Web - UserGuide

SiteBuilder3.0 - User Guide

6. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION AND VISITOR GENERATING TIPS FOR YOUR WEBSITE

1. Introduction

Learn how to use SiteBuilder 3.0 to it's greatest extent.

1.1 Overview

Create a sleek, professional looking website easily using drag-and-drop capabilities in SiteBuilder 3.0. SiteBuilder 3.0 offers small businesses and entrepreneurs one of the most innovative – and easy to use – tools on the market for designing and maintaining a professional internet presence.

Choose from a range of unique design options without sacrificing the ease with which you can build a custom website from scratch. Whether you want to add a YouTube video or a Google map to your site, all you have to do is drag one of the widgets from SiteBuilder 3.0’s drag and drop gallery onto a page. Within seconds, you have a dynamic site that boasts all of the value driven features of a professional website..

With a library of templates to choose from, SiteBuilder 3.0 offers limitless design options. Using the drag and drop store widget, your customers can purchase your products directly from your site on the internet. With real time access to detailed web traffic statistics, you can focus your efforts and expenditures on cost-effective marketing strategies to generate new business online.

1.2 Getting Started: Concept Overview

1.2.1 Publishing Your Site

After the initial setup process (See 2 Setting Up Your Website) you can publish your website at any time in the design process by clicking the Publish button in the Lower Toolbar of SiteBuilder. Watch the video here.

You have two options when publishing your domain. You can either publish your website to a subdomain (yourname.sbuilder.net) or a domain (yourname.com). If you choose to publish to a domain, you must first purchase the domain. You can purchase a domain name from a domain provider. Some of the most common domain providers are GoDaddy.com and Register.com.
Please consult the instructions below when publishing your site in SiteBuilder 3.0.

1.2.1.a Publishing to a Sub-Domain (Watch the video here)

Once you have finished building your site and are ready to make it live on the internet, select Publish.
Click Select Publishing Method.
Select Get Started on the right side of the menu, under Subdomain.
Enter your desired subdomain and click Check Availability.

- Note: When you check the availability of your subdomain, make sure that it is spelled correctly and that it is a subdomain name you would like to use. After clicking Check Availability, the subdomain will be applied to your site if it is available.
If your subdomain name is available, it will be applied to your site and your site will be published. It will be immediately viewable online. Click Close.
You can now view your site by going to yourname.sbuilder.net.

- Note: Remember, you will need to re-publish your site whenever you make changes in order to make those changes show on your live site (Simply click the Publish button).

1.2.1.b Publishing to a Domain

Once you have finished building your site and are ready to make it live on the internet, select Publish.
Click Select Publishing Method.
Select Get Started on the left side of the menu, under “Already Have a Domain?”

- Note: You must purchase the domain name you wish to use before your site can be published to that domain. You can purchase a domain name by clicking on the Register.com link in the SiteBuilder menu.
Enter your e-mail address and contact phone number. Be sure that these are correct so a SiteBuilder Customer Service representative will be able to contact you. After entering this information, select Next Step.
Enter your registered domain name.
You have now completed the set up process for your domain on SiteBuilder 3.0. You will be contacted by a member of our support team to complete the publishing process. Please allow 72 hours for all changes to become active.
Select Close to continue.

- Note: Remember, you will need to re-publish your site whenever you make changes in order to make those changes show on your live site (Simply click the Publish button).

1.2.1.d Upgrading from a Subdomain to a Domain

Once you have finished building your site and are ready to make it live on the internet, select Publish.
Select Upgrade to Domain.
Enter your e-mail address and contact phone number. Be sure that these are correct so a SiteBuilder Customer Service representative will be able to contact you. After entering this information, select Next Step.
Enter your registered domain name.
Verify the spelling of your domain and that you currently own the domain. You must have access to your domain’s DNS settings in order to publish through SiteBuilder 3.0.
Select Verify Domain.
In order to publish your website, you will need to change your DNS settings in your domain provider’s control panel. You will need to be able to access your domain provider account (i.e. your GoDaddy account) to do this. You must complete this step in order to complete the publishing process. You will be contacted by a member of our support team to complete the publishing process.

- Note: DNS changes may take up to 72 hours to become active. Your domain may not be available during this time. Please contact your domain provider for more details.
Click I Have Completed the Steps Above.
You have now completed the set up process for your domain on SiteBuilder 3.0. Please allow 72 hours for all changes to become active.
Select Close to continue.

- Note: Remember, you will need to re-publish your site whenever you make changes in order to make those changes show on your live site (Simply click the Publish button).

1.2.2 Previewing Your Site

You may see a live preview of your website by clicking the Preview button in the lower right hand corner of your site. It is important to preview your site before publishing because in some cases, the builder cannot provide a completely accurate portrayal of how certain elements will appear on your live site. Use the preview mode to verify that all elements on your page show up correctly. While in preview mode you can:

navigate between pages
test interactive elements on your pages
test the appearance of certain visual elements

1.2.3 Using the Back Button

If you attempt to navigate away from a page while in SiteBuilder 3.0 using the Back button in your browser toolbar, you may be prompted with a message that says, “Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?” Simply click Cancel to remain within the SiteBuilder 3.0 application. If you select OK, you may be required to log back into your account before returning to the application. If you’re unsure whether or not your changes have been saved, select Cancel.

1.2.4 Session Time Out

If your SiteBuilder account has been inactive for more than sixty minutes, a dialog box will appear in your browser window notifying you that your session has expired. Click OK to navigate to a login page, reenter your username and password and then click Submit to start a new session.

Note: Be sure to save your work periodically if you are working for long periods of time in a single widget. If the autosave feature of the application is not activated for sixty minutes, your session will expire and you could lose some of your work. The smartest way to make sure your work is saved is to preview your progress every few minutes using the Preview button in the lower right corner.

1.2.5 Managing My Information

The My Information tab contains information that will be populated into several areas of your website. You can access your information by selecting the Settings tab on the Lower Toolbar.

Once in the settings pop-up, select My Information. You may enter your email, business name, address, etc. in this area and it will be populated throughout your site. It is a good idea to do this before you begin editing your individual pages.

2. Page Management

2.1 Adding a New Page to Your Website

To create a new page for your site, follow these easy steps.

Click the Pages button in the Lower Toolbar.
In the Pages menu that pops up, select Add Page.
A new menu will appear. Create your page by inputting the necessary information.
You may also make this page your homepage or remove it from your pages by selecting the corresponding blue links at the bottom of the menu.
After entering the necessary information, select Apply in the top left corner of the menu.
You may now navigate to your new page by selecting it from the page listing on your website.

Search Engine Optimization Tip: Your page description should closely reflect the keywords you choose and both fields should accurately reflect the content of the page you are building.

2.2 Reordering Your Pages

You may change the order in which your visible pages appear in your navigation menu at any time by selecting the Pages button on the Lower Toolbar.

Once within the Pages menu, follow the steps found below.

Select the page you wish to move.
Click the arrow located next to the page title to move your page up or down.
Select Apply from the pages menu to continue editing your website.

3. Site Development

3.1 The Lower Toolbar

The lower toolbar of SiteBuilder 3.0 contains buttons that will aid you in the overall design of your website. Within this toolbar you will find the page, template and file managers, be able to access your settings, be able to preview and/or publish your page as well as log out of your SiteBuilder 3.0 account.

3.2 Styling Your Website

3.2.1 Choosing a Template

Before you begin developing your site, it is a good idea to browse through SiteBuilder’s template library and choose the template that best fits the purpose/design needs of your website. You are not stuck with your first choice, you may change your site’s template at any time by selecting the Templates button in the lower toolbar. However, changing the template of your site will also change the structure of your site(See 3.2.2 Changing Your Template for more information). Follow the steps found below to select/change your site’s template.

Select the Templates button from the Lower Toolbar.
Search SiteBuilder 3.0’s template library to find the one that best fits your needs. Click on any template to see how it will look once it has been applied to your site.
Once you have found the template of your choice, select it by clicking on it once to apply it to your website.

3.2.2 Changing Your Template

Don’t worry; you are not stuck with the first template you choose. You can change your website’s template at any point during your service agreement. Please note, however, that whatever images you have chosen for your previous template may be replaced by the template’s default images. Once you have changed your template, simply replace the images with your own. Also, changing your template may change the width of your content area. This means that certain elements that have already been added to your page will have to be resized or otherwise adjusted to comply with the new structure of your template.

To select a different template for your website than your original choice, follow the instructions found in section 3.2.1 Choosing a Template.

3.2.3 Changing Your Page Layout

Pre-designed layouts are available to help you in the creation of your website. To select a layout, select the Settings button from the Lower Toolbar. Layout should be the first tab that appears in the following pop-up, however, if it does not appear, simply select Layout from the tabs section within the Settings Menu.

Select the layout of your choice and click it one time.
Select Apply and Close to apply this layout style to your website.

Note: Depending on the type of content and the widgets used some layouts may display incorrectly. Using the layouts may require some trial and error. For this reason, be sure to check your site’s layout in both the SiteBuilder edit mode as well as the Preview mode before publishing your website.

3.2.4 Adding Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that gives you insight into your site’s visitors. In order to tie this product to your site, you must first set up a Google Analytics account, click here to start. Once you have a Google Analytics account, follow the steps below.

First, be sure you have signed up for Google Analytics here.
After you have set up your Google Analytics account, you must retrieve your UA Code. Follow the steps below.

-Old Version of Google Analytics: Video
a. From your Profile Page click Edit under the Actions column next to your profile.
b. Then selectSelect Check Status in the top right corner of the site just above the Main Website Profile Information box.
c. From the yellow box, copy your UA code next to Web Property ID.
*Example UA code: UA-26623518-2

-New Version of Google Analytics: Video
a. First, be sure to select your website profile from the Account Home page.
b. Then click the Admin button located to the right on the orange navigation bar.
c. Then click the Tracking Code tab located next to the Profiles tab.
d. From here, copy your UA code next to Web Property ID.
*Example UA code: UA-26623518-2
Now, from the Sitebuilder application, click Settings in the lower toolbar. Then select Analytics from the Website Settings Menu.
Then paste your UA Code into the UA Code field.
Add your domain or sub-domain name in the text field next to Domain Name.

Domain Example: .yoursitename.com (Be sure to add a period before your domain.)
Sub-Domain Example: yoursitename.sbuilder.net
Select Apply and Close from the top left corner of the Website Settings Menu

4. The Upper Toolbar

The upper toolbar contains all of the drag and drop widgets that can be used in the design of your website. Upon initially opening SiteBuilder 3.0 the upper toolbar can be found in the upper left hand corner of the application. You will use the widgets found here to add content to your pages. With the widgets found here you can add text, images, maps, RSS feeds, created forms, a PayPal store as well as various other add-ons.

4.1 Upper Toolbar Widget Guide

Text Widget- Drag and drop this widget to your selected location to add text to your page. Then format the text just as you would with any conventional word processor.
Image Widget- Display a single image on your website. Drag the widget to the place you would like the image to appear on your website. After uploading the image or entering a URL from an external site, your image will appear in the selected location on your website.
Map Widget- Drag and drop the map widget to the desired position on your website. Then, in the properties window, enter the physical address of the business, select the zoom level and language of your choice, select the type of map to display, and whether or not visitors to your site will be able to move the map window.
RSS Feed Widget- Drag and drop the RSS Feed Widget to show your favorite RSS feeds right on your website. Make sure that the RSS Feed URL is the URL of the actual feed, not of any other page.
Video Widget- Embed YouTube or Vimeo content on your site by entering the video’s URL in the Video ID field in the Video Provider Dialog pop-up. Be sure to enter the YouTube or Vimeo URL and not the video embed code.
Create Form Widget- Once you have dropped the form widget in your selected location, you may select a form template from the drop down menu. If the templates do not match your needs, you may create a new form from within the Form Editor.
Store Widget- Add a fully functional store to your page that allows customers to purchase as many of your products as they would like in a single transaction. If you haven’t built a store yet, select the Add Product button within the store menu to create new products.
Add-On Widget- Drag and drop this widget to the desired location to add any of the following to your website:

- Tweet button

- links to social websites

- picture gallery

- horizontal divider

- custom HTML

- media widget

- QR code

Below you will find more detailed instructions for the use of the widgets mentioned above.

4.1.1 Add Text to Your Website

Adding text to a webpage within SiteBuilder is simply a matter of dragging and dropping the Text widget to your selected location. Follow the steps found below to add text to your pages.

Select the Text widget from the widget menu located in the upper toolbar of SiteBuilder.
Drag the Text widget wherever you would like the text to appear on your website.
After dropping the Text widget in your selected location, the Text Editor Menu will appear and you will be able to input your text just as you would in a normal word processor. You also have the option to add the following items.

- You may insert an image in the text area by selecting Insert Image in the Text Editor Menu.

- You my insert a document in the text area by selecting Insert Document in the Text Editor Menu.

- You may insert selected other files in the text editor by selecting Insert Other Files in the Text Editor Menu.
After entering your text select Apply and Close to add this text to your website or select Cancel to erase the text and continue editing your website.

4.1.2 Add an Image to Your Website

Adding images to a webpage within SiteBuilder is simply a matter of dragging and dropping the Image widget to your selected location. Follow the steps found below to add images to your pages.

Select the Image widget from the widget menu located in the Upper Toolbar.
Drag the Image widget wherever you would like the image to appear on your website.
After dropping the widget in your selected location, the Assets Menu will appear and you will be asked to select the image you would like to have in the selected area.
- If you have not previously added images into SiteBuilder no images will appear in the menu. You must first add images by selecting Add File and then clicking Select. After clicking Select you will be able to browse your files and find any images you would like to display.
After selecting your image from the right hand side of the Assets Menu, you will be taken to the Image Editor.
- Here you can edit your image anyway you would like before it is placed on your website.
After you have edited the image to your liking, select Apply and Close.
The image should then display in the selected location of your website.

4.1.3 Add an Image with Wrapped Text to Your Website

Adding images with wrapped text adds to the look of your website. To wrap text around an image follow the steps found below.

Drag and drop the Text widget to the desired location on your page.
Add an image by selecting Add Image from the insert options within the Text Editor.
After clicking Add Image, you will be taken to the Assets Manager. Select your image from within this menu. If you have not uploaded an image, you will need to do so before you can select it and add it to your website. If you are unsure on how to add images to the Asset Manager see 5.1.4 Add an Image to a Page.
Your selected image will display in the Text Editor. Go ahead and add your text now.
To wrap your text around the image, select the edit button (indicated by the pencil icon) in the top left corner of your image.
After clicking on the pencil icon, the Edit Image Menu will appear. Select the Appearance tab at the top of this menu.
Select the Alignment drop-down and select the desired style to wrap your text. From within this menu you may also edit the image’s vertical space, horizontal space, the dimensions, and the border. The screen in the right corner of the Edit Image Menu will give you a preview of what your wrapped text will look like.
Once you are satisfied with your wrapped text, select Update and then OK. Once you are happy with your text and image, select Apply and Close.
You are always able to edit your image or text by selecting the edit button in the Text widget.
You can edit your text and the size of your image for a final time in the Text Editor.

4.1.4 Add a YouTube or Vimeo Video to Your Website

You may add a video to your website by following the steps listed below.

Drag and drop the Video widget to the position of your choice on your page.
Find your video on YouTube or Vimeo and navigate to it in a separate window or tab in your browser.
Copy and paste the URL of the video to the space in the Video Provider Dialog Menu that says Video ID.

- Make sure you are using the URL of the actual video (i.e. your video should be PLAYING on the page when you copy and paste the URL).
Select Apply and Close from the Actions Menu in the Video Provider Dialog Menu.
Your video will then appear in the area you selected.

4.1.5 Add an RSS Feed to Your Website

SiteBuilder gives you the capability to easily add an RSS Feed to your page by following the steps listed below.

While on the page you wish to add the RSS Feed to, select the RSS Feed widget from the Upper Toolbar.
After obtaining the URL for your RSS Feed, simply place the widget into edit mode (click the pencil icon in the RSS Feed area) and update the Source URL.
You can alter the appearance of your RSS Feed by selecting Appearance in the RSS Dialog Menu.
Once you've made your updates, click Apply and Close to continue editing your website.

4.1.6 Add a Store to Your Website

Add a store to your website by following the steps listed below.

Drag and drop the Store widget to the position of your choice on your website.
In the Store Menu add an email address that is already tied to a PayPal Account and select your currency from the drop-down menu.
Add your products to the store by selecting the Add Product button from the Actions tab in the Store Menu.
Input the required information for the product (label, price, description, and an image).
Select Apply and Close and your product will appear in your store.
Your customers will be able to shop from the comfort of home by selecting the Add to Cart option under the item picture and description.

4.1.7 What Does the Add-On Widget Do?

The Add-On widget allows you to further customize your website. Using this widget you will be able to add the following items to your pages.

- Tweet button- This adds a Twitter Tweet button to your selected page.
- Social Websites- Add links to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
- Picture Gallery- Adds a picture gallery to your selected page.
- Horizontal Divider- Adds a horizontal divider to your selected page.
- Custom HTML- Allows you to add any HTML to your selected page.
- Facebook Like Button- Adds a Facebook Like button to your selected page.
- Media Widget- Adds a Flash or Silverlight video to your selected page.
- QR Code- Adds a smartphone readable bar code to your selected page.

Select the option(s) of your choice, customize the appearance of the selected widget(s) and click Apply and Close to add your choice(s) to your website..

5. Using the Asset Manager

The assets manager is your repository for any images, text, videos, etc. that you wish to add to your website.

5.1 Upload a New Image to the Asset Manager

Uploading images the the Asset Manager is a simple process that can be accomplished by following the steps listed below.

To access the Asset Manager, click the Files button located on the Lower Toolbar.
Before you can add images to your website, you must first upload them to the Asset Manager by clicking Add File in the Actions section of the Asset Manager, then click Select to browse your files for the image of your choice.
Once your images have been uploaded select Close to exit the Asset Manager.
You will now be able to select these images when you are adding images to your website.

6. Search Engine Optimization and Visitor Generating Tips for Your Website

SEO, an acronym for Search engine optimization or search engine optimizers, is basically taking the steps needed to make a website search engine friendly. This results in increased odds that sites utilizing good practice SEO methods will be properly crawled and indexed by search engines. SEO is important. However, to keep SEO in the proper perspective, the primary way to drive traffic to a website is by having other sites link to yours and by driving traffic to your site through various on and off-line marketing efforts, such as including your website domain name in your business cards and advertisements.

For the purpose of helping you with optimizing your website, we are going to provide you with some of the most common SEO standards we can find mixed with ways to make your site more user friendly for your visitors. There are numerous techniques and strategies that you can read about online. We've even placed links at the end of this help section in hopes that you will read on and improve your SEO knowledge.

1. Add meta tag descriptions and key words. A meta description provides a summary of the content one will find on one of your pages. To enter this information, visit the SiteBuilder Page Manager. Make your meta descriptions a sentence or a short paragraph long. You are encouraged to enter this information for all of your pages.

To create your meta keywords, put yourself in the shoes of the one searching for your products or services. What would they enter into a search engine to locate your site? Specifically, what words or phrases. Whatever you come up with is what you should enter as your keywords. Make them specific for each page.

For example, if you are a landscaper creating a website, and one of your pages describes sod and the different types that you install.

Keywords: sod, grass, Bermuda, landscaping, fescue.
Description: Providing premier lawn care and maintenance with over 30 years of experience.

2. When adding links to your pages, include descriptive anchor text. Anchor text is what a visitor to your site clicks on to link to another section, page or website. The text needs to be descriptive and relevant to what is being linked to from the text.

To add links, use the link button in the toolbar of the Text widget and enter a descriptive title. For example, if you are linking to a page containing information on Hall of Fame football players, your tag could simply be Hall of Fame Football Players. Note: To make the link button functional, you must first drag over the text you wish to link to another page.

3. Create page titles for each page of your website. Page titles will typically appear at the top of visitor's browsers. A title should reference what is on a page, be unique, consist of words (instead of numbers) and shouldn't be too long so users can remember them. These are important to visitors and search engines alike because it tells what the subject of the page is. Page titles are entered in the SiteBuilder for each page in the Page Manager.

4. Websites need to be designed so they are easy to navigate. Keep this in mind as you create your multi-page site. An example is to provide links from one part of the site to another when reference is made to information within your website. While making your site easy to navigate for visitors is important, it is also important to search engines because it helps them to know what content a website owner feels is primary. Set up your site so it's easy for a visitor to go from general information to pages with specific information.

Along these lines, the SiteBuilder provides you with the option to allow or not allow pages you create to show up in the main navigation menu of your site. Use this feature to create multiple pages of specific information under pages that appear in your navigation menu. For example, if you have a page titled Services, then you could have pages linking off this page in your site to each specific service you offer. If you have 10 services, then you could have 10 pages linked from the services page but all 10 services wouldn't appear in your navigation menu, which will help to keep the menu clean.

5. Optimize your images. When optimizing your site, don't forget about the images, which may draw traffic to your site. Search engines provide image search options. Enter image descriptions and titles. These options are available when inserting images in the text widget. In the Text widget, click on the image button to get started.

6. Use heading tags to help readers differentiate titles from paragraphs and to provide emphasis to parts of pages. This option is available in the toolbar of the text widget . For example, Heading 1, will appear as <h1> in the html code while Heading 6 will appear as <h6>. There are 6 levels of headings with 6 showing the least importance and 1 showing the most importance on the page.

7. One of, if not the, best way to drive traffic to your site is by providing excellent content and information on your website. Once others see the quality of the information on your site, there are good odds they may want to link to it. In-links to your site from other sites is the key to having strong search engine ranking results. Many believe this is the #1 way to achieve high search engine rankings.

Other suggestions to help you with your site are:

a) Drive traffic to your site through off-line promotion. List your website address on business cards, letterhead, advertisements, etc.

b) Add your company to Google's Local Business Center (http://www.google.com/local/add) and any other websites' local search database.

c) Know where visitors are going on your site and how effective your marketing plans are in driving traffic to your site. Consider using third party vendors' web analytics services, such as Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/).

d) With Google being the #1 search engine, we encourage you to run Google's Website Optimizer to see how you can improve your pages so you can increase your visitor conversion rates.

e) There are companies around that claim to be able to place websites in the #1 spot of Google's (and other search engines) search engine results. We encourage you to approach these companies very carefully, if you choose to at all. Through the years many websites have been punished in search engine rankings for working with companies that utilize what are called black hat SEO techniques -- unethical activities to drive a website higher in search engine results. Not including sponsored or paid ads, websites' positions in search engine results are typically based on proprietary algorithms and other criteria used by search engines. Each search engine has their own and typically tweak them to prevent others from figuring out how to "beat the system" and have sites show up in the top of search engine results, where they more than likely don't belong. Search engines frown very heavily on this because they are then serving up websites in results that shouldn't be there that may ultimately result in users using another competing search engine that does serve up the best sites (that belong there) in searches.

If you are interested in paying to have your page show up, for instance, in the top pages of search results consider Google's AdWords program. It is user friendly and could be a benefit to your business. For more information, visit www.Google.com/Adwords.