Search Engine Optimisation

With just 15 days left until the New Year I thought I would give you yet another list!!! This time not quite so harsh to follow. Doing just one of these a day (maybe two or three if you want a day off) is the simple way to improve your search rank.

1. Create meaningful title tags for each page
2. Make use of the description meta tag
3. Make use of the keywords meta tag
4. Try to implement SEO URL’s
5. Improve your navigation (make your site easy to follow)
6. Use keywords for both internal and external linking
7. Improve use of header tags
8. Use Alt tags for images
9. Can you shave bytes from your images? if so do it
10. Use your robots.txt file effectively
11. Beware of using rel=”nofollow” links
12. Use social networks effectively
13. Use effective call to actions
14. Create good copy
15. Promote your site where possible – but be responsible

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed I have previously covered all of these topics at www.andykinsey.com in the past few months. 

Want to get 3 months of SEO work on your website for FREE?
Want to get your website to the top of the search engine rankings?
Want to drive more traffic to your site, and so get more business?

If you have answered YES to any of the above then this is the competition for you!

There are several ways of entering the competition.

1. Leave A Comment Below (use a real e-mail and website, else i can’t track you!)
2. Apply for a Quote (using the Get a Quote page)
3. Submit this article to StumbleUpon or DiggIt (you can click one of those links below or the text, on stumble you must leave a review!)
4. Mention this post in your blog and link to it (let me know if you have incase i don’t pick it up)
5. Add this blog to your Technorati fravourites (link to the right or below) 
6. Link me from your Twitter account (let me know again)

In addition to the First prize of a FREE 3 month SEO contract, AK Designs is offering a Second prize of a 1 month contract also Four entrants will gain permanent links from this site.

You can enter as many times as you want!!!

All winners are chosen at random, from the database of entrants. This competition ends 10th Januray 2009 (2359), Winners will be announced and made aware by 12th January 2009 (1200). If you have any questions please contact me through the contact page of this site.
[edit 22:17 10/12/08 ak - 5 entries per ip via comments, tweets must include @andykinsey or be screen-printed and sent to admin*at*andykinsey.com ]

So this week I’ve been walking around the shops, watching people smile as over the tannoy comes a Christmas song they like. I’ve seen music channels play more and more of these songs too. And of course lets not forget the Christmas decorations have finally gone up… even though I persist they don’t quite look right.

I am now getting that Christmas feeling, and with this I was wondering how I can help people with SEO … Most sites go on and on saying “christmas present” but giving you no good and real advice… So Heres Andy’s Designs Christmas Alphabet:

C – Content
H – Headings
R – Relevancy of Text
I – Images
S – Spiders and Search Engines
T – Text (content)
M – Meta Tags
A – Accessibility
S – Social Networking and Media

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Googlecentric (according to the Urban Dictionary) is “A view of the world centered on Google and/or Googling” My wife doesn’t belief that ____ exists because it wasn’t available on Google. She is Googlecentric.

Although I do not doubt there are people out the like this mans wife, I somewhat doubt that most people are this serious, and thats not the point of this blog. I want to ask you, and your SEO company are they and therefore is your site Googlecentric? My bet form most people…. yes! and why….well to be honest there is no good reason!!!

Firstly before I carry on I should make clear AK Designs and the companies of which I am affiliated/contracted for etc are not Googlecentric, this is why I refer to rankings as Search Ranks and not PageRanks (which is google specific). SR’s are based on a formula of many aspects of any given site.

Back before Yahoo began to go down hill ….last year. It was China’s Biggest search supplier….and Japans, maybe something to do with them being based there (who knows), and this made them the second largest online search engine….and of course in first was Google!!! So it would stand to reason if you came top of google you would be top of yahoo right? wrong! and consider this….today MSN (Microsofts Search Network) has moved forward so much it is now less than 10% behind Google!!! So why are companies still Google Centric? … Because it pays to be this, people like to see the words “top of google” and “page rank 9 out of 10″, well I laugh in the face of these people, yes it means your successful but go and search the same keywords on msn and yahoo and ask then tell me you are successful!. I doubt you can.

Anyway so heres a brief list about Why you shouldn’t be Google specific.

1. Other Search Engines bring traffic too! Even if you only ever get a little from them no traffic should be forgotten, its people from this traffic that pay the bills, not the search engines!
2. It may never happen but …What if google goes down! and your bottom of the other rankings! …your dead in the water. What if the other SE becomes more popular…again dead in the water?
3. Other search engines give you more chance to reach a certain demographic for your site, just like certain social networks will. (eg. LinkedIn will give you business links where as facebook probably will not).

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