When we’re first planning a new website with our clients and we’re discussing their objectives for their website, one of the things they invariably say to us is “I want to be number one on Google.”  Thus, whether they know it or not, what they are looking for is search engine optimization (SEO): gaining high search result rankings in the keywords that their target audience is searching for.  Now, search engine optimization is a big subject — way more than just one article can cover.  So let’s start off by debunking some of the big myths and misconceptions about SEO out there.

Myth #1: It’s all about your pages’ meta tags.

What’s a meta tag?  It’s a series of optional descriptive tags that you can put in your website’s code.  Two commonly used meta tags are a “description” meta tag, and a “keywords” meta tag.  Stuffing your meta tags with your target keywords is often thrown around as good SEO advice. However, this is completely useless. Years ago, Google and the other search engines used web page’s meta tags to help them rank their search results.  However, people caught onto this and began stuffing their meta tags with huge lists of keywords to try and boost their rankings.  Because of this abuse, the search engine companies eventually stopped paying attention to anything put inside a website’s meta tags at all.

Myth #2: You should submit your site to 500+ search engines in order to boost your rankings.

Some SEO companies will say something like this in their sales pitch to you.  It sounds great, right?  It’s also completely unnecessary.  Why?  Nowadays there’s only 3 big search engines out there: Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Google is the 800-pound gorilla of the search engine industry, with 70% market share.  Yahoo and Bing fight over the remaining 30% of market share. (Ask.com is a distant runner-up, with about 1–2% market share.)  Any other search engine out there either licenses the technology from one of the companies above, or gets so little traffic that it’s statistically insignificant.

Myth #3: “We can guarantee you a #1 ranking in Google.”

This is perhaps the most insidious SEO myth out there.  It sounds great, doesn’t it?  The only problem is that no one can guarantee anything when it comes to search engine rankings.  The search engine companies keep their ranking algorithms secret (and are constantly shifting them as well), in order to keep people and companies from “gaming the system” to manipulate the search results in their favor. So while you can build your website following best practices to increase your chances of favorable search result rankings, there is no magic potion to “guarantee #1 results.”  If a company brags that they can guarantee you a certain ranking, they are lying.

Now what?

With these common myths debunked, you may be wondering if there’s anything you can do to improve your chances of high search rankings.  Actually, there is quite a bit!  Join us next month as we talk about some of the foundational principles of optimizing your website for the search engines.  In the meantime, if you have any additional questions about search engine optimization, drop us a line and we’ll be glad to help.

Free e-Book: Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals

Want to learn more? Download our whole series of articles on search engine optimization in one convenient PDF file.

Download Now

We’re in our last article of a 3-part series on building websites according to user-centered design.  The three principles this series of articles is focusing on are:

1. Provide consistent navigation and layout
2. Focus on the users’ needs
3. Keep it short and sweet

Last month, we wrote about focusing on the users’ needs.  This month, we’ll be talking about our final principle: keeping it short and sweet.

It’s a well-known fact: people oftentimes don’t truly read web pages; they skim them.  In fact, it has been documented that most web pages are viewed for less than 10 seconds.  If people want to do in-depth reading, they’ll pick up a book, not go to a website.

What does this mean for you?  It means you need to design your web pages less like an essay, and more like a billboard. Here are some suggestions:

• Replace lengthy paragraphs with bullet points, block quotes, and sub-headlines.
• Break up your text content with images and icons.
• Highlight important words or sentences with bold text.

I would say that for website homepages, a good rule of thumb would be to avoid having more than two continuous paragraphs in a row.  Body pages, or the “inside pages,” can have more text than the homepage, because they oftentimes need to present more in-depth information — but you still shouldn’t be turning your website body pages into the next edition of War and Peace!

Additionally, intersperse your text with various calls to action: links or buttons with labels like “Learn More,” “Contact Us,” or “Sign Up Now.”  This helps guide your website users in their browsing process — ie. “What do I do with the information that I just read?”  (This is also a good sales practice as well.)

A lot of this ties in with the usability principle we wrote about last month: focusing on the user’s needs.  Like I said last month, people aren’t visiting your website to read a lengthy tome on the ins and outs of your company history.  They’re visiting because they want to know how you can help them. You need to succinctly show them what you do and why it should matter to them.

Here are some examples of websites that do a great job of “keeping it short and sweet.”

• www.FreshBooks.com
• www.BaseCampHQ.com
• www.Mozy.com
• and of course… www.Apple.com

We’ll be back next month with a new article on planning, building and maintaining your website.  In the meantime, if you have any questions about website design and development, feel free to contact us.

Free Download: Website Fundamentals

Want to learn more? Download all our website fundamentals articles in one convenient PDF file.

Download Now

Two weeks ago we attended DrupalCamp Colorado 2010, for users of the Drupal content management system/framework.  It was a great event with lots of great speakers and informative sessions.  Now this Saturday, July 10th, we’ll be attending WordCamp Boulder 2010, for developers and users of the WordPress content management system.  If you will be in attendance this weekend as well, drop us a line and we’ll meet up.  See you there!

We’ll be attending DrupalCamp Colorado this month, taking place on June 26–27.  If you’ll be in attendance, let us know and we’ll meet up.

We’re in the middle of a 3-part series on building websites according to user-centered design.  The three principles this series of articles is focusing on are:

1. Provide consistent navigation and layout
2. Focus on the users’ needs
3. Keep it short and sweet

Last month, we wrote about providing consistent navigation and layout.  This month, we’ll be talking about the next principle: focusing on the users’ needs.

The first thing to do is put yourself in your site visitors’ shoes.  Outside of your mother, no one is going to proactively come visit your company’s website just because they think you’re a great person.  They will come, either through search engines, advertising or referrals, because they feel that you might be able to help them with something.

For instance, if you’re running a residential plumbing company, your website visitors will most likely be people who have a broken sink, busted pipe, or some other plumbing problem, and are looking for help to fix it — and probably  get it fixed as soon as possible!  So your website homepage should immediately show how you can help your target audience with their problem(s).  It should say something like:

“Hi, we’re ABC Plumbing Co.  We specialize in:

• Replacing sinks
• Fixing broken pipes
• and many other services.

Call us at 1-800-ABC-PLUMBING to schedule your plumbing repair today.”

The homepage should also include prominent link buttons to the website’s contact page or an email address (beware of spam, however), to make it easy for your site users to contact you.  There should also be links to more info on each of your company’s capabilities for those customers who would like more info — and of course some nice eye-catching images are always a great idea as well.

In any case, you DON’T want to put something like this on your homepage:

“Welcome to the official website of ABC Plumbing Company.  It all started when we were incorporated in 1986 in Centennial, Colorado by our founder John Doe.  John had a vision of providing quality plumbing services in the tri-county area, and through his tireless work, we grew to where we are today…(etc, etc, etc.)” This text would be appropriate for another internal website page, like an About Us page. That way your site visitors can read it if they choose.  But it should never be on the site’s homepage.  If you’re a homeowner whose basement is currently flooding from a cracked pipe and need help immediately, the last thing you care about is the rambling back-story of a particular company’s history.

I hope these pointers are helpful to you in planning, building and maintaining your company’s website.  Next month, we’ll write on our third website user-centered design principle: Keeping your site content short and sweet. In the meantime, if you have any questions about website design and development, please contact us and we will be glad to help.

Free e-Book: Website Fundamentals

Want to learn more? Download all our website fundamentals articles in one convenient PDF file.

Download Now