Category: Websites

Broken links within your website are bad news from an SEO and visitor's perspective. Here is a free broken link checker that we have used for many years: https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com...

Here is free to use website button generator: https://www.clickminded.com/button-generator You can specify the background colour, which, incidentally, should be green as research has shown that this is the most effective colour for a call to action button. :)...

Blog is a contraction of ‘web log’. A blog is an online journal. It is chronological, so the most recent entry appears first. There are many reasons why you should have a blog for your enterprise. Here are seven of them: 1. Google likes to find blog within a website. If the search engines notices that something has changed within your website (i.e. that you have uploaded a new blog entry), it makes them happy. Imagine being a crawler and visiting a website that never changes. You would probably think: how boring. You can keep their interest by blogging frequently. 2. Writing makes you think. Talking about your area of expertise is fine. Writing about it is another thing entirely. In order to write something which is worth reading, you really have to think about it, don't you? 3. Your blog can feed your newsletter. I have lost count of the number of business people who have said to me: “What can I...

XML = eXtensible Markup Language An XML sitemap is a file that resides on your website server. It comprises lists of your website URLs. An XML site helps the search engines to figure out the structure of your website. It is a good idea to include a link to your XML sitemap within the footer area of each page of your website....

IntoDNS checks DNS health and configuration. It also provides DNS and mail servers reporting. Suggestions are given to fix and improve problems: https://intodns.com Also try: https://www.whatsmydns.net...

A 301 redirect is a permanent server redirect, i.e. a web page URL change of address. 301 redirects are typically used when relaunching a website, so that you can redirect visitors and search engines to the new pages. This can happen when you change your Content Management System (CMS). For example, if you change a website over to WordPress, the URL structure would be different to what you had previously. The 301 status code is an HTTP response. It means that a URL has moved permanently. Therefore 301 should only be used for permanent redirection....

Here is a website checklist: Objectives *  What is the primary objective for your website? For example: A. Brand awareness? B. Credibility? C. Customer engagement? D. Sales enquiries? E. Sales? Market segments *  What is the primary target market segment for your website? *  Are there secondary target markets? Structure *  Is the navigation bar logical? *  Is the navigation bar easy to understand? Design *  Does the design look professional? *  Do the colours work well together? *  Is the same font used throughout the site? *  Does the design get in the way of understanding? Branding *  Is there a consistent visual brand identity? *  Is your logo positioned in the upper left-hand corner of your homepage (and, ideally, every page)? *  Is there a favicon image? SEO *  Do you have a keywords list? *  Are you using Title Tags? *  Do you have an in-bound link building strategy? *  Are you using anchor text links? *  Is there a Sitemap link in the footer area? First-time website visitors *  Top of the homepage: is it clear what you do? User experience *  Does the site load quickly? (Ideally, in less...

Links within your own website are just as important as backlinks (i.e. links pointing from other websites to your site). Anchor text should be part of your SEO link building strategy. Anchor text is the text within a hyperlink. This is important, as the search engines analyse this. For example www.marketingcompass.co.uk …or… The Marketing Compass impartial marketing advice. Search engines examine anchor text, in order to figure out what the destination web page is about. They are doing their best to be helpful to the searcher. Think of it this way, Google would like to know as much as possible about the subject of the page to which the link points. Therefore, inserting keywords into anchor text helps search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo to do a better job. Have you noticed how Wikipedia uses anchor text? One topic leads to another and yet another. Wikipedia is at the top page 1 for millions of items and I have no doubt that its extensive...

Your entire website may revolve around e-commerce or you may have a section of your website devoted to selling products or packaged services. Writing about products within websites can be harder than it looks, can't it? Here are some tips and ideas for you. Always see it from the busy customer's perspective. Who are they? What are they looking for? Why should they buy your product? Think of each product description as an advertisement in its own right. On this basis, you need a headline, some bodycopy, the price and a call to action. Headline The headline is the single most important item of copy. If the website visitor does not understand the headline, they will not read further. Product description headlines should clearly convey what the product is and what it does. If there is room, include a benefit as well. Many e-commerce product headlines only provide the product name. The problem being that this may not tell the busy website visitor what the product does or why they should...