Shen Valley Tech

Types of Websites

A website is the simplest way to establish a presence on the internet. It can present almost any information or organization you can think of to internet users. Examples are:

a business
a family information website
a photo sales site
a personal photo album
a club’s website
a social organization
a non-profit organization
a personal opinion blog
a business based blog
and the list goes on.

Researching Keywords

Looking for keywords? Strategic use of keywords is important. One of the ways to research for the right keywords is to use the Google Trends tool. Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter‚ relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They then show you a graph with the results — our search-volume graph — plotted on a linear scale.

Transforming your Ideas to the Web

Where do I start?

The answers to the following questions will provide enough information to proceed in the design or redesign of your web site.

What do you want someone to do once they have visited your site — that is‚ what is the call to action?
How should a user feel when they visit your site‚ and what should be their lasting experience?
Name three sites that appeal to you and explain what it is you like about them.
Name three sites you don’t like and explain why you dislike them.
What is your budget and ideal time frame?

How do I make the search engines find me?

Although many people make a living at Search Engine Optimization‚ I do not. But the following notes I took at a talk I attended during the Webmaster Jam Session 2007 should assist you in understanding what Search Engines look at and how to organize you information.

The talk‚ presented by Darrin Ward. Darrin‚ an SEO Industry Professional & Founder of SEO-Chat™‚ discussed optimizing websites for better organic search traffic while avoiding the common pitfalls that result in penalties and website filtering. Some important points are:

Using Keywords: Find new keywords that can deliver high volume‚ targeted‚ organic search traffic that converts into sales.
- Titles and H1 selector content should be under 70 characters and contain main keywords.
- Meta data which is the text seen on a search page describing a site should be no more than 200 characters in length.
- Meta keyword tags should be no more than 300 characters with no spamming. Keyword spamming is discussed here.
- Use keywords in hierarchical instances like headers which have higher weight during a search than paragraphs.
Content Optimization: Content is King‚ but not all content is created equal‚ and only the best will do for SEO.
Linking Strategies: Links‚ links links. They’re super important when it comes to SEO.
- Request links from other pages.
- Use all lowercase in urls.
- Use target keywords in urls

There are additional SEO information sites on the Resources page.