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Search Engine Optimization!
No Don’t leave! It’s not all that difficult, honest! I know, I know it’s a popular topic of conversation, (and arguments)
among webmasters and entrepreneurs but it does seem to hide in the murky, mystical “oh that’s only for the specialists category”!

Of course there are specialists out there who are genuinely brilliant and SEO, but the good ones cost a fortune and the bad ones just take what little money you have! But lets face it, the difference between having a successful website and nursing a wounded disaster is often the difference between whether or not you’ve incorporated Good SEO techniques in your website!

Learning proper SEO techniques can seem like trying to peel rocks, especially if
you’re not familiar with the whole concept. I hope to help you out there with
some simple and achievable SEO techniques that you can adopt for yourself with
just a little bit of effort and homework. If you’re not prepared to do any work
at all you’re just kidding yourself!

1: Make sure you design your website with your search engine optimization in
mind. Search engines focus mainly on text, not all singing, all dancing graphics
or super-duper layouts! The trendiest web design on the planet will mean nothing
if no one can find your site!

2: Every single page of your website will benefit from having a title tag with
“text” describing either your site or what is on the page. Be sure the text
includes hyper relevant keywords rather than just the name of your website for
example. Don’t kid yourself! Unless your name is Stephen Fry, President Obama or
Paris Hilton, no one is going to be looking for you in the search engines by
using your name. More than likely they’ll search for a product or service or a
solution to a problem and it’s ONLY the keywords that you use that will lead
them to your site, or if you mess it up, will lead them to someone else’s site!

3: When designing your website avoid too many drop-down menus, confusing images
or excessive images and please, please try to avoid using frames, Ajax, or Flash
if you can. Yes they can be funky, trendy & gorgeous but none of these functions
are keyword or search engine friendly and they can actually hurt your SEO
results. If you really want to use any of these methods make sure that you
include plenty of text links for the search engine spiders to find and identify.
Without links, the search engines will NOT pick up your site information. Also
check to make sure that every page on your website includes a link to your home
page and sitemap. You do have a sitemap, right?

4: “Content is king”. You’re bored hearing that right? Well, suck it up because
like it or not without fresh, unique and quality content that’s regularly
updated, your site will die a slow and horrible death! Make sure to include
relevant keyword phrases within the body of the content and whatever you do,
write naturally.

Yes it might take a little while to develop your style but at the very least in
the short term, keep it clear and easy to read and avoid falling into the trap
of thinking you have to cram a Ba-Zillion keywords into your article or blog
entry! That will just make it unwieldy and probably a boring or illogical read!
Google don’t spend millions on refining their search engine algorithms just to
pass the time of day! Among many other things they are able to determine whether
or not your text is logical and they will ignore content with a high keyword
density that is obviously ridiculous!

5: Links to your website are essential to its success. In fact if content is King
then link building is his bride to be and you need to snuggle them together in a cosy bed of SEO
softness to procreate and build your “Internet Kingdom!” They are many ways to go about this such
as choosing a keyword or keyword phrase and talking to other website, blog owners, webmasters
etc, asking them to place relevant links on their pages. Or ask other bloggers or site owners if
they’d like a reciprocal arrangement were you both do a feature article on each others site.

Other ideas could include getting links from relevant, content related websites,
links from blogs, links from social bookmark websites, links from Internet
directories, relevant forums and of course from article submission websites such
as EzineArticles!

6: Whatever you do, don’t hurt your ranking by having non-related websites place
any old link on your site. While it may seem effective to collect 100s of
backlinks, you’re better off limiting your links to targeted, relevant websites.
Ten hyper relevant links stand a better chance than 100 irrelevant links. Links
within your website should be built with keyword phrases as well and while we’re
talking about internal links, please avoid generic anchor or link text such as,
“click here”. Try to use a relevant keyword or phrase instead

7: Keyword or keyword phrases aren’t just limited to text links. What about those
image alt tags and your domain name, (especially if it’s a niche service or
product you’re dealing with!)

8: Before your shiny new site can be found it needs to be indexed by the search
engine spiders. You can use the regular submission forms that the various search
engine companies, (such as Google), offer but it can take days or even weeks to
process and that’s time that your site isn’t earning money or gathering the
crowd that you want! How about having a highly ranked website place a link to
your site instead? That’s one way to have your site indexed quickly, but again,
be relevant! There’s now point in having a golfing site link to you if your site
is all about fishing tackle!

Whatever way you decide to go about building your blog or site I hope that these
tips I’ve shared will prosper and enhance your efforts and in doing so build and
increase your business! If you have any comments or ideas of your own I’d love
to hear them. Until next time …

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One negative result of progress in computing power in the last 25 years or more is the idea that all you need to be a designer today is to own a computer! yeah right! That’s why I’m going to buy a stethoscope tomorrow and become a doctor!

In the mid-1980s many people were zealously heralding the “new desktop publishing” technology and how it would lead to fantastic new print and innovative new ideas. (This was before the Internet boom of course).

What has actually happened is that unskilled, untrained and often talentless people armed with a Mac and a printer and some of this “magic” software have done more for landfill sites with their rubbish than they have for the world of great design!

A little harsh? Judgemental maybe? Well … yeah .. maybe it is but then the world of the “artist” has historically always been harsh … It has fallen to those who know what they’re doing to speak up and expose the “Emperor’s Clothing”

A clever ad that used “DTP” for a graphic design company used the slogan, “Using Picasso’s paintbrush doesn’t make you Picasso”. Really what they were saying was that there are common and consistent principles that are true now and will be for the foreseeable future …. It’s not just a “value judgement”; it’s just an acknowledgement that great design has components that need to be there and these “components” are consistent regardless of the medium! So although I started this article looking at the DTP software of the print industry of the 80′s, the argument stands as designs transcends the mediums.

Classic Components:

Think of the design elements as building blocks. These elements will be part of everything we design, furniture and consumer products, magazine and billboards, websites, mobile phones apps, games and so on …

In Design there are many elements but here are 5 basic ones:

1. Colour

Colour is perhaps the element that designers are least aware of, if not educated in. One school of thought is that it shouldn’t be considered until all “designed” and then only added to enhance what already exists. This approach encourages minimalism and de-clutters the message, keeping in clear & simple. As you might expect another school of thought that the colour should be one of the first considerations and there is an entire psychology behind what colour means when it is used to convey a message. People pay BIG money to get this right! But my point? Only experience, education and experimentation will help any artist to develop a sense of strategy and good colour. Your friends next door neighbours nephew who’s a wizard on the computer and had Dreamweaver isn’t necessarily going to know dick about the importance of colour!

2. Direction

Great design layouts, whether in magazines or on the computer screen, usually imbues a sense of movement. Design should take the reader by the hand and guide them across the page/screen using all the element we’re discussing here. The designer should realise that he/she is empowered to lead the viewer to whatever he/she wants them to see and those buying the services of designers should be aware of this too! After all, this kind of design is commercial in birth and is used to generate sales … or more bluntly … to make money!

3. Texture

Provides a textured “surface” feel, touch and in printed matter, so that the selection rate paper, tissue, covered – is a design decision too. Textured Design for broadcast on television or the Internet are only visually, but still key and don’t be fooled .. visual tricks can be used to give a real sense of texture! Why do you think that all those awful adverts selling fabric conditioner have women hugging and rubbing their clothes on their faces!

4. Lines and Line Work

These conditions do not mean “pen and ink or pencil”, but the borders, frames and rules. Horizontal or vertical, thick or thin, regular or irregular, this all helps define and establish the space around the various elements in your pages. So, good linework increases readability and “Directionality” (see # 2) for the project as a whole.

5. Shape

Any contoured, formed or enclosed area is a shape. The most readily used forms are square or rectangular designs, but said there are no hard rules here! Just because it’s familiar doesn’t make it right for your design! I’ll always remember my DTP teacher Jayne who would often say; “Know all the rules so that when you break them you do so for the sake of great design and not just because you haven’t the faintest idea what you’re doing!”

Balancing & Interest

Other considerations in the process of making good design decisions, such as the feeling of space, balance, and emotion and action. There’s also contrast, repetition and the list just goes on! What is important for the inexperienced designers to remember that “less is more.” You can often spot an amateur a mile away as he/she crams every little space available with noisy info or design! Instead of pulling every trick and tool in the bag, a designer must remember the ultimate goal of the designed piece, the ultimate reason of the entire design … I’m not talking about demographics or anything complicated here just the basics .. and the basic point of any good design is this; draw in your viewer/reader so that you can deliver your message.

So the next time you think that you’ll just “slap something together” like some internet marketers would have you believe you can do, just stop for a moment and think about it. Does standing in your garage with a spanner make you a mechanic? Of course it doesn’t! So what makes you think that by having a computer and a design programme that somehow you’re a web designer or graphic designer? Come on- really?

And yes .. in case you’re wondering … even though I’m embarking on this new adventure of Internet Marketing, my background is in graphic, digital and web design as well as video and indie film production so yeah .. you could say I know what I’m talking about. If you have any questions, comments or if you’d be interested in any securing my services then either comment below or contact me using the contact form above.