Not all web developers understand search engine optimization. The process is actually easy yet complicated at the same time, but these 3 steps I’m about to tell you will get you started right away.
1. Fill Your Site With Quality Unique Contents
The best thing you can do to prepare your site for search engine optimization is to fill your site with quality contents. Write articles, how-to’s, and other informational contents and post them at your site. Not only you will optimize your site for search engine optimization purposes, you will also entertain visitors and keep them coming back. If your site is an online store, you can still add a blog that discuss products you are selling as part of your site. Remember, the contents have to be unique; if you don’t have time to write them hire freelance content writers to do the job for you instead of going to online article directories and copy stuffs.
2. Update, Update, Update!
One of the key to successful SEO campaign is regular site update. Yes, you still have to cope with maintaining updates according to sets of keywords you are using to keep your site optimized, but you should update regularly. Again, this simple step can also be done with the help of freelancers if you don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, and it will keep your visitors entertained while your search engine rankings improve.
3. Use Keyword Phrases In Your Title Tag
This may sounds simple, but pages with keyword phrases in their title tags will enjoy better search engine rankings. Don’t push your efforts too far by spreading keywords all over the content or page; just add it as part of the title tag and present some in the actual content. Don’t worry about keyword placements too much, and keep your contents — and pages — readable to visitors.
Simple, right? Go right ahead and optimize your site for search engine crawlers.
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List based drop down menu is one of the most popular site ornaments, and a lot of sites are using it as their primary navigation tool. If you want to use list based menu on your site as well, follow this tutorial I’m about to present to you and create your own with CSS/HTML in a matter of minutes.
Let us start with making the list to work with. Use the following HTML code as your guide.
<div id=”nav”>
<ul>
<li class=”first”><a href=”#”>Home</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Blog</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Services</a>
<ul>
<li><a href=”#”>SEO</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Internet Marketing</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Web Contents</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href=”#”>Contact Us</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
You should notice the “nav” id that will be used in your CSS codes as identifier. Let us continue with setting up some basic CSS codes for your menu. First, set up the basics for #nav to lay down some ground formatting for your list based menu.
*{ margin:0px; padding: 0px; }
#nav {
font-family: arial, sans-serif;
position: relative;
width: 390px;
height:56px;
font-size:14px;
color:#999;
margin: 0 auto;
}
#nav ul {
list-style-type: none;
}
Add the following piece of CSS code to make your list based menu float. This will make integrating the menu to your site a lot easier.
#nav ul li {
float: left
position: relative;
}
Add the following code to your CSS to make the list clickable as a whole — instead of just the text — and add separating borders to the design. Of course, you can change colors and border settings used.
#nav ul li a {
text-align: center;
border-right:1px solid #e9e9e9;
padding:20px;
display:block;
text-decoration:none;
color:#999;
}
The following CSS codes will allow you to format child nodes properly and create a smooth dropdown effect.
#nav ul li ul {
display: none
}
#nav ul li:hover ul {
display: block;
position: absolute;
}
Last but not least, add the following code to your CSS to set the hover state of the nodes.
#nav ul li:hover ul li a {
display:block;
background:#12aeef;
color:#ffffff;
width: 110px;
text-align: center;
border-bottom: 1px solid #f2f2f2;
border-right: none;
}
#nav ul li:hover ul li a:hover {
background:#6dc7ec;
color:#fff;
}
When it comes to integrating the menu to your site, all you have to do is insert the CSS codes into your CSS file and add the HTML list code wherever on the page within a container. The new list based dropdown menu will be a nice addition to your already intuitive design.
The Observer is back with another great post, just for you! We at Review of Web are participating in Daniel Scocco’s Daily Blog Tips Group Writing Project: 2009 in Review, and we took our time to pick 20 of the best web applications available in 2009. Let’s get crackin’ shall we?
1. Adobe Photoshop Online | https://www.photoshop.com/
Photoshop has been the most intuitive photo editing software for years, and Adobe is now launching an online version of this amazing software to help you edit, manage, and share photos online. You can upload images to your account and edit them using web interface very similar to the offline version of the software, and then share them with friends and colleagues.
2. CurdBee | http://curdbee.com/
If you are looking for a solution to manage invoices without hassle, CurdBee is the place to go. You can create and send invoices to customers and input confirmed payments as you go. The site offers easy, fast and secure online billing experience.
3. MediaFire | http://www.mediafire.com/
Looking for a reliable place to host your files? MediaFire is definitely worth checking out. This web app is very simple for everyday use but offers a lot of features even advanced users would really love. Use it to host your files and share them with visitors or friends.
4. ReInvirogate | http://www.reinvigorate.net/
ReInvirogate is the new way of tracking your site’s performance. Forget about old-school tracking scripts; ReInvirogate will give you so much more than just the amount of visitors coming to your site.
5. HowCast | http://www.howcast.com/
Publishing you own how-to videos or looking for one about any particular topic? Visit this video streaming site specializing in how-to videos.
6. Moodstream | http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/
Moodstream by Getty Images is an online collaboration platform for designers and creative workers. You can brainstorm ideas and search for images, footages, and audios at the same time.
7. AWebber | http://www.aweber.com/
Email marketing is definitely one of the oldest tricks in the book, and what could be best than managing your entire email marketing campaign from a single intuitive and comprehensive web application, right?
8. Wufoo | http://wufoo.com/
Need web forms but don’t have HTML coding skills? Wufoo will build them for you in no time at all.
9. Carbonmade | http://www.carbonmade.com/
Carbonmade is basically an online portfolio platform that you can use to show off your work. It is probably the easiest way to display your portfolio online and attracts more clients.
10. Backpack | http://backpackit.com/
Share information with your team using Backpack’s online intranet platform allowing you to manage your documents, discussions, and schedules in one place all the time.
11. Google Wave | https://wave.google.com/wave
Although the app is still in preview, Google Wave is definitely one of the best future online collaboration platforms available.
12. Celoxis | http://www.celoxis.com/
Another online collaboration and project management platform designed to help you handle big projects with ease.
13. Evernote | https://www.evernote.com/
Need to carry your notes all the time? Visit Evernote and find your problem solved instantly; the iPhone and mobile interface of this web app will enable you to access your notes anytime, anywhere.
14. Meebo | http://www.meebo.com/
Multinetwork instant messaging platform is the new hype, and Meebo is definitely offering one of the best web-based IM available.
15. Emusic | http://www.emusic.com/
Care for some nice tunes? Visit Emusic and find virtually any song you are looking for.
16. Netflix | http://www.netflix.com/
If movies and TV series are what you love, let Netflix stream them to your computers instantly.
17. Ask.com | http://www.ask.com/
No more unanswered questions; you have Ask.com hosting answers to countless possible questions you may be asking.
18. Zoho | http://www.zoho.com/
Zoho has transformed from a simple collaboration platform into a full-featured web productivity suites; you can do virtually anything with Zoho’s line of web applications.
19. Backpack | http://basecamphq.com/
Project management, collaboration, and task software provided by Backpack are definitely one of the best available.
20. Google Docs | http://documents.google.com/
This web app may seem simple, but simplicity has always been Google’s strong suit. Edit documents and share them with colleagues swiftly.
Passionate bloggers are always seen to be keen to come up with quality content in each of their blog posts. They are known to research for information on the subject of t
heir posts and present them in a format that can be easily understood by their readers. Many of the bloggers are also known to adopt search engine optimization techniques in order to drive internet traffic to their blogs.
Here we would like to present 10 very useful Firefox Addons to such hardworking and passionate bloggers like you:
- Windows Live Writer: The live writer is a handy tool which allows bloggers to create blog posts and include multimedia content such as photos, video, maps etc in their blog posts. The add-on supports various blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, Live Journal among others.
- Read It Later: This add-on for Firefox allows bloggers to get back to a page which might be of interest to a blogger. This is particularly useful when one comes across interesting content while casually surfing the internet. This add-on allows users to come back to that page of interest and then pursue their interests regarding the same.
- InstaBlog Submitter: Professional bloggers would know of the importance of spreading the word about the content on their blog. In accordance with the same, InstaBlog Submitter, is an add-on which allows bloggers to submit their content in just 3 simple steps- Select content by Highlight, Right Click, and Submit. A must have add-on for bloggers.
- NoDoFollow: Professional bloggers are aware of the importance of blog commenting as part of Search Engine Optimization techniques. As the name suggests, the NoDoFollow add-on is useful to check a particular page for its nofollow and dofollow link status of by applying appropriate colors transformations.
- Tinyurl Creator: The popularity of twitter has also increased the need for presenting long urls in a condensed format. The TinyUrl creator add-on allows bloggers to cut long urls on their posts into smaller and simpler links.
- ScribeFire: Formatting the content of a blog post can become a very tricky business. The ScribeFire add-on provides a feature rich editor which integrates with the browser and allows bloggers to drag and drop formatted text and also upload images and take notes etc
- Zemanta: This add-on inserts a box on the right hand sidebar of WordPress write panel and enables bloggers to paste images and links into related posts with a single click. The add-on also supports other blogging platforms such as LiveJournal and Blogger.
- SearchStatus: This add-on allows bloggers and webmasters alike to keep track of details such as PageRank, Alexa Rank, NoFollow among many other details of web pages. The add-on once installed produces these details for website automatically.
- AdSense Notifier: Many bloggers are known to be very keen to check their AdSense earnings ever so frequently and thereby end up spending a lot of time for the same which can be better utilized for their blogging purpose. The AdSense Notifier add-on displays AdSense earnings on a sidebar and thereby saving precious time.
- WebMynd Search Assitant: Remembering the pages visited can become a big problem when surfing through a large number of pages related to a particular topic. WebMynd records the web pages that you visit so that the next time you Google Search for the same, it provides you the past sites you visited through the search term.
Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is an e-learning tool from Microsoft Corporation which provides users with a form based environment to create high quality, interactive, online courses. With the LCDS people can create content such as interactive content, quizzes, games etc. LCDS is a free to use product for the Microsoft Learning Community which comprises of Microsoft Certified Trainers(MCTs), Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions(CPLS), Microsoft Certified Professionals(MCPs) etc.
LCDS allows users to create courses for e-learning by making use of an instructional design model which has been used extensively in developing e-courses by Microsoft. The product includes a preview feature built within it. Such a feature is exclusive to Microsoft LCDS and it can be used by an instructor to experience the course content from the learner’s perspective. This feature also makes it possible for instructors to incorporate changes, such as a change in the course structure or a change in the content of the course, at any point and time.
LCDS provides a template format for easy usage of the system which implies that the instructor need not go through complex steps for designing the course. He can just refer to any of the existing templates and make use of one which suits his needs.
LCDS also provides users with a SCORM tracking system which can be used to keep track of the progress made by the learner or to track assignment performances. The SCORM system can also be used for creating mock tests with multiple choice questions or essay type questions depending on the course and the model of instruction as designed by the instructor. Once the tests are attended to, the instructor can then use the tool to evaluate the performance and share the results of the same in real time.
Another objective of the LCDS is to showcase the prowess of the Microsoft Silverlight technology which can be used to create interactive content for games, animations, simulations etc by making use of simple form filling method.
One major advantage of the LCDS is that the tool is supported by a large online community. Therefore, a user can simply log into one of the online support forums to obtain solutions for his problems.
Some useful links:
Additional recommended reading
Like t
he old adage goes “First impression is the lasting impression”, similarly, when it comes to affiliate marketing, the landing page on the website plays a crucial role in the success or the failure of a business. Many a times, it so happens that an affiliate marketer may not be very well versed with the intricacies of coding and designing websites and therefore may feel left out in the race to become a top affiliate. To solve such problems, Unique Blog Designs have come up with an amazing product- Affiliate Themes.
This is an advanced theme which allows you to make use of your Wordpress installation (version 2.7 and above) to customize your website’s fonts, colors etc of your choosing without having to write even a single line of code.
With Affiliate Themes, you can also create exciting headers by making use of a large number of header graphics included in the Affiliate Themes package. By using the WYSIWYG editor included in the package, you can also customize your theme based on your niche with just a few clicks. This is especially helpful to those who lack expertise in WordPress themes and who do not intend to rely on the services of graphic designers.
The theme options panel provided in Affiliate Themes also includes options to perform tasks such as changing the homepage layout, the background image etc. All you need to do is to select the theme you feel suits your needs and then go on customizing it to arrive at a theme you had always dreamed of. You can also change the sidebars, footers and title boxes of your website.
This way you get to make killer landing pages to your website without having to spend a lot of time for it. All of this of course comes at a nominal cost. The basic Single Use License is priced at $97 while the Multi-Use and Affiliate Licenses cost $147 and $197 respectively.
[PS: Before buying, you can also test drive the affiliate theme]
What is a virtual agent?
A virtual agent sometimes called a virtual smart agent, or an intelligent agent, is a script which is programmed to be able to perform a wide variety of tasks such as providi
ng information regarding the services on offer, or respond to user query, or as in a large number of cases, provide sales services.
One major advantage of using such scripts is that they eliminate the need for a human representative to be available for customers’ needs. These scripts are completely automated and therefore, once installed successfully, they work independently of any kind of human involvement towards running the script or moderating it. This also helps service providers by the way of reducing costs that could have been otherwise incurred on hiring individuals to perform the same task.
There are various vendors of such scripts with the effectiveness and features provided by such scripts varying widely across vendors. Almost all of the scripts available have features such as having custom agent for your site, log un-answered queries on your website among many others.
Which virtual agent service we prefer?
Virtual Sales Assistant (VSA). The VSA, along with providing all features like its competitors, also provides some additional features which are unique to it.
The VSA allows you to train the virtual agent to handle various types of queries. Once the training is completed, you can analyze the performance of your virtual agent by making use of the in-depth statistical data provided by VSA. Incorporating HTML in chat windows is also an option provided by the VSA. This helps in providing better support in the form of links or web addresses of related information.
VSA also has the ability to integrate videos into your chat script which can help in understanding the concept of the sales agent. It also allows you to customize the script and insert and/or edit the default names provided by the script. VSA is superior to most of its competitors in the sense that it allows for an unlimited installation of the script, which translates to the fact that once the script has been bought, you can integrate it to any number of your websites. This essentially helps you in case you sell more than one product or are involved in marketing the same product through different websites.
VSA provides all these features and facilities along with a lifetime money back guarantee at a minimal one time price of $97. The price also includes a variety of “How to” videos and source files of the script. At its price, VSA offers the best value for money among its competition.
Check out Virtual Sales Assistant
Related article: How to integrate chat box within a website?
As we all know blogger doesn’t provide an option for 301 redirect on a page by page basis. The only option left with us is meta refresh redirect.
Say you want to redirect http://xyz.blogspot.com/2008/11/about.html to http://www.xyz.com/about/
Here is the code that you will need:
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://xyz.blogspot.com/2008/11/about.html"'><meta content='0;url=http://www.xyz.com/about/' http-equiv='refresh'/></b:if>
Some points to note:
- You need to place this code just before the head section closure ie before </head> tag.
- Take note of spacing before and after equals to sign and also there should be two (==) and not one (=) equals to sign.
- content = 0 means. The browser will wait for 0 seconds before redirecting to another page.
One of the best ways of link building is to use a particular type of service called a Press Release submission services. Using a press release to spread the word about your brand or product has been very effective. Press release is also a great way to get in the process of building links. The fundamental aspect of press release is quite simple to understand. By releasing your product or website information to a particular press release service, your release gets out on the wire and gets broadcast on various news sites where your site address is linked and thus spread across the web.
Check out this excellent video to get more clarity on the use and effectiveness of ‘Press Releases’.
There are many PR sites available today and I have tested several of them for different campaigns. The three sites listed below have given me an excellent ROI.
PRLOG:
PRLog is a free online press release service. It allows its users to submit their articles, websites etc free of cost. To submit a press release with PRLog.org, creation of a Press Release account is necessary, which is a free process. Once signed up, a user can submit his content to various news sites such as Google News.
PRLOG.org allows users to submit their releases with a preview and the releases are published within 24 hours. Along with these features, PRLog.org also allows for submission of company profile, its logo and tags, URLs etc. A free, automatic PDF version of your release is also generated.
Being a free service, it is very beneficial for people to spread word about their products or websites.
PR:
PR.COM is another popular press release website which provides press release services in two flavors – Free and Paid. Both versions require users to sign up on the site by filling out a simple form.
With a free account, one is allowed to distribute press releases and job opportunities only. Free users are not allowed to include their company profile and are imposed with various other restrictions.
Paid users are allowed to have their company profile included in their release and their releases are included in various listings. Directory listing service is also provided which ensures that the release finds maximum number of audience. Paid users are also allowed to include one URL link for their website in their releases.
Paid releases come in two flavors – Gold plan users are charged $199 per year while Platinum users are charged $499 per year.
1888PressRelease
:
They are another press release service providers who also distribute releases to various search engines, news wires and websites. They provide you with two options – Free and Paid.
Paid users benefit from the fact that their submission is optimized to improve visibility in search engine listings thereby providing maximum publicity. Such an optimization is not permitted in a free release service.
One feature of this service which sets it apart from most others is the fact that 1888PressRelease has editors who manually review and approve each press release so that they meet the formatting, content and grammatical standards.
The paid press release service from starts from $15 which does not include a release to Google news, while the other plans which cost $25 and above include such a feature.
Bonus Tip: Google News is one the best resources of getting traffic. The problem is, Google has a stringent criteria for accepting sites/blogs into their system. Well, fret not, here is a roundabout and a simple way to get going. Go to Google News , enter your keyword(s) and look for the PR sites that shows up there. Go to that PR site and submit your release. In all probability Google News will index your article that you submitted through PR. Enjoy the increased flow of traffic!
Check out PRLOG.org, PR.com, 1888PressRelease
PayPal gives an option for its Premier/Business account holders to customize payment pages. Using customization one can replace the email id displayed on top of payment pages with the company/website logo. This can make the whole look-and-feel more professional.
How can you customize PayPal Payment pages?
This step really took me a long time. I wish PayPal makes its search more user friendly. The keyword system of search simply doesn’t work inside PayPal. And as always my favorite DP forums came to rescue.
Coming to the point, here is a step by step guide to create your own PayPal custom payment pages:
- Log into PayPal account > Click on ‘Profile’.
- On the right hand side, you will find ‘Selling Preferences’ box. Click on ‘Custom Payment Pages’ link.
- The next page is ‘custom payment page styles’. From this page, you can Add, Edit, Preview, and Remove page styles, as well as make any page style your Primary style. By default ‘PayPal’ page style is the primary style. You may add up to 3 page styles. To add a page style click on ‘Add’ button.
- On the next page, you can fill your custom settings. Give a unique name to the ‘Page Style Name’ box. The next edit box asks for the ‘Header image URL’. This is the most tricky part, in the next point you will understand why.
- Now you need to give the Header Image URL. For the header image, PayPal allows you to specify an image 750 px wide and 90 px height, that is reasonable by any standards. Problem occurs with their recommendation of asking us to store header image only on secure (https) server. Though you can store image on http: server also, but it will give a warning to your users that the payment page contains insecure items. That is as good as not having the image altogether. Unless you are a reasonable size company, I don’t think you would be having a https server. [If you have, that's good. You can safely skip this point]. So where can we find a free https server (also known as SSL server)? A quick search on SSL Image Hosting will throw up a lot of free and paid choices. I prefer SSLPic, firstly because they have a no-nonsense interface which doesn’t require you to create a user account and secondly because it is from the reliable e-junkie . It also provides you with the stats regarding how many times people have clicked on your ‘Buy-Now’ buttons.
- Once you get the URL, place it inside the ‘Header Image URL’ box. Fill in the header background color, header border color and background color. I prefer having the header colors same as my logo. If you find difficulty in getting the exact hex code of your header, try Instant Eye Dropper
- Save the button.
- Now you have two option, either make this style as a default primary style or leave it as it is. If you choose to make it as primary, all your button payment pages will get default settings as you have defined above. On the other hand, if your PayPal account is used for more than one businesses, you may want to leave it as it is and choose the settings on button by button basis.
- Now how can you associate your button with the style name ROW defined above? Go to ‘Edit your PayPal Payment button’, head over to Step 3. On the bottom of this step you will find a box labeled Advanced Variables (power users). Check the ‘Add advanced variables’ option and fill in page_style=<Your Style Name> as also shown in the image below. Save the button.
- Clink on your PayPal button. You should be able to see the new header style for your PayPal payment page.
Enjoy!
Related: Tips every PayPal user should know
