12 Things to look for in a new web site

Here are twelve things to look for when you are creating or purchasing a new web site design.  These are some serious questions that you need to ask before investing in a new web site.

1. Does it use an industry standard platform such as Joomla or Wordpress or does it use some sort of “custom code”?  If it is not based on an industry standard platform, then how many bugs are hidden away in the “custom code” and how is the custom code going to be kept up to date?

2. Does it rely on Java and or on flash in order to work?  If so there are a lot of people that have those disabled or they do not work properly on their computers.  An animated jiff can usually do the same thing as flash without any of the risk.

3. Does it have a simple HTML/CSS based menu system that can be easily followed by and indexed by the search engines?  If the menu is hidden in flash it might as well not exist.

4. Does the web site submit a site map weekly to Google and to the other search engines?  That is the quickest way to get your web site indexed by the search engines.

5. Does it have titles on all of the pages, all of the links and on all of the pictures?  Titles are an easy and safe way to stuff keywords that are highly ranked by the search engines.

6. Does the home page have a clear purpose?  What do you do?  What makes your company better than the competitors?  If they have to search to see why your web site exists then it might as well not exist. 

7. Does the home page have a place to sign up?  It needs some sort of “Call to Action”? There has to be an easy way to sign up for web only specials, deals, monthly newsletters, etc.

8. Does the home page have social media links?  Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever other social sites that your company uses?  Can they “like” your company?

9. Is there a “about us” or “Contact us” with you physical address and phone number?  I almost always want to know where a company is physically located before I order anything from them.

10. Does it have an easy to find search function that returns relevant results?  I hate it when I have to use Google to search inside a web site for something that I know is hidden in there somewhere.

11. Does it support mobile browsers?  This usually requires that it detect a mobile device and then reformats the entire site to fit on the mobile device.

12. Does it use colors that make the text unreadable?  There needs to be lots of contrast between the background and the text.  For example green text on a blue background can be unreadable. 

The importance of "Title" tags in SEO

SEO had changed a lot over the years. At one time you could just say what your key words were and the search engines then used those words. A practice called "key word stuffing" eventually led to the search engines analyzing the text on your web site to find out what your actual key words are. Now it is widely accepted that your key words are also rated higher if they appear in links, headings, or titles. I have also been able to determine that Google places higher emphasis on web pages that have more inbound links. They also search PDF files for key words. If you put these together you can add PDF files to your web pages. People will then link to these PDF's and hence these pages will rate higher as they have lots more key words and inbound links. You can also add titles to your web pages and links within your pages and menu's to further add key words to your web site.

Recently I discovered that some web sites were adding "title" to their links. At first I thought this was strange, perhaps a way of stuffing key words into web pages. The standard procedure of looking for keywords in a web page is to strip all of the HTML code, that is everything between the less than and greater than symbols. Then analyze what is left for the key words. However after reading a SEO paper form Bing/Microsoft, Title tags are also analyzed for key words.  I will have to update my Keyword Analyzer Tool (KAT) to add "Found in titles" as a column.

This is an excerpt from Bing WMC FAQ Page 23

Q: How can I apply keywords to linked pages when I use inline linking?

A: Normally the anchor text is your primary description of the linked page. But if you do inline linking within the paragraphs of your body text, you need to maintain the natural, logical flow of the language in the paragraph, which can limit your link text description.As such, you can use the title attribute of the anchor tag to add additional keyword information about the linked page without adversely affecting the readability of the text for the end user. An example might go something like this:

This is an example of < a href="http://www.mysite.com/newpage.htm" 
title="keyword or key phrase describing the linked page" >
inline linking < /a > within a paragraph.

GoDaddy versus HostGator as a web hosting company

Recently I set up a web site on GoDaddy.  After using Hostgator and similar cPanel web hosting services, I have to say that GoDaddy is much more difficult to navigate and set up.  I can create a web site and email accounts on HostGator in my sleep.

GoDaddy requires that you navigate through many screens to do almost anything, with HostGator you can do almost anything you want right from the Control Panel.  This picture is the top 2/3's of the Control panel.

How to Dominate Web Searches

How to Dominate Web Searches and Render Google Worthless as well as prevent any negative reviews from ever being seen.

Lets say you own a web site like '1 click money machine' or 'SEO key word analizer' and you want to be number one (to number 1000) in all google search results.  First you purchase a thousand or more web sites with any search phrase someone might use to find out more information about you.  For example '1 click money machine review', '1 click money machine scam', '1 click money machine ripoff', '1 click money machine for real', etc.  Then you fill all of these web sites with an article about 'Becky' who made a fortune using your system.  But to make Google happy you run the article through a word re-arranger/scrambler that substitutes alternate words but keeps the key word phrases the same. Then you upload these rearranged articles to your 1000 web sites and each one of the web sites has a link like 'for more information....' that then links back to your real web site. 

There you have it, you have now prevented any negative reviews from ever appearing in the search engines, destroyed any competition, and rendered Google completely worthless.  If you automate this process and sell it for $39 a copy you will be filthy rich.  Only problem is that it has already been done about a million times over.  Somehow, some day Google will fix the problem.  Call it "Panda II".  All the last fix did was to detect that all of the inbound sites were identical.  So to fix that, the web spammers have added programs to re-arrange the articles so they are not identical.

Totally Free Keyword Analyzer Tool (KAT)

My "Keyword Analyzer Tool" or  KAT has a new home.  Its now on a new web site.  Who knows maybe soon I bill buy my own site?  Anyway here it is: http://www.davismission.org/keyword/

You can enter the name of any web site and get instant results as to what keywords are found on that site.  I made it capable of logging 2 letter words that other keyword analyzers throw out because some sites have critical 2 letter words.

It has 4 columns.  One for the entire page, one for words in links one for words in Headings, and the last one is for words that are bold or strong.

Keyword Analyzer Tool

Google Fixes Search - They Removed Content Farms

A while back I talked about link farms or content farms, in fact I even created my own definitions. It was listed under SEO and titled 'how to get rich on the internet part 2"

Now the news is out that Google has fixed its search algorithm problems.When I read that I immediately went out and checked out some common search terms.  I tried some phrases that previously found 3 or more pages of junk before you actually found any 'meat'.  To my amazement they were all spam free!  Go Google! 

On the sad front today I got 'Binged'.  That terrible virus from the ivory palaces of Microsoft got onto my computer.  Every time I try to Open Firefox it brings up that virus.  Do they feature an uninstall for it?

I went into 'tools' options' 'manage add ons' and uninstalled the virus from Microsoft.  Someone has to put a stop to this.  They are trying to take over the world by the most corrupt and immoral methods known by mankind!

How to get rich on the Internet - Part 2 -Link Farms

Or should I title this 'How a bunch of scum bags are destroying the Internet'.

First of all lets get our 'terminology' correct.

Link Farms - Worthless web sites that are just links to real web sites.

Dead end Link Farms - their links go no where.  The oldest I remember is motherboards.???  They just had a list of motherboard models down the middle of the page and lots of adds on both sides of the page.  The adds were for adult dating sites or worse.  The idea is that you are looking for help with your motherboard and you end up there where they will sell you help with your sex life.  Of course the advertisers were paying for referrals to their web sites.

Circulatory Link Farms - Their links go in circles.  Like if you misspell Staples you will find one, then you will go in circles that go nowhere.

Live Link Farms - These somehow follow sites like Ebay and create pages of links to live Ebay stuff.  How it works is that you are on Ebay and see something that you might like.  So you then Google the device name to get more information.  However the first ten pages of links all go to sites that in turn link back to the the Ebay ad that you started with!

Real Link Farms - These have real links to pages that you were looking for in the first place.  You might call them a 'monkey in the middle' Link Farm.  What is the point, if they did not exist you would have gone where you wanted to go in the first place.

PDF Link Farms - these scour the web for PDF files, then they sort them and then they create web pages of links to these PDF files.  These mess with Google's ranking by skewing search terms towards the pages with the pdf files because 'linked pages' are rated higher by Google.

All of these link farms have one purpose in mind.  To get you to see their advertisements for 'Pay Per View' or 'Pay per Click' so that they can make money off your searching usually without giving you want you wanted. 

The other day I came across one that really 'got my goat'  I was searching for some SEO help and I noticed that several of the sites all went to the same web site in one way or another.  So I was talking with one of their salesman and he said that they own over 1,000 domain names that have only one page and they in turn all point to their 'real' web site.

So there it is, follow these terrible examples and you too can be the next Internet millionaire!

The Google search algorithm changes again

Google has done it again, twice in one year, they have revised their search algorithm. In May 2010 they did something to try to make their search results more current and 'up to date'. The end results from what that did was to raise spam web sites to the top and flush long standing real companies web sites down the toilet. That change got the nick name "May Day". The latest revision took place around the middle of August 2010 and it raises the real companies back up from the junk heap by returning many results for any company that you look for. Just check out the results for one web site as seen in the picture below.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization Help. It is not rocket science, just think of why you search and what you search for on the Internet. Here are some keys I have discovered to getting recognized by the search engines.

1. Good Content. Write it yourself and have something there that is relevant and worth saying. Make sure your site has keywords included in the page titles, and bold the keywords in the text. One of the best subjects is problems you are having with a service or program. What did you do when you had the problem? YOU Googled it!

2. Good Links. Submit your articles to and get linked to by other sites like HackedGadgets, Wired, and others depending upon your content.

3. Get real Traffic. Add the ability to Tweet, FaceBook etc. your site and put some links on their sites yourself. Post real comments on related blogs with a link to you or your web site.  A great add on to do this is 'add to any'.

4. Submit your site to the search engines. Do this regularly.

5. Include and mark up your Pictures. Make sure all of your pictures have alt tags, a short description under the picture, etc.  The picture shows how to do this in WordPress.

6. Install the Alexa toolbar and visit your site on a regular basis.

How to get rich on the Internet

For years I have said that the fastest way to get rich on the Internet is to sell get rich quick schemes.  Here is how it works, first you sell a few things and make some money but then you put together a plan on how to sell tings and make money.  Then you sell the PLAN and in this down economy everybody is looking to find out how to make money on the Internet.  So that drives a lot of people to your site and that in turn helps sell your get rich quick plan and on and on the cycles continues.  Before long you are a millionaire.  It was not by selling tangible goods but by just selling a PLAN so your costs are almost nothing but your profit is close to 100%!  What a deal! 

By posting this to my blog it will cause thousands of people to find my blog and I will be rich, RICH, R-I-C-H!  Don't count on it.......

How to boost your page ranking.

Boosting your page ranking can be really simple.  First install the Alexa toolbar under IE, Firefox and Chrome.  Then search for your web site and visit a lot of its pages.  Do the same on your home computer and your laptop.  It will not get you to the top 100 sites but it should get your site rated above 1,000,000 without a lot of work.  Alexa only rates sites based on what web sites are visited by people who have their toolbar installed.  I suspect that it is only a few million people.  So if you have three computers with three methods of accessing the Internet that looks like 9 'people' are searching for your web site!

This is a listing of sites to check daily then look up your web site to boost your ratings.  You can then bookmark them to make the process run faster.  This will make it look like lots of people are looking for information about your web site.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/
http://www.alexa.com/
http://www.aboutus.org/
http://www.cubestat.com/
http://whois.uitat.ro/
http://worth.im/
http://domainsearch101.com/
http://www.quarkbase.com/
http://www.esitestats.com/
http://www.onlinewebcheck.com/
http://websitevaluebot.com/
http://www.peekstats.com/
http://www.worthbot.com/
http://websitevaluecalculator.org/
http://statswebsites.com/
http://www.tatlia.com/
http://websha.com/
http://www.siteadvisor.cn/sites
http://builtwith.com/
http://georanks.com/
http://webrapport.net/
https://www.google.com/analytics
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

Another tip is to check google webmaster tools then search for keywords and make sure that the keywords are in your meta tags.  The words also need to be found on your web site so it does not look like you are just trying to spam google keywords.

Another tip that I have read about but I have not actually tried is to have three sites and link from one to another to the third site in a circle.  If you link to a site and straight back it looks like link spam, but if you link in a circle supposedly it looks like real web site links to google.  Like I said I have read about this but I have not tried it yet. 

Join a few blogs and put links in your account back to your web site.  Be careful not to post negative stuff, but post positive reinforcing things that will make people want to click on you to find out more about you and eventually more about your company.

Finally go to Google local, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local and claim your piece or real estate.  After you create an account they mail you a post card with the confirmation information so you can establish your presence at your actual physical address.  Then whenever someone looks for business in say Olean NY, they will find you there!

So that's it in a nutshell.  In summary;
1. Search for your web site.
2. Analyze your web site.
3. Blog about your company.
4. Link to your web site.
5. Locate your company on the map.