One of the best ways to keep your website fresh and interesting for your loyal visitors is to add new content. Not only will it encourage them to keep coming back on a regular basis but it will help your website stay at (or close to) the top of Google search results pages (provided you are using the right keywords in your content).

The type of website you have – static or content managed – and how much time you have available, will determine whether you can add or change content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. I recommend changing your content at least monthly, but if your time or budget is limited, choose things that are quick and easy to change or add.

Below are 10 quick and easy ways to update your web content you might want to try. (more…)

When I create websites for my clients I usually index them with the major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo. I also add the web address to AboutUs.org which is a wiki providing information on websites. But it is more than just a “whois” look-up.

It provides a title, page description, tags and a snapshot of the home page. Now, with the added features of the “Online Visibility Audit” I can check the online visibility of my clients’ websites with regard to their keywords as soon as they are published to ensure we have done everything possible to improve page ranking.

Want to know how your website’s home page appears to both search engines and visitors?

Do an online visibility audit at www.aboutus.org

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In my last article I mentioned the cool FREE tools Google has on offer to help small business owners become more visible on the internet.

Amongst the free tools is Google Analytics which, as you probably know if you own a website, is great for analyzing statistics on visitors and the keywords they used to get there.

But did you know that you can now find out what the World is searching?

Underneath the Analytics report for your keywords your visitors used, there is a link to “Google Insights” where you can find out how many searches for those same keywords have been made around the world during a given period. But more than that, “Google Insights” is another free tool, which in Google’s words, you can use to “compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.”

How is this useful? you’re probably wondering.

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Have you tried these Free Google Tools?

Everyone knows just how powerful a search engine Google is. You can find pretty much anything you’re looking for these days. Whether you’re curious about who your favourite singer or actor is currently dating (or breaking up with), you want to know why you have some ailment or other, or you’re desperately looking for a local business to fix your plumbing, heating or air conditioning in a hurry, 99 times out of 100, Google will find tons of websites with answers to your problems. Which one you visit will depend on a variety of things… attention grabbing heading, interesting description, and of course relevancy.

How does it find these websites?

In brief, Google “spiders” crawl the internet looking for key phrases on web pages, starting with the homepage, and depending on the relevance of those key phrases, as well as a number of other factors, it will rank your website accordingly. How often Google’s spiders crawl through your website depends on several criteria, not least how well your site has been “search engine optimized”.

If your site has good internal SEO, that is fantastic. But did you know there are a number of Free Google Tools that will not only let Google know you exist, but may also improve search engine optimization and visitor conversions?

Here are five free Google tools that you can use on your own website:

1. Submit your content to Google
2. Map your business with Google Maps
3. Analyze your website traffic with Google Analytics
4. Create better conversions with Website Optimizer
5. Add events to Google Calendar

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