Google's custom search engine

Google now has a "Custom Search Engine". You add code on any web page that immeditely adds a special search box. The key is that Google focuses searches on all sites linked on that page.

Possible uses:

• Search blogroll sites.
• Search based on a web page's theme, as shown by sites the page links to.
• Search focused on the links in a links collection page such as "Religion Resources".

Example use

Churches with topic-related pages that also include "Resource" links, "Related sites" links or similar on a page now get added value from a customized search. On a Missions page, for example, the custom search will let a visitor focus a search on any Mission-related sites linked on that page. So each different topic page -- for example worship, youth, and stewardship -- will result in different search results depending on what links appear on those pages.
This seems to be the replacement for the old "Site-flavored search" beta, which no longer works.

This also appears to be a great reason to add links of interest to the topical area of a church web page. Added value to visitors means happier visitors.

Hone your keywords

You can find out what words are getting associated with any keywords you specify by using Google's Keyword Tool.

Although designed for use with Google AdWords, the handy online Keyword Tool can help you tweak the ones you are using or considering.

Other free keyword-related tools:

• Keyword suggestion tool (1)
• Keyword suggestion tool (2)
• GoogleDuel - compare which of two related words is more popular
• Ontology Finder - get a list of related words. Use the synonyms in your page's text to boost search results.
• Keyword Density tool
• Keyword Cloud
• Keyword Optimizer - Deletes duplicate keywords in the list and alphabetizes the list.
• Add Keyword Typos - lists possible misspellings you may want to add in your Keywords list.

Design pages for speed!

Surfers just hate to wait. As computers get faster and more people have broadband, they expect pages to display in as few as 8 seconds.

Extracts of the book "Speed up your Web site" at WebSite Optimization has good pointers. The author says that people now get frustrated if a web page doesn't load in the first 8 - 10 seconds. The old dial-up days guideline was 30 seconds. That's a huge difference.

Some tips to reduce page display times:

• Use only essential images. Excessive use of images gives a cluttered look anyway.
• Optimize images. Optimizing images can drastically reduce file size (and thuis display time). Some free optimizers are online (some offer free "lite" type versions online) or use your favorite graphics editor (I use Paint Shop Pro -- it costs lots less than PhotoShop).
• "Chunk" information. Use subheads and bullets instead of long narrative text. This can also help search engine optimization (SEO).
• Reduce excess verbiage. I call this "verbal essence".
• Avoid very long pages. Try to reduce text by 50%. Then split up long pages and link to them.

Use Google Sitemaps for better SEO

Google Sitemaps can help raise your ranking in Google search results. Google says, "By using Sitemaps to inform and direct our crawlers, we hope to expand our coverage of the web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to our index."

Mary Gillen, author at Learn One Thing, has tips on using the site maps:

• Google Sitemap Tips - Part 1
• Google Sitemap Tips - Part 2

Also check out "About Google Sitemaps" and " Inside Google Sitemaps" at the Google site.

Get web page report

WebXACT is a free single-page test utility that reports on quality, accessibility, and privacy. Test one of your pages. The results can be an eye-opener.

They can also lead you to site-wide improvements. This from the Watchfire people who make Bobby, the accessibility checker.

Create Google-friendly web pages

Google has some tips that will help Google find, index, and rank your web page better. Google offers both design and technical tips for accomplishing this. A top-listed general guideline ... "Make pages for users, not for search engines". In general:

• Avoid "tricks" -- don't try to be sneaky.


• Use keywords that directly relate to the current page, for example.


• Don't stuff tons of the same generic keywords into the KEYWORDS meta tag on every page of your site.


• Use key words in the text your web page. The nearer the top, the better.


• The first 25 text words in the HTML doc may get used as the "Description"

How to create a Google-friendly web page

Google has Sitemaps

Google keeps adding nice features. The latest one I discovered is "Sitemaps" -- you add a file (no content) to your web site "root" and then verify it via Google Sitemaps. After that, you can view statistics on top search queries, top search query actual clicks, and errors.

Google says that signing up for these (free) reports also helps them improve the results of their search "crawl".

Google Sitemaps
Google Sitemaps FAQ

How Google gets its results

The Google search engine uses several methods to get the results it displays:

1. PageRank


2. Keywords


3. Page content


4. Content of page linking to yours

Page Ranking is based on how may pages link to yours. But keywords and keyword density are also important factors.

For a more complete explanation, see Google's description of Page Ranking.

Secrets of SEO

OK, so the big secret in search engine optimization (SEO) is "Keywords", which many people already know. Yeah, yeah, ... put all siginifcant words that pertain to a page in the page's KEYWORDS Meta Tag. But this Virtual Promote Gazette article also goes into a bit more explanation, including keyword density.

For the adventurous, there's even a Word macro you can copy (and then create) that can count word density.