Trojan Soul SEO Essex and Web Design Essex Blog
Hi guys,
Well, we're big fans of Lost here and are eagerly awaiting the conclusion of the show.
As much as it will be sad to see it go, it will be a blessing that we can finally all know what the show was about ;o)
We had a little bit of spare time on our hands and thought we should do a little something for the Graphic Design area, so we came up with an alternate Lost Poster.
Click on the image for a larger version.
This was purely for fun. So if you don't like it, please don't slate us! ;o)
Enjoy!
OK, just for you guys, a simple little tool that just makes life easier.
Google likes you to keep within their limits when creating page titles, page description and meta descriptions ... So here is a simple tool to do just that.
As you type in your page titles, description and meta content, you'll know exactly how many characters you have left ...
As I say, not the most advanced tool, but this little tool comes in very handy!
Enjoy!
TSD
How do I know who's a good designer and who's bad?
There are a number of things you can look for when choosing the right person/company to create your website. And we're not just talking about the look of your website, we're talking about code.
I know nothing about code, which is why I'm getting someone else to build my site!
And quite right too, but you don't nescessarily need to know the ins and outs of code, you just need to know what to look for in the code generated by website designers.
OK, so what do I look for?
First things first, on your browser, go to VIEW/PAGE SOURCE if you're using Firefox or VIEW/SOURCE if you're using Internet Explorer.
Having your website pages fully optimised is of course an imperitive start to SEO (as mentioned in our previous article SEO Tip - Page Content, but having your pages fully optimised is just a part of SEO.
Along with on page optimisation, a website will look to rank higher with backlinks.
When a website links to you, it acts like a vote for your website. The more websites you have linking to you, the more votes and of course the more weight you'll carry when Google and other search engines pick up on it.
OK, so what is a Content Management System
Well, a content managed website differs from a static website, because unlike a static website which has it's pages individually coded page by page. A content management system draws it's content from a database.
By having the content readily available in a database, once you have your website layout, you can edit your pages instantly, which will update the database, which in turn updates your website.
The beauty of a content management site, is that it's great for regular people who have little idea about HTML or CSS code. You don't need to be a website designer to create your pages.
When you change your page, you generally use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, which is much like a condensed version of Word, where you can see your page results in real time as you are editing. Or of course you can just create your page in Word, copy and paste it into a new page and hey presto, you have a new page on your website in within minutes.
By having this in place, you're of course saving on time and money by not having to call up a website designer or company to make small or even complex changes. You can do it all yourself.
The website will of course need to be created, generally using XHTML, HTML and CSS, which is best left in the hands of a website designer or website company, but once you've paid for your initial website design, then the ongoing costs practically cease.
Of course from time to time you may need to add new features to your website, which is again probably best left to the professionals, but when you just want to create or edit a page on your website, all it will cost you is your time.
We hope this gives you a brief insight into what a Content Management System is, and hopefully helps you decide if this is the right thing for your website.
TSD
SEO - Page Content Is The Key
A well written page goes a long way in the eyes of Google and other major search engines, so writing good content for your pages is imperitive.
All the major search engines need to make sure that they are sending the searcher to a page or website relevent to their search query. Therefore, if the search engines know that your page or website is packed full of good content in relation to the users search, then your ranking will increase.
The key to good page content is how it's written. When writing your content, always write it with the visitor in mind and not for the search engines. Of course, you don't want to forget adding your keywords into the page, but you have to remember not to flood your page with keywords, therefore filtering the good content.
This is where Keyword Density plays it's part. Your keyword density should be between 5%-7%.
Of course you can go slightly higher up to a maximum of 10%, but anything more than this and the search engines are likely to think you are just bombarding your pages with keywords just to rank higher and will be reluctant to recommend your website to the searcher.
Back in the early days of Search Engine Optimisation, people did their upmost to trick search engines into thinking they had the relevent content on there pages by bombarding their pages with keywords, and in some cases try and trick search engines by hiding the written content (Black Hat SEO) by making the type the same colour as the background, therefore, the search engine sees the content and think it's highly relevent because you have an abundance of keywords that relate to the users search, but when the user goes to your website, then they don't actually see those keywords.
Search engines have come a long way since then, and they are no longer fooled by this trickery. Not only are they aware of tricks like this, but if they catch you trying to use them, then it's highly likely they will ban your website and your website will not show in the search engine rankings at all. Hence why it can be difficult for a new website to acquire consitant rankings, because the search engines are looking for websites like these and making sure your website is a genuine website and not a rank booster.
So there you have it, good page content helps to produce good results, it's that simple, so bear that in mind when writing pages for your website.
TSD
OK, this is our first entry so we figured for our first entry we'd give an insight into what actually goes into the website design process for our customers. Unsurprisingly, quite alot of our customers do not actually know what goes into building a website, I mean, why would they? Unless you're a website designer, then there would be little need right? So for our first website design entry we're going to explain the entire process. We feel that our customers could benefit in knowing what's coming and why.
Step One: The Brief
First things first, we'll talk with the customer to find out exactly what it is the customer is looking for, the purpose of the website, the websites target audience and it's goals. We will then advise accordingly how we feel the path their website should follow in order to reach it's full potential.
