CompanyWebsite

Using HTML Content Items for secondary navigation on your site

2007-10-13T20:02:15Z

CompanyWebsite is a great content management system because it gives site managers full control over their website and also gives them the ability to create hundreds of pages of content quickly and easily. Most often, these pages are created to populate a Products/Services section or to simply maximize search engine optimization, also known as SEO. However, since most CompanyWebsite templates are designed specificpally to keep a clean, consistent look across all franchisee websites, site managers are limited with what they can place in the normal website navigation area.

But thanks to the flexibility of HTML Content Items, site managers can easily create sub-navigation areas with unique links to any page created within CompanyWebsite. Simply Add the HTML Content Item to a designated content area and create links to pages as shown below:

STEP 1: Using the HTML Editor, enter the text how you would like it to appear in the selected content area. In this example, we've chosen to enter the text using standard paragraph breaks. Another common display option to accentuate links are bulleted lists, which can be easily created using the HTML Editor.

As shown, the word Services is highlighted because we want to link it to the Services page which was created earlier by the site manager.

STEP 2: In Step 2, we have clicked the Custom Links drop-down menu to display the list of pages created in the CompanyWebsite service.

STEP 3: As shown, the site manager chooses the Services pages to create the active link in the list.

Once all 3 steps have been completed, be sure to click Save to apply the changes to the HTML Content Item and update the selected content area.

Reusable Content Items:
Load.com recommends using Reusable Content Items if/when you want to create a secondary navigation in a selected content area. The main reason for this is to make sure you do NOT have to duplicate your work. If you plan on using the links as a way to quickly and easily move between products or sections on your site, you'll absolutely want to make your HTML Content Item re-usable. This is most notably needed when placing links in a content area that is located in the right-hand or left-hand margin area on your site, as shown below.

If you have any questions about CompanyWebsite, or how to use specific functions in the service, be sure to view the Guides and Tutorials in the CompanyWebsite service.

Create SEO-friendly content with the Press Releases content item

2007-10-12T03:34:09Z

A lot of website owners have been trying to come up with new ways to optimize their website and drive users to their site. In previous articles, we recommended using Targeted Search Domains, or using Site Map techniques and making sure you take full advantage of your Meta Tags, Title Tags, and Header Tags. Another SEO-friendly option inherently built into CompanyWebsite can be found in the Applications controls called Press Releases.

The Press Release manager is very useful because it allows many site owners to create news for their site easily in an organized format. The Press Release manager also allows site managers to archive content on their site while displaying the content in the proper format to maximize search engine optimization rules.

So...what sort of content can you use the Press Release manager for? We recommend using this control to announce News-worthy content such as new clients, or recently completed jobs, or even things as simple as new hires within your organization. The primary goal is to create content that identifies your company, what you do, and what you specialize in. The bottom line is that your content should be written to emphasize key phrases or terms that might be used to find your site in search engines. However, please make sure your press release content is relevant to the Title of your press release. (See Search Engine Optimization Techniques: Content, Content, Content.)

Adding the Press Release Manager to your site:

Identify which page you would like to have the Press Releases control included. If you don't have a page already created, we suggest creating a NEW page called PRESS to help you organize your Web pages in an easy-to-understand format.
Click the Add New Content Item button.
Click the Applications tab.
Click Press Releases from the left-hand menu.
Click the Add This Control button. You will be redirected to the Web page with the Press Releases content item now added to the page.
Click Edit to begin adding content to your Press Release manager.

Target Customers with Direct Search Domains

2007-06-12T14:30:33Z

If you're relatively new to the Web as a webmaster or website manager, you're probably wondering, "What the heck is a Direct Search Domain?" Good question. A Direct Search Domain is a domain name (web address) that a user types directly into the Web Address Bar (shown at right) in hopes of finding some relevant information relating to the word(s) that make up the domain name.

For example, if a user was seeking information about e-commerce statistics, they might type in the Web Address www.ecommercestats.com in hopes of finding relevant information. For most, this is an older Web technique that was used heavily in late '90s, but has gained much more popularity in the past 3-4 years. You may have stumbled upon Direct Search Domain landing pages created by domain name squatters in hopes of driving users to paid-advertising links and/or Web pages.

For most, Direct Search Domains represent an opportunity to drive targeted users to your website or promotional Web pages. This is a VERY effective and strategic way to target qualified customers AND will help in your attempts to increase your Site Rank with various search engines. As long as your content is relevant to your Direct Search Domain, you will see an increase in traffic and search listings.

The good news is as a subscriber to the CompanyWebsite content management service, Direct Search Domains are perfect for your business, and here's why:

Easy to Set-Up - creating new Web pages is simple and all CompanyWebsite templates come pre-optimized for search engines.
Low Cost of Ownership (Most of the time) - domain names are relatively inexpensive ($9.95/yr); however, the perfect domain name that could really help your business may require third-party acquisition and it's an investment for the long-term because yearly renewals are only $9.95.
Easy to Manage with Load - our DNS service comes standard with domain name purchases and you'll want the ability to individually control your domain names. LoadDNS is one of the premier hosted dns services on the Web.

Direct Search Domains as an Alternative to Paid Search Advertising
If you're currently using Paid Search (Google Adwords) as your primary means of Web advertising, you might want to consider Direct Search Domains. There's a good chance you will generate high-quality leads simply by purchasing relevant keyword-rich domain names and creating landing pages for them. According columnist Anthony Mitchell in an article for TechNewsWorld, "Direct search is responsible for less than 20 percent of the online connections between potential customers and businesses (yet) is correlated with stronger customer purchasing behavior than traditional search engine referrals by at least a factor of two."

Some of the more useful suggestions for Direct Search Domains according to Mitchell are...

Emphasize relevance - Pick domain names that represent the types of services your firm provides now or is considering in the future. Try commonly- understood words that potential clients are likely to enter into their browsers. Experiment with misspellings of your own service's offerings and brands. For Example: Load.com has captured domain names like LargeFileDelivery.com for the YouLoad service.
Prioritize .COMs - While it might be tougher to find available .com's for your business products and services, it's less likely the average person will use other TLD's in trying to find a relevant site through direct search.
Combine locations and service offerings - Like country-based affinity, those looking for local companies might type in their state or city and the service they seek like SignsReno.com or Edmonton-signs.com.

Since forwarded domain names are typically not indexed by Search Engines (Google actually prefers 301 Redirects at the DNS level), you're going to be best served by creating dedicated landing pages that contain content specifically targeting the search phrase/keywords contained in the Direct Search Domain.

In the example used above, one aspect of your business might be selling e-commerce statistics. By creating a dedicated landing page with content specifically about e-commerce stats at ecommercestats.com, you have a better chance of generating organic search traffic for the search term and driving more qualified leads to your business.

Search Engine OptimizationTechniques: Do's and Don'ts

2007-05-11T16:43:33Z

We've attended enough tech conferences and listened to enough so-called experts speak about the perils of Black Hat SEO techniques (think the Dark Side) versus White Hat techniques (you guessed it Luke). It's probably safe to assume if you're reading this article, you must be familiar with SEO or are seeking insight into what works with search engines. Depending on whom you ask, answers will vary from the value of inbound links increasing your SERP ranking (Search Engine Results Page) and overall site relevancy to the value of unique content with proper use of Meta tags and Title tags. So, here's your opportunity to learn from Load's marketing staff and Web designers and forego those hefty tech conference fees and horrible box lunches. :)

Common SEO Techniques Explained ...

Hidden Text Is a NO-NO - Are you part of the late 90's Web design team that thinks placing white text on a white background still works? If you're trying to hide text from your users in hopes of hoodwinking Google or any of the other search engines, BAD CALL. This technique is more commonly known as hidden text and could cause your site to disappear from search engine rankings for the keywords/key phrases that you're trying so desperately to rank for. Ultimately, this "shady" technique may get your site banned completely.
Read Your Content Out Loud - Many site owners claim that keyword stuffing is an effective method for increasing page rank or increasing the likelihood that your site will pull up higher in search engine results. What's keyword stuffing? Well, if you have content on your site that uses the same key word or key phrase multiple times in a sentence, you're probably going to get flagged by search engines as a "keyword stuffer". A good test is to read your content out loud. If the content on your site does NOT sound natural, there's a good chance you're going to get flagged.
A Picture Isn't Really Worth a 1,000 Words - Did you just learn photoshop or discover a really cool font that you've just got to use? Well, you may want to refrain from making large graphics containing your marketing message. AVOID creating page titles or writing site content in images. Why? Images will negatively impact your site's keyword density, but search engines won’t be able to spider your content either.
Take Advantage of ALT Tags - If you MUST use images -- sometimes it just helps the look and feel of your site -- then try to remember to use ALT tags where available. This signals to search engines what the content/context of the image is and how they should validate your images to count positively towards your site.
The 300 - I'm not referring to the movie about 300 Spartan soldiers. I'm talking about the number of words in your content per page. Every search engine is looking for content relevancy. Each takes into account page titles, headers, meta tags, links, and most of all, your content. The more valuable content your site has to offer about a topic relating to a specific key phrase, the greater the likelihood that your site will appear in the search results.

As always, we'll continue to add content and tips about search engine techniques as we discover them and/or learn about them. So check back often and feel free to write if you have questions or need help.

Web Form Submissions and Display in Microsoft Outlook

2007-04-17T01:39:00Z

We've recently had a handful of questions from various website managers utilizing the CW Form Builder centering around the way web form results display in Microsoft Outlook®. The primary issue is that the form results are sometimes displaying as a one (1) long line of information instead of separate lines of content submitted by the user. The interesting thing, is this really has nothing to do with CompanyWebsite or how the forms are submitted. Rather, Outlook removes line breaks in the formatted message. Fortunately for everyone, there is a simple way to fix the way incoming form data is displayed. Please see the screenshots below for an easy explanation.

Screenshot #1:
The original message is delivered to the user's e-mail account and Microsoft Outlook automatically formats the message by removing the line breaks. You are notified of this change to the formatted message by the comment highlighted in RED which states, "Extra line breaks in this message were removed." This formatting change causes the data in the form submission to run together.

Screenshot #2:
However, there is good news. As shown below, the original formatting of the message can easily be restored. By clicking on the area outlined in RED above, a secondary dialogue window automatically appears giving the user the option to "Restore line breaks".

Screenshot #3:
Once the line breaks are restored, the content of the message will display correctly and unique line data will appear correctly in the body of the e-mail message.

SUMMARY:
This is a simple fix to a perplexing problem, especially for site managers and project managers that are in a hurry and often overlook this feature (bug). Fortunately, we (LOAD) have the opportunity to use Load.net to reach out and help our users better understand how technology works, even when the problem has NOTHING to do with CompanyWebsite. Hope this article helps you and makes things a little less confusing.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques: META Tag Creation

2007-04-04T22:42:00Z

Load.com has had opportunities to speak at numerous conferences about the value of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its benefits. As a matter of fact, I personally believe it is the best way to create value for your users and drive prospective customers to your site cost effectively. In the previous entry Search Engine Optimization Techniques: Content, Content, Content, I briefly discussed the value of unique content and how users should approach customizing their site. In this article, we're going to specifically discuss Meta Tags and how CompanyWebsite makes it easy for you to customize your tags.

What is a META Tag?
According to Wikipedia, META Tags or META elements are HTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the HEAD section of an HTML document.

Uh, wuh? Well, I might actually define META Tags as the elements in the HTML code that help search engines identify the overall topic of the Web page and assess the quality of the content on the page. The types of META tags you can provide include: author's name, description (short abstract of a document), and keywords. Including these specific META tags will increase the chance that users will find your website. In addition, you can use META tags to refresh a Web page or give specific instructions to different search engines.

While this is all very good information, for many of you reading this article, you really only care about the META TITLE, DESCRIPTION, and KEYWORDS associated with your site and specific Web pages.

Customizing Your Site Meta Tags
CompanyWebsite users typically have META Tags that are pre-populated by the corporate office to serve as a great starting point. As shown in the picture below, CompanyWebsite subscribers have full control over site META tags.

CompanyWebsite allows users to Edit Site META Tags (SEO) and Page Specific META Tags. You may be asking, "What's the difference and what is the value of each?" That's a very good question.

Site Meta Tags (SEO)
In CompanyWebsite, users have the ability to create a default set of META tags which are automatically used to pre-populate any newly created Web page within a specific site. This allows for easy set-up and ensures that each page has site-relevant META tags in place.

Page Specific META Tags
When editing a specific page in CompanyWebsite, users have the ability to edit Page Options which allows users to create unique META Tags for a given Web page. This is particularly valuable for businesses with different services/products and are promoting each on separate Web pages. By creating unique META Tags, coupled with unique content, the likelihood that search engines will select your site as an authority on a specific topic increases.

To learn more about META Tags within the CompanyWebsite system, be sure to login to the Control Center and click the "?" icon to view voice-enabled tutorials on how to manage your CompanyWebsite.

For more information about META Tags, check out these two links:

Search Engine Optimization Techniques: Content, Content, Content

2007-04-04T19:15:00Z

We've been getting a lot of requests from franchisees asking, "How can I make my site pull up #1 in Google?" Well, that's a pretty loaded question, but we'll attempt to give you some pointers in our series of SEO Techniques.

The best and most proven way to succeed on the Web is to write content specific to your store/location and make sure your content is unique. For example, your homepage should include content that is very specific to your store and what you do for business. You'll want to be sure to include common search phrases in your unique content that may be used by prospective customers when searching for your site. In the paragraph below, please notice how we include phrases that may be used at sites like Google, Yahoo! or MSN:

Welcome to Sign*A*Rama Henderson, the premier source for signs and banners in Henderson and Las Vegas. We use the latest technology and quality products to develop the best signs on the market. You can be sure that our custom signs will help you put your best foot forward and give your brand the recognition it needs...

As you can see from the bolded text above, we included phrases that may be used at a search engines to find a sign franchise located in Henderson. This is a strong technique that most search engines, such as Google, find valuable and legitimate. Better yet, you can control what is said on your site and make sure that you're including the phrases that matter to your business.

So, how much content do I need to write?
Google values content that is at least 250 words and specific to certain topics, so be sure to write relevant content to the topic and page. As a CompanyWebsite subscriber, you can use the HTML Content control to include as much content on your Web pages as you deem necessary.

Change the Headers on each of your pages!
One of the great benefits of CompanyWebsite is that all headers residing on the site display as nice graphics, but also automatically include "ALT" Tags and are embedded as H1 header tags. This allows your page to be spidered by search engines with greater efficiency and higher relevancy.

A franchisee doing a wonderful job of customizing the content and headers on their site is http://www.signsgso.com/.

WARNING: DO NOT copy any content directly from another website. Search engines now use content tracking methods that allow them to give credit to the originator of the copied content and may blacklist your site if you plagiarize.

RGB JPEGs (GOOD)! CMYK JPEGs (BAD)!

2007-03-23T07:09:00Z

We should have published a blog post on this subject a while ago, but heck Load.net didn't exist when this first came up. Some of you using the CompanyWebsite content management system for your site (we won't name any sign-making franchisees), have had a difficult time getting photos to display on your website. After much digging and countless hours on the phone, we've come to two (2) conclusions:

Load.com is out to break your site and wants all images to NOT appear correctly on your site. (THIS AIN'T IT!)
OR Some of the images getting uploaded have either been too large (Images must be 1MB or smaller) OR images are getting uploaded in JPEG format, but are accidentally being completed in CMYK format. (YUP! THAT'S IT BABY!)

So, what is a CMYK JPEG and why does it even matter?
CMYK is the abbreviation for Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black (no idea why it isn't B). This color process is used for a 4-Color process which is associated with print-ready material including brochures, business cards, signs, etc. RGB is used for televisions and monitors and stands for Red Green Blue.

So, what's the big deal? Well, Internet browsers (IE 6.0+ and Firefox) will NOT display CMYK-based images, which is most likely the reason images being uploaded to CompanyWebsite are not appearing correctly in your browser, but look okay in your image/graphics editing software.

Make sure your Image Mode is set to RGB and you should be "good to go".

CompanyWebsite To Exhibit At IFA 2007

2007-02-22T11:51:00Z

It's almost here and we're ready for another rockin' IFA conference in our hometown, Las Vegas, NV. Some of you may recall LOAD.COM's first appearance at the 2006 IFA Conference in Palm Springs. Last year was an exciting year and business has been booming ever since.

Be sure to stop by our booth (#815 & #817) and find out how LOAD.COM can take your technology to the next level.