It never ceases to amaze me at how little knowledge so called SEO companies are proud of spouting as part of their sales pitch. We received the following email that I think was supposed to encourage us to pick up the phone but instead had us in stitches.

Email from company X

My name is XXXX from XXXX. I’ve just performed a complimentary link check for you to highlight how popular your website is around the web. Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes to read this.

Here we go......

Here is the result:
[site name] is currently linked to by 9 websites. I have used Google to find these links because for most people this is the most important search engine.

Ever hear of Yahoo! Site Explorer"? For many years now it's been common knowledge that the 'link' operator used by Google to display links back to a site is a fictional representation. If you want to know what links Google sees pointing to your website then webmaster tools will give you an indication once you've created an account and verified the site you're registering as your own. Otherwise Yahoo! Site Explorer gives an indication.

A higher number of links pointing to your website means you can achieve far higher rankings on Google, Yahoo, MSN - meaning that you attract more customers, make more profit, and benefit from an increasing return on investment.

Quantity yes but no mention of quality here? Quality links will not only heighten the 'trust' associated with your own website but will also help you withstand the fluctuations inflicted by the algorithm changes.

To achieve the above, the full service we are offering you includes on-going link campaigns plus the peace of mind that your website is always correctly "tuned" to the search engines' current algorithms (extremely important these days).

Ha Ha Ha!

To make sure you get the results you need, your actual search engine results are backed by our 2 tier Top 10 Promise:
1. If we don’t achieve first page rankings for your selected search terms on Google, Yahoo, MSN we’ll refund your money! 2. If we don’t then keep you on first page rankings for your selected search terms on Google, Yahoo, MSN we’ll refund your money!

At every stage of your campaign you will be kept fully up to date, with regular reports detailing exactly how your search terms are performing across the search engines.

We have achieved excellent results for many of our clients using extremely competitive search terms. To find out what kind of results our clients have experienced, we are happy to provide you with their contact details so you can contact them directly.

You will also benefit from your own personal account manager whom you may contact at any time should you need any assistance or have any questions.

Very impressive indeed....

However doing a search on Google and I quote "I have used Google to find these links because for most people this is the most important search engine" this company do not appear for any of the top 20 key phrases used by search engine optimisation companies. And regardless of their promotional techniques a quick look at the source of the home page shows the first meta tag as:

"meta content="noindex,nofollow" name="robots" /"

For those that don't know, this tells the search engines robots that visit your site and index the content, to steer clear. Don't come here, do not look and certainly don’t include us in your index! It beggars belief really but certainly provides a good laugh!

There are many reasons for implementing server side redirects both temporary and permanent but whatever the reason caution should be exercised. A 301 redirect tells the search engines that a page or site has been permanently redirected and a 302 tell them that the move is temporary.

Imagine a company is re branding. As part of the re brand there may be a more appropriate domain name that is now available and would better reflect the image of the business online. But, the company already ranks well in the search engines for its main key phrases, so does it keep the existing domain which won't reflect the re brand and make product pages more appropriate or does it go the whole hog and shift to the new domain? Now, if you're just changing page names on the same domain, cleaning things up and pointing one page on your site to a new page, there's no problem. All of the off page work that's been done will retain its value with no long term negative impact on the SERPs.

Theoretically you should be able to implement the 301 from the old domain to the new domain, again retaining the value of the valuable off page work that's been done, but having tested the theory, there's a problem. By pointing the website at a new domain you're opening it up to the 'new site filters' (or dare I say sandbox effect in Google's case) and it will be filtered in the same way. There's no time frame to this and it really depends on how competitive the search terms are you are trying to target before you may or may not see a return to previous positions. Effectively you've started from scratch - Ouch!

If you're considering implementing a 301 to a new domain, you know the work that's been involved in getting your original rankings so I'm not going to go into what needs to be done here but it seems very strange that there's no way of differentiating between a completely new site and one that's been previously well established but simply undergone a name change or re brand.

Yahoo! have just released Yahoo Search Assist in the US. It's another technology enabler that searches the Yahoo! results database and makes alternative suggestions while you type. The idea is a solid one and as average searchers become more 'search savy', more accurate results can be produced with more accurate search terms. They are to be congratulated; it's not bad although it can be a bit annoying when the search assist box won't disappear. The scroll arrows are very small and the results won't scroll unless you click on either the up or the down arrow and for what appears to be around 10 - 20 suggestions. In addition to this, the search assist box stretches right across the screen with a lot of grey space which is unnecessary and visually unappealing. Although unable to reproduce it a second time, I did find a search phrase that occupied the majority of the grey area with a set of results that required you to scroll horizontally as well as vertically on the left hand side......messy.

This kind of technology isn't ground breaking though and one of the biggest search engines, Google has been playing with it for longer than I care to remember. In true style, their version is simple, uncluttered and easy to use and I think that Yahoo! Search Assist could be simplified to enhance the user experience further. Bring it on for the UK!

As a business we've invested lots of time and money in extremely comprehensive enterprise web applications - an excellent coldfusion content management system, document management systems and e-learning engines. They look great and work even better and we're at a point now where we're considering the future of one of the technologies that we use. There's no doubt that ColdFusion is an excellent application development environment but its biggest downfall is the cost. Given the choice, clients will opt for 'value for money' products and when you consider that competitive application servers are open source or free - whether it's ASP.NET or PHP, it's hard to understand why Adobe insisted on increasing the price of ColdFusion for the latest release.

Strategically their thinking makes no sense unless they are trying to kill the product off. The developer community is shrinking and it would seem more sensible to open source the application server and offer suites of well supported add-ons for sale. As ever the developer community would rise to the challenge and a range of well crafted and supported applications would be available for free but this is where Adobe would have the edge with their brand adding consumer confidence to any purchase. Who knows what the future holds for Adobe's application server but I know that I'm getting to a point where I'm tired of having to remind clients that they need to buy ColdFusion in order to use some of our products.

Although not considered one of the big players, search engine Wisenut has closed its doors to the public. Owned by Looksmart, the reasons are as yet unclear but a combination of no clear long term strategy and failure to focus on what the search community are looking for seem to have contributed to its downfall.

Over the years Looksmart have not necessarily made the most sensible management decisions and an underutilised top heavy management team may have been part of the problem. Unfortunately they perpetuated a perception of poor value amongst SEM professionals by failing to engage the SEM community which all contributed to their negative image over the years.

Having your site penalised in the biggest search engine in the world is no laughing matter. One day you can be ranking well for your most important key phrase and the next, you're gone, nowhere to be seen. A deep search may reveal you languishing around the 450 or even worse 950 mark and that means no one is ever going to find you. This usually happens as a result of an algo tweak but what you've done with your site in the past is what's being reflected by that algo tweak now.

Clean up

The first thing to do is clean up your site. Thoroughly check for broken links, duplicate content and anything else that could be considered irrelevant or unhelpful to site visitors. Make sure that your titles and descriptions are unique to each page. Make the necessary changes to make the site as 'clean' as possible.

Content

As an ongoing process you should be adding relevant new content to your site. This content will not only keep the site fresh in the eyes of the search engines but will improve the site for your visitors and keep them coming back for more. Make sure that your content is not 'over optimised'. It's really simple - write your content for your visitors, not the search engines.

Links

Let's make no mistake here - this is what it's all about. The more relevant links to your site from good quality sites that are 'trusted' by the search engines the more chance you have of ranking well. There are 2 factors in play though - the quality of the links and the number of links and ultimately a combination of both. Extensive testing has shown that as part of the algo there is some kind of ratio 'number of quality links vs number of links'. Get this balance right and your site will fly but get it wrong and you're gone. Good quality one way links are more important and can save you from a multitude of sins including getting your site ranking well again.

Sitemap

There's no harm in adding the Google site map. If anything thing it gives you a clear indication of indexing problems that your site may have - but keep it updated. If the site map's not updated regularly and the site appears to have become stale with old content Google may reduce its indexing and caching frequency which could be an indication of loss of trust.

Re-evaluation Request

It seems that every 6 months or so Google will automatically review your site status. In your Google webmaster tools dashboard you also have the ability request a re-evaluation if you believe that your site has infringed the Google guidelines. As long as you've made the necessary changes and you're honest about the mistakes you've made you'll find your site popping back in where you expect it.

Stop changing things

Now you've made the changes (or not) forget the site. Don't be reactive to every fluctuation in the SERPs you see. Improvements don't happen overnight and you shouldn't expect to see stable results return for 6 months or so but it will happen. Be realistic and most importantly keep building quality inbound links from trusted resources and adding new unique content.

DMOZ, the Open Directory Project or ODP, has long been considered a valuable directory from which to get a link. The process of obtaining one is, in theory, straight forward; use the submit link on the most appropriate category, enter your site details and wait for your site to be reviewed by the category editor. And wait. And wait. And wait. Once your site is reviewed, if the content is unique, appropriate and deemed to be of value to the directory users it will be included.

DMOZ forms the basis of the Google Directory and there are many clones which means getting your site listed can lead to many on-topic back links. Understand that on-topic links are the basic building blocks of good SEO and you can see why webmasters are eager to be included.

So, in theory, it's great. The problem is in the practise. DMOZ is owned by AOL and operated by a small number of paid staff and numerous volunteer editors. Because the number of submissions are so high, waiting for your site to be reviewed can take years. The limited communication between editors and submitters and the finality of editorial decisions can make it a very frustrating process. In addition, accusations of corruption, bribery and extortion taint the idea of even obtaining a link. Certainly, there are cases where some sites seem to receive preferential treatment; Wikipedia points to Topix.net, a site operated by ODP founder Rich Skrenta having over 10,000 listings.

Personally, I've had mixed experiences with DMOZ:

• I've submitted sites with informative, useful and unique content that have never been included (unless they are still waiting to be reviewed after more than 5 years)
• I've had sites removed from categories for no legitimate reason (i.e. a site being dropped from it's regional listing when the bricks and mortar address hadn't changed)
• I've had a site included in a fairly high level category in less than 24 hours. The latter was accompanied by a very helpful email from the editor offering praise and constructive criticism

Mixed experiences indeed.

So is it worth taking the time to submit? Yes. The process is straight forward and if your site is eventually included you've gained a number of valuable links and possibly some visitors (the ODP is, in places, an excellent resource). It's certainly not worth stressing over though. Asking for status reports at Resource Zone, the ODP's link to the humble submitter, achieves little and at the end of the day your site will either be included or it won't; you're better off spending your time looking for other links. Is it worth paying for a listing? I suppose that would depend on the category and the asking price. Obviously, the ODP are rigorously opposed to editors accepting money for listing sites but it stands to reason that it happens. After all, greed is a much older concept than the back link.

Update: In an interesting move, DMOZ have started a blog. The stated aims are to:

• Provide authentic messages about DMOZ and the efforts of their volunteer community
• Highlight enhancements, both current and future
• Allow editors to showcase their categories and describe, in their own words, why DMOZ is so important
• Recruit new editors

The first two points should have been available for a long, long time and, while they may provide some information of interest, don't appear to directly benefit the users of the directory or those who submit to it. The third point strikes me as total and unnecessary self-indulgence. Perhaps for the fourth they could publicise the going rate for back-handers? :)

A re-evaluation request can see your site pop back into the index. If you think that you may have infringed the terms and conditions laid down by Google then this is your chance to own up and get things moving again. The best thing, as advised by Matt Cutts, is to be honest; they already know what you've done wrong.

Below is an example of a request sent for a site that had knowingly participated in some border-line acceptable practises but had since been completely cleaned. Obviously, not all points will be relevant but this open and honest approach worked and the site re-appeared in the SERPS within about 8 weeks.

"My site [sitename.com] in the past has participated in automated link networks which is why I believe the site is being penalised. This happened as a result of bad judgement on my part being a new webmaster at the time.

The site has moved on and a great deal of work has been done over the last 12 months to both eradicate elements that violate Google's terms and to build an ethical and reliable information resource for the UK. Work has been done for both 'on' and 'off' page elements of the site including:

On page

• Complete rework of titles and descriptive elements removing any that could be considered spam, making them more relevant to the user
• Source code has been 'cleaned' to remove any javascript elements that may be causing problems - this included a javascript banner rotator on each page
• Pages that contained unrelated links - both one way and reciprocal have been removed from the site
• During the last year over 100 unique articles covering current & relevant topics have been crafted and added to the site
• Content is updated regularly - once a week to keep the site fresh and informative
• The blog has be moved and incorporated into the rest of the main site giving visitors the opportunity to leave comments
• Server headers have been improved to include additional information

Off page

• The site & blog have been moved to a new server on a new IP address hosted in a secure datacentre
• Bad links / redirects have been removed from other sites
• Genuine ethical link building has been carried out using a combination of article submissions, press releases and site & directory submissions.

A huge amount of time and energy has been made over the last 12 months to build the site in an ethical manner. All elements that I'm aware of that could have infringed guidelines have been removed / rectified. We've learned from our experience and mistakes and will only continue to build the site in a fashion that will ultimately benefit the end user."

Google doesn't give much away which is part of what makes the challenge of ranking well all the more interesting. Because the search engine has so many pages indexed, it's tended to split its results across 2 indexes, one more relevant than the other. Pages that were deemed 'less relevant' were stored as part of the 'supplemental index' and this could have been for any number of reasons but it at least provided an opportunity for search marketers to identify these pages and work to convert them into more relevant content pieces and improving the overall results returned.

However, last week Google removed this feature of marking these pages as 'Supplemental Results'. The explanation was that a huge amount of work has been done to bring the two indexes closer together therefore enhancing the quality of the results returned so there was no longer the need to identify these results separately but in reality it simply cannot work that way. As well a storage area for badly structured pages the supplemental index was a holding area for all the spam results that are generated by automated programmes designed to fool Google into high rankings. Google say they will have rolled out this combined index by the end of the summer and if they've finally identified a way of correctly identify spam whilst allowing genuine pages to perform better then that can only be a good thing. But, if things remain as they are with 2 separate unidentified indexes, the challenge gets even harder with many good pages being sent to 'supplemental hell' with no indication of where improvement is needed.

Bots and Humans

We've heard rumours for some time now that in order to keep its results in check, Google uses a team of human evaluators to check the results of its automated search algorithm. The numbers of people involved are unknown but speculation suggests that there are somewhere in the region of 10,000 people worldwide who belong to this team. Scepticism is always rife when it comes to Google and what they do to get their results but recently whilst doing some log file analysis we found the following referral: https://www.google.com/evaluation/search/rating/task-edit?task=xxxxxx. I wouldn't recommend trying to open the url as access is obviously limited to those with the correct "evaluation" accounts but it confirmed in our minds that this is a real team of people checking results.

Is Human Evaluation a Good Thing?

It should be. There's no reason to suspect otherwise but humans are capable of making errors. Without knowing the criteria used for human evaluation it's impossible to say what problems could arise. It can't be the highest paid job in the world and as we understand it is usually carried out by students on a part time basis being paid by the hour. The fact that we hear very little about it and the criteria used for checking, we suspect that Google has tied down contractual arrangements pretty well and would therefore hope that those arrangements also extend to the quality of the human evaluation.

There are sites hosted in countries out there which will scrape or cache your pages using proxy servers to store copies of those pages. Having copies of your pages available to search engines means that someone is going to suffer duplicate content penalties (loss of rankings) and for some very strange reason it appears that, particularly in Google, the original content is being penalised in favour of the proxy content. This not only destroys traffic levels and revenue streams but leads to further problems that as yet, there are no definitive solutions for.

950 Penalty

Since last year (2006) sites that previously ranked well for their main key phrases disappeared from the search engine results pages (SERPs) and only by digging really deep into the results have the sites been found languishing around the -950 mark. There are ways in which sites can recover from this which we'll cover at a later point but an excellent discussion on the 950 penalty can be found at webmasterworld.com.

Proxy Duplicate Content

Unfortunately there is no best way to deal with proxy duplicate content. There are a number of measures you can put in place to protect yourself. A common problem is the proxy server 'bots' will spoof their identity, identifying themselves as genuine search engine 'bots' and conducting reverse and forward DNS look ups prior to allowing access can combat this. But if you're not really concerned about traffic from the most common originating countries for proxy servers then you'd just as well ban IP ranges from countries such as China and Russia. Admittedly a more blanket effect, but a very positive solution none the less.

Content Hijacking

Content hijacking will always be part of the Internet. If you produce excellent work, others are always going to copy it and pass it off as their own - we know because it's happened to us. You're not usually aware of it until things go wrong and knowing how to recover and taking measures to stop it happening again is what's going to put your site back on top.

Updating your website doesn’t have to be painful. We provide content management solutions that put you in control of maintaining and changing your website to best reflect your company’s evolving image. Content management systems are quite a straight forward idea, giving you control of your website and letting you change things when they need to be changed without relying on third party intervention to do it.

Whether you need to regularly update price lists, post new articles to an employee newsletter or make changes to technical documents, a good content management system will make it easy. We design content management systems that help you and your employees do their jobs by providing:

• An intuitive user interface that’s easy to understand and use
• A streamlined workflow so that each document is passed along to those that need to sign it off
• Layers of security so that each employee only has the access and authority that they need to do their job properly
• Databases to manage all of your documents securely and efficiently

Originally developed as a way to easily allow non-technical users to publish information to a website, content management systems have evolved into robust business solutions that allow you to monitor and manage changes to all sorts of documents. They also allow you to distribute the workload by managing and updating documents among the departments and employees that are creating them, as well as providing a true collaborative environment for your employees to create new content and material.

Contact us for information on how a bespoke content management solution can help your firm accomplish its online marketing and advertising goals.

We understand that website design is about more than how your company looks on the web. A pretty website is only part of the equation, and we aim to deliver a total solution. Our designers are experts at creating eye-catching, innovative websites that suit your business and its image – but we also deliver far more than that.

A design that takes your online marketing strategy into account is vital to the success of any online business. We provide effective and stylish website design services that put your online goals in the forefront. We focus on building sites that meet high usability standards, are technically excellent and offer real value and benefit to both your firm and its customers. Whether you require a few pages for informational purposes or a full-fledged content management solution, our team of  specialists can provide you with the perfect solution.

Our website design services include:

• Full website design
• Update and redesign your existing website
• Provide content management solutions
• Intranet and extranet design
• Branding and brand recognition services
• Search engine optimisation services
• Custom website graphics
• Custom programming including Cold Fusion and .NET
  
• Website design consultancy
• Content management solutions
• Shopping carts, catalogs and ecommerce design
• Ongoing website maintenance

If you’re in the market for an upgrade or a new website design, contact us to see how our website design services can benefit you.

Your website is more than what your customers see. A well designed site also makes it easier for you and your employees to do business by providing a secure space for exchanging information, updating content, communicating with each other and streamlining procedures. Intranets and extranets are ways to securely share a central body of information and tools with all of your employees.

What's the difference between intranet and extranet?

An intranet is a private network that uses internet protocols and connectivity to share information among employees of a firm or business. It's rather like a website that only your employees can access. You can use it to host databases, content management systems, staff information, time clocks and bookkeeping applications. Intranets may be used to offer training modules, facilitate communication with discussion boards and serve as a central calendar for the entire company.

An extranet is a private network that uses internet protocols and connectivity to securely share information with partners, vendors, suppliers, customers and affiliates. An extranet might be used to host price lists that can be easily updated, take orders from customers, maintain technical documents and facilitate collaborations among multiple firms without giving any one of them access to the others' entire secure network.

Why intranet and extranet applications are important to your business

Applications that are shared on intranet and extranet applications allow firms and employees to share information and collaborate with each other on projects. They may be as simple as a shared pool of documents, like order forms and catalogs or as complex as whiteboards, chat spaces, discussion forums and development environments. Intranet and extranet spaces are invaluable for streamlining the flow of information and avoiding duplication of work.

Is your website accessible?

Most people would be stumped by that question. Few outside the industry have any concept what web accessibility is, let alone how to accomplish it. Yet, accessibility and usability are two very important concepts of web design today. An accessible website is one that conforms to standards that are designed to allow everyone, regardless of disability or technological limitation, to access the information it contains. Accessibility includes making your website viewable to all browsers, as well as conforming to design standards that make it easy for those with impared vision and hearing to access your content. An accessible website invites everyone to enjoy, not just those who can meet a certain standard of technical ability.

Why address accessibility and usability issues on your web site?

Ethical considerations aside, making your website accessible to all means increasing your audience. The more people who are able to view your site, the larger your potential audience becomes.

Whereas accessibility focuses on the ability of all types of browsers (including voice browsers for the visually impaired) to read your content, usability focuses on how easy it is for your visitors to navigate your website and find what they need. Both accessibility and usability can be built into your website from the start. Good website design makes your site accessible to all, and easy to use for everyone. Excellent website design goes beyond accessibility and usability standards and uses the principles of accessible website design to steer your visitors into using your website in the way that you want them to use it.

We specialise in creating accessible and highly usable websites by design. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you increase your website’s accessibility and usability, contact us for a chat.