Free Website, Printing and Graphic Design Tips

Two major factors resulting in better search engine placement are relevent content and the correct use of keywords.

The importance of the relationship between keywords and content cannot be understated. Your keywords should appear in your content but please don’t “over do it”! Your site could be rejected by a search engine if you have too many keywords in a page’s content. Keep the percentage of keywords to between 5-10% of the page’s overall content. You should also keep the number of keywords in your code to somewhere around 20-25 words maximum. Too many keywords in the meta tag will dillute their value.
Content should be relevent and informative while including those all important keywords. Check you content and keep it current by updating it regularly. Finally, don’t forget to include a keyword or two in your page title and meta description section.

Here are a couple of hint to help you make your website even more “crawlable” by the search engines. Why? Because it’s the key to better search engine return ranking. You want people to find your site!
1. Spiders like html and lots of content related text. Keep the Flash but don’t go all Flash and use alt tags on your pictures. Make sure you have enough html and content related text to keep the spiders happy.
2. Include a sitemap in your website. Spiders love a good sitemap and ifyou’re not sure how to set it up, Google will give you all the help you need. Take a look at their Webmaster Tools.
3. Update you site. Putting up a website and never updating it is the wrong approach. The spiders want to crawl new stuff and your visitors want new reasons to return. Do yourself a favor and make the time to update your website.

You can register your domain name from any one of the many sites designed this purpose. Two examples of such sites are: Register.com and Simple URL.  It is important that you review their services when comparing. Cost should not be the only deciding factor. Typically, you will be asked to enter the name you desire and if it’s available, you can purchase it right then and there. If your first choice has already been taken you will have to submit alternate names until you find one that’s available.  
You can also purchase your domain name from the hosting service you will be using. This is usually the better approach. If you register your domain name and utilize hosting services from the same company there will be less confusion. If you choose to register and host with the same company make sure that if you decide to change to another hosting service in the future that you can “take the domain name with you”. It is important that your domain name is registered to you not to your web developer, designer or hosting service!

Keep your website visitors coming back. A “sticky” site gives its visitors reasons to return to the site and since the number of visitors a site gets has a large impact on its ranking…you want as many visits as you can get! With that in mind, take a look at Freesticky.com. This is a site where you can get lots of free content to help make your website “sticky”. You’ll find items like horoscopes, games, software, educational material, maps, tools and tips. Just follow their simple directions and you’ll be making your site even more appealing to your visitors.

I received an email today from Microsoft Office Live Small Business Advisor. Since I’m always searching for new ways to promote my business, I took the bait and checked out their claim:
“Microsoft Office Live Small Business now includes new easy-to-use tools to help you do business on the Web. And now’s the perfect time to explore them all, because you can get started for free—no strings attached. Sign up now.”
If you have an msn, hotmail or windows live email you can sign in with those credentials and I did. This looks like a good resource for small businesses who aren’t ready or able to pay for professional web design services. You can set up a website for free. You can set up advertising promotions including a pay per click beta deal, that sounds good, and email newsletter campaigns. Some of the services are free and some come at a cost but overall it looks like a good place to start getting your company name out there. 
Setting up your own website is free. You can get a domain name, and use a “powerful site designer” and templates to get the job done. They even include a section with tips on how to create an effective site. I’d suggest you take the time to give it the once over and no, I’m not on their payroll.
http://www.officelive.com/