Thursday, February 26, 2009

What's Google Doing In May? Avoid Getting Slapped

This is going to be a huge crackdown on scams and spam. So, what's Google doing in May? They have to clean up the Internet so that the search engines will deliver websites with quality content. If you look at the Internet world like the natural world that we live in, regulations must be set into place and inforced. So, I guess that we could look at the giant company as the government of the Internet community.

Pay attention so you can avoid the "Google Salp In May."

We are going to see some Internet changes happening in the next couple of months. The intent of what is happening in a few months is going to be for the good of the online world. During a recent conference call, hosted by Ben Hart, he suggested that 90% of the stuff on the Internet is garbage.

When we go to a search engine and type in a term, we want to find quality websites in the top of the results pages. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. So, when May comes around it's time to get a few things cleaned up. There are too many websites bending the rules and way too many sites that are all about posting advertisements and making money.

Think about it this way. If every subdivision and neighborhood was plastered with giant advertisements and billboards the world would be really tackey and distasteful looking. Well, Google doesn't want the Internet to be tackey and distasteful to searchers eye in the Interenet world.

Apparently, this is a normal procedure for this giant billion dollar company though. A couple of years ago, many Internet businesses were effected by changes that were made to get things cleaned up. According to Ben, these were million dollar makers, who in an instant were negatively effected by the changes that were made to the results that were displayed when people did a search. Sites that were at the top making millions of dollars, off of free traffic, were plunged because they did not meet the Internet standards that were being enforced by this mega giant search engine.


So in May the goal is to stamp out fraudulent sites that are not producing a quality experience for their customers. Google's real customers are people doing searches. If the search results are not quality websites, in the top positions then Google begins to fail because people won't use them. Basically, if their search program stinks, then people won't use them.

There are going to be human eyes, Google's employees, looking at all of the Adwords advertisements and landing pages. Staff members will be reviewing the top sites in the search results to determine if they are in line with the companies guidelines. The websites ranking in top positions are going to have to be nice looking, in other words, they cannot be messy looking websites. If they are they will be removed from the top rankings. The staff will be looking to see if your website is actually adding value to the searcher.


Types of businesses that will be slammed or slapped in May

People collecting email addresses without a privacy policy are in danger of being slammed. From what I understand, sites that have squeeze pages will be hurdled hundreds of pages back in the results. In other words, people whose primary purpose is to collect an email address are in huge danger of getting slapped. Sites that are offering free products that are not their own, just for the purpose of collecting email address, will be hit with a negative effect.

Duplicate content sites are going to get slammed. You know the ones I'm talking about, they create websites that are all duplicate content from article sites and very little of the content, if none at all, is really original.

Get rich quick claims will be slammed in May.

Diet sites and health sites that are promising the moon and making false claims are in danger of loosing top placements.

MLM (or, “multi level marketing”) business models are in real danger. Not the mega MLMs like Market America or Shacklee. But the ones who are set up soley for the purpose of feeding off of one another to make money are going to get hammered.

Websites created specifically to sell other people's products are going to be in danger. These are affiliate sites.

Hidden links will be something that will affect how a website ranks. This type of practice has been considered black hat in the Internet world for a while now.

Keyword stuffing will negatively effect rankings.

Business that collect leads for other businesses will get shut down. You've seen the sites where you may win prizes in exchange for your email addresses. Once they collect your email, then it gets sold to other businesses. These are the types of websites that will not survive this upcoming Internet clean-up operation.

Survey Sites that are really only a bunch of affiliate links are going to be removed from the top of the results pages.

“Submit site services” will be cracked down on. These are websites that promise to submit your website to the search engines in exchange for money, when in reality you can submit them for free yourself.

Complete contact information on your website or blog is going to be something that affects your status.
Google wants people to know who you are if your selling something, especially if Adsense advertisements are on your website. Legitimate business don't hide their contact information.

A customer service area is going to be a valuable thing to have on your site. Here again, every legitimate business has a service area or customer support team, so our sites will need them too.

These are just a few of the hundreds if not thousands of things that Google will be looking at on our websites. Make adjustments now so you can avoid being slapped in May. It's time to clean up the debris and clutter online. No one likes to hang out in a place where there is a bunch of garbage. So that's just a taste of what Google's doing in May.

SiteBuilder Newbies
part 1-Making Changes
part 2-Designing Pages
part 3-Different Browsers
part-4 Design Clean and Simple Website Pages

Design Clean and Simple Website Pages part-4


Does it irritate you when you go to a website and the pages are far from being clean and simple? Do overcrowded pages make you want to exit or stay on the website? Have you taken a good look at Google's pages compared to Yahoo's site?

Take a look and I think you will see what I mean. Google has the value of simplicity figured out when it comes to website pages.

Nothing irritates me more than going to a website and there are hundreds of things flashing, spinning, flipping and jumping in an attempt to get my attention. I like to be able to find what I am looking for quickly.

Usually if I can't find something that relates to the title of what I was searching for on the page within a few seconds, I exit. The chances of me ever searching that site again are slim because of my first impression.

It's also good to plan what is going to be on your site by categories and sub categories. For instance, if your site is about automobiles, you may have a sub categories for trucks, sports cars, or luxury vehicles. Then, the next option would be brand names such as Ford, Lexis or Porsche.

Here's a quick reference of things to consider when designing your Homestead website.

1) Keep pages free from too much clutter
2) Create easy to follow navigation paths
3) Avoid using flashing, spinning, scrolling and bouncing things on your website pages.
4) Do not insert too many advertisements
5) Keep your content in short paragraphs so people can quickly scan the page looking for what they are trying to find, or learn.
6) You only get one first impression, make it count.
7) Don't just build but plan your websites pages and layout carefully

If we can keep these simple things in mind, when desiging our Homestead website, more visitors will stay on our site longer. When the pages are clean of clutter, have an easy navigation systen to follow, and the content is worth reading visitors will not bounce off of the site immediately. A simple design with interesting content will keep your visitors coming back for more.
SiteBuilder Newbies
part 1-Making Changes
part 2-Designing Pages
part 3-Different Browsers
part-4 Design Clean and Simple Website Pages

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Different Browsers-part 3

Your Homestead website pages need to be checked to see what they look like in different browsers. Internet Explorer and Firefox are the two main web page viewers that people use. The reason that you must do this is because your pages “will” look different when viewed with Fire Fox if your building your site using IE.

The Site Builder feature that usually creates difficulty is the HTML insert. It is used for adding Youtube Videos, Adsense, Affiliate Banners or anything that is written in HTML or Java Script. Usually, the insert box will be about 1/2” lower when viewed with Fire Fox in comparison to what it will look like in Internet explorier.

How to check your Homestead website in different browsers. Go to a website called Browser Shots and join. It is totally free to become a member. If you skip signing up and just start using the service, you will eventually have to join because you are only allowed so many "browser shots" in a secession. When you are a member, you can view as many websites that you want in a day. This is the easiest and fastest way to check a Homestead websites look in various browsers.
SiteBuilder Newbies
part 1-Making Changes
part 2-Designing Pages
part 3-Different Browsers
part-4 Design Clean and Simple Website Pages

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Try Starting a Wordpress Blog


If you want to get an amazing traffic blast try starting a Wordpress Blog. The graph above shows what has happened in a two month period since I started my blog using Godaddy as the hosting provider. I must tell you though I had to apply SEO techniques to get to the place that I am already. Look at the graph, I hit a high of 148 visitors with an average of 100 per day in just two short months.

Here's is why I feel I have achieved such a great level of success with this blog program. When I started the site called, Fix My Cabinet, I set a goal to publish an article every two days. It has been an easy task to meet my goal because this is something that I know a lot about. I have filled the pages with loads of content already So much so that Google has already recognized me as an authority site and Yahoo has indexed over 800 back links to my pages because I am considered a specialist in the cabinetry industry.

Here's how you can start a blog by Wordpress. Go to Godaddy (GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans),
set up an account, purchase your domain name (Go Daddy $7.49 .com Sale!)
and get tech support to help you get your Wordpress blog into working order. There are four plug ins that will need to be installed.

1) All In One SEO Pack
2) Google Analyticator
3) Wp-SpamFree
4) Yet Another Related Post Plugin

It is possible to start a Free Wordpress Blog but it is better to have your own domain name. If you register for the free blog your domain will be a sub domain of Wordpress. It is always better to own the main domain because the search engines offer better placement for the main .com rather than the sub domain name.

By starting a blog you can easily publish content every day. Wordpress is an amazing tool that the search engines like so if your niche is not too competitive and you write loads of optimized content you will have a great opportunity to become an authority in your niche and have loads of traffic too.

It's free-Homestead Website Ebook
Homestead Website Help

Monday, February 16, 2009

Have You Visited Copy Blogger Yet? I'm a regular visitor


One of the finest places on the planet to get great information about blogging is Copy Blogger. If you haven't visited the blog yet, you need too. Every time I visit, I'm inspired to write about something. Today it just happens to be about how I stop by this site once every two days to get inspiration and reminders of the importance of publishing content. You see I'm a regular visitor to this inspirational website.

Here is just a small opening paragraph from a blog post called, "Contents Are Hot."
"Sure, your content needs to be useful. Yes, absolutely, it needs to improve your readers’ lives. And without a doubt, it needs to strengthen your relationship with your content community."

Now that's what I'm talking about, doesn't that just stir you to want more? If so, you can read the entire article here at Hot Content. This particular post, at Copy Blogger, is directing the readers focus toward the value of including a photo that is shocking, startling, intriguing or offensive, in your article posts. Here's how inspirational this site is to me, in this post I have included a photo. If you look at any posts previous to today's date, you will not find photos on this site.

Go check them out, it's an amazing place to soak up loads of information as it relates to building websites, marketing and publishing articles to the Internet. Copy Blogger may just become a frequent place that you visit once you've tasted of the goodness that the blog has to offer. Copy Blogger was refereed to me by community forum called Website Babble. I am so thankful that someone made a post about them.

Homestead Users

Sunday, February 15, 2009

part 2-Designing Pages

I'll never forget how I just took off building my web pages, when I was just learning the SiteBuilder functions on my own, without really taking a good look at some of the millions of websites that have excellent designs. So, this is the best advice that I can give you, STUDY other websites before you begin designing pages. This will make the result of your efforts something to be proud of for a long time and also your site will need very few changes when you are finished.

In the midst of preparing to build your website, make sure to get into the Homestead Users Marketing Center so you can learn about how to design them in order to get good rankings with Google, Yahoo and MSN. Learn to do it right the first time and you will save yourself hours of time later on. Does the thought of redesigning an entire website sound like fun to you? Well if it does, I'm here to tell you it is not fun at all. I have been there and done that. Learn from my mistakes and glean from the knowledge that I have gained about designing pages correctly. Get into the marketing center for Homestead Users.

Here is an example of a poorly designed Homestead website page where someone just packed a bunch of stuff in a small area without any real design thought. A bunch of stuff on a page.

Take time to review several websites and also to plan yours out without haste. When people build a beautiful house they don't just start building do they? Of course not, they go look at model homes and get creative ideas for their own home. Well, the planning stages of building a website are not different from planning to fabricate a beautiful home. Borrow ideas for designing your pages and then make them suit your niche. Designing a functional and beautiful website is going to require that you do some study before you publish your final pages.

SiteBuilder Newbies
part 1-Making Changes
part 2-Designing Pages
part 3-Different Browsers
part-4 Design Clean and Simple Website Pages

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

SiteBuilder Newbies, Building a Homestead Website part 1-Making Changes

If you are a SiteBuilder newbie, and need help with your Homestead website, we are here for you. In this series, I will be sharing some of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started building websites using the Intuit/Homestead SiteBuilder program. We must be very careful when we are making changes to existing web pages.

In part one of this series, I will be talking about the effects of changes to existing pages.
When I first began to create web pages, I had no experience or formal training. I made many mistakes that required a considerable amount of additional hours to fix.

Specifically in this article I want to help you understand the importance of thinking about the changes that you are getting ready to make to a page.

Here's the main point of what I want you to understand. Before you change anything on a page, especially an active link or deleting a page, it is IMPORTANT to stop and really think about what those links or pages are attached to.

Remember, once you have made a change and clicked on “Save” the change is permanent. There's no amount of help from anyone in tech support or anywhere else that will be beneficial to you in trying to recover what you had built before you clicked on the “Save” button.
So, it is IMPORTANT to stop and think before you hit that “save” button.

When I was a newbie, I had created my entire site of about fifteen pages. Everything was linked with the Index or home page. I'm not even sure what I was thinking at the time, but somehow I deleted the Index page and saved my changes.

I called the Homestead tech support for help. The gentleman on the other end of the phone kindly informed me that the page was gone forever. I had to completely rebuild my home page and reconnect all of the other fourteen page links that I had originally interconnected to it.

There are many resources at the Homestead Users website that have been created to help SiteBuilder newbies. We offer a gift for all of our visitors called the Free Ebook, Thirty Ways To Increase Traffic To A Homestead Website. Building a successful Internet presence is going to take hard work and dedication, we've been there and done that. Now we are here to help you succeed by offering many products, videos, articles and resources for the SiteBuilder newbie.
SiteBuilder Newbies
part 1-Making Changes
part 2-Designing Pages
part 3-Different Browsers
part-4 Design Clean and Simple Website Pages
If Google Is Grossing Billions Of Dollars
Making ClickBank Sales Pages
SEO Homestead Website

aweber

  © Blogger template 'Fly Away' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008-Blog Managed by Homestead Users P.O. Box 51623 Sarasota, Fl 34232 Contact: jc@homesteadusers.com

Back to TOP