Filed under: Uncategorized
Did you know that you can see if search engines are indexing all of the pages on your website (or any other website)? For my own site I’d enter site:dawnshears.com as the search string. (Just replace the url with any other one…leave out the www)
It will return all of the indexed pages of that site.
If all of your site pages are not being indexed that could be a sign that something is wrong and the ‘bots and spiders are not able to “see” all of your pages. For instance, when I see that only the home page of a site is being indexed, no other pages, it can mean a few things. Perhaps the site is new, sometimes it takes a while for all pages to get indexed. If the site isn’t new it usually means there is a structural problem. Either the site navigation or the site is in Flash or uses frames or another issue. Nine times out of ten it’s issues with Flash or frames. While it’s preferable to build sites (like I do) from the bottom up with search engines in mind, often the site was already in place and it’s not practical to completely redesign it. There are ways to “fix” an existing site to overcome these issues. I’ll address that more in another post.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Wikia: brought to you by the fine folks at Wikipedia
Wikipedia has launched their own search engine, Wikia, today. Although it won’t be a very robust resource for quite some time, Wikia is set up much differently than search giants Google, Yahoo and MSN. Just like Wikipedia, volunteer collaborators will rank and recommend websites and also exclude anything that looks “spammy,” or deceitful. In this way the collaborators become an active part of the Wikia ranking algorhythm. The founder, Jimmy Wales, anticipates that Wikia will return more valid, better quality, search results than other large engines.
This is a pretty interesting concept. It makes me think of the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) search directories (Alta Vista was powered by the DMOZ) that use people, not spiders or ‘bots, to categorize and rank material. I just know it took a long time to get sites accepted and indexed. By default, ranking systems like these favor sites that have longevity.
Will this change the way I do search engine optimization, going forward? Not really. I’ll keep an eye on Wikia and be sure to take that engine into consideration. Perhaps, I will start submitting sites to Wikia for consideration to test drive it. The same good search engine optimization practices I’ve been using should put all sites in good stead with any legitimate search system. Using only “best practices” with no deceptive or spammy tricks seems to work well across the board.
As Wikia matures, it will be interesting to see how successfully a seach engine can index and rank sites using a system similar to Wikipedia.
PC world article >>
Filed under: SEO
Sometimes even I am amazed at the fantastic results I am able to get using best-practices for good search engine rankings.
Currently, I am ranking very high on the 1st page of the SERPs (search engine results pages) for the following key phrases:
A BIG victory, considering some of my competition!
Clients are always asking me about meta-tags, and I just answered questions about them again, last week. Here is a little about meta-tags and their value for search rankings/optimization.
First, meta-tags are not really used by Google…just by some older search engines. The only way to really rank well for desired key phrases is to assure that they are used a lot in the website text, really.
Much of the optimization comes about when I actually build the site and do so in a way that Google and other SEs can easily access and index all pages and that flash or images are not used for links or headers…but are coded. also, phrases that are in orI put the meta-tags in for older SEs and also so it’s clear to everyone what key phrases are bing targeted. All’s anyone has to do is look at the source code (view > source in any browser.)
Some things that really DO impact your rankings in search engines (especially Google) are:
Research: be sure you are targeting valuable key phrases by doing your research ahead of time. Also, the more specific and realistic they key phrases you are targeting, the better your changes at ranking well.
Content: key phrases need to appear in visible site content
Architecture: How your site is built can have an impact on search engine’s ability to access pages and information. Appropriate use of key phrases in bold, headers, image tags and page titles also helps as Google assigns a higher importance to that content.
Flash: Don’t build your whole site in Flash or use it for navigation.
Frames: I don’t recommend frames nor is there any reason to use them these days. They can be a barrier to search engines.
And remember that a good web/seo person will provide you with quantitative evidence of your rankings in the form of a baseline report and monthly or quarterly progress reports! Don’t totally rely on this…periodically do spot checks in Google or other engines, by hand.
Filed under: blog design
I am involved with sustainable food resources here in my small coastal community. For thanksgiving, we had a 100-mile potluck. The criteria was that all food needed to come from within a 100 miles of here. Actually, most of it ended up coming from within 20 miles of here.
This gave me an idea for a website that was interactive and not only showed all of the local farms and growers in the area but also allowed neighbors to post info when they had food to share, e.g., too many apples, eggs, salmon, etc.
I set up a customized blog to showcase the idea. The blog is just meant to be a demo of what would later be a dynamic website:
Here is a free tool that I frequently use to quickly check clients’ key phrase rankings:
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
I’ve checked out several tools and have also used the long method, entering key phrases by hand into each search engine. This really cuts down on time.
Filed under: blog design, photography | Tags: blog customization, photography
One is professional and one is personal.It’s a good example how blog tools can be customized for your needs. Her professional blog is at:
I also set up a personal blog for her…it reflects her other business. She can post things here that are not really appropriate for some of her professional clients:
By-the-way, I created the photo banners and also shot the photo for her professional site!
I’m finding that an excellent way to quickly add value and content online is to use a professional blog. Blogs like this one are free, quick to post on and they automatically are picked up by Google and other search engines. If you link from your corporate site to your blog and vice/versa, it’s a good way to drive traffic to your corporate website.
Your blog site can be customized with a header and colors that compliment your corporate site (your web person can help you there), too.
A few tips:
Keep your professional and personal online presence separate: Never use your name on your personal sites. For instance, I have several personal websites and blogs for friends and family but I never use my real name or contact info there. Be sure to include your contact information and links on your professional blog, though!
Use your blog to talk about special details of projects that you normally don’t have the time to go into. Prospects will appreciate this information as will other developers…after all, the web is all about sharing information!
Link to your blog instead of using a “news” or “events” page on your corporate website. I find that clients and myself are much more likely to keep the information fresh with a blog. Even I get lazy and don’t feel like coding pages and sending them to the server (2 – 3 steps.) A 1-step process can save so much time!
Do talk about your latest projects on your blog.
This is a good place to share things your have read elsewhere online if it can provide value and insight for your clients/prospects/associates.
My largest launch ever. Essential Bodywear was one of my first clients for my solo consulting business. They came back over a year later and wanted me to completely redesign their website and replicating sites. As the project progressed they were so pleased with my work that they also added a lot more animation, video, custom eVites and even a Flash game.
