When it comes to web hosting there are so many options it can sometime be a little bewildering.  I’ve tried to narrow things down to the most important things in the two charts on the web hosting comparison page, but even with these it’s difficult to know which to choose.  So, the important thing here is to determine what features your website will have and what kind of services you’ll offer.  From this list you can match the web hosting features and choose a well suited host. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the services I have in the comparison chart at the SEO page which I have personally used, is Search Engine Promotion Tools. I ogirginally signed up with them to get access to their automated search engine submission service. This worked just fine, much like all the others would, however, I noticed the other tools they have availabe geared towards optimizing your website for the search engines. One of my favorite tools is the SEO Analyzer. To use this tool you enter in your url, as well as the keyword or keyphrase you are trying to target. The program then runs through both your code, and your site’s external features such as backlinks, and returns a full report grading each section from 0 to 100. If sections of your site aren’t up to snuff, the program gives you tips to improve. Another great thing about this tool is the possibilty to run analyses of your competitor’s sites with the same keyword/keyphrase you’re targeting. This allows you to get a good idea of how much work you need to do. I would definitely recommend Search Engine Promotion Tools, and if you’ve used this program, or use it in the future, let me know how you like it in the comments.

I’m hoping this website and blog have helped you in someway on your quest to make your own website.  If so, I think it’d be cool to have a showcase of some of the websites you’ve made.  So, if you have a website ready, e-mail me, or comment on this post.  You could even get a free backlink out of it!

Yesterday I blogged a little about choosing keywords and recommended a couple tools that will show you how often each one is searched. However, this information is a little meaningless unless your website has pages ranked in Google in every spot from 1 to 100. So there must be some way to determine how many visitors you’ll get based on your position. Well, it turns out there is.

Read the rest of this entry »

More and more people are starting a website or a blog for financial gain. There’s no problem with this, in fact, if you believe in market forces the content produced by a for-profit site should be of a higher quality. Anyway, there is a lot of competition for popular topics like gaming, because of this a many new web entrepreneurs need to go after a niche topic with a little less keyword competition. However, it can be a little difficult at times to determine if your topic really is less competitive, or on the other hand if it receives too few searches. To find out this kind of information there are two really great free tools I like to use. The first one is at SEOToolSet, just scroll down the page a little and look for the “Keyword Activity” box. Type in your keywords and it will return an estimate of the number of searches per day on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The second tool is at SEOBook which shows the number of searches per month on a various search engines, as well as suggests alternate keywords. Give these a shot and you should be able to narrow down the list of topics you’re considering when you make a website or blog.

Google has always been on the forefront of search engine algorithm advancements. Their most recent algorithm places an increased emphasis on not only backlinks, but quality backlinks. Gone now are the days in which free for all link farms and massive reciprocal link schemes will deliver instant rankings. Not only will these not help you anymore, in most cases they will hurt you. Despite this, if you put a little bit of time into it, building quality backlinks is not all that difficult.

Read the rest of this entry »

Search engine optimization (SEO) seems to be shrouded in mystery for many people.  Perhaps this is a good thing, as if you don’t optimize properly and according to “the rules” it’s very possible that the search engines will stop indexing you all together.  So, the aim of this guide is to help you do the simple things that provide the largest return on investment.  But first some background on how search engines work, and why search engine optimization is a good idea.

Read the rest of this entry »

Internet users will spend 3-5 seconds at a website before deciding to either stay, or try elsewhere. Take heed of this fact and realize that a website with great content can still be left behind without a professional, attractive look. Unfortunately, designing and coding a great website isn’t always easy; it requires a good deal of creativity and knowledge, which a lot of us just don’t have. Web design companies can charge per hour, more than many people make in a day for just this reason. But there are other options, and this is where website templates come in. They allow you to take advantage of other people’s creativity and expertise while paying a fraction of what you would (around $50). However, this drastic price cut does come with some strings attached, and you will need to do a few basic things to get your template-based website ready for prime time.

Read the rest of this entry »

This blog accompanies the Step by Step guide to making your own websites over at Step by Step Websites - Make Your Own Website. The goal is to provide quality resources aiding you in making decisions on the tools you need to build your own website.