Google PageRank Update April/May 2008

Google has just danced its dance!

Yep, in the last week, I have noticed that some sites have a revised PageRank. I'm not sure what it is called though - most of these have names, like 'Big Daddy'.

How do I know about the PageRank update? Well, we keep a weekly record of our PageRank, so we were please to see some of our efforts show through a better PageRank.

But while we are reasonably happy, I see others are wondering what hit them (or rather what didn't)! See: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=824694&page=3. Mostly, I suspect that webmasters will make positive noises.

But what's the big deal anyway? What difference does it make to you? If PageRank was all that mattered, then every result of a search would result in a page 1 full 'PR 10's.

So, what good is Google's PageRank then?

1. It gives you an indication of how well your backlinking is
2. The biggest difference it can make to you is to give you bargainning power

But before you set off, you might want to wait a tiny bit longer as some thing that the update is still in progress. You wouldn't want to undersell (or oversell your pages) is their PageRank suddenly changes.

What ever your PageRank, remember to try to get good links - for 'good links ' read 'the more relevant links the better'.

Roll on another quarter. And another Google PageRank Update.

Dedicated Servers. Ultimate Website Optimization?

"What has dedicated servers to do with website optimization?" I hear you ask.

Before you read our reasons for using a dedicated server from Lunar Pages , quickly consider the following positives:

• you have total control over everything related to hosting
• your website performance won't be affected by others
• you won't be penalized by what others do
• you can pay a bit extra to have your server 'managed'
• you can manage your server yourself using Plesk (Plesk 8.x for Windows / Plesk 8.x for Linux / PLESK Demonstration / Download FREE Copy of Plesk)
• you have more options & flexibility for each site
• you can have a dedicated server from around $100 per month.

On the negative side though:

• it's expensive if your total hosting charges aren't approaching $100
• you have to log on to the server and feel comfortable with this
• you have manage & setup your website(s), mailbox(es), etc
• you have to understand a bit more about domains and DNS
• You can choose between Linux & Windows operating system

Our dedicated server case study:

We are outside the USA. We use ASP scripting on our websites, but only because we found it easier to start with as we didn't need to install PHP on our PCs all those years ago.

Anyway about 6 years ago, we found .......

Read the full article: Dedicated Servers - Our Story

Effective Websites & Website Effectiveness

A website’s effectiveness is the efficiency with which a visitor to a web site can achieve the goals of both, their own as well as that of the website.

Before you can measure a web site’s performance you need to know the objective of the website. A website’s objective might be to provide information, sell items, educate, supplement/compliment existing off-line services, serve a community, etc. Of course it might be to provide a combination of these - for example a website might provide information about a product, sell that product and provide support for that product.

Once you know the objective of your website, you need consider:

• Is the buyer likely to buy from a website in the first place?
• Do you need to educate the buyer about the product?
• Do you expect the buyer to contact you offline before purchasing? If yes, then does your website clearly show your contact details?
• Does the website provide enough information to proceed to the next step?
• ‘A picture says a thousand words’ the popular saying says – does your website provide appropriate pictures?
• Is it clear to the buyer where all the relevant information is as each step?
• Is the buyer comfortable buying from your website? (trust & confidence in your company, SSL, etc)
• Is the sales cycle years, months, weeks or days long?
• Does you website support the length of cycle? (eg does you site need to provide a way to save a basket for use upon the visitor’s return?
• Is the buyer told what he/she can expect after a purchase has been made?• Does the website provide a payment type that the buyer is likely to use?

These are only some of the issues to consider. Think from the buyer’s point of view to realize other issues that will be important to your customer.

You now need to consider if the website’s contents match the sales process and the buyer’s needs:

• Ensure that the content proportionally matches the buyer’s needs. Don’t provide too little (nor a flood of) information. If you need to, separate information in a logical manner using more than one web page (or a PDF) if necessary
• Ensure the website navigation is laid out in a way that suits the buyer’s needs
• At the same time the website needs to be follow industry formats (don’t be too radical or you’ll alienate your buyers)
• Where the buyer is likely to have a reason for not buying, provide information to: a) Let the buyer know that these issues have been taken into your consideration b) Let the buyer know that you have answers to his/her issues

If possible, get feedback buy asking customers about their experience. Get people to evaluate your site – formally will be best though you might have to pay. If you have to pay, then consider professionals in this area.

Making your website effective in this way will help to convert more of your visitors into buyers.