Google as a search giant knows how to help site owners and webmasters on search index. Time to Time Google team has been updating Google Webmaster Tools list and now its has come to a good form. All over, these tools provide reports on your site visibility, diagnose problems, and as well helps to share information about your site to Google.
To start, here is the list
Google Webmaster Tools are free and easy to set up through site owner verification process by adding a Google code Meta tag to the page or by creating and uploading a file with Google code. Once you are verified you can access the tools dashboard.
Sitemap tool allows you to submit XML Sitemap with details on pages to index and priority to crawl pages. If you don’t have a site map create one and submit to site configuration sitemap section.
Crawler access tool helps to generate and test robots.txt to specify how search engines should crawl and index site content.
When you Google for information you can see Sitelinks. Sitelinks displays inner links generated by Google algorithm depends on how related and useful for users queries. You have no control to add but you can block / remove the link from displaying the site links if you don’t want to list.
Change of address is a special tool to tell Google about your new domain and helps to move your old site users to you new domain easily. This process has 4 simple steps to follow like content link verification, 301 redirect from old to new domain, adding and verifying new site to Google webmaster tool and submitting the change of address
Geographic target tool helps to target users in specific location. You can select the country based on the users you target and it would help for .com, .org and other top-level domains. Country specific domains like .in, co.uk and so are already associated with Country based listing.
Preferred domain allows you to select the domain format you like to display. You have options to select http://www.yourdomain.com and http://yourdomain.com. If you have selected http://www.yourdomain.com and the site inner page links with http://yourdomain.com then search results display URL’s takes as http://www.yourdomain.com
Crawl rate can be changed depending on the site root level depth and default crawl rate is recommended to avoid increase server’s bandwidth. This Crawl rate has no connection with how often Googlebot crawls your site.
Top search queries tool has information on your site search keywords impressions and clickthrogh ratio along with keywords position.
Links to your site tool provides information on inbound links with anchor text for your site pages.
Keywords and internal links tool shows the common keywords Googlebot sees when it crawl’s the site and internal links shows the total number of pages linked by other pages in your site.
Crawl errors is another special tool that lists issues Google encountered when crawling your site. The list includes HTTP, error in sitemaps, not followed pages, not found pages, pages restricted by robots.txt, timed out / unreachable pages for Web, Mobile CHTML and Mobile WML / XHTML?
Crawl stats tool shows statistics on Googlebot activity on pages crawled per day, kilobytes downloaded per day, time spent downloading a page and PageRank distribution.
HTML suggestions are provided when Googlebot crawls your site and find issues with your site content. Working on these issues will help your site in better listing and users experience. Here you can find details on Meta description, Title tag and Non-indexable content in your site.
Now ask a question yourself why don’t I use Google Webmaster tools, if I have as many tools and information from Google for free. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tool with your Google account today!
Your website is designed, the CMS works, content has been added and the client is happy. It’s time to take the website live. Or is it? When launching a website, you can often forget a number of things in your eagerness to make it live, so it’s useful to have a checklist to look through as you make your final touches and before you announce your website to the world.
This article reviews some important and necessary checks that web-sites should be checked against before the official launch — little details are often forgotten or ignored, but – if done in time – may sum up to an overall greater user experience and avoid unnecessary costs after the official site release.
Favicon
A favicon brands the tab or window in which your website is open in the user’s browser. It is also saved with the bookmark so that users can easily identify pages from your website. Some browsers pick up the favicon if you save it in your root directory as favicon.ico, but to be sure it’s picked up all the time, include the following in your head.
And if you have an iPhone favicon:
Titles And Meta Data
Your page title is the most important element for SEO and is also important so that users know what’s on the page. Make sure it changes on every page and relates to that page’s content.
10 Things To Consider When Choosing The Perfect CMS | How-To | Smashing Magazinetitle> Meta description and keyword tags aren’t as important for SEO (at least for the major search engines anyway), but it’s still a good idea to include them. Change the description on each page to make it relate to that page’s content, because this is often what Google displays in its search result description.
Cross-Browser Checks
Just when you think your design looks great, pixel perfect, you check it in IE and see that everything is broken. It’s important that your website works across browsers. It doesn’t have to be pixel perfect, but everything should work, and the user shouldn’t see any problems. The most popular browsers to check are Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox 3, Safari 3, Chrome, Opera and the iPhone.
Don’t just assume all your links work. Click on them. You may often forget to add “http://” to links to external websites. Make sure your logo links to the home page, a common convention.
Also, think about how your links work. Is it obvious to new users that they are links? They should stand out from the other text on the page. Don’t underline text that isn’t a link because it will confuse users. And what happens to visited links?
Don’t just assume all your links work. Click on them. You may often forget to add “http://” to links to external websites. Make sure your logo links to the home page, a common convention.
Also, think about how your links work. Is it obvious to new users that they are links? They should stand out from the other text on the page. Don’t underline text that isn’t a link because it will confuse users. And what happens to visited links?
Test everything thoroughly. If you have a contact form, test it and copy yourself so that you can see what comes through. Get others to test your website, and not just family and friends but the website’s target market. Sit back and watch how a user uses the website. It’s amazing what you’ll pick up on when others use your website differently than how you assume they’d use it. Common things to check for are contact forms, search functions, shopping baskets and log-in areas.
Your website should work with JavaScript turned off. Users often have JavaScript turned off for security, so you should be prepared for this. You can easily turn off JavaScript in Firefox. Test your forms to make sure they still perform server-side validation checks, and test any cool AJAX stuff you have going on.
Validation
You should aim for a 100% valid website. That said, it isn’t the end of the world if your website doesn’t validate, but it’s important to know the reasons why it doesn’t so that you can fix any nasty errors. Common gotchas include no “alt” tags, no closing tags and using “&” instead of “&” for ampersands.
If your website has a blog or newsreel, you should have an RSS feed that users can subscribe to. Users should be able to easily find your RSS feed: the common convention is to put a small RSS icon in the browser’s address bar.
Put this code between your tags.
Analytics
Installing some sort of analytics tool is important for measuring statistics to see how your website performs and how successful your conversion rates are. Track daily unique hits, monthly page views and browser statistics, all useful data to start tracking from day 1. Google Analytics is a free favorite among website owners. Others to consider are Clicky, Kissmetrics (still in closed beta yet), Mint and StatCounter.
Sitemap
Adding a sitemap.xml file to your root directory allows the major search engines to easily index your website. The file points crawlers to all the pages on your website. XML-Sitemaps automatically creates a sitemap.xml file for you. After creating the file, upload it to your root directory so that its location is www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml.
If you use WordPress, install the Google XML Sitemaps plug-in, which automatically updates the sitemap when you write new posts. Also, add your website and sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools. This tells Google that you have a sitemap, and the service provides useful statistics on how and when your website was last index.
Defensive Design
The most commonly overlooked defensive design element is the 404 page. If a user requests a page that doesn’t exist, your 404 page is displayed. This may happen for a variety of reasons, including another website linking to a page that doesn’t exist. Get your users back on track by providing a useful 404 page that directs them to the home page or suggests other pages they may be interested in.
Another defensive design technique is checking your forms for validation. Try submitting unusual information in your form fields (e.g. lots of characters, letters in number fields, etc.) and make sure that if there is an error, the user is provided with enough feedback to be able to fix it.
Optimize
You’ll want to configure your website for optimal performance. You should do this on an ongoing basis after launch, but you can take a few simple steps before launch, too. Reducing HTTP requests, using CSS sprites wherever possible, optimizing images for the Web, compressing JavaScript and CSS files and so on can all help load your pages more quickly and use less server resources.
Besides, depending on the publishing engine that you are using, you may need to consider taking more specific measures – for instance, if you are using WordPress, you may need to consider useful caching techniques to speed up the performance.
Back Up
If your website runs off a database, you need a back-up strategy. Or else, the day will come when you regret not having one. If you use WordPress, install Wordpress Database Backup, which you can set up to automatically email you backups.
Print Style Sheet
If a user wants to print a page from your website, chances are she or he wants only the main content and not the navigation or extra design elements. That’s why it is a good idea to create a print-specific style sheet. Also, certain CSS elements, such as floats, don’t come out well when printed.
To point to a special CSS style sheet that computers automatically use when users print a page, simply include the following code between your tags.
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Presume you have worked on site SEO and now you have got Good/desired SEO results with your website – you are on the top of your business competitors with your targeted business keywords.
If your targeted keywords generates enough revenue then think of how much competitive your keywords should be and how many of your competitors will be using those keywords and working for good number of quality links for their site.
Search engine algorithm gives better value for frequently updated site with keywords around the content and for site that continuously gets quality backlinks.
Watch closely you’re competitor and find out what they do to compete your site. Here are the factors that needs to be frequently monitored
Content update - It is always recommended to fine-tune and update your content at least once in a month or two with keywords around meeting keyword density and keyword prominence.
Brushing up your Keywords - As always monitor your top ranking keywords and fine-tune it according to the number of total search results and compare with your competitors activity on those keywords of your target. Check out the areas in your content to know where you can focus your top keywords and build quality backlinks for those keywords as anchor text. Be sure to meet keyword density and do not stuff keywords.
External site link juice - Check whether all the links build exits with time period, since some may be removed or moved out to some inner folder level and the algorithm might not identity those backlinks. So build equal and relevant links as an alternative to those links that had been masked and improve or retain the position with good number of quality links.
Monitory traffic - Analyzing your traffic is one of the essential factor were you need to know how site performs with search engine organic clicks and directories or sites referrals. If you notice any drops in traffic, identify those area and work on them to set your goal.
And also here are the checklists that can help you to maintain SEO results and withstand the competition :
Check how your competitors rank in Google, Yahoo and Bing for your keywords?
Have you updated your content that meets current target market and information?
Are you tweaking your web site structure for search engine friendliness that meets current algorithm?
Are you working on building quality links regularly?
Are you optimizing your site with the current popular keywords?
Are you analyzing you traffic to know from which location your visitors are coming from and optimize the site for those location based search engines?
These important factors and checklist will help you to measure the site strength and weakness of your site. Now you should have known that search engine optimization is not one time activity and search engine algorithm gets updated often and competitors fight for your top keywords position. Keep in mind, your website needs continues SEO in order to retain and improve your good SEO results.
Maintaining the SERPs (result/Postion) are equally important as your SEO process. Continuous SEO is within the process of SEO to generate continuous business queries to make. So keep up the good SEO, Always, do not think about stopping your activities.
Getting started with iPhone application development.
There 1.4 million free and paid applications already exists in the iTunes app store. Though this count is very high, there is still plenty of scope for more applications to be developed and it will only stop when we humans quench our thirst for creativity.
More than a mobile phone, iPhone is looked upon as a lifestyle accessory, which is fun and exciting to use. The main strength of iPhone would be its retaining capability. Similar to most MAC users who would find it difficult to work in other platforms like Windows, most iPhone users will find it difficult to use other mobile phones. This will make the device and its applications to grow for a long time.
iPhone application development is unique in a way that it is not mandatory to have a group of people working under an organization to create iPhone applications. It is also well suited for individuals to unleash their creativity and earn a handful of money and fame too. There are applications like tossing a coin, which has attracted a lot of downloads- Kudos to the thought.
Why not you be a part of this revolution? All you need to do is a MAC machine, an iPod or iPhone preferably, Internet connection and Click here to view our first part of the article – “Getting Started with iPhone Development”
Starting and operating an Internet business is surprisingly similar to operating any other business. Good business practices, like building the confidence of customers through truthful advertising, providing products and services at a fair price, and developing long-term business relationships, are as applicable to Internet businesses as they are to any other businesses.
Having said that, there are some important differences related to Internet businesses.
Low Start-up Costs - When you decide to start a business online, you can do so with as little as a few hundred dollars and a good idea. However, don't be misled into believing that the Internet is an arena for instant riches with little or no effort. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like any business, it takes creativity, planning, money and hard work to be successful.
Multiple Skill Requirements - Suddenly it's not enough to simply have a good product or service. To use the Internet effectively, you now need to have or be able to acquire skills in graphic design, web server technology, programming, and a brand new marketing medium, not to mention skills needed in multi-lingual translations, international accounting and legal issues. Fortunately, it is not necessary that you have all this knowledge yourself. With the right combination of strategic partners and associates, all of these skills are easily found, if you know where to look. That's where we come in! We can get you in touch with all the professionals you need to accomplish your task.
Endless Marketing Possibilities - The opportunities and ease of fostering strategic alliances to bolster marketing efforts is unsurpassed on the Internet. The reason we see so many cooperative relationships between companies online is that doing so has become so simple and so profitable. The advertising industry has found itself with many more possibilities as well as significantly more competition.
Easily Traceable Results - Another byproduct of business on the internet is that tracking potential customers as a group and visitor preferences is an ordinary part of business on the Internet.
International Audience - Even if you do not think of your business as an international business, you must recognize that your visitors are likely to be from all over the world. You should consider whether or not you are prepared for international shipping and other transactions with countries other than your own. You should also strongly consider having your website translated onto languages other than English. The percentage of non-US businesses on the Internet has risen dramatically in just the past year!
Professional Look - If you are a Web Professional who is planning and designing web pages for others, we have a secret to share with you. It's called the "Proposal Kit". What it's done for our company is help us look more professional, charge higher fees and get paid for all of our work. It's the best investment we have made since we started our business!
We have compared the best offers for business hosting plans and ranked them in the list below. All the plans listed below are affordable, qualitative and great for small- and medium-sized businesses. Save money and get great hosting at the same time.
1
JustPlan
$3.45
98%
2
Happy Hosting
$2.95
95%
3
Windows Home
$3.49
95%
4
Hassle-Free
$1.99
94%
5
Unlimited
$5.95
90%
6
PersonalClass
$4.00
94%
7
Professional
$6.95
88%
8
Hatchling
$4.95
88%
9
Windows Hosting
$2.63
92%
10
Small Business
$8.70
90%
More about medium and small business web hosting
An affordable business web site hosting plan is the perfect type of hosting if you run a small or medium sized business. Starting a small online business is easy because small business web hosting plans are reasonably priced. How? Similar to a shared hosting, the accounts are split into hundreds of accounts running off of one server. The reasonable price for a business website hosting plan does not mean quality and package options are compromised. This is something of great importance for smaller businesses as every saved expense is highly appreciated.
If you have a small or medium sized company you will of course also need reliable business web hosting. So what should one think about when choosing business web site hosting?
First of all you do not want to pay too much costs because of large overhead costs already incurred in your small company. - Even though a business hosting plan is similar to a basic hosting plan, it is still a professional web hosting service.
Advantages of business website hosting:
Money saving- Sharing server space and thus saving money. A number of people share the same web server but each website has its own place on the server which separates it from the other sites on the server.
Administer the site yourself- Lack the technical skills to manage your website but you know what you want to do with your business? It is easy to administer a business website through the web host control panel Because server resources are shared, the host takes care of all the maintenance of the system.
Daily Backups- The hosting provider will do daily backups of your databases and website when you have a professional business plan
More goodies- More MySQL databases, more parked domains are usually offered.
Emails- Several e-mail accounts options; perfect for small and / or medium sized companies.
Security- SSL (secure socket layer) and secure shopping carts (to sell goods online) are also offered in many plans.
When looking for small business web site hosting services, you can find a professional plan that is still outstanding. Starting an online business has never been easier.
