Website Redesign Update

Redesign work www.simpalms.com.au has now been completed. Here's what the old home page looked like:

As you can see, it was one big photo with a logo and "Click to enter" (which wasn't visible in Firefox) underneath. No text at all. Nothing for search engines or visitors to read. Why make a visitor "enter" your site? When they hit your home page, they have already entered. You have but seconds to grab their attention and get them to stay. Visitors to that site on dial-up would have needed to wait a fair while for that page to load. And then you say to them "wait some more, then we'll tell you what this site is about."

That page led to the real home page which looked like this:

Nothing terribly wrong with this visually. I wasn't keen on the all-bold text, and the large image sizes forced horizontal scroll bars on most screens. The only SEO work done was to stuff as many keywords into the meta keywords tag as possible. That stopped working 10 years ago. The page title was the URL (on every page) and there were no heading tags or keywords in menu links or body copy. As a result, it ranked nowhere on any engine. Cached pages in the SEs were blank. Basically, it was invisible.

Here's what the redesigned site looks like:

Yahoo were the first to index the new pages. It's currently #1 for "palm trees gold coast" and #8 for "palm trees queensland".

MSN (now powered by Windows Live) were next. Not only did it debut at #1 for all it's geo-targeted keyword phrases, it pulls up #1 for "palm trees". From 3.2 million pages. On a site redesign that was launched about a week ago.

Google has yet to fully index the site. It indexed the new home page, which brought it up on page 2 for "palm trees queensland" but then for some reason reverted back to the old cache, which was a blank page. Even so, the site stayed on page 2. Once it settles down and Google fully index the site I'm expecting to see similar results to the other engines. This should happen within a dew days.

So, basically, mission accomplished.

Keywords: website redesign web design seo steve pronger palm trees meta keywords tag

The Death of AdSense?

Here's a new report that's causing a bit of a stir in Internet Marketing circles. Called "The Death of AdSense and the Return to Common Sense" the author, Scott Boulch, claims that based on his experience with over 3,000 websites AdSense is no longer an effective way to generate income.

Scott makes some interesting points but his conclusions seem to be based on using multiple-page-generating software, rather than building sites which are a genuinely useful resource that people return to. He's certainly right about earnings per click not being what they once were. But, Scott obviously has his own agenda. What do you think? Is AdSense dead? Download part 1 of the report and judge for yourself. It's a free download.

Keywords: adsense death of adsense website monitization steve pronger scott boulch

Must See Videos

SEO Videos from Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon

Some time ago I purchased a course on Search Engine Optimisation called Stomping the Search Engines. The course was basically a series of recorded interviews between Yahoo Store expert Andy Jenkins and SEO consultant Brad Fallon. What I really liked about these guys is they're not your traditional Internet Marketing experts who become wealthy by teaching others to become Internet Marketing experts. They are first and foremost, store owners. Brad's site MyWeddingFavors.com (one of several) is currently generating around half a million dollars in sales a month!

Since Stomp was released there has been talk of a series of videos. Most people assumed that this would simply be a video version of Stomp. Turns out, that's not the case at all. In fact, the videos aren't even a "product". Andy and Brad just decided to put the videos together to "give something back". So, the good news is you can access these videos without buying a thing. You don't have to register or jump through hoops. You won't arrive at a "squeeze page" and then be marketed to relentlessly. Just watch the videos.

So far two have been released but there are more to come. Let me tell you, the info in these videos is mind-blowing! Brilliant. But, why am I trying to sell you? Just go watch them.

Note: there's a link to get a PDF report which contains Q&A on issues raised in the videos. You WILL have to give your email address to get the report, but I strongly recommend you do. There's some great info in the report, and you'll be notified when new videos are published.

Site Build It Action Guide Videos

One shortcoming of Site Build It was the lack of video tutorials. XSitePro was already taking advantage of video with their tutorials, so it was surpising that SBI had not got in on the act. Well, now the have. The SBI Action Guide Videos are a work in progress so not all are complete. The male voice video for the Demo Introduction doesn't seem to work, but the female does. I expect they'll fix that problem soon. Actually, I find the male voice rather annoying. Go for the female.

I'd be interested to know what you think of the SEO and SBI videos. Feel free to leave a comment.

Steve

Keywords: brad fallon andy jenkins seo videos site build it xsitepro web design software

Before you hit that spam button...

Some people, I just don't understand.

Every now and then I receive a message from my mailing list manager, AWeber, which goes something like this:

"AOL, Hotmail, Earthlink, Outblaze, Road Runner and Excite.com members have the ability to push a button identifying messages as "spam" that they wish to no longer receive. The table titled, "Complaints", gives a summary of the number of people that have identified messages from your lists as unwanted."

AWeber then go on to say that " If the number of complaints generated from your lists gets too high, ISPs may block your messages."

Now, the number of these "complaints" is quite low compared to the total number of messages delivered. But I really have a tough time understanding why anyone would do this in the first place. To be on my mailing list and receive a message from me you have to:

1. Fill out a form and enter your name and email address (the form clearly states that you will receive advice on DIY website building, search engine positioning, affiliate marketing and tips for beginners."
2. Click on a link in an email which AWeber send to CONFIRM you want to be on the list

When AWeber sends a message to my list, every message contains a link to unsubscribe, as is required by law.

So why is it that some people, when they receive a message from me, addressed to them personally (AWeber can merge names and email addresses) because they are on a list which they subscribed to and CONFIRMED they wished to be on, click on a "this is spam" button with their ISP, thus potentially preventing other subscribers with the same ISP from receiving messages THEY specifically requested to receive, instead of simply unsubscribing?

Then there are those who take it one step further. Here's a recent example;

Lauren C (her Hotmail address actually had her full name), after clicking on the "this is spam" button in Hotmail when she received the link to part 2 of my course, which she "double opted-in" to receive, sent me a reply which read:

"get lost I have a better thing now"

Fine. Thanks a lot Lauren. What ever happened to plain old good manners? If you're not interested in what I have to say, that's fine. But is it really necessary to label me as a spammer with your ISP, which I am not, and then abuse me for sending you something you specifically asked to receive, rather than click on a simple unsubscribe link?

Some people, I just don't understand.

Keywords: mailing list manager automatic responder aweber managing spam complaints steve pronger hotmail