Search Engine Optimization

Whats SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Search Engine Optimization is how you show up on sites like Goole, Bing, and Yahoo. The better your SEO rank, the more your website or blog is going to show up. The two basic options for SEO, doing it for free through the website (Google, Bing, and Yahoo) and the second option: paying for it through a company like Go Daddy, Network Solutions, and many more! I highly recommend paying for it if you want to take your website or blog to the next level.

Setting Up Your Website for SEO
Setting up SEO for your site consists of a couple steps that most likely include, generating keywords (let's say you put your keyword as: example keyword, when people search the term example keyword, it will show up somewhere in the list of search results). Next it's optimizing tags (lets say you want your page to show up as: Example Website | Example Page, then you would set it to that, as well as giving it a search description). Next you create your sitemap, this is just a way for search engines to read your website. Generally the company that you have purchased the SEO account with will give you a sitemap. If not you can get one for free at Snap Sitemap.

Featured Companies (to register SEO with):

1. Go Daddy
2. Network Solutions

Getting Your Site Out There With Social Buttons

A great way to get your site out there into the world is adding social sharing buttons to your website. This will enable to share your content. Once shared maybe someone else will share the content and it's a chain reaction. Once people know about your website more and familiarize themselves with it they'll began to come more often and maybe even tell their friends about it. You can get social buttons from a lot of places. Theirs also a ton of different types like standard ones, sidebar buttons, and much more! I have worked with ShareThis and it has been a great service! They offer more options than any other service that I have ever checked out on the web.

Featured Companies:

1. ShareThis
2. AdThis
3. Nifty Buttons

Please comment below if you have questions with any of the companies, integrating the buttons on your website, or anything else! I have experience with ShareThis and some with AdThis. If you have any questions about Nifty Buttons I will try my hardest to get you a good answer. Please feel free to ask anything, I will reply as soon as possible.

Creating a Blog or Website

Website Creators

Their are many ways to create a blog or website. Some are easy and some can be very difficult. If your just starting out and this is one of the first websites that you have ever made I recommend trying Weebly. Weebly offers a great drag and drop type website builder when can you drag elements (such as text boxes, videos, picutes, etc.) directly on to the page where you want them. With Weebly however you are limited as to what you can do and the themes around a 5/10. Weebly is a great product for beginners. If you are a beginner blogger or a pro blogger, Blogger (Blogspot) is a great way to start a nice blog. Blogger not only features a ton of posting options but also has great options for editing the appearance of your website. You can easily add gadgets (elements such as text boxes, videos, pictures, etc.) to your website. These gadgets will apear on on every page and/or post page. Blogger offers their gadgets which include some of the more simple and basic things like html elements, text boxes, pictures, Google Adsense, and much more. Also what's great about blogger is their are tons of third party gadgets as well. Third party gadgets are generally more creative, like social buttons, intricate search for your website, daily facts, and all kinds of things!







As well as easy website creators there are many hard ones but ones that enable you to do more with your website. Wordpress is harder than Weebly and Blogger but can get easy once you get the hang of it. Unfortunately the problem with Wordpress is that they do not offer any support lines or support emails. That gives third party Wordpress support lines the power. Most of them charge you when you ask a question. I recommend not paying for that, if you have any questions about Wordpress (or anything else) please post them in the comments box below and I will get back to you shortly. Wordpress, like Blgger offers third party plugins (same as Blogger gadget)  and has a ton more than Blogger. Getting new plugins with Wordpress is a great way to better your site. Wordpress also offers their own themes (how your website looks, the appearance), but those themes are not that great. There are also many third party theme providers, some themes are free but most cost money. The ones that cost money are generally better. If you find a theme that is perfect for your site, buy it! It is very worth it. Some great third party theme providers are Themeforest and Template Monster. A great way to find help and learn about Wordpress are the Wordpress for Dummies books (there are multiple variations to help you!)

Creating Your Own Website

This is where the hard part comes in. If you are a big business and need more than a website creator (and Wordpress doesn't work out) your only option is to create a website from scratch. Creating your own website enables you to do pretty much anything you want. Pretty much every big business, like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, and a ton more, creates their website from scratch. Creating a website from scratch requires a great amount of knowledge about HTML, CSS, and other forms of coding. A helpful tool to learn about creating your website from scratch is CSS Web Design for Dummies.

Easy Website Design Programs:

1. Weebly
2. Webs
3. 1&1

Easy Blog Design Programs:

1. Blogger

Intermediate Website/Blog Programs:

1. Wordpress
2. Joomla

Coding Programs (places where the code would be inputed):

1. Ruby On Rails

Please comment below on your past experiences with website creators! Please voice your opinion!