How Many of Your Site’s Pages Are Listed on The Top Search Engines?

Knowing how many pages you have listed is really important for general SEO but also when it comes time to doing 301 redirects so you don’t get any 404 error pages that can hurt your bottom line.

There are a lot of tools on the market that will help you find out how many of your site’s pages are listed with the top search engines, and how well they are performing compared to your competitors. The one I use all the time, and recommend a lot is Market Samurai. But if you don’t need all the other functionality of that SEO software then you can use the following to quickly learn which pages on your site are indexed on the top three search engines.

For Yahoo visit http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com and type in your domain name including the http://.

For Bing and Google type

site:yoursite.com

into their search box [changing yoursite.com to your domain name].
And if you like split screen results, visit Bingle and see both results at once.

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Warning: 404 Errors Lose You Business

Imagine your small business has a potential customer doing a search on Google for a product or service that you offer. Your website comes up in the search listing [preferably on page one] and with one click your future sale, or chance to build a relationship fails.

Why? Because you have a 404 error page.

What the visitor finds at the end of their click is a page telling them there has been an error, file not found – sadly, what they were looking for doesn’t exist any longer on the site they landed on.

Most small business owners don’t know if their site even has any 404 errors, or how to prevent them, so let’s go over how to stop these pesky numbered dead ends from losing your much welcomed visitors.

How did I get an error page on my site?!

Your hosting server creates a “file not found” or 404 error page automatically. 404 errors happen when the web address that is listed by the search engines no longer exists. This can be due to a site move, folders and their contents moving, a site linking to you has a typo within their link, or that the page was renamed to something more SEO friendly – for example, the original page name was fysn12gh.aspx and now it is small-business-owners-FAQ.html.

But whatever the reason, the search engines don’t know of the change, or re-routing the old address to the new one via your server is not occurring.

So what can a small business do to make sure that their web content is always being found?

The easiest way with Google is to sign up to use Google Webmaster Tools and let Google know that your website has an XML site map. That way the search engine will know what pages you want indexed on your site. You can also see which pages The Big G has indexed already and make quick changes, like removing them from the index altogether.

For other search engines the easiest way to prevent 404 errors is to go into your hosting control panel and do a 301 permanent redirect to the new page you want indexed. You simply state the original URL of your page and then chose for it to be redirected to a new URL. Seamlessly after clicking on the old link at Yahoo, Bing etc, the visitor will arrive at the new link.

This redirecting can be a real pain if your website is big, or if you simply changed formats – say went from a static HTML site to a dynamic Content Management System with different URL structuring.

But it is worth it.

Why? Because pages that have already been indexed are used to determine several factors on your site, one of them being how relevant your information is to the search query that was conducted. If you remove pages that come up on search queries you are losing potential customers or clients.

Now that you know what a 404 error page is, and that they are easily preventable, check which pages the major search engines have listed for your site. Click on each and every link and see if the corresponding page exists on your site. If it goes to an error page then redirect it to a similar page you currently have or a custom 404 error page so that the visitor can find something similar on your site.

The bottom line is: Once you have a visitor on your site you don’t want to lose them simply because they hit a dead end.

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Making The iPad Even More Awesome

I recently jumped on the iPad bandwagon and although I haven’t been able to ‘play’ with it as much as I would like, I have managed to get some awesome apps to make my iPad definitely a work-friendly tool.

My initial hopes for the iPad as a marketing aid and mobile work tool have been surpassed. Before I bought an iPad my only experience with one was about an hour of drooling and gushing over the device at Best Buy, but when the June 7th cut off for the AT&T unlimited data plan came to light I decided to get the 3G version a little earlier than I had originally planned. I am glad I did because my experience so far has been beyond what I had envisioned.

One of the surprises is the keyboard. I thought it would be totally useless for typing anything longer than a quick email. But I have written quite a lot on it, including this post. Amazingly my fingernails don’t get in the way and the spell check helps when needed.

 
Listen to an audio file where I talk about these iPad Apps
 

Awesome Apps

I really did not know much about what the iPad could do as a work tool and  I guess I didn’t really pay attention to the little instructions when I pulled this beauty out of the box because I didn’t know it had a microphone. Which, is really very handy because it makes this app possible: SoundPaper (the iPad equivalent to Livescribe.) If you are unfamiliar with the amazing digital pen made by Livescribe I highly recommend you check it out. I have one and it has pushed my note taking and review to new heights. Back to SoundPaper – just like with Livescribe – you record, and then when you want to review you click on your notes and the words being said at the time the note was made will play.

I tested it last week at a local meetup and I am very pleased with the results. There were about forty people in a warehouse style meeting room with a high ceiling and no real sound absorption, and the audio from the event is not bad at all. Now, I won’t say the recording in this location was great but I can understand the audio of the panelists just fine and they sat about ten feet away from me. For a mere $4.99 this app is a real gem that you have no monetary excuse to pass by!

Next up is Keynote. Now I have a Mac but my plans for using the iPad as a mobile work tool meant that I was going to create presentations on it, as opposed to importing them. It’s a breeze to make highly attractive presentations on the device with this app and for $9.99 Keynote makes an impressive addition to the iPad.

Keynote comes with some templates so that you can hit the ground running but it would be nice if you could make your on the device. I didn’t  have any photos on my iPad so the next app made it a breeze to add them to my ipad without using iTunes.

GoodReader is only 99 cents and to be honest, that’s ridiculous! GoodReader allows you to link your iPad wirelessly so that you can drag and drop files on your computer and they end up on your iPad. You can also link with several cloud file sharing sites like dropbox.com, box.net and Google Docs.

GoodReader is labeled as a PDF reader on iTunes but it is so much more than that. The PDF reader does allow large PDFs to load extremely fast which is a bonus. I have a 1019 page PDF file that I can scroll through and navigate at lightening speed.

If you add music and video files they will play via GoodReader, not iTunes, but that’s not an issue for me. Actually I prefer it as it keeps my business files in one area, recreational files another.

Dragon Dictation is my next wonder app, not only for what it does but also for its price – free. Simply talk and get your words transcribed. My English accent seems to be a little problematic for the app meaning I get some highly amusing words appear instead of the ones I want, but it can still make getting an article ‘written’ a faster process. I use my Blackberry headset with built in microphone and that helps the recognition rate go up but I am seriously considering getting a tiny external mic for my iPad to use with this app and SoundPaper.

I think that the iPad will do for my reading what my iPod did for my love of music. I had gone for years not playing much music but when I got my iPod music came with me almost everywhere and I fell in love with all types of genres all over again. I have now been reading on the ipad and am already reading a lot more. I don’t put it down to the novelty factor but the ease of use factor. I have been highlighting and note taking like a crazy person – for my business book reading this is good news.

Having the ability to easily go to my notes or search through a book is a big deal for me and after trying the Kindle and iBooks apps I decided I preferred the Barnes & Noble e-reader app. Why? Although it lacks the cool page flicking of the iBook app it has great customization – you can make your own themes and change them out easily. The dictionary also enables you to search words deeper via Google and Wikipedia, which the Kindle and iBook apps don’t. I also really appreciate the way you can even choose page display width. The Kindle, when in landscape mode, doesn’t go to a two page view, but the B& N e-reader app does, just like iBooks.

Lastly Atomic Web Browser Lite makes browsing so much easier because of tabs. Doing browsing of any real length of time gets to be a pain without tabbed browsing. And for matters of privacy this app makes clearing cookies, history and more a breeze.

I know I have a lot more apps to explore and try out but in the meantime these add-ons have taken my iPad experience to great heights. The next step I think will be getting a good RSS reader and Apple’s Pages for my writing, and after that, who knows?

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What Small Businesses Ought to Know About SEO

Every small business can gain easy recognition for their cause by eliciting the help of search engines – but search engines are strange entities of mystery so you have to know what they want and give it to them before they will show you their love. If you make your site more attractive to search engines you will be rewarded with higher rankings – so let’s cover some must-dos and get some attention!

To get more visitors to your website a small business must:

Match search terms with your content
This is the biggest downfall and faux pas of many a website: great text and graphics, a beautiful site, but no one is actually searching on the internet for anything in it! You can optimize your site till the cows come home but if no one is searching for your keywords then no one will come. There are lots of great free tools [Wordtracker, SEO Book, Google's Search Based Keyword Tool are a few] that you can put your keywords into and see if anyone searches for them, and if so how often. If a low or zero number per month searches for your keywords come up with some new ones – fast.

Write for humans
Although search bots can’t read they are pretty smart. If you stuff your text with keywords they know it. This used to work several years ago but now is definitely not looked kindly upon. Write your content in a way humans will enjoy but also leave some flags up for the search engines by strategically placing your keywords. Which leads on to…

Put keywords in the right places
The right places for your keywords are in your domain, the folders [categories if using Wordpress] and then in the title, or name, of the page. A good example of the use of keyword phrase ‘auto shop’ would be: http://charlotteautoshop.com/auto-repairs/auto-shop-FAQ.html

Laser focus your keywords
You will have great success if you concentrate on 5-20 or so keywords/phrases for your site. It’s better to have some content density around some keywords and rank better for fewer than rank low for many. Again, use the free keyword tools to find terms that have good search numbers and focus on them most.

Change it up
Each page on your website needs to have its own unique title that’s about 65 characters in length tops. Short and sweet titles are better, and longer ones are going to get cut off in your search engine listing anyway. Your keywords must be in the title and the closer to the beginning it best.

The same rules apply for your meta description [what is shown under the page title in the search engine listing,] except you should use no more than 160 characters, including spaces. Think of the description as a very short sales pitch for your web page. You have to ‘sell’ your page to make it stand out from all the other listings. Include a call to action like: Help the Charlotte Car Club – we need volunteers. If you love cars and can volunteer call 704.555.5555 today.

Get stylish
There are HTML tags you can use to make your headings stand out for your visitors and make the search engines pay extra notice. Bolding works but use the H1 and H2 tags at your disposal to add some oomph to your content and make sure your keywords are in your headings.

Now you know these six simple tips to get your small business found on the search engines, apply them, sit back and wait for some major attention from the search engines!

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SEO: 5 Tips For Maximizing Your Website’s Reach

In a world where there are so many sources for information how can a website stand out from the crowd and get a lot of exposure for their cause with a minimum amount of effort? By using something you’ve probably heard about – search engine optimization [SEO]. Don’t worry, SEO is not rocket science, it’s pretty much common sense, and it can be easily implemented on a website. If you have a site already then you can use these tips to make some alterations that can significantly change how your pages are assessed by the search engines, so that your key pages [the ones that will bring in the sales/donations/fans etc.] show up high on their listings. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Okay, here we go:

1. Theme your website. This might sound obvious but step back and think big picture: By breaking down your main theme into smaller themes, or categories, you not only make it easy for visitors to find information but search engines can easily work out what your site is about, which is always a good thing. So, for example, if you own a dog rescue, the categories could be the process of a rescue, the dogs available for rescue, donations and education. Now break down each category into at least five chunks, with each chunk being a page on your site. The theme is strengthened by creating links between each of the pages in a category because links are really important to search engines. Tip number two explains why.

2. Use links the smart way. Search engines see links as votes for pages. The more votes a page has the higher it ranks in search listings. To see the power of linking simply type “click here” into Google. Go on, do it. What was the number one listing? Interestingly enough it is Adobe Reader. Why? Because the default text used for Adobe Reader is often “click here to download…” with “click here” being the link, not “Adobe Reader.” Are you beginning to see the power of your links here? I hope so. Not only should the links coming to your site be relevant to the content of the page they link to, but the links within your site should be relevant too. If your page is about spay and neuter then a link to it should read “spay and neuter” not “…for more information on spay and neuter…”

3. Titles rule. This is a biggie. Make sure that your title is short and succinct, catchy and has your keyword in it. This post is about SEO, so guess what word appears in the title? The closer you get it to the beginning the better, but the main thing you need to take away from content creation is make it sound right – if your keyword doesn’t work as the first word don’t worry. This is also true for the main copy on a page. Write great content for people and you will win every time. Write that great content in a way that search engines like, without compromising your visitors’ experience, and your win is even greater!

4. Repeat your keywords. If your page is about ’spay and neuter’ it is a good idea to repeat that word a few times in the page copy. Add it to the first paragraph and even bold it, if that looks okay. And remember the importance of tip #2 with regard to your keywords.

5. Use Wordpress. The reason i-contact focuses on Wordpress web design and wants your small business to use Wordpress is simple: Wordpress rocks when it comes to SEO. Search engines love it because the code is sound and with a bazillion plugins the platform can be customized to hum like a finely tuned engine.

Now that you’ve learned the five tips to maximize your website you have plenty of information to take your web presence to the next level. Start with number five, over a static HTML site because there are specific SEO plugins that will take a standard Wordpress site and turn it into a search engine magnet. Don’t you think it’s time your website was one of those?

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