Number 6 in my series of 6 free PDF SEO reports with advice for do-it-yourself website promotion for small business owners was released today. It is entitled How and Why of Google Sitemaps, and this free download has no strings attached. You do not have to register or reveal your email address to get your copy of the PDF report.



This report is 652kb with 13 fully illustrated pages and packaged in a zipped folder. You may download it now. Just "Right-click and Save Target As" for the How and Why of Google Sitemaps report.

If you missed any of the six volumes in the series visit the free search engine optimization PDF reports to download all of them beginning with Google Page One in Just 9 Months. This completes my commitment to release all 6 as time permits before the end of 2007.

UPDATE: The first report referenced a single page one search phrase. As of the last two months of 2007 the following may be added: list of best commercial website designers, commercial business website design, small business custom web design, business advice blog, customized blogger templates design, custom web videos, commercial web page design, small business website video, business advice usa, small business custom blog design, commercial web design, and business card artist.

These generic phrases and Google page one results confirm the value of the advice in the free pdf seo report series. Readers are welcome to comment and share their results, also.



TAGS: advice reports seo search engine optimization free download sitemaps small business advice

Labels: advice, seo, tutorials, websites

                       

I finished the design of another custom website in xhtml with css, plus matching custom blog template, and both launched this weekend for Ultimate Riddles, a Christian site about spiritual truths and Bible study with an accompanying blog documenting Bible study progress. An integrated blog allows adding new content often which helps with SEO, Search Engine Optimization.


This graphic of the custom website design shown above is a screenshot from the site smaller than actual size and the design graphics include a golden sunset background and elegant script logo. Most of my clients know that my life and business are faith based, and www.UltimateRiddles.com is a personal venture to share results of studying the Bible going back to the languages of the original manuscripts. Visitors are invited to comment.



TAGS: blog blog template launch seo search engine optimization small business services custom website design

Labels: blogger, launch, seo, templates, websites

                       

With the release of episode 002 of the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast, feedback and customer reviews from listeners has been positive and encouraging. USA and international email comments were received from two professional web designers and existing clients which included the following:

Just listened to your podcast. I found it to be excellent, clear and informative; your voice inflection is awesome. I'll be tuning in regularly.

Excellent job, precise, direct to the point and informative. Who could ask for more?

Enjoyed the podcast very much. Actually I think it’s a much better idea than video in a way because it can be totally scripted and read. You just can’t do that with video.

Looks like a home run Jim!! I would like to set up something for people that have questions, too.

The podcast show topics cover websites for small business owners and each episode features a tip of the day, plus a catchy opening and closing theme song. One reply included a tutorial request for a new custom video production as featured on this blog, also.

Feedback is certainly appreciated, and I'll be sure to give serious consideration to listener requests taken from the website mailbag. Thanks.



TAGS: small business podcast podcast launch news podcast customer reviews

Labels: audio, examples, launch, podcast, reviews

                       

As 2007 draws to an end, small business website owners should take a moment for a year end checkup. If you use a copyright year in the credits or footer of your website, update it in the first week of January to 2008. Having a date that is 2-3 years old is a sign your website lacks fresh content and remains stale. Better yet, leave off the year. You do not need the year to lay claim to your rights. Simply publishing content establishes domestic and international copyright.

Next, review your domain registration and hosting expiration dates. If your site is fairly new, consider renewing the registration for 5 years, or more. The length of your registration is public information available to visitors or search engines checking you out. Sites with multi-year registrations have more credibility because extended years show a commitment to be online for the long haul. Prepaying hosting for 12 to 24 months avoids being nicked small monthly amounts, and most hosting providers offer discounts for prepayment.

Finally, scrutinize your business model and see if the website content matches any changes to your business plan. If you lack content to fully present your product or services, it's time to consider adding more. A blog is the perfect way to add original quality content often. If SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is part of your strategy you should consider an ongoing budget for small business website promotion. Maintaining an effective and competitive site requires an ongoing annual budget, so look ahead and plan accordingly.



TAGS: advice website advice small business advice websites seo search engine optimization

Labels: advice, general, seo, websites

                       

Here's another example custom video production to demo combining still photos, narration, and background music for small business website designs. This uses a set of original photographs that I took in 1989 when my wife and I had the pleasure of a ride on the Goodyear blimp Columbia that I won in a drawing.

The video may be viewed as entitled Goodyear Blimp Photo Slideshow on YouTube also.



The background music is my theme for videos as well as audio productions used on my small business advice podcast. Note the transition between slides and the effect used for the sequential appearance of titles in the intro and exit credits. If you are interested in a custom audio or video for your small business website, contact me with what you have in mind.



TAGS: audio small business services video video production website design

Labels: audio, photographs, video, websites

                       

Today's announcement is the launch of the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast, a new feature with an audio version of small business advice so you can hear me rather than reading it. The first podcast Episode 001 is entitled Small Business Podcast Intro and includes the following outline in the show notes:

• My reason for starting this show
• The podcast content and outline
• Options for listener interaction
• My qualifications for offering advice
• Website quick tip of the day

0:00:00 Podcast Theme Music and Introduction
0:00:45 Main Topic - Small Business Podcast Introduction
0:09:38 Tip of the Day - Writing for Blogs versus Websites
0:11:01 Podcast Outro Theme Music and Credits
0:11:32 End of Small Business Website Mailbag Podcast 001

For those who have viewed my custom website video productions, the podcast includes the same theme song which reinforces my market branding.

All podcast shows focus on websites for small business owners with expert advice that you may now hear online instead of tolerating my (sometimes) long-winded phone calls. Please visit this new advice podcast for small business and post a comment or email me with feedback or suggested topics.



TAGS: advice blog design launch news podcast promotion reviews seo small business websites

Labels: advice, audio, blogger, launch, podcast, websites

                       

I finished and recently launched a new one page custom website design for Accelerated Lending Group, Inc of Orlando, Florida including a special logo. The 3 separate line drawings of the custom logo for their website are shown to the left of their business card that I also designed, and were rejected.

Sometimes extracting the mental vision that a client wants in a web design or piece of matching artwork is a challenge!



The owner wanted a symbol similar to ancient Greek ruins with columns and decided they preferred a realistic building, so I created the near photograph effect which was approved. The logo was done in Xara Xtreme vector graphics software which is my choice for custom website graphics and matching artwork for print.

Once the logo and color scheme were approved, a matching 4 x 6 custom flyer post card was created, also. The website is modest yet allows them to have their www domain name on the printed materials, and new web pages will be added in the near future. A one page custom website may be perfect for other small business owners on a limited budget, or just starting up.



TAGS: artwork logo custom website design website launch

Labels: artwork, examples, launch, websites

                       

After experimenting with several audio players, I recorded Twas the Night Before Christmas in mp3 for my personal blog, Growin' Up in Maine. Adding audio to your website or blog can be a nightmare if you care about aesthetics and presentation. Here is the Christmas poem for the custom audio player demo.

Audio Notes (Press Right Button to Play)

Title: Twas the Night Before Christmas
Narration: Jim Degerstrom
Play Time: 00:04:18

Most blog services do not host audio files, so your recordings must be hosted elsewhere and linked from the external source. This blog is hosted on my server, so this post demonstrates a custom streaming audio player to test the function here. This simple player only uses MP3 format sound files which is my standard, so it's perfect for websites or blogs.

Having a player that is cross browser compatible requires overcoming the quirks of Internet Explorer which is the only browser still using the <embed> tag. As a result most designers code two players in the HTML or XHTML to display properly in all browsers. The preferred method to add audio or other multimedia and meet current standards in XHTML with a player that is cross browser compatible is to use the <object> tag.

This was fun to record and only required one take. If time permits, I may add a podcast to this commercial site answering small business custom website design questions featuring comments or emails from readers. Stay tuned for an announcement, or send in your questions now if you feel you might prefer listening more than reading my small business advice. That may prompt me to begin sooner.

In addition, small business website owners may want to consider adding an audio intro or testimonials for their site. I can help on the technical end including designing a player to match your website's color scheme, so call or email me with any questions.



TAGS: advice audio podcast website audio website design

Labels: advice, audio, blogger, podcast, websites

                       

For readers who viewed my review of StatCounter and installed this free tool for analyzing website visitor stats, here are some tips for the evaluation of your weekly results. The following chart shows one week taken from December 2007 for my commercial site:



The average daily new visitors, first time visitors, and ratio of unique visitors to page loads is well within my expectations for my business. Unlike in the past when most new business was from client referrals, new traffic driven to my site by Google and Yahoo for custom small business website design is a bonus considering my work is sole proprietor. I do not have a large staff to support, so business is comfortable.

Some businesses could not survive with these numbers. If your site is new, it requires time and adding fresh content often to push numbers upward, so be patient. The results for my site are not inflated with overloaded traffic from disinterested casual visitors, but has attracted real prospects and new business worldwide. Unlike my business model, people selling low ticket items require high volume of traffic and sales to succeed.

Keep in mind a million visitors per day is meaningless if they stay less than 5 seconds and never convert to paying customers. The real measure of success is getting traffic from your target market and then conversion. Even then, you must accept that often a large majority of visitors have casual interest and are simply surfing for information without an immediate need.

If you do not track statistics, be careful of service providers who brag about the volume of traffic to your site. The difference between hits, page loads, and visitors needs to be understood. One visitor to a page with 10 graphics on it records 10 "hits" (10 requests sent to your server for each graphic) for just that page. If that one visitor goes to 5 similar pages, your hits become 50 just for the graphics, so ask for visitor and page load data instead. 50 hits does not mean 50 visitors.

In summary, consider these points as you evaluate my visitor statistics for comparison to your small business website.

1 The peaks are during the week, especially mid-week, and then less traffic on weekends
2 The average of unique visitors and return visitors converts and sustains my business
3 The ratio of page loads to visitors shows 2:1 so people go beyond the landing page

Return visitor numbers are a sure sign of interest. Most likely they were favorably impressed and bookmarked your site. It will be time to reevaluate your small business website design and content if you are not getting return visitors or new business through your website. Beyond the design, direct marketing and advertising may be required to help drive traffic to your site.

Use your stats to check trends, adjust product focus by revising content, and then look at search terms that brought people back to your site to determine if you need to emphasize a product or service. If you need advice or assistance installing StatCounter on your small business website or blog feel free to contact me.



TAGS: advice small business advice statistics website advice website traffic

Labels: advice, reviews, websites

                       

Custom web design for small business owners is my primary service, and having your site optimized for search engines is very important for receiving traffic driven by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the other major search engines. The secret to success is still keeping the content within your site theme and niche centered by avoiding unrelated off topic material, plus adding fresh and original quality content often.

Readers are encouraged to question advice, even from persons regarded as well versed in a given topic. For example, based on feedback from Michael Duz about the myth of LSI used by search engines for indexing site content, the following piece of advice is incorrect and just one example of how bad information thrives online:

Latent Semantic Indexing, or LSI, is growing in importance for SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. In short, LSI is the recent website design optimization strategy of keeping your entire site niche related because Google now determines your theme from all pages, not just one highly optimized page. Another aspect of LSI is how search engines index text adjacent to key hyperlinked text. Primary value is given to the text in the hyperlink, and while total site content is still the basis of LSI, the text immediately before and after your hyperlinked text is drawn into the equation and given secondary value.

The order of importance by page is still your page title, H tags, text in links, and then opening and closing page text. You should still design for visitors first without trying to over optimize individual pages or the entire site.



TAGS: advice small business advice website design lsi latent semantic indexing seo search engine optimization

Labels: advice, seo, websites

                       

Small business website owners should be careful about expiration of their www domains. I've warned readers before about the problem of registrars registering domains for customers and the "owner" (registrant) is listed as the registar not the customer. You should be listed as the registrant, and it's easy to verify by searching Google for "WhoIs" to find a site to confirm your website expiration date.

There are companies such as Snapnames.com, Enom.com, and Pool.com who specialize in grabbing popular domain names that expire. They have the technology to track expiring domain names and selectively go after the best ones in the hope of capturing a valuable www domain for resale.

The expiration of any domain goes through a grace period, a redemption period, a locked period, and then the final deletion. This time frame is approximately 75 days which can slip by quickly for small business owners busy running their day to day operations, so do not ignore your domain expiration. If you rarely go to your website or mistakenly ignore an email announcing renewal, your site could cost you significantly more than necessary to recover.



TAGS: advice small business advice websites website domains

Labels: advice, websites

                       

Avoid dated content in your small business web design unless it's absolutely necessary. Content that is subject to change such as a price, expiration date, or copyright year will require edit or be cause for embarrassment if outdated.

For example, having the copyright year in your footer on each website page is not required to retain rights to your content. It's enough to state "Copyright Material" without the year, and actually having no copyright statement is acceptable. The moment you create and publish original content, your rights are immediately established.

What's worse? Some designers backdate the copyright year to give the impression a brand new website has been online for years. Your visitors may not realize the truth, but the registration date is public information available online, and the search engines can catch the deception and you may be punished. People are becoming more sophisticated, also, and a quick check of WhoIs could reveal the truth, too, especially if visitors are looking for the name of a www domain registrant.

Think twice before allowing dated content in your small business website. Outdated content could hurt your credibility and turn off potential customers.



TAGS: advice small business advice website design website advice

Labels: advice, websites