WiganWebs

Is correct, a simple 301 in your .htaccess file should solve the problem. I have seen instances where a blog post can overtake the index page, maybe because of similar content on the pages, but by removing the blog post and 301 redirecting it to the homepage always fixes the problem. It might be that having made recent changes to the structure of your site that Googlebot hasn't caught up yet, your old home.html may be still cached (check your cache date of home.html) with the original content and Googlebot can still spider it if it is still there (remember that even though a page could be deleted, it can still be cached depending on the last cache date), and if you use that same content on the new homepage then redirect (then delete) the old homepage and use a canonical tag on your new homepage to speed up the process: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394 Googlebot is quick to pick up new content, but unfortunately it is vice-versa when it comes to removing pages and wanting them deindexed unless you use methods such as 301, or blocking access with robots.txt, or introducing a 'noindex' meta tag. Do not simply delete your old home.html page otherwise that will create a 404 that will report in Webmaster Tools. WW

Hi, I have been wondering for a while now, I do notice that a lot of web design companies leave a link at the bottom of the website linking back to the web design website. Of course there is nothing wrong with this, despite being on the same IP address, it is simply advertising the service. Yet, it is still a backlink. This got me thinking, what if you interlinked client websites that are based on the same IP address? The websites are of good quality, the content is of good quality, and we were thinking of hand picking a few clients and linking their websites together. These website may be on similar topic as we dont want to link websites that are not related. Does anyone do this? Of course we would ask permission first and we do know there are many ways for SEO, but this question has cropped up time and again and we are looking for a definite answer. The latest Google update was going for low quality websites, content scrapers, etc, but do we run the risk of tripping into a filter? We do other SEO to these websites and try to bring their authority status up, so two high profile website interlinking surely shouldn't be too bad? What about 3 or 4? Has anyone ever practiced this before? Cheers

HTMLGoodies.com is where I learned to code. There are many tools out there that do the designs for you, but it does help loads that you can understand & edit code where and whenever possible. Its not essential that you learn it all, just how it is structured and the basics should be a good start, sometimes the rest just falls into place due to intuition and trial and error.

The trick to exchanging related links is figuring out who it is going to benefit more. Exchanging links with related websites is a decent/good step, but do your research first. It has been pointed out that one way links are much better if done correctly. I can have a new(ish) PR1 website with 200 yahoo backlinks, and I get the chance for a PR4 website with 5000 yahoo backlinks, it will probably favour my new site more than the other because their trustrank should be much stronger than mine. The latter depends of course that the website you are exchanging links with has not adopted ant dodgy techniques and are currently under a penalty in Google, otherwise it could effect you too as you are deemed to be linking to a bad neighbourhood, so be careful when linking out. Things I check are: No penalties Alexa rank Pagerank of inner pages Domain age Number of newer pages indexed within last month or two Their homepage keywords and how well they rank for them 1 good link beats dozens of mediocre links. Build your trust with Google and then people will start contacting you for links automatically. Terry

Check that it is not fake PR If it is not fake, then the answer is no, many sites dont hold pagerank. There has been an update recently which my website dropped from PR3 to PR2 after being PR3 for 7-8 months. That being said, my rankings haven't really changed much. Many sites do hold pagerank and also increase on its current number due to natural linking from high PR pages. It depends on the quality of the backlinks, which sometimes you have to check manually. Dont worry too much about PR though, it may help when exchanging links, but it isn't an indicator of a websites true pagerank, which is generally hidden from human eyes By the way, PR6 for £50 sounds iffy to me, so I would check it out. A true PR6 should sell for way more than that.

If you can figure out the structure and coding of Wordpress then I would opt for it. Simply put, there is so much that you can do with it that even after 2 years of using it I am still learning myself. Its the best thing I ever turned to.

If you was to hire some outside help to try and get you some work, then how much commission would you give? A friend of mine has worked in sales in the past and has started his own B2B company and he mentioned that maybe he could work his sales magic to get me some work. He has quite a few contacts, many in the startup and small business side of things, and I am genuinely interested. BUT... he is a good friend and I dont want to undercut him, but at the same time I dont want to be too generous if it requires me putting more work in that I should. So, what is the going rate these days? Does 30% (after costs - which is about 8%-10%) sound fair? Is it too much? Not enough? I can understand they have bills to pay as most of his time is involved in telephone sales, but I also have to consider my own bills, hosting, domain name, software updates, etc. Any ideas? Thank you Terry

Another piece of advice I will give you is do not jump straight into search engine optimisation (the process of getting ranked in the search engines), especially in the gaming industry, it will be a tough nut to crack. Look into networking with like-minded people, follow their blogs, join in their conversations by posting informative comments, some allow you to leave a link pointing back to your website. If their blog is heavily followed then people will start to visit your blog/website. Join in forum conversations on forums which are heavily used by other gamers and film lovers. Some forums allow you to leave a link in your signature, but abide by their rules, again be creative in your answers and get to know the community around you. If your content is good, they will follow. Look into search engine optimisation is bits and bats as it can be confusing and stressful 'if' it doesn't work for you. There are so many techniques out there that some people tend to get lost in it all and give up. Its a long process so be prepared to put in some work, but dont give up because the end results are rewarding and as you build up your skills and knowledge then you can start to use them to your advantage.

Hmm, I'm not quite sure if I understand you correctly as it seems you already have sub-categories listed under your categories in your menu, I can click them fine. Just having a look through your content, if you want to rank then you need 'proper' content, i.e:- not copy/paste from another site. This will trip a duplicate content penalty in Google and that page will never rank for keywords. Be creative with your words, write a review if you have seen the films like Toy Story, write out what you like and dislike about the films, characters & plot. I know content creation can sometimes be a bore but it is also a necessity if you are serious about making a few quid off the internet, either by using Adsense or affiliate programs. I admire that you want to learn, but if you want somewhere to start then I would start with Wordpress or blogspot until you can grasp the basics of html/CSS coding and knowing where to join in the community to promote your site. They are good content management systems with a built in html editor. If you dive in too deep to begin with it will get tricky and may put you off. Like Weebly they are both free to use. I first learned html at HTML Buddies using just notepad, I'm sure others here will have some other good places to start. http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ Good luck

You could try affiliate programs within the gaming community, such as those multiplayer games, or playstation games exchange, etc. If you can hit the right audience then affiliate marketing can be more profitable than adsense. Work on your content & content presentation, every sentence is 4-5 words then a full-stop. Also leave a space after the full stop before you start your next sentence. A bit harsh, but content presentation means a lot. Colour coordination needs a little work, the grey link on orange background clashes a bit. If you want your website listed on Google you are going to need more content, more writing is what big G likes. You also need to learn what the basic elements of onpage search engine optimisation is, how to insert meta tags into your webpage, and how to research keywords related to your websites content. Welcome to web design

If you want to use Dreamweaver then you have jumped straight in at the deep end and I fear this could put you off. My advise, learn some basic html and css elements first before you tackle such a big program as Dreamweaver. It will make things easier in the long run. Another piece of advice, dont work with frames!

It seems to be quite popular, I have only recently signed up for it myself and I am looking at ways to make it work. Its too early to tell if it will work for me or not. Fill out a good profile, get involved in questions and group discussions, network with the community. That link doesn't work by the way, I can only view profiles of people within my network, change your profile link to be more SEO friendly, I wrote a post recently on my blog about it. http://www.wiganwebs.co.uk/linkedin-seo/ url structure should look like: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/terryburrows Still testing things myself and will be posting my ideas on my blog

I'm not 100% sure, but dont Napster offer prepaid cards? They also allow you to use Paypal as a third party between them and your bank.

Is it to the homepage? If the keyword is relevant then it could be caused by inbound anchor text. Another possibility: I have noticed a few glitches in Google where for certain keywords the content has not been updated, i.e:- my old snippetts are still showing, yet for other keywords my new content is ranking. How often is your content spidered? How long ago did you change your keywords? I'm not sure if this is true, or I am imagining it, but <meta> data seems to update less frequently than <body> data for certain keywords when I run a test in the search engines. Some pages update quicker than others, etc. Probably my imagination though. Check webmaster tools to see if you can find any data, such as strong inbound links, etc. I wouldn't worry about it too much though. Maybe it is an after effect of the caffeine update?

I started a new thread by accident replying to this Welcome to WDF, I hope you find it a useful resource of information. It is great when a hobby turns out to be something you can make a living from, I wish you all the best. WW

{Edited} Gah mods, I started a new thread by mistake, got a few things on the go and cant find how to delete. Can someone delete please? Ty

Its not bad actually, but I would have hoped for more flexibility when naming css styles, but I have only played with it once or twice so far so it may be possible. Many rules are assigned #id136, #id137, etc, so if your designing a theme for somebody else who wants to alter their css they may have a hard time connecting a style within the theme, or at least it could be confusing to somebody who doesnt know wordpress that well. The test I run spit out 600 lines of css code They give you a run down at divine-project.com/why-divine. As it is still in beta mode I am sure there is a lot of testers pointing out a few flaws, but overall it looks a very good project. In all honesty I have been testing out other softwares until this is nearly ready to go live, then I can give it a good looking at to see if it is worth purchasing. You can download test files and see for yourself from their website. For instance, the coding is not a patch on sitegrinder, but sitegrinder is only psd to html/css and assigns the rules names based on what you name your layers in Photoshop. One of the css I did on the divine project demo was 600 lines. I forgot to mention the demo only works with certain resolutions. I would much rather learn how to code a theme from psd myself but I simply don't have the time I am still a beginner/moderate at css but am getting there

There is the Divine Project in Photoshop, create a layout similar to that of your current site and convert it to Wordpress. The only problem at the moment is the fact that they are still in beta mode and only export images as gif, and also insert a link in the footer, but they allow you to remove the link. The full version has not been released yet but I am pretty sure it isn't far off the release date. I have been testing it and it seems quite a handy tool to use, surmising you use Photoshop? divine-project.com

To make a living from Adsense you are going to require high traffic and high click conversions with a good cpc, and none of that come without hard work. If your after creating a social networking site you should probably start it with dofollow links, that grabs the interest and may get you on a few lists out there, then when you get your big following then swap them over to nofollow. It still requires plenty of networking, forum posting, and marketing to let people know that it is out there and is not always guaranteed to pick up unless you have a good brand and offer something different than the other social networks. Blogging still works, quality content and constant networking and you will slowly build up your audience. Blog about something you enjoy, share your views, links and videos with others who are like-minded in a topic you enjoy.

I am pretty much in the same boat but have decided to update my skills from old fashioned html to css as it could give me more freedom of space with not as much coding. I am currently doing ok with it, slowly but surely it is falling into place the same way html did when I first started learning it. Yes, optimise your images. I have come across some websites that use a lot of .png images on their page which could load slowly in a cybercafe or dialup due to their heavy density. Export them .jpg or .gif (I use Fireworks/Dreamweaver too) but at the same time trying not to take too much quality out of them. WW

I wouldnt say they are threatening, just pretty rude, they dont say 'buy our products, or else!'. But it is the first time I have come across a company that uses inpolite tactics, it was a pretty strange and annoying experience. I think I am going to hire a number eventually and get it rerouted, one that allows me to block certain numbers if they get persistant on their sales calls. I can handle everyday sales calls, sometimes I like to hear what they say, to test their sales expertise by firing every damn flaw in their product I can think of at them, turning them into a blubbering mess in the process. Its just when they dont take no for an answer that really irks me. A no is a no, they should really leave it at that. WW

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Thanks for the replys, a few nice ideas, I may start to play them at their own game or simply leave the phone on the side so I waste their time instead of vice-versa I suppose this type of thing is inevitable? I do not usually like to name and shame but the company in question are called Infoserve Group Ltd, or at least somebody who represents them. After getting pestered from them myself I looked up information on them and a lot of people complain. I seen them listed on Blagger.com and many forums when I googled the phone number they kept calling me from. I didnt buy into their products so I cannot comment on if they work or not, but they are persistant when it comes to parting you with your money. What gets to me is that these guys are supposed to be a reputable company, are registered resellers of Google Adwords, represent Yahoo services, yet I got abusive phone calls from them if I did not buy into their services. I came across them because I wanted to get listed on Yahoo local, and I thought it may be a free service like Google local, but I had to submit my details through this company. Then they called me telling me that I had to pay, so politely I told them I wasnt interested, then they hung up on me only to phone me again the next day, and the next, and the next!?! Since then I got pestered and I am sure it is this company that sold my number, I sent a pretty nasty email to them because I was a bit peeved off so who knows what they did with my number? Recently after I got witheld numbers from many different accounting firms/freelancers asking to be my accountant, every day for 2 weeks solid I got a different sales rep. Also phone calls from companys who create booklets and they (so-called) deliver to tens of thousands of people and do I wish to subscribe for an advert? It had become constantly annoying. Thankfully the calls have slowed down immensley, but I think it maybe too late and I will have to change my number when the next batch of sales calls come back to haunt me http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/5083/companyname/Infoserve.html http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08453677200 http://www.snozwangler.com/search.php?q=08453677200 I wont be ever making the same mistake again! Naughty, naughty sales people. People may have had a different experience with them and my experience may be quite rare, but something didnt go down right and I will never contact them again. WW

Hi, I had to take my mobile number off my website because the amount of sales calls I was getting was starting to get pretty annoying. I can handle the odd salesman no probem, and sometimes I like to hear what they are offering, but sometimes it gets too much. Recently I got phone calls from a company who started to use abusive scare tactics to try to get me to buy their products. I told them I wasnt interested and they hung up the phone on me which I found pretty damn rude. I found out later on that they were notorious for it, AND it is a company that represents Google and Yahoo, which I found pretty odd, but it turned out to be true. Again and again they kept phoning my mobile and I have recently begun to start ignoring the number until I thought about getting the number blocked. It had to be a well written threatening email to get them to stop. But this is just one of many calls that I got and I am pretty sure some sales companies started to pass my mobile number around and a lot of the time the number was witheld. Now I know with the world of online promotion that stuff like this is bound to happen, but how do you people handle it? I want my number on my website, without it I dont think I would convert any incoming visitors to my site and it looks unprofessional, but I dont want to be answering my mobile every 5 minutes to sales companies throughout the Uk, especially when I am out with family at weekends. To clients sure, but not to sales people as they are pretty persistant. I'm generally a calm man, but even I have a limit and it is only a matter of time before some poor soul feels my wrath Or have I just been unlucky? Thank you WW

Kyej, I have been looking into the possibility of running a Twitter network as well as other networking sites such as Linkedin, Facebook, etc. I have recently started a Twitter account, I was a bit slow when the whole Twitter effect took off and I'm pretty sure the effects of networking through these types of sites can be effective if done properly. But a few questions if that is ok? You say 4 clients per week? thats pretty good and steady, do you not find it too much sometimes? How do you handle overload? What is a typical amount of followers you have to get those jobs? I'm not asking how you do it as that is an avenue I wish to explore, but for somebody starting with Twitter I'm sure you could slip a little info about what to avoid doing? What are your experiences with other networking sites such as Facebook and Linkedin, have you tried them? Twitter is used globally so I imagine you get enquiries from overseas too? I have a few ideas on how to use Twitter but need to get Twitter users following my profile, which obviously takes time. Do you look for the work on Twitter by emailing them or do they come to you by following your profile? Thank you for taking the time to post, much appreciated WW