Australian Webmaster Blog

What is PageRank and should you care?

Admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:32:20 +0000

This topic is often debated however I still wanted to briefly discuss it because I still see so much confusion about what PageRank (PR) is.

Firstly, PageRank is actually named after Larry Page, co-founder of Google Inc. So the “page” part of PageRank doesn’t refer to a web page but its creator. I think this is where most people get confused – PageRank is not actually an indication of a pages ranking, it is just a small part of it.

PageRank is essentially a score assigned to a web page based on the links to it. It is used by Google as one of more than 200 considerations when ranking search results.

The idea behind PageRank is that a link to a page is a vote for the page’s credibility. The more links a page has the more credible the page is likely to be. It doesn’t stop there – if a highly credible page links to a page then its natural that it’s vote should be worth more than a less credible page.

The PageRank calculation doesn’t take in to consideration any other factors other than a page’s links – it doesn’t look at your code, your title tag, or anything else. It’s based solely on links. Your code, your title tag, your page’s name and so forth are some of the other 200+ considerations used by Google when ranking the results.

It’s because of all those other factors that PageRank shouldn’t be your sole focus and is the reason why Google have now removed it from the Google Webmaster tools and continues to recommend webmasters don’t fixate on it.

It’s completely normal for a page from a PR0 site to appear higher in a search result then a much high PR site because of those other factors. Thank goodness!

Google’s argument is that you should concentrate on your site’s content and attract links because people like your content – which makes sense.

The issue I feel is that because Google is so secretive about its algorithms, people fixate on PageRank because it is one of the rare ways you get an indication of what Google thinks of your site.

It is important to have a PageRank however remember that it’s only 1 of 200+ considerations and spend your efforts accordingly.

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Creating A Favicon

Admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:00:49 +0000

A favicon (short for favorites icon) is a small icon associated with a particular web site.

Having a favicon is a great way gaining a little bit more attention and build your branding. Some people even suggest that having a favicon can help your search engine rankings as they believe it’s one of the indicators use by Google and other providers to determime the trustworthiness of your site.

The favicon will appear on the toolbar of your visitor’s browser, and if they bookmark your site it will also appear next to your listing in their bookmarks list.

There are two ways of implementing a favicon.

The first way was the original method, implemented by Microsoft with Internet Explorer 4. It simply involves creating a ICO graphic file and placing it in the main folder of your web site.

The second way is creating an image (in ICO, PNG, GIF or JPEG format), upload it to your site and then add the following HTML code to your pages (between the tags), for a PNG image:

or for a GIF image:

The second method is considered more correct (and better supported by browsers) however the simplicity of the first option can be very appealing.

With the first option it’s still recommended that you also place this line in the section of your HTML pages (at least your main index page):

There are a number of free favicon creators online (eg. http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/) as well as downloadable programs (eg. http://icofx.ro/). Other popular graphic applications such as Photoshop and Paint.NET also support ICO files – some will need add-ins (eg. Paint.NET requires http://www.evanolds.com/pdnicocur.html).

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What to look for in a Web Host

Admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:00:47 +0000

To me there are 3 key things to look for in a host. They are:

features,
reliability, and
support

I don’t feel that either one of these factors is more important than the other, they are each critical to the success of your web site.

Features

This is an obvious one, the host must be able to provide the features you require.

In todays market though most hosting companies ultimately provide the same features with perhaps a few minor differences.

The only real major consideration is whether you require Windows hosting or Unix hosting – this is generally dependent on whether you are running any scripts with specific requirements. Unix hosting is the most common and cost effective however certain scripting languages (e.g. ASP.NET) will require Windows hosting. The general rule is to go Unix unless you have specific Windows requirements.

You also need to consider the number of sites you intend to run as there are often limitations on the number of domains permitted, some only allowing one.

Finally you also need to decide on Shared, Reseller, VPS or a dedicated solutions. Even if your requirements are minimal at the moment it may be wise to consider your future requirements as well, e.g. can you upgrade from Shared hosting to a dedicated server down the track.

Reliability

Let’s face it, if your host is up and down like a yo-yo then you may as well not have a web site. You never know when that next sale or opportunity will come in. If your site is down then you can miss that chance.

The only real way of measuring a hosts reliability is through reviews and feedback from existing and previous customers. When reading reviews be mindful of negative comments as those complaints could be based on unrealistic expectations – make sure negative comments are supported and relevant to your specific requirements – rarely will you find a perfect host. The best places for reviews are typically forums, see Australian IT, Webmaster & Business Forums for suggested forums.

Some hosts will publish their uptime statistics however be aware that this can be only relevant to one server and not to all server’s they manage.

Some hosts will also offer a guarantee not to exceed a certain amount of downtime, and should it happen they will refund part of your hosting fees. This can show a commitment to providing uptime.

Support

I think this is the key to finding a good host. In theory if the reliability is there then the support shouldn’t be needed however you almost always need support as some stage.

Again without actually trialling the host the only real measure is through reviews and feedback. Again negative feedback shouldn’t necessarily rule out the host – try to understand the particular situation and see whether the complaint would be relevant to your circumstances.

Other considerations

Price

Some may argue that price is a factor as well. Personally I feel that the cost of the hosting should be insignificant as cheap hosting could cost you more in lost revenue and stress than paying a little more to get the reliability and the support.

Hosting Locally

If you are located in Australia having your web site hosted in Australia can be of significant benefit. This can include better support, better performance and even better search engine rankings.

If you have anything to add, please let us know in the comments.

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Australian IT, Webmaster & Business Forums

Admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:00:39 +0000

Forums can be a great benefit to webmasters in many ways.

Unfortunately many people see forums as a way of just gaining back links to their sites, however this is nothing more than online graffiti. Forums should be used to seek advice from like minded people, build your reputation and for networking in your particular niche market.

There are 100s of Australian Forums (with a surprising number of large car and sport forums!). Below is a list of active public Australian forums specialising in the IT, webmaster and business topics.

Affiliate Forum – http://www.affiliateforum.com.au [1,841] PR3
Aussie Tycoon – http://www.aussietycoon.com [451] PR0
Australian Business Forum – http://www.abforum.org [8,075] PR3
Australian Webmaster – http://www.australianwebmaster.com [3,584] PR3
BuilderAU Developers Forum – http://www.builderau.com.au/forum/community [unknown] PR4
CNET Australia Forums – http://forums.cnet.com.au [3,347] PR5
DN Trade – http://www.dntrade.com.au [240] PR3
Flying Solo – http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/forums [4,762] PR0
MacTalk Australia – http://www.mactalk.com.au [28,180] PR4
MacWorld Australia Forums – http://www.macworld.com.au/forums [unknown] PR3
Port80 Forums – http://forums.port80.asn.au [1,767] PR5
SEO Forum – http://www.seoforum.net.au [778] PR0
Web Hosting Talk Australia – http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au [9,682] PR3
Whirlpool – http://www.whirlpool.net.au [331,892] PR5

Note: the number in []’s indicates number of members at time of collating this list.

In addition to the above forums you should always try to find forums in your particular market niche, and you don’t even need to restrict yourself to Australia. Simply perform a search for “ forum” and see what you can find.

If there are any relevant forums we missed, please let us know in the comments.

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AU domain name prices

Admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:00:26 +0000

Are you after the best price on an AU domain name from an auDA accredited registrar?

The following list will allow you to compare prices of the various AU domain name extensions on offer.

Registrar	.com.au	.net.au	.asn.au	.id.au	.org.au	Pricing URL
Name Scout	$27.45	$27.45	$19.45	$24.95	$19.45	?
IntaServe	$27.95	$27.95	$33.00	$25.00	$9.50	?
MD Webhosting	$34.95	$34.95	$24.95	$24.95	$24.95	?
Cheaper Domains	$35.00	$35.00	$20.00	$28.00	$20.00	?
Domain Central	$37.95	$37.95	$37.95	$37.95	$37.95	?
Smarty Host	$40.00	$40.00	$40.00	$40.00	$40.00	?
Net Registry	$44.95	$44.95	$38.50	$29.95	$13.75	?
Instra Corporation	$45.00	$45.00	$34.00	$34.00	$34.00	?
Web Access	$49.50	$49.50	$49.50	$49.50	$49.50	?
Domain8	$49.95	$49.95				?
Planet Domain	$55.00	$55.00	$46.51	$41.03	$33.00	?
AussieHQ	$59.00	$59.00	$49.00	$49.00	$49.00	?
Click 'n Go	$59.00	$59.00	$29.00	$35.00	$29.00	?
Discount Domain Name Services	$65.00	$65.00	$20.00	$39.00	$20.00	?
Anchor	$69.00	$69.00	$69.00	$49.00	$22.00	?
Aust Domains	$69.00	$69.00	$56.00	$42.00	$36.00	?
Enetica	$69.00	$69.00	$39.00	$39.00	$39.00	?
Westnet Hosting	$88.00	$88.00	$55.00	$45.00	$35.00	?
Go Domains	$98.00	$98.00	$59.00	$39.95	$22.00	?
TPP Internet	$99.00	$99.00	$54.00	$49.00	$54.00	?
Connect West	$99.00	$99.00	$49.00	$49.00	$49.00	?
Domain Candy	$99.00	$99.00	$66.00	$44.00	$33.00	?
Explorer Domains	$99.95	$99.95	$84.95	$74.95	$44.95	?
Domain Registration Services	$127.00	$127.00	$60.00	$59.00	$30.00	?
Melbourne IT	$140.00	$140.00		$99.00	$88.00	?

All prices quoted are in AUD dollars and are for 2 years.

Note: Namescout do not provide a tax invoice and therefore no GST is claimable.

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Does Hosting In Australia Help your SEO?

Admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:00:13 +0000

Google indicates that it does.

Google looks at three things to determine your relevance to specific countries:

IP address of your web server
domain extension (eg. .com.au)
your settings within Google Webmaster Tools

Each of these three things provide Google with information about your geographic market. You will be still included in the results for other countries however you will be given preference within your local results.

The following video by Matt Cutts discusses this in more detail.

Although the message from the video is to “experiment” that’s about as definate as anything you will get from Google about how to rank better.

So although it’s not essential, having your server based on an Australian based IP address could definitely assist in your Google.com.AU rankings.

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How much is your site worth?

Admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:00:41 +0000

I’m often asked this question however valuing a site can be very difficult as no two sites are ever the same. There are some site valuation tools available however they simply use a formula based on links, Alexa ranking, Page Rank, etc and I’ve found them to be grossly inaccurate.

The most accurate answer to the question would be “whatever the market will pay for it”. It might not be the answer you want however isn’t the goal to gain the maximum amount of money from the sale?

With web sites there can be a large variance in what people value a site for.

Let’s think of a vacant block of land for a second. The perceived value of that land will vary from person to person based on their intended use of the site. A property developer looking to build a block of flats on the land would value it higher than a person looking to build a house. Someone just wanting to grow their own vegetables would value it even less. The same applies to a web site – purchasers will each have a different perspective on the worth of your site.

In the case of web sites I’ve heard of people buying sites purely for the e-mail addresses of members, or just for the domain name. People will even buy forums so they can merge the posts in with their existing forum and simply dump the domain and software. What you consider as a valuable component could be actually unwanted by perspective purchasers.

The other problem with a web site is that the “location, location, location” rule doesn’t apply. There also isn’t any real physical asset that can be easily valued. In most cases your “assets” are your domain name, any scripts developed and your data (customer details, articles, design, etc). These are all very difficult things to put a value on as they are often completely unique.

Commonly people value a site by looking at it’s earnings. Generally they will multiple the monthly revenue (by usually between 9 and 12) to determine a figure however there are many sites out there with little earnings but their potential demands a much higher value.

So the trick is to maximise “the market” and let them decide the value.

An auction is the perfect solution to allowing the market to value your site and there are a number of places where you can auction your site. The one considered the best is Flippa, formerly the SitePoint Marketplace.

Flippa is considered to have the most purchasers, particularly those with the funds to purchase larger sites. As a seller there is a $19 listing fee, plus a 5% success fee (with a maximum fee of $498).

Don’t be afraid to under-value your site – as it’s an auction the market will ultimately decide the price, or it wont pass your reserve. Some people even suggest starting your auction at $1 so it gets people’s attention and gets them hooked in to your auction.

Once you have your site listed on Flippa, there is still a lot more you can do to maximise your sale price. Here are some suggestions:

post on forums a link to your Flippa auction, consider posting on webmaster forums (eg. DigitalPoint) as well as forums within your particular market
if you haven’t already, contact your competitors and tell them about your auction, they could be willing to buy you out. You can even contact owners of the same domain name but with different extensions.

I suggest that you go and have a look at Flippa or DigitalPoint, you might be very surprised at the volume of sites that are advertised. You might even pick up a bargain!

If you are just wanting to value your site for curiousity, Flippa does provides a search feature that can include expired listings – it may give you an idea what similar sites in the past have sold for.

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Top 2009 AU domain name sales

Admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:30:08 +0000

Although auDA has very strict rules on AU domain transfers to discourage investing, trading in AU domain names is becoming quite strong. Obviously it’s still no where near the prices of GTLDs however it is growing.

Below is a list of reported sales in 2009 that managed to pass the $5,000 mark.

SexToys.com.au $25,500
Stay.com.au $14,000
Mortgage.net.au $13,500
TrinityBeach.com.au $10,000
WebDesign.net.au $10,000
Everybody.com.au $9,900
TouchPoint.com.au $7,500
NoAgent.com.au $8,000
JervisBay.com.au $7,450
EveryDrop.com.au $7,000
Selby.com.au $7,000
Chelsea.com.au $6,250
Brothels.com.au $6,250
Kingsford.com.au $5,000
Holiday.net.au $5,000
Merimbula.net.au $5,000 (seems to be now listed for sale @ $20,000)

For a list of all domains see the 2009 Domain Sales List at the DNTrade forums.

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Site Launched

Admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:00:58 +0000

Although a couple of posts like our popular list of Australian Directories were published towards the end of last year, January 2010 is the official launch of the Australian Webmaster Blog. Welcome!

The aim of this site is to provide a range of material suiting all levels of web mastering – covering topics of marketing, domains, hosting, design and more. We also hope to promote a range of Australian resources for webmasters.

Any comments are very much welcome and hope that you will subscribe to our RSS feed or follow our Twitter Account.

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14 Domain Name Suggestion Tools

Admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:48:51 +0000

Getting the right domain name for your site is extremely important. Here are a collection of web sites that will help you come up with that perfect name.

Note: most of these do not support AU domain names, only gTLDs such as .com, .net, etc.

http://nameboy.com/

At NameBoy you simply enter a few keywords to find, and NameBoy will generate domain names based on the keywords you enter. Supports .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .tv

http://makewords.com/

MakeWords.com is a domain search workstation that offers a variety of name suggestion methods that helps you find available domains. With just a few clicks users can easily generate hundreds of random phonetic names, enter their own keywords and combine them with preset wordlists containing categorized suffixes and prefixes.

http://www.domainnamesoup.com/

Domain Name Soup is a free domain name generator to help you find available domain names. Whether you are looking to create a domain portfolio or are just looking for a cool domain for your blog or business, the tools at domainnamesoup.com should be able to help.

http://www.bustaname.com/

Make sure you check out the video tutorial to get the most from this site. Allows you to enter a variety of keywords and it will find all combinations of those words that are available to register.

http://www.123finder.com/

Provides a range of tools/lists including keyword search, dictionary words, 4 to 10 character length domain lists and more.

http://domai.nr

Domai.nr makes finding pithy URLs easy by querying 280 top-level domains and another 2,014 second-level ones for domain hacks, turning real English words into unique and memorable Web addresses.

http://pickydomains.com/

This one is more of a service. Pay them a $50 deposit along with your brief and they will come up with some domain names suggestions. If you see one you like, you register it. If they can’t come up with one you like then you get your money back.

http://www.domainexposer.com/

Allows you to combine your keyword with other common themed words to help you find the perfect domain name for your site.

http://www.dotomator.com/

Like domainexposer.com, combines your keyword with a list of themed words, it then allows you to check that list to see which ones are still available to register.

http://domainfellow.com/

DomainFellow is another site that combines your keyword with a list of themed words, in this case you can specify the order (keyword first or keyword second).

http://snapitnow.com/

SnapItNow! is also a site that combines your keyword with a list of themed words, but in addition to specifying the order, also allows you to test with hyphens between the keywords. Can specify to check for .com and/or .net and/or .org.

http://domaintyper.com/

DomainTyper is a simple search tool for checking domain name availability but also provide a domain name generator for cool web 2.0 domain names.

Domain Pigeon (http://www.domainpigeon.com/)

Domain Pigeon generates a list of domain names AND Twitter names. The lists are colour coded to show how many people have clicked on them. If Twitter is important to you, this site will check for availability with both.

NameThis.com

Like pickydomains, NameThis allows you to describe a project or product and receive name suggestions by the Namethis community. The service costs $99.

Getting the right domain name for your site is extrememly important, but it’s also very time consuming to find one that’s still available. Here are a collection of web sites that will help you come up with that perfect name.

Note: most of these do not support AU domain names, only gTLDs such as .com, .net, etc.

Name Boy

At NameBoy you simply enter a few keywords to find, and NameBoy will generate domain names based on the keywords you enter. Supports .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .tv

Make Words

Domain Name Soup

Bust A Name

Bust A Name allows you to enter a variety of keywords and it will find all combinations of those words that are available to register. Make sure you check out the video tutorial to get the most from this site.

123 Finder

123 Finder provides a range of tools/lists including keyword search, dictionary words, 4 to 10 character length domain lists and more.

Domain.nr

Domai.nr makes finding pithy URLs easy by querying 280 top-level domains and another 2,014 second-level ones for domain hacks, turning real English words into unique and memorable Web addresses.

Picky Domains

Picky Domains is more of a service. Pay them a $50 deposit along with your brief and they will come up with some domain names suggestions. If you see one you like, you register it. If they can’t come up with one you like then you get your money back.

Domain Exposer

Domain Exposer allows you to combine your keyword with other common themed words to help you find the perfect domain name for your site.

Dot-o-mator

Like domainexposer.com, Dot-o-mator combines your keyword with a list of themed words, it then allows you to check that list to see which ones are still available to register.

Domain Fellow

DomainFellow is another site that combines your keyword with a list of themed words, in this case you can specify the order (keyword first or keyword second).

SnapItNow!

DomainTyper

DomainTyper is a simple search tool for checking domain name availability but also provide a domain name generator for cool web 2.0 domain names.

Domain Pigeon

Name This

Like pickydomains, NameThis allows you to describe a project or product and receive name suggestions by the Namethis community. The service costs $99.

Well that’s it. I hope you found some great new tools to help you find your next domain name!

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