Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
February 16th, 2010
I am always being asked what is important from an SEO point of view? This is a very big question for those that really do not have much idea what they are actually asking, and as this is not really my field of speciality I often find it hard to answer. What I CAN tell you is there are a handful of things that you do need to ALWAYS complete and they are listed below:
Your Title Tag:
Looks like : <title>keyword, category, website</title>
Should be no more than 70 character long.
Your Header Tags:
Look like : <h1>Most Important</h1>, <h2>Second Most Important</h2>, <h3>Third Most Important</h3> (H4, H5, H6 also)
Should always appear in ascending order i.e. H1 then H2, then H3 and so on. The Header Tag sequence stops at H6/
Bold, Strong Text:
Looks like : <b>keyword</b> or <strong>keyword</strong>
Images:
Look like: for XHTML <img src=”keyword.jpg” alt=”keyword description of file” title=”keyword description”/> or for HTML for XHTML <img src=”keyword.jpg” alt=”keyword description of file” title=”keyword description”>
Hyperlinks:
Look like : <a href=http://www.mywebsite.com/page.html title=”keyword”>keyword in the anchor text here</a>
Site Maps:
Always try to include an XML sitemap as Google and the other robots are said to use these to assist navigation and listing of the website. Visit http://www.xml-sitemaps.com for a free site map.
Common Problems:
The following list provides items that may be causing issues for robots that are trying to access your site. If you suspect that your site has not been listed ask your web designer/developer to look at robot traps and the areas listed below. They should know what you are talking about – if they don’t get another designer/developer!
Here is the list:
- Forms with inputs
- Session IDs in URLs
- Cookie Restrictions
- Logins and Frames
January 20th, 2010
a short but potentially useful article for those that do not yet know/understand the purpose or relevance of the little orange RSS button!
Courtesy of Stilton Studios – Article Link: Link: What is RSS?
August 28th, 2009
A useful read from this weeks Links for Light Reading courteousy of <a href=”http://www.maxdesign.com.au”>www.maxdesign.com.au</a>.
<a href=”http://www.fatdux.com/blog/2009/08/07/20-tips-for-writing-for-the-web/” title=”20-tips-for-writing-for-the-web”>20 tips for writing for the web</a>.
Soon to follow my own series on how to Write for the Web – mind you I think I shall have to read this one again though make sure I don’t have to change anything 
Sarah
August 28th, 2009
August 10th, 2009
Once again, this is gained through many nights reading and gathering information from all over the web, books and training courses that I too attend in order to try and provide a better service.
Some blogs ARE better than others and read by potential clients who are seeking ideas and resources. Commenting intelligently on blogs can be a very good way to build a reputation in your field of experience, it can also be one of the quickest ways to discredit yourself too!
Make sure that you read the whole post that you would like to comment on thoroughly, and maybe even draft your response away from your screen so that you are not tempted to make a hurried response – this can often result in half hearted comments.
Try to use facts so that over time other readers of the blogs to which you post know that you know what you are talking about. It is always a good idea to keep comments short and to the point.
Guidelines for Commenting on Blogs
It is usually necessary for you to sign in to most blog sites before you can leave your comments. You are normally asked for your email address and the URL of your website.
Stick to the facts about what you do.
Because of comment spam, many bloggers ask you to register.
If you have a business connection to a product or service mentioned in the blog post, make this clear to anyone reading your comment.
Comment only when you feel you can offer something of value.
Bloggers may shorten your comments. Better to simply write shorter.
When quoting material, ALWAYS be accurate, provide attribution for the quote, including source and URL (if available).
Hope this helps,
Sarah
July 28th, 2009
Once again all my articles are written from my own perspective so some may or may not agree with me but as I develop my own skills in blogging I find that I am asked more often how I go about managing my own blog and these articles are based very much on this – I hope this information will help from an advisory point of view…
When I first started I found I had very little to say and that I struggled to find a topic matter so I just wrote a few “Hi, here I am“ type posts which obviously did little for the blog or for me come to that!
But now as clients, colleagues and people I network with ask more and more questions I find that every spare moment is used writing little article in a huge (now up to 20 pages) word document that when I get time I proof read and then paste into WordPress and then publish. This saves me oodles of time!
About Writing the Articles…
There seems to be some basic style guidelines when writing blog article which I tried to stick to when I first started writing, I vary a little now – these are:
- Try & keep it direct; declarative is good.
- Link to any other article, book, product, website that you can link to, it provides background/supporting info regarding your subject.
- Write little & often: You can always comment on responses, but short & succinct is always good.
- Don’t take yourself/your blog too seriously, but never lose your sense of humour: Don’t get personal; formal writing is for “solicitors”. Blogs are more informal & friendly.
- Use Simple sentence structures & remember to always read your post out load before you publish it: This helps – honest!
- Bullets are good, so are subheadings, bold & italics for emphasis.
Finally a checklist before you hit the “Publish” button:
- Does the title apply to the content?
- Does the leading para explain what the article is about & why the reader should read &/or care?
- Is it worth reading?
- Would someone who knows nothing about the topic be able to understand it?
- Is it jargon free? Have you explained the jargon?
Hope it Helps,
Sarah
July 28th, 2009
So Love Web Design don’t perform search optimisation as a service, but what I would like to know is whether or not these things mentioned on SEOptimise.com/25 Outdated SEO Terms & Tactics vs Their Modern Alternatives are genuinely outdated.
Does anyone have an opinion? I would love to know…
Sarah
June 24th, 2009
Blogging is a new thing for me and recently somene asked me “What is the point?”, “Doesn’t it just take up more time?”. Possibly for once I didn’t have a straight answer so I had to go out and have a good look around at what others were saying about blogging.
I found that the general concensus was that blogging is good for keeping people up to date with what you were doing; almost like and informal way of networking. It gave lots of people the opportunity to ask questions of their audiences and gather opinions without having to collate information manually, and to track and store the information.
It gave others a change to show off their work or their CV’s and provided a forum with whic to air their opinions, but also to link in to lots of different social environments and keep up-to-date with groups they were not able to attend because they were not in the relevant location or even the country!
It also seemed to mean that from an optimisation point of view that having a blog profile meant that where bloggers had other sites they could add the links and direct interested parties to their own sites for informational (or other) purposes, thereby increasing their own traffic, ranking; ratings (in some cases), and even sales.
Of course this is only my own opinion and those in the know may tend to disagree with me but hey-ho this is why they specialise and I don’t…
I do this as it is often easier for me to spend 10minutes updating a blog than it is to re-vamp a page on the website – so for me personally quicker and easier and I can do it from almost anywhere given internet access and the relevant passwords.
June 10th, 2009
May 5th, 2009
I was sitting reading through this morning’s links for light reading, many thanks to Russ at WSG and thought I would share this article with you. Michaela Lica has written a quick article on How Google determines Page Relevance; I found this articel light and informative and believe it may assist those of you that want to know more about how!
Here’s the link: www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/04/google-seo
Happy reading,
Sarah
