Tips about managing a blog can be found within this category.
I recently received a question regarding the difference between web sites and domains. I replied the best I could without including too much information as to make the answer confusing.
The person asking the question was new to web site management. As there are probably many more out there that would like to start a web site and are new to this online world, I decided to create this post to explain a few things.
When I started Technically Easy the one thing that I wanted to do was make sure that my posts were printable. By this I mean I wanted the printed pages to not include the menubar and sidebars, only the content.
Those who are just starting out in Web development may just create a second copy of the current page, and then create a text link to this page for printing. I wanted a more simple solution and realized the same task can be done easily with CSS.
I recently wrote a post titled Using Google Alerts to Track Copies of Your Web Content. In that post I mentioned using Google search results to watch for duplicate copies of your work showing up on other Web sites. The example I used was a common Google search term used by probably many webmasters, but may not be known by the general public.
In this post I will explain some of the search terms that you can use in Google that can give you interesting results outside of just simple keyword searches.
I use Google Analytics to monitor the traffic on Technically Easy. It is a popular, free tool that provides a wealth of information about the visitors to your web site. The problem that I find with Google Analytics is that it doesn’t track outgoing links to my blog. I would be interested to know how many of my visitors click on some of the provided outgoing links, such as my RSS subscription link.
I recently found the answer to my problem, and how I can use Google Analytics to not only track links to other pages in Technically Easy, but also the outgoing links to other sites.
In my last post I wrote about What to Avoid When Designing Web Sites. I mentioned various points that you should not do when designing a Web site. One of the points talked about copying the work of others and posting it on your site as your own. It was then mentioned in the comments about monitoring such copying of your own work.
In this post I will look at one easy-to-use method of monitoring Google results for duplicate work of yours, which you can then use to take the appropriate action.
Google Alerts are simply e-mails sent to you when a specific set of criteria you setup is found. The search criteria are a set of search terms against the Google index, and when there are new items for those search terms an e-mail is sent to you.
An alert can be setup for searches against News, Web, Blogs, Video and Groups.
You can easily setup Google Alerts by visiting the Google Alerts home page and enter your search criteria on the form provided. You can then manage your alerts from your Google account.
Now that you have an idea of what Google Alerts actually is, let’s see how we can use that to monitor your Web content. Keep in mind that this isn’t 100% foolproof, but it can help you find those who duplicate your content.
Within my posts I try to link to other posts within my blog. This helps to provide more information to my visitors, but it can also help to monitor my pages with Google Alerts. Here is how I do that:
You can use any search terms you would like to use to monitor the Google search results. The search criteria above won’t work if someone were to change the location of the links, or if a post doesn’t contain another link to your blog or Web site. You can always come up with your own method of keeping track of your hard work.
As a side note, the above alert will also inform you of who has linked to your blog or Web site.
This post provided a brief overview of Google Alerts as well as step-by-step instructions for creating an alert. A simple example was provided that can allow you to track other sites that may copy your content and post it on their site. I have been able to catch a few sites that have copied my content.
If you have other ideas of finding those that duplicate your content, I would like to hear them. Just post your ideas in the comments section.
There is much debate about using the traffic ranking data from Alexa. Some sites, such as the paid review sites, use it to determine the amount of traffic your site receives. Many individual webmasters don’t care much for the data as it doesn’t present an accurate picture of traffic.
I don’t put too much stock into the actual ranking on Alexa, as it may not provide a complete traffic picture. I do, however, know that many sites and individuals use it as sort of a gauge as to the amount of traffic your site gets. In this post I’ll explain what Alexa is, and provide a simple, yet controversial method of increasing your traffic rank.
I have seen many posts in various forums regarding where to get Web site statistics. There are many statistics package that can be purchased and installed on a Web server, but many Web site authors are on a host that they don’t own.
The two most common online statistics packages available are Google Analytics and StatCounter. I have used both in the past and will be reviewing them in this post.
Many people recommend this as their choice for keeping track of their Web site statistics. It provides a very detailed look at the visitors to your site, and is completely free to use.
The statistics are organized into different sections: Dashboard, Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content and Goals. With the exception of Dashboard, the remaining sections all have subsections that provide more detailed information.
The first view that is shown when accessing Google Analytics is that of the Dashboard. This page provides an overview of your Web site statistics over the past month. Items such as traffic, visitors, popular content and traffic sources are summarized on this page.
The next sections are summarized as follows:
I find Google Analytics provides very detailed information regarding visitors to my Web site. I do, however, have trouble tracking how a visitor moves through my site. There may be a way of doing this, but I don’t it very easy to do. Google Analytics also takes some time to update its statistics. From my experience, it can be several hours before you see the data.
Overall, I use Google analytics because of the information that it provides, especially for past data as it seems to keep a lot of historical data.
Along with Google Analytics, the other big player in the free Web site statistics package is StatCounter. I have only recently used their service, and found that they offer a really nice, detailed statistical information.
StatCounter doesn’t have as many different reports as Google Analytics does, but it does have very detailed reports. They do provide the same information as Google Analytics, such as entry and exit pages, keyword analysis, and visitor system information.
The one thing that I like about StatCounter is the ability to easily see how a visitor navigated through your site by viewing a Visitor Paths report.
I have a lot more experience with using Google Analytics, than with StatCounter (actually I just signed up StatCounter about a month ago), but I find myself using StatCounter just a much because the reports are easier to understand. They provide charts with several reports including the data in a tabular form below the chart.
The one thing about StatCounter that you should know is that it will only keep track of the last 500 page loads for the free account. You will need to upgrade to a paid account if you would like to track more. Once the log is full, the next page load will be recorded and the oldest data will be deleted. For many people, such as myself, 500 may be a large enough value. I believe the log file contains information about the visitors, as I have been able to pull up my site stats for a month ago.
Both statistics packages mentioned in this post are great for providing information about the visitors to your Web site. Each package has a different look and feel, but both provide a lot of information that could help you manage your Web site. I currently use both packages as each one provides information that the other does not. If you would like to choose one, then I suggest you try both and see which one you like best.
I attempt to provide useful advice on various technologies in use today on Technically Easy. There are many times that I find myself looking for answers to some of my technological questions on other Web sites.
When I started this blog I was new to blogging and to some degree Web site management. There are many aspects to designing a Web site that I hadn’t thought about before. I have found a very helpful Web site that I’ll share with you in this post.
The Web site is called Website Babble, and is a forums frequented by those who have experienced many of the pitfalls of Web site management. The administrator of the Web site is Lisa, who many know online. She has created a successful online business through her Web sites. This is what many of those who start Web sites strive to be like.
In the past, I have registered to various forums and Web sites only to not login after the first time. I also found that on many of those forums it seems that asking certain questions gets you branded as a newbie or idiot.
At Website Babble, it is a different experience. I find that you can pretty much ask any question related to Web sites and someone will provide friendly, useful advice that will hopefully answer your question.
Similar to other forums, there are the regular contributors to the forum, which I try to be. The contributors are by no means the authoritative source on Web sites, but they have had various experiences in the past that could help others prevent a similar fate. Chances are if you are having problems with your Web site, one of the contributors have experienced the same problem and can provided a solution.
Lisa has also been known to hold contests to those who provide helpful posts on the forum. Her contests award quality over quantity, so you don’t need to post the most to win one.
The forum is free to join and post. You can include your Web site in your signature but not in your post as that is considered spam, which Lisa is very good at tracking and removing. Google has indexed some of the posts from the forums in its index, so chances are good that it will find the link to your site in you signature.
I recommend that you join if you are new to anything Web site related. If you do register on Website Babble, keep an eye out for me. My ID is TechieGuy.