Read Building Web Sites All-in-One For Dummies® Online
Authors: Claudia Snell
Alternatively, if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can use the Web Capture feature to capture the entire page as a PDF document.
6.
Contact the Webmaster of the domains that you'd like to link to your client's site.
Compose a simple e-mail to the Webmaster explaining that your client's site has information that would be beneficial to the visitors or the Webmaster's site. The Webmasters will ignore you, disagree, agree, or ask you to provide a reciprocal link. If the Webmaster doesn't agree to link to your site, thank him and try to find out why he refused. This information might help you fine-tune the site.
You can perform a similar search at Yahoo.com to find out which sites are linked to your client's competitors. Type
Link:
followed by the domain name in the Yahoo! search engine to find out which sites are linked to your client's competitors.
If your client uses a particular product to perform his service, ask the Webmaster of the manufacturer's Web site to link to your client's. For example, if your client is a musician and exclusively uses Gibson guitars, ask the Webmaster of
www.gibson.com
to link to your client's site.
Danger, Will Robinson! These do not compute!
Certain elements of Web design are frowned upon for commercial sites because search engines have problems with them. If possible, you should avoid these elements like the plague, but if your client insists on using elements such as framesets and Flash, take a look at the following sections, which discuss the problems and workarounds.
Optimizing sites with frames
If your client wants to get framed, you'll need a private investigator or a good attorney to untangle the mess. But we digress. Web site search engines do a notoriously bad job of indexing sites that use frames â so bad that you should insist your client shy away from frames. When a site is created with
frames,
more than one HTML document can be displayed on a page. Each document is displayed in its own frame. The problem is that when you submit the site, you're submitting the page with the code that designates how large each frame is, how many frames there are, and so on. In other words, there's no real content, such as text, images, alt text, and other items, that search engine spiders can sink their teeth into and properly index the site. If, however, frames are the only logical solution for the e-commerce site you've been hired to design, there is a workaround.
Add the
Listing 3-1: Optimizing a Site with Frames
Within the
tags, place your optimized content for the search engines. You can copy and paste content from the page that shows up in the main frame when the site first loads. You can include all content from a page including HTML within these tags. Use the optimization tips discussed earlier in this chapter. Be sure you include content in the
Jumpin' Jack Flash is not such a gas
A Flash movie is a thing of beauty â what with dancing images, flying letters, and whatnot. Many designers like to use Flash for an intro or splash page. They look cool, but search engines think they hit a major fog bank 'cause they can't see links, text, and all the other stuff they use to index a site. In spite of this, you can do a few things to increase the visibility of a Flash intro or splash page because the Flash movie is housed inside an HTML document:
⢠Use the
⢠Add text that will appear below the
fold
(the area below the browser status bar that viewers will have to scroll to). The text you add should be meaningful because some people might be curious and scroll down to see what's there.
⢠Add a text navigation menu below the fold. Search engine spiders can't see what links are in a Flash movie, but they can read the text links and use them to spider the other pages in the site.
Using search engine software
You can use other methods of optimizing your site and then submitting it to search engines. Some software applications can analyze your Web design in regards to popular search engines. The actual options depend on the application. Some applications make suggestions on what you can do to optimize the site, some generate keywords, and others provide means for submitting your site to the most popular search engines. WebPosition 4 is considered the granddaddy of optimization applications. You can download a trial version by visiting
www.web-positiongold.com
. You can find other optimization packages by typing
“search engine optimization software”
in your favorite Web browser. You can also find reviews of optimization software to determine which package best suits your needs. Some applications enable you to track a given number of optimized sites. As of this writing, the standard edition of WebPosition 4 enables you to optimize and track five domains, whereas the Pro version of the application features unlimited domain support.
Marketing the site to the world
You can use many different methods to market an e-commerce site. The client usually does this after the site goes live. However, your client will probably count on you for suggestions, or you might decide to include marketing as part of your design contract. In either event, you need to know something about marketing an e-commerce site â or you have to employ the services of a professional Web site marketing company. As with any organization, Web site marketing companies come in all flavors. Your best defense against a snake-oil salesman masquerading as a professional Web site marketing company is to do some research or take advantage of some of the services you can purchase through search engines.
Using a pay per click promotion
Many search engines offer the option of a paid ad that shows up in a results page when users enter a certain keyword or key phrase. Like anything else, he who swings the biggest club gets the game. With most search engines, you specify how much you'll pay for each click on an ad that appears when users enter a specified keyword and specify your maximum budget per month. The placement of your ad is determined on how much you bid per click versus your total budget. In other words, if your bid on a keyword and budget is higher than another advertiser's, your ad appears before hers. If your bid is high but your budget is low, your ad appears lower in the list. To get a concise idea of how this works, visit the Google AdWords Help Center at
https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US
. (You can also read through
AdWords For Dummies
by Howie Jacobson. For a bigger picture, read through
Pay Per Click For Dummies,
3rd Edition, by Peter Kent. Both books are from Wiley.)
When you take out an AdWord, you create the content for your ad. The resulting ad appears in a prominent position in the search engine's results pages for the particular keyword(s) you purchase. Figure 3-1 shows the results page for the key phrase,
Tampa Photographer.
The paid ads are on the right side of the page.
Figure 3-1:
Keyword ads can help draw traffic to an e-commerce site.
When you decide to include paid keyword ads in your online marketing campaign, you have four steps to complete before that paid keyword ad is in place:
1.
Determine which keywords are relevant to your client's business.
If your client markets many products, he'll quickly go bankrupt paying for ads for each product he sells. If your client sells multiple products, the key is to break the phrases related to your client's offerings' genres. For example, if your client sells three brands of acoustic and electric guitars, a logical choice would be
acoustic guitars
and
electric guitars.
Your client pays for two key phrases instead of six.
2.
Find the most popular keywords and key phrases that relate to the particular genre.
You can employ an online marketing company to do this work. If your client is on a budget, he can use one of the online tools, such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool, which you can find at
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
. Simply enter the word for which you'd like to find keywords, and the site comes up with a page of results. Figure 3-2 shows the results for the key phrase,
Tampa Photographer.
The results page shows the key phrases used most in conjunction with searches for a photographer in Tampa, Florida. Note that the key phrase,
photographer tampa,
was used the most times when searching for a photographer doing business in Tampa. The most popular keyword or key phrase is also the most expensive. Review the list and find a keyword or key phrase that is most relevant to your client's business and will result in customers perusing his Web site. To take the Tampa photographer scenario a step further, the fourth keyword on the keyword suggestions page,
tampa florida photographer,
might be the ideal choice.
Subscription services for keyword research are also available. Wordtracker (
www.wordtracker.com
) and KeywordDiscovery (
www.keyworddiscovery.com
are available by subscription and also feature free trials.
Figure 3-2:
You can find suggestions for keywords and key phrases online.