As we approach the kickoff of SOCAP09, we’d like to invite our users to join Yola’s Kiva Lending Yeam. With Kiva, the Yola community can make loans directly to entrepreneurs around the globe. It’s fun. It’s easy. And it’s a powerful way to help real people achieve economic independence, improving life for themselves, their family, and their community.
Join us today!
We’re excited to announce that Yola will be co-sponsoring SOCAP09 this year along with our friends at Kiva.
SOCAP09 is a gathering of the world’s top social innovators held on September 1st through 3rd at The Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Yola will be exhibiting at the event and we’d love to see as many of our users there as possible. To make that possible, we’re offering a 30% discount for the Yola network using the code “YA30.” Register here to take advantage of this offer special offer.
We hope to see you at SOCAP09!
After reviewing over a thousand nominations, we’re pleased to announce our selection for the Yola Makeover.
Congratulations to www.acecedarpark.com.
Now it’s time for you to flaunt your design skills. All you have to do is redesign the selected website using Yola.
The top ten designs will be chosen by a public vote with the small business owner ultimately deciding on the winning makeover.
The deadline is August 24, 2009 11:59pm PST, so get started today!
To view the rules or get more information on the contest please visit www.yolamakeover.com.
We know Yola site owners really like being able to modify and personalize their sites to meet their needs, so we’ve added some new features that provide even more choices. We’ve improved banners and backgrounds, added an option to take out the Yola Link, and added new Styles.
Change your background
We’re greatly expanding the number of Styles that let you change the background of your site. We also added Apply to All, so you can easily use the same background and banner image throughout your site – makes it so simple to update everything at once. To learn more, go to Personalize your Style.
Remove the footer
We love the Yola Link at the bottom of every page, but realize it might not be for everyone. With the new Yola Link Removal feature, you can take out the Yola Link from all current and future sites in your account for only $9.95/year. If you choose to remove it, you can do it from the bottom of your page within the Sitebuilder.
Try out a new Style 
Check out two fantastic styles that take advantage of the above new features. They are named Flowershop and Victoria – try them out with the next site you build.
We have lots more features coming to give you even more customization, so check back on the blog, or better yet, join our community.
We’ve all heard the expression “A picture is worth a thousand words”. On your web site, the right images can quickly convey your site’s topic and create an impression for your business. We created this site using iStock photos.
We’re making it easy to get great photos and images for your site, by partnering with iStockphoto. They have an easy-to-search library full of royalty-free (no licensing costs) images. Prices are as low as US $1.00.
As a special offer for Yola users, you can get 5 images for free (from a selection of 30), and 20% off your first order. Sign up with iStockphoto and find some great pictures for your site.
All of us have seen them. Bad websites for great small businesses. It might even be your website.
Here’s where you jump in. Stop the insanity. Lend a hand. Nominate a small business website that needs some help. We’ll pick one out and if you’re a web designer, graphic artist, or just love Yola, you can do a makeover.
The fun doesn’t stop there because there are prizes galore. The winning designer gets $2,000. The small business owner gets a shiny new Website worth $1,000. All Twitterers who retweet the @Yola contest will be entered for a chance to win two tickets to the U2 360° Tour and a Blackberry.
Send in your nominations. In August we’ll start accepting entries for the makeover design. So what are you waiting for? Nominate now.
SEO Troubleshooting Guide (Part 1 of 2)
You’ve gone by the book for your SEO efforts decided on and chose popular and relevant keywords. You’ve optimized all the parts of your site. You haven’t done anything that you know of that could cause you to be penalized by the search engines. Still your page visits and search rankings haven’t changed since you started. Or even worse, they’ve gone down.
There’s no need to panic – if you know where to look.
In this first part of the series, we’ll look at some of the most common SEO glitches, as well as what may be causing them.
Common SEO problems and solutions
Problem: Search engines have trouble seeing and reading your website.
Solutions: Make sure that you have implemented all SEO best practices. Also, make sure that your images and any navigation that uses graphics, including video and Flash, have ALT tags.
Problem: Duplicate content
Solution: You may have used the same content from other sites. Or another website may have stolen your content. Add a robots.txt file to the meta tags of your pages for any content that you don’t want search engines to see.
Problem: Your site needs more links
Solution: Add internal and external links. Our Hot Rod Linking series (link to articles) shows you how to build links.
Problem: Stale site
Solution: Make sure that you maintain and update your site frequently. One way to keep your content fresh is to add a blog.
Problem: Unrealistic expectations
Solution: SEO is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. It takes a while for the search engines to get around to your site, especially if your site is new. Typically, it takes 3-6 months for your site to be fully read and indexed by search engines. Also, sharp increases or decreases can occur from month to month – it’s the overall trend over time that’s important.
Problem: Increasing competition
Solution: While this problem is something that’s out of your control, there are ways to deal with it. One way is to make your content as fresh and relevant as it can be.
Problem: Changing search engine algorithms
Solution: This is another problem that’s out of your control, too. Don’t worry – the basics still apply when it comes to SEO. Furthermore, a change in a search engine’s algorithm may only mean a temporary rank decrease.
SEO Troubleshooting Resources
The Google Webmaster Guidelines and the Google Search Engine Optimization Guide are helpful to figure out SEO problems.
Don’t forget our SEO tutorials if you need any additional help.
Is your SEO hot or not? Let’s see if your site measures up.
You’ve learned about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), followed the steps to optimize your site, but now, how do you know if it’s working? One of the main reasons why SEO is so powerful and popular is because these measurements, also known as analytics, tell you the performance of your site’s SEO.
Setting goals for your SEO
It’s been said many times before that success is only success if you can measure it. That’s especially true for SEO. The basic goals of any SEO effort are to:
The measures of success
To determine whether you’ve achieved your goals, you need to analyze:
SEO analysis and measurement tools
Here are some free tools to measure your SEO efforts, along with resources for more information about SEO analytics:
Learn more about analytics
Google Analytics also offers multiple ways to get data on your site. To add Google Analytics, read the tutorial to see how it’s done.
Find your site on Google
We want our users to get the most out of the sites they’ve built on Yola, and part of that is helping those sites get found by the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. In addition to articles and tutorials we’ve published about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), we’re bringing you a webinar on Yola.tv, which covers:
1. Keyword research
2. Writing search engine friendly website content
3. Incorporating SEO into your website’s pages
Hope to see you there for an introduction to website search engine optimization!
More to come on our new TV network
Tune in!
We’re very excited about the launch of Yola.tv, a new way to share information and ideas with our users - so keep an eye out for new programs on the network!
SEO Tool Belt: Top 20 Free Online SEO Tools
Professionals aren’t professionals without the right tools for the job. That goes for SEO, too. Add these 20 free online SEO tools to your tool belt to help you at every step of your SEO effort.
Keyword Research Tools: For the hot keywords
Site Analysis Tools: To see where your site is and where it needs to be
SEO Analytics and Measurement Tools: For how your SEO efforts are working
Competitive Research Tools: For how you measure up to others
Other SEO Tools: You may also be interested in these, too
Yola’s SEO Resources
With Yola, it’s easy to make your website SEO friendly. Our SEO Tutorials page shows you how it’s done.
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