Web Design from Scratch

SEO: What You Absolutely Totally MUST Know Right Now About Keyword Research

2012-02-17T10:55:33Z

When it comes to SEO, there’s an awful lot of misinformation, confusion and bullshit around.

What matters? What doesn’t? And – most importantly – what should YOU invest your time doing?

Here’s what you should do:

Keyword research, to identify search phrases that you can make content about that will get you the most traffic for the least work.
Then, you should publish Kick-ass Content that people will want to link to.
And tell the world about it. Get the word out.

If you do these three steps right, your traffic will take care of itself. But you’ll get nowhere unless you understand what really matters.

This free, radical video explains all the fundamentals of step one – keyword research.

This is part of a series I started, which I was going to sell. But it’s so important, I thought I had to publish it for you to get free!

New Site Live – Marisa Peer

2012-02-15T12:57:13Z

I’m delighted to announce I’ve just relaunched a new website for Marisa Peer – the therapist to the stars.

Seriously, Marisa is one of the world’s top hypnotherapists who has worked with celebrities (and normal people like me) all over the world.

She is best known for weight loss, and has appeared on TV’s “Supersize vs Superskinny” among lots of other appearances. In fact, her method was the only one that was agreed to have been effective for long-term weight loss on that show. (I can confirm that, because I attended a seminar with Marisa in London last November, and lost 14lb in 30 days.)

Marisa also has solutions for quitting smoking, freedom from phobias etc.

But the most amazing thing has to be Marisa’s record in treating infertility through hypnosis!

Star Treatment that You Can Download

While most of us will never be able to afford one-on-one therapy with someone of Marisa Peer’s calibre, the great thing about the hypnotherapy is that it works really well as audio programmes.

Plus, with hypnosis sessions recorded as MP3 or CDs, you can listen to them over and over again (without paying a therapist each time).

So you can actually download full hypnosis treatment programmes to help you…

Here’s a screenshot of the site. I hope you like it. I hope to be working on this site for a long time, to improve it continually.

If you have any comments, please do post them below. Thanks

Create Your Perfect Job (Limited Opportunity)

2012-02-15T12:45:33Z

How would you like to create your own dream job?

One where you get paid to do what you love? Where you get to work the hours you want, where you want?

I’m going to try something I have never done before. I don’t know if anyone has tried this before.

I’m writing a book – an ebook – all about how to dominate a niche.

And you can help me.

The central idea is that we live in a big world, full of different people who have particular needs. It has also gotten much easier to find stuff to buy, stuff to inform us, stuff to believe in. At the same time, it’s a much noisier world, and we have many times more messages to filter through.

Still – some things never change. We still need help to know what to trust. With more choices, we need people and brands we can put our faith in.

And there’s money in that – if you know what to do…

I believe that anyone who has an area which:
you love
you have some expertise in
and which people would pay to know about
… can create a niche, a precise segment of the market, and dominate it! There is so much great technology around today that makes it easy.

I know this because I’ve done it.

In 12 months, I created a new stream of activity that now covers all the costs of my business. Actually, you could say it happened in one day – but that’s another story.

Of course, I made plenty of mistakes along the way too! Some big ones. And I learned from them.

I also have several friends and clients who’ve done similar things.

Like Ian, who gets paid to play poker online.
Or Tim, who writes about his vacations – for a living.
Or Steve, who combined his passion for golf into his professional life, created a niche, and now gets paid to consult to the golf industry.

I have already started my new book, but I would like to try an unusual experiment.

— I would like to write it with YOU —

You see, ebooks are very different to old “dead tree” books.. I can publish a new edition every day. That means that a book can evolve and grow over time.

So I thought, instead of just writing this stuff in a book, why not work through the material with real people? Why not have a group of folks who are ready for a change, and who’d jump at the opportunity to create their own niche and implement my strategies so that they can create their own job?

Picture credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/al-mohanna/

Does that sound exciting to you? If not, thank you for reading this far.

If so… well… here’s what I’d like to propose.

I will bring you into my process. We’ll set up a weekly coaching video call (or webinar), where I’ll take you through the next step of the process, listen to your challenges, and help you to solve them.

As we work through it together, it will help me to refine my process, and make a better product.

I’ll also invite some of my friends and contacts who’ve found and dominated their own niche to share how they did it with you.

The best part is, as part of my development group, you get a head start on everyone else!

I’ll share the drafts of the book with you, and I’ll send you a free update on any new edition I bring out – for ever.

The book will go on sale for $27.

If you would like the inside track, including preview copies, weekly seminars and coaching, interviews with people who’ve already done this successfully, and free updates for life…

You can get all that for just $97.

But, I can only make this available to the first few people. If you know this is right for you right now, you need to follow this link – right now!

I have to limit places to just 25, so that I can give each group member the input you need, so be quick!

Once you’ve signed up, I’ll email you directly with details.

Best wishes,
Ben

Online Website Builders – Are They Worth It?

2012-02-10T12:35:01Z

When you need to publish a website to promote a small business, club, or a personal blog, what are your choices?

There are a lot of services out there that let you build a website without having to know the mechanics of HTML or content management systems.

But are they worth it?

Can it be worth paying nothing for a website? And if you do use one of these services, which will give you a reasonable result?

I got this request today:

I’m starting my own supply chain business and want to build a simple and effective web site (I’ve seen Moonfruit.com) Is this a ‘good’ path to head down?

The short answer – it depends on the service.

Avoid Flash Generators

I’ve looked into Moonfruit.com, and it seemed great until I learned that it generates Flash sites, which makes it useless for anything other than an online business card or brochure.

Sites that run entirely in Flash are unlikely to get indexed by search engines, so you’re unlikely to turn up in the search results for any but the most obvious searches (i.e. your site’s exact name). However, if all your marketing is interpersonal, and you just want to give people a business card with your web address on that they can check out, a Flash site may serve your needs.

Here’s an example of a site built on Moonfruit. What do you think?

For the other 99.9% of us, don’t bother. My advice is to avoid Moonfruit – or any other service that spits out Flash.

There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Many of these services, like Moonfruit, or 1&1 My Website, have a free option. In the case of 1&1, it’s a free trial, after which (the fairly small print says) you start paying £9.99 per month (about $15-16).

Moonfruit has various options from free up to £22.60 per month (about $35). The more you pay, the more “features” you get. The impression I get is that most people won’t need most of these features.

If you do take a free option, expect to be prompted to upgrade quite regularly. These are businesses, and it doesn’t help their bottom line to have thousands of people using free services. They have to upsell you to additional services. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

You Should Pay For a Website!

Frankly, I haven’t seen one free website builder that will be worth your time to use. (So far – please feel free to correct me.)

Why? Because they can’t give you the things that really matter.

What Really Matters

Keyword Research
Before you build a site, you need to choose exactly what the subject of each major page should be. You should identify terms that people are actually looking for online, and for which you’ll be able to rank in the top 10 of the search results. That’s a process that a human has to do. If you skip it, don’t expect to get any traffic to your site.
Fundamentals of Marketing
Any website should be built with the clear knowledge of who its audience is, what they want, what we want them to do when they come to the site, and how to persuade them to do it. No free service can do that, and if a site is not built consciously with those questions in mind, it is very unlikely to convert any visitors to customers, followers or fans.
Promotion
You have GOT to get people to see your site. Letting visitors add your pages to social networks like Twitter and Facebook can help. But if you’re going to compete in the search results for any term worth having, you’ll need other sites to link to you. Again, this link building is something that should be done by people.

What Doesn’t Really Matter

The mechanics of creating a website have become easier and easier over the years. Ten years ago, I hand-built every web page using nested tables (if you don’t know what I mean by that, you really don’t want to). It was a time-consuming, laborious and pretty skilled job.

Today, you don’t need to know how to craft a web page from first principles in order to make a web page.

Frankly, you need a good reason not to run your site on WordPress. I have the skills to build websites from scratch, but this site runs on WordPress. Why? Because it lets me write and edit content more easily than any other system, it has thousands of free and useful plugins that mean I don’t have to code stuff myself, and it’s great for SEO.

There are great online services, like WordPress.com (free version with ads, or $99/year for premium version), Blogger.com (free), and one I’d recommend… It’s Built For You.com (from $19.99/month).

It’s Built for You will give you a professional WordPress theme, great help and guidance with set-up, and hosting. See my review here.

Hosting is cheap. Creating web sites is actually pretty easy. Depending on whether you need a business site or a personal blog, you have a lot of options.

You probably don’t need to hire a professional to do it for you, if you’re willing to face a small learning curve.

If you do need professional help, here’s a video about the package we’ve put together, which explains all the critical factors in more detail.

My advice is:

Use a service like WordPress.com or It’s Built For You, which takes care of the hosting and WordPress side of things for you.
Take the time to learn about SEO. Keyword research and link building are essential.

Here are some resources to help you

Benefits of Keyword Research
Video of my Keyword Research Tool in use (this is going to get a serious update in the next few weeks)
Know the Sheer Power of Links

Ben Hunt’s Web Design Back Catalogue

2012-01-17T12:05:37Z

As I no longer have an up-to-date portfolio, I thought I’d post a bunch of my favourite site designs online.

I hope you can see themes through my work – ideally you can see how these sites will get results.

These 14 examples may look good to you, they may not. I don’t mind. What matters is, will they sell?

Feel free to use for inspiration, and to comment.

BankLoans.com

This design is quite significant to me, because it was one of the first I created after waking up to the realisation that web design should generate action.
The combination of honest primary colours and greyscale gives a clean and visually appealing combination.

Cashflow Builder

A simple layout, with a bold promise up-front. “Your First Million is FREE!” is a device that I came up with for this client.

The idea is that, until their software (which basically helps businesses of any size to balance their accounts receivable faster – saving them money) has processed $1M – they don’t charge.

Innovaworks

Innovaworks is an excellent development company, mainly based in Macedonia.

I redesigned their site to promote the benefits of using them: incredible expertise at significantly less cost than using US/UK developers.

Surfulater

A small site for a developer who makes this neat software that helps you capture and organise content from anywhere.

Again, the site really focuses on the benefits of the software – which is what people really need to see.

Ville & Company

A super-super-clean site for a UK consulting firm with a refreshingly different approach compared to their big-business competitors.

This site feels like a breath of fresh air, which is what Ville offer to their customers, who are mainly public sector agencies.

QVision – Lasik, Arizona

QVision are laser vision correction surgeons in Arizona, USA.

Their site needed to appeal to the local market, feel trustworthy, clean, and professional, and to incorporate online bookings.

Bolwell

Bolwell is an Australian-owned composites specialist with a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Thailand.

The site needed to show their incredible range of services, which stretches from trains to trucks to their own supercar!

Atom – CRM for Building Contractors

How do you market a new product to a segment that doesn’t know a solution exists to its problems? What about when your prospects tend to prefer scraps of paper to computers?

The answer is: You have to go to them. When a prospect is directed to this neat little site for Atom, they should immediately get, “Yes, I see how this is for me.”

Pro Web Design Alliance

The design for my web design membership site is an evolution of this site’s WordPress theme.

It works, proving that when you have something close to hand that works, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Synctus

This is a net backup solution that synchronises files securely across multiple sites, on specially modified hard drives.

As you might expect, the site is really simple and straightforward, which helps suggest the product will also be simple to use.

Me2Solar

These guys make neat, portable solar chargers for everyone from vacationing families to business travellers and explorers.

This design, which sits on the Magento e-commerce platform, is multi-lingual and has a sharp, modern look that suits the innovative products.

Abeo

Abeo Technical Services make security systems for airports and military bases world-wide.

Their AWARE system is a futuristic platform that monitors all kinds of input data and intelligently alerts security staff when it spots unusual activity.

Goddiva

UK-based Goddiva sell dresses and other fashion clothing based on what the celebrities are wearing right now – but at a fraction of the price.

This highly-styled site represents a departure from my usual straightforward approach, but I think it works.

Using Action Hooks to Make an Advanced Parent Theme

2012-01-16T09:47:46Z

In this article I’m going to show you how to add action hooks to a WordPress theme, to create an advanced Parent Theme.

The benefit of using parent and child themes is that when the parent theme gets updated, any changes you have made to the child theme will be preserved.

For an introduction to child themes, read the WordPress Codex entry on child themes.

The problem is that many people don’t use child themes the right way. If they want to add an element to their website’s header, they will copy the header.php template from the parent theme folder into the child theme folder, and add the new element directly into the child theme’s header.php

This method defeats the whole purpose of child themes, as now any updates to the parent theme’s header.php will not be carried through to the child theme.

So the best way to make changes to your child theme is through the functions.php file. By writing a simple function and applying it to the parent theme’s action hooks, you can easily customise a child theme without modifying any of its template files.

Adding a Facebook Like Button

Let’s go through a real example, where we will add a Facebook Like button to a child theme using a custom action hook.

Here’s a section of the parent theme’s header.php

Select All Code:

<body>
            <header>
                Header Content...
            header>
            <section id="content" role="main">
                <div class="page-content">
                    Page Content...

Let’s say we want to add the Like button at the top of the .page-content area. We need to add an action hook here, then we will be able to write a function, and hook it into the template at this point.

Select All Code:


            
                Header Content...
            
            
                
                 dj_before_page_content(); ?>
                    Page Content...

So I’ve added the hook dj_before_page_content (I’ve used my initials as a prefix. You may want to use something more meaningful, such as your theme name.)

Before we can use this hook, we need to ‘create’ it by adding the following code to the functions.php file of our parent theme.

Select All Code:

1
2
3

function dj_before_page_content() {
    do_action('dj_before_page_content');
}

Now in our child theme’s functions.php, we can write a function for displaying the Like button:

Select All Code:

function dj_add_fb_like() { ?>
     
     

 }

And all that remains is to hook this function into our parent theme’s newly created action hook. Add the following to the child theme’s functions.php

Select All Code:

1	add_action('dj_before_page_content', 'dj_add_fb_like');

That’s it! The Facebook Like button will be displayed before your page content and any changes to header.php will be preserved in your child theme.

You can add as many action hooks as you like to a parent theme, to give child theme developers more opportunities to customise their themes in a non-destructive way.

Geotargeting with Google Webmaster Tools

2012-01-12T10:07:07Z

With SEO there are a million-and-one things to remember with each project you undertake.

It’s so easy to get lost in all the endless tips, advice and ‘best practices’. Keeping up with the latest fads and buzz words in SEO can be a full-time job in itself. However, there are some things that remain a constant and every now and again I like to remind people about the basics.

So, here’s one for you - ‘Geotargeting’.

It’s well documented that Google places emphasis on local results for local searches. They will also recognise where you are in the World and, depending on your search settings, will usually give you results that correspond to your location.

Google will also help out ‘local’ websites by nudging them up the rankings (when I say local, I mean websites that are either physically hosted or are targeting the country in which you are located).

So, if your website’s content or offering only applies to a single country or territory, it’s a good idea to use geotargeting to make sure that Google gives you a little boost in the local searches.

Here’s how to do it

We can set up geotargeting very easily in Google Webmaster Tools. If you aren’t currently using Webmaster Tools, you should be. It’s extremely useful for anyone doing any sort of SEO work on their website.

Setting up a website in GWT is very easy and these days you can just link to your Google Analytics account to verify your ownership. Here’s a good little tutorial on gettsing started.

Setting up geotargeting is just as easy. To set a geographic target you need to select the website you want to work with. Then just follow these steps:

Under Site configuration, click Settings.
In the Geographic target section, select the country you want to target.
If you want to ensure that your site is not associated with any country or region, make sure the Target users incheckbox is un-checked.

: This screen allows you to change your website’s geographic location and its preferred canonical URL which Google will use in its indexes.

: Select the country or region that you wish to target or leave the box un-checked if you don’t want to target a geographic location.

Now, depending on what kind of domain you have, you may be restricted to only one country or territory. For example, if you have a .co.uk domain, the drop-down box will default to ‘United Kingdom’ and you won’t be able to change it. This raises a very interesting debate about which domains are true, global TLD’s (top level domains).

For example, .CO domains we re-released in July 2010 and marketed as International TLD’s. However, .co domains were originally created to serve as a country-specific domain for Colombia. When using a .co domain with Google Webmaster Tools, you are able to geotarget any country in the World. The same goes for your .com’s, .org’s, .net’s etc.

You are not obliged to geotarget any region or country in GWT. If you decide not to check the Target users in checkbox, you are simply leaving your options open so that Google doesn’t particularly associate you with a geographic location.

I use geotargeting on a few of my personal websites and I can’t say I’ve noticed too much of a difference in ranking or in traffic but the tool is there for a reason and, because I’m an immense geek, I tend to comply with Google as much as I can in the hope that I’m rewarded with brownie points.

Google Search Plus Your World – What it Really Means

2012-01-11T10:55:40Z

So Google have just announced that search results will soon be influenced by your (Google Plus) social map.

Here’s yesterday’s blog post from the official Google blog

What Does this Really Mean for You?

I think Google has the right strategy – but they have to manage it very, very carefully or they risk burning their brand.

The evolution of this “Web3.0″ is still going in the direction I described back in 2005, when I was thinking through a concept for a business networking platform.

Here’s the original article: The Social Future of Web2.0 / Web3.0 (2005)
I developed the idea of a “reputation platform” in: My Vision for a Real Workable Web3.0 World (2008)
When Google + came out, that represented the start of the evolution of Web 3.0.

So What’s Next for Google Search/Google Plus?

OK, we’re starting to see the rich web of relationships between people (and brands) influence search.

This will continue to expand, eventually to include all companies, brands, artists, products and content.

Expect Google’s fingers to find their way into more places.

This is About Your Data, not the Google Brand

Google’s greatest risk is to be perceived as a monopoly, which could generate a backlash like the anti-Microsoft sentiment of the 1990′s and 2000′s.

Notice how many websites you can log into now using your Google ID? This is one of the key areas.

The “+1″ Button is a Crude, Binary Measure of Approval

My vision had something more like a percentage score for the strength of relationships. Will Yes/No be sufficient to help me find the most relevant stuff? I think it may be.

Will we ever see a “negative/low rating” as something distinct from the lack of positive rating? I think it has value.

We’ll also see passive measures of approval, like spending time on a page, buying something etc. It’s all data, it all counts.

Circles… “One ring to rule them all?”

“Circles” signify a different kind of connection. “I relate to this person/brand” rather than “I like this.”

Just imagine if Google’s picture of all your real circles expands to include every interaction you have online (via web, mobile, social, e-commerce etc.).

(This will be the crux of everything for Google. “Power corrupts. Ultimate power corrupts absolutely.”)

Will Google Plus ever catch up with Facebook / LinkedIn / Match.com / Twitter / Reddit etc.?

This is the big question. Not everything Google does persists (Base, Wave etc. – but at least they’re not afraid to pull a failing project).

I think Google Plus will ultimately succeed if it can deliver a better experience than, say, Facebook. Facebook is suffering somewhat from the problem of how to filter the feed of content to its members.

Discounting the fact that users always complain when there’s any update to their favourite social interface, Facebook’s recent attempts to filter were not received warmly. Google Plus is somewhat lighter than Facebook, and – if it can get the balance & pace of convergence right – it could repeat the company’s late-1990s triumph, where Google trumped all the other search engines with an experience that just worked better.

Universal Convergence

The Holy Grail of all this is universal convergence of my data, across search / content / social. This is where Google Plus is aiming. Google has the technology and funds to get there.

As I mentioned above, universal log-in (one of my earliest applications in the Web3 vision) is coming, with Facebook and Twitter competing with Google for the rights to represent us to third-party sites. This could be a significant key to being able to observe behaviour passively.

The Trick Google has to pull off will be – can it find a Win-Win?

Can Google develop ways to access all your data, so that it gives YOU a better experience all-round, without seeming like it gains at anyone’s expense?

I believe, at a high level, this was actually the core of the Web2.0 economy – becoming a party host instead of a broadcaster.

Own the Platform

Microsoft made its money, not by selling PCs or applications, but by owning the platform.

Apple is massively profitable, not just through selling hardware, but by owning the application/music distribution platform.

Google is positioned near enough to the centre of all things, and its brand is generic enough, that it could become the new Web3.0 platform. If it can do that while maintaining “do no evil,” it will tap into a universe of possibilities.

Lo-fi Project Management

2012-01-11T09:30:27Z

At its core, project management is very simple. The simpler you keep it, the more effective it is.

Project management is about knowing…

What needs to happen
When (i.e. in what order, and how long it will take)
By whom

And then making sure it does – or managing change when it doesn’t.

That’s all there is to it.

So you start with a project, which is a goal. I’m using “PWDA Blueprint live”.

Then you just need to ask: “What things need to be true in order for that goal to be true?”

If something isn’t a must, you can choose to ignore it for now.

Do a Project Plan

What I do is scribble the things that need to happen on a piece of paper, like this.

That’s my lo-fi project plan. It shows:

The things that need to happen (in circles)
The dependencies between things (arrows point from things that must happen first to things that can then happen next)
And also estimated timings (small circles)

This is actually an incredibly powerful tool. It shows you what you need to focus on first, how long a project may take to complete, and even things like bottlenecks.

Project management can get an awful lot more complicated than this, but at our level this is all you need.

I recommend you chop up tasks into neat, discrete entities, to keep the overall number of things down. If you have a complex task, you could always break it down into a separate plan, but you may find it helps to keep your overall plan down to something you can fit on one piece of paper.

Critical Path Analysis

Fancy term, very simple concept. The Critical Path means, which are all the things that must happen in order for the goal to be reached?

On my project plan methodology, you just follow all the arrows back from the goal to find the critical path.

On the right hand side, I have some things that could happen in order to recruit new PWDA members, but they’re not essential for launch, because there isn’t an arrow from the last task to the “PWDA Blueprint live” goal.

You can then add up all the timings along the critical path (maybe the longest timeline), to find out how long you need in order to deliver.

So in my example above, all the 6 bubbles on the left side represent my critical path: they must all happen in order for the goal to be delivered. This shows it will take about 3 days to complete the project (although some tasks may be done in parallel).

Managing Resources

If you have different people doing different tasks, you might colour-code your circles, so that you can see which things can happen concurrently.

Or you might put each person (or resource) in a different column on your plan. (Here’s an example of a fancier Role Activity Diagram.)

If you find that one person has a lot of things to do, which stretches out the critical path timeline (love these fancy words), you might consider moving tasks to other resources in order to shorten the overall timeline. Working in pencil on paper, or on a whiteboard, can make this a lot quicker. Avoid using software to do this, unless it’s very simple, or you’re very fluent.

New Client Website Launched: Clars Auction Gallery

2011-12-30T10:20:55Z

One of our very last client sites has just launched: Clars Auction Gallery, based in Oakland, CA.

Clars deal in antiques and art and serve clients all round the world.

The site is based on WordPress (with customisations mostly by Dan Johnson).

“Why is this one of our last client sites?”

My goal has always been to make the web a better place. I have worked on some big sites (like Freeserve.com and www.hmrc.gov.uk) but the web is growing so fast that I can’t make much difference working on one website at a time.

That’s why I’ve blogged since 2004, and why 12 months ago I created my Pro Web Design Course – and later the Pro Web Design Alliance, our membership organization – to put real, practical knowledge in the hands of as many people as possible.

In 2012, after I’ve finished my last couple of interesting projects, I’m retiring from doing web design on a project basis.

Here’s how I’ll be making the web a better place in 2012…

My main job is to support my group of Pro Web Design Alliance Elite members. I’ll help them to deliver great-value small business websites to the highest standards. I record the training I provide, and it’s used to train other members. That’s how we’ll make the biggest impact – making more websites that make more money for more small businesses.

If you would like to be part of this growing team of smart marketing-savvy web designers, why not join the Pro Web Design Alliance in 2012?

Basic membership at just $97/month gives you full access to my Pro Web Design Course – and more premium content!
Expert members also get first sight of my latest research, and more free resources, in addition to any training and coaching that I record for the Elites. That’s just $149/month.
Elite membership is $297/month and gives you a LOT more, in addition to the option to work with me on real paying projects.