Mac SEO Blog

One of the most useful tools to use to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Heading Tags. These ‘tags’ help search engines find titles and subheadings on your pages that you want them to crawl. Before EverWeb 3.9, you would use the Headings Tag widget to define the headings and subheadings in your pages that you wanted crawlers to look for. The introduction of EverWeb 3.9 makes this task easier by including the widget’s feature within the Text Inspector.

More Than Just Headings Tags…

If you are familiar with the Headings Tag widget, you may also know that Headings tags are sometimes known as ‘Header’ tags. Either way, the function of these ‘tags’ are the same. In EverWeb 3.9, or later, you can find these tags listed under the heading ‘HTML Tag’ in the Text inspector. The heading encompasses the existing Headings Tags as well as adding in a paragraph tag. We wil look at these definitions and in detail below.

So What Are Headings Tags and How Do They Work?

The Headings Tag widget and the Text Inspector’s new HTML Tags both allow you to specify up to six levels of heading from ‘h1’ down to ‘h6’. The ‘h1’ tag is the most important with the ‘h6’ tag being the least important. Typically you will probably only need to use tags ‘h1’ to ‘h3’, and possibly ‘h4’ on occasion.

Using headings tags is straightforward. You will typically apply the h1 tag to the most important heading on your page, usually the page;’s title or main heading. Next in the hierarchy, h2, is usually applied to sub-headings on your page and h3 tags to sub-sub headings and so on down. to h6.

When applying heading tags to your page, just highlight the text that you want to ‘tag’ then use the HTML Tags dropdown to select the tag that you want to apply.. That is all you need to do!

If you currently use the Headings Tag widget, you can replace the widget with the inline tagging instead.

Web crawlers will now be able to target the text that you want them too more easily to help improve your SEO page rankings when people search the web for your business or products and services that you sell. Remember here, though, that SEO is run by search engines such as Google and Microsoft and involves many factors.

When To Use, and Not Use, HTML Tags

When you use headings tags on your pages, there are some general rules which website developers usually follow:

• Use only one h1 headings tag per page. If possible, try to include your primary SEO keyword or phrase but only if it is appropriate to do so. As usual, prioritize making good content over the desire for better SEO rankings.
• Use one or more h2 tags in your page if you are using subheadings that you want web crawlers to take notice of. If possible try to include your secondary SEO keyword or phase if it is appropriate to do so.
• It is possible that your secondary keyword or phrase is in you page title. If this is the case then make this your h1 heading. Always remember that the quality of your content is more important than SEO rankings.
• You can format the text that you are using for heading tags in the same was as you would any other text on the page. Using the inline HTML tags should be easier to style and format then using the Headings Tag widget.
• You do not have to use heading tags on all of your pages. Focus your efforts on to the pages where you want your SEO to count. such as your site’s landing page. You do not have to apply heading tags to pages such as Contact and About pages. Most sites have these types of pages so it does not win you anything by apply heading tags or SEO techniques to these such pages.
• If you previously used EverWeb’s Headings Tag widget you can keep them in the pages where you added them, or replace them with the new inline tags.
• Headings tags are only one part of your SEO strategy. There are a number of other tools that can be used to help improve your page ranking results. Check out the SEO for EverWeb Video Course for full details.

Additional Features of the HTML Tags Feature

Whilst EverWeb’s Headings Tag widget allows you to set six heading levels (h1 – h6), the HTML Tag dropdown menu in the Text Inspector has a couple of additional features:

• Auto: As the name suggests, this setting leaves it up to EverWeb to decide the importance of the text for website crawlers when you publish your site. Generally, most of your text will not need to be included in a heading tag at all.
• p for Paragraph: The other new setting is ‘<p>’ for paragraph. Use this option when you explicitly want to let web crawlers know that this is an important paragraph on your page. Typically, you would use this for introductory paragraphs or summary paragraphs in your page. These paragraphs are usually important as they either tell your visitors what the rest of the page is about or provide a conclusion or summary of the content at the end of the page. Again this should be used sparingly and only when appropriate.

Heading tags are an incredibly useful tool to help improve your sites SEO and should be best used in conjunction with the other SEO tools that are available in EverWeb.

If you have a question or comment about this post, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

As 2022 comes to an end, it’s always a good time to take a final look at your EverWeb website for the year and to think about what you want to do with it for the next year. Here are some suggestions as to how you can retool your website for the year ahead!

1. Start by Changing Your Site’s Copyright Year!

The first thing that you should in 2023 is changing your site’s copyright notice year to 2023. Having a copyright notice on your site is a good idea in itself as it shows your visitors that you are the owner of the content of your pages. Although it is not usually necessary, or mandatory, to have a copyright notice, having one reduces infringement risk of your content and claims of “innocent infringement”. Having a Copyright Notice costs nothing and helps deter infringement, so if you don’t have one, add it to the pages of your site and to your blog. Remember, in EverWeb, this is quicker and easier to do if you use Master Pages in your site!

2. Aim For a More Secure Website in 2023!

Keeping your online presence as secure as practically possible should be a priority for any business that has a website. If your site is still using just HTTP, now may be the time to think about upgrading it to HTTPS. If you have an EverWeb+Hosting plan, you can easily secure your site using EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon. In just a few clicks you can secure your site. EverWeb Site Shield Addon has been engineered to make this potentially complex task a super simple one! If you want to maximize your site’s security, you can also take advantage of Site Shield’s new advanced security options! Again, we have simplified these options for you so advanced website security is available for you by just a few mouse clicks.

EverWeb Site Shield Addon is available for only $39.95 USD/Year if you have an EverWeb_Hosting 2GB plan and requires EverWeb 3.6 or higher.

3. Give Your Site’s SEO a Higher Priority

If you are running a business, having a website is one way in which you can expand and grow sales. If potential and existing customers find it hard to find your site, products or services on the Internet, then you probably need to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization.

Adding and improving SEO in your site can take time and effort, and is something that you should review, maintain and update on a regular basis. EverWeb does help you with SEO by taking the contents of certain fields (e.g. the Web Page Description field in the Page Settings tab) and using it for SEO purposes. You can, however, refine your SEO to be more targeted to your needs easily and without extra cost. Our Free SEO for EverWeb Video Course will show you how!

If SEO is important, or critical, to your business, then using EverWeb’s SEO PowerUp Addon is the tool you need to use. The Addon can be purchased through your EverWeb Client Area ($29.95 USD/Year) and is free for EverWeb+Hosting 10GB or higher plans. The Addon give you the ability to prioritize and set the frequency of when your pages are crawled for SEO purposes, allows you to add in your own SEO keywords on a per page basis, and much more!

4. Spreading Your Word with a Blog

Adding a blog can be a great way to engage with your customers and potential customers. It also gives you an easy way to keep your customers informed about what your latest products and services. A blog is also a great way of providing in-depth information that you would not usually find, or have space for, in the regular pages of your site. You can even use EverWeb’s RSS Feed widget to link blog articles to e.g. the Home page of your site. And a blog also lets your customers know that your site and business are alive and kicking!

Blogging can take some time and planning but once you get in to he swing it can be incredibly rewarding. Checkout the chapter on Blogging in the EverWeb User Manual for more information on setting up your own blog and enabling discussion with your community by enabling Comment Engines.

5. Creative, Consistent Content!

Whatever type of website you have, one of the key things to bear in mind is keeping your site up to date. If you update or refresh your site on a regular basis, it is more likely that visitors will come back again. Keeping your site up to date also means that the information it contains also stays up to date. There’s nothing worse than e.g. visiting a site at the end of 2022 and seeing that its last update was in 2019! As discussed above, a blog can be a very useful tool, especially if most of your site’s content is relatively static.

You may find that refreshing the look of your site from time to time can help, but keeping your content up to date and original is of greater benefit as it will be better for your SEO.

6. Work Smarter, Not Harder…

Keeping your website up to date with fresh content and making sure that your pages are always ‘SEO ready’ may seem to be somewhat of a daunting prospect. But there are ways in which you can work efficiently and effectively. Here are some tips that may help you…

• Plan in Evergreen content for your website and its blog: We all have events in our calendars that repeat every year so why not make a note of these for your site or its blog so that you can have content ready in time for such events e.g. New Year, national holidays, festival days, your company’s anniversary and so on…
• SEO only pages that need it: When it comes to SEO, you do not need to use it on all of the pages in your site. Just pick the pages that are the most important ones in your site to add SEO to.
• When adding images in to your site, make sure the image’s filename is SEO worthy. Additionally, make sure that the size of your image files are not going to drag your page performance down and that you add in ALT Text whenever you can to an image.
• Keep up to date: Every year EverWeb adds new features and enhances existing features. You may find that a new feature replaces an old one, for example, this year we added in-line Heading Tags. You no longer need to use the Heading Tags widget to add in these tags. Now it is simpler and easier to add in these tags and style them, so you may want to replace the ‘old’ with the ‘new’ – it’s more efficient for you in the long run!

We hope that we have given you some food for thought about how you can retool your site for the new year. Got your own tip? Then why not share it? Let us know in the Comments Section below. And if you have any questions, please ask!

Happy New Year EverWebbers!

Hyperlinking in the recently released EverWeb version 3.7 adds some great new, and expanded, capabilities to the stalwart feature that’s been around since the very first EverWeb release.

Hyperlinking is an essential, integral part of building your website as most website developers will want to add links to other pages in their site, to pages in an external site, to a file, or link to an email app. All these features debuted with EverWeb 1.0 and since then EverWeb’s added a number of other hyperlink related features which we will outline below as most features have been enhanced with the release of EverWeb 3.7. We begin, however, with a brand new hyperlinking feature: Force Download.

EverWeb’s New Force Download Option

Prior to EverWeb version 3.7, if you set up a link to a file, such as a PDF file, when you clicked on the associated link, the file would open in the browser window. If you wanted to save the file, you could do so at this time. In EverWeb 3.7, you now have the ‘Force Download’ option which automatically downloads the file to your visitor’s device when they click on the associated link. This is very useful as it saves the step of the visitor having to view and manually download the file. One thing of note if you use Force Download is that the feature depends on whether the browser in use allows for this function. Some browsers may not support the feature or allow you to customize the browser settings to stop such downloads.

To use Force Download, just tick its checkbox in the Hyperlinks Inspector or in any other hyperlinking dialog boxes within EverWeb.

‘Nofollow’ for Links You May Not Trust…

The ‘nofollow’ option was introduced in to EverWeb with version 1.9 and instructs search engines NOT to visit the site, or rather, not to ascribe credit to boost the ranking of the destination site based on the link. Check the ‘nofollow’ checkbox when you need to have the link but want to exclude it from SEO crawls as you do not have confidence or trust in the linked site.

The ‘Nofollow’ checkbox appears in the Hyperlinks Inspector and In EverWeb 3.7 is now included in all hyperlinking dialog boxes.

Choosing Your Link Behavior

Since EverWeb 1.9 you have been able to open a hyperlink in the current browser window, a new browser window or in a popup window. These features are now available in all hyperlinking dialog boxes within EverWeb.

Easier Scroll Position Linking

The last hyperlinking feature is Scroll Position where you can create two types of links for on your page. The first is where you ‘Insert Fixed Scroll Position‘ on the page which should only be used for Center or Left Aligned Page Layouts. The second type of Scroll Position, ‘Set Selected Shape as Scroll Position‘ allows you to link to an object on a page such as a TextBox or shape. This type of Scroll Position can be used on both fixed width page layouts and Responsive Page Layouts.

Prior to EverWeb 3.7, if you wanted to add a link in a widget using the ‘Link’ button, or via the Styled Text Editor within a widget, you would need to ‘hardwire’ the link using the URL field in the hyperlinking dialog box. In EverWeb 3.7, you no longer need to do this, as the hyperlinking dialog boxes now all include a ‘Position’ field which will display the Scroll Position names for the page you have selected. This makes linking a lot easier when using Scroll Position.

Hyperlinking Dialog Boxes

All of the above mentioned features are available in the Hyperlinks Inspector tab of the Inspector Window. Depending on the context of what you are linking to e.g. a page, a file or an email, some options may, or may not, be available for you to use.

Where EverWeb 3.7 differs from previous versions is that the features of the Hyperlinks Inspector are now available when you click on the ‘Link’ button within widgets, or when you click on the Hyperlink button in the Styled Text Editor within a widget that includes e.g. the FlexBox or PayPal Widget.

If you are creating a link in a blog post, you can use the hyperlink button in the Blog Post Editor Window’s Toolbar, although this will only give you options to quickly set up a hyperlink. If you need to use any of the above options in a Blog Post, highlight the text or image you want to link to, then go to the Hyperlink Inspector and check the ‘Enable as Hyperlink’ box to make all of the hyperlinking options available for use.

…and There’s More to Come!

EverWeb’s 3.7’s new Force Download feature and improved hyperlinking throughout the app will make linking much easier and more flexible for all EverWeb users. But stay tuned as we are planning more updates for hyperlinking in an upcoming EverWeb release!

if you have any questions about Hyperlinking in EverWeb, or any EverWeb related questions, please let us know in the Comments Section below. We’re happy to have you comments and feedback and to answer any questions you may have.

We are incredibly excited to announce the release of EverWeb 3.6! Two big new features are the highlights of this release! Fill: Slide Show gives you the ability to add a slide show to a TextBox, rectangle shape, image and the Responsive Row widget! It’s an incredibly powerful new feature!

Our second new feature also brings ups the power of EverWeb, in this case with enhanced security features added to EverWeb Site Shield Addon! Your website’s security can be taken to a new level with EverWeb’s easy to implement settings! Click and go for the most secure website you can get!

These features and more are available now! Check out the full feature list below and let us know if you have any questions, issues or wishes!

Which Version of EverWeb is For You?

EverWeb is available in the following versions:

• If you are running an Intel Mac running OS X 10.10, macOS Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey EverWeb version 3.6 is available for you.
• If you are running an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS Monterey or Big Sur, EverWeb version 3.6 is available for you as a Universal Binary. EverWeb will run natively without the need to use Rosetta 2.
• If you are running OS X 10.7 – 10.9 (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks) EverWeb version 2.9.1 is available for you.
• If you are running OS X 10.6 EverWeb version 2.5.2 is available for you.

When updating to the latest version of EverWeb, the update process will automatically download the correct version of EverWeb for your operating system.

EverWeb 3.6 Includes…

[NEW] New Security Features for EverWeb Site Shield Addon.

[NEW] The Shape Options Tab gains a new Fill: Side Show feature.

[NEW] Blog Post Cover Image includes Alt Text.

[IMPROVED] Improved speed in the Editor Window.

[IMPROVED] Speed improvements for pages with lots of widgets on them.

[IMPROVED} English (British) and Dutch localization improvements

[IMPROVED] Adjustments made to the Site Publishing Settings screen 

[FIX] Improved stability of Blog Post Editor.

[FIX] Blog posts in some instances were not updating properly.

[FIX] Fixed adjusting popup window dimensions for links in blog posts.

[FIX] Improved error checking for FTP publishing.

[FIX] Borders on full width object when exporting websites.

[FIX] Issue with selecting a file for a link in the Inspector’s Styled Text Editor.

[FIX] Fixed possible layout issue with Text Section widget.

[FIX] Facebook Like Widget improvements.

[FIX] Images get properly exported as transparent PNGs when using rotation.

[FIX] Vertical alignment of text in shapes with borders (now align middle and bottom properly.)

[FIX] Some CSS issues with blog posts and blog post images when the images are very large.

[FIX] Image Slider widget did not fade properly.

[FIX]The RSS Feed widget Hyperlink Widget Settings for Rollover and Visited did not work.

[FIX] When used together, the Image Gallery Widget and Blog Main widget would create issues when previewed or published.

[FIX] Fixed issues with full width shapes on fixed width layouts that use margins.

[FIX] Fixed alignment of vertical text in shapes with borders which now align to middle and bottom properly.

[FIX] Fixed transparency, shadows and flip settings for shapes.

[FIX] Fixed reflection of rotated shapes.

[FIX] Inspector not being able to scroll properly when you scroll with one shape then select another shape.

[FIX] Changing blog post settings in Inspector will update it properly.

[FIX] A potential crash when dropping an image on a shape set to image fill.

[FIX] Fixed an issue with RSS feeds exporting blog post content.

[FIX] Fixed an issue with RSS feeds not having the correct path to post image.

[FIX] Fixed previewing of very large blog posts.

[FIX] Fixed issues with blogs that had an image file and were full width being set to fixed width when publishing.

[FIX] Popup window links in blog posts.

[FIX] Full width navigation bars in FlexBox will work when using Parallax Scrolling.

[FIX] Facebook Like Widget fixes.

[FIX] Alignment of search button in search widget when using borders.

How To Update To EverWeb 3.6

You can easily update EverWeb by either:

1. Launching EverWeb then going to the EverWeb menu at the top of the screen and selecting ‘Check for Update’ or by
2. Downloading EverWeb from the EverWeb website.

After downloading EverWeb, double click on the EVERWEB.DMG file. A window will open. Drag the EverWeb icon on to the Applications folder icon. Once the file has been copied, you can close the installation window, delete the .DMG file and eject the EverWeb disk on the desktop by dragging it to the Trashcan.

Remember, you won’t lose any previous data when updating as your website project files are stored elsewhere on your computer.

The update is free for EverWeb + Hosting users and EverWeb Standalone users who are within their 1 year of free upgrades and support period.

You can easily check your EverWeb Standalone free update period from EverWeb’s Preferences window or from your client area.

If you have passed your one year of free EverWeb updates, you can purchase 1 more year of upgrades and support from your client area.

You can easily re-download earlier versions of EverWeb from your client area if you are not ready to purchase an additional year of updates and support.

Login to your client area and go to the ‘Manage Product’ page. On the left of this page, select ‘Downloads’ and choose the version of EverWeb that you need.

More Information About EverWeb

For more information about the new version of EverWeb, please check out the following resources:

• The EverWeb website which has up to the moment information in it’s new blogging section
• New EverWeb videos on YouTube
• The EverWeb User Manual in EverWeb’s Help-> User Manual menu
• The EverWeb Discussion Forum

If you can’t find what you need, or have any other questions, comments or feedback please let us know. We’re happy to help.

EverWeb on Social Media

You can also find EverWeb on the following social media platforms:

Facebook

Flipboard

YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

You may have noticed when using EverWeb, that there are quite a few places where you see the words ‘Alt Text’ displayed in the Inspector Window. You may also see that some widgets also include ‘Alt Text’ in their options. But what is Alt Text, what does it do, should you be using it in your site and if so, how can you get the best out of using it? Let’s find out…

What Is Alt Text?

Alt Text stands for Alternative Text. It is the ‘alternative’ to using an image. Alt Text replaces an image when the image itself cannot be loaded and viewed on screen. In addition, the other original intention of Alt Text was for it to be used to help visually impaired people who used special equipment that would read the contents of the screen back to them.

Alt Text and SEO

Adding Alt Text to an image in your EverWeb Project can also benefit to your site’s SEO as Alt Text allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website. All in all, adding Alt Text to the images in your website will make for a positive experience for your potential and existing visitors.

Adding Alt Text To An Image

There are a few places in EverWeb where you add Alt Text to your images. If you have standalone images anywhere on your page, just select the image you want then go to the Shape Options tab. In the ‘Fill’ section you will see there is an Alt Text field. Just enter in the text that you want to use. It’s that simple. If you use an image more than once in your site from the Assets List in the Assets Tab, you will need to add Alt Text to the image each time you use it. If you copy the image whilst it is on the Editor Window, using Copy and Paste, the Alt Text attribute will be preserved.

Remember that when adding Alt Text that it should be a brief description of what the image is, in less than 125 characters. A brief description is important because of the points made earlier in this post about the Alt Text being used for the visually impaired and also its role in replacing the image if it cannot be loaded in to the browser.

Many of EverWeb’s widgets also contain Alt Text fields e.g. the FlexBox and Text Section widgets. For the Image Gallery widgets, you can use a Caption to inform the visitor of what the image is if it cannot be displayed on screen.

Using Alt Text To Its Best Advantage

When you add a Alt Text description to an image, remember two things: First, be descriptive and do not use just a collection of keywords as your description, and second, bring out the detail and specifics of the image wherever you can e.g. if you have an image of a boat you might want to say, ‘The new 30 meter yacht, Princeton, launching from Dover Harbour, England.’ A third point is to remember the context of the photo in your site. In the example just sited, the context is easy as there is reference to both an event and a place. If your image is a generic one, for example, from a stock photo site, you should add Alt Text for the image that applies context to it within the page. As an example, I may want to use a stock photo with the word ‘SEO’ in it on my page. For the image’s Alt Text I could add some context relevant to my site by using this description: ‘EverWeb’s SEO Video Course is available on YouTube.’

Images in Your Project File

When using images in your Project file, it is always a good idea to name the image file descriptively before you grand and drop the file in to your EverWeb Project. This method is the best way for website crawlers to discover your image and use it when ranking your site. If you have already imported your image with a non-descriptive file name, you can still rename it in EverWeb. Just double click on the image in the Assets List and rename the file. In terms of SEO, this is OK, but is second best to renaming the file before importing it into EverWeb.

Alt Text is a great way to add accessibility to your site, it creates a more positive experience for your visitors and it can help boost your SEO. Use it only on the images that are important to your site. As with everything SEO, you do not need to add Alt Text to images that do not need it. Focus on what is important in terms of your site’s SEO.

More information on EverWeb and SEO can be found on the EverWeb website.

If Search Engine Optimization is important to you, then EverWeb’s SEO Power Up could be a great addition to your EverWeb purchase. SEO Power Up Addon extends the range of EverWeb’s already built in capabilities by submitting your website to search engines from Google, Bing, Yahoo and Alexa.

EverWeb SEO Power Up also contains a variety of features so that you can more specifically optimize your website’s pages to get the best advantage when search engines crawl your site. You can change the priority of the page and the frequency in which the page is crawled by search engines.

Whilst EverWeb’s new add on debuted in version 3.4, it’s been improved in EverWeb 3.5 with the addition of Open Graph Tags.

What are Open Graph Tags?

The Open Graph Tag Protocol was originally developed by Facebook. Open Graph Tags are code snippets that determine how URL’s will be displayed in Social Media. What the Open Graph Tag does is to create the best feature rich preview of the URL possible.

How Does The Open Graph Tag Work?

The Open Graph Tag will look at the data and information that comes with the URL and will build a preview based on this e.g. the page title, page description and so on. Whilst apps generally try to create the best preview possible on their own, the Open Graphs Tag helps to provide richer previews so that your content stands out more in Social Media.

What are the Advantages of the Open Graph Tag?

The advantages of Open Graph Tags are that they:

1. Create the best feature rich previews for shared media links.
2. Help your content to stand out amongst other content.
3. EverWeb’s SEO Power Up addon adds Open Graph tags automatically.
4. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter are some examples of apps that take advantage of Open Graph Tags.

What Do I Need To Do in EverWeb?

As Open Graph Tags are part of the EverWeb SEO Power Up addon, there’s nothing you need to do as EverWeb will apply the tags to URLs automatically for your website. If you share URL’s on Social Media, they will be automatically used if the app takes advantage of the Open Graph Tags Protocol.

What About Open Graph Tags and SEO?

Open Graph Tags are meta tags and so will have an indirect influence and impact on your SEO. The advantage of Open Graph Tags is that they should improve the performance of your links in Social Media, which is a plus in itself. You may like to think of the Open Graph Tag as an optimization for the URL link when used in Social Media.

As always, we aim to make life easier for you when developing your website! And now with Open Graph Tags in EverWeb SEO Power Up, you get better, richer Social Media previews for your website URL’s without having to do anything!

When using EverWeb you pretty much have everything to hand that you need to build a website but sometimes you may want something extra for your site. Perhaps you want better security, or you want to sharpen your site’s SEO, or you want to use the data gathered from your contact forms. EverWeb’s Addons are here to help you get even more out of EverWeb!

Site Shield Addon

EverWeb’s Site Shield Addon is designed for EverWeb + hosting customers who want a secure to transmit data across the internet to all of the devices your website visitors may be using. The ‘end to end’ data encryption of data is provided through the use of HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) in place of HTTP.

WhyEverWeb Site Shield Addon Is Important

There are a number of reasons why EverWeb Site Shield Addon might be important to your website:

1. Your data is end to end encrypted across the Internet protecting you from ‘Man in the Middle’ attacks;
2. Sensitive data, such as financial data, confidential data, web shopping carts or medical data, is safely and securely transmitted;
3. Site Shield Addon will help improve your SEO rankings. For example, Google prioritizes HTTPS sites over non-secure HTTP sites;
4. Using Site Shield Addon also makes Google Analytics more effective as Referrer data is saved which is not the case if you only use HTTP;
5. Site Shield Addon builds trust with your potential and existing customers. The Padlock symbol that appears beside your URL in a visitor’s browser search box indicates that the site has secure end to end data encryption enabled. This visual symbol is a great way to let your visitors know that you take data security seriously;
6. Installing EverWeb Site Shield Addon is really easy, you just tick a checkbox in EverWeb’s Site Publishing Settings screen! There is no configuration needed. Just publish your entire site once you have checked the ‘Use HTTPS Secure URLs’ checkbox.

To purchase EverWeb Site Shield Addon, just check the Use HTTPS Secure URLs’ checkbox. A dialog box will appear which will guide you through the purchase process.

Contact Forms Enhanced Addon

EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget debuted in EverWeb 2.0 as a replacement for the original Contact Form widget. Whilst you can still use either widget in your site, the Contact Form Advanced widget is:

1. More Secure than the Contact Form widget through the use of SMTP Settings in the Widget Settings.
2. Has 17 different Form Control types so you can control and customize data input in to the form just as you want.
3. Improved SPAM protection. The use of forms in a website is one way in which SPAMmers can infiltrate your email box with SPAM. EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget uses Google’s reCAPTCHA to help reduce this attack vector.
4. Enhanced Form Confirmation and Submission Settings are included so that you can highly customize your form. You can even forward your visitor to a different page in your site once they have clicked on the form’s submit button.
5. Advanced Form Error Validation helps guide visitors if they have not filled out the form correctly and try to send it to you.

The EverWeb Contact Forms Enhanced Addon Advantage

These above features make the Contact Form Advanced widget the perfect tool for form creation in EverWeb. The Contact Forms Enhanced Addon, introduced in EverWeb 3.0, seamlessly integrates with the widget and offers the following advanced features:

1. Easily manage your Contact Form data from within your EverWeb Client Area.
2. Reporting on your Contact Form data is also easy and customizable.
3. Contact Form data can form the basis of mail shot campaigns by exporting the data out in to CSV format.
4. Contact Form data is securely stored on EverWeb’s Servers.
5. Use ‘Calendar’ and ‘Select Time’ Form Controls to create your own in-form calendar which can be used as the basis of a booking system.
6. Your customers can upload files to you from within the form using the ‘File Upload’ Form Control.

To purchase EverWeb Contact Forms Enhanced Addon, add the Contact Forms Advanced widget to your page then click on the ‘Contact Form Enhanced Add-on’ field then click on the ‘Add Contact Form Enhanced Features’ menu option. You will then be guided through the purchase process.

EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon

The most recent addition to EverWeb’s collection of add-ons is SEO Power Up, which debuted in EverWeb 3.4. The new add-on builds upon EverWeb’s existing built in SEO features to giving you more customization options to fine tune and focus your SEO.

EverWeb SEO Power Up lets you add your own keywords to individual pages, set the priority of your pages for SEO purposes and the frequency in which web crawlers crawl your pages. You can even designate pages in your site that you do not want to be included in SEO.

To purchase EverWeb SEO Power Up, just go to our secure online store.

More features will be added to SEO Power Up in the upcoming EverWeb 3.5, as well as a host of new features including site wide search, so check back on our blog or go to the EverWeb Forum for the latest news!

When you start to build your first website you may or may not, already know about SEO. It may be something that is extremely important to you. It may be something that you have no idea at all about. It may be something that you think might be important to you but it is shrouded in mystery that it seems almost magical or mind bogglingly confusing.

In this post, we are going to demystify SEO and explain what it is and why it can be important for you to implement it in your EverWeb created website.

What Exactly is SEO Anyway?

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a method by which you tune, or optimize, your website to its best advantage to Search Engines, such as Google, Bing and Alexa. The better you optimize your website, the better the chances are that your site will appear higher up in search engine results rankings.

When you enter a search term in to your browser’s search box, the search engine behind it (e.g. Google) will present you with a set of ranked results based on your search criteria. Simply put, you use SEO to improve your chances of ranking higher up in these such search results. As such, SEO can also be thought of as a process that is applied to your website. SEO is not hardware. SEO is not software. SEO is a methodology that you apply to your website.

Should Everyone Use SEO in Their Website?

Typically, you will want to apply SEO to your website if you run any form of business. Equally, you will probably want to apply SEO to your site if you just want it to be more visible on the Internet. On the other hand, you may not want to apply SEO at all to your site e.g. you may have a site just for personal reasons so it is not important for you to try to reach as many people as possible with your site.

Reasons to Apply SEO to Your Website

1. Potentially higher rankings in Search Engine Results Pages. When done correctly, SEO will improve your rankings.
2. Your Audience will be able to find you more easily! SEO is good to use as you can target the words that you think visitors will search on. If done correctly, your (potential) audience will find you more easily!
3. Customer Reach: SEO can be a great way for potential new customers to find you!
4. Better Customer Reach translates to more traffic to your site.
5. SEO Is Free! You do not have to pay anything to apply SEO to your site. You should not have to pay anyone to apply SEO to your site!
6. Improves Brand Awareness. Even if someone does not click on your website link in a search results set, the fact that you are visible may bring them back later to your site.
7. The effect of SEO can also be measured from your site’s statistics so you can adjust you SEO to see what works and what does not work.

Investing in SEO in Your Website

Just like building a great looking website, SEO is an Investment – and it should be thought of as a long term investment. As your business grows and develops over time, so your SEO should be in step with your business at the same time.

As part of the SEO process you will use Keywords, or phrases, in your website to help search engines focus on what you think is important. These Keywords may need to change over time as your business changes. It is, therefore, always important to remember that your website is a dynamic tool and your SEO should be too.

SEO As a Dynamic Concept

Your business will probably change over time due to internal and external factors. The same is also true of SEO which is not static concept but a dynamic, evolving concept. Changes in SEO usually relate to changes made by search engines as they adapt to our ever changing browsing habits. For example, a few years ago, Google decided to prioritize searches made on mobile devices over those made on desktop devices. It seems obvious now that the priority for search has changed with the growth in mobile device usage over the last ten years.

EverWeb is always looking out for changes in the way the search engine giants change the dynamic around search. One such change, for example, comes in the upcoming EverWeb 3.5 which will automatically add Open Graph Tags if you have purchased EverWeb SEO Power Up addon.

How to Begin with Your SEO Journey…

SEO in EverWeb has always been baked in to the product which means that you usually do not need to focus on it if you do not want to. If you do want to apply SEO to its best effect in your site, the best way forward is to use our SEO for EverWeb Video Course. This concise course guides you through how to apply SEO to your site’s best advantage.

EverWeb gives you most of the tools that you need to implement SEO but you can go further using our SEO Power Up addon. This addon allows you more customization options than ever so that you can prioritize what you think is important for your site’s SEO. The addon also provides more information to search engines about your site’s pages, their importance and priority. Check out the link above for more details.

Using SEO in your site can be advantageous to your business if used in the right way and if you invest in it for the medium to long term. There is no mystery around SEO either, just some easy knowledge building and experience to find out what works best for your site!

EverWeb SEO Power Up is our exciting new Addon that adds more SEO features to EverWeb’s existing built in SEO capabilities. The new addon gives you more control and flexibility it can be used specifically on the pages in your website that you want to prioritize and optimize for SEO. As you would expect from EverWeb, SEO Power Up is simple and easy to use.

Who Can Use EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon?

Anyone can use SEO Power Up, whether you host with EverWeb or use your own hosting provider. The only other requirement is that you are using EverWeb version 3.4 or higher.

Purchasing EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon

It is very easy to purchase EverWeb SEO Power Up. Simply go to your Site Publishing Settings in your EverWeb Project file by either clicking on your project file name in the Web Page List, or by using the File -> Edit Publishing Settings screen. Tick the checkbox for ‘Optimize & Submit for Search Engines’. If you have not already purchased the addon, you will see a dialog box which will take you though the process.

If you have not checked this box but still use the features of EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon (described below), you will occasionally be prompted by popup messages reminding you that to use these features you need to purchase the addon.

Do I need to Install EverWeb SEO Power Up On Purchase?

There is no installation required for EverWeb SEO Power Up as all its features and functionality are directly built in to EverWeb. Just make sure that the ‘Optimize & Submit for Search Engines’ checkbox is checked in your project file’s Site Publishing Settings. To get to this screen, either click on your project file name in the Web Page List or use the File-> Edit Publishing Settings menu option.

Setting Up Site Pages with Advanced SEO Features

You can apply SEO Power Up Addon’s features to any page in your project file but it is recommended that you do so only on the pages that are most SEO important to you. This will help web crawlers focus on what is important in your site. The Home page of any site will undoubtedly a page you will want to apply SEO to so we will look at this as an example of how to use the SEO Power Up’s Addon’s features.

Start by going to the Page Settings tab in the Inspector Window. Scroll down and open the Search Engine Optimization section if it is not already open.

The ‘Include page in search engines’ check box should also be checked so that SEO Power Up Addon’s features are enabled. If the box is not checked, you will only be able to use the Web Page Description field which has moved in to the Search Engine Optimization Section in EverWeb 3.4.

Adding Keywords To Your Page

Add the specific SEO keywords, or terms, that you want to use on the page using the Keywords section. The keywords will usually be the primary and secondary keywords, or terms, that you have already found through your SEO keyword research.

In my example my website sells specialist golfing equipment so I could add the following primary and secondary keywords to my page: ‘Left Handed Golf Clubs’ and ‘Left Handed Putters’.

You can edit a keyword entry by double clicking on it, editing the field, then pressing Enter to finish. If you want to remove an entry, just highlight it then press the delete key on your keyboard.

EverWeb SEO Power Up and The XML Sitemap file 

EverWeb SEO Power Up creates an XML Sitemap file for your site when the site is published. This file informs Google, and other search engines, about the pages and files that you consider important in your site. The file also includes other useful SEO information for search engines about the files or pages you are targeting for SEO. 

Such information includes for example, when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and any alternate language versions of a page.

Your website’s XML Sitemap will be submitted to Google, Yahoo, Bing and Alexa notifying them of your updated site each time you publish something new.

Priority and Frequency

The Search Engine Optimization section of the Page Settings tab is also where you can assign ‘priority’ and ‘frequency’ to the important pages in your site, according to sitemap protocols.

To use these features, the ‘Include in XML Sitemap’ checkbox should be checked as this will make the ‘Priority’ and ‘Change Frequency’ fields available to you. 

If you have not purchased EverWeb SEO Power Up, you will be reminded of this occasionally when using the Priority and Change Frequency fields.

The Priority field has a can have a value between zero and one. Zero means that the page has no important, 0.5 represents a neutral importance and 1.0 is very important.

The following lists examples of the Priority values that should be assigned to your pages:

• Priority value from 0.8-1.0: for pages such as your Home page and product information, major features and major category pages.
• Priority value from 0.4-0.7: is often used for articles, blog entries, minor category pages and FAQs.
• Priority value from 0.0-0.3: are used for old news pages and for those pages where the information is no longer relevant.

The Change Frequency field tells search engines approximately how often each page is updated. An update refers to actual changes to the HTML code or text of the page. Select the Change Frequency that is appropriate to the page. For example:

• NEVER: Is used for pages that contain out of date news stories, old press releases etc.
• YEARLY is used for Contact, “About Us”, login, registration pages
• MONTHLY for FAQs, instructions and infrequently updated articles
• WEEKLY: should be used for pages such as Product information page and website directories
• DAILY: Is used for page types that include Blog entry index pages, classified advertisements and small message board
• HOURLY: This category is used for major news update sites, weather information and forums
• ALWAYS for pages relating to items such as stock market data and social bookmarking categories

The Priority and Change Frequency fields should only be used on the pages of your site that are SEO important. Pages that are not important e.g. an About Us type page, do not need any SEO settings applied to them.

For more information about other ways of improving your SEO, check out the  SEO for EverWeb Video course.

Publishing Your Site

Prior to publishing your website, go to the project file’s Site Publishing Settings using either the File, Edit Publishing Settings menu option, or by clicking once on the name of your site in the Web Page List.

Check the box ‘Optimize & Submit Website to Search Engines’ if it is not already checked. If you have not already purchased SEO Power Up and check the box, a dialog box will appear with options to purchase or remind me later.

If you have an EverWeb+Hosting 10GB or higher account, EverWeb SEO Power Up is free for you.

The robots.txt File

In addition to the Sitemap XML File, one additional file gets published when you publish your site – the robots.txt file. This file tells search engine crawlers which pages, or files, the crawler can or can’t request from your site. Crawlers can ignore the file if they want, but it is still useful to have this file created.

Exclusive to EverWeb+Hosting Customers: Gzip Compression

GZip Compression is a built-in exclusive feature for EverWeb+Hosting customers. Compression is enabled on EverWeb’s servers so that your websites load faster. GZip compresses and decompresses files intelligently between server and browser, so reducing the size of your website’s HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. The end result is reduced bandwidth usage and faster website loading!

EverWeb’s SEO Power Up Addon has some great features to give you additional SEO tools all within EverWeb. Stay tuned as we hope to add more features to this exciting addon in the future!

EverWeb on Social Media

You can also find EverWeb on the following social media platforms:

Facebook

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YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

The spread of COVID-19 across the world has left the world reeling. Many people are now working from home as a result of the necessary restrictions that have been put in place by governments across the world. For many small businesses and self employed entrepreneurs, the financial consequences are possibly devastating.

There are many challenges ahead. How can you make best use of your time at home and keep your business viable?

These simple questions may have complicated answers, but with more people staying at home, the Internet is being frequented more than ever! So now may be the perfect time to develop, or update, your website project to get the word out to the world that your business is alive and kicking!

Team EverWeb Is Here For You!

As always Team EverWeb is here for you! Our 24 x 7 x 365 (ok, 366 this year!) remains in place to help if you need it. Please remember that to use our technical support you will need a current EverWeb support and product update license.

Alternatively, there is also the EverWeb Discussion Forum that you can use if you have any questions, or if you need to know how to do something specific in EverWeb, or have feature requests for the product.

In addition, there is also the EverWeb YouTube channel with hundreds of video tutorials and this blog, as well as those by third parties, such as All About iWeb, which should help you find what you need!

So, how can you make your website the most visible it can be on the Internet for your customers to see and interact with or to purchase from? Here are some tips to get you started…

Invest in Your Website’s SEO!

If you have not tuned your website for Search Engine Optimization, now may be the time to do so! You use SEO to help improve your Search Engine Ranking Page results. The better your SEO, the better chance of your website being higher up the page when potential customers are searching the Internet for goods and services.

The SEO for EverWeb Video Course takes you though the whole process so that your website is as optimized as it can be! There’s no magic involved in SEO and it does not cost any money to implement it either! Just some of your own time.

Your E-Commerce Store Needs You!

If your website includes an online store, now may be a good time to refresh its content and look. If you have a PayPal account, EverWeb’s PayPal widget takes the strain away from adding products to your site. You can now directly add in product images and descriptions from within the widget. You can also use your own button images, or styled text buttons, to get the perfect look for your website.

Remember that your customers do not need to have a PayPal account to be able to pay through PayPal. It may be worth mentioning this in your website that PayPal is just the payment provider, and that the customer does not have to have a PayPal account to purchase goods and services from you.

Although EverWeb supports PayPal, there are other E-Commerce stores and platforms that are also supported, such as E-Junkie, ECWID and Shopify. If there is an E-Commerce platform that you need supporting, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

Keeping Your Customers Updated!

Customer contact is especially important at this time for a number of reasons. First, you want your customers to know that you are still in business, second that your business is taking precautions over the Corona virus, and third, you can effectively update your clients on the products and services that you offer. Your products and services may be subject to change due to the current business trading environment, so alerting your customers as to what is available (and when), and to any possible alternatives, is a proactive step to take.

Maintaining contact with your clients is also important so that your business is not overwhelmed by customers asking questions. You may need to consider altering your home page, or adding a specific page or blog to your site to keep your customers up todate.

The Power of Contact Forms!

EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget is the perfect way to for customers to contact you. The widget is highly customizable so that your contact form blends in perfectly with your website design. If you are using EverWeb 3.0 or higher, you can also purchase our Contact Forms Enhanced addon. This is the perfect companion to the Contact Form Advanced widget in that it allows you to store all contact form submission data in one safe, secure place in your EverWeb Client Area. The database of contact form submissions can be downloaded on a per form basis which will allow you to create an email address list. You could then use this list in e.g. MailChimp to email out to your clients your latest business news and updates.

Keep Your Social Media Options Optimal!

Keeping the communication between your business and your customers is paramount at this time. Remember to include the social media widgets and buttons that are relevant to your business in your website. Social media is a great way to communicate quickly and effectively. EverWeb includes FaceBook Like, FaceBook Page Timeline, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo and YouTube widgets in the product with third party widgets also available for other social media platforms. There are also a range of social media buttons that you can use as well from EverWeb’s Insert menu.

If you have any of tips that you think might help other EverWeb users during these difficult times, please use the Comments Section below! Thanks!

Safe safe and well.

Team EverWeb

EverWeb on Social Media

You can also find EverWeb on the following social media platforms:

Facebook

Flipboard

YouTube

Twitter

Instagram