For a limited time only, we are giving away a free $75(AUD) Google Adwords voucher to all of our new customers* to give your website a kick-start into driving traffic.

These vouchers convert to roughly $100(NZ) of advertising, which you can use to put yourself at the top of the Google results list.

If you use one of the following services, then we will give you your voucher, no questions, contracts or hidden agendas. It's simply a thank you gift from us.

The services that qualify for a free Adwords Voucher are:

• Website Design
• Website Hosting
• Website Maintenance
• Online Marketing

So fill in the form on the left, let us know which service you are after, and you will receive your voucher!
 

A few terms and conditions apply, these are:
Vouchers are only available to new customers. Limit one voucher per customer. Vouchers must be redeemed within two weeks, and only can be used with new Google Adwords accounts (less than 15 days old). These are not redeemable if you have already used an Adwords introductory voucher. Can not be exchanged for cash.

Recently I was pointed to look at a new website - a lights animation to Ellie Goulding's song "Lights".

This website isn't a video, but rather made in real time as you browse through the 3D world of lights. If you post a tweet about the website, then your name will appear in the lights. Clicking on the bubbles will send up a shower of sparks. As you move your mouse, the animation will follow you.

This amazing web display currently only works in modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox), but is well worth a watch. For those who understand the logistics of this website, and the WebGL used, you will be very impressed. For those who simply want to enjoy some good music and see a pretty lights display, I'm sure that you will love it too.

http://lights.elliegoulding.com/

What is a website address?

Your website address, or domain name, is used to identify and access your website. It looks something like www.yourwebsite.com. No two website addresses can be the same, so it sometimes requires a bit of clever thinking to ensure that you get a good one. Once registered, the website address is yours to keep, provided you keep paying the annual fee (usually around $40.00). If you let the fee lapse, someone else can snap up the address.

(This was the case last week in Australia, where the owner of www.investmentproperty.com.au forgot to pay his annual fee. Once his registration expired, the address went up for auction on the aftermarket, and was bought for AUD$135,000. And the previous owner didn't get to see a cent of it).

Your website address can also be used as your email address (name@yourwebsite.com).
 

How do I choose a good website address?

The best place to start is with something closely related to your business or organisation, for example, your name (www.joesplumbing.co.nz). Another good alternative is to find an address based around your main service or product (www.plumbing.co.nz). Either of these options would ensure that your website address is both relevant and memorable.

Another consideration to take into account is the length of the website address. It can not be any longer than 63 characters, however it is a good idea to stop quite a way before that length. Generally speaking, the shorter a website address is, the better it is. This is because of memorability and ease of typing. However, relevance and memorability both play a much more important role than length.
 

What not to do...

There are a few things that you should avoid doing when coming up with a website address.

• Don't take a second-choice ending. You may have seen some websites that end in .net.nz or .gen.nz. As a general rule, try to avoid these endings. Because they are much less common, you will find that people often mistype your address, and end up visiting your comeptitor with the .co.nz address.
• Don't use hyphens. If your first choice, joesplumbing.co.nz, has already gone, don't give in to the temptation to get joes-plumbing.co.nz. You will lose visitors who forget to put in the hyphen.

Always double check your domain name!

There have been many instances of people registering a domain name without looking at it from a different point of view. Take a look at these examples:

www.therapistfinder.com
www.expertsexchange.

I bet the first thing going through your mind wasn't "Therapist Finder" or "Experts Exchange".

As always, good luck with your website endeavours. And if you need any advice or help, you know where I am. I'm here.

Cheers,
Brad Gillon

Having now covered an Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation in Part One, and explored the depths of Page Titles in Part Two, Part Three will now look at meta descriptions; what they are, and why they are so important.

As with the previous two posts, this guide is still aimed at those who are new to SEO, and explores the basics in enough depth for you to implement some changes on your own websites.

What is a Meta Description?

A Meta Description is a sentence or two that is inserted into the coding of each page of your website, and it is used for a number of purposes. It should primarily sum up the content of the page, much like a plot summary tells the content of a book.

People who are visiting your website won't see it on the website itself, however search engines such as Google use this for a number of purposes.

As has already been discussed, the whole purpose of SEO is to get more visitors to your website, and this is where the Meta Description is very important.

Google will show the Meta Description to people searching for your website, such as in the picture below:

In the first of these two Google Results, the black writing underneath the first result is the Meta Description for that page.

The second result does not have a Meta Description coded in, so Google has used an extract from the page itself.

One of the benefits of a Meta Description is that you get to write it yourself, so you have control over what Search Engines show potential visitors to your website (to some extent). For this reason, the Meta Description should be thought of as advertising, and it should entice people to visit your website. This is your one shot to make your website stand out from all of the others in the website listing, and you need to make sure that potential visitors become actual visitors.

Use Traditional Advertising techniques (such as a call to action) and maybe even point out some of the reasons why a visitor should choose your company.

However, this isn't the only use for a Meta Description. You must also make sure that the description is relevant to the page. Home page descriptions should describe your business as a whole, much like general advertising. The Meta Descriptions for pages lower down your website should describe the content of that page. For example, if the page is full of details about a particular product or service, make sure that the meta description talks about that specific product or service.

Thirdly, the meta description should be full of relevant keywords that people might search for in Google. If you have a plumbing business, then the words "plumbing" and "plumbers" should appear in your descriptions. Google uses the meta descriptions when deciding where to display your website in its results, so if your description has the exact word that someone searched for, your website is more likely to appear higher in the results.

The best way to ensure that your meta description is effective is to keep altering it until you move up the listings. Make a change, then search for yourself in Google a week later to see if you have moved in the listings (The reason I say a week later, is that it takes some time for the change to be found by Google. Sometimes it could take a few weeks, depending on when your website gets searched).

Meta Descriptions need a lot of attention over a long period of time to be truly effective. If you are struggling for ideas, search for your industry in Google (i.e. Plumbers) and see how the people at the top of the results have done their descriptions. I'm not saying that you should steal their ideas, but it's certainly a good starting point, because it has obviously been effective for them!

As always, if you would like me to investigate your website and offer my opinions on your SEO, then get in touch, and I will take a look for you, free of charge.

After writing my Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimisation, I feel that it's about time I delved deeper into the science of SEO.

The points covered here are still very much aimed at those who are new to SEO; today I'm looking specifically at Page Titles, in order to give you a greater understanding of how important they are, and what you can do on your own website.

What Does a Page Title Do?

A page title is displayed to viewers of your website in multiple locations. Take a look at the following pictures to see where it can be displayed:

(Note: the page title in these photos is "SEO Part 2: Page Titles - Inspyre Web Design")

As you can see, only some of the Title is used here. It needs to be descriptive of the page, so that if visitors have multiple pages open, they can tell which is which.

A second place where Page Titles are used is in Search Engine Results (The Blue writing at the top of each listing is that page's title).

The third use of a Page Title, other than telling visitors or potential visitors about your page, is by Search Engines. Search engines (such as Google) use your page title to help to index your page, and display it on relevant searches.

So, how do you write an effective Page Title?

This is the million dollar question (or, at least it would be if you had paid that much for your website).

When writing a page title, one must remember the three primary uses for this page title, as displayed above:

• To help visitors to navigate your pages (The least important, but still worth considering)
• Used to advertise your page (Think about it, you only click on links in Google that look like they're what you want. You need your page title to scream "CLICK ME!" to potential visitors)
• Used to index your page

So, with that in mind, here are my top tips for creating an effective Page Title (in no particular order)

1. Clearly describe your website or business in the first few words of the Home Page's Title
The reason for this, and I feel that this is the most important thing in this whole blog, is that Google displays pages based on relevance. The words at the start of a Page Title are deemed more relevant than those at the end, therefore you will be displayed further up the results.

2. Keep it a reasonable length
If your page title is too long, the end will be cut off in Search Engine Results, which is undesirable. It makes your website seem less professional, and this is your one shot at getting visitors to click on your link.

The ideal length for a page title is 64 characters, however Google will display up to 66 characters (including spaces). Any more than this and the page title would be displayed as below:

3. Include your Company/Organisation Name at the End
This is a convention that I always follow when making a website. It ensures that visitors to your website know where they are going, and in my opinion it can make your website appear more professional to potential customers. This step is by no means necessary, but it's something that I always do.

4. Make sure that each page has a unique title
Google looks sternly upon pages with duplicated titles. A page title should show a potential visitor what they can expect to find on that page, and if the title can be the same for two pages either your title can't be specific enough, or you have duplicated content (which is also a no-no).

5. Ensure that the page title has relevant key words in it
As I have already said, Google uses the page titles to index content on your website, and to judge relevance to a search query. "Website Design" is very important to my website, so my homepage title has both "Web Design" & "Website Design" along with an extra word "websites". This increases the relevance of my homepage to the search query "Website Design".

Note: You must be careful when putting keywords into your title: if you are seen to be keyword-dumping, you could be pushed back in the listings, or even have your site removed from Google altogether.

6. Make sure that the title describe's the page's content
There is no need to title every page on my website with "Website Design". If I can get the homepage displayed high up the listings for those key-words, that's enough. I don't want every page on my website displayed for the same query. You should target a different (relevant) keyword with each page, in order to increase your website's exposure potential.

Finally, keep an eye on your website's statistics and make adjustments to your page titles as appropriate, in order to find the titles that bring the most visitors.

If you would like me to take a look at your website's Search Engine Optimisation, (including Page Titles), then get in touch, and I will investigate for you free of charge.

- Brad

Search Engine Optimisation is just about the best thing that you can do for your website. If you haven't heard of it before, I suggest that you read on.

There have been thousands and thousands of articles written about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), so this one will cover the basics, and hopefully be enough to give the everyday website owner a bit of an overview and a few hints. If you would like to pursue further reading on the subject, just Google 'SEO' and start at the top.

Search Engines display results based on a website's relevance to the search query. SEO is a process that will hopefully allow Search Engines to see just how relevant your website is, and display it further up the list accordingly.

Let me start by saying that there is no way of guaranteeing your website first place in the listings, and anyone who says otherwise is either lying or delusional. However, there are a number of things that can be done to increase your chances of appearing higher up on the results.

This guide is by no means complete, and I can't guarantee that implementing these changes will make any noticeable difference. That said, the suggestions in this post are generally accepted as the best way of Optimising your website, and there is a very high probability that following these steps will increase your website's ranking.

Number 1: Inbound Links

One of the most important factors in determining your website's relevance is its importance in comparison to the rest of the entire world wide web. Google's method of determining this is called PageRank (named after the inventor, Larry Page. It's just a happy coincidence that the PageRank ranks the pages of your website).

Google has a plethora of fancy algorithms that it uses to determine a website's PageRank, but for simplicity let's say that Google assigns each website a score out of 10. Those with a score of 5 will appear in search results above those with a score of 3.

The PageRank is determined solely by the number of other websites that link to your website, and the importance of those websites. Below is a graphic depicting PageRank for a number of interlinked websites.

source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

This image shows the importance of these websites in relation to each other. One thing of note is that even though C has only one incoming link, and E has six, C is assigned a higher PageRank because the incoming link is from a website of higher importance.

What we can learn from this is that we not only need more incoming links to our own websites, we need them from websites that are also 'important'.

One other point about incoming links is that we should strive to get links from similar websites. Any incoming link is good (unless it's coming from a spam website, but that's another story) however if you are a builder, and the incoming links are from other building-related websites, that will be even better.
 

Number 2: Content / Layout of your Website

When Google decides which website to put first in the results, it doesn't only judge the importance, or PageRank, it also judges how relevant your website is to the search query. The websites that it deems more relevant will be placed further up the list.

In order to help Google realise just how relevant your website is, we need to do a number of things. Firstly, make sure that your website is full of a lot of relevant content. If someone searches for "Drain Layer, Wellington", and your website has the words 'Drain', 'layer' and 'Wellington' all prominently on the page, Google will see that as your website being relevant. 

The Page Title also plays a large role in determining relevance. The title is what appears at the top of the page, and this is the most important factor in determining the page relevance. It should be no longer than sixty-four characters, and those characters should be used to clearly sum up the information that can be found on the web page.

As this post is only giving a brief overview of SEO, I'll save the juicy details of how to make an effective Page Title for a later post.

The next factor is the Meta Description. This is a piece of information that is inserted into the coding of the website that sums up the content of the page. A Meta Description should be about two sentences that give a clear overview of the content of that page. Think of this like a plot summary for a novel; it needs to entice a potential reader in, whilst concisely covering the content of the page. One important point is that this Meta Description will be displayed by Search Engines to real people, so ensure that it reads well. Again, I will cover this in greater detail in a later post.

The Meta Keywords are a very contentious subject; it is a piece of coding inserted into the website that lists some relevant keywords, specifically for that page. Google have claimed that they no longer pay attention to the Meta Keywords (as a result of Keyword loading in an effort to trick the Search Engines), however it seems that other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing still pay some attention to these, so they may be useful to have. Keep it to a maximum of ten keywords, and make sure that they're all relevant.

Lastly, the layout of the website is important. Words higher up the page will influence the Search Engines more than words that are further down the page. If your words are saved as an image (to make them look fancy), search engines won't be able to index them at all, so it is better to have the information as text, where possible.
 

Hopefully that explains some of the basics of Search Engine Optimisation, and you now have a grasp on what you can do to your own website.

Let me just close by saying that any changes that you do make won't appear immediately in the Search Engines; they could take anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on how often the Search Engines visit your website to see if anything has changed.

Also, know that SEO isn't a quick process, but if given attention over a long time, you should begin to see results.

When browsing for new website ideas, I have come across many different plug-ins or add-ons created by some very clever people, who have been kind enough to give out their coding free of charge for the general public to use.

One such person is known as Professor Cloud, who has created some of the best little tricks I have seen in a long time. He is responsible for the carousel that features prominently on my home page, and that I have used in a number of other websites too.

Here is one of his other tricks, which I wish I could find a use for because it is really very clever.
(Note, won't work in some old browsers)

Nebula

*** Sorry, your browser is unable to view this feature ***

For more info, or to see some more of Professor Cloud's plugins, please visit http://www.professorcloud.com/mainsite/index.htm

Websites don't look after themselves.

Many people don't realise it, but building an effective website is much like trying to lose weight; it involves a lot of work over a long period of time, and assuming that it can be taken care of in one swift transaction is, in the majority of cases, just not right.

Sure, the website can be built in a relatively short space of time. You should, however, think of this as akin to buying a new pair of running shoes: you've got the tools for the job, but you're a long way from the goal.

In order for a website to be effective, it needs to do two basic things:

• Get people to visit the website
• Convert those visits to enquiries or sales

This may not seem like a big job, but trust me, it is.

Both of these tasks require the dedication of time and energy, and if successful will ensure that your investment in a website will not go unrewarded.

Getting Visitors

Let's think about the various ways in which people can arrive at your website:

• They Googled something that led them to your website 
  (or, if you are adverse to the use of a noun as a verb, they searched on Google)
• They clicked on a link in someone else's website
• They intended to find your website, and typed the address into the bar

Now, let's look at how we can use this to increase your website's exposure and get more visitors.

In order to use Google (and other search engines) to send an abundance of visitors your way, you need to appear on the first page of results. There's no two ways about it. Of course, being on the second page of results will bring you some visitors too, but undoubtedly the higher up the list you make it, the more visitors will come. How often do you search through to the 11th page of results on Google?

There are two ways to move yourself up the listings on Google. Way number one is to pay Google for it through their Adwords program, which can sometimes be an excellent idea. However, the scope of that endeavour is beyond this article. The second is to organically move your way up the results; this means that you appear at the top of the listing because of relevance, and not because you have paid to be there.

In order to move up the organic listings, you must show the search engine that your website is the most relevant to the query, and this is where Search Engine Optimisation comes in. If you have never heard of SEO, I suggest finding out about it now, and then checking to see if your website is optimised for search engines.

In order to prevent this blog entry becoming too large and boring, I'll put off the details of SEO for a later post. But before I move on, let me again emphasise its importance.... very important.

The second method of getting visitors to your website is through links on third party websites. The simple way to increase the number of visitors arriving in this fashion, is simply to increase the number of links. Post in forums, and add your web address as part of your signature. List yourself in online directories (Finda, HotFrog and Google Places are good places to start). Get anyone with a relationship to your business to put a link to your website on their page (maybe even offer them a reciprocal link in return?). Even ask satisfied clients or customers if they wouldn't mind linking to your website; the more links, the better. Go on, go crazy with it.

The third method of attracting visitors is to let them know about your website, so that they go there out of choice. Make sure that your website address is on all of your stationary, on all of your ads, even on the bottom of all your emails. Spread the word far and wide.

By extension, you can also increase visitors by encouraging them to return a second time. If you have something fun or cool on your website, or if you are altering the content frequently, this will give people a reason to return.

So now that we have covered increasing the visitors to your site, let's look at how we can convert those visits to sales.

Converting Visitors to Enquiries/Sales

Your website needs to be easy to use. The layout needs to be clear, the content needs to be concise, and most of all, the customer needs to be able to find everything that they need. If I have searched for something in Google, and the first website I visit is outdated or difficult to use, I just hit the back button and go to the next website. You don't want to give your visitors a reason to leave.

One important factor is to make sure that your visitors can navigate around your website with ease. There is nothing worse than a website that is hard to navigate (facetiously speaking, of course). Add links to relevant pages where you can, and make sure that the important links always stand out from the text.

Of course, in order to generate enquiries, it needs to be easy for the visitors to enquire. A form that the visitor can just fill in is always a great idea, but make sure that your phone number is easy to find as well.

Try and keep the design of your pages consistent throughout your entire website. An inconsistent design is synonymous with "unprofessional", and you want to make the best impression that you can upon your customers.

Hopefully this post will have given you some ideas to think about regarding just how effective your website is.

If you have any questions, I'm here to help.
And, for free, I will be happy to look over your website and offer my opinions regarding it's effectiveness​. Just ask.

Bye for now,
Brad Gillon