Ask Cricket

I have not been in the class in about a year so maybe you have covered this recently.

Plug Boards are popping up everywhere:

1. Do they help at all for SEO?
2. What do you think about them for marketing outside of SEO?

Thanks,

Cynthia Powell, South Carolina
Chicks & Cubs

Hi Cynthia!

You didn’t mention if you are asking about plug boards from the standpoint of adding one to your website, or as a method to increase incoming links. To be on the safe side, I will try to touch on this topic from both aspects.

Part of this goes back to website credibility. Take some time to browse the net, and tell me how many professional businesses you see using plug boards? In my humble opinion, plug boards may be cute for personal homepages, but they have absolutely no place on a professional business site.

The decision to place an outgoing link on your website should always be based on only one factor — are you adding the resource specifically for the benefit of your visitors?

If not, you are adding it for the wrong reason.

While developing a solid online business that you can depend on, both now and in the future, I generally recommend extreme caution when it comes to jumping on the bandwagon of the newest online fads of increasing traffic to your site. It simply isn’t worth the risks involved.

Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. Webmaster Guidelines

In most cases your will find that these types programs are of little or no value to your site and could potentially cause serious problems for you in the major search engines.

Much like any other artificial method of increasing links with the intent of increasing your site’s ranking, the major search engines are not likely to look on these types of links favorably.

Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors.

Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines. Some of these types of links (such as link schemes and doorway pages) are covered in our webmaster guidelines. Only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site. Webmaster Help Center

There are no shortcuts to increase links to your website that will be effective long term. It really does come down to hard work, and developing the type of content that people want to link to naturally.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Cricket,

It seems that more and more people are using Image Search tools in Google and Yahoo (and others). I have done a lot of reading about how to optimize your images & pages to increase your image search ranking. At one point, typical keyword searches in Google Image search were finding and ranking images from our website. They were coming up on the 1st page of results.

Then, about 6 months ago (or so) Google made some kind of change. All I can figure is it was the addition of the “safe search” mode, and we disappeared from the image search results. However, NONE of our images should be considered unsafe for kids.

In the interim, I’ve been optimizing our images (which are many) to reflect all the suggestions I’ve come across to enhance your image search rankings. It’s been a few months, and the results have yet to be seen. I do use the Google Site Map utilities to get the site indexed on a regular basis, but this has had absolutely no effect on the image search rankings.

I joined this class to brush up on the latest and greatest SEO techniques (which is great, thank you!), but in reviewing the course content, I see very little about how to effectively optimize for image searches specifically.

Do you have any good suggestions for image search optimization & how & why you get ranked? (We place very well on the organic keyword searches for sites).

Linda Levy, California
West Coast Weather Vanes

Hi Linda!

This one is actually a bit easier than you might imagine. Just use the keyword in the image file name, alt attribute, picture caption, and somewhere in the content surrounding the image.

If it seems that your images are disappearing from the results when search preferences are configured to safe search, you may want to add a meta tag in the head of your pages to declare the rating (either general or safe for kids) for your site.

<meta name="rating" content="General">

<meta name="rating" content="Safe For Kids">

Google Image Labeler ( a new beta service) really seems to be improving the relevance of image search results within Google images, so hopefully you will be seeing this improvement for your own pictures soon! As you have already noticed, it takes a bit longer to see changes in image search results, as they do not seem to be updated nearly as often as regular search results.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Dear Cricket,

Are there any rules of thumb or guidelines about opening one of your own webpages in a new window? For example, in my website, I have many external links to other websites. For these, I always open them in a new window. However, I also have many internal links. In most cases, I do not open these in a new window.

I’m wondering if there are instances when I should. For example, if I have a webpage where I reference something on another webpage within my site but the user may want to come back to the page after they’ve looked at the reference then should I open in a new window?

It sounds like I should but then I’m worried about doing too much of this. So before I start opening a lot of my own pages in new windows, I’d thought I’d check to see if there are any guidelines about when you should or shouldn’t do this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Susan Kielly, Minnesota
Graduation Party

Hi Susan!

WOW! You have picked a tough topic. It really seems that just about everyone has a different viewpoint about if, and when it is acceptable for a webmaster to open links in a new window.

In a standards based world, following the strictest methods of coding, it is never considered acceptable to have a link open in a new window. From an accessibility standpoint, if you do choose to have a link open in a new window you must somehow make that fact clear. You also have to consider that higher security settings are blocking more and more of these types of pages from opening. After all of that, your visitors may have different ideas about all of this.

I strive to find a way to meet the needs of my target visitors while still keeping web standards, security, and accessibility in mind. In the beginning I always used the target attribute to open links to other websites in a new window.

Slowly but surely, I have begun to move away from that and have been going back through my sites page by page to make changes as needed. There are still situations where I feel it is necessary, such as displaying enlarged images that are not part of a page, and sometimes with screenshots for step by step tutorials, but those are limited and I try to always clearly indicate that a new window will be opening.

I personally do not believe there is a black and white answer to your question. The best you can do is research all of the information and then reach a decision that you feel is best for your visitors.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket!

I am in round 2 of your SEO and Marketing classes and am learning so much. I am currently redesigning my entire web site and am wondering if you can reccomend any FrontPage classes that would be of the same quality as your SEO and Marketing classes? Or furthermore, do you reccomend FrontPage over Dreamweaver or some other web development software?

Thank you so much,

Jim, Groton, CT
Treasured Images

Hi Jim!

When it comes to the tools that you choose to use for web design, I think it is important to remember that they are just tools of the trade.

An artist may be very particular about the specific brushes he chooses to paint with, but in they end those brushes are just tools. The artist is the one who decides the creative actions the brush takes and the resulting art produced. I find it to be much the same with web design. FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and Expression Web, are all just tools. They are only able to do exactly what you tell them to do. The better the input from the web designer, the better the output from the programs.

There are literally millions of resources on the web today for learning to write valid HTML and CSS. The more time you invest learning the basics, the happier you will be with the results when you use these programs. Now, if you are looking for an excellent eBook to learn the basics of HTML, I highly recommend HTML 4.01 Basics Simplified by SR Emerson. (She teaches in our Website Development class.)

Take some time to browse through our Website Development Training Center. I think you will find several options that will meet your needs. Once you learn the basics, you might consider the advanced training by Cheryl Wise of Start to Web.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Cricket:

I’m into my second session with the SEO class, and following the marketing classes rather closely. So, I’m still a relative “newbie” on your lists. I’ve learned enough to know that there is still tons to learn, and I appreciate your good work.

I think this question falls between the cracks, between Marketing and SEO, and I don’t recall it being answered in either. However, I know I could glean a response from your many good instructions on both lists.

My question is, from a marketing standpoint, how can I make SEO a selling point in a web design business? I had a conversation with one potential client who said that the search engines basically pick up sites after a short time, so there’s not much to Search Engine Optimization.

Argh!

How might I better answer a statement like that, and, in a small amount of time, tell someone that SEO is much more complicated today than that?

Thank you.

Gary Kopycinski, Illinois
Shire Enterprises

Hi Gary!

Certainly it helps to make sure that our clients understand what search engine optimization is. Being listed in the search engine results and the public being able to actually find their website in the results are two very different matters.

SEO is primarily concerned with advancing the goals of a website by improving the number and position of its organic search results for a wide variety of relevant keywords. SEO strategies may increase both the number and quality of visitors. Search engine optimization is sometimes offered as a stand-alone service, or as a part of a larger marketing effort, and can often be very effective when incorporated into the initial development and design of a site. Wikipedia

The fact remains though that search engine optimization is not at all complicated, nor is it difficult. It is really as simple as understanding that search engines return the results in the exact order of their perceived relevance to the search query.

It is however very time consuming, but only one part of developing a successful online business.

Additionally, remembering that top search results do not automatically equal an increase in business is vital. Getting people to visit the site is one thing. Getting those same visitors to stay and place an order is another matter all together.

Your website must provide the information that allows your visitors to educate themselves on everything involved in a developing a quality website that will provide the results they are looking for.

When a new business owner is trying to run a business and manage their website, it comes down to there only being so many hours in a day and deciding which things they can do, and which things are best left to someone else.

A website developer also has to make these same decisions.

Some business owners are looking for a design company that handle everything and others just want someone to get them started.

By offering a smorgasbord of services, your potential clients can decide which package best fits their own needs. This can only happen if your site clearly outlines the benefits of each service available in a way that helps them make a decision.

Dell Computers does a beautiful job of this on their website. When you are looking at a computer on Dell.com there are a variety of features available. For every choice in features available, there is a link to more information to help the visitors choose.

First they sell me on the benefits of owning a new computer by Dell. Once I have made that decision, deciding to upgrade to higher quality features for my new computer (while placing my order) suddenly become much easier.

Rather than making SEO a selling point, I think I would focus on this simply being one of the many services your potential clients can choose to include in their package that will save them time and effort.

Let them get sold on you and your web design company first. Only then will they begin to trust your recommendations for additional services you provide.

Many web developers are so busy trying to close the high dollar contracts that they lose the potential client’s business all together.

Try to remember that a million dollars in quarters and dimes, is still a million dollars. Stay focused on earning the trust of your potential clients first. Once they have made the decision to do business with you, all the rest works itself out quite naturally.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Dear Cricket,

I have a question. When a person builds a website or has a website built for them, I have seen different templates for that. My question is: Should the template reflect you as a person or what you are selling? For instance, I love gardening and I love the water, but I don’t sell those types of things.

I’m just so blank on this website idea. I’ve looking into getting it done by someone but it seems to cost a lot, and for me to create it, well let’s say I have a hard time sitting down to a computer after working on a computer for 8 hours.
 

Cathy Schroeder, Wisconsin
2Tempting2resist

Hi Cathy!

Although your own personality is bound to come across in your work, the design you choose for your website should reflect your target audience, rather than you or even necessarily the products you provide. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Let’s say for a moment that I sell motorcycles. This product is marketed to a few very distinct target audiences. Based on the inventory I carry, I need to decide whether I am targeting traditional bikers or motorcycle enthusiasts in general.

Overall, motorcycle enthusiasts tend to be a group of professionals that happen to enjoy riding motorcycles. Often times, they are more likely to purchase a touring motorcycle. Overall research seems to show that the average motorcycle enthusiast feels most comfortable in professional dealership surroundings. To help me get a feel for this, I would likely go visit a few professional dealerships both on and offline.

On the other hand, traditional bikers tend to leans toward a smaller Mom and Pop type business and more classic biker colors. They may also account for a large volume of sales in custom built motorcycles.

Again, I need to research the surroundings that this target audience is more comfortable shopping in. I will read popular biker magazines, visit a few relevant online forums, and maybe even spend an afternoon at a bike rally watching vendors and their interaction with the bikers.

Occasionally you may find that your target audience encompasses a few traits that initially seem to conflict. Using the example above, perhaps my inventory includes motorcycles traditionally marketed to both of these audiences. In this situation I need to find a way to combine all of this information into one design.

A few years back, I faced this very challenge when working with the Motorcycles Etc. website, owned by Johnny Holloway. I was able to find a way to use a classic white background for content, which is more closely associated with a professional business site, while still including more vivid colors often associated with bikers in general.

After that, the key to success for that website was lots of high quality, detailed pictures and tons of bulleted lists of motorcycle specifications.

Give your target audience what they are looking for, in the surroundings that they are the most comfortable in.

This concept can be used with any website, marketing any product or service, but it all starts with getting to know your target audience.

If you sell maternity clothes, you still need to know who is most likely to buy from you, based on your specific inventory available. The obvious answer is pregnant women, but that would likely be far too general in most cases. Are your clothes designed more for professional career minded women or are they designed for women looking for a more casual maternity wardrobe? All of these things will help you choose the best approach to take with the design of your website.

Now, even after saying all of this, I still going to recommend that you do not overcomplicate this whole process.

Yes, I want you to try to plan a design for a target audience.

However, if you spend too much time evaluating every tiny detail before you even start, you will never get your website up!

Do the best you can do with the information and skill level you have right now, and then improve over time. There is nothing wrong with starting with a quality template while you are working on your design or coding abilities, or even when the time you have available to work on a site is extremely limited.

Understand and accept that the odds are very good that you will never reach the point of thinking that the design of your website is perfect. You will be constantly tweaking one thing or another, while continuing to work on ways to increase targeted website traffic.

Do not even think of being afraid to make mistakes. It is through those mistakes that you will discover those things that work best for you and your specific business.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket,

I am interested in learning more about subdomains.

When, if at all, is it best to investigate this option as an add-on to your main domain?

For example, the purpose of my main site is to offer virtual office administration and business support services. One of my long-term goals is to utilize my creative side even more by offering custom corporate gifts such as greeting cards, and company promotional items, created from my artwork or photography.

Before I get to this point, I would like to know if an entirely new domain would be more appropriate, or if a subdomain would suffice?
 

Sincerely,

Renée Dawson, Ontario
North Shore Business Services

Hi Renée!

When you can make a strong correlation between the main website and the subdomains, such as you are considering, you can get by with using subdomains. However, I would not fully share navigation between the main site and the subdomains.

In the example that you mentioned, if I were to use subdomains, I would probably add a category section in the main site navigation for additional business support services, and then add custom corporate gifts, corporate greeting cards, and company promotional products as subcategories. I would not add all of the pages (of the subdomains) into the navigation, just the main categories, as shown below.

Additional Business Support Services
- Custom Corporate Gifts
- Corporate Greeting Cards
- Company Promotional Products

Of course you would need to research the exact key phrases you selected for the category and subcategories.

The subdomains should have their own navigation, with a link back to the main page of the primary site. Because of all the niches you mentioned are highly related to each other, they could easily be located within just one subdomain.

One possible negative of using a subdomain for this venture is that you may lose the benefits of having a domain name that includes keywords. You also will need to be more careful not to end up with excessively long file names by the time you add everything together.

When comparing domains vs. subdomains for this type of project, I would be most apt to choose one separate domain for the business support services you described.

If you have a web hosting company such as 1and1 that allows you to host multiple domains within the same account, you may find things a bit easier to organize. You will also likely experience a few advantages in your search engine optimization and marketing efforts.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hello Cricket,

The good news is that I’m not just getting traffic, I am getting sales! I hadn’t had any from the site until I began your course and made some changes. I’m on the first page of Google for many of my search terms.

My problem is that the template that was one of the few I could choose from that came with my webhost loads very slowly and will never validate because of errors in its code. I know I’m losing customers because of it.

The question is: if I get a new template that still keeps my left-hand navigation, isn’t flash or frames, will that affect my progress with Google so far?

I want a very plain template, but I’m so afraid that, even if I don’t change the content of my products, titles and descriptions, the change in the template code may affect my standing so far. Will it?
 

Cluny Grey, Arkansas
Cluny Grey Handcrafted Jewelry

Hi Cluny!

You are right to be concerned about which template you choose, but usually not because it may affect your SEO efforts. In most cases, the template you choose will have very little impact in your search engine standings, unless you are doing things like changing a page file name without also using a 301 permanent redirect.

Of course you still want to keep basic search engine optimization techniques in mind when choosing the template. You definitely do not want to suddenly start using methods that might make it difficult for the search engines to see and index all of your content or to follow your navigation links. I can tell by your email that you already know this though.

Quite often, people are surprised to learn that even the templates they purchase may not use valid code. In most cases, code that will not validate does not have much impact on your search engine standing unless the errors are bad enough to keep the search engine bots from seeing all of your content, or fully crawling your pages.

My primary reason for striving to use valid code is to help increase cross browser compatibility. Although not foolproof, validating your pages makes it much more likely that they will be usable for your visitors no matter which browser they are using. Clean code that keeps the design elements separate (external stylesheets) can also help your pages load a bit faster.

Learning the basics of HTML will help make it possible for you to correct errors in the code from a purchased template. Another option is to find a designer that will create a template for you that is valid to begin with. Either way, you will still want to learn the basic so that you can keep those pages valid when you add content or make changes.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Dear Cricket,

Recently I noticed that there are some unsavory websites linking to my site. I am concerned that this could reflect poorly on the credibility of my business or affect my search standings in Google.

Can anything be done to stop these bad incoming links to my sites?
 

Tina Clarke, England
Original Abstract Art

Hi Tina!

Beyond contacting the webmasters of the websites you mentioned and requesting that they not link to you, there is very little that can be done to stop bad incoming links. The good news though is that it really does not reflect on the credibility of your business at all, as you are not linking back to those websites.

Unless there were literally hundreds (if not thousands) of incoming links all using undesirable anchor text it would be rare to have an impact on your website in the search engines.

You may have heard of Google Bombing which is when a specific phrase leads to a certain site in the search engines, based entirely on a tremendous number of incoming links leading to a specific page using specific anchor text links. Since the websites you are concerned about are highly competitive, the odds of this happening would be slim.

“There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you’re concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don’t control the content of these pages.” Google Webmaster Help

Since I also find it highly unlikely that those visitors looking for the type of site you mentioned would be the same target audience that you are focused on, I would not waste a single moment of time worrying about it. Only concern yourself with those things you can control and do not even think of worrying about those things that you cannot.

UPDATE January 25, 2007 Google announced changes to help minimize the impact of Googlebombs on search results.

“By improving our analysis of the link structure of the web, Google has begun minimizing the impact of many Googlebombs. Now we will typically return commentary, discussions, and articles about the Googlebombs instead.” Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

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Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Dear Cricket,

I know that some fonts are better to use than others simply because they display correctly on more computers, but I was wondering if the size of the type I use in my product descriptions has any impact on SEO . I personally like larger type (I do wear reading glasses) and think others might also, but I see that many popular (high-ranking) sites commonly have typeface that is quite small. Does larger type make the information seem more important, of course, I’m not talking about any of the heading tags.

Thank you,
 
Cluny Grey, Arkansas
Cluny Grey Jewelry

Hi Cluny!

Within reason, I don’t believe the size of your font will have an impact on your search engine optimization efforts. In fact, usability guidelines really recommend that this be within the control of your visitors. As long as you are not using the super tiny font that spammers might use to hide text on a page, this should not be a major concern.

Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Google’s search engine also analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), Google’s technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. Google also analyzes the content of neighboring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user’s query. Google Technology

As long as you are designing pages in the manner that is best for your visitors, these things just all work together naturally.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Dear Cricket,

Is it true that if you purchase a domain name for 5 or 10 years or more it will improve your google ranking, rather than paying for 1 year at a time?

Charles Buhrmann, Texas
Texas Programmer

Hi Charles!

It is believed that Google may take how long you have owned a domain into account when determining the trust factor of a website. However, it is important to understand that if this is true, it would still only reflect only one of many factors that determine this.

Although there have been many rumors specifically concerning what you are asking, there does not appear to be any hard evidence that it has an impact either way. Since this is something that website owners could so easily manipulate, I find it unlikely to ever have more than a minimal impact on results.

The best way to improve your placement in the search engine results is to focus on increasing the number of natural incoming links to your website. Spend your time focusing on giving your visitors solid quality content and you will see this start to happen automatically.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Cricket,

I am basically a blank slate in regard to my web site as I am not currently offering a service or product. I have in the past been an AS-400 programmer, but like you have given up the corporate world for perhaps a better enriched life.

I do not have any workable ideas and am wondering if you might share a possibility for a web site with great income possibilities for someone with limited investment capital, ideas etc..

Your reply appreciated.
 
B Bowers

Someone once told me that the surest way to true success was to find something that I absolutely love doing, and then find a way to make a living doing it. It was without a doubt the best business advice I have ever received.

If you are passionate about a particular topic, you might want to simply consider developing a professional informational website focused entirely on that topic.

Once you have a handle on that, you might consider adding a program such Google AdSense or a few highly relevant affiliate ads to get you started. By allowing yourself the chance to explore all the different avenues of those things you most enjoy, opportunities just seem to start presenting themselves to you quite naturally. Over time, you may just find your niche evolving into a highly successful online business.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket,

In the Business site review someone asked me whether it was legal for me to display the MS Word logo on my site. I am checking here with you to get your opinion. It is on my home page and is used where I explain that books or manuscripts should be sent to me in MS Word format. Is this legal?
 

Shelly Rosenberg, Tennessee
Editing Proofreading & Resume Services

Hi Shelly!

In most situations such as this, corporations do not allow the use of their corporate or product logos without written permission, as this can imply a relationship between the website owner and the corporation.

Although there are limited circumstances in which Microsoft allows the use of their logos, their Corporate Logo Guidelines are generally very restrictive. When in doubt, I highly recommend contacting Microsoft for clarification, before using their logo images.

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Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket!

I have a wholesale soap company on-line with a shopping cart. To protect my customers and also so I don’t sell to just anybody I have a password protected site. I’m sure this is a problem with the search engines plus for those seeking out products like mine. I’ve been giving this some thought and my only solution that I can think of is to have a mirrored site, one with pricing and shopping cart the other without.

What’s your opinion on this or do you have another idea?
 

Linda Nigro, Tarpon Springs, FL
First In Line Soap

Hi Linda!

When we try to use one website to speak with two entirely different target audiences, each with very different needs, our content no longer speaks directly with our visitors. A huge part of the success of our sites is being able to create an atmosphere where our visitors feel as if we are conversing with them personally.

Your password protected site should be designed to meet the needs of your current customer base. That site should speak directly with your wholesale clients. However, you also need an avenue of attracting new wholesale customers.

I would create a new website, designed to attract new wholesale customers and optimize it to that specific target audience. The major search engines will not include password protected pages in the search results, so you will not need to be concerned if some information is duplicated between the two sites.

In terms of domain names, you could either use an entirely new domain for the website created to attract new visitors, or you could move all the password protected pages into a subdomain of First In Line Soap, making it possible for you to use that domain, and then simply include a link in your navigation to the wholesale client area.

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Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket,

I am going to be changing my domain name this week. I consulted with a trademark attorney and decided this was the best thing for me to do. Further research revealed 3 others using the same business name I initially chose.

I am not indexed by the search engines yet as I just uploaded my site 2 weeks ago. What is the best way to go about making this change? Could you tell me the major steps I need to take to stay within the boundaries of SEO? I appreciate your help!
 

Alicia E. Staz, Dillsburg, PA
Beaded Royalty

Hi Alicia!

Actually, from what I can tell, your site has been indexed in the major search engines since at least the 13th of this month. I show results in Google, MSN, and in Yahoo.

As soon as your website has been set up with your new domain name, and everything is working correctly, I recommend setting up a basic 301 permanent redirect from the old domain to the new domain.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Cricket:

I am curious if I switch web hosts how that will affect my current SEO rankings.

I am with several hosts now and I think it is needless to spend money on others when I can just have one host.

When switching are there any special considerations I need to take?
 

Craig Mullins, Pleasanton, CA
Pleasanton Daycare Childcare

Hi Craig!

As long as your website does not experience extended down time during the move, changing web hosts really has no impact on your current search engine results. Since you would not be changing the actual domain name, your Google PageRank also remains intact. If for some reason your site is down for a few moments when search engine spiders come to visit, they will return a short time later to check for your site again.

I like to set up the new hosting account at least a week before I need to make the move so that I have ample time to become familiar with the new web host and their control panel.

I keep my primary business domains with a separate registrar from my hosting company. This means I can have everything already set up at the new host and then make a simple change in the nameservers in my registrar control panel. These days a nameserver change with your domain registrar is usually propagated within a few hours, and sometimes within minutes.

I do not cancel service with the old hosting company until everything is up and running with the new web host for several days to a week to allow time for the DNS records to be updated worldwide.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket!

Content Management Systems are increasing in popularity by quantum leaps. Because they are driven by php there seem to be serious SEO considerations and/or consequences. Are you going to be addressing this issue in your classes?

Do you know if Google is planning to adjust its spider bot code to be able to index CMS sites? I’m sure they must see the handwriting on the wall as more and more hosting companies add CMS applications as part of their hosting packages.

Am I seeing a looming problem? Or is this a ‘not to worry’ issue?
 

Oregon Sue, Oregon
Living on Oregon’s Wilder Side

Hi Sue!

People tend to over complicate things without realizing it. The techniques used to build a quality website that will do well in the search engine results are identical, regardless of the type of site that we are designing. The only thing that changes is HOW we implement those techniques. Most of the time it is simply a matter of digging under the hood to find the code that give the output you are looking for. Once you have the code producing the results you need, simply follow standard methods of ethical search engine optimization.

When you are looking at a Content Management System (CMS) you will do the same things that you have done to make your WordPress blog search engine friendly, such as using mod_rewrites to create search engine friendly URLs. You are still going to create keyword rich titles that people will search for. Again, you may have to play in the code to get the output you are looking for with titles, to prevent every title starting with the name of your blog. Follow that up with solid content and relevant incoming links.

Edit: June 7, 2007

As with all sites though, you do want to make sure that you are not creating duplicate content without realizing it.

Understand your content management system: Make sure you’re familiar with how content is displayed on your web site. Blogs, forums, and related systems often show the same content in multiple formats. For example, a blog entry may appear on the home page of a blog, in an archive page, and in a page of other entries with the same label. Google Support

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

G’day Cricket,

OK, I’m rather confused about something - just what do your sayings of “Pay it Forward” and “keep paying it forward” actually mean? No matter how hard I try, I simply can not work out what it means.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing, or maybe I’m just stupid. (cheesy grin)

Cheers,

Matt De Bernardo, Australia
www.matdebweb.net.tc

Hi Matt!

Quite some time ago I watched a movie called Pay It Forward that had a substantial impact at how I look at things. When someone does something nice for you, instead of paying them back, you pay it forward to others.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket!

Since my site is being seen by more, I am getting more requests for linking. Today I received one from a site that sells coffee makers–which would be great since my site sells coffee/tea. However, upon further inspection I realized this site (the-coffee-maker.com) is actually just an entire affiliate page. Yes, it’s coffee makers, but the entire page takes you elsewhere.

I am assuming that this would NOT make a good link exchange.

Am I wrong?

Doreen Olver, New York
The Goodie Jar

Hi Doreen!

The easiest way to make these types of decisions is to ask yourself if the site in question will provide a quality resource for your visitors.

If the answer is yes, then I would have no qualms about exchanging links with the site.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved

Hi Cricket!

I have another question for you!! This is regarding link exchanges and google. When I type in link:www.craftedcustomgifts.com google only sees 7 pages that link to me. However when I use a link popularity checker I see many more people who have linked to me.

Why doesn’t google recognize these links and what can I do to fix this?? I have been working hard to get relevant links in place on my links page and I am trying to generate relevant reciprocal links, I just don’t understand this discrepancy.

Talina Norris, Flagstaff, AZ
Custom Gifts by Talina

Hi Talina!

Unfortunately using the Google Link Search Operator you described, is not an effective means of finding all of the links to your site. At this time, Google only displays a sample of the sites linking to yours using this method. This does not mean that they are not considering all links to a site when determining placement in the search results. They are simply not displaying all of the links.

The results you were finding using a link popularity checker may be effective for some search engines, but will not display more links indexed in Google than you already receive using the special link operator.

Although it requires sorting your own page links from the results, I can get a closer count for this query by searching for the URL to my site, enclosed in quotations. “www.gnc-web-creations.com”

With my time being extremely limited, I personally spend virtually no time checking how many incoming links I have. I would much rather invest that same time into creating more quality content that will encourage more people to link to my sites and articles naturally.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
Copyright © 2006 J. Walker of GNC Web Creations All Rights Reserved