I belong to an email list made-up of a wonderful group of home-based business owners called Home, Not Alone, or HNA for short. (You can learn more about email lists in this article I wrote last year.) We have home-business chats occasionally here, where we discuss different issues involved with running a business from home. This week, I thought I would provide the chat transcript for those of you who own a home-based business, and also for those of you new to the chatting experience, so you can get an idea how a chat room works.
The chatting world is a bit confusing and even intimidating at first. You will see some abbreviations you are probably unfamiliar with, and the chatting might seem to move very quickly. Just remember that all of us were new to chatting at one time, and we are all more than happy to help.
So, now that everyone knows a little about the basics of chatting, here is the transcript of Tuesday's Chat. This discussion might be a bit technical for those of you unfamiliar with websites, but it should give you an idea of how a chatroom works.(Note: HomeparentsADM is the name I use to sign-in to our chatroom. This allows me to monitor and log the chats. People in the chat refer to me as "Barb". Also, I edit most of the "idle chitchat", like when we comment about our kids banging on our keyboards, but I leave most of the typos intact. I do this because it's almost impossible to chat without an occasional typo, and you really don't need to worry if you misspell a word, or type too fast at times; usually nobody even notices!)
| homeparentsADM: | We are just starting...we can start by introducing yourself (tell your business, and url if you have one) In alphabetical order..that worked last time |
| AnitaJ: | I am Anita Jackson, and I do web design mostly for motorcycle web sites. |
| AnitaJ: | But I also have a site that I maintain for myself for plant food called Algoflash |
| homeparentsADM: | I'm Barbara, I do the Stay-at-Home Parents site, url is http://homeparents.about.com |
| Janet: | Hi my name is Janet Crosby, and I have Paragraphics (web design) http://www.baxsie.com |
| Julie: | Julianne Gentile - The Mommy Mall , two About.com Sites (Cleveland and Action Games) and GenGlo Consulting & Design (too many urls to list)... |
| Donna: | Donna Davis Magnolia IN |
| TriciaB: | Tricia Begnaud here. I have Solutions. |
| TriciaB: | And I just made my family site on my own last night... nothing fancy but I did it myself! |
| Julie: | excellent |
| homeparentsADM: | neat, Tricia! |
| homeparentsADM: | It's a neat feeling, making your own site! |
| AnitaJ: | Tricia, that is just how this addiction begins, LOL! |
| homeparentsADM: | Julie, what's the first step in getting good placement on the search engines? I was thinking having good titles and meta tags? |
| Julie: | oh hey today is my 9 year anniversary online |
| TriciaB: | Congratulations! |
| AnitaJ: | OMG!!! Julie that is Amazing!!!! |
| Janet: | she was online when online wasn't cool... |
| homeparentsADM: | happy anniversary, Julie! |
| Julie: | I have achieved true geekdom |
| Julie: | ok, as far as Barb's question/comment, titles and meta tags are a good first step |
| homeparentsADM: | does everyone know what meta tags are? and where to put them? |
| AnitaJ: | Julie, how much of that stuff in Meta Tags is really necessary? |
| Julie: | only title, keywords and description |
| Julie: | each are vital |
| AnitaJ: | the reason I ask is because if you use meta tag builders on the net |
| Heidi: | description? I haven't heard much about using that one |
| AnitaJ: | they put in ALL KINDS of stuff, at least some do |
| Julie: | yes, some are obsolete, some are there to give credit to the generator, the author and some are for ideas never implemented |
| homeparentsADM: | I don't use those, Anita..I add my own keywords..but it's hard to know exactly what to add... |
| AnitaJ: | ahhhh, thank you |
| Julie: | but strictly for the purpose of search engines, title, keywords and description are all that is needed |
| Julie: | title is extremely important |
| AnitaJ: | Just a word of warning about meta tag builders.... |
| Julie: | many sites just put the name of their site on every page, which is worthless |
| AnitaJ: | One put in a comment tag once and some engines refused to list my site because of it. |
| Julie: | comment tags in the head of your page are a no no |
| AnitaJ: | Yep, learned that one the hard way! |
| TriciaB: | What is a comment tag? |
| Julie: | some people used to use them to add extra keywords to the document. A spider can read a comment, but it does not show on the page |
| Julie: | like this "comment tag" kids, kids, kids, kids, kids "end comment tag" |
| Heidi: | isn't that considered spamming the search engine? |
| AnitaJ: | Tricia, if you have it in your Meta tags many search engines won't list you. |
| Julie: | initially those sites would come up high on the spiders, but then they got smart and started banning those pages |
| Julie: | some engines will still allow this, but because some do not, it's best to avoid it |
| Heidi: | I ran into one site that had *line* upon *line* of stuff like that in the body of the text, same color as the background. |
| Julie: | Would anyone be willing to tell us the title on their home page, so we can look at it |
| Julie: | Heidi: that is spam, also bad |
| Heidi: | Lets see . . . You mean the title that's listed in the meta tags or the one that shows up in the browswer |
| AnitaJ: | Gosh Julie all my sites are in such disrepair |
| Donna: | Does having an entrance page help? |
| Julie: | well we can work on it.. |
| AnitaJ: | but, how about http://www.algoflash.com |
| AnitaJ: | entrance page? please explain? |
| homeparentsADM: | on my current feature, the title is "Impeachment and Our Kids 12/22/98 |
| Julie: | ok Anita's title is very good.. Anita can you cut and paste it in here |
| Heidi: | One of mine says Impressions Web Site Design |
| Julie: | Barb, yours is also excellent... |
| homeparentsADM: | haha...thanks to the About.com template, Julie! |
| Julie: | it clearly says what it is and includes the name of your site, and the date |
| AnitaJ: | Algoflash Award Winning Plant Fertilizer Home Page |
| Heidi: | Why the date? |
| Julie: | heidi, because articles are generally time sensitive |
| Heidi: | ah. That would make sense. I'm thinking of non-article stuff. |
| Julie: | ok Anita's title is good because it includes a few keywords |
| Julie: | as well as the company name.... |
| homeparentsADM: | and it shows people you update regularly..I' d think..I don't have dates on the list of links pages.. |
| AnitaJ: | but it needs more doesn't it? |
| Julie: | I would suggest skipping award winning and home page and including a few more keywords |
| Julie: | Algoflash: plant fertilizer for blah blah blah.. or something like that... |
| AnitaJ: | OMG!!! Just realized it has spam comments in the header! Oh Lord! |
| AnitaJ: | Thanks Julie, good idea |
| Julie: | keywords are excellent and all lowercase |
| AnitaJ: | good grief :-0 |
| AnitaJ: | shouldn't some be in caps? |
| Julie: | however keywords should come before the description |
| homeparentsADM: | lots of search engines are really penalizing spam..I sometimes wonder if I repeat the word "parents' too much.. |
| AnitaJ: | Oh! I had no idea, thanks for pointing that out! |
| Julie: | no, if you use lowercase then it will come up if a searcher uses either lower or upper. If it is a term that is commonly capitalized, it wouldn't hurt to add the caps version, because relevance may be a bit higher then |
| homeparentsADM: | Julie, do you suggest "misspelling some keywords that are commonly misspelled? |
| Julie: | Anita, the description is not a description at all |
| Julie: | barb: yes |
| Julie: | as long as you include the correct one, also |
| AnitaJ: | You mean in my page or in general Julie? |
| Julie: | Anita, on your page.. the description should be a real sentence... not keywords.. this will be used as the description for your link in most engines |
| AnitaJ: | |
| Julie: | don't be embarrassed.. this is a good example... |
| AnitaJ: | thanks good point! |
| homeparentsADM: | Anita, right..this is how we learn!! |
| AnitaJ: | glad I used it, now I see I have work to do! LOL! |
| Julie: | also, you should customize the title, keywords and description for each page |
| Julie: | Anyone else want to have their tags scrutinized? |
| AnitaJ: | Janet you are an excellent designer, show us one of your sites? |
| Heidi: | you can look at mine http://www.concentric.net/~Lovekids/ They stink! |
| homeparentsADM: | you want to repeat your title in your description, right, if possible? |
| Donna: | could you look at my site,if we have time? |
| Heidi: | gotta add a description. I hadn't really thought of that part before. |
| homeparentsADM: | we should have time, Donna..we can make this a 3 or 4 parter if needed, this is an important topic. |
| Julie: | not really Barb.. in most cases the title becomes the link and the description will be the annotation for the link |
| homeparentsADM: | ah, ok, Julie.. |
| Julie: | ok Heidi, your title is Impressions Web Design |
| Heidi: | Uh, huh. |
| Heidi: | Dull, right? |
| Julie: | good that you include the words web design, but they are so common that it will not help much... |
| Heidi: | Yeah, I figured, but my brain wouldn't give me anything else. |
| Julie: | a better choice might be Impressions Web Design: and a few keywords |
| Julie: | what is your focus? |
| LisaB: | You can scrutinize my tags... |
| Julie: | web design for small business? |
| Donna: | Thanks,the url is http://www.magnoliaink.com |
| Julie: | hosting? |
| Heidi: | focus: small business mostly |
| TriciaB: | Okay, a little bird said Can we look at my site? |
| Julie: | ok, then include that in your title |
| Julie: | keywords need work and should be below the title... |
| Heidi: | Impressions Web Page Design for Small Business Sites |
| Julie: | you need some individual words... and remember web design is very common, so you need to include other words |
| Julie: | Heidi: excellent |
| Heidi: | OK, I never figured the order mattered. |
| Julie: | and then add a description below the keywords |
| Heidi: | thanks :-) |
| homeparentsADM: | then, Heidi, if someone searched for "web design, small business", you'd have more chance of showing up.. |
| Heidi: | hmmmm. I like that! |
| Julie: | yes each term between commas is unique |
| Heidi: | What sort of key words for a web design site, though? |
| Julie: | web is different than web design |
| Julie: | web design, www, design, home pages, html, web pages, designers, |
| Julie: | look at the first site that comes up when you type in web design and see what they have |
| homeparentsADM: | Heidi, I think, yeah, what Julie said..LOL...and maybe add small business, business, SOHO, |
| Julie: | also, before I go to someone else, the text on the page and the alt text in your graphics is very relevant |
| Heidi: | Hmmmm. OK, thanks. BTW, SOHO??? |
| Julie: | many engines use an algorythm that uses the keywords plus page text to determine relevance |
| Julie: | yes |
| Julie: | oh my typing is bad today, forgive me |
