1. Spelling – WordPress comes with a built-in spell check.  Be sure to use it.  Typos happen to the best of us.
2. View page or post in IE and Firefox – Websites look different depending on what browser, monitor size or computer operating system is used.  It’s very hard to test for every contingency.  However you can eliminate a lot of problems by previewing your pages or posts in both Internet Explorer (IE ) and Firefox.  Those are the two most common bowers so you’ll get a lot of mileage from this one test.
3. Check links – Do you have links in your post or page?  If so, preview your finished product and click on the links to make sure they work.
4. Read it out loud – By the time you’re done with a page or post you’ve probably gone over it a dozen times.  You’re in real danger of seeing not what you’ve written, but what you intended to write.   Reading it out loud allows you to take a fresh look at the content.
5. Add categories and tags – Make it easier for you, your visitors and search engines to find your content by adding categories and tags.

Easy to Remember

Make sure that people can remember your domain name.  You want them to be able to tell their friends about it, email others about it and most importantly, visit your site again.

Donny Osmond must have been thinking about that when he selected his domain name, www.donny.com. What’s so special about that you ask?  I happened to visit his site about two years ago and I still remember the domain name.  Sometimes, especially before the coffee kicks in, I can’t tell you what day of the week it is.  But I’ll always remember Donny Osmond’s domain name.

Easy to Spell

What if people remember the domain name but can’t spell it correctly?  That doesn’t work very well.  You want to make sure that people can find your site.  Again, Donny Osmond is all over this issue.  Who ever would have thought that he’d be a great example of website development?

Filled with Great Keywords

The art of having a site found in the top spots of an Internet search is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  You can give your site a boost in terms of SEO by making sure that the words people are going to type into a search engine to find you are part of your domain name.

A great example of this is the website owned by my customers the Campground Owners Association of Montana.  What would people type into a search engine when looking for campgrounds in Montana?  They thought about it and then selected www.campingmontana.com.

Descriptive

The domain name should also describe the website.  A good example of this is my very own www.litquotes.com.  Guess what the site does?  It has quotations from literature.

Compromise

Unless you’re Donny Osmond it will be hard to find a domain name that fits all the criteria. So what are you supposed to do?  Take the qualities one by one and think of domain names for each one.  Then look at your list of possibles and see what domain name fits more of the criteria than the others.

*****************

Have you ever noticed that your website looks different on someone else’s computer?  It’s not wildly different but it’s just not the same.  The colors might be darker or lighter.  Maybe you can’t see as much of the home page without scrolling down.  The font might even look like it’s a slightly different size.

These differences are normal and can be caused by a number of different factors:

• Browsers – The most popular web browser is Internet Explorer (IE) but there are a number of others.  Also each browser has different versions.   Websites can look different on different browsers or even on different versions of the same browser.
• Screen Size – Different screen sizes can cause your website to be displayed differently.  The same goes for different screen resolution settings on the same size browser.
• Computer Types – The most popular computer operating systems come from Microsoft.  However Apple has a large and devoted following.  Websites can look very different when viewed on computers with different operating systems.  In my experience this causes the largest differences in website presentation.
• Color, Brightness and Contrast Settings – These settings vary from computer to computer and just like all the other factors in this article can cause websites to look different.

So what’s a person to do?  Part of my job is to keep all of these factors in mind.  I look at your website in different browsers and in different screen resolutions.  So while your website may look slightly different on different computers – it will look good on 99% of them.

• see where your traffic is coming from
• discover who links to your site
• monitor website traffic growth
• learn what key words visitors are using to find your site
• watch for broken links in your site

Here is some additional information on website statistics:

• The basics of website statistics
• More search terms defined plus two stats programs recommendations
• What does “/” mean?
• Google Analytics

Pay careful attention to the section on repeating your keyword phrase in the text.  The phrase should be in the page title, included in the text a bunch of times, bolded and included in link text.  It will be a compromise between readability and word repetition.

****************

Search Engines 101

Search engines are important to the success of your website. There’s no doubt about that. But how do search engines work? How do website owners get their sites to show up? Do website owners have to pay for listings?

What a Search Engine Does
Some of the most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Excite. All search engines collect information about websites. People go to search engines when they need help finding information. Search engine visitors type in a few words to describe what they’re trying to find. The search engine looks through the data it’s collected and provides a list of web sites for the person to visit.

Keywords
Keywords or keyphrases are the words that people type into search engines when they’re seeking information. It’s important to try and think of what words people will use when looking for your site.

There are a few rules of thumb for picking key words:

• A two or three keyword phrase is best. Imagine the difference between someone typing in “hotel” and someone typing in “Oregon hotel”. Using two or three words will help you connect with your target market.
• Your keywords should be something that people will actually type into search engines. Scoring well for a phrase that no one uses won’t help.

Once you’ve determined the keywords for your site those keywords should be worked into the website design. Ways of doing this include:

• Using keywords multiple times in the home page text.
• Using keywords in Meta tags. Meta tags are special coding on a web page that search engines use.

The goal here is to figure out what potential customers will type into a search engine. Then we optimize your site for those keywords so that your site will show up in search engines for the keywords that you’ve chosen.

Site Ranking
Site ranking is the order that websites appear on a search engine results page. This is extremely important. Studies have shown that most people will only look at the first page of results from a search engine. Also, people are more likely to click on links at the top of the list.

Search engines match what people typed in (what people are looking for) with websites. The list of suggested sites provided by the search engine shows the sites it thinks are the best matches first. So how do search engines decide which site gets listed first? That’s the million-dollar question! Different search engines use different methodologies to determine their rankings. Also search engines change their own methodology from time to time to try and give better search engine results.

It’s important to track your search engine listing over time. If it starts to drop then it’s time to rework the home page of your site to try and get better results. This paper only lists a few ways to improve search engine rankings. There are dozens of things to do. Over time some of these become more effective and some become less effective. So it’s important to watch your site’s listing and take action if the listing drops.

Two Types of Listings
The process of getting sites to rank highly in search engines is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Doing it without paying for rankings or listings is called Organic SEO.

Organic SEO involves submitting your site to individual search engines. Your site should be designed so that it does well for the keywords you’ve chosen. This method takes time but generally costs less and provides longer lasting results.

Most search engines also provide a paid listing service. Sometimes the listing is in the regular search engine results. Sometimes the listing is in a special section with other paid listings. This method provides immediate results however if you drop out of the paid program your site listing can disappear.

Conclusion
The most important, and most difficult, part about getting sites listed in search engines is selecting the keywords. The right keywords can boost your site’s visibility and your company’s profitability by enabling potential customers to find your site.

• .html or .htm – These are “regular” website files.  HTML stats for Hyper Text Markup File.
• .shtml - SHTML pages are a step up from HTML.  These are HTML pages with the ability to interpret server side includes.  Server side includes (SSI) files are bits of code that SHTML pages can share.  A great way to use this is to have a shared menu, header and footer file.  It makes website maintenance very easy.
• .asp – ASP stands for Active Server Pages.  These files typically are used on website hosts using  Windows as the operating system for their server.  They have their own coding language.
• .php – PHP pages are my favorite.  (Yes folks, I really am a geeky website developer.  I have a favorite type of website page.)  PHP is a coding language that works very well with MySQL databases.  This is the file type used in WordPress.

In general no file type is inherently better than another. I do tend to stay away from plain .html or .htm files though.  Those are the only type of files that can’t share snippets of code.  Maintaining a website that exclusivly uses HTML takes more time and effort than other websites.

Here are some examples of Flash used in websites:

• Meadows RV Park – Do you see the rotating image at the top of the page?  That’s Flash.  What about the silhouette of the bucking horse?  That’s an animated gif.  As with many things in website design, there’s more than one way to accomplish a goal.  Animated gifs are better for small images like the bucking horse.
• Follow Your Heart Fine Jewelry – The image slide show on this page is done with Flash.  It’s also the technology behind the cool magnifying glass functionality on this page.
• I’m a huge fan of the Jacquie Lawson animated eGreetings.  The cards are powered by . . . you guessed it!  Flash.

If you’re not seeing any of these Flash items it would be a good bet that you don’t have a Flash player installed on your computer.  Adobe, the same company that brings you PDFs, owns the software that makes and plays Flash.  The player is free and can be downloaded from the Adobe website.

Have you ever been at a website and it says that you don’t have the most current version of Flash?  I don’t know about you, but that makes me wonder what version of Flash I do have.  You can find out what version of Flash is installed on your computer by going to Flash Version Test page on the Adobe website.

For now I’m using version 9 and I think I’ll stay there for awhile.  WordPress is reporting that there’s an incompatibility between the “add media” functions of WordPress and Flash 10.  (See item three on this page.)

That’s Flash in a nutshell.

What can you do to keep your website safe?

1. If you use any third party software on your website be sure to keep it updated.  These updates usually include the latest security fixes.
2. Make sure your password is adequate.  It should contain letters as well was numbers.  If the system will allow it things like an ampersand or a dollar sign are great additions.
3. Have your website developer make sure that your email forms are safe.  Putting in an email form is very easy.  It takes more time to make sure that its safe but it’s well worth the time.
4. Make backups of your site and your database just in case the worst happens.

If you have a website be sure to:

• Use the contact form to send yourself an email.  Is the form easy to use?    Do you get the emails or do they end up in your spam filter?
• If you have items for sale make sure that you do a test buy.  Be sure to check the sales tax and shipping charges.
• Imagine that you’re one of your own customers.  Does the website get you the information that you need?
• Check your website at least a few times every year.  Make sure that the information is current.

Remember that a website can easily be changed.  So play around and experiment.  Make sure that your website makes you, as well as your clients, happy.