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Google Chrome

Add some speed to your Internet browsing by replacing your slow Internet Explorer with Google Chrome. 

Chrome is the new browser from Google and, as you would expect with any product from Google, it is excellent and, most importantly, very, very fast!

Internet Explorer, even the new version 8 that Microsoft are rolling out, will be left miles behind by this new browser from Google.  It blows IE away and is also much faster than Firefox.

Very much in its early versions I’m confident that Chrome will develop into the most complete browser around.  It already incorporates Google Apps and Gears and will continue to incorporate more and more features.

For business users Chrome should increase the producivity you get from your time surfing the web.

Download Google Chrome and put some speed into your surfing!

Posted in Craig Ellyard | 4 Comments »

A User Friendly Website

A few years ago the world of website design was concentrated on finding the best looking and flashiest design as possible. Thankfully, times have moved on and now most designers and webmasters realise that a simple design with easy navigation is what most Internet users, and the search engines, want to see.

When designing and building your website you must ensure that the navigation is clear and the site itself is well structured. The best structure to use is one of three tiers.

The home page is the first tier with the second tier pages being the most important categories feeding the tier three pages which make up the bulk of the content.

Make it easy for visitors to find the content that they are looking for on your site. The bigger the site, i.e., the larger the number of pages, the easier it must be for a visitor to navigate through the site.

If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle.

Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or a sitemap index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease. Importantly it will also ensure the search engine spiders can find their way around the site and so will index all the pages.

Allied with the ease of navigation must be the ease of viewing.

Use a good sized font and a typeface such as Verdana which is very easy to read on a screen.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more frustrating for a visitor to find an article he wants to read is inaccessible. Visitors will soon leave your website if this is the case.

And, if a search engine spider finds a broken link on your site, you will be immediately penalised by the search engines.

Posted in Craig Ellyard, E-Commerce, Website Design | 2 Comments »

Spiders And How Search Engines Work

There are many ways to attract visitors to your website but it will be a search engine which brings most of your free traffic. And they do this by ‘spidering’ your website.      

By submitting a sitemap to search engines such as Google and Yahoo, or submitting the site details to other search engines such as Live, you are in effect requesting the spiders to visit your site and place your pages in their index.

A ’spider’ is an automated program that is run by the search engine system. A spider will visit a web site, read the content and meta tags and also follow the internal links throughout the site.

The spider then returns all that data back to the search engine which then indexes all the information.

Importantly, the spiders will also follow the external links from your site and index those as well, which is why it is important to have as many of your own links as possible on other peoples sites.

The spider will periodically return to the site to check for any information that has changed or for new links which have been added.

The search engines produce rankings according to the information gathered by the spiders. The formula by which these calculations are carried out are called algorithms.

A very important point to note here is that NO ONE knows EXACTLY how the search engine algorithms work and different search engines produce different rankings because not every search engine uses the same algorithm to search through and index a website.

The best way to improve search engine rankings is by producing good quality keyword rich content, building quality links and regularly updating your website.

Posted in Search Engine Optimisation | 4 Comments »

Choosing The Right Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name for your website is hugely important. The domain name is the first impression a prospective visitor will have of your website or business so it is essential to make the right choice of domain name.

One of the first rules to remember is to try and keep your domain name simple and appropriate to your business or niche and make the domain name something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your website.

Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’.

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

The extension to the domain name (e.g., .co.uk, .du) usually refers to the country in which the website is based although extensions such as .net, .org or .info are also available.

However, the golden rule with domain names is, if at all possible, to include your most important keyword in the title.  This is key to having a head start in search engine optimisation and shouldn’t be ignored.

Posted in Craig Ellyard | 1 Comment »

Blogging For Business And Pleasure

There can be little doubt that blogging is the biggest thing to ever hit the Internet. Now, blogging is a way of life for many

people and is not only a tool for personal use but blogs are used by businesses to generate free publicity and advertising.

In its basic form a blog is an online journal in which the blogger documents his thoughts, ideas and opinions on practically any subject under the sun. There are many different websites on which to host a blog and all offer built in features such as adding pages, articles, photos, audio and video etc.

A typical blog will consist of a number of ‘posts’, or an article, with features such as:

title- which allows you to label your post
body- this is the content of your post
trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog
permanent link- every article that you write has a URL
comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.

One of the advantages of blogging, is that the templates provided by the host websites are very easy to use. No technical skill is required and even the newest of Internet users will be able to create a stylish and information packed blog.

Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they’ve become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members’ blogs.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Many entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative medium in which to publicise a business.

But, by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document their everyday lives, publish their poems, stories, rants or opinions, find that blogging offers them a simple medium in which to express themselves.

There are very few rules when it comes to blogging and blogs are a great tool for anyone to use. But, be warned, they can become addictive with everyday life thrown out of the window until the latest blog entry has been posted!

Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »

Top Seven E Commerce Tips

Selling products from your own website is a great way to make money online. Here are some e-commerce tips to consider when setting up your online store:

* Provide plenty of content and information about the product including, if appropriate, sizes, dimensions, colors and comparisons with other similar products. The customer must be able to choose a product and complete the transaction and get an order number, and/or invoice confirmation via email.

* If selling physical products such as DVDs you must tell the customer if the item is in stock or delivered against order. Ideally, you should have an email contact or live help if the customer has a question. Most importantly you must respond immediately!

* Be sure your customer service links are large and clearly marked, so your client does not have to dig around the website to find the information he needs.

* Provide an ‘about us’ section or a section about your policies. If you have privacy statements and customer satisfaction policies, your customer will feel reassured about shopping in your store.

* Provide an FAQ with information about your return policies, guarantees, shipping prices and insurance charges if any. Do not annoy your customers by presenting products that are marked ’sold’ or pages that say ‘under construction’ or ‘coming soon’.

* Do add new content and products frequently, so your returning customers will not be bored by seeing the same products they saw four months ago.

*If your site has got a date tag or has current references, be careful to change these references frequently so you don’t give the perception that nobody is maintaining your website.

Posted in E-Commerce | 1 Comment »

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is hugely important. You can have the best looking, most informative website on the Internet but, without marketing, no-one will ever see it. With 60 million websites out there the chances of an Internet user chancing upon your site is nil.

You must promote your site to bring it to the attention of Internet users. And, thanks to the advent of the Google Adwords programme, successful online marketing is within the reach of every business no matter how large or small they may be or the size of their advertising budget. Online marketing is one area in which the small businessman really can compete with the giants of the commercial world. And can do so very cheaply.

For those who don’t know, Google Adwords is a system of online classified advertising (known as Pay Per Click Advertising) which enables your business and your products to be placed in front of millions of Internet users. The cost of the adverts themselves can literally be pennies and, the best part is, you only pay for those people who actually take action when seeing your advert.

In a nutshell, you only pay for your advertisement when an Internet user sees your ad and clicks on it to visit your site. And, with the minimum cost of an ad being just 1p, Google Adwords has got be the most cost effective and sales boosting form of advertising both on and off line………if you know what you are doing.

Google isn’t the only company offering Pay Per Click advertising with Yahoo and MSN also offering very good programmes. There are also many more smaller Pay Per Click alternatives such as Kanoodle but Google is the medium which produces the best and most targeted results.

But, paying for advertising isn’t the only way to market your website on the Internet. There are many ways of freely promoting your site and an ebook which every webmaster should read is Instant Internet Marketing. The book outlines a free system of getting your site listed on the front page of Google without paying a penny. And, although some campaigns will inevitably fail, Instant Internet Marketing is a great way of obtaining also instant exposure for your website without paying a penny in advertising fees.

Other ways to market your website is to submit the site to search engines and online directories. This is an essential step that every webmaster must go through. Unfortunately, submitting your site to dozens or even hundreds of search engines and directories is a laborious task. There are some services which will offer to submit your website on your behalf but stay clear of these. They will not help your website and will simply be a waste of money.

Thankfully, there is a better solution. Traffic Blazer is a low cost option which is an easy and very quick way to submit your website to many different search engines and directories.

Elsewhere on this blog you will find plenty of advice on marketing your website both through paid and free means.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click Marketing | 5 Comments »

Adwords Marketing

It’s no big secret but using Google Adwords marketing is quite simply the most effective way to drive highly targeted visitors to your website – fast! And, highly targeted visitors are what every website needs. Attracting such visitors massively increases the chance of making a sale which, of course, means more opportunity to make profits.

With Adwords marketing every webmaster can attract targeted visitors within minutes of launching an advertising campaign. Adwords, or pay per click advertising, is a great way of promoting any website. But, there is a cost associated with using Adwords and a close eye needs to be kept on the budget.

However it is a very old, and very true, maxim in business that if you want to make money, you have to spend money. One good way of spending money for business gain is through Adwords advertising.

By using Adwords marketing you will quickly see a spurt of traffic growth to your site. Of course, with a high volume of traffic, even if only a small portion or percentage turn out to be buying customers, the opportunity is still there to make significant profits.

Thanks to the advent of the Google Adwords programme successful online marketing is within the reach of every business no matter how large or small they may be or the size of their advertising budget. Online marketing is one area in which the small businessman really can compete with the giants of the commercial world. And can do so very cheaply.

For those who don’t know, Google Adwords marketing is a system of online classified advertising which enables your business and your products to be placed in front of millions of Internet users. The cost of the adverts themselves can literally be pennies and, the best part is, you only pay for those people who actually take action when seeing your advert.

In a nutshell, you only pay for your advertisement when an Internet user sees your ad and clicks on it to visit your site. And, with the minimum cost of an ad being just 1p, Google Adwords has got be the most cost effective and sales boosting form of advertising both on and off line.

Adwords marketing campaigns are so effective because they keyword driven and you are ensured that every Internet user who clicks on your ad is a potential customer that is precisely looking for or is interested in what you have to offer.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click Marketing | 1 Comment »

What Is SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is usually known, is the process of ensuring your website ranks highly with the search engines so that when an Internet user searches for specific phrases or keywords the search engine will feature your site at the top of its returned results.

Most Internet users will only use the first page of results returned by a search engine when they are searching the web for information. It is obviously vital then to ensure that your website is featured in the top ten positions of whichever niche you are targeting.

Making it to the first page, even more so to the top three, is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. And, the higher your site ranks, the more likely it is that your link will be the one clicked on. Of course, the more traffic for your site, the more business you are likely to rake in.

There are many different strands to SEO but most concentrate around the selection and use of appropriate keywords though there are many different theories as to the best methods to use.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully effective. Even systems such as Instant Internet Marketing which use entirely free methods to promote websites requires the webmaster to put in plenty of work and effort.

This will include gathering lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regard to your sites niche or theme as well as implementing different SEO techniques. Apart from well targeted keywords one other thing which every expert agrees that your website must have is plenty of links pointing to it from other websites.

The more incoming links a site has the more highly regarded it will be by the search engines. All the search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret so that all SEO techniques are not an exact science but the better search engine optimization systems will drastically reduce the odds of your website being listed at the top of the rankings.

Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine but a simple link from a well established site with a page rank of above 5 will help any website climb in the rankings.

There is much more to SEO than keywords and links but getting those two factors right are the most important elements to consider when optimizing your website for the search engines.

A useful tool for any webmaster to have is Traffic Blazer which will analyse your webpages and report on how search engine friendly they are. Tools such as this are invaluable in helping to optimize your website.

Posted in Craig Ellyard, E-Commerce, Search Engine Optimisation | 1 Comment »

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, is an essential if hugely misunderstood component of e-commerce. 

The basic role of an Internet Business Consultant in providing an SEO service is to increase the visibility of his clients website which he does by placing that site at the top of the search engine rankings. 

Everyone knows by now the importance of achieving a high ranking in the search engines in attracting visitors in large numbers, and for free, to their website. 

The huge volume of websites competing for customers (143 million sites and rising every second) means that achieving those coveted high ranking positions is virtually impossible for the layman or those with little experience of e-commerce. 

I can help. 

For information on mounting a search engine optimisation campaign check out the numerous articles on this blog.

Posted in Craig Ellyard, E-Commerce, Search Engine Optimisation | 3 Comments »