newsletter

February ABCs of Web Design Newsletter

Introductory comments

Every time I have an article out, I always get a lot of email, which I love so keep it coming, but this month I am thrilled to announce my first success story. Usually people ask me questions, and I do answer every email I get, but this month Jodie emailed me her SEO experience, snagging a great spot on Google, and winning a web site award. So here is Jodie's story...

Question of the month

Success Story: A success story comes from Jodie Gilmore who emailed me recently saying "Great article on search engines in the last Intercom. At the end of it, you said to e-mail you with successful site submissions. I recently developed a web site (www.autoupholsterykit.com), which besides my own site, was my first "real" web development job. I did a lot of research on SEO, and search engine submission. I submitted to Google, AltaVista, Excite, AskJeeves, and a few others by hand, then used one of those "submit to 13 search engines for free!" promotions to submit the site to a few more off-the-wall engines. We got into Google in about 1 month, and the others in about 2. My submission to the ODP directory was unsuccessful, it appears. I may try it again (it's been about 4 months). My client did shuck out $$$ for express submission to a couple of the sites, including Galaxy. In Google, the site remains consistently in the top 3 for all the chosen keyword phrases (such as "auto carpet kit" and "auto upholstery"), which I'm pretty proud of, since this was my first SEO project. (By the way, the site just won an Award of Excellence in the online pub competition in the Willamette Valley STC pubs competition.)

I found that cultivating links with other (in this case, automotive) sites paid off very well in rankings (esp. Google). Our current Page Rank is 6. I investigated the Zeus link generator, but didn't like it. I also don't like the Zeus-generated e-mails I get from other webmasters, asking to exchange links. They are too obviously form letters. I prefer a more personal touch, even though it takes longer.

Another way I found to promote the site was to enter some site competitions at other automotive sites. In reality, these are less concerned with site quality than they are a "classier" method of exchanging links ? but site visitors may not know that! The Link Exchange was useful, actually, in generating a few reciprocal links, although I get some spamm-y ones occasionally (like from casino sites).

Comments: Great job Jodie! In my recent article (which is out now in the Intercom and on my web site) is about how to get into paid search engines for free -- so check it out for help in getting into ODP (you can get in for free through another search engine). Thanks for your kudos on my article. And great job on your ranking on Google, this is hard to get but well worth it. Exchanging links if a great way to build traffic -- I know my resources (links) page on my site (www.w-wedge.com) gets the most hits of any on my site, so most people do look at your links. I know what you mean about the form letter link exchange emails - those may generate because of where you are ranked on Google (envy!) and they are hoping to ride your wave of popularity. If I were you, I would be pretty selective about who you "allow" on your page -- think of your visitors and ask yourself "would this site be of benefit to them?" When I maintained the OKIT site, that site was ranked number one everywhere and I had skads of people wanting to exchange links but I was pretty picky. I wanted to ensure the sites were run by Native Americans about Native American subjects. This paid off for my users because the hits for the site (and that page) grew and grew. So keep up the good work! And thanks for your success story!

Wrap up

I love it when people benefit from my articles and this web site. I don't get paid to write any of these articles -- I do it for the fun and hope that someone can learn my successes (and mistakes too!). My next Intercom article features Andrew White, whom I have been mentoring for over a year now and the benefits of having a mentor. I have lots of mentors both professional and personal. Jodie's email is one of those unexpected benefits of helping someone. Until next month!

Please send all questions to theresaw@columbus.rr.com.

To see the articles from my print web column, go to http://www.w-edge.com/articles.htm

Feel free to forward this email in its entirety to anyone you feel might be interested in it.