The “alt” tag is an HTML attribute that is used to textually describe an image. The “alt” tag or textual description of the image will display if a browser has the image display settings turned off. In Internet Explorer the text in the “alt” tag will display when the user place the mouse pointer over the image. The use of the “alt” tag provides another opportunity for the search engines to pick up your keyword for that image which should correspond to the information being provided on that particular web page.

Naming your image properly will reap many benefits with the search engines. For instance, if your website is about barbecue pork ribs and you have a photo of a rack of cooked ribs you should name your photo “barbecue-pork-ribs.jpg.”   When an image search is conducted for barbecue pork ribs your image has an increased chance of showing up. When the visitor clicks on your image they are then transported to your website. This provides another route to your website from the search engines.

The “alt” tag and proper image naming is a quick way to increase your SEO efforts. If you haven’t used this technique on your site you can simply take a little time and go back through your site and make these changes. Yes, it may take a little work but the payoff will be worth it.

One of the key steps in the SEO process is the flow of traffic throughout your website from the index page. I have mentioned before that I prefer a shallow and wide website which means no single page ever being more than 2 clicks from the home page. By drawing the flow of traffic on paper before you sit down to the computer you become more aware of how traffic can move down into and between pages of the site. Internal linking structure is important to both the human visitor and the search engine bot who is going to index your site.

By mapping out your pathways you can see how your traffic will move from page to page and section to section. Mapping out your traffic flow also provides you with a trail with which you can place “breadcrumb navigation links” on each page. These links will allow both the visitor and bot to move with ease throughout the site. I even go as far as to use several color markers to indicate specific subject related pathways that I want the visitor to follow.  Often times I will discover instances when I may want to establish a pathway from a page that is 2 clicks from my homepage to another page that is also 2 clicks away from the home page. By establishing this link the visitor can move from page to page with one click. While this may seem mundane, it really does add to the ease of use your site for the visitor. It also adds a new pathway (link) for the search engines to follow.

Do you pre plan your website navigation paths before you start coding?  What is your first step designing an optimized web site?

Ever try to ask some of the top make money online bloggers a question and get an answer? Not that easy is it. Garry has taken care of that as well with the setup of BloggingQuestions.com where you can submit questions and get an answer. This site covers a wide range of topics important to bloggers and website developers and provides straight up answers. To top it all off it is FREE as well. I am a big believer in the old adage “what goes around comes around”.  I think that is why Garry is seeing so much success in his online endevours. He gives away a lot of information that normally would take weeks if not months to research.

Like I said before, if you haven’t made GarryConn.com or BloggingQuestions.com one of your daily stops then you need to now.

It appears that the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has a hot product that people want to know about. The url for this website is www.tumbleweedhouses.com (maybe this link will be active again very soon). This company sells tiny tiny houses and they are getting very popular.

I wonder if they realized just how popular they were going to become. A lot of things can cause a hosting account to be suspended. The most likely reason is the bandwidth limit has been exceeded, at least that is what I am thinking.

The moral of this story - dont take the cheap route on hosting with the minimum bandwidth allotment. If the hosting company is any good they should have sent an alert to the website that they were fast approaching their bandwidth limit.  Once again this is my speculation.  Of course there could be other reasons.  Lets hope they get back on line quick.

My experiences this week were with ATT and Apple. Both had extensive automated systems and neither gave me the option to go directly to a live person (tech support). In fact finding a phone number was not very easy. It is almost as if they want your business but once payment is made they want to be difficult to contact.

Do your website visitors have the ability to call and speak to a real person? It is definitely something that will add an incredible amount of value to your business. Any website that I manage that has a service or a product for sale always has a phone number visible above the fold and when you call you will get a live person.

To Apple and ATT - My experience with tech support was great once I was able to speak to someone. My experience getting to that live person was both frustrating and maddening at the same time. For companies involved in communications, your communications suck.

What are the factors that make up your online reputation?

• Deliver what you say you will deliver
• Do not hide extra charges
• Make sure your processes are handled in a timely matter
• Ensure shipping is fast
• Ensure your site has sufficient security if you are processing credit information
• Have your contact information readily accessable
• Place a phone number where it is easy to see
• Offer a money back guarantee on products and services
• Prompt and courteous replies to inquiries
• Honesty and integrity
• Honesty and integrity
• Honesty and integrity

Marketing VOX has a very good short article on the impact bad reviews have on small e-tailers and it is worth reading and heeding.

What is your online reputation like?

Looking ahead I saw a bunch of signs that told me I could see other areas of your website. It looks like each word on this sign area will lead me to different sections of your website. I am guessing this is your website menu. Thank you for using words instead of images to show me where to go from your home page. I have issues with pictures. What can I say, I am limited in what I can read. I love text.

After a while I came across an image. Like I said before I can’t see pictures.  That is probably pretty good though as I get easily distracted. You were kind enough to tell me what the photo was showing though when you put that “alt” sign there. You know, I have heard of a few “uber geeks” out there who actually don’t like images on their sites so they turn that capability off and they get a red x where the photo should be. But when you put that “alt” tag there they can read what the photo is. I like the way you named the photo with a name that associated the photo with the subject of the page I am on. Once again it didn’t confuse me.

After a few more lines of text I ran into another H1 tag that told me to expect a slight change in what I would find. It appears to still be related to the subject on the page so that is cool. I see some more exit ramps to other pages and you have once again been kind enough to name these exits with key words that tell me what to expect on that page. I really like driving around your website. You seem to have taken some time and planned this page so I can tour it easy.

Wow, it looks like your website is going to be great and I will definitely be back soon. I like the fact you didn’t put too much here on the first page. Sometimes I visit a new webpage and I drive and drive and drive and I start to think will this ever end. Sometimes I get tired and turn around an just go away. Your first page was just right though. Not too short and not too long and you let me know exactly what to expect. Since this is my first time at your site I have collected quite a bit of info for my friends back at the server I am going to turn around and head back home and unpack the info.

I have made a note of those off ramps to other pages on your site and the next time I visit you I will start to take some of those exits and see what I can find. By the way, I don’t mind if you change the text info on your opening page periodically. I am an information junkie and the more new text content I see the better. Think of me as PacMan and your text are the little dots. I eat them and eat them.  Well, I am off to the server  and I’ll be back in a few days.

See you later………… W-Bot7

Hopefully you will put some things near the top of your code that will give me some idea about what your website is all about. Don’t give me too much info though….. I just get confused and it upsets me when I see the same words over and over again. When that happens I just leave. I suppose I am not a very patient crawler. Anyway, I have just arrived at your site and I am on the first line. I need you to tell me in just a few words what this page is about so I can file it away. You can do this by putting the title of your webpage in an area designated, you guessed it, title. Oh, and do me a favor please. As I visit your website in the future and start to explore other areas, don’t tell me each page has the same title. Like I said before that just confuses me and I don’t like to be confused and I just leave.

You can also leave me a description of what I can expect to find on the page along with a few words about the page subject. Please don’t try to fool me with extra words that don’t have anything to do with your page or site. Like I said before; I am temperamental and I am liable to get an attitude and leave. So now that you have told me what I can expect to find I can start my journey through your index page and hopefully onto other pages of your site. Remember, if you want me to follow the pathway through your site that you develop with you text links, be sure to say ROBOTS” CONTENT=”index, follow” that way it is in big letters and I can’t say I didn’t know.

Now that I have all of my directions and information about your webpage ready and locked in I am going to step on the gas and hit the road as they say.  I am hoping that I will run into some text that gives me more info about your site that way I can share it with my buddies back home at the data center.

Tomorrow I will let you know how my journey through your website is going………  see ya later…..   W-Bot7

To read this entire report visit Burst Media

In the Make Money Online community this trend is very apparent. In fact if you look at most of the leading bloggers in the MMO genre you will find an overwhelming number of banner ads. If you visit the Digital Product Reporter Top 100 Links (formerly 45n5.com) you will see that the majority of the top blogs listed are very much ad intensive. I doubt they will stop running so many ads any time in the near future but it would be interesting to see how many visitors visit sites like JohnChow.com for the first time and immediately leave because of all the ads hitting them.

What is your opinion on website advertising? Do you have an “ad threshold” that makes you immediately hit the back button?

So without further ado, I am going to get back to presenting tips and techniques I have learned on the subject of search engine optimization (SEO) and web-based marketing in general.  Thank you for your readership and I hope the information I share with you is beneficial and will help you to succeed with your web based endevours.

If you like what you read be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed …………  eric