WEAVING THE WEB - September 2002

TIPS AND INFORMATION FOR WEBSITE OWNERS
from Websites at Work

IN THIS ISSUE

WELCOME

Welcome to the September issue of WEAVING THE WEB. In this issue you will find useful and interesting tips and information to help you get the most out of your website. This issue concentrates on some less well known aspects of optimising your website for search engines.

FEATURE ISSUE

Increase your search engine ranking through links from other websites 
Getting a good ranking on search engines like Google depends on many factors. One very important factor which is often overlooked is the Page Ranking. This is a score which Google uses to determine how useful a page will be to visitors. In essence, the Page Ranking is higher for websites which are linked to by popular and important sites. An understanding of how the score is calculated, which is explained in the  article at the link below, will help you to maximise  the search engine ranking of your website. See the tips section below for useful tips on how to increase your PageRanking.
http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/index. html

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Content management systems
For those who want to know more about content management systems, a review on a very useful book is available at: 
http://www. webreference.com/authoring/languages/html/cmsystems/

20% Referrer discount
Our aim is to provide top quality websites and a service that is so good you recommend it to your customers and colleagues. To show our appreciation when you do this, we offer a 20% discount on your monthly hosting and support fees for every new customer that you introduce to us. The discount is cumulative, so only five successful referrals and your monthly hosting and support will be free.

COACHES CORNER - TERRIFIC TIPS

TIP 12: Structure your website in a tree hierarchy (the Websites at Work content management system does this automatically) - this means that your home page will get the highest possible Page Ranking. To maximise the benefits of  a high score for your home page, make sure it includes your most important key words, and a concise but effective summary of what you offer.

TIP 13: Increasing the amount of content on your website will increase it's rPage Ranking. Use the content management system to gradually build up more information. Good information pages will also be linked to by other websites which will further increase your score.

TIP 14: When exchanging links with another website, ask them to link to your home page or another key section page. The page which is linked to gets the  maximum benefit to its page ranking.

TIP 15: In addition to checking the results of keyword searches, go to the Google directory. If your website has been listed it will be shown in ranking order - this can be a useful indication of how well your website is doing.

WEB WORDS

Search engine ranking

Search engine ranking is how close to the top of the list your website appears when you search on relevant keywords. It will vary depending on the keywords and search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc). Most keywords are highly competitive, and getting in the top ten is not an easy achievement.

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

Our September website of the month is Xtreme Simplicty http://www.xtreme-simplicity.net/ . This website showcases a  developer of software tools for programmers who use the C# language. It provides in depth (and growing) information on how its products work, on the basic  technology, and on the programming techniques it supports.  This website is based on one of our templates and provides a download facility which will be used to sell the software when it is released to the market.

INTERNET MARKETING RESOURCES FOR YOU
From our partners Creative Thinking:
http://www.creative-thinking.com.au/

Tip
Team with non-competing businesses to build your business. Ask 'who wants what I have?' and 'who has what I want?' You could find a rich source of new leads.

Useful article on advertising

Find out the strengths and weaknesses of advertising, and how to use it effectively at:

http://www.creative-thinking.com.au/ resources/1030326154.html

Until next month!

Michelle Davis

Websites at Work – websites created to put you in control.
Get a free website needs assessment at http://www. weftweb. net/websiteneeds.html

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GIVE A GIFT TO A FRIEND!

Please forward this update to your friends and colleagues! Your recommendation is how we grow, and anyone can subscribe by visiting http://www.websitesatwork.com.au/ newsletter.html. Remember that we give you a 20% discount on hosting and support for every customer you successfully introduce to us. See http://www.websitesatwork.com.au/discounts.html for details of this offer.

SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE

If you wish to be added to or removed from this newsletter please use the form at http://www. weftweb.net/newsletter.html.

FREE WEBSITE NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Does your website meet your business needs? Simply contact Websites at Work, or fill in our website needs analysis form at http://www.websitesatwork.com.au/ websiteneeds.html and we will give you a FREE initial website needs assessment. Too many websites fail to match the real needs of their owners, even though in many cases relatively few changes are needed. Our aim is to gain and hold the loyalty of our customers, we achieve this by ensuring that we understand your business needs and making sure that your website meets these needs. Our assessment, and our service, covers all aspects of owning a website, not just its appearance or functionality.

Michelle Davis is Director of Websites at Work, a web design business that specialises in designing and supporting database driven websites and e-commerce set up for easy owner content management. http://www.websitesatwork.com.au
E: mailto:info@websitesatwork.com.au P: +61 (0)2 6241 0467
F: +61 (0)2 8569 1505         M: +61 (0)412 819 376

COPYRIGHT
This material is Copyright Websites at Work 2002. Feel free to share this Update or any of the resources on our website with your colleagues and friends, just keep the copyright information intact. The author is Michelle Davis and requests to publish tips or articles should be directed to: mailto: info@websitesatwork.com.au or telephone +61 (0)2 6241 0467