Skybox Creative Blog

Tip 1. If your robots.txt file is damaged or it contains a typo.

If search engine robots misinterpret your robots file the may just completely ignore your pages.¬† Be sure to check it multiple times and be sure that you only use the disallow on the pages that you really don’t want to be indexed.

Tip 2. Add too many variables to your URL

URLs with too many variables can cause problems with search engine robots.  If your URL has too many variables then there is a chance that the spiders will ignore your pages.  Google has made an official statement about variables:

“Google indexes dynamically generated webpages, including .asp pages, .php pages, and pages with question marks in their URLs. However, these pages can cause problems for our crawler and may be ignored.”

Tip 3.  Use Session IDs in your URL

Many URLs with session IDs don’t get indexed by search engines because they can lead to duplicate content problems.¬† If possible, don’t use the session ID in the URL, use a cookie instead, in order to track the session.

Tip 4. Use far too much code in your site.

Of course your site can use JS and CSS that isn’t directly related to your content.¬† If possible, externalize these scripts and refference them in your site instead.¬† The goal is to have as little code on the page as possible to get as much done as you can.

View the source code of your site – if it is hard for you to see the content then it is hard for the spiders to as well.

Tip 5. Use fancy hard to follow navigation.

Fancy JavaScript or DHTML menues cannot be parsed by most search engine robots.¬† Flash and¬† Ajax menues are even worse, because they don’t have any readable content to follow.¬† OK, so, maybe you are thinking – Google is smart, they ca nread flash now – Well, yes and no.¬† If your font has been rasterized or the letters have been taken apart for the sake of “flashyness” then you will get no Google love.

Be smart, use – go with the good old fashion HTML and standard navigation.¬† Stick with the basics.¬† If search engines love your site then they will show it to the people.¬† If they don’t show it to the people, then why spend the time and money on cool effects!

Like that was a big surprise, but here is the skinny anyways.

According to the University of Michigan, Google has taken the top position for customer satisfaction. This info comes from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is a project at the University of Michigan that ranks various companies across different sectors.

Google was up from to a score of 86 from 78 (Last year).¬† Yahoo did come in #1 for portal at 77, but that isn’t all smiles for them, since last yeat they recieved a score of 79.¬† MSNBC.com, ABCNews.com and MSN rounded off the top 5.

It shouldn’t be a supprise that most of the score trending data came from companies like Hitwise and comScore.

As for the giant, Google, the biggest winner, it is a wonder why the search giant grew so much while they admit that they have actually done very.¬† It is likely that this rise in satisfaction comes due to the fact that Google has become synonymous with the term “search.”

Overall, the giant is providing what people want, and they are doing it for free.¬† I feel that their results are becoming less relevent as their corperate nepitism is on the rise.¬† There are companies out there that are trying to provide the google results wiout the google owned companies showing up.¬† StartUpBin is one of them, although it isn’t too polished yet, it is something.

Long long ago, in a galaxy not so different from ours there was a set of rules put on language, and they called these rules grammar. Once these rules were in place, like any organization needs, there had to be the enforcer of said rules. These people were called “English Teachers.”

That evolution from a non-grammar to fully patrolled lexicons only took about 100,000 years. Google is a little faster than that – which is no surprise.

There are web master guidelines that are as strict as Mrs. Von Likerstien was in 10th grade. Fortunately, there are rule books available, so if you are willing to learn the language of SEO (Which is far less complicated than the language of love) you are golden.

Today I bring you the newest in SEO grammar! The correct way to write a link.

No longer is a good old fashion “a href” good enough anymore. As many of you know – standards tell us to include “type” and “title” – but these are in the code. What is Google up to when it comes to the “non-code” side of things?

Write your text as if it wasn’t a link at all:

Getting links from other web sites is a fantastic way to improve your rankings on search engines.

Do not describe what you are doing, instead, describe the purpose of the link:

Networking is something that people do in order to generate leads for the business they are in.¬† We have many different networking groups we belong to.¬† We do this so we can meet people from different “circles” so to speak.¬† What is great is that the referral thing really works – if you are the real thing.

You can’t be some hack, trying to make a quick buck and last very long in the networking world.¬† You have a reputation to build and keep – and as you know, word gets around.

Here is a chance for you to mingle with the coolest people in the SoCal area, support Skybox (your favorite design and seo firm) and elevate your business to the next level with our big, fat, super cool -

2nd Annual Party/Networking Mixer

The Hottest Party/Networking Event of the Year!

So, come on down (click the link above for some details you just can’t make it without!) bring a friend and business associate!

Bring some extra $1′s too!¬† No, there will not be any poll dancers, but there will be a great chance for you to donate to a great cause and to name our office mascot!

See you there.

~kevin

p.s. – Don’t Forget about “The Styx”

One of the lines that is sadly difficult to cross in the web design world is the line between designer and coder.¬† A great many designers, who have real skill don’t have the ability or patience to code a site in CSS.¬† It used to be easy to take your site in Photoshop and splice up the images, and save as web.¬† Now, with CSS validation and other standards out there, you can’t just pop this stuff out anymore.

Well, I have a little something to make the PSD to CSS voyage easy once again.  This is a free service, and though it takes some time to learn, and there are certainly some areas where hand coding is much better Рthis will at least get you feeling like it is 1999 again (at least in the east site making sense).

Now, if I may introduce to you http://psd2cssonline.com/

Enjoy!

Very well, you have convinced me through all your emails to impart upon you a pearl of SEO wisdom.  This one is especially important, as I have learned it not through a decade of reading or a decade of conversing with other brilliant SEOs across the US, this I learned through the trials and tribulations of time.

This secret is is called time and involvement.  Sure, you can buy your way to the top, and that is often times important, look, competition is competition.  You can work towards 100% compliance with W3C standards, but at the end of the day Рif you have been involved in your industry with a web site that gives good, relevant information and have developed a good reputation, that may be just enough to get you to the top.

Here is an example:

Search Google for “discount clothes” and you will find 15dollarstore.com which has been an active site for 4+ years and sure enough, it doesn’t validate with XHTML very well.¬† (162 Errors, 27 warning(s)) – In-fact, the domain actually redirects to http://15dollarstore.com/s/home/0826907247 and from some tools I use this site has an SEO score of 75%. They do have a nice number of back links though – but I can’t imagine that is the definitive reason they rank so well.

This just goes to show you that time and commitment to your industry can really pay off.  Anyways Рthat is my little pearl for you today.

I would suggest putting in the time to create a good SEO and SEM campaign, because your competition is – but don’t just look for short cuts, dedicate time and effort on being involved with you industry.¬† Your reputation is on the line!

~k