| If knowledge is power then the following design tips should give you a boost: |
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| Looking for some handy graphic tips or wanting to get a handle on your upcoming web design need? Look no more as the following information we have prepared is designed to take you from dummy to brainiac in a matter of minutes. From finding your Corporate Identity to everything you need to know about websites but didn't know to ask, we've got it covered. So pop the kettle on, sit back, and turn your brain to 'sponge' mode. |
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 SEO Explained |
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| SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an ever evolving process that tries to enhance your website's ranking on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo & MSN. There are a few key things you can do... |
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| When your website absolutely has to be found - SEO is the answer: |
Search Engine Optimisation is what web designers do to maximise the chances of your website being found when people search online via Google, Yahoo etc. While we are all sleeping, search engine companies use small programs called spiders or robots to automatically scan the web and determine who's websites are worth visiting.
They then use an incredibly sophisticated algorithm to list the websites in order of relevance when matched against the keywords or phrases entered by users who performed the search. Most of the key ranking criteria centres around providing original content that is highly relevant and focused to the topic being searched for |
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| Link popularity: |
| Link popularity (the number of sites that are linking to your website) is another important factor in SEO. Search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which often increases your search engine ranking. I say often because search engines also examine the relevance of the links in regards to the subject matter of your site. If the links are to websites that have nothing to do with the subject matter of your website, then the link popularity score may go down. |
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| Quality not quantity: |
To further complicate things, it is possible for a website with a relatively small number of 'high-quality' links to rank higher than a site with 1,000's of irrelevant links. Of course people abused this by setting up things called link farms and FFA pages, which can now get you kicked off the search engine altogether.
Lastly, search engines give a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content which relates directly to your keywords. For example, if your site is about solar power, one of the best things you can do is obtain incoming links to your website from a website, blog or message board where a lot of information about solar power is being written or discussed. |
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| Content your website should and shouldn't contain: |
No matter what you've heard about SEO and website development, one thing still stands above all others in bringing in web traffic - good quality, easily digestible content, and lots of it. People are generally searching for specific answers and will find your website eventually as long as your content is relevant, well written and completely original.
If you copy from other websites you will be punished by Google and other search engines and end up way past page 20 in search engine results. Furthermore, copyright is alive and well and could cost you thousands if the person you copied from runs a copy search and busts you.
Stick to discussing your core offerings and related subjects on your website and give more than a paragraph to each item. Give some information away for free but leave out the juicy bits so they become customers rather than tyre kickers. |
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