SEO Tools for Expression Web 3
Dennis deRobertis who developed the original Expression Web Extras Toolbar has released the SEO Tools for Microsoft Expression Web 3. This is a commercial add-in available for $9.95 and worth every penny. This EW add-in helps you prepare your site and pages for Google, Bing, and other Internet search engines. I download the 14 day trial version and installed it with no problems. It does require that you have installed the Service Pak 1 available from Microsoft. Once you have installed the add-in, you can access it from Tools > Add-Ins as well as Tools > Expression Extras SEO Tools
The SEO Tools for EW 3 includes:
Sitemap.xml Builder
One of the most important parts of your search engine optimization (SEO) work is building an XML sitemap. This standards-based, XML-formatted file helps search engines do a better job of crawling and indexing your site. Having just tried two free tools to create a XML sitemap, I was eager to see how this part of the SEO Toolbar worked.
Tools > Expression Extras SEO Tools > Sitemap Builder
In the dialogue box you will see:
Last Generated: (sitemap not yet generated) if this is the first time you have used the Sitemap Builder or the time the last one was generated.
Site Address: type the url of the site you want to generate the sitemap for.
Exclude Images and Exclude script files are checked by default.
Files marked Exclude from Publishing are also ignored.
Click Generate.
In a matter or minutes, the sitemap is generated and imported into the root of your website. You are then asked if you want to open the sitemap.xml file. Click OK and the file is opened where you can do any additional editing you might want. It will also tell you the number of files to be crawled.
Quick and easy to use. You can then submit your xml sitemap to Google, Bing and other search engines OR see the next tool offered.
Robots.txt Builder
There are two reasons to always include a robots.txt file in your site. First, it lets you control which files and folders search engines, crawlers, and robots can see. And second, it's the best way to let search engines know about your sitemap.xml file.
Since I was already using a robots.txt file, I decided to see what this tool would do next.
Tools > Expression Extras SEO Tools > Robots.txt Builder
You are instructed to:
- Select the files and folders you do NOT want search engine robots to crawl. Use the folders list or folders view
- Click the Generate Button
- Publish your robots.txt file to your remote site
Image Text Builder
Descriptive image title and alternative text make for a better user experience. And it also helps improve and increase your searchable page content. Image Text Builder allows you to conveniently add and/or edit both of these important values quickly.
Tools > Expression Extras SEO Tools > Image Text Builder
The resulting dialogue box will tell you:
Image (1 of total)
Src: the location of the image
Alt: blank or the alt tag content you have entered
Title: blank or the title content you have entered
I urge caution here. Not every image that the image Builder shows should have an alt or title tag. Some of them may be part of your Dynamic Web Template and the tags should be added to the DWT if needed. Some may be decorative images that use an empty alt tag like the small window image used below to identify screenshots.
You can scroll through the images on your page and update those that you need to. NOTE: If you add an image using the Insert Picture icon in the toolbar or by choosing Insert > Picture > From File, a window appears that prompts you to enter alt text.
Property Count Toolbar
Three things that should be a part of your SEO arsenal is making sure you have added a title to your page as well as the content for the meta tags description and keywords. How many times have you seen at the top of the browser window New Page 1 or Untitled Page. With the Property Count Toolbar you'll keep your title, description, and keywords values where they are easy to see as you work on designing your pages. You will also see the length of each property so you know just how much you have entered including spaces.
Click the toolbar and the Page Properties Dialogue Box pops up to allow you to enter you Title, Page Description and Keywords.
Click the drop down arrow to the right of the title, and you will see your description and keywords with the character count.
SEO Tools for Expression Web 3 is a BIG tool for the small price of $9.95. Download SEO Tools for Expression Web 3.
SEO Tools for Expression Web is also available for Expression Web versions 1 and 2.
SEO Tools for Expression Web 3 - Written January 2010