Welcome to the Escape Blog

It’s also important that search engines can actually access your content. Don’t take my word for it though when it comes straight from the horses mouth at Google Webmaster Blog:

One of the most frequently asked questions about Accessible Search is What can I do to make my site rank well on Accessible Search? At the same time, webmasters often ask a similar but broader question: What can I do to rank high on Google Search?

Well I’m pleased to tell you that you can kill two birds with one stone… critical site features such as site navigation can be created to work for all users, including our own Googlebot. Below are a few tips for you to consider.

One website feature I have been seen a few of times over the past couple of years sees data fed from an external database to dynamically create web pages, with search drop down forms to access them.

The problem in the past is that Google wouldn’t perform those form functions to access the data pages so they never got indexed unless you had hard coded link throughs to them.

This looks like it could be changing - Search Engine Land. Worth a read…

When I am creating meta descriptions and meta titles for new web pages, I often wonder what they will look like in a search engine result page.

I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago to our web team and they built me this neat little tool for checking your meta tags for search engines. So, I thought we’d share it with you too… The Better Meta Checker!

A story from stateside via Search Engine Land about a court ruling on a company using a companies trademark in their ‘meta data’:

North American Medical Corp. v. Axiom Worldwide, Inc. docket number 06-01678 CV-JTC-1 (PDF) doesn’t specifically say if the trademarked terms were in the keywords meta tag, description meta tag or some other meta tag. But the ruling is that Axiom, who used North American Medical Corp’s trademark in their meta tags, is in violation of trademark infringement.

The story comes from Eric Goldmans Blog which finishes off with a sentiment that sits with me…

If you are going to use keyword metatags, you must ensure that competitive trademarks do not appear in your keyword metatags, period. It’s just not worth it. They don’t buy you much juice with the search engines anyway, and it will leave you exposed to irrational judicial freakouts about keyword metatags if ever tested in court.

Back in 2001 we had to settle with a client who wouldn’t pay his bill because his website didn’t come number one in search engines for a one word search phrase, basically because the judge did not have a clue about what was being placed to hime and at the time I couldn’t be bothered to fight it. Not that I let it grind, even now after seven years, but the client also counter sued for lost earnings based on all the work he wasn’t getting for not being number one!

I don’t didn’t know, but I know a man who does - Robin Goad at Hitwise.

According to a survey by Cambridge Resolution, 23% of businesses haven’t updated their web site since it launched, (via NMA), with only half in control of the updating.

In terms of engagement, regular content additions and updates are essential for existing customers; and handy in terms of search. If a search engine sees that no changes are being made to your site - they will come less regularly.

If you were Google, for instance, and you had at your disposal an index of tens of billions of web page, which ones would you show to your customers: The pages that are updated and lovingly cared for, or the pages that have been left for dead?

In my daily work of creating websites based on a solid strategy of delivering results, I am always learning, testing and development my own techniques.

I thought it was high time a created a reference document covering my experiences, honing in on actual pieces of SEO advice that are achievable for any small business.

My premise is that SEO is quite a big subject and it’s all about return on investment. What can you do that will give you pay-back?

The book is free to download and read so feel free to give it a go.

You can download the free e-book about SEO for Small Business here.

Imagine that your web page (just one out of your whole site) is a book in a book store. A potential buyer goes into the store, to the section they are looking for and are confronted with a bunch of books - all very similar - and yours is in there somewhere.

Well, firstly, you need to make sure that your book is in the right section. This is down to the book store owner based on the content of your book. Let’s call that book store owner Mr Google.

So, Mr Google has placed your book in the most appropriate section because he can understand the content of your book by looking at the words you have used - the name of the book, etc. (more…)

Great post on SEOMoz’s YouMoz by Mukesh Mani - 8 SEO Facts You Should Know Before Taking Up an SEO Service

Go read the whole thing to find out more about:

1. SEO Cannot Guarantee Results
2. Keywords Don’t Remain Within the Top 10 Forever
3. Rankings Can Fluctuate at Times
4. Page Rank Has Got Nothing to do with Rankings
5. SEO is Not About Mass Link Development
6. SEO is Not About Directory Submissions or Article Submissions
7. SEO is Just Like Website Maintenance – It’s Ongoing
8. Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Okay, so in the UK they don’t have much market share and all the more recent talk has been negative, but, this news about Yahoo and semantic search is an important one.

Semantic search technology should allow Yahoo to organise information better allowing users to find more specific information. The BBC use the following example:

The semantic web might mean that a search could be done for hotels in Lanzarote that allow pets, are five minutes from a good beach and cost no more than £75 per night.

Even more reason for us to start preparing content to be more descriptive.