Web Design Discussion

• Did you know that Google shows you results based on the location of your computer?
• Did you know that if you’re logged into Google it will show you Google Plus results?
• Did you know that the “Search Plus Your World” displays privately shared content together with public content?

Google’s search results have changed dramatically from several years ago. The search results you see may be different that what your client sees because they are using a computer with a different IP address. For instance a search on your main keyword may display your website on the first page of Google however if viewed on a computer at another location it may not appear at all.

With “Google Plus Your World” private and public search results are all mixed together if you are logged into your Google account. For instance when searching on a specific keyword you’re given the option of clicking an the icon on the upper right side of the page to show personalized or public results. This may make it easier for a person to receive content shared from friends and family along with public content but may cause privacy concerns.

Here’s a video on showing the features of “Search Plus Your World”

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Recently I purchased the new iPhone 4S. Since then I’ve constantly been using Siri (the voice search command feature) to find local stores, movies, etc. It only takes a few seconds as I only need to speak into the microphone and Siri instantly provides the answers. I no longer need to be at my computer to search for information or check my email.

Does this mean the death of Local Search?

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Why should you add new and fresh content to your website?
How will it affect search engine traffic?
How does fresh content affect visitors?

Traffic is the lifeblood of your website. If you don’t attract visitors and convert them into paid customers you’ll soon be out of business. Google and the other major search engines love new and fresh content. Websites that are constantly updated tend to rank well in Google as long as they are optimized with keywords people are searching on.

For example let’s say you wrote content for a web page on web design trends in 2000 then wrote about the latest design trends for this year. Which page would a person like to receive when searching for the latest web design trends? Obviously they would want to get the most up-to-date information.

If a search engine wants to display the most targeted information for a specific keyword they’ll rank new and fresh content ahead of outdated content to stay relevant.

How to Stay New and Fresh With Your Web Page

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I often ask myself or my client the question: “What is the purpose of your website?” Is it to just to get more traffic? If so, what do you want to do with that traffic…sign up more subscribers or purchase your products? After you’ve established a clear purpose then what method have you implemented on your website to get subscribers or sell products?

For example you need to create an opt-in form on your web page as an incentive for visitors to sign up to your list so you can send them a series of autoresponder follow-up messages.

Alternatively if you want to sell a product you need to send traffic to a great landing page that points out its most important benefits.

If you’re building an authority site for a specific niche and want to place Adsense Ads on it you’ll need lots of original content.

Does Website Size Affect Its Authority In Google?

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Getting free traffic to your website is better than continuously paying each time someone clicks on your ad in Google Adwords. In order to get free web traffic your site needs to at least appear on the first page of Google and/or other Bing and Yahoo. Ideally your site needs to appear within the top 5 listings so a person doesn’t need to scroll down to see the other results.

The biggest problem with getting high rankings in the search engines is how to outrank competing websites. If you are in a popular niche you’re probably competing with 1000s or millions of similar sites.

How to outrank your competitors in the search engines

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Website owners are always on the lookout for ways to improve their rankings in the search engines particularly if they are in a competitive market. The Google +1 button has become available for website owners and publishers to include in their content. Adding it your website can influence your rankings in the Google’s search results.

What does the button do, how does it work and how do you add it to your web pages?

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When I talk to business owners about getting their website listed in Google’s search results they expect their site to appear immediately. Now this may be true if they don’t have a very competitive keyword they want to rank for however most popular keywords will have many competitors. You can’t blame business owners for thinking this way because they haven’t been educated about the intricacies of search engine optimization.

Top 7 factors that determine if your website will get listed in Google quickly

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You can’t blame website owners for becoming obsessed with their search engine rankings because they have been told high rankings will generate sales. This is partially true but it doesn’t present the whole picture of attracting traffic and converting that traffic into buyers. Even though you may receive first page rankings for a specific keyword it doesn’t mean that ranking converts into a sale.

Top 7 reasons not to obsess over your search engine rankings

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If you want to redesign your static website and convert it to a content management system (CMS) you’ll have trouble maintaining the same URL structure.

For instance your static page may look something like http://www.domain.com/oldpage.html and your CMS page looks like http://www.domain.com/newpage.

If the URL structures don’t match you may lose all your current search engine rankings for that page unless you redirect it correctly.

What is a 301 redirect?

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So you’ve built your website using a Content Management System such as WordPress and don’t want to display pages with dynamic URLs such as http://www.drostdesigns.com/?p=123. Search engines will still spider this type of URL however you miss out on including your main keywords plus the URL is difficult to spell and remember.

How To 301 Redirect Dynamic URLS Using Mod_Rewrite

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