Eclipse Domain Services Library

Creativity is one of the most important aspects of an appealing site. Unique and compelling content are vital components to any successful site, but they’re rendered obsolete if the site doesn’t follow basic guidelines established by the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

What are webmaster guidelines? They’re standards for keeping spam-filled and illegitimate sites out of the top search engine results. For example, a site’s homepage has only 250 words and dozens of links, Google, Yahoo and Bing will flag the site as a possible spam site. What are the Google webmaster guidelines?

Google’s webmaster guidelines include: Make a website with a clear hierarchy (homepage) and text links. Every page should be reachable with at least one static text link. Offer a sitemap with links that point to the important parts of your site. If you have over 100 links, categorize your links into separate pages.

Navigation on your interface should be as simple as possible for the user, otherwise, they’ll leave your site in frustration. A simplified user interface is one of the primary factors for WordPress’ popularity among the top content management systems.

Text links should utilize unique keywords that apply to the respective page they’re linking to. A clear navigational structure helps Google’s search bot to scan your site. You can create a sitemap on WordPress, which tells Google’s scanner where to read.

Always remember to fill your pages with information-rich content, including articles on popular and related topics to your niche audience. For example, if your site is about sports apparel, create a story about LeBron James’ newest shoe.

An easy rule to follow for Google’s guidelines is to think like the searcher. In other words, when you’re writing your page titles and highlighting keywords within the main body of text in your page, link to words and phrases that are likely to be searched. This may lead you to restructure some of your sentences, but it’s worth the effort to improve your rankings for target keywords.

Remember, there are tens of millions of domains, and to distinguish yourself from the pack, you have to put in your due diligence. Remember, just because you create a sitemap, it doesn’t guarantee all of your site will be indexed. Google doesn’t guarantee to crawl everything in the sitemap file. Google’s guidelines include inbound links, conversion rates, site traffic and reliable links that connect your site’s pages in an organized and logistical flow.

Other guidelines to remember: Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site, because most search engine spiders see your site much as Lynx would. Allow search bots to crawl your sites without session IDs or arguments that track their path through the site and sure your web server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This feature allows your web server to tell Google whether your content has changed since we last crawled your site.

Werner Wichmann provides Search Engine Optimization Services and gets websites to the top of the search results with these services, to see more go to http://www.elevatemarketing.co.za.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Werner_Wichmann

Has your business ever been approached to advertise on a website? Were you offered a claim that said something like “Our website gets 60,000 hits per month?” If so, I suggest being suspicious of that sales pitch.

A “HIT” is not the same as a “Visitor.” A hit is counted when an individual element of a webpage is accessed. A popular news web page that has many graphics, news feeds, pictures and other elements might have 75 elements on it. One visitor coming to this page would then count as 75 hits.

You may find that a claim of 60,000 hits may equate to only 16 visitors per day on that website (admitedly an extreme example). It can equate to any number of visitor counts, depending on each web page and its content and construction, but you get the idea.

What is a Hit?

A web page is typically made up of a number of individual elements. An element is a photo, a graphic, a javascript, a css stylesheet, etc. When a web page is viewed, each of these elements is requested by the web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc) from the web server, and each file request increases the hit-count for the website.

A “Hit” is counted each time one of these individual elements are accessed.

For example, if a you visit a web page, and it is comprised of:

• 25 graphics and images
• 2 CSS stylesheets
• 5 java applets
• 1 html page

then 33 hits will be added to the hit count each time that particular web page is viewed. Then, if that visitor visits 5 more pages with roughly the same build, then 198 hits are counted toward that ONE INDIVIDUAL VISITOR.

So, if this same website is trying to get you to advertise with them, and they claim that they get “60,000 hits per month,” a closer look may show that they are getting only 10 visitors per day to their site. That’s only 10 visitors per day!

Here’s how I arrived at the above numbers (NOTE: These figures are based on rough averages and assumptions about the elements within this website)

• Assuming each web page has an equal 33 elements within a page
• Assuming that each web visitor visits 6 pages while on the site
• 6 pages x 33 elements per page = 198 elements viewed, or 198 HITS
• 60,000 hits per month / 198 hits per visitor = 303 visitors per month
• 303 visitors per month / 30 days = 10 visitors per day

Doesn’t sound so great now, does it?

To be quite honest, the amount of hits a website gets is really a worthless statistic. Often you will visit a website that has a free web stats counter at the bottom of the page. These free counters typically count hits as well. So when you see a not-so-great web page that show the page has a high amount of hits, this is why (not to mention you can start the count on those hit counters at any number, so they might not have even started from zero).

Visitors and Page Views

If you ask a professional webmaster, marketer or savvy business owner, you will find that they are not concerned with hits to a site. They want to know the number of visitors to the site. And they don’t just want to know about every visitor-we want to know about every unique visitor.

A unique visitor is what the name says – it is a unique person visiting your website for the first time. This person’s subsequent visits are not counted. A page view is a page that this visitor viewed. If one unique visitor visited 10 pages on your site, this would count as 10 page views.

Take for example a website that I manage. In this example, over the last week, this site received:

• 6,006 unique visitors
• 38,059 page views
• 951,475 HITS

The “Hits” number was come to by using an average of 25 elements per page for this website. That was multiplied by the 38,059 page views.

Are you following?

Someone might sell you advertising by telling you the site gets just under 1 MILLION HITS per WEEK! But that is really only 3,000 PEOPLE. Three thousand people per day is still pretty good, but that kind of number is usually reserved for a website that attracts a national audience – not a local one (unless there’s some sexy gossip offered!).

So what about the website bragging about 60,000 hits per month? Hmmmm, using these numbers above you’re looking at, again, a very small amount of people actually seeing your ad.

Buyer beware. Ask the right questions when talking to someone about traffic number. VISITORS and not HITS are what matters.

Next time you are discussing internet marketing and online advertising, you will be more the wiser.

Matt Fay is the founder of AIM – Arizona Internet Marketing, a top website development and marketing agency located in Prescott, Arizona.

When you are ready to increase traffic using only clean, legal, and ethical strategies, visit www.aimaz.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Fay

Have Questions About Domain Names or Hosting Plans? We Have Been in This Business for a Very Long Time – Eclipse Domain Services

Do you need a Webmaster for your company’s website? If you find value in having a go-to guy for all you’ll ever need with your site, then the answer is yes. A Webmaster’s main tasks are to help develop and promote your site, which includes services like adding new pictures, new content, product updates, new events, event registration, and page animations. If your services expand and you find yourself needing additional sites under your company, having a Webmaster handy can prove to be extremely useful. They are also equipped to assist you with email, hosting, and a wealth of other technical services that would cost most business owners exorbitant amounts of time and money if undertaken without the expertise and site familiarity Webmasters provide.

A Webmaster can do all thing related to a site or online application, encompasses all traditional services a development firm offers, just in a long-term partnership. While the main function of a Webmaster is to provide ongoing site maintenance for your business’s pictures, pricing, ecommerce offerings, and other data, they offer many other services that help boost the site’s value.

Webmasters’ technical knowledge generally spans many programming languages, such as PHP, ASP, and Javascript. They handle the technical aspects of overseeing website construction and maintenance, but also oversee management of content, marketing, advertising, and fulfillment of orders for ecommerce sites. Other responsibilities include the coordination of different users of a website in terms of access rights, and setting up a site’s navigation.

When the times comes to expand your site’s offerings or move up the search-engine page rank ladder, your Webmaster will be an integral part of your advancement. A good Webmaster will continually work to expand your site and offer services that add value and efficiency to the way your website runs.

A website doesn’t fulfill its mission if it’s not directing people to visit it, and another function a Webmaster serves is to increase traffic to your site. They do this in several ways, the most common being SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO involves the integration of key internet marketing strategies to help increase traffic to, and awareness of, your company’s site. This translates directly into money flowing into your company, making a Webmaster’s services all the more invaluable for the long-term viability of your site.

For many reasons, Webmasters are worth the investment. They partner with your company to help achieve your goals in a way that’s becoming more and more vital to staying competitive.

ACU Web Services http://www.acuwebservices.com opened its electronic doors with Austin Coulson at the helm. Web design and Internet marketing have been passions of Austin’s for many years. He has managed marketing efforts for several companies in the technology industry and has been involved with every aspect of several businesses, allowing him to truly consult his clients in many respects. A website is one component of a successful strategy; Austin recognizes that marketing a website and using it efficiently with other business efforts is key. Under his leadership ACU’s offerings have flourished as this Riverside, CA-based web design firm continues to amass more and more satisfied clients.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Austin_Colson

Technical Support by: Eclipse Domain Services