Mac SEO Blog

You may have noticed when using EverWeb, that there are quite a few places where you see the words ‘Alt Text’ displayed in the Inspector Window. You may also see that some widgets also include ‘Alt Text’ in their options. But what is Alt Text, what does it do, should you be using it in your site and if so, how can you get the best out of using it? Let’s find out…

What Is Alt Text?

Alt Text stands for Alternative Text. It is the ‘alternative’ to using an image. Alt Text replaces an image when the image itself cannot be loaded and viewed on screen. In addition, the other original intention of Alt Text was for it to be used to help visually impaired people who used special equipment that would read the contents of the screen back to them.

Alt Text and SEO

Adding Alt Text to an image in your EverWeb Project can also benefit to your site’s SEO as Alt Text allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website. All in all, adding Alt Text to the images in your website will make for a positive experience for your potential and existing visitors.

Adding Alt Text To An Image

There are a few places in EverWeb where you add Alt Text to your images. If you have standalone images anywhere on your page, just select the image you want then go to the Shape Options tab. In the ‘Fill’ section you will see there is an Alt Text field. Just enter in the text that you want to use. It’s that simple. If you use an image more than once in your site from the Assets List in the Assets Tab, you will need to add Alt Text to the image each time you use it. If you copy the image whilst it is on the Editor Window, using Copy and Paste, the Alt Text attribute will be preserved.

Remember that when adding Alt Text that it should be a brief description of what the image is, in less than 125 characters. A brief description is important because of the points made earlier in this post about the Alt Text being used for the visually impaired and also its role in replacing the image if it cannot be loaded in to the browser.

Many of EverWeb’s widgets also contain Alt Text fields e.g. the FlexBox and Text Section widgets. For the Image Gallery widgets, you can use a Caption to inform the visitor of what the image is if it cannot be displayed on screen.

Using Alt Text To Its Best Advantage

When you add a Alt Text description to an image, remember two things: First, be descriptive and do not use just a collection of keywords as your description, and second, bring out the detail and specifics of the image wherever you can e.g. if you have an image of a boat you might want to say, ‘The new 30 meter yacht, Princeton, launching from Dover Harbour, England.’ A third point is to remember the context of the photo in your site. In the example just sited, the context is easy as there is reference to both an event and a place. If your image is a generic one, for example, from a stock photo site, you should add Alt Text for the image that applies context to it within the page. As an example, I may want to use a stock photo with the word ‘SEO’ in it on my page. For the image’s Alt Text I could add some context relevant to my site by using this description: ‘EverWeb’s SEO Video Course is available on YouTube.’

Images in Your Project File

When using images in your Project file, it is always a good idea to name the image file descriptively before you grand and drop the file in to your EverWeb Project. This method is the best way for website crawlers to discover your image and use it when ranking your site. If you have already imported your image with a non-descriptive file name, you can still rename it in EverWeb. Just double click on the image in the Assets List and rename the file. In terms of SEO, this is OK, but is second best to renaming the file before importing it into EverWeb.

Alt Text is a great way to add accessibility to your site, it creates a more positive experience for your visitors and it can help boost your SEO. Use it only on the images that are important to your site. As with everything SEO, you do not need to add Alt Text to images that do not need it. Focus on what is important in terms of your site’s SEO.

More information on EverWeb and SEO can be found on the EverWeb website.

If Search Engine Optimization is important to you, then EverWeb’s SEO Power Up could be a great addition to your EverWeb purchase. SEO Power Up Addon extends the range of EverWeb’s already built in capabilities by submitting your website to search engines from Google, Bing, Yahoo and Alexa.

EverWeb SEO Power Up also contains a variety of features so that you can more specifically optimize your website’s pages to get the best advantage when search engines crawl your site. You can change the priority of the page and the frequency in which the page is crawled by search engines.

Whilst EverWeb’s new add on debuted in version 3.4, it’s been improved in EverWeb 3.5 with the addition of Open Graph Tags.

What are Open Graph Tags?

The Open Graph Tag Protocol was originally developed by Facebook. Open Graph Tags are code snippets that determine how URL’s will be displayed in Social Media. What the Open Graph Tag does is to create the best feature rich preview of the URL possible.

How Does The Open Graph Tag Work?

The Open Graph Tag will look at the data and information that comes with the URL and will build a preview based on this e.g. the page title, page description and so on. Whilst apps generally try to create the best preview possible on their own, the Open Graphs Tag helps to provide richer previews so that your content stands out more in Social Media.

What are the Advantages of the Open Graph Tag?

The advantages of Open Graph Tags are that they:

1. Create the best feature rich previews for shared media links.
2. Help your content to stand out amongst other content.
3. EverWeb’s SEO Power Up addon adds Open Graph tags automatically.
4. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter are some examples of apps that take advantage of Open Graph Tags.

What Do I Need To Do in EverWeb?

As Open Graph Tags are part of the EverWeb SEO Power Up addon, there’s nothing you need to do as EverWeb will apply the tags to URLs automatically for your website. If you share URL’s on Social Media, they will be automatically used if the app takes advantage of the Open Graph Tags Protocol.

What About Open Graph Tags and SEO?

Open Graph Tags are meta tags and so will have an indirect influence and impact on your SEO. The advantage of Open Graph Tags is that they should improve the performance of your links in Social Media, which is a plus in itself. You may like to think of the Open Graph Tag as an optimization for the URL link when used in Social Media.

As always, we aim to make life easier for you when developing your website! And now with Open Graph Tags in EverWeb SEO Power Up, you get better, richer Social Media previews for your website URL’s without having to do anything!

When using EverWeb you pretty much have everything to hand that you need to build a website but sometimes you may want something extra for your site. Perhaps you want better security, or you want to sharpen your site’s SEO, or you want to use the data gathered from your contact forms. EverWeb’s Addons are here to help you get even more out of EverWeb!

Site Shield Addon

EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon is designed for EverWeb + hosting customers who want a secure to transmit data across the internet to all of the devices your website visitors may be using. The ‘end to end’ data encryption of data is provided through the use of HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) in place of HTTP.

WhyEverWeb Site Shield Addon Is Important

There are a number of reasons why EverWeb Site Shield Addon might be important to your website:

1. Your data is end to end encrypted across the Internet protecting you from ‘Man in the Middle’ attacks;
2. Sensitive data, such as financial data, confidential data, web shopping carts or medical data, is safely and securely transmitted;
3. Site Shield Addon will help improve your SEO rankings. For example, Google prioritizes HTTPS sites over non-secure HTTP sites;
4. Using Site Shield Addon also makes Google Analytics more effective as Referrer data is saved which is not the case if you only use HTTP;
5. Site Shield Addon builds trust with your potential and existing customers. The Padlock symbol that appears beside your URL in a visitor’s browser search box indicates that the site has secure end to end data encryption enabled. This visual symbol is a great way to let your visitors know that you take data security seriously;
6. Installing EverWeb Site Shield Addon is really easy, you just tick a checkbox in EverWeb’s Site Publishing Settings screen! There is no configuration needed. Just publish your entire site once you have checked the ‘Use HTTPS Secure URLs’ checkbox.

To purchase EverWeb Site Shield Addon, just check the Use HTTPS Secure URLs’ checkbox. A dialog box will appear which will guide you through the purchase process.

Contact Forms Enhanced Addon

EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget debuted in EverWeb 2.0 as a replacement for the original Contact Form widget. Whilst you can still use either widget in your site, the Contact Form Advanced widget is:

1. More Secure than the Contact Form widget through the use of SMTP Settings in the Widget Settings.
2. Has 17 different Form Control types so you can control and customize data input in to the form just as you want.
3. Improved SPAM protection. The use of forms in a website is one way in which SPAMmers can infiltrate your email box with SPAM. EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget uses Google’s reCAPTCHA to help reduce this attack vector.
4. Enhanced Form Confirmation and Submission Settings are included so that you can highly customize your form. You can even forward your visitor to a different page in your site once they have clicked on the form’s submit button.
5. Advanced Form Error Validation helps guide visitors if they have not filled out the form correctly and try to send it to you.

The EverWeb Contact Forms Enhanced Addon Advantage

These above features make the Contact Form Advanced widget the perfect tool for form creation in EverWeb. The Contact Forms Enhanced Addon, introduced in EverWeb 3.0, seamlessly integrates with the widget and offers the following advanced features:

1. Easily manage your Contact Form data from within your EverWeb Client Area.
2. Reporting on your Contact Form data is also easy and customizable.
3. Contact Form data can form the basis of mail shot campaigns by exporting the data out in to CSV format.
4. Contact Form data is securely stored on EverWeb’s Servers.
5. Use ‘Calendar’ and ‘Select Time’ Form Controls to create your own in-form calendar which can be used as the basis of a booking system.
6. Your customers can upload files to you from within the form using the ‘File Upload’ Form Control.

To purchase EverWeb Contact Forms Enhanced Addon, add the Contact Forms Advanced widget to your page then click on the ‘Contact Form Enhanced Add-on’ field then click on the ‘Add Contact Form Enhanced Features’ menu option. You will then be guided through the purchase process.

EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon

The most recent addition to EverWeb’s collection of add-ons is SEO Power Up, which debuted in EverWeb 3.4. The new add-on builds upon EverWeb’s existing built in SEO features to giving you more customization options to fine tune and focus your SEO.

EverWeb SEO Power Up lets you add your own keywords to individual pages, set the priority of your pages for SEO purposes and the frequency in which web crawlers crawl your pages. You can even designate pages in your site that you do not want to be included in SEO.

To purchase EverWeb SEO Power Up, just go to our secure online store.

More features will be added to SEO Power Up in the upcoming EverWeb 3.5, as well as a host of new features including site wide search, so check back on our blog or go to the EverWeb Forum for the latest news!

When you start to build your first website you may or may not, already know about SEO. It may be something that is extremely important to you. It may be something that you have no idea at all about. It may be something that you think might be important to you but it is shrouded in mystery that it seems almost magical or mind bogglingly confusing.

In this post, we are going to demystify SEO and explain what it is and why it can be important for you to implement it in your EverWeb created website.

What Exactly is SEO Anyway?

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a method by which you tune, or optimize, your website to its best advantage to Search Engines, such as Google, Bing and Alexa. The better you optimize your website, the better the chances are that your site will appear higher up in search engine results rankings.

When you enter a search term in to your browser’s search box, the search engine behind it (e.g. Google) will present you with a set of ranked results based on your search criteria. Simply put, you use SEO to improve your chances of ranking higher up in these such search results. As such, SEO can also be thought of as a process that is applied to your website. SEO is not hardware. SEO is not software. SEO is a methodology that you apply to your website.

Should Everyone Use SEO in Their Website?

Typically, you will want to apply SEO to your website if you run any form of business. Equally, you will probably want to apply SEO to your site if you just want it to be more visible on the Internet. On the other hand, you may not want to apply SEO at all to your site e.g. you may have a site just for personal reasons so it is not important for you to try to reach as many people as possible with your site.

Reasons to Apply SEO to Your Website

1. Potentially higher rankings in Search Engine Results Pages. When done correctly, SEO will improve your rankings.
2. Your Audience will be able to find you more easily! SEO is good to use as you can target the words that you think visitors will search on. If done correctly, your (potential) audience will find you more easily!
3. Customer Reach: SEO can be a great way for potential new customers to find you!
4. Better Customer Reach translates to more traffic to your site.
5. SEO Is Free! You do not have to pay anything to apply SEO to your site. You should not have to pay anyone to apply SEO to your site!
6. Improves Brand Awareness. Even if someone does not click on your website link in a search results set, the fact that you are visible may bring them back later to your site.
7. The effect of SEO can also be measured from your site’s statistics so you can adjust you SEO to see what works and what does not work.

Investing in SEO in Your Website

Just like building a great looking website, SEO is an Investment – and it should be thought of as a long term investment. As your business grows and develops over time, so your SEO should be in step with your business at the same time.

As part of the SEO process you will use Keywords, or phrases, in your website to help search engines focus on what you think is important. These Keywords may need to change over time as your business changes. It is, therefore, always important to remember that your website is a dynamic tool and your SEO should be too.

SEO As a Dynamic Concept

Your business will probably change over time due to internal and external factors. The same is also true of SEO which is not static concept but a dynamic, evolving concept. Changes in SEO usually relate to changes made by search engines as they adapt to our ever changing browsing habits. For example, a few years ago, Google decided to prioritize searches made on mobile devices over those made on desktop devices. It seems obvious now that the priority for search has changed with the growth in mobile device usage over the last ten years.

EverWeb is always looking out for changes in the way the search engine giants change the dynamic around search. One such change, for example, comes in the upcoming EverWeb 3.5 which will automatically add Open Graph Tags if you have purchased EverWeb SEO Power Up addon.

How to Begin with Your SEO Journey…

SEO in EverWeb has always been baked in to the product which means that you usually do not need to focus on it if you do not want to. If you do want to apply SEO to its best effect in your site, the best way forward is to use our SEO for EverWeb Video Course. This concise course guides you through how to apply SEO to your site’s best advantage.

EverWeb gives you most of the tools that you need to implement SEO but you can go further using our SEO Power Up addon. This addon allows you more customization options than ever so that you can prioritize what you think is important for your site’s SEO. The addon also provides more information to search engines about your site’s pages, their importance and priority. Check out the link above for more details.

Using SEO in your site can be advantageous to your business if used in the right way and if you invest in it for the medium to long term. There is no mystery around SEO either, just some easy knowledge building and experience to find out what works best for your site!

EverWeb SEO Power Up is our exciting new Addon that adds more SEO features to EverWeb’s existing built in SEO capabilities. The new addon gives you more control and flexibility it can be used specifically on the pages in your website that you want to prioritize and optimize for SEO. As you would expect from EverWeb, SEO Power Up is simple and easy to use.

Who Can Use EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon?

Anyone can use SEO Power Up, whether you host with EverWeb or use your own hosting provider. The only other requirement is that you are using EverWeb version 3.4 or higher.

Purchasing EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon

It is very easy to purchase EverWeb SEO Power Up. Simply go to your Site Publishing Settings in your EverWeb Project file by either clicking on your project file name in the Web Page List, or by using the File -> Edit Publishing Settings screen. Tick the checkbox for ‘Optimize & Submit for Search Engines’. If you have not already purchased the addon, you will see a dialog box which will take you though the process.

If you have not checked this box but still use the features of EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon (described below), you will occasionally be prompted by popup messages reminding you that to use these features you need to purchase the addon.

Do I need to Install EverWeb SEO Power Up On Purchase?

There is no installation required for EverWeb SEO Power Up as all its features and functionality are directly built in to EverWeb. Just make sure that the ‘Optimize & Submit for Search Engines’ checkbox is checked in your project file’s Site Publishing Settings. To get to this screen, either click on your project file name in the Web Page List or use the File-> Edit Publishing Settings menu option.

Setting Up Site Pages with Advanced SEO Features

You can apply SEO Power Up Addon’s features to any page in your project file but it is recommended that you do so only on the pages that are most SEO important to you. This will help web crawlers focus on what is important in your site. The Home page of any site will undoubtedly a page you will want to apply SEO to so we will look at this as an example of how to use the SEO Power Up’s Addon’s features.

Start by going to the Page Settings tab in the Inspector Window. Scroll down and open the Search Engine Optimization section if it is not already open.

The ‘Include page in search engines’ check box should also be checked so that SEO Power Up Addon’s features are enabled. If the box is not checked, you will only be able to use the Web Page Description field which has moved in to the Search Engine Optimization Section in EverWeb 3.4.

Adding Keywords To Your Page

Add the specific SEO keywords, or terms, that you want to use on the page using the Keywords section. The keywords will usually be the primary and secondary keywords, or terms, that you have already found through your SEO keyword research.

In my example my website sells specialist golfing equipment so I could add the following primary and secondary keywords to my page: ‘Left Handed Golf Clubs’ and ‘Left Handed Putters’.

You can edit a keyword entry by double clicking on it, editing the field, then pressing Enter to finish. If you want to remove an entry, just highlight it then press the delete key on your keyboard.

EverWeb SEO Power Up and The XML Sitemap file 

EverWeb SEO Power Up creates an XML Sitemap file for your site when the site is published. This file informs Google, and other search engines, about the pages and files that you consider important in your site. The file also includes other useful SEO information for search engines about the files or pages you are targeting for SEO. 

Such information includes for example, when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and any alternate language versions of a page.

Your website’s XML Sitemap will be submitted to Google, Yahoo, Bing and Alexa notifying them of your updated site each time you publish something new.

Priority and Frequency

The Search Engine Optimization section of the Page Settings tab is also where you can assign ‘priority’ and ‘frequency’ to the important pages in your site, according to sitemap protocols.

To use these features, the ‘Include in XML Sitemap’ checkbox should be checked as this will make the ‘Priority’ and ‘Change Frequency’ fields available to you. 

If you have not purchased EverWeb SEO Power Up, you will be reminded of this occasionally when using the Priority and Change Frequency fields.

The Priority field has a can have a value between zero and one. Zero means that the page has no important, 0.5 represents a neutral importance and 1.0 is very important.

The following lists examples of the Priority values that should be assigned to your pages:

• Priority value from 0.8-1.0: for pages such as your Home page and product information, major features and major category pages.
• Priority value from 0.4-0.7: is often used for articles, blog entries, minor category pages and FAQs.
• Priority value from 0.0-0.3: are used for old news pages and for those pages where the information is no longer relevant.

The Change Frequency field tells search engines approximately how often each page is updated. An update refers to actual changes to the HTML code or text of the page. Select the Change Frequency that is appropriate to the page. For example:

• NEVER: Is used for pages that contain out of date news stories, old press releases etc.
• YEARLY is used for Contact, “About Us”, login, registration pages
• MONTHLY for FAQs, instructions and infrequently updated articles
• WEEKLY: should be used for pages such as Product information page and website directories
• DAILY: Is used for page types that include Blog entry index pages, classified advertisements and small message board
• HOURLY: This category is used for major news update sites, weather information and forums
• ALWAYS for pages relating to items such as stock market data and social bookmarking categories

The Priority and Change Frequency fields should only be used on the pages of your site that are SEO important. Pages that are not important e.g. an About Us type page, do not need any SEO settings applied to them.

For more information about other ways of improving your SEO, check out the  SEO for EverWeb Video course.

Publishing Your Site

Prior to publishing your website, go to the project file’s Site Publishing Settings using either the File, Edit Publishing Settings menu option, or by clicking once on the name of your site in the Web Page List.

Check the box ‘Optimize & Submit Website to Search Engines’ if it is not already checked. If you have not already purchased SEO Power Up and check the box, a dialog box will appear with options to purchase or remind me later.

If you have an EverWeb+Hosting 10GB or higher account, EverWeb SEO Power Up is free for you.

The robots.txt File

In addition to the Sitemap XML File, one additional file gets published when you publish your site – the robots.txt file. This file tells search engine crawlers which pages, or files, the crawler can or can’t request from your site. Crawlers can ignore the file if they want, but it is still useful to have this file created.

Exclusive to EverWeb+Hosting Customers: Gzip Compression

GZip Compression is a built-in exclusive feature for EverWeb+Hosting customers. Compression is enabled on EverWeb’s servers so that your websites load faster. GZip compresses and decompresses files intelligently between server and browser, so reducing the size of your website’s HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. The end result is reduced bandwidth usage and faster website loading!

EverWeb’s SEO Power Up Addon has some great features to give you additional SEO tools all within EverWeb. Stay tuned as we hope to add more features to this exciting addon in the future!

EverWeb on Social Media

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

Facebook

Flipboard

YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

The spread of COVID-19 across the world has left the world reeling. Many people are now working from home as a result of the necessary restrictions that have been put in place by governments across the world. For many small businesses and self employed entrepreneurs, the financial consequences are possibly devastating.

There are many challenges ahead. How can you make best use of your time at home and keep your business viable?

These simple questions may have complicated answers, but with more people staying at home, the Internet is being frequented more than ever! So now may be the perfect time to develop, or update, your website project to get the word out to the world that your business is alive and kicking!

Team EverWeb Is Here For You!

As always Team EverWeb is here for you! Our 24 x 7 x 365 (ok, 366 this year!) remains in place to help if you need it. Please remember that to use our technical support you will need a current EverWeb support and product update license.

Alternatively, there is also the EverWeb Discussion Forum that you can use if you have any questions, or if you need to know how to do something specific in EverWeb, or have feature requests for the product.

In addition, there is also the EverWeb YouTube channel with hundreds of video tutorials and this blog, as well as those by third parties, such as All About iWeb, which should help you find what you need!

So, how can you make your website the most visible it can be on the Internet for your customers to see and interact with or to purchase from? Here are some tips to get you started…

Invest in Your Website’s SEO!

If you have not tuned your website for Search Engine Optimization, now may be the time to do so! You use SEO to help improve your Search Engine Ranking Page results. The better your SEO, the better chance of your website being higher up the page when potential customers are searching the Internet for goods and services.

The SEO for EverWeb Video Course takes you though the whole process so that your website is as optimized as it can be! There’s no magic involved in SEO and it does not cost any money to implement it either! Just some of your own time.

Your E-Commerce Store Needs You!

If your website includes an online store, now may be a good time to refresh its content and look. If you have a PayPal account, EverWeb’s PayPal widget takes the strain away from adding products to your site. You can now directly add in product images and descriptions from within the widget. You can also use your own button images, or styled text buttons, to get the perfect look for your website.

Remember that your customers do not need to have a PayPal account to be able to pay through PayPal. It may be worth mentioning this in your website that PayPal is just the payment provider, and that the customer does not have to have a PayPal account to purchase goods and services from you.

Although EverWeb supports PayPal, there are other E-Commerce stores and platforms that are also supported, such as E-Junkie, ECWID and Shopify. If there is an E-Commerce platform that you need supporting, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

Keeping Your Customers Updated!

Customer contact is especially important at this time for a number of reasons. First, you want your customers to know that you are still in business, second that your business is taking precautions over the Corona virus, and third, you can effectively update your clients on the products and services that you offer. Your products and services may be subject to change due to the current business trading environment, so alerting your customers as to what is available (and when), and to any possible alternatives, is a proactive step to take.

Maintaining contact with your clients is also important so that your business is not overwhelmed by customers asking questions. You may need to consider altering your home page, or adding a specific page or blog to your site to keep your customers up todate.

The Power of Contact Forms!

EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget is the perfect way to for customers to contact you. The widget is highly customizable so that your contact form blends in perfectly with your website design. If you are using EverWeb 3.0 or higher, you can also purchase our Contact Forms Enhanced addon. This is the perfect companion to the Contact Form Advanced widget in that it allows you to store all contact form submission data in one safe, secure place in your EverWeb Client Area. The database of contact form submissions can be downloaded on a per form basis which will allow you to create an email address list. You could then use this list in e.g. MailChimp to email out to your clients your latest business news and updates.

Keep Your Social Media Options Optimal!

Keeping the communication between your business and your customers is paramount at this time. Remember to include the social media widgets and buttons that are relevant to your business in your website. Social media is a great way to communicate quickly and effectively. EverWeb includes FaceBook Like, FaceBook Page Timeline, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo and YouTube widgets in the product with third party widgets also available for other social media platforms. There are also a range of social media buttons that you can use as well from EverWeb’s Insert menu.

If you have any of tips that you think might help other EverWeb users during these difficult times, please use the Comments Section below! Thanks!

Safe safe and well.

Team EverWeb

EverWeb on Social Media

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

Facebook

Flipboard

YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

 

If you are new to EverWeb, perhaps you need some help with installation or setting up your first website project. If you have used EverWeb for a while, you may want some help to better understand one of EverWeb’s many features. You may have a question on how best to achieve your website design goal. Maybe you have a technical issue that you cannot resolve on your own.

The problem with most questions is where to find the answer. Fortunately EverWeb has many ways in which you can get the help you need to quickly answer whatever question or issue you have. Below is a roundup of the available resources that can help you out!

 

The EverWeb User Manual

The EverWeb User Manual is a great place to start if you’re new to EverWeb as it explains in detail the EverWeb User Interface and how to create your first website. There is plenty of information on how to add and edit web pages using long standing and new EverWeb features right through to publishing your website on the Internet.

The EverWeb User Manual is usually updated with each point release so it is always up to date with any new or improved product features. You can access the EverWeb User Manual right from the Projects Window when you launch EverWeb or at any time from the Help-> EverWeb Manual menu option.

 

EverWeb Video Tutorials

Tutorial videos are really useful as they guide you through features and functions of EverWeb more easily and quickly than in written form. You can also pause the video at any time if you need a break.

You can access EverWeb’s tutorial videos directly from EverWeb’s Projects Window by clicking on the ‘Learn how to use EverWeb’ button. When you click on the button, you will be taken to the EverWeb Video Training Library that contains over 80 video tutorials.

There are hundreds of other EverWeb video tutorials available on YouTube. Videos are added throughout the month so subscribe to our EverWeb channel to stay updated!

 

The EverWeb Discussion Forum

The EverWeb Discussion Forum is the place where you can ask your EverWeb related questions to other members of the EverWeb community. Categories include ‘Feature Requests’ if you have an idea  for features you would like to suggest for inclusion in a future release of EverWeb, a ‘How Do I…?’ section where you can ask questions about how to achieve your design goals, a ‘Bug Report’ section where you can log any problems that you think are a bug in the product, and a ‘General Discussion’ section for anything that does not fit in to other categories!

There are two other useful categories in the Forum, the first is the ‘Announcements’ section which posts news about new product releases, beta test products and other important EverWeb related news. The ‘Third Party Products and Announcements’ section is where third party providers announce their own third party products e.g. widgets, Theme Templates, books on EverWeb etc.

The EverWeb Discussion Forum can also be accessed from your EverWeb Client Area using the Support-> Discussion Forum menu option, from within EverWeb itself using Help-> Discussion Forum menu option or via the EverWeb website.

 

Help Icon Within EverWeb

One of the useful Help features in EverWeb can be found directly next to many features within the product itself. The Help Icon, represented by a question mark within a circle, when clicked upon will take you directly to a tutorial video relating to the feature in question.

The Help icon is a quick and useful way to get pertinent information and help on the feature you need to know about.

 

The EverWeb Application Website

EverWeb’s own website serves as a great starting point for those looking to purchase EverWeb as it outlines all of the major features that can be found in the product. The website is also useful if you have already purchased EverWeb and need support or to find other EverWeb related resources. The Resources and Support menu conveniently group together everything you may need.

The EverWeb website also has its own blog with news on our latest product releases, and sometimes a sneak preview or two!

 

The EverWeb Knowledgebase

One of the features of the EverWeb website’s Support menu worth a special mention is the Knowledgebase option. Here you will find many useful technical and step by step ‘how to do’ articles. Just enter your search term in the Search box, or drill down using one of the listed categories. Knowledgebase articles are regularly added and updated on the website.

 

EverWeb Customer Support

Last but not least is EverWeb’s own Technical Support which is available if you have an active Everweb account. If you have a current EverWeb+Hosting plan you also have access to telephone technical support 24/7 on 1-888-500-2901.

 

This Blog

All EverWeb users have access to this blog and its extensive history of articles all about EverWeb. But if there is a topic that you think we should be writing about, or that you need more information about please let us know in the Comments Section below. What would help you build an even better website with EverWeb? We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

 

 

EverWeb on Social Media

And finally, you can always find EverWeb on the following social media platforms.

Facebook

Google+

Flipboard

YouTube

Twitter handle @ragesw

 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often important in website development as a good SEO implementation makes for better Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rankings. In EverWeb, these SEO features are “baked in” making it easy to add SEO to your website. Find how to effectively implement SEO in your website in our SEO for EverWeb Video Course.

The video course covers SEO implementation throughout EverWeb, but how can this be applied to any blog you create for your website? Read on to find out how…

 

Content Is King

When talking about blogging and SEO, the most important topic is content! Content is king as it is the key to better SEO and SERP rankings. Always remember never sacrifice content for the sake of SEO and page rankings. Blog posts that just target SEO and SERP rankings will ultimately result in less visitors to your blog and website. Your blog content is very important in this respect as outlined below.

 

How Long Should a Post Be?

This is one area that always causes debate, both from an author’s perspective and from an SEO perspective. Generally the consensus is that blog posts should be at least 300 words long. For SEO, longer articles are better, however, if your post is too long you may dissuade people from reading it. Again, the consensus seems to be that between 750 and 1100 words is ideal although this is not set in stone. For longer blog posts consider splitting the post in to two or more parts. Add links to previous and next posts in the series in the post. Relevant links within your posts to referenced, credible sources is also good for your SEO. Finally, do not forget to include one to two keywords per 1000 words in your text. Our SEO video course has more details on how to find appropriate, effective keywords to use.

 

Create New Content Regularly

For better SEO, try posting on regular basis. Your readers are more likely to come back as your site is ‘live’ and if you post regularly e.g. every Tuesday, your readership will be more inclinded to visit your site every Tuesday. Remember though, never create content just because you feel olbligated to do so and always make sure your content has something to say. Planning your posts in advance is the best strategy!

The other advantage of posting content regularly is that Google and other search engines will crawl your website and blog more often. If your website is not updated regularly your page rankings may be negatively impacted.

 

Create Original, High Quality Content

Google and other search engines rank posts higher if they are original and of high quality. Original, high quality posts are also good for your website’s readership who will appreciate that you have put thought and effort in to what you are writing about.

If you plagiarise content from others this can negatively impact your SERP rankings and could also get you sued. If you quote from someone else’s work, always acknowledge the author and provide a link to the source. Check out the blog post ‘Create Your First Blog Post in EverWeb 2.0!‘ for some useful pointers on this subject.

 

Structure Your Blog Posts

Your blog post should always have a proper title. When you hit the ‘New Post’ button in EverWeb’s blog post editor window, edit the default title to make one relevant to the post. The title should include one or two keywords and be 60 characters or less if possible as this is better for SEO.

When writing the blog post itself, it should be focused with only one message or idea. In this blog post, for example, the focus is on how to achieve better SEO/SERP rankings in your blog posts.

SEO and Images

When adding images to your post the same SEO rules apply as they do when you add images to regular pages in your site. The image filename should say something about what the image is. If possible name the image file before dragging and dropping it in to EverWeb. If you have already imported images that use just a camera generated name, edit the filename in the Assets List.

When you add an image to your post in the Blog Post Editor window the Image Toolbar is displayed when the image is selected. Click on the ‘i’ icon for Alt Text, add your descriptive text and press Enter to finish. Adding Alt Text is useful for those who are visually impaired. It also replaces the image itself if it cannot be displayed and may benefit your SEO. Always make sure that the Alt Text describes what the image file is about.

As mentioned before, the file name should describe what the image is before being added to the Assets List if at all possible.

Blog Main, Archive and Post Page Settings

If you have not done so already, remember to complete the Page Settings for the Blog Main, Blog Posts and Archive Pages using the Inspector Window as these input fields are also used for SEO purposes. As mentioned previously, the SEO for EverWeb video course has all the details you need to add effective keywords to your Page Settings fields.

 

With some thought and planning you can have effective SEO in your blog posts as well as in the regular pages of your site.

 

As always please 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:

 

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EverWeb’s Language Localization feature is a great way to target geographic local markets and audiences or for multilingual websites that targets different countries and/or language groups. When designing and building a website, you probably have some kind of audience, focus or target in mind right from the outset. Even if your website seems to have no specific target market or audience, you can still apply some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SERP (Search Engine Results Page) implementation with Language Localization.

 

Targeting a Non-Target Market

If you think your website does not have a target market or audience, think again, as you will have written your site’s pages using at least one language.  At this level, your market or audience scope is probably very large e.g. all English, Spanish, or Chinese speakers. Even at this scale, you have a place to start for SEO and you can optimize more as you learn more about your target market later on.

At this scale, set your Language Localization at the global level in your EverWeb Project file. To do this:

1. Go to the File-> Edit Publishing Settings menu, or click on your Project name in the Web Page List. The Site Publishing Settings will appear.
2. In the ‘Head/Footer Code’ section is the ‘Language’ option. Click on the drop down box and select the language that your website is written in e.g. if your website is written in Spanish, select ‘Spanish’.
3. When you click on the drop down to open the list of available languages, start to type the name of your language. The language list uses predictive search. As you type, the closer to your language you will get in the list.
4. Once you have selected the language you want to use, publish your entire website as the global nature of the language localization will be applied to all of the pages in the Project file

Your website will use the language localization setting to better to serve web visitors with results that are geared relevant to Spanish speaking audience.

 

Narrowing The Market Focus

You probably noticed that as well as the ‘Spanish’ language option, there were other ‘Spanish’ language options available on a country by country level. If your website is geared towards only one specific country, select the Spanish country option for your market e.g. ‘Spanish (Chile)’ This will help better refine your SEO for your target market or audience.

 

Market Targeting with Multilingual Websites

If you have a website that uses more than one language, using EverWeb’s Language Localization feature on a page by page basis is probably the most suitable way to optimize for a better SERP. Again, it’s easy to set up:

1. First set up the primary language that website uses in Site Publishing Settings as we did above when setting up Spanish (Chile) as our primary language.
2. The next step is to use the Language Localization drop down menu on each page of your website that uses the secondary language.
3. To do this, select a page in your Project that uses the secondary language.
4. Next go to the Page Settings tab in the Inspector Window.
5. In the ‘Page Details’ section is the ‘Language Localization’ drop down. Select the language and country that you require. In our example,  the Project file is mainly in Spanish as it is targeting the Chilean market, however, there are also some pages in Portuguese for the Brazilian market. In this case, set the page  Language Localization as Portuguese (Brazil).

When using Language Localization on a page by page basis in your website, it does not matter if you have more than one language/country combination in the Project file as long as you each has its own page. In our example above, we could also have had pages for Spanish speakers in Bolivia. In this case, the Language Localization would be set to ‘Spanish (Bolivia)’ to more specifically target Bolivian Spanish speakers.

 

If you have created multiple project files for your multilingual website and linked them together using external URL links, it will be easy to implement Language Localization at the website (global) level for each project file.

 

EverWeb’s Language Localization feature can help your SEO and SERP rankings at all levels within your website, even if your website appears not to have any  specific market or audience focus.

 

 

EverWeb on Social Media

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Twitter handle @ragesw

 

Over the last few years, web search giants such as Google and Microsoft have been encouraging website developers to encrypt all data  transmitted between their website’s host server and the end user’s desktop, tablet or mobile device browser window.

 

Why The Need For Data Encryption?

Data encryption is important for you, and your website visitors, as it provides a safe, secure way of transmitting data across the internet to all the devices your website visitors may be using. It is especially important where internet based financial transactions, such as web shopping carts, or confidential data, such as medical information, is involved. A secure website also gives your visitors more confidence and trust in your website. It’s also more professional and shows that you are up to date with today’s technology.

 

EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon

EverWeb version 2.4 debuted the Site Shield Addon providing a simple, easy, way to keep your website data secure through end to end data encryption. As you would expect with EverWeb, it only takes a couple of mouse clicks – EverWeb does all the complex, hard work behind the scenes!

 

To use EverWeb Site Shield Addon you will need:

• EverWeb version 2.4 or higher. To find the version of EverWeb you are currently running, check the Projects Window that you first see when you launch EverWeb, or go to the EverWeb menu and click on the About option;
• An EverWeb+Hosting plan. To add the Site Shield Addon to your EverWeb account, go to your EverWeb Client Area and add the EverWeb Secure Shield Addon to your account. If you have a 10GB or higher plan, EverWeb Site Shield is absolutely free. If you have a 2GB plan the Addon costs $29.95/year.

 

Using EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon

Using EverWeb Site Shield Addon is super easy:

1. Launch EverWeb and open your Project file
2. Go to the Site Publishing Settings.
3. Check the “Use HTTPS Secure URLs” box.
4. Publish your Entire Website using the File -> Publish Entire Site menu.

That’s all you need to do!

 

Checking Your Website

When your website has published, click on the ‘View Website Now’ button. You may not notice any change to your website, but if you look at your website’s URL in the browser search bar you may notice that the website now uses HTTPS as it’s prefix instead of HTTP. note that in some instances, you may need to click in the search box itself to see the full URL, or you may need to configure your browser settings to display full URLs.

You will notice that the web address starts with ‘HTTPS’. The ‘HTTP’ part stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, and ‘S’ at the end means ‘Secure’. As such, your HTTPS website will encrypt any data communication between the EverWeb Server hosting your website and your visitors browser window. if your website is only HTTP then the end to end data communication is not encrypted and so not secure.

You may also notice that your website has a padlock symbol next to the URL. The padlock symbol acts a visual indicator that an HTTPS connection is in place and active. If you see ‘HTTPS’ displayed but no padlock symbol, check the page in the Project file. Third party widgets or third party code may be causing problems with the padlock displaying properly. Remember to check the Head/Footer Code section of your website’s ‘Site Publishing Settings’ and the Inspector Window of your web page as well to troubleshoot any issues.

 

Site Shield Addon For Better SEO

Site Shield Add-on has an addition benefit besides from being ideal for secure online end to end encrypted data transmission. It  is also great for your SEO Rankings as Google gives data encrypted websites a ranking boost over non-secure websites. If you use any analytics on your website, check them after a couple of weeks to see if you have any increase in traffic to your website. Remember that good SEO should always be part of your website design. Check out the SEO For EverWeb Video Course for more details.

 

EverWeb Site Shield’s the easy way for more secure websites and better search engine rankings all with just the click of a button!

 

Video Walkthrough

You can see EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon in action in our ‘EverWeb Site Shield‘ YouTube Video!

 

EverWeb on Social Media

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

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YouTube

Twitter handle @ragesw