Many users like the popular how to shorten iWeb URL video. This video takes it one step further by showing how to get rid of the initial page redirect in iWeb. Check it out! Make sure to download iWeb SEO Tool to follow along.

Learn how to get your iWeb website to rank high in search engines with the iWeb SEO video tutorial.

If you are receiving an error that reads “no such table”  or another type of message, please do the following;

1)Quit iWeb SEO Tool

2)Delete the file located at username/Library/Application Support/iWeb SEO Tool/

3)Relaunch iWeb SEO Tool.

This tutorial will show you how to properly publish your iWeb site, so that you can avoid having your website URL be longer than necessary.

If you use iWeb, you already know that when you type in your website’s URL, once you are taken to your page, the URL in the address bar will forward to your domain name, followed by the site name that you gave in iWeb while publishing, followed by your page’s file name.  This URL you see here is just an example of what this might look like.

What we are going to be doing in this video, is reduce the length of the URL by getting rid of the site name so that the URL goes from looking like this, to looking like this. I will not be teaching you how to have the domain read just www.yourdomain.com. The reason for this is because the easiest way of actually doing this to an iWeb site would be to turn on what is called domain masking.

I will quickly tell you what domain masking is, and why you don’t want to use it for your website. Domain Masking is basically hiding the name of your site and replacing it with something else. As an example, notice how when I click to various pages on this site, the URL in the address bar stays the same. The reason why domain masking is not recommended, is because it makes other pages on your website unrecognizable by search engines and it makes it impossible for your users to bookmark an individual page on your site.

Now that we have a good understanding of the URL structure with iWeb sites, let’s get right into reducing the length of our URL’s. The first thing I want you to know is that you will be required to have a third-party FTP tool to publish your site. This means that we will no longer be publishing our websites directly from iWeb.

I recommend using Cyberduck or iWeb SEO Tool which are both available for free. Cyberduck is a basic FTP client which allows you to transfer files from your local hard drive to your web-space and vice cersa. iWeb SEO Tool is a great application for iWeb users to optimize their sites for search engines, AND it also includes a built in FTP client.  I’m going to be using iWeb SEO Tool in this demonstration, because I want to show how this method of reducing the length of our URL’s applies to people who use iWeb SEO Tool as well.

So the first thing we are going to do, is publish our website to a local folder in iWeb. It will be easiest for you if you create a new folder and publish your site to this new folder. You will need to remember where you created this new folder on your hard drive. I am going to call my new folder My iWeb SIte. While the site is publishing, I want you to take note of my Site Name, Photos By Matt which can be seen here…and here. Keep this in mind for later in the tutorial.

When our sites have finished publishing, go ahead and open the folder where you just published your site to. You should notice that there are three things inside this folder. There is an index.html file, a file with a long name that has the word ‘assets’ at the front, and finally a folder with your Site Name on it. Inside this folder, is where all of our website files are. The reason we get long URL’s is because we publish all three of these files.

Here is how we will fix this. In iWeb SEO Tool, when I press the Open Website button, I will first locate the folder that I just created. Many people will select this folder and choose to load the entire folder. This is how we end up with those long URLs. Instead, I will select this folder, and then locate the folder inside of it that contains the Site Name for my website, which is Photos By Matt which, we took note of earlier.

When we publish this to our FTP account, our site will now not have the site name in the URL.

If you wanted to publish to an FTP client such as Cyberduck,  make sure that you do not just upload the folder with your Site Name on it, but that you select all of the contents of the folder and upload them directly to your FTP.

Don’t forget to check out the iWeb SEO video walkthrough tutorial to learn how to get your site ranked higher in search engines.

This video is for those of you who publish your iWeb site using MobileMe, have a blog on your site, and want to optimize your site using iWeb SEO Tool. I will repeat that once more… if you publish your iWeb site to MobileMe, have a blog, and wish to use iWeb SEO Tool,  you must follow these simples instructions so that the commenting feature on your blog does not become disabled.

The first thing you must remember to do, is publish your site to your iDisk directly from iWeb.

Once your site is published, you are ready to begin your optimization using iWeb SEO Tool.

Make sure you load your site using the Load iDisk Sites button.

The preferences in iWeb SEO Tool are set to not allow a page file that contains the word ‘blog’ to be optimized. The reason for this is that if a file of this kind is optimized, it will compromise the file and cause the blog commenting feature to not function. In some cases, the blog files may not contain the word ‘blog’ in them. This would be due to the user naming these files something different. If that is the case, you can change the preferences so that the tool does not optimize the files for your blog. So let’s say for example that you change the name of this file here from Blog to Journal. When optimizing your site in iWeb SEO Tool, you must change the preferences so that the tool is set to not optimize files that contain the word Journal.

Once you have optimized all of your pages, you do not need to publish your site to your MobileMe account within the tool. Since you are logged in, and have loaded your site directly from your iDisk, the changes you make in iWeb SEO Tool will be reflected immediately after you press the apply button.

If you haven’t yet, watch the SEO For iWeb Walkthrough Video Tutorial to learn how to make your iWeb site rank higher in search engines. Learn how to add a Statcounter.com AND Google Analytics code to your website.

To install a Statcounter code on all pages of your iWeb website, we are going to be using RAGE Software’s iWeb SEO Tool. This application can be downloaded for free at www.ragesw.com

After you’ve downloaded and installed iWeb SEO Tool, open up your web browser to www.statcounter.com. If you don’t have an account with Statcounter, click on the register button on the top left part of the navigation menu. Fill out all the required information and register your account. After you have registered, login with your username and password.

Once you are logged in, you will need to create a new project in order to get your code. Click on the “Add New Project” button.

In the following form, you will need to enter a title for your website followed by  your website’s URL. Then you will need to select a category for your website, and your time zone. You also have the option of having the statcounter not count your visits to the site by blocking your IP. If you don’t care for this feature, just leave it blank.

When you are done filling out the form, click the Next button. Now, you will  need to click on the “Configure and Install Code” button. You have a few options for which type of statcounter you want. Choose whichever option you like best, and then click on the next button.

In the drop down menu that says “default installation guide select iWeb. Then press the “Next” button. We are then given our Statcounter code. We must highlight this code and copy it.

Now open up iWeb SEO Tool. Load your iWeb site by clicking on the “Open Website” button. Your iWeb site must be saved to a folder on your hard drive in order to do this. If you wish, you can also load your site directly from your iDisk.

On the left hand side, all of the files from your site will appear. Under the Site Settings tab, paste the code we just copied into the Analytics code box.

Then press the “Apply to Entire Site” button.

Finally, you must publish the changes so that the Statcounter code can begin tracking visits to your site. The Publish button is located in the top right corner of the application. Here you will have the option of publishing to FTP or to MobileMe. Make sure you have your FTP or MobileMe information handy.

Once you publish your site, you can then go back to statcounter.com and view your site’s statistics as they appear.