I verified my site in Google Webmaster Tools and tried to submit a sitemap. In the webmaster tools panel, it informed me that my robots.txt file was blocking Google from grabbing my sitemap.

This confused me, as I know I would never knowingly make a robots.txt file to block search engines.

Read on to find out what the problem was, how to fix it, and how it happened in the first place…

The Problem

I checked out my robots.txt file and saw the following:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

As if disallowing all bots wasn’t enough, I saw all the pages of my site had the following meta tag in it.

Okay, so now my SEO was killed on two different levels – search engines can’t index or follow links, if they could somehow first get past the robots.txt.
The Fix

How did I remedy this crucial mistake? It’s a simple fix.

WordPress SEO Visible

I navigated to my privacy settings in the WordPress administration panel and selected I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers.
Prevention

When installing WordPress, make sure you don’t deselect the checkbox that reads: Allow my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati.
Conclusion

You should always verify your site(s) in Google Webmaster Tools to see if there are any problems with indexing. I hope you found this quick WordPress tip informative, because although this is a simple mistake, it’s something to be aware of when SEO’ing WordPress sites.

[via Themelab]

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1. Fast Loading web site designs – This is the number 1 tip that every web designer should follow. You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Your designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load. Remember, you might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load.

2. Clear Navigation – Once a visitor has come to your site you need to make them go through your site. To do this you need to have clear navigation. Make sure all your important links are at prominent places. Preferably right on top – that’s usually where a visitor first looks. Make use of menus on the right and the left. Try to link to as many pages of your site. Let your information be accessible from all parts of the site. You never know what a visitor may be interested in. Try to also use the footer for your important links.

3. All Resolutions – Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 and go even higher. Your job is to design your site for all these resolutions. The best way to do this is to design your site in terms of percentage and not pixels.

4. Browser Compatibility – Make sure your site is browser compatible. Your web site should look good in Netscape as well as in Internet Explorer. Don’t stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE. Usually Netscape gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs. But don’t give up too soon, usually with patience these problems can be easily fixed.

5. Readable and professional looking fonts – Don’t ask me how many times I’ve clicked out of a site just because the font is in Comic Sans and the color is a bright pink or green. Just by looking at the font you feel that the site is not a professional site. Don’t use Comic Sans and other fancy fonts that may not be available on most computers. If the font you use is not available in a visitors computer the web site will use the default font of your computer which is much worse. So try to keep to common and professional web fonts. The fonts that I always stick to are Arial and Verdana.

6. Minimize the use of images – I believe that sometimes simple designs are the most effective for the web. Keep your site simple but neat. Don’t clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye – catching icons that will draw a visitor’s attention to a particular section of your site. Tip – Visitors are usually more interested in content than in design.

7. Use of white space – Try not to clutter up your page with too many images, backgrounds and colorful fonts. Again use the Keep It Simple principle by minimizing the use of graphics and using a lot of white space. White space gives a sense of spaciousness and overall neatness to a site. Notice the white space in our site.

8. Check for broken links – Always check for broken links within a site before uploading it to your web
server. In Dreamweaver you can check for broken links by right clicking on any file in the Site Files Window and then clicking on Check links – Entire Site. If you don’t have this facility you need to upload your site and then check it using online tools like Net Mechanic.

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#2 Never do it yourself, even if you know how to.
The greatest thing about online business is ALL of it can be outsource for cheaper and with better quality than you could ever do by yourself.

Web design, content, product fulfillment; even customer service can be acquired for cheap through outsourcing or even for free by doing creative joint ventures with those in your industry.

#3 Be sustainable.
Don’t try to be the best in everything. It’s better to submit a 200 word blog post only once a day than have 200 different site features that you can’t maintain. Not only will you own your niche, but you won’t water down your brand by spreading yourself to thin.

#4 Launch small.
When starting out, Facebook, Amazon and Google were not the best, biggest or the first in their industry. Instead, the stayed extremely focused on only one aspect of their business, launch it right away and grew it organically. Try to launch perfectly and you’ll miss the boat.

#5 Listen.
If you are always catering to your online audience’s needs, you’ll always be relevant. The greatest thing about doing business online is the market research is intrinsic part of the daily work flow. Visitors and online customers will be the first to tell you what product or services they want, what content they wish to read and where the industry is headed.

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1. All in One SEO Pack

This wordpress plugin helps you to prepare the basics of SEO for your blog. You can have metatags for your entire blog or different sets for each different page.

2. Redirection

There may be changes to your permalink URL of a particular page of a blog. You may have updated it, may have shifted hosts, or have renamed the link URL. What happens is the user comes to the URL which was there before, but doesn’t find it, resulting in loss of traffic and goodwill. Redirection takes care of this and automatically redirects the user to the
Updated page resulting in lower loss of traffic, it is a very useful wordpress plugin for SEO.

3. Robots Meta

Search engines entire sites by default, and sometimes that result in penalty due to duplicate content present in different pages. Proper SEO should take care of this, and robots meta helps this by telling engines which areas of site to crawl and which not to crawl. Robots Meta is a good wordpress plugin for this. Good for SEO and hence good for traffic on your wordpress blog too.

4. SEO Smart Links

Internal link structure is one of the key issues of SEO. Search engines give more importance to pages that are linked again and again from a site, giving that page more importance than the others. Doing that manually would take hours and would be a continual task. SEO Smart links allows you to specify a word, like ‘traffic’ and then link it to a post on your site. Then each time the word traffic appears on your site, it’s automatically turned into a link you specified.

5. SEO Friendly Images

For good SEO, image should be tagged properly and meaningfully. SEO friendly images do just that. If you are keen to use images in your wordpress blog, you should be keen to use this wordpress plugin as well.

6. Google Positioner

Know what the users are searching for, instead of guessing what they could search for and building accordingly. This application gives you the group of keywords users used to get to you, so that you can position your pages accordingly. Cool, isn’t it?

7. Permalinks Moved Permanently

This works like the redirect plugin, only in a simpler and better way.

8. Nofollow Case by Case

The nofollow is used so that no pagerank value is given to comment links. However, a new blogger may want to give away that juice to attract new users, who gets value for their posts. This wordpress plugin does exactly that.

9. SEO Slugs

Stop words are ignored by search engines, but they are indispensable in post titles. Suppose you have a title like “What can you do in SEO for higher Wordpress traffic”. Your permlink will be “what-can-you-do-for-higher-Wordpress-traffic” but what you want is “higher-worpress-traffic”. The wordpress plugin automatically removes stop words from the permalink, helping you to rank better.

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1. Lines and Borders with Depth

This feature is often used in amazing sleek web designs, but overlooked by beginners trying to create a similar feel. An example of this effect is below. On the left are two lines, that could possibly be used as a line or border in a web design, and on the right is the same, but with a bit more depth.

As anyone can see, the line with depth is a lot more visually appealing.

How to Create a Line with Depth

1. Create a new layer on top of the background color.
2. Instead of a 1-pixel solid color line, create two lines: A 1px black line on top of another 1px white line.
   (For a horizontal line, as one can guess, just put a 1px wide black line next to a 1px wide white line.)
3. Set this new layer to overlay, then merge the new layer on top of any bottom layers as necessary.

Examples Used in Web Design

2. Reflective/Gradient Shine

Anything that looks glossy can just about be considered Web 2.0. The use of a few short techniques to add gradient and gloss can spice things up. The example below is what it looks like in action, just applied to a rectangle of solid color. The same effect can be used on logos, the background for content areas, text, images, and more.

How to Create a Reflective/Gradient Shine

1. Create a new layer over the original image. (In this case, the plain green rectangle.)
2. Using the Elliptical Marquee tool, create a portion of an ellipse on the top part of the rectangle.
3. Create a white to transparent gradient vertically upwards. Make sure the white is on the bottom. (To create a completely vertical gradient, hold down the shift key.)
4. Change the layer’s blending mode to Soft Light.
5. Press “Ctrl [Cmd], Shift, I” to invert the current selection. Then, create another new layer.
6. Create a black to transparent gradient in this selection, with black on the bottom.
7. Change this layer’s blending mode to Overlay.
8. Put the opacity of both gradient layers down by about 50%. Alter the opacity of both until the image looks right.
   

3. Drop Shadows

Drop shadows are used surprisingly often in Web 2.0 design, despite their bad reputation for being old-fashioned and cheesy in the web design world. This is because they are great for adding a sense of realism to a design, like a realistic sense of a flat piece of paper (or other material) setting on another flat surface. That’s the effect we get on the right.

However, on the left, it’s easy to see the effect is cheesy, old-fashioned, and should never be used. On the left, the dropshadow gradient is so large that it seems as though the green block is unnaturally floating above the flat background.

The trick is to use dropshadows to make things realistic. Don’t use dropshadows just for the sake of using them.

4. Rounded Corners

They’re not included in the new CSS3 for nothing. Rounded corners are often times a great way to add a bit more appeal to a design, especially a modern design. Many sleek and modern product designs often feature smooth curves and edges. Blocky feels old and clunky — smooth is new and modern.

Wrapping Up

Not all of these have to be used simultaneously for a great Web 2.0 design, but they are a closer look at some simple tricks one can try to see if the effect will improve a sleek web design. In the end, though, good design comes from experience and a good eye for design.

These are, of course, very basic principles and are meant for beginners in web design. Anyone looking for the next step, or for anyone looking for more advanced techniques, should check out How to Accurately and Effectively Research a Web Design Style. The article goes over how to discover your own techniques when learning Web 2.0, or any other design style for that matter.

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To a large degree this is true, and is emphasized in the latest patent. If you provide fresh, unique content on a regular basis, and do nothing that Google or the other search engines consider as spam, then likely you will eventually start rating well in the search engine SERPS.

There lies the problem; most of us do not want to wait until we are “eventually” rewarded by the search engines. Therefore it becomes necessary to apply some SEO to help speed things along. If we do not know what is considered as spam,

then we run the very real risk of actually damaging the ratings our website receives instead of helping them. This and the following articles contain our observations on the latest Google patent (20050071741).

In no particular order I will address some of the things I have found in the latest Google patent that may be useful in helping the search engines see your site in the best possible light. The goal of these articles are to identify what Google and likely other search engines consider to be acceptable practices and what they may consider to be “Black Hat” SEO. In all cases though it is the individual Webmasters responsibility to decide if the information contained in these articles is suitable for use, and therefore assumes all risk in applying the thoughts contained therein.

Another point to note is that although these points are noted in the patent they are not necessarily currently being implemented. However going though the patent you see that what is lined out makes sense, and applying points from it will be beneficial to most sites.

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Here is a diagram to illustrate what web point is and what it has become:

Image Source: O’reillynet.com

Here are some quick and easy modifications and ad-ons you can make to your website to become “Web 2.0” if it isn’t already.

1. RSS Feeds: Feeds have become great assets to websites. The user now has the option to receive all you’re websites updated information without actually having to visit your website. RSS Feeds have greatly improved repeat visitors and readership/subscriptions across the board.
2. Blogs: Blogs have personalized companies/products with consumers. Users want to feel like they buy (either product or information) from a trusted source and someone they know. Blogs have personalized this relationship between the companies and users. Start a blog on your business (service or product) to better inform the customer and that will also keep them coming back, asking questions, etc.
3. Bookmark Submission Buttons: Any site you have that can provide information to a user should have Bookmark submission buttons. If one person is interested in what you are saying, there is a chance another million are as well. These button will facilitate and better expose your information to the masses on pages such as Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, Netscape.com, and others. They are not only great traffic drivers but link builders as well.
4. User Interaction: To me, this is the most important tool you can implement on your website today (if possible). User’s want to interact with what they are looking at or reading, its human nature. We have opinions, we like to share. Over 80+ million people share their lives over their profile on Myspace, Over 2 million people are now sharing websites they think others will find interesting on Stumbleupon.com, and Over a million people are sharing stories they think others will enjoy on Digg.com, and in all these together, many more millions of people place comments. Make you’re user be hands-on if possible with your website, and interact with your company.

One great example of a website which redesigned it’s look to become “web 2.0” is USAtoday.com. After it’s makeover, the website had a 380% bump in traffic! Their new design not only engages users in all their stories but also has the look and feel of the new Web 2.0 design. Its very clean and simple.

Redesigning you’re website can be a difficult task if you’ve had something in place for a long time, but it’s a must to move forward and keep up with the ever-developing web. Start by making small changes and implementing whatever you think can work best to better engage your visitor.

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When you write SEO copy, you should take the time to find out what works and what doesn’t. There are two mistakes almost every amateur search engine copywriter makes. Let’s take a look at each one.

#1 – The List

Let’s say you visit the home page of a website that sells beauty supplies. As you read the copy, you keep coming across a string of items: hair salon supplies, hair salon equipment and professional manicure tables. The copy reads something like this:

Do you see how that flows (or doesn’t flow) when you use all your keyphrases in a row every single time? One time, sure. That’s fine. Even twice, depending on the length of your copy. But to put all your keyphrases in a list and use them every time you have the smallest opportunity is just far too repetitive. What do you do instead?

Discuss each one in its own section. Talk about the various types of hair salon supplies. Review the reasons your hair salon equipment is better than that sold by others. Or even list the features and benefits of the line of manicure tables you offer.

#2 – Substituting Keywords for Generic Terms

This technique (just like the one above) is perfectly fine IF you use it in moderation. However, to replace every instance of a generic term with a keyphrase will cause your copy to sound downright silly. Let’s have a look at an example from a Web design site.

If you walked into a Web design company’s office and the employees began to talk like that copy is written, you’d most likely think they were on drugs! So why in the world would you write your site copy that way? The reason is because most amateurs mistakenly think they can’t write for both the search engines and the site visitors. I’m delighted to say they are wrong! You can most certainly write for both with great success.

Try this:

Did you see it? The phrase was broken up using punctuation. That won’t hurt your rankings one bit, but it will make your copy sound a LOT better.

These are not all the mistakes. I wish they were! But most of the mistakes made by amateur writers can be fixed using one simple test. Read it out loud. If the copy sounds ridiculous to you when you read it out loud, it is going to sound equally ridiculous to a site visitor.

Take your time. Learn the ins and outs of SEO copywriting before you begin to create the text for your (or your clients’) pages. Then you can rest assured that your copy will convert better while it contributes to your high rankings.

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That is why it is always best to also learn many other traffic generation methods like viral marketing for example.

Not only is there out of date or invalid SEO advice getting around, there is also information which if acted upon, can result in your pages being banned.

The SEO tips below should assist the reader in forming a basic understanding of how to create human friendly web pages which are easily understood by the most popular search engines.

Know this. There are thousands of search engines but only two of them will bring you most of the traffic. They are google and yahoo. Another search engine that brings me a little traffic is msn but I do not focus too much on tactics for that engine.

Focus your attention on the engines that will bring you the most visitors first and work your way down.

Basic SEO

1. Insert keywords within the title tag so that search engine robots will know what your page is about. The title tag is located right at the top of your document within the head tags. Inserting a keyword or key phrase will greatly improve your chances of bringing targeted traffic to your site.

Make sure that the title tag contains text which a human can relate to. The text within the title tag is what shows up in a search result. Treat it like a headline.

2. Use the same keywords as anchor text to link to the page from different pages on your site. This is especially useful if your site contains many pages. The more keywords that link to a specific page the better.

3. Make sure that the text within the title tag is also within the body of the page. It is unwise to have keywords in the title tag which are not contained within the body of the page.

Adding the exact same text for your h1 tag will tell the reader who clicks on your page from a search engine result that they have clicked on the correct link and have arrived at the page where they intended to visit. Robots like this too because now there is a relation between the title of your page and the headline.

Also, sprinkle your keywords throughout your article. The most important keywords can be bolded or colored in red. A good place to do this is once or twice in the body at the top of your article and in the sub-headings.

4. Do not use the exact same title tag on every page on your website. Search engine robots might determine that all your pages are the same if all your title tags are the same. If this happens, your pages might not get indexed.

I always use the headline of my pages as the title tag to help the robots know exactly what my page is about. A good place to insert the headline is within the h1 tag. So the headline is the same as the title tag text.

5. Do not spam the description or keyword meta tag by stuffing meaningless keywords or even spend too much time on this tag. SEO pros all agree that these tags are not as important today as they once were. I just place my headline once within the keywords and description tags.

6. Do not link to link-farms or other search engine unfriendly neighborhoods.

7. Do not use doorway pages. Doorway pages are designed for robots only, not humans. Search engines like to index human friendly pages which contain content which is relevant to the search.

8. Title tags for text links. Insert the title tag within the HTML of your text link to add weight to the link and the page where the link resides. This is like the alt tag for images.

My site contains navigation menus on the left and right of the page. The menu consists of links not images. When you hover over the link with your mouse, the title of the link appears. View the source of this page to see how to add this tag to your links.

9. Describe your images with the use of the alt tag. This will help search engines that index images to find your pages and will also help readers who use text only web browsers.

10. Submit to the search engines yourself. Do not use a submission service or submission software. Doing so could get your site penalized or even banned.

Here is the submission page for google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Submit only once. There is no need to submit every two weeks. There is no need to submit more than one page. Robots follow links. If your site has a nice link trail, your entire site will get indexed.

My site has a nice human friendly link trail which robots follow easily. All my pages get indexed without ever submitting more than the main index page once.

More SEO Tips

Get the facts here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/. This page will explain most of what you should focus on along with what you should forget about.

If you have been thinking about handing over the task of SEO to someone outside of yourself, you should read some warnings before you part with any money. http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html

SEO Discussion

Most SEO Professionals will not tell you about the goose that laid the golden egg. The following link will take you to a jealously guarded FREE SEO discussion.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=google.public.support.general

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