Search Engine Optimisation Tips

Google Tip : March 2010

Google search basics:
Sometimes you need a little bit more information rather than a straight search . The following will provide an insight into some of the more advanced search feature with Google

Phrase search ("")
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

Search within a specific website (site:)
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. There is a more in depth analysis at http://www.google.co.uk/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861

Email Tip : February 2010

Do you use Google mail to access your POP3 email accounts ?
Some times Google Mail doesn't retrieve your emails as often as you you would like , especially if you are expecting the important one . I have noticed on the odd occasion a delay in updating of up to 12 hrs , especially overnight . To "refresh" your Google mail its just a case of clicking Settings , then Accounts and Import, navigate to the email account you are using and click on the Check Mail now link . All your emails will come through now

Website Design Tip : February 2010

Meta Keywords Tag
SEO sources have for a long time stated that the Meta Keywords Tag is no longer used by Google. The primary reason being that the tag was being abused by black hat SEO. The jury was out on Yahoo whether they used the meta keyword tag or not though Yahoo stated at a Search Engine conference in New York in October 2009 they no longer supported the keyword tag .

Once Yahoo made the statement several respected seo experts contradicted the official Yahoo line saying they did use the meta keywords tag. So the jury was still out so I decided to test it myself . It was simplicity itself - I chose a keyword which wasn't a known word and the word was not included in the text on the page in question .

Two weeks later Yahoo picked up the keyword and Designaweb has a No 1 spot for the word " madlibx " so proving Yahoo still takes account of Meta Keyword Tag

s Yahoo

Web Design Tip - February 2010

Java Script Menus
If you are using Java script based drop down menus the search engines will not be able to navigate your site for search purposes. To overcome this use additional simple text linking. With 70% plus of visitor hits coming from search engines its essential that the engines can follow your site links. /p>

Email Tip - February 2010

Google Mail feature

I've always been an avid follower of Google Mail since a hard drive crash and although I had backups it was time to move from Microsoft Outlook to Google Mail - Google mail is available from any browser and with unlimited space . Technically there is a limit of 7.5 gig though the limit seems to be moving higher . I might have to upgrade to the paid version at some time but that will be worth it - Its not just the email features its the add-ons which are impressive - Google's version of Word , Excel & Power Point are all available online + Calendars which can be shared - One feature I use a lot is the Tasks List - Simply highlight an email , then More Actions and add to tasks - The task list is fully editable and keeps me organised - Last but not least Google's spam controls are the best I've seen and for me catch over 99% of spam

Web Site Design Tip - February 2009

Where did your website images come from ?
Couldn't be a simpler question could it but do you know the answer? If you don't know where your web images come from and if you think they were sourced from the web I suggest you change them .

All images displayed on your website must be yours or that you have written permission to use them . There is a nasty trend of internet lawyers trawling the net looking for copyright images. Once found they decide what benefit you have had for the unlawful use and its up to you to defend this , there are examples of this costing several thousands of pounds per image . You cannot defend any legal action because you are in the wrong from the outset ,its just a case of quantifying the benefit you have received . If you are unsure about the origin of some images its best to change them just to be sure .

An excellent source I use all the time for royalty free stock photos is Big Stock Photos - The cost is £2 or less for quality images - though the use is only once so if you plan to use on several pages, you need to purchase the necessary number of copies - Its still a small price to pay for quality images - your content will be freshened up as well

Search Engine Optimisation Tip - January 2010

How Google sees your website
Understanding how Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other search engines see your site is very important for anyone involved in search engine optimisation. This information is valuable in ensuring the Search Engines see what you have intended , If the content cant been seen it cant be indexed eg java scripted hyperlinks , One FREE programme which shows how the search bots see your site is called SEO browser.

Email Tip - January 2010

Testing Email Campaigns on Email clients
When your email campaign is ready to send how many email clients do you test your email on , eg Outlook , Live Mail etc .Its a known fact that emails will render differently on each email client. At Designaweb we check each email campaign on 15 email clients to ensure the email is rendered correctly - Very soon we will be testing emails as they render on mobile phones

This is the current list of email clients we check our emails campaigns on

AOL 9
Entourage 2004
Entourage 2008
Gmail Classic
Gmail
Hotmail
Windows Live Mail
Windows Mail
Mac Mail
Outlook 2003
Outlook 2007
Thunderbird 2
Thunderbird 3 – Beta
Yahoo Classic
Yahoo Mail

Email Tip - January 2010

Google Mail now even more secure: HTTPS by default
HTTPS encryption keeps your mail secure as it travels between your web browser and Google Mail servers, so someone sharing your favourite coffee shop's public wifi can't maliciously read it. Banks and credit card companies use this same protocol to keep your online accounts safe. To protect your Google Mail account, the option is to "always use HTTPS" for everyone. This added layer of security can make Google Mail slower, so if you don't use unencrypted wireless connections, you can choose to disable this option in your account Settings. Even if you change this setting, Google Mail will always encrypt the login page to protect your password.

Web Marketing Tip - January 2010

Use Social Media with Email Marketing -
Include Twitter , Facebook links in your email campaigns and include a call to action pointing out your social media links . Don’t forget to post your links to your email campaigns in your Twitter account and Facebook pages and ask people to join your email list. All of these marketing vehicles work really well together and feed off of each other.

Web Marketing Tip - January 2010

Do you have feed back or enquiry forms on your website ? If so you are more likely to receive the completed forms by email. As the email is auto generated its possible for your email client to treat your email as spam. Check your spam box daily and always set your spam controls so you can check before deletion. As a safeguard complete the enquiry form and check you are receiving the replies. I would suggest you do this monthly . Enquiries are valuable

Free Colour Picker Programme - January 2010

Pixie is a free utility made especially for webmasters and designers. It is a colour picker with few extra goodies.

Run it, simply point to a colour and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that colour. You can then use these values to reproduce the selected colour in your favourite programmes. Pixie will also show the current coordinates of your mouse pointer.

It is the only tool for you to work with colours. This one programme I would gladly pay for and use it every day in our web designs. You can find Pixie here

Twitter Tip - January 2010

Is Twitter on your to-do list for 2010 ? If you haven't started yet it should be part of your social media marketing strategy. Twitter might look difficult but honestly its not. There are plenty of guides, just Google the term to find out. Maybe you think your industry sector is not applicable, think again , there will be an application . Maybe you think its too late , its not. I noticed LURPAK the butter company joined Twitter yesterday. I would have expected a company of this size to realise the Twitter potential before, though its never too late . If your are ready for Twitter try this read, Dominate Your Market With Twitter , Click the link and buy at a discount through Amazon I think you will find its £6 well spent .

Email Marketing Tip - January 2010

Has the weather upset your marketing promotion ? Apart from advising your email list take the advantage of offering a promotion like a free cup of coffee when you next visit or a discount code for your ecommerce site . Make the best of the opportunity

SEO for Web Images - January 2010

Don’t forget that apart from standard search most Search engines offer image search.
Google Image Search simply brings up images relating to the search term entered. You type in “Hotels in Bury St Edmunds” to the Google Image Search, and you get a page full of pictures relating to the search term. There are a number of reasons to optimise your website for Google Image Search. The main reason is that Google Image searches can bring visitors to your site of traffic, particularly if your image shows up on the first page of results and is heavily searched.
A second reason to optimise your page for Google Images is that image optimisation should be part of your overall SEO Search Engine Optimisation strategy
It could take as long as one year for the Image Bot to visit your site, which means that optimizing a site for Google Images takes a long time. Once you look in your server logs and see “images.google.com,” you’ll know that your site has been indexed for Google Images.

Optimising Image Tags, Alt Attribute
The alt text is what shows up when you hover your mouse over an image. In your image code, you use this bit of html:
<img src="”Designaweb-logo.gif”" alt="”Designaweb Logo"/>
It is best to be honest with the alt description using your keywords, key phrases if appropriate . Don’t go for overkill as that’s what will happen . You should be descriptive, choose a description that represents what you would be searching for if you were looking for that image. Leave out words like “the, or, and, are, we” and similar ones. If you have buttons or image bullets use alt=”*“>. Stuffing keywords into alt tags is a SEO No No. Also make sure your file names follow the same SEO pattern using image description rather than numbers or meaningless file names. You a can split file names with a hyphen or underscore. I prefer that hyphen method

Search Engine Facts - January 2010

Ebay.co.uk enjoyed the top slot for visits in "Shopping and Classifieds', ranked by Visits for the week ending 02/01/2010

Source Hitwise

PPC - Pay Per Click Tip - January 2010

Google Adwords Reporting PPC - Pay Per Click
Apart from the benefits of instant advertising using Google Adwords, the reporting is very useful for future SEO work. The PPC reporting show in detail which keywords work and which don't. This information is very valuable because its "real data" that can then be usefully employed in further search engine optimisation (SEO) work for your website.

Web Marketing Tip - January 2010

Twitter
Twitter should be part of your social media marketing strategy and its sometimes difficult to decide on a strategy which works - Each market is different though just to start lets look at a restaurant - Menus change weekly , or daily specials and with 140 characters (best to use 20 less as this allows for Re Tweets ) its ideal . Your Tweet can either give a link to your Blog , Facebook or deep into your website providing more information to the interested Twitter reader. Try Twitter for a couple of months and see if it works . Applied correctly my bet is that Twitter will benefit 70% of companies. - Twitter costs nothing to set and run, the time being yours or your staff . My advice is to spend some time on deciding on the best use of Twitter. See how your competition apply Twitter . The Twitter market is huge , currently some 50 million and growing . Click the Twitter image to see how we apply Twitter

Search Engine Tip - January 2010

It looks like Google has updated Page Rank over the New Year , Google does seem to update about 4 times a year . There has been a lot of debate about the importance of Page Rank and Google through their blogs has reminded everybody not to be obsessed with Page Rank (PR) . PR is a Page Importance ranking from 0 - 10 . As an example the BBC has a PR of 9 and as a general rule the higher the PR the easier to get search engine placement for your Keywords. What's your site page rank ? Has it changed recently ? To check your Google Page Rank just complete the box below . One notable increase in PR was a client Ravenwood Hall Hotel who now enjoys a PR of 4, which is excellent news and reflects the site input over the last year - If you have any questions about PR or Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) please contact Paul Harris Tel 01359 231739 or use our contact Designaweb page

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