MBS Electrical, an electrical installation, repair and maintenance company based in Manchester have a new website, designed by Andy Kinsey Designs. (They also have a bunch of new stationary designed by us too!)
The New MBS Electrical Website - Design by Andy Kinsey Designs
The site is designed to meet the needs of the client as always, adding more functionality than the previous website designed by Yell.com / the Yellow Pages – the site can be found at http://www.mbselectrical.co.uk
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
WordPress is one of the most powerful blogging platforms in the world, and of course WP is also the most commonly used open source blogging tool in the world. Considering this it will be no surprise that I know many people who use the system (I help bug fix and build templates for some of them), and also it is no surprise that I get bombarded with questions about the system. The most common of which is, What plugins can I use to help SEO on my wordpress blog?
Well, given there are a huge number of so called SEO plugins for wordpress this isn’t the easiest question to answer. Having played around with wordpress for several years now and become something of a WP geek I have of course played with many SEO plugins. However, As the title of this post suggests I do have a number of favourite plugins to use, and they are listed below
All In One SEO
This plugin is by far and away my favourite, not only is it simple to use and install but it is also customisable in the key areas that matters. Along with several other plugins by the great Micheal Torbert All in One is an utterly superb tool that I advise all wordpress users to implement. – Get the Plugin
Google XML Sitemap Generator
This plugin creates (and updates) a Google XML sitemap, pings various services (including Bing, Ask & Yahoo), allowing for your blog/website to be better indexed by search engines. This tool is created by another great wordpress plugin developer Arne Brachold. – Get the Plugin.
Similar Posts
This plugin compares your posts, and creates a list of what it considers to be the most related or relevant similar posts – this can then be outputted with your posts and in your feed. This is a valuable internal linking mechanism, developed by Mr Rob Marsh. – Get the Plugin
WordTwit
This plugin generates a tweet output direct from wordpress, and also includes bit.ly and Google (analytics) Urchin integration. This is a light weight tool and works amazingly well – so much better than many of the bulkier plugins I’ve seen and played with. WordTwit was developed by BraveNewCode. – Get the Plugin
Our hosting partners UKHOST4U have today announced a huge summer sale.
UKHost4u.com is offering a 25% discount on all web hosting products including Shared Hosting, VPS Server and Dedicated Servers. You can also use the 25% additional discount to the already discounted products including products with Free Domain names or 3 Years for the Price of 2.
Paul Hughes Managing Director – “With this new 25% discount code you can now have a Budget Hosting account with a domain for as little as £14.99 per year!”
To take advantage of this offer simply enter the code ‘SUM25‘ at checkout.
The idea of “brand positioning” may seem a little out of the box, but a brand is about the bigger picture not just an end result. Brand Positioning is the art form of creating or transforming a brand into something that can persuade and realistically demonstrate its relevance to a customer’s daily life to become his or her regular choice.
To position a brand you need to remember that the position of your brand is not created by a marketer or the individual brand itself, it is how others perceive your brand collectively with other similar brands. (For example when I think of Nike I think sports reliable and well made products … this leads me to think of Adidas too … they have a similar brand position so this is not unusual, another example would be Microsoft and Apple). Whilst reading this article I therefore ask you take the view of your target audience (the consumer), put yourself in their shoes repeatedly and each time you do change the person you empathise with … so maybe your targeting 18 to 14 years olds, think of it from a male and female point of view, think are they at uni or working, where they may work, try to consider all possible variables. Now having said a marketer doesn’t create the position they can have an overwhelming affect on the position of a brand in the consumers mind, and this is their job. A marketer should create the strategic and tactical suggestions to encourage the customer to accept a particular positioning in his or her mind.
To start the process of positioning your product, service or business as a whole you need to consider the following of your brand (get a pen and paper ready and write these down): key attributes or benefits that represent good value, whether it has a unique selling point (USP), how you can offer trust to your customer and also how your brand “appears” (eg if you are IBM you are wanting corporates to take you seriously so you ensure all of your products and services don’t look like a rough painting by a 2 year old … you ensure they are clean and professional with no fuss). It is these points you have written down that you now need to chop down to a maximum of 5 (ideally 3) great selling points and these will form the basis of your brand positioning (so keep these selling points in mind for everything to do with your business not just marketing in its literal form, but also indirect marketing via letter heads and business cards).
Now you’ve got the basics of what you want your brand to represent, it’s time for you to expand them into real selling points … not just a few words as some brands have like “clean” and “clear” … if you do have these words this is your chance to think about what they mean and how you convey them … again its a good idea to write these down – think of it as a little brainstorm in your notepad. Here are several characteristics of your brand you should consider whilst conveying your message and brand.
Relevance of Your Brand
The more obvious the connection is between the brand and the prospect’s daily activities, the greater the chances are that the chances of selling the product or service you are offering. Relevance, or the connection that the prospect has to the brand identity, is how customers ultimately decide which brands to buy and which they will discard. Consider: Is the identity of the brand too young or old for my target market? Are you targeting the right Audience? (by this I mean if your target audience is female and you are using lots of blue which is perceived as mail then your not targeting properly)
The Genuine Article
Many companies begin ensuing trust with a prospective customer by letting them know that what they offer is a genuine product or service (eg Coca-Cola on every bottle label from the company and the cans of course it tells you “it’s the real thing” and has the brand tagline “Always Coca-Cola” on coke or diet coke also microsoft sticker every machine with “windows genuine”).
Remember it is this little bit of detail (eg 100% genuine ruby) that gives you not only a little more trust from a prospective consumer but also adds a level of clarity and reassurance from your brand to the customer and may be the single point of differentiation between your offering and another businesses. Consider: Is your service or product somehow “more” genuine than anyone else? Do you manufacture the product or service? Now consider how you can emphasise this element.
Article Sponsored by Crystals Merchant Services
Your Message / Tag Line
Whether you have the worlds best strategy for marketing your brand or not, it is worthless if you don’t have a clear, concise and focused message / slogan / mantra. It has to be appropriate, possibly be left of field (to make people think and ensure you stick in their mind) and finally it must sell your service. (one of the worlds best examples is “Gillette – The Best a Man Can Get” … clear and simple, also easy to remember.) Consider: Is your message relevant to your product or service? Can your message be misunderstood or twisted to look bad? Could it evoke a feeling of “warmth” towards your brand? Could the message be made more accurate to reflect your product or service? Does your message convey the company in a good light? (and if not does it do you more harm than good?)
Trust Based on a Promise
This is a dual aspect to your brand and is the Most Important factor in brand positioning. Firstly you give them a promise they can trust and believe in a promise of “100% FREE Delivery” or “100% satisfaction or your money back” or something similar. In doing this you give them something for nothing in essence, even though you make these promises if one person takes it up its more than likely the sales made from the promise will out weigh one persons want to get their money back, most people see it as a sign of trust and not take it up even if they don’t like it. (take Asda own brand goods, they all says satisfaction or your money back, how many people have taken them up on this … my guess is one person being funny, how many people have thought ooh money back …. i’ll have some of that … and bought it – i bet millions). The other edge to making a promise is to be promise your USP … or show it more… take sure for women … why does it sell to women (other than its perfumed fragrance of flowers?) because its message is “it’s pH balanced for a woman, and not a man.” what about L’Oreal …. people buy it because the slogan makes you believe your worth it … can you think what the slogan might be … “Because I’m worth it” – now think of how your message should be conveyed for your USP. Consider: What promises you could make about your product, service or company? Don’t make them if you can’t follow through on them. Does your promise add value? Can your product or service promise more than anyone else in your market? if so tell them, or even better show them.
So as you can see there is a great bit of work needs doing to position your brand correctly and several factors to consider, a good marketer will help you with this aspect of brand building. But as I always say any marketing is about the skills of the marketer and the passion of the client/business in question … not a single one alone.
So… Is your brand positioned correctly, would you like to move your market position to a place where you are much more reputable and increase your sales as a result? if so then contact us today and we can help you.
Now as many reader know I talk quite a bit about redesigning a website, what to do and what not to do along with ideas about how to make it a better redesign for all involved from the designer, to content writer to the end user… all oh which is important. This post may rake over some older ground that was once covered (I admit) but this is your 101 SEO checklist for a redesign of a website and the transition between one site to another without loosing any of the search ranking you’ve battled for.
Your Website Redesign SEO Checklist
For all the old URL’s that you aren’t using enable 301 redirects – this shows search engines that you are permanently moving to the new url from your old url. Generally this is done in a .htaccess file but can also be done using a php redirect in the header of the old location. Basically, you are pointing the old url to the new url. (eg. example.com/bob.php – old site to new site – example.com/about-bob)
Re-install (and if possible update) your analytic code … leaving this behind will mean you will loose ground because you have no statistics.
Create a new sitemap (both HTML and XML) and submit the new site map to the search engines.
Create a new robots.txt file … tip: start a new robots file otherwise you may prevent search engines from seeing directories you want them to now see but didn’t on the old site … a common mistake.
If your business is based in a locality ensure your registered with local business directories (including google local business centre).
Use a .htaccess file to forward a www and non-www to the other (or vice versa).
Include the canonical meta tag on all pages (more info about the canonical tag)
Organise your content and architecture into a solid forest formation – information architecture is a vital part of a site and enabling both maximum user access and search engines (for advice or help contact me)
If your site is anticipating a high volume of visitors consider all optimisation and don’t put needless 1mb flash files in your header… saving bandwidth means you save hosting costs in the long run, also by removing this type of file you are reducing the load time for both user and spider significantly.
Again if you anticipate high volume demands consider a layout change to put content where users want it and need it … think facebook updates every few months.
On any new site you should refresh all meta tags and title tags (as well as the content) a total content refresh is preferable to just a minor redesign of the layout … it is also likely by rewriting content you will help your natural keyword inclusion … reiteration can refocus your keyword focus and help in search rankings.
Ensure all tags are unique and no two tags are the same … this includes the title tag
On a redesign you should always increase the structure usability of a page … using H1, H2 etc tags is a good way of doing this and sectioning content. (don’t forget they can all look the same you just need to change the CSS for that tag!)
Use a logical and friendly url structure and embed keywords in the urls – more importantly make the memorable.
During testing you should look at layout of the site overall, page structure, overall design and more importantly your calls to action(CTA’s) … getting a good CTA on all pages is vital to make a site something more than a static page … and get your return on investment.
Optimise images by reducing file size (don’t use 300dpi images, reduce to around 80% quality … but don’t loose the clarity of the image) and by including an image alt tag on all images.
Create a custom 404 error page to redirect people to the right place … if you think its best and your structure is simple just return people to your homepage instead of a 404 error page.
Use anchor text for internal linking that you would do for external links … also make all internal links absolute (this means if someone tries to copy your code they take your link with them! and its also nicer for search engines).
Finally think about the 17 second design theory, if you users doesn’t find what they want within 17seconds of seeing your site they will simply leave and go to another site… load time and scan-ability of content is vital.
So that’s that then … your all sorted to move forward with your redesign.
Ok maybe not I know everyone who contacts me generally has a question about a post somewhere along the way, maybe the aren’t sure about one seo factor or need advice on how best to do something without hurting SEO on the site… either way I’m here to help so tweet me your SEO questions or even better tell me what you want to see in my new SEO book.
“this is a pre-recorded message for 00.00.01 01/01/10 – if your reading this please note andy loves you and your special in the head so happy new year and have a prosperous 2010, much kind hugs Andy”
Over the past few months I’ve preached about breaking the rules of design. I’ve spoke of how “normal” is boring and how sometimes just sometimes breaking the rules makes for a perfect website. Well this post is pretty much summing up the web design do’s and dont’s in terms of SEO … again these rules are here to be broken but most designers and developers won’t (usually with good reason).
Designs should be Clean and Simple – this does not mean it needs to be boring!
Avoid Splash Pages – these annoy people and can stop you being indexed by Search Engines.
Limit usage of Flash – it takes time to load and isn’t indexable.
Don’t (totally) re-invent the wheel of navigation – people need to know where things are.
Clever White Space – white space is your friend not your enemy, use it wisely.
Break it Up - break long pieces of text with images to elaborate your subject.
Use ALT tags – easy to use and amazing for SEO.
Layout and Design are a Constant – your layout shouldn’t change without good reason.
Clean the Code – ok not really design but clean code means faster loading.
Remove Distractions – anything flashing or distracting will draw the user away and search engines.
Pretty simple to follow I think, but then when you know how a lot of things are easy.
If you have any design rules to add to this list simply leave them below or tweet me @andykinsey and I will add them.
During the course of the year I’ve read more books than I have in the past 5 I think. And what makes this appear even sadder is that most of them have been about search engine optimisation and marketing! … ok, not so sad when you realise it’s my job and if I’m not reading a book then I am reading articles online or just looking for business trends to help myself and my clients stay ahead of the game.
Anyway since this year has been a bumper year for my reading offline I want to share my Top 5 SEO books with you. These are all amazon links as I suggest you buy a few and Amazon is a little cheaper than other places!
The Art of SEO (O’Reilly) – This book has become one of my bible references over the past year, it has everything for beginners to advanced SEO’s … each time I pick it up something new clicks in place – something I doubt my fellow SEO engineers will admit. Written by Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting, well known on the circuit as he seems to appear at ever web conference there is. At just over twenty pounds this SEO bible is a must have. (£20.41)
The Truth About Search Engine Optimisation (QUE) – Rebecca Lieb is known (as with myself) for cutting through the bull, in this book she brings together over 50 great SEO tips, explaining each chapter by chapter. This book is a must have for SEO’s and even more so if you want to try SEO yourself. At a snip under a tenner this will never be money wasted.(£8.53)
SEO Warrior (O’Reilly) – With just over 450 pages you’d be forgiven for thinking will you ever get to the end of the book, well the answer is you will… and when you do you will be smiling as the money starts rolling in. This isn’t a get rich quick book though, this is a book taking you through the nuts and bolts of SEO from what you can do in the design stage to on going deployment experiments … this book has it all. Priced at just over £20 trust me when I say it’s brilliant.
Be No#1 on Google (McGraw-Hill) – This was a book I picked up by mistake when I was buying SEO Warrior (above) and it’s not a book i’d normally pick up … given it promises so much i’d expect it to be a nothing book as a lot like this are. However the author (Jon Smith) gets it just right, balancing facts with tips and tricks there is a little beating around this bush but thats ok because this book is aimed at beginners. At under £10 this is a must have for all newbies to the online marketing world.
Small Business Owner’s Handbook to SEO (Atlantic) – This book has one of the longest title’s I’ve ever seen … when you look at the cover its ok but Amazon screwed that title up (take a look, i cut it down!). This is a book of 15 essential seo methods to build you search rankings, pretty much a start-block book for anyone with a new baby website. At under £15 you’ve nothing to loose taking a look at this book.
Well it’s been a week and to be honest it is getting incredibly hard to not use Google for things. From search to checking ranks to finding links to a site and even using webmaster tools … it’s beginning to hurt.
A week in and I’m starting to find that going to bing.com means I have to wait a minute or so for that stupid image to load, optimised by backside! But thank fully life is made easier by the little search box in internet explorer! mercy!
Another huge issue has been image searching, something I do a lot of these days and bing means slow as it eats up my bandwidth (mobile internet) and sucks the life from everything else I am doing… I tried yahoo but results are rubbish compared to Google and Bing.
Other than this is it affecting me?
Yes, I can’t use my mobile browser and I can’t check my emails on the go! I think this is what hurts the most, knowing I am not upto date with all my emails and I have no idea what is happening with my clients when I am out and about! That Sucks.
I also have a sore back and shoulder …. apparently if you ask facebook this is withdrawal symptoms Google.
MBS Electrical, an electrical installation, repair and maintenance company based in Manchester have a new website, designed by Andy Kinsey Designs. (They also have a bunch of new stationary designed by us too!)
The New MBS Electrical Website - Design by Andy Kinsey Designs
The site is designed to meet the needs of the client as always, adding more functionality than the previous website designed by Yell.com / the Yellow Pages – the site can be found at http://www.mbselectrical.co.uk
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
WordPress is one of the most powerful blogging platforms in the world, and of course WP is also the most commonly used open source blogging tool in the world. Considering this it will be no surprise that I know many people who use the system (I help bug fix and build templates for some of them), and also it is no surprise that I get bombarded with questions about the system. The most common of which is, What plugins can I use to help SEO on my wordpress blog?
Well, given there are a huge number of so called SEO plugins for wordpress this isn’t the easiest question to answer. Having played around with wordpress for several years now and become something of a WP geek I have of course played with many SEO plugins. However, As the title of this post suggests I do have a number of favourite plugins to use, and they are listed below
All In One SEO
This plugin is by far and away my favourite, not only is it simple to use and install but it is also customisable in the key areas that matters. Along with several other plugins by the great Micheal Torbert All in One is an utterly superb tool that I advise all wordpress users to implement. – Get the Plugin
Google XML Sitemap Generator
This plugin creates (and updates) a Google XML sitemap, pings various services (including Bing, Ask & Yahoo), allowing for your blog/website to be better indexed by search engines. This tool is created by another great wordpress plugin developer Arne Brachold. – Get the Plugin.
Similar Posts
This plugin compares your posts, and creates a list of what it considers to be the most related or relevant similar posts – this can then be outputted with your posts and in your feed. This is a valuable internal linking mechanism, developed by Mr Rob Marsh. – Get the Plugin
WordTwit
This plugin generates a tweet output direct from wordpress, and also includes bit.ly and Google (analytics) Urchin integration. This is a light weight tool and works amazingly well – so much better than many of the bulkier plugins I’ve seen and played with. WordTwit was developed by BraveNewCode. – Get the Plugin
Our hosting partners UKHOST4U have today announced a huge summer sale.
UKHost4u.com is offering a 25% discount on all web hosting products including Shared Hosting, VPS Server and Dedicated Servers. You can also use the 25% additional discount to the already discounted products including products with Free Domain names or 3 Years for the Price of 2.
Paul Hughes Managing Director – “With this new 25% discount code you can now have a Budget Hosting account with a domain for as little as £14.99 per year!”
To take advantage of this offer simply enter the code ‘SUM25‘ at checkout.
The idea of “brand positioning” may seem a little out of the box, but a brand is about the bigger picture not just an end result. Brand Positioning is the art form of creating or transforming a brand into something that can persuade and realistically demonstrate its relevance to a customer’s daily life to become his or her regular choice.
To position a brand you need to remember that the position of your brand is not created by a marketer or the individual brand itself, it is how others perceive your brand collectively with other similar brands. (For example when I think of Nike I think sports reliable and well made products … this leads me to think of Adidas too … they have a similar brand position so this is not unusual, another example would be Microsoft and Apple). Whilst reading this article I therefore ask you take the view of your target audience (the consumer), put yourself in their shoes repeatedly and each time you do change the person you empathise with … so maybe your targeting 18 to 14 years olds, think of it from a male and female point of view, think are they at uni or working, where they may work, try to consider all possible variables. Now having said a marketer doesn’t create the position they can have an overwhelming affect on the position of a brand in the consumers mind, and this is their job. A marketer should create the strategic and tactical suggestions to encourage the customer to accept a particular positioning in his or her mind.
To start the process of positioning your product, service or business as a whole you need to consider the following of your brand (get a pen and paper ready and write these down): key attributes or benefits that represent good value, whether it has a unique selling point (USP), how you can offer trust to your customer and also how your brand “appears” (eg if you are IBM you are wanting corporates to take you seriously so you ensure all of your products and services don’t look like a rough painting by a 2 year old … you ensure they are clean and professional with no fuss). It is these points you have written down that you now need to chop down to a maximum of 5 (ideally 3) great selling points and these will form the basis of your brand positioning (so keep these selling points in mind for everything to do with your business not just marketing in its literal form, but also indirect marketing via letter heads and business cards).
Now you’ve got the basics of what you want your brand to represent, it’s time for you to expand them into real selling points … not just a few words as some brands have like “clean” and “clear” … if you do have these words this is your chance to think about what they mean and how you convey them … again its a good idea to write these down – think of it as a little brainstorm in your notepad. Here are several characteristics of your brand you should consider whilst conveying your message and brand.
Relevance of Your Brand
The more obvious the connection is between the brand and the prospect’s daily activities, the greater the chances are that the chances of selling the product or service you are offering. Relevance, or the connection that the prospect has to the brand identity, is how customers ultimately decide which brands to buy and which they will discard. Consider: Is the identity of the brand too young or old for my target market? Are you targeting the right Audience? (by this I mean if your target audience is female and you are using lots of blue which is perceived as mail then your not targeting properly)
The Genuine Article
Many companies begin ensuing trust with a prospective customer by letting them know that what they offer is a genuine product or service (eg Coca-Cola on every bottle label from the company and the cans of course it tells you “it’s the real thing” and has the brand tagline “Always Coca-Cola” on coke or diet coke also microsoft sticker every machine with “windows genuine”).
Remember it is this little bit of detail (eg 100% genuine ruby) that gives you not only a little more trust from a prospective consumer but also adds a level of clarity and reassurance from your brand to the customer and may be the single point of differentiation between your offering and another businesses. Consider: Is your service or product somehow “more” genuine than anyone else? Do you manufacture the product or service? Now consider how you can emphasise this element.
Article Sponsored by Crystals Merchant Services
Your Message / Tag Line
Whether you have the worlds best strategy for marketing your brand or not, it is worthless if you don’t have a clear, concise and focused message / slogan / mantra. It has to be appropriate, possibly be left of field (to make people think and ensure you stick in their mind) and finally it must sell your service. (one of the worlds best examples is “Gillette – The Best a Man Can Get” … clear and simple, also easy to remember.) Consider: Is your message relevant to your product or service? Can your message be misunderstood or twisted to look bad? Could it evoke a feeling of “warmth” towards your brand? Could the message be made more accurate to reflect your product or service? Does your message convey the company in a good light? (and if not does it do you more harm than good?)
Trust Based on a Promise
This is a dual aspect to your brand and is the Most Important factor in brand positioning. Firstly you give them a promise they can trust and believe in a promise of “100% FREE Delivery” or “100% satisfaction or your money back” or something similar. In doing this you give them something for nothing in essence, even though you make these promises if one person takes it up its more than likely the sales made from the promise will out weigh one persons want to get their money back, most people see it as a sign of trust and not take it up even if they don’t like it. (take Asda own brand goods, they all says satisfaction or your money back, how many people have taken them up on this … my guess is one person being funny, how many people have thought ooh money back …. i’ll have some of that … and bought it – i bet millions). The other edge to making a promise is to be promise your USP … or show it more… take sure for women … why does it sell to women (other than its perfumed fragrance of flowers?) because its message is “it’s pH balanced for a woman, and not a man.” what about L’Oreal …. people buy it because the slogan makes you believe your worth it … can you think what the slogan might be … “Because I’m worth it” – now think of how your message should be conveyed for your USP. Consider: What promises you could make about your product, service or company? Don’t make them if you can’t follow through on them. Does your promise add value? Can your product or service promise more than anyone else in your market? if so tell them, or even better show them.
So as you can see there is a great bit of work needs doing to position your brand correctly and several factors to consider, a good marketer will help you with this aspect of brand building. But as I always say any marketing is about the skills of the marketer and the passion of the client/business in question … not a single one alone.
So… Is your brand positioned correctly, would you like to move your market position to a place where you are much more reputable and increase your sales as a result? if so then contact us today and we can help you.
Now as many reader know I talk quite a bit about redesigning a website, what to do and what not to do along with ideas about how to make it a better redesign for all involved from the designer, to content writer to the end user… all oh which is important. This post may rake over some older ground that was once covered (I admit) but this is your 101 SEO checklist for a redesign of a website and the transition between one site to another without loosing any of the search ranking you’ve battled for.
Your Website Redesign SEO Checklist
For all the old URL’s that you aren’t using enable 301 redirects – this shows search engines that you are permanently moving to the new url from your old url. Generally this is done in a .htaccess file but can also be done using a php redirect in the header of the old location. Basically, you are pointing the old url to the new url. (eg. example.com/bob.php – old site to new site – example.com/about-bob)
Re-install (and if possible update) your analytic code … leaving this behind will mean you will loose ground because you have no statistics.
Create a new sitemap (both HTML and XML) and submit the new site map to the search engines.
Create a new robots.txt file … tip: start a new robots file otherwise you may prevent search engines from seeing directories you want them to now see but didn’t on the old site … a common mistake.
If your business is based in a locality ensure your registered with local business directories (including google local business centre).
Use a .htaccess file to forward a www and non-www to the other (or vice versa).
Include the canonical meta tag on all pages (more info about the canonical tag)
Organise your content and architecture into a solid forest formation – information architecture is a vital part of a site and enabling both maximum user access and search engines (for advice or help contact me)
If your site is anticipating a high volume of visitors consider all optimisation and don’t put needless 1mb flash files in your header… saving bandwidth means you save hosting costs in the long run, also by removing this type of file you are reducing the load time for both user and spider significantly.
Again if you anticipate high volume demands consider a layout change to put content where users want it and need it … think facebook updates every few months.
On any new site you should refresh all meta tags and title tags (as well as the content) a total content refresh is preferable to just a minor redesign of the layout … it is also likely by rewriting content you will help your natural keyword inclusion … reiteration can refocus your keyword focus and help in search rankings.
Ensure all tags are unique and no two tags are the same … this includes the title tag
On a redesign you should always increase the structure usability of a page … using H1, H2 etc tags is a good way of doing this and sectioning content. (don’t forget they can all look the same you just need to change the CSS for that tag!)
Use a logical and friendly url structure and embed keywords in the urls – more importantly make the memorable.
During testing you should look at layout of the site overall, page structure, overall design and more importantly your calls to action(CTA’s) … getting a good CTA on all pages is vital to make a site something more than a static page … and get your return on investment.
Optimise images by reducing file size (don’t use 300dpi images, reduce to around 80% quality … but don’t loose the clarity of the image) and by including an image alt tag on all images.
Create a custom 404 error page to redirect people to the right place … if you think its best and your structure is simple just return people to your homepage instead of a 404 error page.
Use anchor text for internal linking that you would do for external links … also make all internal links absolute (this means if someone tries to copy your code they take your link with them! and its also nicer for search engines).
Finally think about the 17 second design theory, if you users doesn’t find what they want within 17seconds of seeing your site they will simply leave and go to another site… load time and scan-ability of content is vital.
So that’s that then … your all sorted to move forward with your redesign.
Ok maybe not I know everyone who contacts me generally has a question about a post somewhere along the way, maybe the aren’t sure about one seo factor or need advice on how best to do something without hurting SEO on the site… either way I’m here to help so tweet me your SEO questions or even better tell me what you want to see in my new SEO book.
“this is a pre-recorded message for 00.00.01 01/01/10 – if your reading this please note andy loves you and your special in the head so happy new year and have a prosperous 2010, much kind hugs Andy”
Over the past few months I’ve preached about breaking the rules of design. I’ve spoke of how “normal” is boring and how sometimes just sometimes breaking the rules makes for a perfect website. Well this post is pretty much summing up the web design do’s and dont’s in terms of SEO … again these rules are here to be broken but most designers and developers won’t (usually with good reason).
Designs should be Clean and Simple – this does not mean it needs to be boring!
Avoid Splash Pages – these annoy people and can stop you being indexed by Search Engines.
Limit usage of Flash – it takes time to load and isn’t indexable.
Don’t (totally) re-invent the wheel of navigation – people need to know where things are.
Clever White Space – white space is your friend not your enemy, use it wisely.
Break it Up - break long pieces of text with images to elaborate your subject.
Use ALT tags – easy to use and amazing for SEO.
Layout and Design are a Constant – your layout shouldn’t change without good reason.
Clean the Code – ok not really design but clean code means faster loading.
Remove Distractions – anything flashing or distracting will draw the user away and search engines.
Pretty simple to follow I think, but then when you know how a lot of things are easy.
If you have any design rules to add to this list simply leave them below or tweet me @andykinsey and I will add them.
During the course of the year I’ve read more books than I have in the past 5 I think. And what makes this appear even sadder is that most of them have been about search engine optimisation and marketing! … ok, not so sad when you realise it’s my job and if I’m not reading a book then I am reading articles online or just looking for business trends to help myself and my clients stay ahead of the game.
Anyway since this year has been a bumper year for my reading offline I want to share my Top 5 SEO books with you. These are all amazon links as I suggest you buy a few and Amazon is a little cheaper than other places!
The Art of SEO (O’Reilly) – This book has become one of my bible references over the past year, it has everything for beginners to advanced SEO’s … each time I pick it up something new clicks in place – something I doubt my fellow SEO engineers will admit. Written by Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting, well known on the circuit as he seems to appear at ever web conference there is. At just over twenty pounds this SEO bible is a must have. (£20.41)
The Truth About Search Engine Optimisation (QUE) – Rebecca Lieb is known (as with myself) for cutting through the bull, in this book she brings together over 50 great SEO tips, explaining each chapter by chapter. This book is a must have for SEO’s and even more so if you want to try SEO yourself. At a snip under a tenner this will never be money wasted.(£8.53)
SEO Warrior (O’Reilly) – With just over 450 pages you’d be forgiven for thinking will you ever get to the end of the book, well the answer is you will… and when you do you will be smiling as the money starts rolling in. This isn’t a get rich quick book though, this is a book taking you through the nuts and bolts of SEO from what you can do in the design stage to on going deployment experiments … this book has it all. Priced at just over £20 trust me when I say it’s brilliant.
Be No#1 on Google (McGraw-Hill) – This was a book I picked up by mistake when I was buying SEO Warrior (above) and it’s not a book i’d normally pick up … given it promises so much i’d expect it to be a nothing book as a lot like this are. However the author (Jon Smith) gets it just right, balancing facts with tips and tricks there is a little beating around this bush but thats ok because this book is aimed at beginners. At under £10 this is a must have for all newbies to the online marketing world.
Small Business Owner’s Handbook to SEO (Atlantic) – This book has one of the longest title’s I’ve ever seen … when you look at the cover its ok but Amazon screwed that title up (take a look, i cut it down!). This is a book of 15 essential seo methods to build you search rankings, pretty much a start-block book for anyone with a new baby website. At under £15 you’ve nothing to loose taking a look at this book.
Well it’s been a week and to be honest it is getting incredibly hard to not use Google for things. From search to checking ranks to finding links to a site and even using webmaster tools … it’s beginning to hurt.
A week in and I’m starting to find that going to bing.com means I have to wait a minute or so for that stupid image to load, optimised by backside! But thank fully life is made easier by the little search box in internet explorer! mercy!
Another huge issue has been image searching, something I do a lot of these days and bing means slow as it eats up my bandwidth (mobile internet) and sucks the life from everything else I am doing… I tried yahoo but results are rubbish compared to Google and Bing.
Other than this is it affecting me?
Yes, I can’t use my mobile browser and I can’t check my emails on the go! I think this is what hurts the most, knowing I am not upto date with all my emails and I have no idea what is happening with my clients when I am out and about! That Sucks.
I also have a sore back and shoulder …. apparently if you ask facebook this is withdrawal symptoms Google.
