Cute As An Asynchronous +1 Button

New Asynchronous +1 Button for Houston SEO

At this Houston SEO Company, we believe in staying on top of new developments in the industry. Google recently announced a few changes to the new +1 button. Now the button renders 3x faster on web sites! If you are a Houston web developer, you don’t even have to do anything to implement this change. The change is active on all sites that have the Google +1 button installed on them.

The other +1 button announcement Google made today is the introduction of a new asynchronous snippet for the button! If you are a Houston web designer who uses Google Analytics to measure site metrics you probably remember when Google introduced the asynchronous Analytics code, which replaced the slower Urchin code. In asynchronous codes the browser downloads the button at the same time as the site loads. This is great for site speed. Unfortunately, if you already have the +1 button installed on your site this means you will need to change the code on every page of your site.

To Install the +1 Button for Houston SEO:

If you don’t have the +1 button installed on your site, read on to find out how to install Google +1 with the asynchronous code. Installing the code is a two-part process. One snip of code goes where you want the +1 button to render, and the other snip goes after the last plusone tag. Copy and paste the following code into your site (minus the exclamation marks, so the HTML works):

1. This tag goes where you want the +1 button to render:
< !g:plusone>
You can actually install one of four versions of the previous code, depending on the size of the +1 button that you would like to see on your site. The other three versions look like this:
< !g:plusone size=”small”>
< !g:plusone size=”medium”>
< !g:plusone size=”tall”>

2. This tag goes after the last plusone tag:
< !script type=”text/javascript”>
(function() {
var po = document.createElement(‘script’); po.type = ‘text/javascript’; po.async = true;
po.src = ‘https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();

If you don’t know about the relevance of the Google +1 button, read our Houston Search Engine Marketing blog entry about it! In short, this button helps Google determine your SERPs by reinforcing site authority. The +1 button’s metrics appear in Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics, which is a fairly clear indicator that Google is serious about developing this button and integrating it in depth into SEO and SEM.

Since the +1 button has not been in use for very long, we can probably expect additional changes in the near future as Google works out additional hiccups in the beta phase. Contact our Houston SEO Company Directory One at (713) 465-0051 for more information.

Houston SEO XML & HTML Sitemap Help

Houston Search Engine Optimization recommends that every site have an XML and an HTML sitemap uploaded to the server. If you are unfamiliar with these terms or don’t have both files on your site, read on to find out how to make them, what purpose they serve, and what to do with them once you have them. The purpose of a sitemap is to outline all of the links on your site in one place to make it easier to find the information on your site.

Houston SEO HTML Sitemap

The HTML sitemap (sitemap.html) is a page hosted on the site. It is usually reached in on-site navigation through a link at the navigation bar at the bottom of the page, or through a link in the top navigation bar. This HTML sitemap consists of links to all of the pages on your site. It is useful to site visitors, as well as to search engines like Google that crawl your site.

The structure of the HTML sitemap typically breaks the links up into the corresponding site organization. One example would be a site with content that is broken up into SEO Web Design Services, Spanish SEO Web Design Services, Company Profile, Design Portfolio, Blog, and Contact Us. The sitemap.html for this example could be broken up into those subtopics, with services branching out to Search Engine Marketing, PPC Campaign Management, Website Design, Website Hosting, Domain Name Registration, Consulting Services, Content Development and so on. There may be additional breakdown detailing these services, but you get the idea.  The HTML sitemap for this example may look like this:

SEO Web Design Services

• Search Engine Marketing
• PPC Campaign Management
• Website Design
• Website Hosting
• Domain Name Registration
• Consulting Services
• Content Development

Spanish SEO Web Design Services
Company Profile
Design Portfolio
Blog
Contact Us

Houston SEO XML Sitemap

The XML sitemap (sitemap.xml) also lists all of the pages on your site, however it only consists of code and will not be accessed by site visitors. Since this file tells search engines like Google which files to crawl through your site, it is vital to successful traffic.

XML sitemaps should contain information about the url location, how frequently the page is changed, and the importance of the page to the site (highest page priority is 1, lowest is 0). Here is an example of what the code looks like:

<urlset>:
<url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.00</priority>
</url>
</urlset>

Houston SEO XML Sitemap Troubleshooting

Make sure that you do not include any pages on the XML sitemap that you don’t want search engines crawling. Some examples include strings that end in pdf, pages related to your RSS feed (/feed), pages that have robots on them, and pages that contain /wp-content/ or /wp-login/. These pages are related to your blog structure, and do not contain any content that informs search engines about your site. If you include any of these files on your site, they may generate an error and the sitemap won’t work.

Houston SEO Generates XML Sitemap

Generating the code for your site may seem like a daunting task. Luckily, there are many free XML sitemap generators. Make sure to choose the site you use carefully though. Some sites return only a list of URLs they found when crawling your site without the location, change frequency, or priority. Other sites don’t filter out the URLs search engines shouldn’t crawl through, although sometimes they offer an option to plug in code that tells the program what not to include.

How a Houston SEO Uploads XML Sitemap to Webmaster Tools

After you generate your sitemap.xml, upload it onto your Webmaster Tools account. You can do this by navigating to “Site Configuration,” then “Sitemaps.” Upload your sitemap.xml here. If there is ever a problem with the sitemap, after it is crawled a big X shows up next to it. Click on the file link (sitemap.xml) and Webmaster Tools tells you at what line (or lines) return errors.

Don’t forget to update both of your sitemaps every time you add new HTML content!  If you have any problems with or questions about your XML Sitemap, please contact our Houston Search Engine Optimization Company at (713) 465-0051.

Houston web developers use a variety of constantly improving tools to track the way sites function. Our Houston SEO company spends a lot of time between Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, among other programs. One of the interesting new developments in these tools is a recently added function that allows users to link accounts for the same site together in Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.

Although these programs both return data about site analysis, Google Analytics reports metrics that involve on site visitor interaction whereas Webmaster Tools reports the way the site appears on and to search engines. There is even a function within Webmaster Tools where you can see how your site appears to the Google Bot during site crawls. Google Analytics is only able to report data on computers that have JavaScript enabled, and that don’t block cookies. The result is that there is some variation on data – such as keyword data – however both reports are valid and refer to each other. For example Analytics tracks keywords visitors enter the site on against other site metrics, and Webmaster Tools reports the number of times your site showed up on search results per keyword as well as actions performed on the keyword based on those impressions.

There are three ways to link Analytics and Webmaster Tools:

1. For sites that already have both Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics. On the Webmaster Tools Home page, click the “Manage Sites” link on the right side of the page, adjacent to the site listing. Select “Google Analytics Profile” from the drop down menu, and click on the Analytics Profile that matches the website you are managing.
2. If you don’t have Analytics set up on your site yet, you can create a Google Analytics account from this page. Click the corresponding link at the top of the page, adjacent to the site name, and you will be directed to Google Analytics, where you can sign up for the account using your URL. You will be required to access the FTP site and drop a snip of code in the <head> of the site in order for the account to start reporting and collecting data. The code will need to be added to every page on your site, which can be time consuming on a large site that doesn’t have includes. It’s worth it in the long run though, if it means you can see how your site functions.
3. If you have Analytics and are new to Webmaster Tools, you can verify Webmaster Tools with your Analytics account. What a relief! I know the amount of code you insert into your site to track metrics can add up, and it’s nice when you don’t have to add any new code. The two other popular methods of verifying Webmaster Tools for your site include adding a meta code to the head of every page on your site, and dropping an html file on the ftp site in the /public_html folder.

If your site has both Analytics and Webmaster Tools under separate email addresses, and you wish to link the programs, you can add users at the bottom of the page that pops up under the “Add or Remove Owners” drop down menu for “Manage Sites” in Webmaster Tools, or add user access in Analytics at the bottom of the profile’s page under “Edit” “Actions” in the Analytics Settings. Remember that if you grant an email address Administrator privileges, that email address can access reports for all profiles in the Account. User privileges allow access only to the profile the access was granted in.

Why link Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools? This option was done at user request to integrate the two programs, so that users don’t have to constantly log in and out of sites during the day – provided that both accounts are listed under the same email address. Right now there is not a lot of interaction available between the programs, however Google does intend on further developing the integration. Currently, integrated sites are allowed to see an Analytics Referring Pages report (which is great for tracking natural search engine optimization services) from the Links to your site page report in Webmaster Tools. This provides more detailed data about the sites that are driving traffic your way, which is imperative to tracking online lead generation.