Now there is a better way!  Like I mentioned in my first post on this blog, we now have Content Management Systems or CMS.  A CMS can allow anyone to easily update and manage their website.  There is one particular CMS that stands out and that is WordPress.  This is what I use and this is what I recommend to everyone I talk to.  It is simple enough that an Internet newbie can use it but powerful enough that professionals use it as well.

More than just a blogging platform

WordPress was originally created for blogging and many people still only think of it as a way to create a blog, but it has grown to be much more than that.  Wordpress can be used for any type of website and it is being used by some of the largest company’s in the world, such as CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sony, PlayStation, GE, and Ford.

But here is the most beautiful part.  not only is WordPress one of the easiest, most powerful, most widely used and trusted Content Management Systems out there… it is COMPLETELY FREE!  That’s right, you can use WordPress without having to pay anyone a dime.  (How is this possible?)  Wordpress can give their software away for free because it is Open Source, which allows developers from all over the world who like to use their product contribute their ideas.  Then WordPress makes money through offering premium services and through paid advertising.  While there is a core team of developers they also reap the benefits of free development from other contributors all over the world, while we reap the benefit of an amazing free web development tool.

Not just a static website

The other main reason that I love WordPress is that it makes it easy for you to add dynamic elements and interactivity to your site.  What I mean by dynamic elements are things like moving images, drop-down menus, hover buttons.  Examples of interactivity include contact forms, user comments, calendars, social networking, etc.  These are powerful devices that make your website more user-friendly and engaging.  Normally these things would require some kind of programing experience, but WordPress offers them as plug-ins for your website that you can install with the click of a button.

I haven’t actually used them because I have my own hosting company but I hear Bluehost.com is very good.  You can get started with an easy one click installation at Bluehost.com. My company mostly does wholesale hosting, but if you are interested you can contact me about it here.

If creating a website is something very new to you and the 4 above requirements don’t completely make sense here is a good way to think about the virtual world in terms of the physical world.

1) The website host is where your business is located.  This will be a server located at some kind of secure data center.  It is like the building or office space that a physical business rents to offer its products or services from.

2) The domain is like the address, only rather than saying you are located at the corner of Main and Chestnut St., you give people your domain address, or URL, and they type that into their browser to get to your website located on your hosting server.

3) The website design is like the style of decor that gives your business it’s own look and feel.  It is also the layout of your business.  If you sell clothes, you don’t just toss them in a pile in the middle of the floor, you don’t make the aisles into a maize.  A dentists office doesn’t just have the dentist chair right inside the front door, no there is a reception area with someone to greet you when you walk in and a waiting area for you to sit down.  A lot of attention is given to the look of a website, but the layout should be given equal consideration

4) The first three requirements are each there to facilitate the fourth requirement.  The content is the purpose of your website.  Without the content the rest is pointless, and believe me there are plenty of websites out there that fulfill the first three requirements only to fail miserably on delivering any kind of meaningful content.  If you aren’t going to provide visitors to your website with any kind of useful information, service, or products then don’t bother.  Without meaningful content `you are just adding to the noise.

Action Items:

If you don’t already have a domain, decide on what domain you want to use.  Chances are your first few considerations will already be taken.  Here is some help:

1. First read this post about techniques on how to choose a domain.
2. Go to Powerpipe.com and use their name brainstorming tool to help come up with specific ideas.
3. Once you decide on a name that is available you can purchase your domain using Powerpipe.com.

There is a lot more that goes into choosing a domain than just using your company name.  Going with your company name can be good, but it isn’t always the best thing to do depending on your situation.  If you are a law firm and your name is Goldstein, Brown, Lufawitz, Kandor and Associates that makes for a really lousy domain that no one will ever find, goldsteinbrownlufawitzkandorandassociates.com.

First, don’t just try typing your domain in the address bar of your web browser and expect it to  accurately tell you if your domain is already used or not.  Just because nothing comes up does not mean that no one owns it.  It only means that no one has published a website to the domain yet.  No, instead you need to do your search from a registrar.  A registrar is a company that you can purchase a domain through.  I personally use powerpipe.com because they have always had friendly customer service that goes out of their way to help, and I like the multiple domain search tool that allows you to check on the availability of up to 50 domains at a time.  They also have a nice Domain Name Brainstorming tool that can help get the creative juices going.

There are 3 main methods to use in picking a domain, but the most important thing to keep in mind for all of them is memorability and ease of use.  Will people be able to remember it and can they easily type it in without messing it up.  Picture yourself telling the domain to potential clients or business partners.  Do you have to explain the spelling or that there is a dash between two words?   Now picture yourself having to explain that to a dozen people everyday for the next five years.  Are you sure you want to go with that?

With that in mind here are the 3 good methods to consider when purchasing your domain and one bad one:

1. Use your business name IF it is not too long or hard to spell.  Microsoft.com is a good example.  It is a simple, short, easy name to remember and spell and the business name is the first thing you always try to find when going to their website.

2. However, using your business name may not matter if you are a new business and nobody knows your name.  Or you may have a name like I described above that doesn’t lend itself to a good domain.  In that case you might consider using a descriptive name.  Something that highlights one of your main products or services.  You may have a business that has invented a robot watch that can speak the time to you and inform you of what you should be doing according to your schedule.  It also narrates your day with dry witty comments, like “way to make a good impression, I am sure she will never forget you now… idiot” or “Perfect, boss’s always like it when you make them look stupid in front of their other employees”.  Your business name may be The Wilshire Farm Watch Company, again, lousy domain name, thewilshirefarmwatchcompany.com.  But robotwatch.com would be an awesome domain!

Using a descriptive name can also play a major factor in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and help you to get a better search ranking on the keywords you use.

Side note: when trying to choose the perfect domain you will quickly become aware of the hundreds of sleazy domain squatters out there who have already gone and purchased all of the good domains, hoping that you will find one that you can’t do without and buy it from them at a higher price.  Personally I avoid them like the plague, but robotwatch.com is a good example.

3. The final method has worked very well for some of the largest and most successful websites in the world.  This method requires the most creativity and you have to be careful to avoid my warning above about not having to explain your domain spelling or hyphenation.  You can choose a domain solely on the fact that it is short, easy to remember, and easy to type.  Yahoo and Google are the two most notable names although there are many others.  This method works best for new companies or Internet based companies who may even have the luxury of naming their business after their website domain name.

4. I don’t recommend this method, using “free” or “cheap” or something similar in your website name, like FreeLifeInsurance.com.  It is a bastardization of method two that I describe above and it comes across as crass, tacky and fraudulent.  This is an example of using common search engine key words and terms to help return better search results for your site.  It may help with your rankings in the search engines but it won’t help your reputation and it won’t help turn the hits into business.  Why would you want to bring cheapskates to your website who would think it where even possible to get free life insurance?  I suppose this would be perfect if you plan on doing the old bate-and-switch, in which case you and your clients might be perfect for each other

1. CONTENT IS KING!! I can not say this enough.  This is what it is all about and it kills two birds with one stone, because not only is content king in SEO, it is what visitors to your website want to see as well.  I have seen ugly and hard to use sites achieve high rankings simply because they had rich in-depth content.

By content, I mean, the stuff that your website is about. Let’s say you have a coffee shop in Wichita Kansas.  Don’t just put up a website with a picture of some coffee, your address, business hours and your prices.  Those are all good, but talk about the coffee, where is it made, Columbia, Brazil, Somalia?  Is it free-trade?  Freshly ground?  Talk about the extra care you put into each cup, your exceptional friendly service.  Talk about your location in Wichita, Kansas. (we will touch on that more later).

Notice how many key words about coffee that I managed to pack into that one paragraph that someone might search for.  Write your content with particular key words and phrases in mind that you would hope someone would be able to use to find your website,  “free-trade coffee in wichita kansas”.

Keep in mind that if you don’t have enough content to keep a human on your website for more than a couple of minutes then a robot probably won’t find it very interesting either.

2. Public Opinion Has Sway. How does this relate to SEO?  Search robots scour the Internet by following links.  The more links from other websites that point to your site, the more popular you are and the more weight your site will have in the rankings.  And just like in high school it didn’t affect your popularity much if all of the losers liked you, but if had to be the right people that liked you.  If the lead singer in a hot local band or the head of the football team thought you were cool, then everyone would accept you as cool.  So on the Internet, sites with more authority carry more weight.

Unlike in high school, if everyone on the chess club liked you, it would do nothing good for your social standing, but on the Internet, get 50 chess club sites to link to you and you will be considered an authority in chess.  The sheer size of the Internet and the number of people using it allows for very particular niche sites to come into their own.  You may have a site dedicated to Boston Terrier porcelain dog figurines made in Malaysia in the late half of 1962, but even you can be popular among a select group in the world market.

3. Location, Location, Location. Yes, I know I already said that, but this is in a different context.  If you are starting a website to market something to the world, then you can ignore this basic principle.  But if you are wanting to reach a specific town, city, region etc., then you need to make that known on your site.  I suggest you make it known on every page of your site.  It could be as simple as including it in the footer of every page, but finding a way to mix it into the content as well will help.  Notice I have already worked in the city and state I live in.

Think about it, if you are looking for a plumber you don’t just type “plumber” into Google search, no you type “plumber Wichita Kansas”, because you could care less about some plumber on the other side of the country.  Oh, there I go again mentioning my city and state.

There are a myriad of other good SEO practices, such as regularly updating your site, creating a specific page for each particular service or product you offer, giving the file names of your pages relevant keyword names, using header tags to help mark important phrases or keywords, using robots.txt files, including an xml sitemap, using “name” and “alt” tags to pack even more content into your site, but that can all come later.  Just remember that 1) Content is King, 2) Public Opinion, evidenced by outside links to your site, has sway, and 3) Mention your location/service area if it is relevant.  If you stick to these basics you will be miles ahead of 90% of the competition and we can address more details

Question:  How in the world can you have a post about best SEO practices and not mention the meta keywords or description?

Answer:  Because Google which has the vast majority of search engine market share has finally admitted to NOT using the meta keywords or description in determining their rankings.

Anyone creating a website will naturally try to make it as easy and clear for a human being to read and navigate through the different pages, but how would a robot see it?  At this point your thinking, ‘I don’t really care if a robot can read my website or not they represent a relatively small proportion of my clientele,’ or worse yet you are the type of person who doesn’t serve “their kind.” To which I would say, first, you are being very closed minded, and second, perhaps you are confusing robots with cyborgs.  I will leave the debate over how intelligent self-aware cyborgs should be treated in our society to the philosopher-sci-fi novelists and explain what I mean by robots.  Google is the prime example.  They have massive networks of servers that are constantly scouring the Internet day and night and indexing every page.  These servers are sometimes called robots, or spiders.  Indexing means that they save all of the data from each page they see in a database and rank it related to certain key words that are found on the page.

These robots see pages different than the human eye.  For the most part they ignore graphics, pictures and animation but they see things that a human visitor to your site doesn’t see, and that is called meta-data, information that is hidden from the human eye on your website.  Making sure that your website is readable and properly represents itself to the search engine robots is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Search Engine Optimization is often an afterthought when creating a new website but you can start with a considerable advantage if you begin creating your new website with SEO in mind.