A great starting place for getting links to your website is by listing it in the many free online web directories. In addition to improving your visibility in Google, a side benefit is that you may also get traffic from the directories themselves because some of the directories have good visibility for certain keywords. You can find web directories by searching for them in Google. Instead of taking a shotgun approach and listing in every directory you come across, it is better to take a more targeted approach and find directories that are related to your business and/or geographical region. For New Zealand businesses, you should try to get a listing in all the major NZ directories. To help get you started, below is a list of the leading web directories in the New Zealand market:

New Zealand Web Directories

• http://www.finda.co.nz
• http://www.hotfrog.co.nz
• http://www.nzs.com
• http://www.indexnz.com
• http://www.nzsbdirectory.co.nz
• http://www.newzealandwebsites.com
• http://www.nzwebz.co.nz
• http://www.nzsearch.co.nz
• http://www.gopher.co.nz
• http://www.kiwiwebsites.com
• http://www.sitefinder.co.nz
• http://directorynz.net
• http://www.nocowboys.co.nz (for trades and service providers)
• http://yellow.co.nz (if you are in yellow pages you should automatically be here, but be aware that you can update and add details to your listing)
• http://www.dmoz.org (good international directory to get into but can take a long time to get approved)

Example of Google search results

You will notice in the example above that the all the results on the screen are actually Google Maps listings. Regular website results appear further down the page but are not visible without scrolling. So to get visibility in these type of local region searches, it is vital to have your business listed in Google Maps. One other thing to notice in the example above is that some businesses have a logo or image in their listing and this helps the listing stand out.

How to add your business to Google Maps

Adding your listing to Google Maps is quite straightforward and does not cost anything.

1. Go to maps.google.co.nz
2. Click on the link Put your business on Google Maps
3. If you already have a Google account, sign in to Google if you are not already signed in. Otherwise click Sign Up Now
4. Click list your business or add a new business
5. Complete all the details. Fill in as much detail as you can as it will help you to get found. It is a very good idea to upload at least one image, ideally your logo.
6. After you submit your listing, Google will attempt to verify your address by sending you a verification code. You should receive this within a few days. Follow the simple instructions that are provided when you receive the code. You will not be listed until verification is complete.

Embedding a Google Map with your listing on your web site

You can get an added search engine optimisation boost by embedding a Google map with your listing on your website and at the same time it is useful for helping people find your location of business.

1. First you need to display the map with your listing in Google. One way to do this is to type in your business name into the search box on the Google Maps page.
2. Once you have the map displayed with your business on it, click Link in top right hand corner.
3. Then click Customise and preview embedded map
4. You can change the size of the map and adjust the zoom as desired in the Preview area.
5. The HTML code that embeds the map is displayed in step 3. (If you have no idea where to put this HTML code, ask your web developer to do it.)

We have put together a list of common internet website terms that you you may hear when you are talking to web professionals about your website project. Here we aim to list the most important terms rather than create a long exhaustive glossary of internet/web terminology. If you are a website owner or planning to start a website, it would be a good idea to familiarise yourself with these terms.

Backlinks

Links from other websites to yours. Used to increase a site’s popularity with search engines and to get more people to visit your site.

Blog

A blog (a blend of the term web log) is a type of website or part of a website typically in diary or journal format with entries marked with a date and displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Browser (Web Browser)

When you visit a website, you are seeing it on a software application called a browser. If your computer has Microsoft Windows operating system, it will come with Microsoft Internet Explorer built in. But there many other browsers freely available that you can install, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari (by Apple) and Opera. Usually more technically savvy people often install one of these browsers because they regard them to be superior in some way.

Cache

Sometimes when you look at a web page in a web browser, it stores the page or parts of the page (such as the images) in memory so that the next time you try to visit the same page, it loads up the page faster because it can access the saved copy right from your own computer instead of having to retrieve it from the internet. The place where it stores all this is called the “cache”.

Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system is a website that has a built in administration interface that allows you to make changes to the website without having to understand anything about programming. If you are a non-technical person and want to update your website yourself, you will need to have a CMS. There are many different CMSes available so you should ask your web developer which CMS they are planning to use for your website and why it is suitable. Some popular free open source CMSes include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Some web development companies build their own CMSes.

Directory (Online Directory)

A directory is a website that lists a large number of other websites, usually organised by categories. Some directories are free to join while other’s require payment. Some directories are general and list any type of website while others are topic specific. Web Design Pros is an example of a topic specific online directory. Adding your website to directories is one approach to getting backlinks to your website and increasing your site’s visibility.

Domain Name (Domain)

A domain name is the main part of your website address and can also be used for email addresses. E.g. this website’s domain name is webdesignpros.co.nz. In an email address, the domain name is what comes after the @ symbol.

Domain Name Registration

If you are starting a website you will need to register a domain name for your website at a domain registration company. There is a small annual fee involved to keep your domain name registered. Domain names can be country specific (e.g. ending in .co.nz, .com.au, .co.uk) or general international (e.g. .com, .org, .net)

Email Client

The software programme that you use in order to send and receive email from your computer. Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird and Apple Mail are examples of popular email clients that are standalone software programmes on a computer. There are also online email clients that are websites where you can do your emailing e.g. Gmail, Yahoo Mail. These type of email clients are called webmail.

FTP

This stands for File Transfer Protocol and it is a system for transferring files over the internet. It is often used for uploading files to a website.

FTP Client

This is a software programme used to transferring files over the internet. It is often used for uploading files to a website.

Hosting (Web Hosting)

Web hosting is a service that allows individuals or organisations to make their website available on the internet. Web hosting companies are companies that provide space on a special computers called servers that are permanently connected to the internet so that the the websites can always be accessed.

HTML

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is a type of programming language or code that is used for creating web pages. A simple web page can be created with HTML alone (this is sometimes called a static HTML page) but more complex pages or interactive web pages require a combination of other languages in addition to HTML.

HTTP/HTTPS

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This is a method used to transfer information on the internet. You will notice that web addresses usually start with http://. In HTTPS, the S stands for Secure. This is a secure version of HTTP where the information sent back and forth is encrypted. This is usually used for protecting sensitive information such as credit card details.

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that connects billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

IE (Internet Explorer)

The most widely used internet browser in use, largely because it comes with Windows software and is the automatic default browser for any Windows user. The default can be changed to a different type of browser.

IP Address

IP stands for Internet Protocol and the IP address refers to the actual number that a web address name translates to. IP addresses appear as 4 numbers separated by dots e.g. 22.231.113.64. Often many websites share the same IP address but if you want to set up a secure website it needs to have a unique IP address.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language often used on websites to achieve interactive effects.

Keyword (Key phrase)

An internet marketing term that refers to the main topics or subjects of your web pages in relation to how people would phrase them when searching for your products or services on the internet. Your key phrases are at the core of any website marketing strategy and needs to relate to your target market’s thinking rather than your own. If you want to get your website found by people searching in the search engines, you need to consider what keywords or phrases they might be searching for and make sure those words are somewhere in your website.

Link (hyperlink)

Link on a web pages are words or images that you can click on to go to another web page.

Mail server

A special computer or server for distributing email. Often mail servers are coupled with web servers so that so that if you have a website such as www.mywebsite.com, your web hosting provider can also provide you with a mail server to handle the email for your domain e.g. me@mywebsite.com.

Meta Tag

Included in the head section of an html web page and is visible to search engines but not directly to human visitors. Meta tags provide extra information about a webpage, like the topic (title), keywords, description and also instructions to search engine robots and browsers.

Operating System

The software that runs a computer. The most common computer operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Linux and Unix.

PHP

A popular programming language used for adding functionality to websites. Often used in conjunction with a database to retrieve and store information.

PPC (Pay per click)

A common term in internet advertising where you pay a small amount each time someone clicks on your advert.

Reciprocal Link

When website A links to website B and B links back to A and both link to the other on condition that they receive a link back, this is reciprocal linking.

Script

A piece of code that creates or enables a specific function on a website.

Search Engine

A tool for searching for information on the web. A search engine scans the entire internet for information contained in websites and creates an index of all the information it comes across. When someone is searching for something the search engine attempts to return a list of web pages that are the most relevant to whatever is being searched for. The most widely used search engines are Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation is the process of making a website more visible in the search engines. The search engines attempt to provide the most relevant results for a given search so an important aspect of SEO is making sure a website provides information related to certain target keywords and phrases that the search engines will interpret as high quality relevant information compared to what is available on other websites.

Web Server (Server)

Generally speaking a server is a type of computer (or more accurately a process running on a computer) that ‘serves up’ data to other computers. In web terms, a server or web server is a computer operated by a web hosting company that makes web sites available in the internet.

Sitemap

An index of all the content available on a website. A sitemap can be specially created for search engines to help them find all the different pages on a website or it can be created to assist human visitors to a website to find what they are looking for.

Sub-domain

An independent domain derived from another domain e.g. website2.mywebsite.com is a sub-domain of mywebsite.com and can be a totally separate website and can even reside on a different web server.

Timeout

A timeout is when a connection is aborted because it is taking too long.

Traffic

Traffic is a term for the visitors to a website. i.e. if a website has a lot of traffic it means it has a lot of people looking at it.

Upload

Upload means to send a computer file to a website or web server.

URL

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is a web address. It contains all the pertinent information for finding a specific web page.

Webmail

Email that you can check from any computer anywhere by going to a website.

Web page

A single document (or page) on a website.

Website

A collection of web pages or other digital resources. Websites can consist of documents or can also be software applications that can be accessed on the internet using a web browser.

WWW

WWW stands for world wide web (a.k.a. ‘the web’) and is the entire system of websites that can be accessed via the internet.

1. You have good design skills and some experience
2. You are technically savvy and confident you can do a good job
3. You do not have a budget to spend on hiring a professional
4. You have knowledge of tools that can help you build a website
5. You have access to an expert that can guide you

5 reasons for hiring a professional:

1. It may not be efficient use of your valuable time
2. You may not have adequate graphic or technical skills
3. A non-professional looking website could do more damage than good for your business
4. You need to get your website launched within a certain time-frame
5. You need your website to be set up in a way that it can grow and evolve with your business

1. Links from relevant sources can bring visitors in by them clicking on those links
2. Search engines use the links into your website as a key measure of how important your site is and use this to influence what position your web pages are placed in search results.

As search engines get more sophisticated, quality of the inbound links is much more important than quantity. An example of quality links would be contextual links from important websites related to your topic. An example of low quality links would be links from link exchanges that list long lists of links from link partners – these add no value and are not worth pursuing.

One of the best collection of ideas for different ways of getting links to your website that I’ve come across is this article published on the leading SEO website, seobook.com: 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity

What I recommend you do is read through the list and select about 5 or so of the ideas that you think you can achieve, copy and paste those tips into a document to save it for your reference and get to work on it. Good luck with your link building!

I have gathered a few very informative videos here that will help you understand some of the different factors that affect how a website performs in the search engines. Some of the videos may be a few years old but the advise is solid and still applies today.

Google’s Matt Cutts gives tips to small business owners

Key Points:

• WordPress is a good platform for creating well optimised websites
• Think about all the different variations of a term that a user might be searching for and make sure you have all those words on your website
• You can get ahead by offering a useful service on your website instead of just marketing information about your company
• The more time you put into search engine optimisation the better you will get
• Use Google.com/webmasters to get information about how Google views your website
• Get a business listing on Google Maps (Google Local)
• A sitemap can help get your site fully indexed
• Where to post video: short videos – YouTube, long videos – Google Video. A transcript and/or meta tags makes a big difference.
• Make sure your site navigation is in HTML, not in Flash or dependent of JavaScript

How to Get Better Visibility on Google

Key Points:

• Think about all the different variations of a term that a user might be searching for and make sure you have all those words on your website
• Title tag is important for both search engine and end user
• Keywords meta tag is not important
• Description meta tag is important
• How to get links to your website – start a blog and provide interesting content – participate in the web community, social media websites, etc.
• A common misconception is that if you buy advertising on Google you will rank better in search results
• To help get your new website found you can go to Google.com/addurl and/or submit a sitemap at Google.com/webmasters

Matt Cutts 3 step process to building up a really good site

Key Points:

• Step 1.: Make a compelling service
• Step 2: Start a blog
• Step 3: Smart marketing – good seo, have something interesting to say
• WordPress is well search engine optimised

Your relationship with the web design company

To a big business with lots of clients, you are just one more drop in the bucket. It’s not such a big deal to them if they loose you. But to a small business you are their bread and butter. A small business cannot afford to loose a client and needs to make each client happy in order gain new clients and have any chance of success. A small business has to care about their clients, they can’t afford not to care because if they don’t care they don’t get paid.

Personalised and efficient service

A small business is far more likely to have a finger on the pulse of your web operations and react quickly to your needs, because it’s service is more personalized. A small business will stand a better chance of knowing what’s happening, who it’s happening to, and what to do to fix it.

Software and systems used

Larger web design firms will often have their own proprietary software and systems such as content management systems in place and will usually use them across the board for all their clients – a one size fits all approach. While some companies have developed good systems that work well for a wide range of websites, that is not always the case. Once your website has been set up on such a system you are generally locked in to that company, i.e. you cannot go elsewhere for hosting services or future web development work. Generally speaking, sole-proprietors and smaller companies will offer more flexible solutions often leveraging open source software.

Cost

A small operator does not have the same overheads that a larger firm has and this usually translates into savings for the client.

However, if you do not have any experience with getting a website set up and/or little or no technical knowledge of the workings of the internet, you’ll probably struggle with how to evaluate a web designer. The purpose of this article is to give you some ideas of what to look for in a web designer and to get you thinking about matching up a web designer with your own particular needs and requirements.

Questions to ask a web designer

• What technologies do you use to build websites? e.g. static HTML, HTML templating system such as Dreamweaver, Content Management System, server side scripting languages
• Will I be able to make updates to the website myself without any special technical knowledge?
• What is your process for designing and building a website?
• What is your approach to search engine optimisation (SEO)?
• Do you provide training for managing the new website?

Questions to ask yourself about a web designer

• Does the designer design sites that are intuitive and easy to use?
• Does the designer do a good job of visually showing visitors how to take action?
• Do they explain issues in a way I can understand?
• Does the designer have the range of skills needed to build the website that I require?
• What credentials and experience does the web designer have?

Comparing pricing from different designers

Does the price represent good value for my money? Keep in mind that a well designed website for your business is an investment that will pay for itself many times over in sales, while a poorly crafted site will drive away potential customers. A cheaply put together website may seem like a bargain at first but in the long run it may damage your business.

Price and quality often (but not always) have a direct relationship, i.e. you get what you pay for. Designers who are overly inexpensive often lack experience, don’t understand much about online marketing, or don’t truly have a grasp of good web design techniques. A website from such a designer may cost your business dearly in the long run.

When comparing quotations from different design firms, be sure to look carefully at what each designer is offering for the quoted price. Examine their portfolio to see what type of work they produce and ask to speak to some of their clients.

Consider too what happens after the website is built, who will maintain the site and keep it up to date and fresh? What type of analysis will be available for evaluating the performance of the site?

A poorly designed website can cost you money, drive away customers, and hurt your reputation.