Entries for December, 2008

December 7th, 2008

Basic SEO for Web Designers


Poddcorp

Many web designers just leave all the SEO stuff to online marketers and some even don't know what SEO is. I know most of you already heard the hullabaloo on SEO however some just don't find the necessity for making sure that the website is "search engine friendly".  Why should web designers learn SEO?

  • As a web designer or frontend developer, most on-site SEO is your responsibility.
  • If the structure of your website is not search engine friendly, you might risk loosing potential traffic that you're not even aware of.
  • Around 45% of internet users use search engines to locate the website they want. 
  • The internet is a cut throat industry and don't assume that people will just magically find your website unless of course you already established a celebrity status image.
  • SEO is also a value-added service.

What is SEO?

SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization. This is the practice of ensuring that the website is search engine friendly via targeted keywords and friendly website structure. SEO has two aspects: the on-site SEO and Off-site SEO.

On-Site SEO: are the things that you can do on your site, such as: HTML markups, target keywords, internal linking, site structure, etc. This is the aspect we are going to cover for this post since this is the very first step of SEO.

Off-Site SEO: are the things that you have much less control of, such as: how many backlinks you get and how people link to your site.

 

For this post, we will discuss some basic SEO pointers for your website.

  1. Don't use a Splash Page. If on your homepage you want a very beautiful splash page with a content "click here to enter", save yourself a lot of trouble by not even making one. For one, search engines love to index website with content. Your homepage is probably your website’s highest ranking page and gets crawled frequently by web spiders. Your internal pages will not appear in the search engine index without the proper linking structure to internal pages for the spider to follow. Your homepage should include (at minimum) target keywords and links to important pages.
  2. Don't use Flash and Javascript for your Menu. Many designers make this mistake by using Flash or javascript menus to make the navigation menu more attractive. They might look cool to you but they can’t be seen by the search engines; and thus the keywords and links will not be followed by search engines crwlers.
  3. Text Content should remain as Text. Most designers make this mistake by embedding the important content (such as target keywords) in Flash and image. Search engine spiders are text based and they feed and thrive on the keywords and the content they find on your website. If you don't find any text content there, well they don't have anything to read and archive. 
  4. Fill up Meta Tags. Make sure to fill out the title tag and Meta tags (meta description & Meta Keywords) for each web page. These part of your web site should contain your keywords or keyphares.
  5. H1 to H6 should contain some keywords. Search engines give weight to headings, so make sure that your keywords are located in each of your heading.
  6. Don't leave the Image Alt Attribute empty. You should always describe your image in the alt attribute. The alt attribute is what describes your image to a blind web user. Guess what? Search engines can’t see images so your alt attribute is a factor in illustrating what your page is relevant for. Make sure to put your keywords in your alt attribute.
  7. Don't Leave the hyperlink Title Tag blank. When making text links make sure that you have describe your text link using the title tag attribute.  This will help increase your keyword density.
  8. URLs should be friendly. Friendly URL’s are good for both your human audience and the search engines. A friendly URL is www.yourdomainname.com/page-title-with-keyword.html while the not so friendly URL is www.yourdomainname.com/?p=1234
  9. Sitemap. A sitemap is a page that contains all links to the different pages of the site. Putting a sitemap in your site ensures that search engine spiders get to visit all the pages found in your site.

 

Posted by Poddcorp at 12:32 PM in IT/SEO | Add a Comment

December 14th, 2008

SEO Tips


Poddcorp

1. Set your goals

For your every venture, make sure you have set your goals. Your goals are the foundation of your website and will guide you which course to take to make your business a success.


2. Conduct a market study

Identify your target market - get to know the demographics, culture, the population, location and their preferences

Study your competitors - get to know their clients, keywords, their site structure and design. Check your competitors’ online visibility - their SERP position, the dictionary they are listed, the communties they are active in and etcetera.

3. Identify your keywords
Choose the right keywords. Check your keywords’ search popularity using the google keyword tool. Try to remember the more specific your keyword the higher your conversion ratio will be.

4. Content is king

Create your content and don’t forget to use your keywords. Always make sure that you have a keyword rich conten, try to aim for a keyword density that's higher thatn your competitor's. If you have more than one keyword, it is best that each page focuses on one specific keyword so that your keywords won’t compete againsts each other for that certain web page.

5. Stuffing your keywords in the right places

* Keywords should be found on the content
* HTML Title
* Meta tags (description and keywords)
* Anchor text links ( search engines gives weight to these)
* Keywords on Alt tags (images ALT attribute)
* Use keywords in headings h1 - h6
* URL

* Image Title tag

Avoid keyword spamming, search engines will penalize you for doing so.

6. Design your site to be search engine friendly

* Avoid using Flash or Java - search engines don’t recognize these kinds of applications yet and the things you have been doing from step 1 to 5 will be worthless.
* Use HTML and CSS in constructing your site
* Create a site map
* URL should be static
* Good internal link navigation

7. Link Building

When your site is ready and uploaded, spend time in your link building campaign. Search engines, especially google, gives weight to links. Natural links are the best and to get that means creating a good content that others would want to link to. Avoid link-farms, free-for-all link sites and purchased links since these are given no weight at all. Although not that authoritative - you can venture into reciprocal links and start your link exchange campaign. Just make sure that the site you link to is relevant to yours. Getting links to your site is an art and relevance is the basic foundation.

8 . Other Online Marketing Activities you can do

* Participate in forums. It is good to establish yourself as an expert in your field plus it is one way wherein you can place a live link to your site. Make sure that the signature you use links back to your site.
* Start blogging. Write relevant content and use your keywords - provide an active link that links back to your site.
* Pay Per Click campaign. Since SEO efforts don’t bear fruits easily - you can start on your PPC campaign for the mean time. I truly recommend google adwords - no matter how much is your budget you can advertise on google (80% of the searches are querried in google) and the rest of their advertising networks.

9. Let your site age.

After optimizing just leave it and let it age - sooner or later your SEO efforts will pay off.

10. Monthly site evalution

* Assess your search engine position
* Your Page Rank
* How many pages are index
* Your backlinks

You can also asses your competitors so that you know the SEO improvements their site gained over the month if there are any. From there you can asses on the needed improvement you need to make to better optimize your site.

Just remember the key to SEO are content with the right keywords, links, relevance and PATIENCE.

Currently listening to: Paramore - Decode
Currently reading: Breaking Dawn
Currently feeling: blah

Posted by Poddcorp at 02:28 PM | Add a Comment

December 21st, 2008

The Convenience in Using Skype


Poddcorp

Most companies couldn’t afford dedicated point-point Internet connectivity between their offshore office and US offices and  were forced to rely on regular phones for voice communication, despite the quality was often poor and expensive.

To reduce the communication cost, offhsore offices and the US-based offices resort to using IM and emails. These asynchronous communication mechanisms reduced the effectiveness of the message and increased the turn-around time for issue resolution.

Skype has single handedly removed the communication constraint for these companies. It has allowed employees from different locations to communicate freely without the fear of increasing the communication costs.

Here are some of the ways Skype has revolutionized communication between global teams:

  • The basic teleconference equipment is expensive; therefore, companies were able to buy only a limited number of devices. The use of Skype through computer speakers has reduced the need for expensive teleconference equipment.
  • Teleconference bridges in most developing countries don’t exist. In places where they do, the expense is out of reach for typical global teams. Skype’s conference facility has reduced the need for teleconference bridges for conference calls with five or fewer participants.
  • Skype has increased the ability of the teams to collaborate, since they can use voice and IM simultaneously. Written communication is still the preference for sharing source code snippets, Web site details, phone numbers, etc.
  • Skype also allows for impromptu communication. Due to the time zone difference between countries like US and India, there’s a need to communicate during early morning or late evening hours. Often phone calls during late hours catch people during dinner or after they have gone to bed. Skype allows users to see who is online before the call is made.
  • The superior quality of Skype calls has encouraged users to communicate using voice rather than email or IM. This not only results in better communication but also helps in building better relationships between team members who are geographically distributed.
    •

Source: http://www.sourcingmag.com

Posted by Poddcorp at 11:50 AM in IT & SOCIETY | Add a Comment

December 28th, 2008

Logo Design Resources


Poddcorp

Below are some of the best logo design resources found online.

Great Logo Design Articles

Logo Design Tips

History of Logo Design

Logo Design Inspirations and Galleries

A Display of Logo Designs 

Other Valuable Logo Design Resources

Just for Fun


Currently listening to: Beyonce - Single Ladies
Currently watching: Gossip Girl

Posted by Poddcorp at 04:02 PM in ART STUFF | Add a Comment

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