For help, I've stuck with the CHM format. It does what I need and is easy to integrate with a .Net application. I must admit though I haven't spent time investigating alternatives and I've just gone with what I know about.
I used to find the process of developing a CHM a bit laborious. I'd use Microsoft FrontPage to generate HTML pages and then use the Microsoft Help Compiler to turn them into a CHM. There were always index files etc. to edit in Notepad. The process wasn't really diffcult, just a bit lengthy. I tend to put pictures into my help files too and maintaining help pictures with overlayed text and pointers in something like Paint .Net is a bit tedious.
Nowadays I use a package called Help & Manual (www.helpandmanual.com). This is a superb, well-rounded package that allows you to write WYSIWYG help and invokes the Help Compiler for you. It also includes its own image editor that allows you to easily write text and pointers/ arrows in different layers. When screenshots change, all you need do is update the background image and the text and pointers can be reused. This saves me hours and hours of time when I release an updated version of a package.
The other thing I like about Help & Manual is that you can generate output in different formats just by making a simple selection from a dropdown.
For example you can generate a PDF document of your help file. This can then be placed on your website for download or made available to users in printed form.
Another other output format I use Help & Manual to generate is HTML help. I upload a HTML help version of the help file to my website. This adds about 90 pages to my site - all full of good keywords relating to my applications. Google is supposed to like bigger sites so the extra pages hopefully help me in looking bigger and more information heavy.
With Help & Manual you can edit a common header/ footer for your pages. I make sure the header and footer include hyperlinks to my homepage. If any of the help pages are landing pages, visitors can use the hyperlinks to find their way to the main part of my site.
by ML
Thursday 22 May 2008
Sunday 18 May 2008
Software Release Test Process
The first thing I do when testing a new release is to ensure that I can successfully install the softare on a clean PC. By clean PC, I mean a PC that has nothing else on it but the initial installation of Windows.
My software runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista. I use virtual PCs with clean installations of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Ultimate. the idea behind using a clean environment is that I can be sure there aren't any DLLs hidden away on available include paths that I am unaware of.
Initially I check I can install and uninstall the new release. I then check I can upgrade previously installed releases of software, e.g. can I upgrade 1.3.2 to 1.4? If 1.3.2 was unlocked, i.e. a valid unlock had been entered, then is 1.4 still unlocked when it is installed over 1.3.2.
As part of the upgrade tests I check that all totals are the same in 1.4 as they were in 1.3.2, e.g. if there were 10 invoices, do they still have the same totals. I do similar tests with credit notes, quotes, customer statements and sales reports.
After these basic tests I then do the application tests - trying out the features of the application as you do.
After I've done this initial round of test I give it to my partner (who isn't a developer) and she tests/ uses the software. By this stage things usually work well - we don't normally see crashes for example - but my partner is good at spotting silly mistakes and evaluating features for ease of use and so on.
After this we do a round of beta testing. The beta test phase is unscripted but I always ask for a report of what's been done. I then talk to the beta testers and agree a further round of test if needed.
by ML
My software runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista. I use virtual PCs with clean installations of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Ultimate. the idea behind using a clean environment is that I can be sure there aren't any DLLs hidden away on available include paths that I am unaware of.
Initially I check I can install and uninstall the new release. I then check I can upgrade previously installed releases of software, e.g. can I upgrade 1.3.2 to 1.4? If 1.3.2 was unlocked, i.e. a valid unlock had been entered, then is 1.4 still unlocked when it is installed over 1.3.2.
As part of the upgrade tests I check that all totals are the same in 1.4 as they were in 1.3.2, e.g. if there were 10 invoices, do they still have the same totals. I do similar tests with credit notes, quotes, customer statements and sales reports.
After these basic tests I then do the application tests - trying out the features of the application as you do.
After I've done this initial round of test I give it to my partner (who isn't a developer) and she tests/ uses the software. By this stage things usually work well - we don't normally see crashes for example - but my partner is good at spotting silly mistakes and evaluating features for ease of use and so on.
After this we do a round of beta testing. The beta test phase is unscripted but I always ask for a report of what's been done. I then talk to the beta testers and agree a further round of test if needed.
by ML
Tuesday 13 May 2008
Cost is not the only measure of value
My feeling is that, in general, most people realise that if they want to buy a product that they will use again and again - perhaps for years - cost isn't really a deciding factor. More than one customer has told me this.
As stated in an earlier post, I think writing a non-trivial, valuable program is the key. These days, lots of software is cheap and there are lots of big companies allowing people to use software either for free or for a trial period. The distinction between shareware and fully-fledged commerical software is becoming increasingly blurred.
If you sell shareware you have to fill a niche and still offer a quality offering. One niche might be an "easy-to-use" version of a more complicated package. Note the key phrase here is "easy-to-use", not trivial or cheap. People will pay to have complication taken away from them if the software offering still does an effective job.
A number of times in the past I bought things because they were cheap, e.g. a cheap power tool like a battery-powered drill. Every time I've done this I've regretted it. Nowadays I spend a bit more to get a product I know I can live with and continue to use for more than a couple of days.
One selling point for small software development companies is that they can offer better support than a larger company. Often, large companies are unresponsive to support calls or can't hold a meaningful discussion with a potential customer. With small companies there are few barriers between the company owner and the customer. Both sides can benefit from this - the customer can make his case and get a decision quickly.
When setting a price for a software product always bear in mind that you should be operating as a business. Businesses should make a profit. Don't charge so little that you are literally working for peanuts. If a business's products are too cheap, some customers may believe that the since the company does not value their own products why should they.
by ML
As stated in an earlier post, I think writing a non-trivial, valuable program is the key. These days, lots of software is cheap and there are lots of big companies allowing people to use software either for free or for a trial period. The distinction between shareware and fully-fledged commerical software is becoming increasingly blurred.
If you sell shareware you have to fill a niche and still offer a quality offering. One niche might be an "easy-to-use" version of a more complicated package. Note the key phrase here is "easy-to-use", not trivial or cheap. People will pay to have complication taken away from them if the software offering still does an effective job.
A number of times in the past I bought things because they were cheap, e.g. a cheap power tool like a battery-powered drill. Every time I've done this I've regretted it. Nowadays I spend a bit more to get a product I know I can live with and continue to use for more than a couple of days.
One selling point for small software development companies is that they can offer better support than a larger company. Often, large companies are unresponsive to support calls or can't hold a meaningful discussion with a potential customer. With small companies there are few barriers between the company owner and the customer. Both sides can benefit from this - the customer can make his case and get a decision quickly.
When setting a price for a software product always bear in mind that you should be operating as a business. Businesses should make a profit. Don't charge so little that you are literally working for peanuts. If a business's products are too cheap, some customers may believe that the since the company does not value their own products why should they.
by ML
Saturday 10 May 2008
Choice of keywords for a satellite site?
All things considered I feel my effort / time to develop a product site with a keyword phrase, has to be well spent. So I really need to find out if my choice of keywords is correct before I jump in feet first.
My keywords are MS Access Security.
In my SEO book it says www.wordtracker.com and www.nichebot.com are great free tools, but looking at the sites now, both require payment. The first site, requires you to enter your card details for the 7 day trial, which you can cancel at any time within those 7 days.
Expensive too.
So that was going to be my first step.
Where do I go now with this?
by JM
My keywords are MS Access Security.
In my SEO book it says www.wordtracker.com and www.nichebot.com are great free tools, but looking at the sites now, both require payment. The first site, requires you to enter your card details for the 7 day trial, which you can cancel at any time within those 7 days.
Expensive too.
So that was going to be my first step.
Where do I go now with this?
by JM
Friday 9 May 2008
How much text should you have on a web page?
The answer is - as much as you need to get a good spread of keywords and phrases. It is unlikely you will get good coverage of alternatives in 2 or 300 words. Since there is no penalty for having more text on a page - unless the page gets to be 45Kb in size or more - take the opportunity to write more text and include so-called long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords are less competitive since they are searched for less but if you have 2 competitive keywords compared to 10 long-tails, you might end up getting just as many long-tails hits in searches. You certainly won't lose anything.
One way to start working out a good set of keywords is to look at sites in a similar market. A good set of keyword analysis tools can be found on www.googlerankings.com. The tools on this site can be used to see what 1, 2 and 3 word phrases appear on a web page. Try to make sure the text on your site includes the same phrases where appropriate.
Tips for thinking up new keywords are:
1. Always include alternative ways of saying the same thing, e.g. an animal mask/ face mask and kids/ children.
2. Try to include the words in different orders, e.g. a man's hat/ a hat for a man, Kids arts & crafts software/ Arts and crafts software for children.
3. Another way of packing in possible keywords is to include a column on left or right with a list, e.g. dog mask, cat mask, horse mask, party mask, make your own mask ...
Never lose an opportunity to include an alternative way of saying something. Two ideal places to do this are:
1. alt text on images
2. title text on a hyperlink.
HTML tags are also an important way of highlighting keywords to Googlebot. The top tags are <title>, <h1> and <h2>.
The page title <title> is an excellent place to include up to 3 keyword/ phrases. Separate the keywords by - or |. The page title is often considered the most important SEO element. Make sure your most important keywords are at the start of the title.
The <h1> tag is the most important header tag (and should be near the top of the page) but <h2> is important too. Structure the page so that you can use a h2 title. If you can't restructure a page in order to place a h2 tag, make a paragraph of your most important text into a h2 tag and use CSS to style it like a <p> tag.
Make some of your keywords bold or strong to emphasise them - Googlebot picks up this as well as a human reader.
Also, always make sure your important keywords are near the top of the page. Ideally, your first paragraph of text after your h1 tag should be nicely worded with your main keywords.
I'll include more tips on keywords and linking strategies in a later post.
by ML
Long-tail keywords are less competitive since they are searched for less but if you have 2 competitive keywords compared to 10 long-tails, you might end up getting just as many long-tails hits in searches. You certainly won't lose anything.
One way to start working out a good set of keywords is to look at sites in a similar market. A good set of keyword analysis tools can be found on www.googlerankings.com. The tools on this site can be used to see what 1, 2 and 3 word phrases appear on a web page. Try to make sure the text on your site includes the same phrases where appropriate.
Tips for thinking up new keywords are:
1. Always include alternative ways of saying the same thing, e.g. an animal mask/ face mask and kids/ children.
2. Try to include the words in different orders, e.g. a man's hat/ a hat for a man, Kids arts & crafts software/ Arts and crafts software for children.
3. Another way of packing in possible keywords is to include a column on left or right with a list, e.g. dog mask, cat mask, horse mask, party mask, make your own mask ...
Never lose an opportunity to include an alternative way of saying something. Two ideal places to do this are:
1. alt text on images
2. title text on a hyperlink.
HTML tags are also an important way of highlighting keywords to Googlebot. The top tags are <title>, <h1> and <h2>.
The page title <title> is an excellent place to include up to 3 keyword/ phrases. Separate the keywords by - or |. The page title is often considered the most important SEO element. Make sure your most important keywords are at the start of the title.
The <h1> tag is the most important header tag (and should be near the top of the page) but <h2> is important too. Structure the page so that you can use a h2 title. If you can't restructure a page in order to place a h2 tag, make a paragraph of your most important text into a h2 tag and use CSS to style it like a <p> tag.
Make some of your keywords bold or strong to emphasise them - Googlebot picks up this as well as a human reader.
Also, always make sure your important keywords are near the top of the page. Ideally, your first paragraph of text after your h1 tag should be nicely worded with your main keywords.
I'll include more tips on keywords and linking strategies in a later post.
by ML
Thoughts on links between web pages
On any web page, there are two types of outbound links:-
a. Links to other pages on the same site.
b. Links to pages on other sites.
Very roughly speaking, the PR for a page is divided up between all outbound links on the page - whether the link is of type a or b.
If a page had a PR of 5 and had 10 outbound links then, roughly speaking, each link would pass on a PR of (5 * 0.85) / 10 to their linked targets. The factor of 0.85 is known as the dampening factor and avoids any page passing on its entire PR.
This is why it is necessary to have a good linking strategy within a website and maximise the PR the site's own pages pass back and forth between each other. You can't raise the PR of pages on a site above the maximum PR assigned to your best page by Google, but you can maximise the spread of PR through the pages in your site. With a good linking strategy within a site, the effect on PR of the odd outbound link is kept to a minimum.
Of course, the real situation is more complicated than this simple equation shows. Link text and other factors like the position of the link on the page also count. It's thought that links higher on the page probably pass a little bit more PR. It's also thought that links on a page with the word "Links" in the title count for less. Having text close by on a page with the words "Sponsors", "Links" or "Adverts" might also diminish the PR (or link juice) passed on.
If you add a rel="nofollow" tag to a link, the link no longer passes any PR. Google advises people who sell advertising with links to do just this in order to avoid a penalty.
Some webmasters nofollow all outbound links as a matter of course. This is considered a little rude in some quarters - if you think a link is worth having, give the linked page the benefit of some PR.
I guess the main question now is why have any outbound links at all? One reason will be that you believe the links add value to your page - by giving people access to more information. Google buys into this mentality. If you link from your pages to relevant, authority pages, Google is thought to consider that your pages are themselves a more valuable information resource. Google then gives you a bit of extra help in SERPs. For example, if you were a billing software seller, you might link to the UK goverment's advisory pages on invoice payment terms.
by ML
a. Links to other pages on the same site.
b. Links to pages on other sites.
Very roughly speaking, the PR for a page is divided up between all outbound links on the page - whether the link is of type a or b.
If a page had a PR of 5 and had 10 outbound links then, roughly speaking, each link would pass on a PR of (5 * 0.85) / 10 to their linked targets. The factor of 0.85 is known as the dampening factor and avoids any page passing on its entire PR.
This is why it is necessary to have a good linking strategy within a website and maximise the PR the site's own pages pass back and forth between each other. You can't raise the PR of pages on a site above the maximum PR assigned to your best page by Google, but you can maximise the spread of PR through the pages in your site. With a good linking strategy within a site, the effect on PR of the odd outbound link is kept to a minimum.
Of course, the real situation is more complicated than this simple equation shows. Link text and other factors like the position of the link on the page also count. It's thought that links higher on the page probably pass a little bit more PR. It's also thought that links on a page with the word "Links" in the title count for less. Having text close by on a page with the words "Sponsors", "Links" or "Adverts" might also diminish the PR (or link juice) passed on.
If you add a rel="nofollow" tag to a link, the link no longer passes any PR. Google advises people who sell advertising with links to do just this in order to avoid a penalty.
Some webmasters nofollow all outbound links as a matter of course. This is considered a little rude in some quarters - if you think a link is worth having, give the linked page the benefit of some PR.
I guess the main question now is why have any outbound links at all? One reason will be that you believe the links add value to your page - by giving people access to more information. Google buys into this mentality. If you link from your pages to relevant, authority pages, Google is thought to consider that your pages are themselves a more valuable information resource. Google then gives you a bit of extra help in SERPs. For example, if you were a billing software seller, you might link to the UK goverment's advisory pages on invoice payment terms.
by ML
Thursday 8 May 2008
Will a web page with a higher Google PageRank always be higher in SERPS?
Many people have heard of Google Pagerank - the number that Google assigns to each page on the web. In one sense the rank assigned to a page controls how high up the page appears in search results. The reality is more complicated and Google takes into account a number of factors when positioning pages in search results. In fact, Google themselves say that content is now more important than Pagerank.
Take two pages, page A and page B, each with a Pagerank of 3. When a user searches for a specific phrase, let's say "dog biscuits", why will one page appear in the results above the other if they both have the same rank?
One answer is that if page A contains the text "dog biscuits" and the other page doesn't contain the phrase, page A will appear higher in SERPs. Page B might not appear at all.
What if page A is trying to sell pet food and mentions "dog biscuits" twice and page B is a story about how much someone's dog that loves biscuits and also mentions "dog biscuits" twice? Which page will be higher then? Maybe both pages will be trying to sell pet food and both pages will mention "dog biscuits". Who wins out in this case? The winner will be the page with the better on-site and off-site optimisation.
Off-site optimisation largely comes down to getting relevant links to a web page.
Google takes into account the text associated with links to a web page. For example, the HTML for a link will look like <a href="...">some text</a>. If page A has more links to it where "some text" is "dog biscuits", Google will take that to mean the page is all about dog biscuits and place the page higher in SERPs. Page A is likely to come higher in the results in this case, even if page B contains the "dog biscuits" phrase but has fewer relevant links.
Often this voting by external links will override the Pagerank of either page - the one with the outbound or inbound link. A number of links from pages with low Pagerank but the right link text will count for more than just a few links from pages with average rank with irrelevant link text.
There are a number of on-site optimisation (or on-page optimisation) factors affecting positioning in SERPs. These include the domain name and web page URLs. The most important on-page factor is probably the page title, e.g. does the page title mention "dog biscuits"? Is "dog biscuits" near the start of the title? However, you should never ignore the need for backlinks with relevant link text to reinforce the topical content, i.e. keywords, of a page.
by ML
Take two pages, page A and page B, each with a Pagerank of 3. When a user searches for a specific phrase, let's say "dog biscuits", why will one page appear in the results above the other if they both have the same rank?
One answer is that if page A contains the text "dog biscuits" and the other page doesn't contain the phrase, page A will appear higher in SERPs. Page B might not appear at all.
What if page A is trying to sell pet food and mentions "dog biscuits" twice and page B is a story about how much someone's dog that loves biscuits and also mentions "dog biscuits" twice? Which page will be higher then? Maybe both pages will be trying to sell pet food and both pages will mention "dog biscuits". Who wins out in this case? The winner will be the page with the better on-site and off-site optimisation.
Off-site optimisation largely comes down to getting relevant links to a web page.
Google takes into account the text associated with links to a web page. For example, the HTML for a link will look like <a href="...">some text</a>. If page A has more links to it where "some text" is "dog biscuits", Google will take that to mean the page is all about dog biscuits and place the page higher in SERPs. Page A is likely to come higher in the results in this case, even if page B contains the "dog biscuits" phrase but has fewer relevant links.
Often this voting by external links will override the Pagerank of either page - the one with the outbound or inbound link. A number of links from pages with low Pagerank but the right link text will count for more than just a few links from pages with average rank with irrelevant link text.
There are a number of on-site optimisation (or on-page optimisation) factors affecting positioning in SERPs. These include the domain name and web page URLs. The most important on-page factor is probably the page title, e.g. does the page title mention "dog biscuits"? Is "dog biscuits" near the start of the title? However, you should never ignore the need for backlinks with relevant link text to reinforce the topical content, i.e. keywords, of a page.
by ML
Wednesday 7 May 2008
Don't just rely on the Domain Name to highlight Keywords
How many keywords or phrases can you fit in a domain name? The likelihood is just one, e.g. ms-access-security.
When optimising a new website or page, the general advice is to begin with 3 (or possibly 2) phrases to optimise. Usually you will only be able to fit one phrase into the domain name itself, the remaining phrases will need to be contained within the text on the page.
When knitting your chosen phrases into a web page, don't indulge in keyword stuffing, i.e. packing too many instances of the keyword into each paragraph of text. The idea is that the text on the page reads naturally. If it is obvious to a human reader that the text is describing a specific topic, e.g. making microsoft access database secure, it will also be obvious to Google and Yahoo.
Sometimes you hear that you should aim for a particular keyword density on a page, such as 5%, in order to get the best possible result from search engines. This advice is now considered invalid - just write in a way that the topic is obvious to a human.
When you've bought your domain and written your well-phrased homepage, what is the next step?
Well, if you take no steps, you probably still won't do wonderfully well in SERPS. You're in the position of shouting to the world that your page is all about topic X but without backlinks to reinforce your keywords, the search engines will think that no-one agrees with you.
So, the next step must be to get backlinks from other sites - and from other pages within your own site - with the link text matching your keywords. You then have the ingredients for a winning formula - your pages think they say something about a specific topic and the rest of the internet agrees.
There are lots of other factors that may affect how well you do in search results, e.g. how many backlinks you have, how old your domain is and how well optimised your competitors are.
There is always the possibility of course that you perform very well for certain keywords but that few or no people search for them. If you find out that this is the case after you have chosen a domain name, it's too late to change. For this reason, relying on the domain name as the foundation of search engine success can be a risky tactic.
by ML
When optimising a new website or page, the general advice is to begin with 3 (or possibly 2) phrases to optimise. Usually you will only be able to fit one phrase into the domain name itself, the remaining phrases will need to be contained within the text on the page.
When knitting your chosen phrases into a web page, don't indulge in keyword stuffing, i.e. packing too many instances of the keyword into each paragraph of text. The idea is that the text on the page reads naturally. If it is obvious to a human reader that the text is describing a specific topic, e.g. making microsoft access database secure, it will also be obvious to Google and Yahoo.
Sometimes you hear that you should aim for a particular keyword density on a page, such as 5%, in order to get the best possible result from search engines. This advice is now considered invalid - just write in a way that the topic is obvious to a human.
When you've bought your domain and written your well-phrased homepage, what is the next step?
Well, if you take no steps, you probably still won't do wonderfully well in SERPS. You're in the position of shouting to the world that your page is all about topic X but without backlinks to reinforce your keywords, the search engines will think that no-one agrees with you.
So, the next step must be to get backlinks from other sites - and from other pages within your own site - with the link text matching your keywords. You then have the ingredients for a winning formula - your pages think they say something about a specific topic and the rest of the internet agrees.
There are lots of other factors that may affect how well you do in search results, e.g. how many backlinks you have, how old your domain is and how well optimised your competitors are.
There is always the possibility of course that you perform very well for certain keywords but that few or no people search for them. If you find out that this is the case after you have chosen a domain name, it's too late to change. For this reason, relying on the domain name as the foundation of search engine success can be a risky tactic.
by ML
Tuesday 6 May 2008
10 Tips for using Google Adwords
When I first set my website up and launched my brand new software product I had one real strategy for selling - get people to find my site and download the free trial copy of my software. Hopefully the software would then sell itself.
From talking with other people who owned websites and tried to do e-commerce, I gathered it would take lots of work, possibly over many months, to rank well in search engine results. I was advised to think about using Pay Per Click (PPC) to get going and that GoogleAds was the only service worth using. I signed up at www.google.co.uk/adwords, wrote my first ad, started getting visitors within an hour and made sales on my first day.
It all seemed easy - let GoogleAds do the work and sit back waiting for Paypal to tell me people had made a purchase. As the days passed though, the number of visitors clicking through to my site dropped and sales were harder to come by. As I should have expected, nothing in life is ever too easy and I should have done research upfront to optimise my Adwords campaign.
As time went on, I had to up the amounts I was prepared to pay for each click in order to keep getting visitors. I was still making a profit but not much. After a couple of weeks of further research I decided I needed to rethink my whole campaign. I found these tips to be the most useful in improving my conversion rate of clicks to sales:
1. When choosing the keywords for which your ad is to appear, make sure that they are absolutely relevant to your site. I got good click through rates (CTR) for "invoice templates" but at the time my invoicing software package didn´t include multiple templates.
2. Run multiple ads simultaneously. Try different ads to see which work best. Don´t use the same keywords in multiple ads - Google will only show 1 or the other ad and not both.
3. Avoid the word free. I got good CTR for phrases including the word free - like "free invoice software". In hindsight this was probably a bad choice since those clicks probably weren´t from people wanting to make a purchase of any kind in the first place.
4. You can´t include many words in a single ad. Try selling different benefits in different ads to see which attracts most customers.
5. Write the ads in an attention-grabbing way, don´t just list features. For example - use Special Offer, Time Limited Offer.
6. Sell benefits as well as features - Save Time, No Special Knowledge, Easy to Use.
7. Try ads with and without the price - which works best?
8. Use Google´s free Adwords optimisation service. Look at their suggestions and see if they´ve spotted something your own ads and keywords haven´t covered.
9. Above all, monitor the performance of ads, keep tweaking and try different ads to see which works best. Give an ad a few days to see how it performs before changing it.
10. Use the knowledge you gain while monitoring your ads to optimise the content of the pages on your site and improve your performance in organic search results. Which keywords work best? Do you have pages that clearly focus on those keywords? Can you build backlinks that reinforce the keywords?
When used properly, Google Adwords is a very useful selling tool. Don´t expect to set up a single ad and keep making money however. When you use Google Adwords you are competing in a bidding war. Your competitors will be optimising their campaigns even if you aren´t. Ongoing monitoring and updating of ads is essential to continued success.
by ML
Keyword heavy domain name site for my product?
For a long time now I've had filled away some advice from a marketing expert. My main product page (for my security product) is aimed at techies. He advised me to create a page aimed at managers, who are the people who will buy my software.
I'm also not doing very well on some important keywords for my product.
So I'm thinking of setting up a very small site, with the main product page, with this new selling strategy and the basic pages, with links to my main site for support etc.
Also the techie links to my main site.
I guess I could make these links no-follow or hide them somehow.
Thoughts ?
by JM
I'm also not doing very well on some important keywords for my product.
So I'm thinking of setting up a very small site, with the main product page, with this new selling strategy and the basic pages, with links to my main site for support etc.
Also the techie links to my main site.
I guess I could make these links no-follow or hide them somehow.
Thoughts ?
by JM
Monday 5 May 2008
Further thoughts on Keyword Heavy Domain Name Sites
I´ve been thinking again about that SEO book I read that recommended buying domains with keywords for your products in the domain name.
I´m still not sure the advice is correct: Should you set up satellite sites with links to your home page, or should you make the sites look like competitors selling rebranded versions of your own products?
On the first point - setting up satellite sites - with links to my "main" homepage - I read somewhere that Google either penalises or ignores duplicate content. If the satellite site didn´t perform well in SERPs would I gain any benefit anyway? Just having a domain with keywords in it won´t make the satellite site perform well - I´ll still have to build backlinks. Do I have the energy, time and money (!) to do this for 2, 3 or 4 more sites?
On the second point, since I sell software products, re-branding isn´t too easy, or at least re-branding in such a way that the product looks different wouldn´t be a quick thing to do.
Instead, maybe I should put keyword heavy URLs within my existing sites and make these pages perform well in SERPS. With a good linking strategy within the site, sub-pages will benefit from any link-building I do for my homepage anyway. For example, one of my PR3 sites has 7 PR2 pages even though these have no links from outside the site itself. If I make URLs like product-keyword.html for my sub-pages these will be "liked" by search engines in the same way as domain names with keywords in them.
Still not sure though, need to think some more....
by ML
Sunday 4 May 2008
How is Web Design different to SEO?
Modern web design tools, like Microsoft Expression Web or Dreamweaver, make the process of designing a website relatively easy. Using a template, a simple, presentable website can easily be written and posted online. However, getting a website found by people searching online involves more than just making the website look nice. Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short, is the activity of making a website rank well in searches on engines like Google and Yahoo.
In some ways making a website look good is of secondary importance: everyone's idea of what looks good is different and nowadays people are used to a reading a range of websites with varying degrees of artistic accomplishment. What matters most is getting found in the first place and then having content that holds the visitor's interest.
A good web designer will perform both activities - making a good-looking site and making sure the site is well-optimised.
Most website designers will show you their portfolio of websites when you ask them to quote for your website. Good website designers should offer an SEO service too. Ask for examples of how well their client´s sites perform in searches. If a designer doesn´t offer an SEO service, think twice about using their services - SEO isn´t something that can easily be performed after a website has been written and the pages are online. Ideally, a website needs to be constructed from the beginning with SEO in mind. The choice of URLs, domain names and linking strategy between pages all affect the site´s optimisation and should be planned before the website is written.
The amount of optimisation that can be performed depends on how much time and effort is put in. On-page optimisation (getting the page´s text and internal links to other pages on the same site) can be performed relatively quickly, but off-site optimisation will be an on ongoing task. Off-site optimisation mainly involves getting links from other sites. This can be a very time-consuming activity.
If good ranking in SERPs (search engine result pages) is essential to the success of your site, and you can afford to do so, hire an SEO expert. If you hire someone to do SEO work make sure they explain their techniques to you - at some point you may want to perform your own SEO. In particular, make sure your hired SEO only uses white-hat SEO techniques and will not use so-called black-hat SEO techniques that could result in Google giving your website a penalty or even banning your site in the future.
by ML
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)