I know this topic has come up time and time again, so I wanted to quickly talk about it. Many iWeb users experience a bit of trouble getting their sites recognized by Google (and other search engines). This can occur for many different reasons, so I won’t dive into those right now. The easiest way to get any website indexed in search engines in a matter of just a few days is by creating and submitting what is called an XML Sitemap. An XML Sitemap is basically an outline of a website which displays all of the websites links. This Sitemap is not intended for humans, but is drawn up in a way that is meant for search engines. Sitemap Automator, a popular application by RAGE Software allows users to create their XML Sitemaps very easily, and also submit the Sitemap to all major search engines in just a few clicks of your mouse.

I am posting two tutorials below. One will show you how to create the Sitemap and publish it to your web server. The other tutorial will show you how to properly submit your site to search engines, including Google which does require one extra step (but it is totally worth it). You will see just how easy it is to do this. I encourage all iWeb users to create XML Sitemaps, and if you have any questions about the process, feel free to let me know.

I mentioned in an earlier post about iWeb SEO Tool. I wanted to give you guys a bit more information on iWeb SEO Tool because I know a lot of you are scratching your heads trying to figure out exactly what it is. And for those of you who already know, but don’t use it, I put together this quick video that will give you a tour of iWeb SEO Tool. I hope you enjoy.

P.S. you can download iWeb SEO Tool for free from RAGE Software.

Here is the transcript of what was said in the video:

Many of you are familiar with iWeb SEO Tool and some of you even checked it out in the post I made earlier on allaboutiweb.com, but I just wanted to put up this video for those who are still not sure about iWeb SEO Tool, or have just happened to stumble upon it for the first time.

So what is iWeb SEO Tool and who should use it? iWeb SEO Tool is free program from RAGE Software that allows users to make their iWeb sites optimized for search engines. Anyone building their website using iWeb who wants their site to rank higher in search engines should use this tool. That should be almost everyone! iWeb SEO Tool allows you to do things to your website that you cannot do in iWeb.

So let me give you a quick tour of iWeb SEO Tool. For more comprehensive tutorials, you can go to RAGE Software’s website which is ragesw.com.

When you site is loaded in iWeb SEO Tool, you can select your web page files here on the left, and now you can edit certain things on your site that Google and other search engines consider when ranking websites.

In this first section called Site Settings, you can add code to the top, and bottom of your website’s code. This is for items such as analytical tools like Statcounter and Google Analytics. These codes don’t show up on your web page, but are working behind the scenes in the code. You can also add a Favicon to your site, which is this little icon you see in the address bar.

The Title Tag tab allows you to change the title tag, which is an extremely important part of SEO. Why is it important? Well take a look at this title tag here, which you can see at the very top of almost any web browser. This title tag also appears in a search result as the clickable link that takes the user to your website. iWeb’s default title tags usually leave the user with poor title tags that are not very helpful for SEO purposes.

The meta tags tab allows you to add keywords to your pages, as well as a description to your pages. Adding keywords is only somewhat important. Some search engines still rely on the meta keywords, while others don’t. The page descriptions are important as they are what shows up in a search result just under the title tag that we just discussed. This can be a good way to influence users to actually go to your website.

The images tab will allow you to add alternative text to your images. Since search engines are not able to see an image the same way a human can, giving words to your images is a good way to gain extra traffic through image search engines.

So that is the basics of iWeb SEO Tool that I wanted to show you guys. I really think this tool is extremely important and everyone should be using it. So head on over to ragesw.com and download a copy. It’s completely free to use so there’s no reason not to.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section and I’ll be happy to help.

Something you may have seen springing up on blogs and web-sites over the last few weeks is the new ‘official’ twitter button, allowing visitors to a site to retweet a post or page they like or have found useful and think other people should read it. In this iWeb tutorial I will explain the process of adding these new buttons to your iWeb site so you can join in the fun.

Of course, apart from an iWeb site you will need a Twitter account too, so if you don’t have one, sign-up now! Read more

Regular readers of all about iWeb will know that I have been away for a few weeks catching some sun, so my first post, now that I am back, is going to be a catch up on what’s been happening whilst I was lying poolside with a cool beer and what you can expect from All About iWeb over the coming weeks. Read more

Many of my regular readers will know I am a keen supporter of the FREE iWeb SEO Tool from Rage Software and a few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Paul at Rage letting me know that they had updated their handy little tool.

There isn’t a great deal of new changes in the application itself, however the updates they have made are ‘spot on’. Why not download yourself a copy and take a look. Read more