January 23, 2008
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very complex topic and a “War and Peace” length document could be written on exactly how one can go about achieving the highest results. That said, the following five steps in this order are the cornerstones of any good SEO strategy.
- Research the keywords your prospective clients will be using to search for your web site.
- Optimize your web pages for these keywords so that they can get high search engine rankings.
- Submit your web pages to the major search engines and internet directories.
- Get incoming links from other web sites to your website.
- Track the results and refine the first four steps accordingly.
Most websites focus exclusively on aesthetics and completely neglect one all important truth. The purpose of a web strategy is to drive sales for the business and websites that fail to garner top ten rankings are losing an enormous number of their prospective buyers. Consider that 85%-90% of all internet users rely on search engines to find information. (Georgia Tech /GVU Survey)
Search engine users are some of the most qualified and motivated visitors your web site will ever have. However, getting listed in a search engine doesn’t do you much good if you’re number 375 out of 1,447,000 search results. In fact, it doesn’t even help much if you hold the 11th position, as 75% of internet users never click past the first Search Engine Results Page (Georgia Institute of Technology).
Posted By: William Foote, Co-founder of http://www.vmg-interactive.com
Posted by William Foote under Search Engine Optimization | Comments (0)
January 10, 2008
The wondrous web … a common space where users can share information to work, to play, to learn, to socialize, to be entertained, etc, etc … Our job as a web development company is to make this once unimaginable concept a reality. That is, help connect people from all over the world and in all walks of life … help EVERYONE make use of this revolutionary medium.
However, the web will need guidance in order for it to reach its full potential. And “web standards” are this guidance. These standards are crucial and can help ensure everyone has access to information in a quick and easy to interpret format.
For instance, web standards can make certain that individuals with special needs can use the web. Blind people may have installed software that reads web pages to them, while those with poor eyesight have set up their computer to magnify pages for easier reading. And people using hand-held devices can browse the Web just as easily as those using their high-end Sony laptops.
This is not to mention the many other practical reasons web developers should be in favor of web standards. Search engines can do a better job of indexing sites, for example. Developing browser-specific code potentially doubles or triples the work to create web pages and this work is always in peril when new browsers are introduced.
Critics of web standards will cite that they are limiting. In truth, standards remove much of the mind-numbing labor involved in web development, giving developers more room and flexibility to be truly innovative. Standards allow for the future improvement of web pages, while remaining mindful of past technology.
On a macro level … many uses of the Web, including some that are only dreamed of today, will not be possible, or will be more difficult, without widespread standards compliance. As it is, operating systems and software are for the most part similar in function and seemingly close to universal, but who knows what tomorrow’s web will bring?
Universal web standards are the only way for the web to prosper, even survive, in the future.
Posted By: William Foote, Co-founder of http://www.vmg-interactive.com
Posted by William Foote under Web Development, Website Design | Comments (0)