Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have the beginning of a Q&A page in the do-it-yourself corner of my website services site (Effective Websites).  I want to fill it out more (it only has two questions right now). 

So, if you would like to ask me a question about creating an effective website that I can post with the answer on my website, please ask it here.  (I will post the answer here, too.)

Any question related to making an effective website is fair game.  If I don`t know, I`ll say so, and someone else can answer if they want.  (I won`t post Q&A that someone else answers.)


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EFFECTIVE WEBSITES
when results matter

www.effective-websites.com

How do I get the Google Analytics code on my pages? Do I put the same thing on every page, or do I create new profiles for each page?

Along the same lines of Craig`s question... I have been trying to put Google Analytics code into my MySpace page, but can`t seem to get it to function properly. Can it be done?

Second question about websites... If I don`t submit my page URLs to Google or Yahoo, will they become indexed anyway?




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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Craig, when you register your website with Google Analytics, they will give you a Javascript which includes a special code for your website.  You put the same Javascript on every page. Copy and paste works fine. (Personally, I find this tedious, which is why I host my websites with hosting providers that include statistics with their packages.)
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Vincent, for your first question, the short answer is no, you can`t put Google Analytics into MySpace.  MySpace prevents people from including Javascript in their profile, which will keep  you from having Google ads and various malicious content (viruses, adware, etc.) on your profile as well.

I looked for alternatives to GA, but the outlook is dim.  There are several sites that offer what they refer to as visitor tracking for MySpace, but it`s very shallow compared to GA.  Basically, it looks like they will tell you who visits your page, and when, if the visitor is also registed with their service.  If the visitor is not registered, the service can only give the IP address.

I don`t know what information you are wanting to track with GA, but you may find the following resources helpful:

www.MixMap.com--tags on a map where your MySpace visitors are from.

www.MVTracker.com--offers a lot of statistics, but I`m not sure which are actually available with their MySpace service.

www.articlesbase.com/free-articles/choosing-a-free-myspace-t racker-32239.html
An article warning against some MySpace trackers that are actually scams or simply useless.

www.askbobrankin.com/myspace_trackers.htm
Says available MySpace trackers are basically useless for security surveillance (e.g. seeing if a pervert is looking at your daughter`s page.)

So, basically, there`s not much hope for getting good statistics from MySpace at this point.
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Vincent`s second question-- If I don`t submit my page URLs to Google or Yahoo, will they become indexed anyway?

Answer--most of the time, yes.  With new websites I`ve put up, Google often finds it before I even finish it (within a few days of the first pages being put up.)  Yahoo is a little slower, but they send their Slurp robot around, looking for new information, just like GoogleBot does.  I`m not sure how they find the new websites, when I haven`t made any marketing efforts, but they probably monitor the registration of new domain names.  I know there are a few websites where you can look up a domain name and then click a link to visit the website that exists there.

After they`ve found your website, they`ll keep sending their bots back on a regular basis to look for new or changed information.  The more often you update the site, the more often they come.  As long as your new pages are accessible through links from the main page, they`ll find them. 

Submitting your URL once won`t hurt, and it might get your new website indexed faster, but I don`t think there`s any reason to resubmit the URL or individual pages.  The search engines` goal is to have as much information as possible available to searchers.  They`re set up to find the information, without relying on individual webmasters. 

Now, the reason why I said "most of the time" at the beginning of my answer is that sometimes the search engines just don`t pick up a certain page of a site, even after visiting the site when the page is there.  No one (except people who operate the search engines) is really sure why this happens.  If you are having this trouble with a particular page that you really want indexed, the best thing to do would be to link to it from another relevant website.  Some people have created their own off-site blogs for this purpose.  Search engines like to index blogs because they are usually frequently updated.  When they index the blog, they`ll follow the link, and index the page.

(I don`t recommend that anyone start a blog solely for the purpose of getting pages on your website indexed.  That`s spammy.  But if you start a blog for the purpose of blogging about the same subject, there`s no reason not to link to new pages on your website.)
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Let me know if either of you would like more information or need me to clarify a point.

Thank you for your questions!


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EFFECTIVE WEBSITES
when results matter

www.effective-websites.com

Good answers. I hope these help as you write the book. :-)

How do I make my website... effective enough to get a 5+ Page Rank?

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www.PurpleTrail.com
Free Online Invitations & Event Planning Tool

Don`t worry about PageRank .... focus on content for your users instead. Personally the only time I even worry about PR is if a site has a gray bar; it basically means Google doesn`t like it, and linking to a gray barred site could penalize you within Google. Otherwise, its usually not current or good for a whole lot else.

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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

I have prices on my website and the items are such as $199.00. 

Can you tell me the origin of ZERO and how it came about so I know the facts when I am placing a price on my website?

Just picking...I don`t think this is a relevant question...I just wanted to pick with you.

Have a great day.

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Come check me out at www.bytenram.com. Your one stop shop for all your technology needs!

www.flipitbig.com - Your resource to efficient Real Estate Investing

Danae... sorry it took me so long to get back to this post, but your answers are very clear and on point. Thanks for responding.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Purely psychological - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing
$199.00 looks better and has a better effect than pricing a product at $200.00. Also .95, .99, work as well.


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No Eternal Reward Will Forgive Us Now for Wasting the Dawn.