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The Mystery of SEO Explained in 4 Ways

PostedbyThe Website WaiteronThursday, 11 May 2017
SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and is the art of being able to encourage a website to come up sooner in any results of an online search engine that people type in for a particular phrase. You hear other references like becoming ‘the top of Google’, or ‘better rankings’ or an ‘optimised site’ – they’re all along the same lines and a principle that the majority of people now heard of.
 
So if someone is looking for a plumber in the Birmingham area, people often head straight over to a search engine like Google and type in a phrase like “plumbers in Birmingham” to find out what websites comes up. It can be evidently profitable for businesses and website operators to have this popularity, hence the evolution of a whole different ‘SEO’ industry within website design and internet marketing world.
 
In terms of the search engines used, Google is of course the daddy of them all. Although there are others like Yahoo and Bing, these are no way close to the popularity of Google. Plus, if you crack it on Google anyway then you’ll naturally be doing it on others as well.

How SEO Works

In terms of how SEO works, it’s actually supposed to be more normal and natural than what you think, and any company that tries to make it more secretive is not providing the full truth. 
 
It’s also more unpredictable than what you think, in that no one can categorically say with 100% certainty what will make you succeed, simply because Google itself hasn’t given you the full blue-print. If they did, then everyone would just be churning things out automatically. 
 
However you can resort to good tried and tested factors that will help, and what Google wants to be very natural rather than too contrived and forced, and without you needing to fall into uncertain ‘black hat’ SEO territory where things steer away from Google’s terms and conditions and what is fair.
 
So these 4 aspects are foundational and will stand you in good stead. Even though you might not have a SEO priority now, it’s still worth noting anyway. It boils down to common sense and easy-wins as part of your natural website design process, and therefore you may as well begin correctly and simply build on this in the future if needs be.

The Organic Search Results 

Search engine results in this SEO context is all about what they call ‘organic’ search results in Google, whereas there are two other forms of results in any results-page. 
 
One of these are paid adverts, known as Adwords with Google and other names within other search engines, where people are paying to have their results appear at the top. 
 
The second is a reference to actual real-life businesses or organisations in the form of a red flag on a map or separate listing, see here for more details on this.

The 4 Main Factors

So here are the main factors to consider when giving your website a steer in the SEO direction:

1.  Get Your Website Set-up In The Right SEO Way

Sometimes referred to ‘as site’ SEO, this is adding certain things to the actual website to basically give Google the right signals as to what you want it to come up for in certain searches. 
 
Many years ago this was open to abuse by people and being able to trick Google to think that the website was about one subject when in actual fact it wasn’t, whereas nowadays Google has wised up and can spot phonies. You therefore don’t need to go over the top, just to the point and fair in order to give Google the right signals and bread-crumb trails for when their Google crawlers come searching over your website.
 
The main influence is using the right words, and being able to add these in the correct places. These are often referred to as ‘meta’ information as it’s the words that Google focused more on, and generally is found in page titles, ‘meta descriptions’ for Google searches (although more for informing visitors themselves), and then within actual pieces of writing and important headlines. 
 
The core words are ‘keywords’ and ‘keywords phrases’, so if you’re a plumber in Birmingham then these may include “plumber in Birmingham” or “plumbers Birmingham” which basically match what people are actually typing into Google.
 
Amazingly there are tools to tell you what these actually are, and years ago people misused this and did ‘keyword stuffing’ on their website by over-using them, but now the focus is on just naturally including in the right places, and making sure that any natural variations and additional words are used. So Google has almost become a dictionary and thesaurus as well, in that it can spot if you’re a potential good website by using technical words like “pipes”, “boilers”, or “valves” in your website about plumbers in Birmingham.
 
The other aspect is general website structure, so having the best navigation and menus, adding a site map, using images with the right labels, and using internal links between pages with appropriate words. These all paint a picture to a genuine website that is providing the right SEO signals.

2.  Get Your Website Performing Well

This used to be part of the above point, but nowadays is a different aspect in itself that people may miss; it’s so blatantly obvious yet so easily assumed to have nothing to do with SEO. It’s simply having a website that is genuinely helpful and used by people. 
 
Because Google can track use and data on websites, then it spots when it is popular with figures out stats like who has visited, on what pages, for how long, and then how quickly they left the website otherwise known as the Bounce Rate.
 
So although the focus on SEO is about first attracting visitors, you need to quickly make sure they like your website and hang around in order to filter signals back to Google with positive vibes for your SEO success as well.

3.  Get Links and Citations With Other Websites

Google wants to see your website well connected with other websites in virtual world, as this is like a vote of confidence in the internet. The classic form is a mention of a website’s domain name on another website known as a ‘link’, with activities like ‘link building’ focussing on better quality and authority websites linking back to your website. It’s even better if the link itself can have the right phrases and be positioned in the right place on the website, and the secret here is quality not quantity.
 
Another similar connection is a Citation, particularly for real businesses with a real-life postal address and contact details. This is simply reference to this name and contact details around on the website, including without any links, which Google can pick up on and give credit for. So if there’s lots of good citations for a company called “ABC Plumbing” at 123 Any Road, Birmingham B1 2BC, then that is a good SEO signal for that business.

4.  Publish Regular and Beneficial Updates

The final piece of the jigsaw is keeping things fresh and updated as an ongoing exercise, and will become more important in the future in order to see real website that naturally attract interest and activity and not just static virtual dinosaurs. This is primarily the website itself, whether a regular blog or news section, new articles and pages, improved content and images.
 
It’s also important to see updates on the rest of the internet, and connected with the above point on links as well. Two examples of this include social media activity, although not as directly SEO beneficial as you may think, and also general reviews and updates that people make to your website online.  

Plotting Your Own SEO Strategy

Therefore as you embark on SEO for your website, keep things simple and go through the above four aspects in the same order. Begin with getting the actual website right in terms of the hidden SEO format and then good actual use, before then looking at how you will interact with other websites for links and connections and implement a process of genuine and regular website and internet updates.
 
With careful monitoring, how this will actually change your website’s popularity in search engines can be fine tuned and built upon in the future and you will soon be on the right track.
Last modified onThursday, 11 May 2017
The Website Waiter
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10 Must-Have Factors in Website Design and Online Marketing for Churches, Ministries, and Christian Organisations

PostedbyThe Website WaiteronWednesday, 03 May 2017
If you're looking at a new or improved website for your church, ministry, or Christian organisation, then here are 10 aspects worth considering. Whether this is a whole new website or just updating your current one, and whether you’re doing it yourselves or you're looking to involve a website designer, these are applicable for everyone.
 
If you do outsource the actual website creation to someone else it's important to know these anyway, as you can help steer the design in the right direction, make sure things are not missed, and make sure people think outside the box a little for some new aspects and make sure the obvious ones don't get missed.
 
I’m a born again Christian myself and have helped build and then market church and ministry websites. In this day and age, a great website and online presence is such an important tool, whether that's for new people finding out about you, or regulars having an effective way to know what's happening. Of course this is only ever just a tool at the end of the day, but as far as tools go they’re very important.
 
So here then are the 10 website design and marketing factors to bear in mind:

1. Get the Right Website Domain Name and Package 

There's a separate post here on this, and includes making sure that you choose the right name, and that you get your own name and related hosting package right from day one. 
 
For more short-term blogs or say missions it can work out best just to go with a freebies online with the website name as part of the company, for example Word Press or Blogger. But for any long-term longevity then I'd make sure it’s set up separately and correctly from the beginning. 
 
If you're in a situation where you already have a website, it can be difficult to through contacts to actually get hold of log-in information, and often it is worth moving onto a new hosting platform, or in some cases even starting all over again with a new website name altogether. This does get quite technical and confusing, but it's integral to the whole website and online presence afterwards, therefore do contact me if I can help shed any further light on your own situation.

2. Use the Right Website Design Software

In the majority of cases I recommend software that will basically automatically upload to your website and have all the kit there ready to go. They're often free, and you can then easily log in online and begin designing the website behind the scenes. 
 
Although this sounds straightforward and affordable, the trick is to know what paid extras you do need and the experience or time commitment to learn how to assemble together. 
 
I personally use a piece of software called Joomla, but a popular one and good one to learn with is Word Press, so long as you do upload it on your own website and don't work from their website. Once done, updating is easy, and you can have multiple people able to log in online and easily update the website in future, maybe an administrator for general things, and the youth leader for, say, a youth section, or someone heading up mid-week groups and adding helpful resources and notes.

3. Select the Right Template 

This is the fancy bit, and how the website actually looks. It's the general shape and feel of every page, right down to the selection of background colour, blocks and bars of information, and organisation of them. If you're using set software like that mentioned above, then these can be automatically uploaded and take effect, with some free or others at a reasonable price. 
 
This is worth thinking through carefully, and realising that these actually should be far less complicated than what you might think, as nowadays it's the images and writing that really make a website. 
 
The best example I can think of is Google or Amazon, where the templates basically boil down to white backgrounds and blocks of information; less is more nowadays, and being minimalistic and simple can actually look far more sophisticated than something more complicated. With some great images and effects like slideshows and fading in and out, these can be enough to add that final wow-factor.

4. Having the Right Images

I actually admit nowadays that a good graphics designer is worth more than a website designer in many ways with websites. The way in which images and logos and adverts are displayed on a website will simply make or break it, period. 
 
With great images and then a simple background and arrangement like above, then you have a blessed website. So if you can, bring in someone good with graphics at this stage and begin getting this right. 
 
In terms of the types of images, aim for good natural shots of actual real people at church, whether having fellowship over a coffee, or worshiping in a service, or close up at people's smiley faces, particularly leaders as these pages are surprisingly very popular for people to look at. 
 
With today's technology these can actually be done by your own smart phone of digital camera, and with some online editing tools you can crop them, shape them up into, say, circles, and add special effects like being black and white. I always say to get the actual logo professionally done, but you can use online tools to help create your own designs for other things like different events and areas of church life, my favourite being Canva. 
 
Just on the practical side of adding these to the website, make sure they are saved in smaller file sizes than what you're naturally used to for, say, printing - as the bigger sizes will slow the website down - and save the file name of each photos into something related as this will help with your SEO, which we’ll go into in a short while (so rather than “IMG0325.jpg”, save as “newcomers-event-yourchurchname-yourtown.jpg”).

5. Choosing the Right Audience 

Okay, as you head towards actually creating the website you need to check something that may seem blatantly obvious but is so often missed. That's who is going to use your website.
 
These roughly fall into two categories. Firstly, any regular people at your church or group in order to find out the latest happenings through, say, notices and upcoming dates for the diary. Surprisingly though this is not as popular as you might imagine, as often social media postings such as those on Facebook are more effective, or even good old printed newsletter or leaflets at Church. 
 
In terms of what can work on the website, then it could be simple notices in a form of blog format, or maybe a calendar of events even linked to say Google Calendars. 
 
You also need to make sure it's easily updated, not only with current events but some way or maybe archiving older past events as this can help show and remind people of what has already happened, maybe with photos uploaded of the event afterwards, and can help again with your SEO by having additional pieces of relevant information being built up on the website.
 
Secondly, you need to think of new people looking to find you and attend your gatherings, whether already believers and maybe looking for a local Church to attend whilst visiting the area or relocation, or a group of people that you’re trying to target. 
 
The sort of information and almost layout of it will be different than your regulars, and no matter how hard you try to fine-tune it through the eyes of new people, you will still need independent feedback, lots of testing, and often a very straight forward approach (two popular areas will be the leadership and Sunday services for example with local Churches).

6. Updating the Right People 

Once your website is up and running, you’ll need to work out how best to update people with things on an ongoing basis. These are often up and coming events, or special announcements, or forms of newsletters. 
 
You may be able to upload a PDF document newsletter, or run a blog, or add calendar entries on the website. You’ll also need to see how this links to social media, as often regular members will tend to use, say, Facebook for regular information and updates, leaving the website more helpful for newcomers and visitors. 
 
You might be able to link these together, so an automatic post on the website goes to Twitter and Facebook, and gauge whether you just want basic event-style notices, or you want to develop more interactive sections such as key people and leaders blogging, or a separate youth group having more interaction. 

7. Installing the Right Google Gear 

This gets technical, but in short there’s two pieces of free Google ‘gear’ that will help you monitor the performance of your website online, and relatively easy to connect to your website after you have a Google account set-up, ideally just for the church or organisation rather than your own personal one. 
 
Firstly, there is Google Webmasters where you can upload a ‘Sitemap’ for your website as well as tracking ‘code’, which helps spot any technical issues with your website and SEO stats such as how many link to it. 
 
Secondly, Google Analytics logs who actually visits your website and what they do, providing data like how many visitors you have, what pages they went on, and how long they stayed there. This is important data to appreciate exactly what the website is used for in reality, not just what you think might be happening.

8. Submitting the Right Google Listing 

Not many people realise that Google has a separate note of any business and organisation that is separate to their normal website details in the search results. It’s kind of like a yellow pages listing, and you see them on a map or with a red flag at the top of any related results. 
 
If you’re a long-standing Church then Google will probably have noted your Church and address already, therefore you’ll simply need to update whereas otherwise you will need to go through the process of setting one up. We have more details here on this, and it’s important to remember that these details need to be accurate to not only help with your SEO on the main site, but for visitors and newcomers actually using and correctly arriving at your property. 
 
It is essential that if you have other buildings and congregations, make sure these are also shown and that people don’t mistakenly go to one building rather than another for a particular meeting.

9. Setting-up the Right SEO and Marketing 

SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ and is the process of encouraging your website to be at the top of any related Google search results. 
 
So if people are searching for a new church in London, and type in a phrase like “church London”, then if your church’s website is one of the top results this will help more people find you and be a popular way to practically let people know what you’re doing. 
 
There is a lot of hype and false promises about how to do this, when in actual fact it boils down to common-sense and honest changes that will over time help your ‘rankings’ Even though this might not be a priority now, it’s worth getting the basic website structure up and running with this in mind, with a post here on the 4 most important aspects to good SEO to be aware of.
 
In addition to Google, there are of course other online methods to help advertise your Church or organization on other websites and directories, whether in the Christian world or your local community where you serve.
 
Another important tool is emails, and being able to send out regular newsletters and information to people. You can get good-value external providers of this like Mailchimp, which you can connect ‘subscribe’ features to your website as well as add people’s details. It can also act as a helpful form of database of people’s contact details as well behind the scenes.   

10. Seeing the Right Impression

To finish off, there’s a very simple point of making sure that the website comes across in the best way possible for the best first impressions. Unfortunately there’s a danger to lose sight of this the more involved you become, and by adding more things to the website. 
 
One way to deter this is ask others for feedback, ideally other members or new people to look at any new website from new and see what they think; there’s also one great website called Peek User Testing which can arrange free online feedback for your website as well. 
 
Another great way to sharpen that first impression, is a clear introduction on the website, ideally with a nice introduction video clip. This doesn’t need to be fancy, and ideally would be your main leader or pastor simply honestly taking about what the Church or group stands for, and allowing the true vibe and blessing to be easily communicated to others. 

Getting the Right Church and Christian Website 

Going through these 10 aspects to good website design for Churches, ministries, and Christian organisations will help keep you on track to having a website and online presence that not only looks good but can perform. 
 
You’ll probably need to involve multiple people in this process, from decision-makers and leaders, to the actual website designer and graphic designer, therefore it’s even more important to keep these main things the main thing.
 
Please do contact us for any other queries and helpful feedback on your own website and ideas.
Last modified onFriday, 05 May 2017
The Website Waiter
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Choosing the Right Website Domain Names

PostedbyThe Website WaiteronMonday, 10 April 2017
Deciding on your website name is one of the most important decisions to make with your website. Whatever the website looks like in future, it will always hinge on this main domain name.
 
You may hear names like ‘domain name’, the ‘www dot’, or ‘URL’ being mentioned, which are all basically the main name you type in your internet browser. So for this website, the general name is The Website Waiter, and this domain name is www.thewebsitewaiter.com.
 
The good news is that they’re pretty-cheap to buy nowadays and it’s easy to search for one that’s available. For under £10 you can purchase, and if you head to popular websites like 123 Reg. Go Daddy, and 1and1 – there will be search boxes to have fun finding a new name.
 
The bad news is that mistakes can be made at this essential stage which you’ll pay the price for in the future. It’s therefore imperative to get these right from the start in order to save money, time, and frustrations later on.  
 
Therefore here are the top 3 aspects of domain names you need to watch out for:

1. Keep Your Website Independent

You can come across some websites that offer you very cheap and even free websites there and then through their own website, but you simply end up adding a unique name to their own main website name. 
 
Two popular ones are through Wordpress and Blogger, so as an example if this website was created through them there could be a unique name of, say, http://thewebsitewaiter.wordpress.com, all for free and immediately available. 
 
Now this is actually a great deal for something very straightforward and temporary, so if you’re setting up a blog for your holidays for example. The problems come though with anything long-term, and needing additional internet benefits, for example SEO performance on Google or appearing unique for any marketing. You’re basically using their own hosting and name which can cause restrictions longer term and it’s worth the extra cost and involvement now to get your own direct name and hosting straight away.

2. Keep the Name Simple

This is the exciting bit, where you get to choose the actual name of the website. 
 
You will of course be restricted by any existing website names already taken, however in the frenzy of this and the endless choice of different names you can get too carried away. 
 
Keep things as simple as possible, it will pay off. Keep the name as short as you can do, with as few additional words as possible, although try and use extra straightforward words instead of hyphens. 
 
So with The Website Waiter, ‘the’ was needed at the beginning as it is part of the name, but otherwise it would have been worth looking at just ‘website waiter’ if needed rather than something like the-website-waiter.com
 
Also, on the end part of the domain, stick with the mainstream ones of .co.uk and .com if you can do. These are long-standing ones that people and Google are familiar with and favour, with trendy ones like .info at the end only worthwhile if the main purpose of the website is a real catchy name for advertising literature.

3.  Keep it Closely Hosted

Finally, try to keep the hosting of the website with the same company where you purchase the domain from. This ‘hosting’ is your piece of virtual real estate on the internet where your websites is placed, and the name just the sign to get there. 
 
A popular problem is someone purchasing a domain from, say, Go Daddy to get a few pounds saved and quickly secured, but then a lot of delays, costs, and hassle getting technical information and moving to another hosting platform. Just keep it all together. 

Getting it Right First Time 

So when you’re choosing a new website domain name, try and keep it independent in a simple straightforward way and being able to then easily host it afterwards. 
 
Contact us for any more help and advice on this, or if you would like to run a new domain name idea past us. 
Last modified onFriday, 05 May 2017
The Website Waiter
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