances are that your visitors will think that your site is no longer active and may stop visiting you!

New Content Creation Is Important for SEO

Adding new, fresh content to your website is an important ingredient in keeping visitors coming back to your website. Use the Home page of your site to highlight what is new and trending. Updating at least the Home page of your website on a regular basis is a simple, effective way of telling your visitors that your site is active and alive and kicking! How many websites do you know of that are not updated for years? If you are selling goods and services on your site, this is doubly important.

When creating content for the Home page of your site, make sure your message is clear and simple, typically with only one objective in the message. Clear and simple is always best. Avoid just updating your Home page just for the sake of it, and whilst using SEO Keywords on your Home page is great, do not sacrifice your content for the sake of SEO.

Blogging – Is It For You and Your Audience?

One great way to add new content is to add a blog to your site. This can become a tool that will hook your visitors on your site if you add content that is fresh, relevant and interesting to your audience. A regular blog is something of an investment and it is not for everyone but if it is right for your audience then it is worth trialling.

Remember To Keep EverWeb Up To Date!

One other vital factor in keeping visitors interested in your site is to keep EverWeb up to date. In addition to maintenance and stability releases, major point version releases of EverWeb will bring new features, or enhanced existing features, for you to use. EverWeb usually gets three to four major point releases throughout the year so don’t get left behind!

Consider Revamping Your Site From Time To Time

Sometimes keeping your visitors interested in your site can just come down to revamping your site from time to time. Changes in colors, fonts and layout can have a huge impact – both positive and negative – so figuring out what works for your target market is important. When it comes to design in EverWeb, remember to use Paragraph Styles in all of your pages. We also recommend that you assign Document Colors to your site as well. When it comes to revamping your site, you only need to update your Paragraph Style and Document Color defaults which will then ripple throughout your site, saving you lots of time and effort!

Spreading the Word About Your Website

One of the best ways of getting more traction to your website is by spreading the word through social media such as Facebook pages, Instagram, Pinterest, LnkedIn and other social media platforms that are appropriate to your business, or interest group. Linking your website’s content to social media is a good way of keeping visitors and customers informed and up to date about your site and business.

Remember as well that social media is not for everyone either, again think of what best suits your audience. For example, including an email newsletter sign up Contact Form in your website. Creating a regular newsletter may be a better alternative to social media and blogging for some audiences. If you choose to go the newsletter route, you can use EverWeb’s Contact Form Enhanced addon to manage the contact forms that are submitted to you from the Contact Form Advanced widget.

Keeping Visitors Interested: Final Take Aways…

There are a number of different tools within EverWeb that you can use to help keep your website live and fresh to your current visitors as well as potential new visitors. If you run a business over the Internet, remember that your website is your calling card so needs attention!

EverWeb’s Blogging feature was introduced in November 2016 when EverWeb 2.0 debuted. In the intervening eight years, there have been lots of improvements and feature additions in EverWeb’s blogging environment to enjoy. Often many of EverWeb’s blogging updates have been more incremental than blockbuster, so in this post we are going to round up the features and updates that have been introduced since our last update on blogging which came with the introduction of EverWeb 3.5.

Paragraph Styles

One of the highlights of our EverWeb 4.0 release was the introduction of Paragraph Styles to the app. You can apply Paragraph Styles anywhere in EverWeb, to text, within the Styled Text Editor in widgets and also within blog posts! All you need to do is highlight the text that you want to apply the Paragraph Style to in the Blog Post Editor, then click on the new Paragraph Styles button in the Blog Post Editor’s Toolbar – the second icon on the left hand side. Select the Paragraph Style that you would like to use from the dropdown list.

The Paragraph Styles are the same as the ones that you find in the Text Inspector, so if you ever want to modify, add or delete a Paragraph Style, you can do so either from the Text Inspector or by using the Format-> Default Styles… menu option.

SEO Key Words and Short Summary Options!

Although introduced in EverWeb 3.5, this is always worth a mention! You can add SEO Keywords and a Short Summary description to your blog post just by selecting your blog post from the Blog Posts List. Next, click on the Settings Cog then choose the Post Options… menu option. Note that ‘Post Options…’ was renamed from ‘Edit…’ as of EverWeb version 3.9 onwards.

Dark Editor Mode

For computers that support this feature, you can now set EverWeb’s Blog Post Editor to Dark Mode. This feature was introduced in EverWeb version 3.9. To access Dark Editor Mode, click on the Settings Cog on the left hand side underneath the Blog Posts List, then choose Dark Editor from the list of options.

Video (and Audio) Embedding Made Easy!

EverWeb made embedding videos in to a blog post a lot easier in EverWeb 3.9.1. Now all you need to do to embed a video in your post is to add the video file to the Assets list, then secondary, or right, click on the file, then select the ‘Copy File Path’ option. Next, go to the place in your blog post where you want to embed the video. Click on the ‘Insert Video’ button in the Blog Post Editor Toolbar then paste in the File Path link. Click on ‘Insert’ to finish.

The great thing about this option is that it also supports Audio file embedding too!

Clearing Text Formatting

In addition to the introduction of Paragraph Styles in EverWeb 4.0, this release also saw the introduction of the ‘Clear Formatting’ button in the Blog Post Editor’s Toolbar. Simply select the text that you want to clear the formatting from, then click on the Clear Formatting button at the far right of the Blog Post Editor Toolbar.

Importing Blog Posts from Other Sources

You used to import blog posts from WordPress or iWeb through the Settings Cog’s Import… menu option. From EverWeb 3.9.1 onwards you can now use the File-> Import menu for importing from these sources instead. If you are using EverWeb 4.0 or later, you can also import image galleries from WordPress, iWeb or Sandvox.

Blog Post Settings Changes

Most of the updates that come to EverWeb’s blogging environment can be seen in the Blog Post Settings when you are editing a blog post.

• Alt Text for the Blog Post Cover Image: This feature debuted in EverWeb 3.6. We recommend that whenever you have the ability to add ALT Text that you do so. Primarily the function of ALT Text is to help vision impaired people. As such, it is important that the text you enter simply describes what the image is about. Nothing more. The second role of ALT Text is to replace an image that cannot be displayed in a browser window. A third possible role also exists for ALT Text in that it might help boost your SEO if you use it. As SEO rankings involve complex algorithms, no one is certain how much of a role ALT Text plays in SEO, if at all. We strongly recommend that you add ALT Text based on its original intended purpose.
• Add Padding To The Blog Post Cover Image: Another nice feature add allows you to add padding around the Blog Post Cover Image, available from EverWeb 3.8 onwards.
• Blog Post Header and Date Fields Alignment: You can now left, center or right align the Blog Post Header and Blog Post Date fields since EverWeb version 3.8.

Improved Blog Editing Performance

Since our last update on blogging, back when EverWeb 3.5 was introduced, we have made improvements to ensure that typing on large blog posts in the Blog Post Editor is smoother with minimal typing delays. We have also improved the scrolling of the Blog Post Settings making the whole blogging experience snappier!

EverWeb’s blogging experience continues to evolve, but if there is anything that you would like to see come to blogging in the future, or in EverWeb in general, please drop us a line in the Comments Section below!

As we put the finishing touches to EverWeb 4.0 before unleashing our new software on to the world, web are reminded that with each new EverWeb version there is always some new learning involved. EverWeb 4.0 has some totally new features such as Membership and Subscription sites – which is huge! There is also the overhauled Text Inspector which will make building your site even easier, giving you the flexibility with fonts and text both now and in the future.

These are just a couple of examples of what’s coming but no matter how much we craft EverWeb to be as easy and intuitive as possible, you may want to dig deeper to get the best and most out of its features. Here are some suggestions on getting a fast start on discovering and using new EverWeb features.

The EverWeb User Manual

The EverWeb User Manual is your most detailed resource for all of the features of EverWeb. The manual is designed for first time EverWeb users as well as for experienced users who just want to dip in for some specific information. The EverWeb User Manual is updated with every release of EverWeb, both on Windows and on Mac. The manual is in PDF file format so you can easily search its contents, save a copy locally, or even print it out if you want to.

You can find the EverWeb User Manual in two places in EverWeb: As a link in the bottom left hand corner of the Projects Window or from the Help-> EverWeb PDF Manual menu option.

EverWeb’s Help Icon

Context sensitive help is always at hand within EverWeb though the Help Icon. This icon is displayed as a question mark symbol within a circle. You will see this icon displayed beside many of EverWeb’s features and also in the Widget Settings of many of EverWeb’s widgets. When you click on the icon beside a feature, a pop-up window will display with an EverWeb website, or YouTube, video describing the feature that you asked for help on.

The EverWeb Website

Help is always available on EverWeb’s own website. If you are completely new to EverWeb and to building a website for yourself, there is a great beginners video series available for you. If you are a photographer, amateur or professional, there is also a series for you to help you get the best out displaying your photos on the web. This series is currently being updated, so check out our YouTube and Facebook pages to discover the latest videos! getting your website up and running quickly if you are new to EverWeb. If SEO is important to you, or your business, there is a special series on EverWeb and SEO that contains short, to the point, videos on all aspects of EverWeb and SEO.

The EverWeb website also has other resources to explore such as its own blog where you can keep up to date with the latest in the world of EverWeb. If you need third party theme templates or widgets, check out the EverWeb Third Party Vendor page. This page is also great to find add-on products to connect you with other vital internet resources.

EverWeb’s own site can also be used to tap in to Support resources such as knowledge bases and contact with support personnel. Check out the menu options to find the right kind of support that you need!

Videos and Blogs

We all have our preferred medium for accessing help and support resources. Many people prefer to help and instructional videos. We try to make our videos short and focused so that you get to the help and support that you need in a timely manner. We also aim to make any instructions clear and concise. You can find EverWeb videos on our own website, on YouTube or FaceBook. If there is a video topic that is not there for you, please do let us know so that we can include this for you.

We also try to update videos on a regular basis to take in to account of new EverWeb features and also new technologies that are constantly emerging. We also try to expand EverWeb world by connecting and integrating you with other products e.g. financial and commercial product, calendaring and scheduling products, event management products, internet marketplaces and so much more! Again, if there is a product or service that you want to integrate in to EverWeb that there is no video for, do let us know in the Comment section below.

If video is not for you then blog posts can offer a great experience for you. EverWeb includes many instructional videos where we try to bullet point the steps along the way to make it as easy as possible for you to get to where you need to be. As with the videos, if we do not have a blog post for what you need, let us know.

You can find blog posts related to EverWeb on EverWeb’s own website, Rage Software’s (the maker of EverWeb) site, All About iWeb, iWeb Unlimited and Everything EverWeb.

EverWeb on Social Media

You can also find help on EverWeb’s social media accounts. This is a good place for keeping up with all the latest EverWeb news, videos and blog posts. It is also a place where you can ask questions to us as well. At the bottom of this post you will find the links you need to keep updated with EverWeb!

The EverWeb Forum

Use the forum for any questions that you may have about EverWeb. The forum is also announces the availability of new beta test versions of EverWeb if you want to try them out, as well as notifying you of official new releases. The EverWeb Forum is a great place to connect with the EverWeb Community and its third party providers.

EverWeb has the complete range of resources to help you discover new and updated features and to get the most out of them, quickly and easily. If there is anything that you think is missing in our support for you or if you have an idea about how we can improve, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

Enjoy EverWeb 4.0! Coming Soon…

Starting your own business is an exciting time, turning your dreams and ideas in to reality. It’s also a time where you are likely to want to get your EverWeb website up and running to promote your business and sell your goods and services. Here are some suggestions as what tools you may want to use when starting out…

It Starts with a Name…

When you start a business, one of the most important things to decide is your business name. You may want a name that tells your potential customers or clients what your business is about. The problem new businesses have is trying to match their business name with their website domain name. More often than not, someone is already using the domain name you want. So be prepared. Make a list of four to six business names that you like, in order of preference. Then check with your Chamber of Commerce to see if any of these names are available.

You can look at choosing your business name in another way. Is the domain name for the business name I want available for purchase? Quite often, businesses choose the website name first, then check to see if the business name is available at the Chamber of Commerce. By getting the website name first, it is more likely that the business name will also be available for use. You can check if a domain name is free using EverWeb’s Domain Name Search feature.

When choosing a name you also will want to look at the scope of the name. This comes down to looking at the extension that is used in the website name e.g. everweb.com. Most websites aim for a ‘.com’ suffix but other extensions are available e.g. ‘,org’, ‘.gov’, ‘.edu’ or a country e.g. ‘.co.uk’. ‘.nl’, and even ‘.eu’ for the European Union. This may give you more flexibility when choosing a website name, but bear in mind that some extensions are designed to be used for a specific purpose.

Finally be careful of names that are very similar to other names or using hyphens to try to differentiate your name from someone else’s. For example, you want to call your company ‘abcd business’ but the website name ‘abcdbusiness.com’ is already in use. So you decide to make ‘abcd-business.com’ your business name. We would not recommend this. When potential customers search for your business, you may find that they actually click on your competitor’s site instead of yours.

Choosing Your EverWeb Version

Once you have your website name and have registered your business with your Chamber of Commerce, the next step is to build your site. The next decision to make is where to host your website? You can either host your website with your own Hosting Provider or with EverWeb. The choice is yours. You can still build your website in EverWeb and publish it to whichever Hosting Provider you have chosen. We usually recommend hosting with EverWeb as you get hosting features built directly in to EverWeb itself. You do not have to worry about the Hosting end of things at all as EverWeb takes care of this for you.

Also remember that EverWeb comes with a free stock image library of over 500,000 images to help you choose the perfect images for your site. Just click on the Media button in the Toolbar and select the ‘Free Stock Photos’ option. Enter in your search criteria, then drag and drop the image you want to use into the Editor Window.

SEO Matters…

As you are building your website, you may also be aware that you need to get your site’s pages as high up in search engine results pages as possible. So remember as you design your pages to add in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) key words and phrases to pages that you want to be relevant for SEO. You do not need to include SEO for pages such as Contact Us and About Us type pages. Check out our SEO for EverWeb Video Course for a full tour of SEO and how to easily and quickly apply it to your website.

If you are selling good and services online or your need to maximise your website’s potential, you may also want to consider EverWeb’s SEO PowerUp Addon. The Addon lets you refine your SEO allowing you to assign priority and frequency to your website’s pages, creates and SML Sitemap that can be crawled by web crawlers, optimises your site for search engines, submits your pages to Google, Bing, Yahoo and Alexa, and makes your pages load faster for your visitors using GZip Compression.

And keep an eye on this blog and the EverWeb User Forum for exciting news coming for SEO in the upcoming EverWeb 4.0 release!

Securing Your Website

Whilst SEO will help your page rankings improve, your site’s security is ever more an important issue to keep in mind, both for your site itself and also for your visitors. Most sites today are secure so you see a padlock next to your site’s name in the browser search bar. This indicates to your visitors that data transmitted to and from your site’s server is end to end encoded. The other plus point here is that search engines rank secure websites above non-secure websites. All of these features are available with EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon including Enhanced Security Settings for advanced website security. EverWeb Site Shield Addon is available for purchase through your EverWeb Client Area.

At the moment Site Shield Addon is available only to EverWeb+Hosting customers, but stay tuned as that is about to change in the new EverWeb 4.0 release which should make this addon available to everyone.

Contact Forms

Communication and interaction with your customers is vital to keep a thriving business, especially online. EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget enables you to create powerful, flexible forms to help you engage more effectively with your customer base. You can take your contact management one step further though with EverWeb’s Contact Forms Enhanced Addon. This addon is great when you want to store email addresses for later use and collect data from contact form submissions for analysis. You can design your contact forms for specific campaigns you want run through your website.

Contact Forms Enhanced also lets your visitors upload files to you through the contact formant mass emailing features are also available. For details about purchasing this addon, check out EverWeb’s Online Store. There will also be more features in EverWeb 4.0 to further revolutionize contact form design!

Membership Sites…

Our final consideration is to add a Membership Site to your website so that your visitors can access free and paid for content by signing up to your Membership Site. Easy to use. Easy to set up. Easy to administer and fully featured. It’s coming soon in EverWeb 4.0!

Setting up your website and adding in the features that you need to make your business safe and secure and profitable is easy with EverWeb. Our upcoming EverWeb 4.0 release is going to add great new features and enhancements to make your website building experience even better.

If you have a question about this post, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

Google has recently announced the rollout of its Core Algorithm update which has already started earlier in March 2023. If SEO is key for your EverWeb made website, this Google update should be of interest to you. The rollout of the new Core Algorithm may affect your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which in turn may affect your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings.

When Google rolls out such updates, it is never certain how much it will impact a site’s SEO page rankings, so if SEO is key to your business, you may need to monitor the impact of this update on your site over the coming few weeks. The rollout of the Core Algorithm update itself can take weeks to complete as it has to replicate around the globe, be reindexed and re-crawled, so you may find that your SEO rankings may fluctuate over this period.

Why Google Updates Its Core Algorithm

Google periodically updates the Core Algorithm that it uses so that it can better understand the content of web pages. Armed with this knowledge, Google should be able to rank web pages more intelligently and accurately when a person initiates a search in their browser. Google’s ultimate aim, therefore, is to give its users better quality results sets when performing searches on the Internet.

What You Can Do For Your EverWeb Website

This is a tough question to answer as everyone’s situation is different. Some may benefit from the update, some may see no difference and some may see worsening rankings. Here are some pointers to help you:

1. Keep abreast of the Core Algorithm update situation over the next few weeks. Until the rollout of the update is complete SEO rankings may be in flux. It will not be until a while after the update is compete, when things settle down and reindexing is complete, that you will be able to see if the rollout impacts your site’s traffic or not. So for the moment, watch, wait and monitor your site traffic to see if there is any potential positive or negative impact.
2. Keep producing high quality content! No matter what happens with the update, your site should always be producing high quality content on its pages and in its blogs. This lead SEO concept is at the heart of Google’s strategy with Core Algorithm updates and its SEO strategy in general. High quality, creative, unique content is the formula you should be aiming to make with your site.
3. Review your SEO in EverWeb. When doing this, remember that Google has a ‘mobile first’ strategy to SEO so make sure your site is either responsive or includes mobile designed pages if you are using a fixed width (centre aligned) page layout. Also check your page loading speeds as performance is also something Google will take in to account. Finally, review your SEO keywords and key terms that you use in your pages and in fields such as the Web Page Title and Web Page Description. Are these keywords and key terms still valid? Should they be updated or changed? For more information, check out our SEO for EverWeb Video Course. It’s a time effective way to help you get started with SEO in EverWeb or to refresh your knowledge if you have already applied SEO techniques to your site.
4. Consider using EverWeb SEO PowerUp Addon if SEO is important to your site and business. Whilst EverWeb comes with SEO ‘baked in’ to the product, there are lots of additional extra features that EverWeb SEO PowerUp addon includes that can help you focus your SEO and audience targeting. Check out our SEO Power Up video for a walkthrough of how EverWeb SEO PowerUp can help your business stay SEO competitive.

Conclusion

Google periodically updates its Core Algorithm so this should be something all those concerned with SEO should be aware of. It is also a call to action to maintain and update your site with quality content. Remember to keep an eye on your site’s stats to act upon any changes that may lower your rankings. SEO is an ever changing game, but keeping core concepts of quality content putting your website’s audience front and center at all times should keep you on target whenever Google updates its Core Algorithm.

One of the most useful tools to use to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Heading Tags. These ‘tags’ help search engines find titles and subheadings on your pages that you want them to crawl. Before EverWeb 3.9, you would use the Headings Tag widget to define the headings and subheadings in your pages that you wanted crawlers to look for. The introduction of EverWeb 3.9 makes this task easier by including the widget’s feature within the Text Inspector.

More Than Just Headings Tags…

If you are familiar with the Headings Tag widget, you may also know that Headings tags are sometimes known as ‘Header’ tags. Either way, the function of these ‘tags’ are the same. In EverWeb 3.9, or later, you can find these tags listed under the heading ‘HTML Tag’ in the Text inspector. The heading encompasses the existing Headings Tags as well as adding in a paragraph tag. We wil look at these definitions and in detail below.

So What Are Headings Tags and How Do They Work?

The Headings Tag widget and the Text Inspector’s new HTML Tags both allow you to specify up to six levels of heading from ‘h1’ down to ‘h6’. The ‘h1’ tag is the most important with the ‘h6’ tag being the least important. Typically you will probably only need to use tags ‘h1’ to ‘h3’, and possibly ‘h4’ on occasion.

Using headings tags is straightforward. You will typically apply the h1 tag to the most important heading on your page, usually the page;’s title or main heading. Next in the hierarchy, h2, is usually applied to sub-headings on your page and h3 tags to sub-sub headings and so on down. to h6.

When applying heading tags to your page, just highlight the text that you want to ‘tag’ then use the HTML Tags dropdown to select the tag that you want to apply.. That is all you need to do!

If you currently use the Headings Tag widget, you can replace the widget with the inline tagging instead.

Web crawlers will now be able to target the text that you want them too more easily to help improve your SEO page rankings when people search the web for your business or products and services that you sell. Remember here, though, that SEO is run by search engines such as Google and Microsoft and involves many factors.

When To Use, and Not Use, HTML Tags

When you use headings tags on your pages, there are some general rules which website developers usually follow:

• Use only one h1 headings tag per page. If possible, try to include your primary SEO keyword or phrase but only if it is appropriate to do so. As usual, prioritize making good content over the desire for better SEO rankings.
• Use one or more h2 tags in your page if you are using subheadings that you want web crawlers to take notice of. If possible try to include your secondary SEO keyword or phase if it is appropriate to do so.
• It is possible that your secondary keyword or phrase is in you page title. If this is the case then make this your h1 heading. Always remember that the quality of your content is more important than SEO rankings.
• You can format the text that you are using for heading tags in the same was as you would any other text on the page. Using the inline HTML tags should be easier to style and format then using the Headings Tag widget.
• You do not have to use heading tags on all of your pages. Focus your efforts on to the pages where you want your SEO to count. such as your site’s landing page. You do not have to apply heading tags to pages such as Contact and About pages. Most sites have these types of pages so it does not win you anything by apply heading tags or SEO techniques to these such pages.
• If you previously used EverWeb’s Headings Tag widget you can keep them in the pages where you added them, or replace them with the new inline tags.
• Headings tags are only one part of your SEO strategy. There are a number of other tools that can be used to help improve your page ranking results. Check out the SEO for EverWeb Video Course for full details.

Additional Features of the HTML Tags Feature

Whilst EverWeb’s Headings Tag widget allows you to set six heading levels (h1 – h6), the HTML Tag dropdown menu in the Text Inspector has a couple of additional features:

• Auto: As the name suggests, this setting leaves it up to EverWeb to decide the importance of the text for website crawlers when you publish your site. Generally, most of your text will not need to be included in a heading tag at all.
• p for Paragraph: The other new setting is ‘<p>’ for paragraph. Use this option when you explicitly want to let web crawlers know that this is an important paragraph on your page. Typically, you would use this for introductory paragraphs or summary paragraphs in your page. These paragraphs are usually important as they either tell your visitors what the rest of the page is about or provide a conclusion or summary of the content at the end of the page. Again this should be used sparingly and only when appropriate.

Heading tags are an incredibly useful tool to help improve your sites SEO and should be best used in conjunction with the other SEO tools that are available in EverWeb.

If you have a question or comment about this post, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

As 2022 comes to an end, it’s always a good time to take a final look at your EverWeb website for the year and to think about what you want to do with it for the next year. Here are some suggestions as to how you can retool your website for the year ahead!

1. Start by Changing Your Site’s Copyright Year!

The first thing that you should in 2023 is changing your site’s copyright notice year to 2023. Having a copyright notice on your site is a good idea in itself as it shows your visitors that you are the owner of the content of your pages. Although it is not usually necessary, or mandatory, to have a copyright notice, having one reduces infringement risk of your content and claims of “innocent infringement”. Having a Copyright Notice costs nothing and helps deter infringement, so if you don’t have one, add it to the pages of your site and to your blog. Remember, in EverWeb, this is quicker and easier to do if you use Master Pages in your site!

2. Aim For a More Secure Website in 2023!

Keeping your online presence as secure as practically possible should be a priority for any business that has a website. If your site is still using just HTTP, now may be the time to think about upgrading it to HTTPS. If you have an EverWeb+Hosting plan, you can easily secure your site using EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon. In just a few clicks you can secure your site. EverWeb Site Shield Addon has been engineered to make this potentially complex task a super simple one! If you want to maximize your site’s security, you can also take advantage of Site Shield’s new advanced security options! Again, we have simplified these options for you so advanced website security is available for you by just a few mouse clicks.

EverWeb Site Shield Addon is available for only $39.95 USD/Year if you have an EverWeb_Hosting 2GB plan and requires EverWeb 3.6 or higher.

3. Give Your Site’s SEO a Higher Priority

If you are running a business, having a website is one way in which you can expand and grow sales. If potential and existing customers find it hard to find your site, products or services on the Internet, then you probably need to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization.

Adding and improving SEO in your site can take time and effort, and is something that you should review, maintain and update on a regular basis. EverWeb does help you with SEO by taking the contents of certain fields (e.g. the Web Page Description field in the Page Settings tab) and using it for SEO purposes. You can, however, refine your SEO to be more targeted to your needs easily and without extra cost. Our Free SEO for EverWeb Video Course will show you how!

If SEO is important, or critical, to your business, then using EverWeb’s SEO PowerUp Addon is the tool you need to use. The Addon can be purchased through your EverWeb Client Area ($29.95 USD/Year) and is free for EverWeb+Hosting 10GB or higher plans. The Addon give you the ability to prioritize and set the frequency of when your pages are crawled for SEO purposes, allows you to add in your own SEO keywords on a per page basis, and much more!

4. Spreading Your Word with a Blog

Adding a blog can be a great way to engage with your customers and potential customers. It also gives you an easy way to keep your customers informed about what your latest products and services. A blog is also a great way of providing in-depth information that you would not usually find, or have space for, in the regular pages of your site. You can even use EverWeb’s RSS Feed widget to link blog articles to e.g. the Home page of your site. And a blog also lets your customers know that your site and business are alive and kicking!

Blogging can take some time and planning but once you get in to he swing it can be incredibly rewarding. Checkout the chapter on Blogging in the EverWeb User Manual for more information on setting up your own blog and enabling discussion with your community by enabling Comment Engines.

5. Creative, Consistent Content!

Whatever type of website you have, one of the key things to bear in mind is keeping your site up to date. If you update or refresh your site on a regular basis, it is more likely that visitors will come back again. Keeping your site up to date also means that the information it contains also stays up to date. There’s nothing worse than e.g. visiting a site at the end of 2022 and seeing that its last update was in 2019! As discussed above, a blog can be a very useful tool, especially if most of your site’s content is relatively static.

You may find that refreshing the look of your site from time to time can help, but keeping your content up to date and original is of greater benefit as it will be better for your SEO.

6. Work Smarter, Not Harder…

Keeping your website up to date with fresh content and making sure that your pages are always ‘SEO ready’ may seem to be somewhat of a daunting prospect. But there are ways in which you can work efficiently and effectively. Here are some tips that may help you…

• Plan in Evergreen content for your website and its blog: We all have events in our calendars that repeat every year so why not make a note of these for your site or its blog so that you can have content ready in time for such events e.g. New Year, national holidays, festival days, your company’s anniversary and so on…
• SEO only pages that need it: When it comes to SEO, you do not need to use it on all of the pages in your site. Just pick the pages that are the most important ones in your site to add SEO to.
• When adding images in to your site, make sure the image’s filename is SEO worthy. Additionally, make sure that the size of your image files are not going to drag your page performance down and that you add in ALT Text whenever you can to an image.
• Keep up to date: Every year EverWeb adds new features and enhances existing features. You may find that a new feature replaces an old one, for example, this year we added in-line Heading Tags. You no longer need to use the Heading Tags widget to add in these tags. Now it is simpler and easier to add in these tags and style them, so you may want to replace the ‘old’ with the ‘new’ – it’s more efficient for you in the long run!

We hope that we have given you some food for thought about how you can retool your site for the new year. Got your own tip? Then why not share it? Let us know in the Comments Section below. And if you have any questions, please ask!

Happy New Year EverWebbers!

Hyperlinking in the recently released EverWeb version 3.7 adds some great new, and expanded, capabilities to the stalwart feature that’s been around since the very first EverWeb release.

Hyperlinking is an essential, integral part of building your website as most website developers will want to add links to other pages in their site, to pages in an external site, to a file, or link to an email app. All these features debuted with EverWeb 1.0 and since then EverWeb’s added a number of other hyperlink related features which we will outline below as most features have been enhanced with the release of EverWeb 3.7. We begin, however, with a brand new hyperlinking feature: Force Download.

EverWeb’s New Force Download Option

Prior to EverWeb version 3.7, if you set up a link to a file, such as a PDF file, when you clicked on the associated link, the file would open in the browser window. If you wanted to save the file, you could do so at this time. In EverWeb 3.7, you now have the ‘Force Download’ option which automatically downloads the file to your visitor’s device when they click on the associated link. This is very useful as it saves the step of the visitor having to view and manually download the file. One thing of note if you use Force Download is that the feature depends on whether the browser in use allows for this function. Some browsers may not support the feature or allow you to customize the browser settings to stop such downloads.

To use Force Download, just tick its checkbox in the Hyperlinks Inspector or in any other hyperlinking dialog boxes within EverWeb.

‘Nofollow’ for Links You May Not Trust…

The ‘nofollow’ option was introduced in to EverWeb with version 1.9 and instructs search engines NOT to visit the site, or rather, not to ascribe credit to boost the ranking of the destination site based on the link. Check the ‘nofollow’ checkbox when you need to have the link but want to exclude it from SEO crawls as you do not have confidence or trust in the linked site.

The ‘Nofollow’ checkbox appears in the Hyperlinks Inspector and In EverWeb 3.7 is now included in all hyperlinking dialog boxes.

Choosing Your Link Behavior

Since EverWeb 1.9 you have been able to open a hyperlink in the current browser window, a new browser window or in a popup window. These features are now available in all hyperlinking dialog boxes within EverWeb.

Easier Scroll Position Linking

The last hyperlinking feature is Scroll Position where you can create two types of links for on your page. The first is where you ‘Insert Fixed Scroll Position‘ on the page which should only be used for Center or Left Aligned Page Layouts. The second type of Scroll Position, ‘Set Selected Shape as Scroll Position‘ allows you to link to an object on a page such as a TextBox or shape. This type of Scroll Position can be used on both fixed width page layouts and Responsive Page Layouts.

Prior to EverWeb 3.7, if you wanted to add a link in a widget using the ‘Link’ button, or via the Styled Text Editor within a widget, you would need to ‘hardwire’ the link using the URL field in the hyperlinking dialog box. In EverWeb 3.7, you no longer need to do this, as the hyperlinking dialog boxes now all include a ‘Position’ field which will display the Scroll Position names for the page you have selected. This makes linking a lot easier when using Scroll Position.

Hyperlinking Dialog Boxes

All of the above mentioned features are available in the Hyperlinks Inspector tab of the Inspector Window. Depending on the context of what you are linking to e.g. a page, a file or an email, some options may, or may not, be available for you to use.

Where EverWeb 3.7 differs from previous versions is that the features of the Hyperlinks Inspector are now available when you click on the ‘Link’ button within widgets, or when you click on the Hyperlink button in the Styled Text Editor within a widget that includes e.g. the FlexBox or PayPal Widget.

If you are creating a link in a blog post, you can use the hyperlink button in the Blog Post Editor Window’s Toolbar, although this will only give you options to quickly set up a hyperlink. If you need to use any of the above options in a Blog Post, highlight the text or image you want to link to, then go to the Hyperlink Inspector and check the ‘Enable as Hyperlink’ box to make all of the hyperlinking options available for use.

…and There’s More to Come!

EverWeb’s 3.7’s new Force Download feature and improved hyperlinking throughout the app will make linking much easier and more flexible for all EverWeb users. But stay tuned as we are planning more updates for hyperlinking in an upcoming EverWeb release!

if you have any questions about Hyperlinking in EverWeb, or any EverWeb related questions, please let us know in the Comments Section below. We’re happy to have you comments and feedback and to answer any questions you may have.

We are incredibly excited to announce the release of EverWeb 3.6! Two big new features are the highlights of this release! Fill: Slide Show gives you the ability to add a slide show to a TextBox, rectangle shape, image and the Responsive Row widget! It’s an incredibly powerful new feature!

Our second new feature also brings ups the power of EverWeb, in this case with enhanced security features added to EverWeb Site Shield Addon! Your website’s security can be taken to a new level with EverWeb’s easy to implement settings! Click and go for the most secure website you can get!

These features and more are available now! Check out the full feature list below and let us know if you have any questions, issues or wishes!

Which Version of EverWeb is For You?

EverWeb is available in the following versions:

• If you are running an Intel Mac running OS X 10.10, macOS Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey EverWeb version 3.6 is available for you.
• If you are running an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS Monterey or Big Sur, EverWeb version 3.6 is available for you as a Universal Binary. EverWeb will run natively without the need to use Rosetta 2.
• If you are running OS X 10.7 – 10.9 (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks) EverWeb version 2.9.1 is available for you.
• If you are running OS X 10.6 EverWeb version 2.5.2 is available for you.

When updating to the latest version of EverWeb, the update process will automatically download the correct version of EverWeb for your operating system.

EverWeb 3.6 Includes…

[NEW] New Security Features for EverWeb Site Shield Addon.

[NEW] The Shape Options Tab gains a new Fill: Side Show feature.

[NEW] Blog Post Cover Image includes Alt Text.

[IMPROVED] Improved speed in the Editor Window.

[IMPROVED] Speed improvements for pages with lots of widgets on them.

[IMPROVED} English (British) and Dutch localization improvements

[IMPROVED] Adjustments made to the Site Publishing Settings screen 

[FIX] Improved stability of Blog Post Editor.

[FIX] Blog posts in some instances were not updating properly.

[FIX] Fixed adjusting popup window dimensions for links in blog posts.

[FIX] Improved error checking for FTP publishing.

[FIX] Borders on full width object when exporting websites.

[FIX] Issue with selecting a file for a link in the Inspector’s Styled Text Editor.

[FIX] Fixed possible layout issue with Text Section widget.

[FIX] Facebook Like Widget improvements.

[FIX] Images get properly exported as transparent PNGs when using rotation.

[FIX] Vertical alignment of text in shapes with borders (now align middle and bottom properly.)

[FIX] Some CSS issues with blog posts and blog post images when the images are very large.

[FIX] Image Slider widget did not fade properly.

[FIX]The RSS Feed widget Hyperlink Widget Settings for Rollover and Visited did not work.

[FIX] When used together, the Image Gallery Widget and Blog Main widget would create issues when previewed or published.

[FIX] Fixed issues with full width shapes on fixed width layouts that use margins.

[FIX] Fixed alignment of vertical text in shapes with borders which now align to middle and bottom properly.

[FIX] Fixed transparency, shadows and flip settings for shapes.

[FIX] Fixed reflection of rotated shapes.

[FIX] Inspector not being able to scroll properly when you scroll with one shape then select another shape.

[FIX] Changing blog post settings in Inspector will update it properly.

[FIX] A potential crash when dropping an image on a shape set to image fill.

[FIX] Fixed an issue with RSS feeds exporting blog post content.

[FIX] Fixed an issue with RSS feeds not having the correct path to post image.

[FIX] Fixed previewing of very large blog posts.

[FIX] Fixed issues with blogs that had an image file and were full width being set to fixed width when publishing.

[FIX] Popup window links in blog posts.

[FIX] Full width navigation bars in FlexBox will work when using Parallax Scrolling.

[FIX] Facebook Like Widget fixes.

[FIX] Alignment of search button in search widget when using borders.

How To Update To EverWeb 3.6

You can easily update EverWeb by either:

1. Launching EverWeb then going to the EverWeb menu at the top of the screen and selecting ‘Check for Update’ or by
2. Downloading EverWeb from the EverWeb website.

After downloading EverWeb, double click on the EVERWEB.DMG file. A window will open. Drag the EverWeb icon on to the Applications folder icon. Once the file has been copied, you can close the installation window, delete the .DMG file and eject the EverWeb disk on the desktop by dragging it to the Trashcan.

Remember, you won’t lose any previous data when updating as your website project files are stored elsewhere on your computer.

The update is free for EverWeb + Hosting users and EverWeb Standalone users who are within their 1 year of free upgrades and support period.

You can easily check your EverWeb Standalone free update period from EverWeb’s Preferences window or from your client area.

If you have passed your one year of free EverWeb updates, you can purchase 1 more year of upgrades and support from your client area.

You can easily re-download earlier versions of EverWeb from your client area if you are not ready to purchase an additional year of updates and support.

Login to your client area and go to the ‘Manage Product’ page. On the left of this page, select ‘Downloads’ and choose the version of EverWeb that you need.

More Information About EverWeb

For more information about the new version of EverWeb, please check out the following resources:

• The EverWeb website which has up to the moment information in it’s new blogging section
• New EverWeb videos on YouTube
• The EverWeb User Manual in EverWeb’s Help-> User Manual menu
• The EverWeb Discussion Forum

If you can’t find what you need, or have any other questions, comments or feedback please let us know. We’re happy to help.

EverWeb on Social Media

You can also find EverWeb on the following social media platforms:

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