Sunday, August 31, 2008
Little things mean a lot! Business cards a small but important part of marketing your company.
NRM Creative Marketing was on the front page of the AJC Jobs section today Sunday August 31st 2008 and also online on the home page of www.ajcjobs.com The article is posted below. Or you can read it online by clicking here.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
How to create a search engine friendly website
This is an article that will help your website get listed in the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
#1. Using HTML Text
The first thing to remember when designing and building your website is that search engines currently can only read actual text. Any text that is placed inside an image, flash file or video can not be read by the search engines and thus can not be used in the indexing process by the search engines. Make sure that all of your text is readable HTML text.
#2. Navigation
Make sure that your navigation is quick to find and easy to use. This means no rabbit holes. Rabbit holes are links that go to a page with new links or no links at all, and the only way to get back to the last page you were on is by hitting the back button. This is a good way to frustrate your user and will guarantee you don’t get ranked in Google.
#3. Site Map
Make sure that you have a site map on your website. This is a page with all the links on your website. Search Engines will look for this page and use it as a way to further find all the pages on your site.
#4. Adding Text To Your Images, Flash Files and Videos
All of the images and buttons on your site can have an ALT tag on them. This is a piece of code that allows you to add text on the backend of the picture. In this code, you want to add a line of text with your keywords in it. The search engines will find this and it will help with indexing your site. Also, you can add ALT tags to your Flash files and videos.
#5. Link Building
Link Building has to do with outside websites than with your own programming, but it is the most important part of being indexed by Google. The most important links are incoming links. These are links coming from other relevant sites related to your keywords. The more you have, the higher your ranking will be in relationship to your competition. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to use online directories. There are many types of directory websites. Look for ones that will allow you to provide a link back to your website. There are many that are free, but a lot of the good ones with higher page rank will cost you. The better the incoming page rank, the more it will help your website. Be cautious where you put your link. If the site is lower than your current page rank, it will actually lower your page rank as well.
#6. Meta Tags and Page Titles
One of the most commonly abused ways of trying to get listed is with meta tags. Five to ten years ago, this was a great way of getting listed. Now it is a very small part of the indexing process. However, you still do want to have them. Do not over saturate your website with hundreds of meta tags because this will actually hurt your ranking. Instead, just list as meta tags the relevant keywords pertaining to your site. On the title of each page, list your keywords in order of importance. This will help rank in Google as well.
#7. HTML Extensions
HTML Extensions are the names of the HTML pages that you create for your different pages. For instance, if the page is about website design and your keyword is website design, you want the HTML extension to be www.yourwebaddress.com/website-design.html. This tells the search engine spiders that the whole page is more relevant to your keyword. Use this understanding throughout your site based on your keywords and pages.
#8. Key Word Density
On your main landing page and any other relevant pages you want to be listed, make sure that the page has readable text keywords. You want to list them as many times as possible without it being unnatural to the page content. For example list placing your key word over and over again in a sentence will actual get your site flagged and black listed. The major search engines see it as cheating and will keep your site from being listed at all.
#1. Using HTML Text
The first thing to remember when designing and building your website is that search engines currently can only read actual text. Any text that is placed inside an image, flash file or video can not be read by the search engines and thus can not be used in the indexing process by the search engines. Make sure that all of your text is readable HTML text.
#2. Navigation
Make sure that your navigation is quick to find and easy to use. This means no rabbit holes. Rabbit holes are links that go to a page with new links or no links at all, and the only way to get back to the last page you were on is by hitting the back button. This is a good way to frustrate your user and will guarantee you don’t get ranked in Google.
#3. Site Map
Make sure that you have a site map on your website. This is a page with all the links on your website. Search Engines will look for this page and use it as a way to further find all the pages on your site.
#4. Adding Text To Your Images, Flash Files and Videos
All of the images and buttons on your site can have an ALT tag on them. This is a piece of code that allows you to add text on the backend of the picture. In this code, you want to add a line of text with your keywords in it. The search engines will find this and it will help with indexing your site. Also, you can add ALT tags to your Flash files and videos.
#5. Link Building
Link Building has to do with outside websites than with your own programming, but it is the most important part of being indexed by Google. The most important links are incoming links. These are links coming from other relevant sites related to your keywords. The more you have, the higher your ranking will be in relationship to your competition. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to use online directories. There are many types of directory websites. Look for ones that will allow you to provide a link back to your website. There are many that are free, but a lot of the good ones with higher page rank will cost you. The better the incoming page rank, the more it will help your website. Be cautious where you put your link. If the site is lower than your current page rank, it will actually lower your page rank as well.
#6. Meta Tags and Page Titles
One of the most commonly abused ways of trying to get listed is with meta tags. Five to ten years ago, this was a great way of getting listed. Now it is a very small part of the indexing process. However, you still do want to have them. Do not over saturate your website with hundreds of meta tags because this will actually hurt your ranking. Instead, just list as meta tags the relevant keywords pertaining to your site. On the title of each page, list your keywords in order of importance. This will help rank in Google as well.
#7. HTML Extensions
HTML Extensions are the names of the HTML pages that you create for your different pages. For instance, if the page is about website design and your keyword is website design, you want the HTML extension to be www.yourwebaddress.com/website-design.html. This tells the search engine spiders that the whole page is more relevant to your keyword. Use this understanding throughout your site based on your keywords and pages.
#8. Key Word Density
On your main landing page and any other relevant pages you want to be listed, make sure that the page has readable text keywords. You want to list them as many times as possible without it being unnatural to the page content. For example list placing your key word over and over again in a sentence will actual get your site flagged and black listed. The major search engines see it as cheating and will keep your site from being listed at all.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Website Design VS Functionality
How important is it that a website operates properly? VERY! A website needs to be functional as well as look good. I have seen so many sites that have great looking flash intros or have great looking graphics but do not work properly. So no one stays on the site, which isn’t that the reason you pay so much money to have a nice website built. A great website is one that your user can find the info, product or service that they came looking for.
Let's talk about Flash for moment. Flash can be a great tool to get your user's attention. But if used incorrectly, it only confuses and frustrates them. Flash intros were cool 5 years ago but pose two problems, they are not search engine friendly (search engine spiders have nothing to read, therefore nothing to index you by) and secondly they add a non important step to the user getting to the info they came for. What I recommend is having a section on the home page that has a flash movie in it. This enables you to both capture the user's attention as well as keep it all on the same page as the info they came looking for. It could have a slide show of your gallery or it could educate them on what makes your company better, etc. The possibilities are endless. What this does is allow the user to view it if they want to or go somewhere else if they are not interested.
Navigation is also a very important part of your site performing correctly. I have seen so many sites that have what I like to call rabbit holes. These are links that go to links that go to links and then you realize that there is no way of getting back to the page you were just on, without hitting the back button. Very frustrating! Another navigation error I have seen, is having two different navigation areas, one set of buttons are on the top and then there is another set of different buttons going down the side. Which one has the info your looking for? Who knows? Or do you even see the other ones? There is a very simple solution though. Create a navigation that incorporates all of the buttons on your site in one area and make sure that it is on every page. If you want to put new buttons on a page that break down a section into sub sections, just make sure you include the main navigation on every page inside the sub pages. Also, make sure that your buttons are listed in order of importance to your user, not you. That way they can find what they are looking for faster with less frustration. Simple right? Yet I am amazed at how many sites (major companies too) have horrible navigation with one or more of these issues. I was on a retail site the other day, I won’t say which one. I came to the site to find a local store and a phone number. Now for a retail company that button should be of high priority. Nope, it wasn’t, it took me almost a minute to find the store locator. There were 100 different buttons on this site and this one was one of the smallest button and was camouflaged in with 10 other really close buttons. If I didn’t already know that this company had what I needed and was a quality company, I would have left long before ever finding a local store. So in saying all that, if your users can’t find what they are looking for, what’s the point. So make sure you keep it clean and simple so that your users find your website easy to use. Ultimately that will leave a lasting impression in the mind of your user.
So when building a website remember that it must be designed well and also be functional. Feel free to call us at 770.630.1975 and we can review your site and suggest ideas to make sure your website looks and functions properly.
Let's talk about Flash for moment. Flash can be a great tool to get your user's attention. But if used incorrectly, it only confuses and frustrates them. Flash intros were cool 5 years ago but pose two problems, they are not search engine friendly (search engine spiders have nothing to read, therefore nothing to index you by) and secondly they add a non important step to the user getting to the info they came for. What I recommend is having a section on the home page that has a flash movie in it. This enables you to both capture the user's attention as well as keep it all on the same page as the info they came looking for. It could have a slide show of your gallery or it could educate them on what makes your company better, etc. The possibilities are endless. What this does is allow the user to view it if they want to or go somewhere else if they are not interested.
Navigation is also a very important part of your site performing correctly. I have seen so many sites that have what I like to call rabbit holes. These are links that go to links that go to links and then you realize that there is no way of getting back to the page you were just on, without hitting the back button. Very frustrating! Another navigation error I have seen, is having two different navigation areas, one set of buttons are on the top and then there is another set of different buttons going down the side. Which one has the info your looking for? Who knows? Or do you even see the other ones? There is a very simple solution though. Create a navigation that incorporates all of the buttons on your site in one area and make sure that it is on every page. If you want to put new buttons on a page that break down a section into sub sections, just make sure you include the main navigation on every page inside the sub pages. Also, make sure that your buttons are listed in order of importance to your user, not you. That way they can find what they are looking for faster with less frustration. Simple right? Yet I am amazed at how many sites (major companies too) have horrible navigation with one or more of these issues. I was on a retail site the other day, I won’t say which one. I came to the site to find a local store and a phone number. Now for a retail company that button should be of high priority. Nope, it wasn’t, it took me almost a minute to find the store locator. There were 100 different buttons on this site and this one was one of the smallest button and was camouflaged in with 10 other really close buttons. If I didn’t already know that this company had what I needed and was a quality company, I would have left long before ever finding a local store. So in saying all that, if your users can’t find what they are looking for, what’s the point. So make sure you keep it clean and simple so that your users find your website easy to use. Ultimately that will leave a lasting impression in the mind of your user.
So when building a website remember that it must be designed well and also be functional. Feel free to call us at 770.630.1975 and we can review your site and suggest ideas to make sure your website looks and functions properly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
