A question that often comes up is why a website is not yet in search engines, or if it has been added to search engines, why isn’t it showing up for the keywords I want it to. These questions can be answered by looking at the data provided by Google Webmaster Tools. By creating an XML Sitemap file and submitting it to Google Webmaster Tools, you can quickly and easily learn the answers to this questions.
Some of the questions covered by the article include;
Why hasn’t Google indexed my website yet?
Does my site appear relevant to Google for my targeted terms or niche?
Why am I not getting clicks from Google?
Has my website been hacked?
Does my website load fast compared to other websites?
Pay special attention to the last question, how fast your website loads. This will become an important search engine ranking factor in early 2010. This has been confirmed by manysources already, that is why Google provides a site speed analysis test in their Google Webmaster Tools.
Of course, you can already be ahead of the game with WebCrusher, which will instantly speed up your website so it loads as fast as possible in all web browsers.
We are getting ready to release the much anticipated SEO for iWeb Video Tutorial Walk Through. Our intentions for this video is to provide a step-by-step walk through of how to properly optimize an iWeb website for search engines.
The iWeb video tutorial will cover the basics including how to create proper title tags, meta tags and website content. We even show you the secret to including Header tags in iWeb, something never before possible without a lot of additional work.Throughout this entire process we give you insider tips that have been shown to greatly affect how a website ranks in all major search engines.
We even go into more advanced topics including new trends in search rankings recently announced by Google and we delve into local search optimizations to help you get your site in front of your local audience.
The SEO for iWeb walk through video will show you how to implement SEO strategies and why they are important so you can understand how your changes will effect your search engine rankings. This video tutorial will be the first full length tutorial that covers everything you need to know. With over 60 minutes of SEO content, a step by step checklist and an abundance of external resources, every question you had about search engines will be answered.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or sign up to our newsletter to be the first to be notified of the video release and get access to early bird discounts.
Your meta description tag is a short description used to describe each page on your website. Although most major search engines do not use it to determine where your website ranks in their search results, they do use it in their search results to give searchers an idea of what your page is all about.
A good meta description tag can entice searchers to visit your website, over some of the other listed results. Basically it’s used to quickly grab the attention of a searcher so that they click your link in the search results.
For years, if you left out a meta description tag, or your meta description tag did not properly describe your page, Google would attempt to find more relevant snippets in your webpage content. of course, this caused a problem because now you have no control over what’s displayed in Google’s search results. Leaving it up to a computer (Google’s indexing software), means you never know whether or not it will entice people to click your link, or even if it would make sense.
Recently, Google has started doing the same thing with Title tags. Title tags are what you see at the very top of your web browser when you visit a webpage. They are probably the most important on-page optimization you can make on each of your webpages. If you leave your title tag out, or if you do not have a title tag that accurately describes your webpage, Google will attempt to change it to something more relevant. Of course, this causes the same issue with the meta description tag.
A good title tag has the following characteristics;
It accurately describes what is one the corresponding webpage
It is between 60 and 120 characters long
It includes 2-3 keywords or keyword phrases that you want to rank well for
It’s different for every one of your pages
You can watch Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, talk about this change below.
With a free Google Webmaster Tools account and XML Sitemap, Google will give you advice and feedback on all your title and meta tags. Just check your Google Webmaster Tools account and click the Diagnostics tab and then the HTML Suggestions tab on the left hand side.
For iWeb users, make sure you use iWeb SEO Tool to add unique title tags and meta tags to each of your pages to properly follow Google’s guidelines.
Google translate has been updated with some very cool new features. These new features include;
1. Instant Translation of Text
You no longer need to press the translate button. Google translate will now translate your text on the fly as you type.
2. Read and write in an langauge
Google translate can now teach you how to pronounce words by converting non-roman characters to english sounding words. In addition, you can even type words as they sound in English and Google can convert them to proper words in languages such as Arabic, Persian or Hindi.
3. Text to speech
Lastly with Google Translate you can now hear translations spoken to you.
All these new features to Google translate are definitely worth checking out.
We are happy to announce an all new update to WebCrusher, the most powerful website optimizer for Mac OS X.
WebCrusher 1.6 will now only optimize modified files since the last optimization making the entire optimization faster much faster than before. It also adds improved support for MobileMe servers, allowing for much faster publishing.
Version 1.6 also improves stability on Snow Leopard and is a free update for registered users.
Check out the all new update and make sure your visitors aren’t waiting too long for your website to load.
Google recently updated Google Webmaster Tools with an all new keyword tool. Just like before, you get a list of your most prevalent keywords on your site except now you get additional information like the significants of the keywords and where the top 10 pages that the keyword can be found on.
Just click the Keywords link under “Your web site on the web” in your Google Webmaster Tools account. You will see a list of keywords just as before, except now a new significance column is also displayed. Click any of your keywords to see how many times they occur on your entire site and the top ten pages they occur on.
One great use of this feature is to help find out if your website has been hacked, and if so, where the affected pages are.
Usually when a spammer hacks your website they will load your site up with random keywords related to what they are trying to sell. Then they will link to the hacked pages from other pages on other websites they have hacked. With this new keyword tool you can not only discover whether or not your site has been hacked (loaded with spam keywords), but you can now see exactly which pages have been affected.
The above method is used commonly on sites with community driven resources such as forums, blogs, or other social networking scripts. Always make sure this has not happened with your site with this new Keywords Tool. If it has, this is something you need to fix ASAP because it may get your banned from Google and other search engines.
Check out this new addition to Google Webmaster Tools account. Make sure you have created your XML Sitemap file and submitted to your Webmaster Tools account.
Facebook allows companies, organizations, or individuals to start groups and fan pages to make it easier for Facebook users to keep up with all your news and upcoming events.
A couple of months ago they came out with widgets that you can add to your website. You can see an example of a Facebook widget on the side of this blog. It shows all the users that are a fan of RAGE Software and lets any blog reader to quickly become a fan as well.
It shows you how to add Facebook widgets to your iWeb site using HTML snippets. It also shows you how to get your RSS Feed on your Facebook page. This means all of your blog posts can automatically be added to your wall or fan page. There are many widgets to choose from, so it’s definitely worth a look to see what is available.
It’s a great article to read over if you would like to keep your facebook friends or fans updated on your website news and events.
Combined with iWeb SEO Tool to optimize your website for search engines, and Sitemap Automator, to get your website listed in all major search engines, this can be a great way to attract more visitors to your website.
We’re happy to announce a major update to WebDesign, our flagship web site design and html editor for Mac OS X. WebDesign 3.0 includes many new features including live, side by side webpage previews, built in website templates, a completely rewritten FTP client that supports secure FTP and much more.
You will notice an interface facelift as well with this new update which makes it extremely easy to insert common HTML elements such as links, images, tables, style changes and more.
We have just updated Domainer to version 1.9.5 adding the ability to find and remove duplicate domains, support for more top level domains and fixes for Snow Leopard and iCal syncing.
Domainer 1.9.5 is a free update for registered users and is highly recommended if you are using a previous version because of the iCal syncing fixes and Snow Leopard fixes.
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