SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Part 1- The Basics

SEO, why pay thousands of dollars when you can learn it at CreateUrWebsite.com for free!

The very first thing you need to know is that SEO is not as complicated as search engine placement companies make you think it is. With a very basic knowledge of how search engines index your site and what they are looking for you can always appear in the top 5.

Lets start off with some statistics about search engine companies, who owns the market? There are 4 main search engines, Google, AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. Google and AOL recently partnered up to form one group.

Lets see who owns the search engine market.

Google and AOL – 48%
Yahoo – 30%
MSN – 16%
Ask – 6%

As you can see Google basically owns half of the search engine market, so we will be referring to what Google looks for and indexes more than other companies, but all techniques are geared towards all search engines.

Google uses Google Bot to index we sites and Yahoo uses Yahoo Slurp to index web sites.

The basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Strong title tags
Title tags are very important in describing the content of your web pages, this is the first thing Google Bot looks for. Using strong title tags will always help you, use title tags that are relevant to the content on your website.

H1 tags
Since a heading tag defines a heading Google also considers this important in describing the content of your web pages, use heading tags, especially h1 tags. Do not use multiple h1 tags, instead follow it up by a h2 tag and so on. Get in the habit of using one h1 tag on each of your pages. Headings are similar to titles, they are used to describe content of web pages, Google follows this simple logic as well.

Lists and navigation
Code your navigation in list format and use CSS to display it how you want, Google Bot wants to see navigation in list format, its easier to index because you are using mainly one word bullet points.

Semantic Structure
Although this might sound complicated at first it really isn’t, its the basic structure of building web pages. Google wants to see a semantic structure in your web page code, it makes it easier for Google Bot to index your site. Don’t have sloppy code, be organized and structure your content as follows.

Title
heading
lists
paragraphs(use p tags)
Keep that structure when coding your pages, Google Bot will love that, also use keywords in your content, mainly in your paragraphs. If you are building a web site on the correct way to wax a car, use keywords such as car, waxing, car waxing, car cleaning, shine, etc frequently. If Google sees those words more frequently in your content the Bot will recognize these as being more important.

Use strong and em tags
Using strong and em tags in your content will make your frequent keywords stand out more to search engines.

These concepts are just the basics, look out for my next blog post where I get discuss more advanced concepts of SEO. The concepts mentioned above will not get you number 1 on search engines but it is the foundation of getting you that result, In my next post I will show you the more advanced SEO concepts.

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-Nate

Finding A Domain Hosting Company

Finding your Domain hosting company can be hard at times, there are so many companies to choose from and they all say they are the best. Well I’m about to break it all down for you and tell you what company you should go with and why.

What to consider when searching for a hosting plan.

Its not always the best idea to go out and buy the cheapest one, you need to compare what each company offers in terms of space, support and bandwidth. Each plan offered will be unique to your web site, for example, if you have a small 20 or so page web site, you don’t need to go buy the biggest plan out there. If your planning on building multiple sites in the future, you might want to consider purchasing a hosting plan with a large amount of disk space and bandwidth. Remember, you can always upgrade your hosting plan, so if you start off small and realize your growing at a fast rate its ok.

If you see that companies offer hosting plans for Windows or Linux this simply means that if you choose Linux you will be able to support back end programming features and files such as Apache, PHP, Perl, AJAX and so on.

Hosting companies offer 3 different hosting plans, we will describe them as small, medium and large. The main difference you will notice is the disk space, bandwidth and the amount of domain names you can host on one plan. Yes, can can host more than one domain name on one hosting plan.

Lets compare three popular hosting companies, Host Gator, Network Solutions and Godaddy. Listed below are statistics from their basic(small) hosting plans.

The first thing you will notice is that GoDaddy is cheap, but wait, take a close look and see what you get. 10 GB of disk space! That will not get you far if you have big plans for your web site. The best choice is Host Gator, and the prices get better if you sign up for 1, 2 or 3 years. Host Gator offers more disk space, bandwidth and unlimited email addresses. Go with Host Gator, the company has received numerous awards and their support is phenomenal. Coupled with that they offer an amazing control panel where you can access plenty of free tools such as web site building software, free templates, tons of free scripts, photo albums, mailing lists, guestbooks, e commerce, forums, content management and polls and surveys just to name a few. Their tracking statistics are one of a kind, they track every possible statistic of visitors that come to your site. This is all for free.

Click Here To Go To Host Gator

-Nate
Back to CreateUrWebsite.com

 

Creating a website? What you NEED to know!

Mary Madden, a Research Specialist from Pew Internet & American Life Project says:”Internet penetration has now reached 73% for all American adults. Internet users note big improvements in their ability to shop and the way they pursue hobbies and personal interests online.”

Uh, YEAH! Now-a-days, who doesn’t go online to shop, do research, get driving directions or just browse the Internet as a form of entertainment as they anxiously wait for those last 20 minutes to pass before they can leave the office? We’ve all done it.

I sure don’t need a Research Specialist to tell me this. But it helps to prove a point

Without a doubt the Internet (a.k.a “World Wide Web”) is here to stay…

Making Your Website “stick” To The Web

Spiders build webs to catch prey - oh yea, lunch time:) Website owners build sites to catch visitors. By no means am I saying you should have malicious intentions for drawing visitors to your website, but the idea here is to build a website that will “stick” around on the web due to high volumn of traffic.

But wait…

Here’s the problem though - way too many people begin the journey of creating a web site without getting the 4-1-1 on exactly what they need to know to ensure they maximize their chances of success.

Success to you may be simply creating a site where you can share information such as a forum or blog. Success to another may be launching that small business website they’ve been on the fence about for some time now. Regardless of how you view success when it comes to websites, there are a number of things you need to consider.

Define Your Niche

Define your niche! A niche is distinct segment of the online market. For example, the niche for CreateUrWebsite.com is beginners to website design and development. Simply put, your niche is your target audience. It would make no sense for me to put gardening information on createurwebsite.com.

Too many website owners try to cover every subject known to man on one site. Have you ever seen a site like this?!?!! It’s incredible how difficult it is to find the information you’re looking for on these types of sites. Make it easy for your target audience to find the information they’re looking for. Narrowing down your target audience and focusing on providing useful information on a specific subject will greatly increase your chances of success. Defining your niche should occur before you begin brainstorming for design ideas - i.e. the look and feel of your site.

So why learn how to create your own site and not just pay someone else to do it?

Well, for one, the cost. The cost of paying a web designer to create one for you can be pricey. Secondly, who’s going to maintain the site with fresh content? You better believe a designer will charge a pretty penny to maintain your site for you. And here’s a little side note, web designers don’t make their money on the initial cost of creating a site. They make their money on maintenance. They’ll make much more in the long run off of maintaining your site than they would from the initial fee of creating it. Just thought you should know

Thirdly, the process of creating your own site can and should be fun. Sure it may take some time to learn the fundamentals such as html, css ,etc. but that’s the part that’s most enjoyable. In the long run, having full control over your site is the only way to go.

Your Personal Website Building Check-list

Here’s a quick check-list of things you need to account for in order to create a site:

• Register a Domain Name
• Select a Web Host
• Design
  think about your target audience. That thing we discussed earlier called a niche Who will be viewing your site? For example, the main site to this blog, CreateUrWebsite.com, has a clear target audience - beginning web designers and people who just want to learn the fundamentals of creating web pages. Once I knew who my target audience was, it was easy to come up with the main categories of my site’s navigation. Try to think about similar sites to yours and maybe grab a piece of paper and take note of the pros and cons and what you can do to improve your site. By no means am I saying to duplicate (copy) information but it doesn’t hurt to look at a site that you admire for ideas.
• Web Design Resources
  whether you’re thinking of creating your site yourself or having someone else do the job, there are tons of resources on the Internet to help you along the way. Visit CreateUrWebsite.com for free tutorials to get you started on the right track.
  
  I have to say that even the old skool way of learning a subject is great - i.e. picking up a book and reading from cover to cover. A combination of online resources and good web design and development books can go a very long way!

Feel free to drop me a comment or two and be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming posts.

Thanks.
-Levi