SEO and Web Building Articles, Year 2006
Confusing Navigation - the Worst Enemy of Web Usability
October 16, 2006
Category: Usability |
How many times have you looked hesitantly at a website you have just come across, wondering where
to go next? Basically, if the navigation of the website is confusing, all other efforts directed at
improving the usability factor will fail. On the web, navigation is the key to everything.
Continue reading Confusing Navigation - the Worst Enemy of Web Usability |
What Makes a Good Search Engine Optimiser?
July 10, 2006
Category: Internet and SEO: Rambling Thoughts |
SEO is believed to be an easy profession. At first glance, it really is, which is probably why the
number of various SEO specialists, SEO professionals and SEO experts is growing daily at a tremendous
rate. Being a moderator on one of the major SEO forums, though, I know very well how many of these
self-proclaimed experts offer their services first and come to forums asking the most basic questions
later. For these people, the apparent simplicity of SEO works like a trap.
Continue reading What Makes a Good Search Engine Optimiser? |
SEO and Usability
June 22, 2006
Categories: Usability |, SEO and ... |
SEO, as we know, is the science of making sites the best they can be for the search engines. Usability is all about making sites the best
they can be for human visitors. Consequently, to make sites the best they can be for both types of visitors, we need to combine usability
and SEO and work out a set of rules that works in both cases. Following these rules will take us in the right direction from both
the usability and the SEO point of view. Neglecting them will hurt both users' experiences and the search engine success of our websites.
Continue reading SEO and Usability |
SEO and Web Design
June 2, 2006
Categories: SEO and Technical Issues |, SEO and ... |
When we talk about the relationship between SEO and web design, it's usually the technical part of the website design
art that's relevant, not the visual part (though certain aspects of visual design have their impact
on SEO/SEM).
Continue reading SEO and Web Design |
SEO and Copywriting
May 10, 2006
Categories: SEO Copywriting |, SEO and ... |
SEO and web copywriting are often mentioned together; so often, in fact, that whenever SEO is
mentioned we think about SEO copywriting first and other aspects of SEO second, as if they were
the same thing.
Continue reading SEO and Copywriting |
Keeping Your White Hat Clean:
How Often to Check Your Outbound Links
March 15, 2006
Categories: White Hat vs. Black Hat Stuff |, Link Building Advice |
Nowadays, having a website is becoming a tremendous responsibility. If you own a website, you need to do at least the following things, and do them on a regular basis:
- Make sure your domain name doesn't expire;
- Comply with the latest quality standards in terms of graphic design, copywriting, usability;
- Keep your coding at least moderately tidy;
- Add fresh content from time to time, and apply necessary changes to your existing content as it gets obsolete;
- Constantly watch legal issues ensuring your website doesn't break any laws;
- Study your web statistics carefully and improve your users' experiences to make sure it converts better and better;
- Track your ROI;
- Check if anybody is stealing your web copy or other copyrighted materials and take legal action against those who do.
That sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? But now I've got some bad news for you: you've got yet another duty in regard
to your website, which is to keep it clean in terms of SEO (unless you are a black hat SEO and don't care
about such things).
Continue reading Keeping Your White Hat Clean: How Often to Check Your Outbound Links |
What Is Spider Friendly and What Is Not
March 5, 2006
Category: SEO and Technical Issues |
If your website doesn't comply with the basic rules of search engine friendly web-design, then all your attempts
at achieving any success in the engines will be a waste of time: no copywriting will ever help you, and
nor will any number of inbound links.
Continue reading What Is Spider Friendly and What Is Not |
How to Tell Black from White: The First Thing to Learn
February 28, 2006
Category: White Hat vs. Black Hat Stuff |
If you are very new to SEO and are just considering learning the basics of it, you are probably asking yourself what you should start with. You have probably heard about some mysterious things like keyword density or Google PageRank; someone might have told you that these things are vital for your future success in SEO.
Is it true?
Continue reading How to Tell Black from White: The First Thing to Learn |
301 Moved Permanently: How to Use It Correctly for SEO
January 29, 2006
Category: SEO and Technical Issues |
"301 Moved Permanently" is one of the server-side redirects and is an integral part
of HTTP/1.1 (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). A complete description of the protocol can be found at
ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2616.txt |,
and "301 Moved Permanently" is covered in paragraph 10.3.2.
Continue reading 301 Moved Permanently: How to Use It Correctly for SEO |
Natural Linking Patterns: What They Are and What We Think They Are
January 8, 2006
Category: Link Building Advice |
At the end of 2005, Google (in the person of Matt Cutts) announced Google's new link evaluation policies. Valuing natural (and earned) links more highly and devaluing unnatural (or unearned) links is the core of these new policies. First of all, it is supposed to affect reciprocal links, three-way links and paid links, and though, as usual, there is no way for us SEOs to know exactly how they will be affected, hot discussions of these new policies started at once. Some quick conclusions were drawn, such as:
- Reciprocal links from now on will be ignored by Google, because they are always unnatural;
- Three-way links will be ignored, as well, and probably the sites caught linking three way, will receive penalties;
- Link pages are evil, and all links located on them will be considered unnatural and disregarded.
Continue reading Natural Linking Patterns: What They Are and What We Think They Are |
SEO 2006: A New Reality to Consider
January 7, 2006
Category: Internet and SEO: Rambling Thoughts |
A new year has come. The delighted "Happy New Year" roar swept across the SEO forum circuit and subsided;
the holiday season came slowly to its end; and new concerns and routine tasks of everyday life filled
the lives of thousands of hard-working SEOs, the soldiers habitually fighting their unceasing war for
the search engine rankings.
Continue reading SEO 2006: A New Reality to Consider |
Last Modified: 13.09.2007
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