A collection of useful web articles
Posts tagged Search Engine Optimisation
Make A Great Website, But What About The Search Engines?
Jan 3rd
Anyone can build a great web site, but…will it ever get found by your potential clients?
Yes, it is perfectly true. If you have the time and are prepared to learn some under the hood stuff in coding, then anyone anywhere can build a really great looking web site and feel proud for having done so.
Rightly so, it takes a lot of patience and practice to get a web page to display nicely in Firefox.
Not so much these days of course, because the bad old days were a bit of a nightmare, particularly for a normal everyday guy (and a lot of web designers and developers too) who built his site using Firefox.
It is still the best browser with the best extensions to help you get the job done.
The problem is not noticeable until you see your web site on yourfriends computer and he is not quite so enlightened because he still uses IE6.
Start pulling your hair out…everything looks wrong. If you want it to look right you now have to write a style sheet to fix the quirks of IE6.
People still use IE6, but only a very small percentage and it is now surely worth taking the view that it ain’t worth coding all that stuff for that amount of potential traffic.
But there you go, you have your lovely site and no-one visiting it. What do you do?
There are plenty of guys out there if you know where to find them, who will do the SEO work for you for a reasonable fee. There are many who charge a lot for their work. However, there is still the DIY webmaster approach and if you have gone to the lengths of learning how to put a web site together then perhaps you will take on the extra work that is required to get your site noticed, and to get some traffic.
The real question is, should all this stuff be given away for nothing?
The real truth is, anyone can find out all they need to know with a little judicious Googling. Yes! Google is a verb!
These top tips tricks and secrets are all available to everyone and anyone who cares to spend some time researching SEO stuff.
It can get really expensive if you decide to buy some software to help you get the job done quickly and with less effort. Most commercial software is available for a reasonable price, if that is, you want to spend 300 dollars of there abouts initially.
It is only initially, because they all come with monthly payments to keep everything updated search engine wise.
There are some pretty good free versions to be had that allow you to do the job on one site, but perhaps the results cannot be saved unless you upgrade to the Pro version…and so on.
If you are interested in finding out the easy way how and where to get these tools and what else you can do in order to make your site visible to the whole world, then follow the links below.
Of course, you could always use the same form to send the details to Holiday Home Web Design and have all that Web Design and Search Engine Optimisation done for you.
Thank you.
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Link Building Is The Answer To Low Search Engine Rankings.
Dec 22nd
Link Building for Success Part One
Google prizes all links above even the greatest optimized content when it gives your website a PageRank.
Google is all about links.
(it loves ‘em; eats ‘em for breakfast, lunch and dinner).(it sucks them in and assimilates them and then goes on looking for more.)
When people find links they like the look of, they click on them
, and Search Engines follow them to discover your site, and then they can categorise your website and list it appropriately.
Links are what makes the Internet tick (they ARE the “net” itself) and so every site needs them.
Links make the Internet what it is today.
They’re important for several reasons:
1) People will click on them and discover your site.
2) Search engines follow them to discover your website, and find out what it’s about.
3) Search engines consider the quality of those links in addition to the quantity of them to be an good indicator of your pages’ importance.
4) Search engines also consider the link text (the text you see in a different color to click on) to be important in determining what your website’s about, and thus in determining for which search results your site will appear.
The simple truth is, without links to your site, the search engines will give little importance to your site, and people won’t be able to find it… and will probably never find it.
RELEVANT LINKS ONLY PLEASE.
The Search Engines give the most weight (in terms of where they place your page in their results) to links from web-pages that are closely related to your own
These are called “relevant links.” If you’re a song writer, for example, it would be more helpful to you to get a link from a web-page about lyrics, bands, singers or any combination of those topics.
In contrast, a link to your painting site from a car dealer or a veterinarian would be pretty irrelevant and pretty useless.
The Search Engines consider relevant links to be way more important, than links from websites unrelated to your own. They carry more weight get you further up the rankings too.
And, if you can get a link from a relevant page that also contains your keywords in the link text, then that is the ultimate goal.
GET GOOD LINK TEXT
Your link text (the words that you click on to activate a link), is very important, too. Having the right link text will help you get found when someone searches for those words or phrases.
You may not always get the chance to choose the words someone uses to link to your site, but if you’re in a position to specify the link text (as in a reciprocal link exchange, or in a directory submission), suggest one that contains at least one of your keyword phrases.
Here is an example to test your knowledge … Which of the following two examples of Link Text would you use to link to the fictional Blue Towers Hotel website ?…
Blue Towers Hotel , or…
Blue Towers Hotel – Quality accommodation in Chicago
The first link text doesn’t give people (or Search Engines) any idea of what the site is about, it is purely a name of a business. Only do this if your trading name is Microsoft. (insert big cheesy grin here.)
The second includes some keywords and so has the power when used enough times, to boost your PageRank and get you higher in the search results.
Almost all links are good, but ones with your keywords in them will shoot you up the rankings faster than you can say ‘Google Rocks’.
That is the end of Part One. See the next part to conclude the article.
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Web Design and SEO
Mar 31st
What are my goals for the site?
It’s important to know why you’re building the site. Is it for sales or marketing? Is it a tool for communication or an online brochure? Do you want to sell products through the site, or just educate consumers about them? Do you want to increase membership in your organization, or offer Web-based benefits to current members? Do you want visitors to email you? Call you? Subscribe to a newsletter? Knowing your goals will help focus your ideas for the site.
What am I trying to sell or promote?
Even if you don’t like the idea of selling yourself, it’s what we all do, every day, if we want to be successful. Don’t be afraid of sales and marketing. Finding the answer to this question will determine what are the most important themes of the site, what to name the buttons, and the tone to use when writing the content.
What is our website’s business model and how are we unique?
Even if you have an AWESOME idea – you should develop ideas for an advertising or subscription revenue model or some fundamentals of it.
Who is our target demographic and what will they search for?
To help us an agency understand your needs, can you describe your target audience in terms of socio-economic profiles;gender;geographical location; Planning for the search in your user’s mind can save you from retrofitting for it later. How would YOU search? How would your mother search? How would your grandmother search?
What will the information architecture be like? What are the important top level keywords?
There needs to be balance between information architecture for usability and keyword information architecture for findability (SEO).
What are the components to getting a website up and running?
- Design & Development: The architecture of the site needs to be built. An appropriate look and feel must be designed. The copy needs to be written and any additional tools such as online forms, shopping carts and audio clips need to be added.
- Hosting: Just as you might rent office space, your Web site needs to be hosted somewhere so people can reach it.
- Upkeep: Once live, a good site continues to post fresh material, giving people a reason to return.
What content do I need to build the site?
First, create an outline around the themes you want to promote. Second, remember that each line of the outline is a page that needs content–text and images that will help educate your visitors. The images may include a logo or photos of people or products. Poor quality photos or bad clip art can make the most attractive site look amateurish; sometimes no photos can be better than poor ones.
Who will be supplying copy for the site?
Would you like asistance with this -
Who will be supplying images for the site?
We can provide this service – from using our experience to select images for you from existing library shots through to organising a professional art directed photo shoot for you.
Do you want animation and moving graphics?
Do you have an existing corporate identity?
- What are the primary colours of your corporate identity?
- What are the secondary colours of your corporate identity?
- Should the site reflect your existing brand marketing?
We have an excellent team of designers, can we help by looking at your existing corporate identity to offer advice and input?
Do you require it to be optimised?
Again we can offer different levels of optimisation from recommendations of keywords, monthly monitoring service with recommendations again even including different ideas and include suggestions on google ad words campaigns.
Do you have a budget for this project and a time frame?
What will this cost for start-up? For ongoing maintenance?
You should also budget money for search engine submissions, which were once free, but now can run into hundreds of pounds. We’re currently recommending our clients budget ￡500 for this.
Ongoing costs include hosting fees and regular updates to your site (which is a good idea)
Do you have web hosting?
Our web hosting is on a Linux server, running Apache supported by MySQL databases, with web hosting you will also be provided with email and a login to your own control panel, this will enable you to administer your email accounts.
Do you have a brandable domain?
We can register a domain name on you behalf.
Is this an e-commerce site?
Or if not is there potential for you in this area in the future?
If this is an e-commerce site, do you have a preferred payment gateway?
There are many different types of payment gateways for e-commerce, all will charge some kind of fee for their service, some of the most popular are Paypal, Worldpay and Protx.
Do you require a content management system for product areas, news areas or a recruitment page?
Would you like to track and analyse your site performance and visitors?
How do I attract more traffic to my site?
Search engines, links, advertising and more. we will make your site search engine friendly and submit your site to search engines and directories on your behalf. You should create reciprocal links with complementary sites. Consider advertising on specific search engines, email newsletters, and traditional media. Put your url (Web site address) on your business cards, stationery, voice mail, and so on. Send out free email newsletters. Add a Recommend This Site to a Friend form on your Web site. Continually update and improve on your site. Reviewing your site’s traffic reports can alert you to what visitors are finding interesting and what they’re ignoring.
How do we prove high credibility?
You need to maintain your credibility. With ANY business or organization you are only as good as your word. Prove your credibility and make it apparent – don’t make your users wonder about it.
What ideas can we use for linkbait?
Why beg for links when you can convince people to give them to you naturally.
If we can’t create great bait, how do we buy, barter, and beg for links?
Sometimes you just have to know the value of a link and how to ask for it. Even if you’re the best in your business, you should still spend SOME time asking for links.
Where else can we advertise?
Pay-per-click, banner ads, print, radio, flyers, direct mail, television, billboards and even bathroom stalls are all options. There is still a multitude of opportunity with other traditional advertising – just be SURE to leverage your online presence (include and plug your url as well as special tracking urls like redirected domains) when doing your more traditional advertising.
