Webmaster Tools
Good web designers and marketing specialists spend much of their staff time searching for, testing, and implementing the best third-party tools.
We have checked out hundreds of programs, databases, and specialized services. This page spotlights the most cost effective alternatives which we use and which you can use yourself!
Writing Your Web Page
Web pages are written in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) to allow different types of computers using different software get the same information. Mac or PCs using Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer all see similar web pages because HTML lets each computer show the data its own way.
Dreamweaver
Like any computer language, HTML has its own rules and syntax. Mere mortals (like you and me) do not want to use only HTML to put together web pages.
So, we use page authoring software which mostly hides the HTML code from our eyes.
Dreamweaver is the page authoring tools Ozdachs uses for about 75% of our new clients. (The other clients come to Ozdachs using another software package such as Microsoft's Expression Web.)
- Dreamweaver runs on both Apple computers and on PC's running Windows. Microsoft doesn't support Apples.
- Dreamweaver is less buggy than Microsoft's FrontPage/Expression Web.
- Dreamweaver has more features for designers (such as allowing precise placement of items on a web page)
- Dreamweaver also integrates with Macromedia/Adobe's web graphics creation program, Fireworks 8 and its photo editing program Photoshop.
- Dreamweaver allows a designer to set up template pages and have the user update content using Contribute.
Search Engine Optimization
Fighting your way to the top of the search results on Google, AOL, Yahoo, and other sites is the best way to get potential customers.
A complete "Search Engine Optimization" industry has sprung up with the goal of getting clients top ranking on the important search pages.
Ozdachs Consulting includes search engine optimization in its services, and we have found that Web Position 4 to be the most important tool in this effort.
Revised in 2005 and fixed/updated regularly, WP4 has four modules critical to gaining top spots.
- The first is a page critique function which tells you how to alter your web page to match the content most liked by Google (or whichever search site you are tuning the page for). This feature suggests changes such as increasing the number of words on the page, moving keyword text around, and altering the order of words in the page title.
- The second major function is position reporting which tracks where your pages appear in all important search sites for each of the keyword phrases. The program tells you if you are rising or falling for each phrase at each search location. The report shows where your site appears both in organic and in paid listings.
- Automated search engine submission is the third major benefit of WP4. The program lets you fill out your site information one time, and then helps you submit it to all major search sites with a single click. The program updates its tips and procedures monthly, so you keep current with the latest hot search sites.
- The WebPosition4 includes a Keyword Analysis tool. They integrate a light version of Wordtraker to help you select the keywords for your site.
In addition, WP4 has its own page up-loading program and the professional versions include a link checker and a meta tag editor.
Check out the details at WebPosition Gold. They even offer a FREE trial -- go for it!
If you are serious about doing your own work to improve your site's Internet visibility, you have to buy WP4!
Be sure to check out Ozdachs' additional tips in the White Paper on Tuning Your Site for Visibility.
Tracking Visitors to Your Site
You want to know who visits your site, which pages they visited, and how they found you. Did they see you in Google? Click on a link from a satisfied customer? How??
Some hosting services provide free monthly reports on who visited you. But, you need real-time information, not monthly statistics!
The solution is to put small bits of tracking code into each of your source HTML pages. This code sets a cookie for your visitor and reports back to a server in real time.
Traffic
Stats From HitsLink.com
Get advanced site traffic analysis,
including hundreds of statistics on visitors
and their behavior. more...
You can tell right away whether your latest search engine optimization is working, whether your pay-per-click ad campaign is effective, or whether your listing in an on-line directory is paying off!
Ozdachs has used tracking software from HitsLink for several years. Their statistics have been accurate, and the monthly charge for a low-volume site is reasonable, approximately $10.
More Pictures for Your Website
Pictures grab people's attention and make your site or electronic newsletter more attractive. They're essential for communicating with visually-oriented customers, and they help everyone glide through your web pages.
If you're not a photographer or graphic artist, you probably don't have a ready inventory of pictures to share online. Even if you are a visual artist, you may not have pictures to share that help you illustrate a particular point.
That's where stock images come in. Stock images are generic pictures of scenery or people you can use to tell your story. Most of the non-famous people and scenes you see in print ads and on web pages are from stock photos.
Finding affordable, realistic-looking stock pictures can be challenge, however. In the past couple years, a major stock photography company has bought up smaller companies and dramatically raised their prices (from $100 a year to $600 a year for access to the one mid-sized photo database I had been using).
Moreover, many of the stock photographs from most companies look phony. The people look like the well-dressed models they are. However, that isn't always the type of person you want illustrating your Internet story.
When my high-priced stock photo provider didn't have a good-looking photo that matched my needs, I searched the Internet for an alternative source. I found Dreamstime.com. For about $1 a web image, they provide a great alternative to the plastic, too perfect images found elsewhere.
Dreamstime seems to work as sort of an exchange, simultaneously buying images from photographers and graphic designers and selling them to webmasters and advertisers.
I found the dollar bill on a fishhook image pictured above at Dreamstime.com to use with an article on phishing. On the corporate stock image site, there was nothing that clever, modern, or on-target.
In addition, Dreamstime's pricing policies are way, way better for getting an occasional photograph.
I've adding this low-priced, high-quality source of stock photographs to my recommended list.
Latest stock photos on Dreamstime
Electronic Newsletters
You want to touch your clients and potential customers regularly. Let them know of new services, products, and specials. Give them free information that will help them in their business, and get them to consider you a valuable partner.
Electronic announcements of sales, new products, and specials is also a cost-effective way of getting your existing clients to buy from you more often. Attractive and timely correspondence helps you both serve your clients and sell more!
A low-risk tool for you to use to communicate to your clients is the Constant Contact e-mail service. Constant Contact is inexpensive and offers a free 60- day trial of the service so you can take your e- marketing campaign out on a test drive. They even provide preformatted coupons and suggested wording for your messages.
They provide responsive and competent telephone technical support -- where else do you get that kind of help anymore?
Their service is inexpensive (and they offer a FREE 60-day trial), and you need no special software to put together your electronic magazine.
Constant Contact
lets you try them out for free!
Check out the details and then tell your customers what you are up to!