Mac SEO Blog

Hey WebCrusher Owners! Have you been keeping an eye on the speed of your website? Google finds the speed at which at website loads to be very important. As Google continues with its campaign to make the web faster, so should you. By ensuring your website is loading at an optimal speed, you can give your site an advantage over your competitors by loading quicking, and moving up in the search results.

Watch the following video tutorial to see how you can check on the speed of your website.

Video Transcript

One of Google’s latest search ranking criteria is the speed at which a website loads. You have already taken a step in the right direction by taking an interest in WebCrusher. I hope that you have used WebCrusher and continue to use it whenever need be.

For those of you who have a Google Webmaster Tools account, you can get a good idea of what your website’s current speed is. In your Dashboard, press the plus sign next to Labs and select Site Performance. Here you will see the speed performance of your website.

Google believes that anything that falls below 1 and a half seconds is considered to be fast. Anything slower than 1 and a half seconds is considered slow. See where you are, and make sure you run your website through WebCrusher for optimal speed.

Don’t forget to check out our SEO Video Courses which will walk you through the entire process of optimizing your website for the best possible search engine rankings.

If you are an iWeb user, be sure to check out the iWeb SEO Video Walkthrough Tutorial. If you use anything else to build your website, be sure to check out the SEO Video Course. RapidWeaver users can now purchase the SEO For RapidWeaver Video Tutorial as well.

In our effort to make things as easy as possible for our software users, we have created this quick tutorial that will demonstrate how a user should properly publish their iWeb website to FTP using iWeb SEO Tool. The tutorial will identify common mistakes users make, and how to determine if your FTP login information has been entered correctly. To learn how to make your iWeb site rank higher in search engines, be sure to check out the iWeb SEO Walkthrough Video.

Video Transcript

There were many people asking me publishing related questions with iWeb SEO Tool. This tutorial is going to strictly cover publishing a website to FTP using iWeb SEO Tool. We will cover all of the main points involved with publishing, and then we will discuss the biggest issue users have when publishing their website. That issue is the directory path.

The first thing you will need to do is press the publish button, and then make sure Publish to FTP is selected and then press the next button.

In the FTP field, here is where you will put your server address. Sometimes the server address may look like the one I have here (an IP address,) but more often than not, it will just be your domain. So if my domain were publishingtoiweb.com then that is what I would put in this field.

Do not include http, www, or ftp in this field. Just put your domain.com or .net or whatever the extension may be.

Your username and password must be accurate otherwise logging in will not work, and you will not be able to publish.

To check to see if you have all of your FTP login details entered in correctly, press the Browse button. If you are able to see files and folders like we see here, then you have logged in correctly. If you get an error similar to this, then your FTP information is incorrect. You must get the correct FTP information before proceeding to the next step.

I’m now going to discuss the Directory Path field. This is the area where most users experience the most difficulty. Chances are, if you are watching this video, you need to enter something in this field.

We are going to focus on one method for finding out what the directory path should be. I think this will be the easiest way for you to do it, and it will work out well for most people.

If you use RAGE hosting, you should type in /public_html. For everyone else, please refer to the following method;

What you want to do is open up iWeb, and go to the publish page of the website you want to publish in iWeb SEO Tool. The first thing I want you to do is have a look at the current FTP information you already have. In the directory/path field, there may or may not be some text. If there is some text, I want you to copy it. If there is no text in there, don’t worry, just bear with me for a moment.

Go back to iWeb SEO Tool, and in the directory path field, paste the text you just copied. Make sure there is a forward slash at the beginning of this text.

Your site should publish properly now.

I want to make a note that this method should work for 95-99% of users. Since there are so many variations when it comes to publishing, some users may not achieve success using this method. If you are in that 5%, submit a support ticket at ragesw..com/support and we will be happy to assist you.

To wrap your text around an image in iWeb, you must remember to insert the image into the textbox. The following video tutorial will demonstrate this, along with the common mistake that many users make when trying to wrap text around an image in iWeb. Remember to check out our SEO For iWeb video tutorial to learn how to make your iWeb website rank higher in search engines.

Video Transcript

In this video tutorial, I am going to show you how to wrap text around an image in iWeb. Before I show you the proper way of doing it, I am first going to show you a common mistake people make when wrapping their text around an image.

The first thing I am going to do is insert my image by selecting Insert in the Menu bar, and then going to Choose. This isn’t the only way to insert an image, but it will do for this demonstration.

Now that my image has been inserted, you will notice that I can move it around and place it wherever I want. I’ll open the Inspector and then the Text tab, and then the Wrap tab. Now you will notice that the Object Causes Wrap option cannot be selected. This is the problem that many users face. Here is how we solve it.

First, I’m going to delete the image that I just inserted, and now I will click within the text box, and reinsert the image again.

So now that the image is within the textbox, I will once again open up the inspector, and you will notice that the Object causes wrap option is no longer greyed out and I can now select it. I can also choose to align my image left or right.

I can also move the image in the textbox, and make it bigger or smaller.

And that’s how you wrap your text around an image in iWeb.

This video tutorial is going to show you how you can make your RapidWeaver URL shorter by eliminating the folder name that shows up in the URL. Learn how to get your RapidWeaver website ranking high in search engines with the SEO For RapidWeaver video tutorial.

Video Transcript

When you first create a website in RapidWeaver, you will notice that as you navigate to other pages on your site, the URL in your address bar will show your domain followed by the folder name followed by the page name. Some of your folder names and page names will look different, as these items are easily customizable, but I have left mine as is to show what the default folder names and page names are.

If you want to shorten this URL by eliminating one of these items, follow these simple instructions. What we are going to do, is shorten the URL by getting rid of the folder name. Once again, the folder is this second one which comes right after the domain name.

So to get rid of the folder, open up RapidWeaver, and highlight the page on the left hand side, and then press the Page info button. In the text box next to Folder, delete whatever is in there, and put in a forward slash. Repeat this process for the remaining pages on your site. You will notice that the homepage does not contain anything in the text box next to folder. You do not need to add a forward slash to the home page. Just leave it as is.

Now, when we publish our sites, that folder name will be gone, and we will be left with a smaller, nicer looking URL in the address bar. To learn how to get your RapidWeaver website ranking high in search engines, be sure to check out the SEO For RapidWeaver video tutorial at ragesw.com

Your website is ranking for keywords you may not even know it is ranking for and you can instantly boost the number of visitors you are getting from search engines with a single change to your site.

So you have your XML Sitemap file submitted to your Google Webmaster Tools account. Now, login to your account to see what search terms your website is appearing for AND what search terms people are actually clicking on to visit your site.

The trick is to find the relevant search terms that are appearing a lot in search results, but that customers are not clicking. By simply changing your Title Tag and your description tag, you can dramatically improve the number of visitors who visit your website.

Watch this step by step video tutorial to learn exactly how to do this;

Make sure you have created and submitted your XML Sitemap file. If you think you’ve missed a step and feel a little lost, we have our step by step walkthrough SEO videos which explain everything you need to know about optimizing your website for the best possible search engine rankings.

People from all over the world are using Google to find what they are looking for. Whether it is products, services or information, everything they want to know can be found by “Googling It”.

If you have a business located in Canada that can only service customers locally, what good does it really do you to show up for a searcher in Australia. They can’t use your products or services so you shouldn’t have to care whether or not an Australian user can find you when they search.

With your Google Webmaster Tools Account and your XML Sitemap file, you can actually target only local users. Meaning when a Canadian searches for your website you are more likely to appear for them than if an Australian searches for your website. You can do this by clicking a single checkbox in your Webmaster Tools account.

Watch our step by step video tutorial to find out how;

Make sure you have created and submitted your XML Sitemap file. If you want more tips and advice we have our step by step walkthrough SEO videos which explain everything you need to know about optimizing your website for the best possible search engine rankings.

So in part 1 of this series you learned about the importance of your web page title tags and how to use them to attract searchers to your site. Now we need to learn the second part of the equation to ensure searchers are actually clicking your search result and coming to your website.

Once you have grabbed a searchers attention with your title tag, the next thing they look at is your page description, a short snippet of what the page they are about to visit is all about.

Your page description needs to include a brief summary of what they will find when they visit your site. If you don’t have a meta description, or it doesn’t accurately describe what is on the corresponding page, Google will provide a description from your page content that may not make much sense to a potential visitor.

This video tutorial will explain how a description tag works and why you need one;

Now that you know about your meta description tag, learn how to add one to your website and what makes a good meta description to help entice users to click your web page link when searching. Check out our walk through SEO video tutorials to learn how to improve your website’s search engine rankings.

Apple today announced an update for iLife with some very cool new features to iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. However, iWeb has not been updated at all.

When you buy iLife 11 you will get iWeb v3.0.2, the latest official release from Apple. This has been posted on Apple’s website on the iLife 11 Store Page. Scroll down near the bottom of the page and you will see;

What’s in the Box

• DVD containing iPhoto ’11, iMovie ’11, GarageBand ’11, iWeb (v3.0.2), iDVD (v7.1)
• Electronic documentation

I know many people were waiting for an iWeb update, unfortunately nothing is new with iLife 11.

Update: The SEO for RapidWeaver Walkthrough Video Tutorial has been released. The tutorial will walk you through the entire process for optimizing your RapidWeaver website. The tutorial will be a huge time saver as it will teach you about the SEO methods, while also showing you how to accomplish them very quickly.

Optimizing a RapidWeaver website for search engines can be challenging, but can also be fairly easy when you know what to do, how to do it, and where it can be done.

Whether you are a beginner to RapidWeaver, or you’ve been using it for a long time, search engine optimization (SEO) can be a brand new subject to many webmasters. This article is meant to push you in the right direction for making your RapidWeaver website more search engine friendly. Read each step carefully, and follow the tips and advice accordingly.

Page Titles

Page titles (also known as ‘Title Tags’) are one of the most important SEO elements. They can really give search engines a great understanding of what a website is about. Page titles are found at the top of your web browser. A good page title is keyword rich and accurately depicts the content of each web page.

Changing your page titles in RapidWeaver is very easy to do. Simply highlight the page that you wish to update, and click on the Page Info button in the top right corner of RapidWeaver.

Under the General tab, locate the Browser Title field box, and enter your title tag. Remember to repeat this process for all of the pages on your website.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when making your title tags:

1. Do not make your title tags excessively long
2. Make sure your title tag is relevant to the actual page
3. Each page should have a unique title tag

Did you know?

Your title tag is not only important for search engine optimization, but it is also very important for getting users to click on your website in the search results? The title tag also appears as the clickable link in the search results, making it an important factor for encouraging visitors to go to your site. An uninteresting title tag will certainly turn away potential visitors, while an attractive, and relevant title tag will surely increase your traffic.

Page Description

The page description, much like the title tag, can be a very important factor for getting visitors to click on your website in the search results. A large majority of the snippets you see beneath the title tag in the search results come from the page description.  Because of this, it is very important for us to create exceptional page descriptions that are keyword rich and are convincing to people who are viewing them in the search results.

To change your page description in RapidWeaver, highlight the page that you wish to update, and click on the Page Info button. Ensure that the Header tab is selected. The next thing you are going to do is press the ‘Plus’ button which is located on the right hand side of the window, almost half way down.

In the name field, type the word ‘description.’

In the content field, type in your desired page description. Remember to make the description enticing enough for visitors to be interested in going to your website and learning more.  Since every page on your website is unique, so should each page’s description. Keywords are bolded in the search engine snippet when they match up with the users search query, so make sure to use good keywords in your description.

Anchor Text

The text we use to link to other pages on our website (or to external sites) can play an important role for search engine optimization. You have probably seen many websites use the phrase “click here” when linking to one of their pages.

Using “click here” for the anchor is wasted opportunity. Whenever linking to pages within your website, it is best to use keyword rich anchor text. Search engines rely on anchor text to identify what a page may be about.

For example, let’s assume a website sells left handed golf clubs. There are many different websites linking to this website using the anchor text “Left handed golf clubs.” Search engines now know to relate this website to left handed golf clubs. The end result will be better rankings for this website for that exact phrase.

Alternative Text For Images

Image search engines have become increasingly popular over the years. While it may be difficult for search engines to understand what a picture is about, there are ways that we can help. Utilizing an images alt attribute can help us accomplish this. The benefit of this optimization is two-fold: Gaining more traffic from image searches, and being useful to users who are using browsers that do not support images.

In RapidWeaver, select an image, and then press the Media Inspector button. In the Alt Image field, type in your Alternative Text for your image. Remember to be descriptive, while not keyword stuffing. Avoid making your alt text misleading in any way.

Meta Keywords

While many people are aware that meta keywords are not important to Google, there still may be some search engines that do take this attribute into consideration. Because of this, it is always a good idea to add some keywords to every page of our website.

This process is going to be very similar to the page description process. Press the Page Info button, and make sure you are on the header tab. Press the ‘Plus’ button, and under the Name heading, type in ‘Keywords.’

In the content section, type in your keywords. Remember to separate each keyword or phrase with a comma. Do not add keywords or phrases which are irrelevant to your page. Keep this section to a minimum. Adding a bunch of keywords and phrases will not help your efforts. As an example, if this page was about left handed golf clubs, it wouldn’t make sense to add the phrase ‘Right handed golf clubs’ in the meta keywords. It would be more appropriate to save that phrase for your right handed golf clubs page.

Header Tags

In HTML, there are 6 header tags;

• H1
• H2
• H3
• H4
• H5
• H6

H1 is the “highest” and H6 is the “lowest.”

In search engine optimization, text within an H1 tag lets search engines know that the webmaster considers that text to be important. This gives a good indication to search engines as to what the page may be about.

RapidWeaver does not offer the most flexible way for putting unique H1 tags on every page. Instead, we are able to add one H1 tag, and one H2 tag that is constant across all pages on our website.

Click on the Setup button.

On the General tab, the Title is where our H1 tag goes, and the Slogan is where our H2 tag goes.

There are ways around this header situation, however, they are beyond the scope of this tutorial. For the time being, place any keywords you feel are appropriate for a header consistent throughout your entire site. If a business name is most appropriate, then that is what you should put as the header.

You’re walking in a shopping mall, among the hundreds of stores competing for your attention, one catches your eye.

Have you ever walked by a store and been so intrigued you had to go in? What if you could do the same thing with your website?

When someone does a search in Google for a keyword related to your site they are presented by hundreds of thousands of choices. Even on the front page they have 10 results to choose from. How can you make sure they click your site even if you may not be right at the top?

Your website title tag is the very first thing your visitor will see. That is why it is so important to make sure you have the perfect title tag for each of your pages. A title tag that both attracts web searches but also has your keywords for the best search engine rankings is extremely important. This video will explain in detail what a title tag is and how it is used.

Once you know why you need the title tag, you can learn how to create the perfect title tag that not only gets people clicking to your site, but also includes the keywords your customers are searching for you. Check out our walk through SEO video tutorials to learn how to improve your website’s title tags.