Meta Tags can be so confusing when tending to your website’s SEO. So I thought I’d give a few tips on writing your site’s Title Tag. You might think that would be the easiest one, because most people put their business name as their Title Tag. But that’s actually, in most cases, the least beneficial thing you can do as far as SEO is concerned.

Title Tags are not meant to be your business name or title; they are meant to attract the search engines, and also potential customers. And in a lot of cases, your business name has very little SEO appeal. For example, let’s say you sell used books, and say your business name is Between the Shelves. That doesn’t exactly tell Google or potential customers what you sell. And in fact, since the first word of your Title Tag has the most relevance and most importance for Google, the word ‘Between’ is really a poor choice as the first word for your Title Tag. And as a result, your Title Tag would rank much lower than other used book websites, especially if they have the word, ‘Books’ as their first Title Tag word. So they are going to appear higher up in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) and will likely get the website traffic that you want!

Your Title Tag’s first word should have the most importance and relevance to what you sell in your store. So, if books are what you sell, then the obvious choice for the first word in your Title Tag should be ‘books.’ That’s probably one of, if not THE first keyword for your website too, so all the better if it’s the first in your website’s Title Tag.

And speaking of keywords, which are good to have in your Title Tag, don’t make the mistake of cramming your Title Tag full of too many keywords; or worse yet, an endless string of them. Google (or any SE) doesn’t like that and considers it spamming. The Title Tag should probably have only one or two keywords, so make them count and choose your most important one or two (at the most).

Then you also need to say something something else in your title, as briefly as possible, to get Google’s and searchers’ attention. You have 63-70 characters (which includes spaces) to get the attention of anyone who sees your website in the SERP’s. That is all that will display of your Title Tag. So you have to make those characters count. So the goal is always to get an important, relevant keyword at the front of the tag, followed by some important info about your store or service, that will grab the reader’s attention and make them choose your store’s link as the one they click on and visit from those results.

Using our used bookstore as an example, here’s an option.

Books – Used and New with the best prices Between the Shelves.

I managed to work in the business name at the end of that Title Tag example, which isn’t even necessary. But I liked the way it sounded. And it comes in at 62 characters, which is right where I want it to be to have the full Title Tag displayed. It gives you an idea too of how you can still work in the name, if you like, while keeping the important keyword at the front of the Tag…and still making it inviting to anyone searching for used books on Google and finding your link in the results.

So to sum it all up, here’s what you need for an effective Title Tag when creating your website’s Meta Tags:

• A relevant, important keyword at the front of the tag.

• One or two keywords, at most.

• Some important, inviting information about your store or service.

• Less than 70 characters, including spaces (63 should be your target number).

I hope this helps you master the art of writing a good Title Tag for your website. Meta Tags can be confusing, but with time, research, and a lot of patience, you can get your website’s SEO exactly where it needs to be.

Did you know that the speed of your website can affect your Google ranking? Website speed has been a factor in Google’s ranking algorithm since last year. Google says it’s not the most important factor, out of around 200 different ranking factors. But since it is a factor, it is worth paying at least a little attention to it.

In addition to Google, slow website speeds can have a detrimental affect on your business. Why? Because your customers do not want to sit around waiting for slow pages to load. And lets be realistic: not everyone can afford ultra-fast Internet connections. There are many, many people still on dial-up (yes, really!) or who have less than stellar connections. These people do not want to visit websites that take forever to load, so they will leave your website. And if they leave, you’ve just lost a potential sale.

So what are some things that can and do slow down your website?

• Images with Large File Sizes. This is one of the biggest culprits in slowing down a website. The more photos you have, the slower your site can become, if your file sizes are too large. In most cases, the file size of each of your images should be no larger than 50K. And if you’re website is on a shared server, they should be even smaller. So optimize all photos on your website. See our Graphics and Photo Tools page for a list of Image Optimization tools we recommend.
• Unnecessary Images. If you have cutesy little graphics all over your website (header graphics, divider graphics and such), these are unnecessary. They don’t help promote your products or services. They don’t enhance the quality of your customer service. They don’t serve a function, other than to look cute–and slow down your page!
• Hotlinked Images. I’ve talked before about Hotlinking.  This is when you are using HTML code to link to a photo on another website, in order to make it appear on your own site. It’s also called bandwidth theft and you really shouldn’t do it. Having a lot of images hosted elsewhere, rather than on your own site, can cause your site to slow down as it waits for images to load. And again, the more images you have like this, the worse the problem becomes.
• Slideshows and Videos. Sure they might be fun to look at (sometimes), but they seriously slow down your website. You don’t need these things to showcase your products. All you need are good, quality (well-optimized!) photos.
• Widgets, Widgets, Widgets. Music players, cursor trails, falling snowflakes (or leaves, or hearts, or flowers–ugh, I’ve seen them all) are a great way to slow down your website. And guess what? They’re annoying too! Do you see any of those things on the top shopping websites? No! And with good reason.
• Any Other External Codes. If you have too many external codes on your site it can definitely slow down the page load time. Tweet buttons. Share This buttons. Like buttons. Flash animations. Javascript. The more you have, the slower your site can become. So only use what is needed.

Again, site speed is not the number one factor in Google’s ranking algorithm. But it is a factor. So you should take it into consideration. A website that takes only a couple of seconds to load is considered fast, and that is a great goal. 2-5 seconds isn’t fast, but in many cases it’s good enough. But over 5 seconds? Houston, we have a problem.

Want to test your website’s speed? Here are some resources that can help.

iWeb Tool

Pingdom

Page Speed Online

Web Site Optimization

LinkVendor Website Speed Test

Speed isn’t everything, but Google rankings aside, you don’t want your website to be slow for your customers. They will be only too happy to leave your website to go to a faster one, and take their money with them.

Please click on the magazine cover image if you’re interested and it will take you to the download page of the current issue. This will be my last feature article for Creative Times. I’ve enjoyed writing their business column for the last couple of years, but I’m just in need of lightening my load a bit. So I decided to stop writing the column. Will still keep reading the magazine though, because I was a reader long before I started writing for CT.

One of the pitfalls of running a topsites list is the tendency of website owners to completely ignore their list site once it’s setup.  And to me, that’s just not good business. Your topsites list is a direct reflection of your website, and of you as its owner. As such, you should work to maintain that list and the integrity of your professionalism as a business owner. So below are some things that I see all too often on topsites list pages, and they are things you should work to avoid.

1. Broken Image Links: This is really one of the biggest things to avoid because it makes your entire topsites list page look sloppy and unprofessional. If your list contains a lot of broken image links where members’ banners should be, you need to either remove them, or email the members to request the correct URLs for their banners and update them. Make it a habit to check your topsites page at least once a month and get rid of those broken links.
2. Too Many Ads: A lot of topsites list owners sell ad space at the top of their list pages. That’s fine. But when you have too many ads, that’s a problem. I’ve seen topsites list sites with 30 or 40 ads at the top, before I even get the list members banners. Some have more ads at the bottom too! You want to have a well-populated and active topsites list membership, but why should anyone bother to join your list if their own ads will never get noticed? Keep your ads to a minimum–no more than 10 or 15 (less is always better).
3. Reset Never: If your list is set to never reset, that means that new members pretty much have zero chance of ever having their banner link make it to the first page. I visit lists all the time where the front page members have hundreds of  hits in, so this is the tip off to me that the list never resets. Once I scroll down to the bottom of the list, I can usually confirm this because it will say, Next Reset: Never. And guess what? I don’t join those lists. You  need to give ALL your list members a fair chance to reach the first page. What’s the point of having it otherwise? At the very least, your list should be set to reset every 30 days.
4. List Ambiguity: I have seen far too many topsites list pages without a clear explanation of whom their list is targeted to. If you’re promoting primitive or country sites, your list should say so. If you’re promoting WAHM sites,  or Jewelry sites or Doll sites, whatever it may be, your list should say so. Make it clear to potential members and shoppers exactly what kind of sites can be found on your list. Either make it clear in the title of your list, or add a descriptive paragraph at the top of the list page with this information.
5. Unreadable Fonts: Many topsites list pages have fonts that are extremely difficult to read. The fonts may be too small, or an odd color, or just too busy a font to read. Again, this just looks sloppy and unprofessional. If your goal is to help other website owners promote their business and get more traffic, then their website information needs to be readable. So choose fonts that are large enough, simple enough, and a readable color that is easy on the eyes.

And just two final points to ponder…if you join topsites lists. First, don’t put your voting banner links on the main page of your website. The reason is pretty simple: you work hard to drive traffic to your website, so why send it away to other sites as soon as it gets there?! Create a new page for your voting links, and just link to that page from your main page. And second, click on your voting links yourself on occasion! The whole point of joining the list is to get more exposure, and to do that, you need to try to get to the front page of the list (because that’s where it’s going to get noticed!). That won’t happen without votes. So help yourself out and vote for yourself once in awhile.

]]> http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2010/03/tips-for-topsites-list-owners/feed/ 0 http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2009/12/right-click-much/ http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2009/12/right-click-much/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:15:05 +0000 admin http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/?p=561 There are a lot of website owners who want to protect the images on their websites from would-be graphics thieves, and this is understandable. They have every right to protect their intellectual property. However, the mistake that is often made by website owners is the addition of a No-Right-Click Script, a bit of code added to their template, which prevents anyone from right-clicking to steal images.  So why is the No-Right-Click Script a mistake?

1. It prevents people from right-clicking to open other parts of your website in a new tab or window.
2. It prevents people from right-clicking to open links to other websites that you have on your site.
3. It prevents people from right-clicking to bookmark your website.
4. It prevents people with web-based email accounts (like Hotmail and Yahoo, etc) from right-clicking to copy your email address in order to send you an email.
5. It doesn’t stop people who know they can view your site’s source code to get the URL of an image and steal it that way.
6. It doesn’t stop people who know they can do a Print Screen to copy the page the image is on; and then they can use any graphics program to crop the photo they want and save it.
7. If your script generates a message like, “Don’t Steal My Images,” you can offend your customers who were trying to do no such thing, and send them on their merry way…to someone else’s website.

If you really want to protect your images, there’s one easy solution: watermark them! You can do this yourself with a graphics program; there are even websites that allow you to do it online. Or you can pay someone to do it for you. Either way, that is the best way to protect your website’s images.

For further reading…

Watermarking Photos

Graphics Tools

]]> http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2009/12/right-click-much/feed/ 0 http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2009/07/hide-and-seek-order-information/ http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2009/07/hide-and-seek-order-information/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:53:00 +0000 admin http://www.onlinebusinessjunction.com/2009/07/08/hide-and-seek-order-information/ Do you want customers to order from you? If so, don’t hide (or completely omit) information they need before placing an order. It really would be wise to provide a page of information on your website (perhaps called, “Order Information”) that includes relevant information about the ordering process. Include the following items at the very least…

* Forms of Accepted Payment
* Applicable Sales Tax that will be added to their total
* Information on how to purchase Insurance, if available
* Information for International customers (and if you don’t ship Internationally, you are missing out on some great potential sales!)
* Shipping Carriers, Rates, and Policies
* Your Return/Refund Policy

It is really annoying to me, as a customer, to visit a website and not be able to find this information. And I have never ordered from a website where this information was missing! And what’s more, if it cost you my sale, I guarantee that it cost you other sales as well.

If nothing else, provide this information on a FAQ page or something similar. But put it somewhere, and make it easy to locate on your website. A confused or annoyed customer is not going to stick around for long.

I really hate it when I visit a website to shop, find a product I like, and I can’t find the dimensions listed for it. And then as I browse around, I find that most or all of the products have no dimensions listed. All I can say is….URGGGH. And oh yeah, you just lost a sale! Because I am not going to take the time to send a website owner an email to ask them the dimensions of the product. I am instead going to go find that product elsewhere. Even if it’s a one of a kind object, I’ll just live without it, on sheer principle alone. And frankly, some folks will leave a website for lesser reasons. So how many sales might you be losing?

It’s worth some thought, and the time it takes to break out a ruler and measure your products. Your next sale may depend on it.

No Wholesale Terms: Do you offer wholesale products on your website? If so, do you have a page that lists your wholesale terms? If not, you really should. I personally cannot stand when I find a site that has some products I might like to purchase wholesale. But after scouring their entire site, their wholesale terms are nowhere to be found. That drives me nuts! Sometimes, it irritates me enough that I will just leave the site. I do not want to go through the hassle of requesting wholesale access, only to find out that your minimums are too high for my budget, or your shipping rates include outrageous “handling fees”, or that you don’t allow resale of your products on another website. Come on, save us all the guesswork (and the bother) by having your wholesale terms spelled out on a page of your site!

New Products, No Photos: Are you adding new products to your website, before you even have the photos of the products ready to upload? Sigh. If so, why? I can’t be the only person on the planet who is NOT going to buy a product I cannot see. And I really hate surfing through a site seeing product after product with no photos! If you want to tell folks what is coming in the future, then just create an info page where you can list those products by name.

Too Many Product Pages: Do you have 10 pages of products in one category? This one really gets to me. If you have a lot of products in one category, use an option on your site that allows a page of thumbnails to be seen before each individual product page. I personally would rather see all the products you have in a category on one single page; this allows me to click on only those products that I have interest in seeing, rather than having to click through 10 pages of products to find the one product I am looking for. You want your website to be as efficient and as easy to navigate as possible, so if you are making customers flip through page after page after page, you are not making it easy for them at all.

Guess that’s it for now. These are just some things that I’ve been seeing a lot lately, and they just bug me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Can’t hurt to share info like this because not everyone will think of the consequences of some of these things, which can include (Yikes!) lost sales.

Many domain sites, GoDaddy for example, allow you the option of automatic renewal, so that you never have to worry about your domain expiring. But they also will at least send you a notice before your domain expires so that you can renew it before it does. If your domain provider does not have one of these options, then you should seriously consider moving the domain to one that does! I see folks letting their domains expire all the time, and it just makes no sense to me when it is totally preventable. Can you just imagine having a five-year-old website, letting the domain expire, and then having to rebuild the site–and your business and reputation–all because of the expired domain?! It happens!

So do yourself a favor…right now…log into your domain account(s) and check the expiration date. And if you see an option for automatic renewal, save yourself some future worry and use it. Better safe than sorry.

1. You are volunteering to get lots more SPAM. If you don’t already know this, there are programs that are designed to scour the entire Internet, collecting email addresses for the purpose of sending SPAM. The culprits are generally called Spambots. They crawl the Web in search of email addresses that are posted there, free for the taking. And when they get them, guess what, you start getting more SPAM!

2. You put yourself at risk for Spoofing. Spoofing is when an email is sent that appears to be from one source, but it’s really from another (usually a spammer). I have heard lots of complaints from website owners about receiving emails that they appear to have sent to themselves; or they get emails from people telling them to stop sending them emails–which of course, they didn’t send. This is a perfect example of spoofing. And one really easy way to get spoofed is post your email address on your website, or in forums.

You need to protect your email addresses, people. If you must post it in a forum or on your website, do it in such a way that makes it impossible (or at least really difficult) for it to be collected by spambots and other programs. Here are some tips…

* Type Out the Address: MyName at mydomain dot com.
* Insert a BLAH: MyName@mydomainBLAH.com (instruct folks to remove the BLAH)
* Use a Graphic: Instead of listing your email address, put it on a graphic and add the graphic to the page instead. But DON’T use the Mailto hyperlink with the graphic so that people can click the graphic and compose an email. Spambots know what mailto links are and they collect those too! You can use an ALT tag though, for folks who don’t view images on web pages. But do it smartly, make the ALT tag spell out your address as listed above (MyName at mydomain dot com).

There are other things you can do as well, but these are the easiest to use. Be smart with your email address (and other people’s email addys as well!); you really should protect it as much as possible. If you don’t, and if you are careless about posting it on the Internet, you are likely the cause of a lot of your own SPAM.