Archive for July 2008

Cuil.com is not so cool

Posted by Jeb
Jul
29
2008

3
Comments

Filed Under: Search Engines

You may have heard about the recent launch of Cuil.com (pronouced “cool”) which is a new search engine contender. The buzz surrounding this new search engine has been intense. It’s launch was on the home page of CNN.com and just about everyone on the web was talking about the new site. So, is it worth the buzz? In short, no. The site pulls up results that are often barely relevant. For instance, a recent search for “Cuil” did not pull up anything related to the site! If you check Google for “cuil” you get the results you would expect, recent news items about the site and the site itself.

I did a little search for my side project MusicalFamilyTree.com and found the results amusing to say the least. Take a look at the picture below. Rest assured these images have nothing to do with the pages they link to and to my knowledge they have never even been on the site!


Good CMS = Fresh Content = Great SEO = Real Growth

Posted by Jeb
Jul
28
2008

1
Comment

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization

First off let’s not assume everyone knows what SEO and CMS means.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically this means optimizing your website so that search engines love you and your content.

CMS stands for Content Management System. A CMS allows the owner of the site, you!, to easily add, edit and delete content on the site. That means text, images, blogs, videos, pages, etc.

So why do you need a good CMS to get great SEO? The reason is simple, search engines love fresh content. If you aren’t regularly updating your site you are essentially sending a message to the search engines, and your visitors that says “I don’t care about this website and therefore I don’t care about you”. I know that seems a little harsh but it’s true.

Imagine you owned a record store and never had the newest releases. Sure, some people might want to come by for a while to check out your old inventory but eventually your traffic would dry up with no new inventory. The same goes for your website. You need to constantly feed your site with fresh content or your visitors, and eventually your business, will dry up.

But if you get in the habit of adding fresh content on a weekly or even daily basis then you will be pleasantly surprised by the increase of traffic and interest from search engine generated leads. I personally prefer blogging since you can post little blogs like this one and Google will quickly index it for search keywords and start driving traffic your way.

So if you are serious about using the web to grow your business, and who isn’t these days, then make sure your website has a robust and easy to use CMS. And then make sure you use it on a regular basis. You will not be disappointed with the results.

Here’s a great article by Rand Fishkin about the importance of an SEO friendly CMS.

The Secret Ingredient to SEO or White vs. Grey vs. Black Hat

Posted by Jeb
Jul
21
2008

1
Comment

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization Search Engines SEM SEO

I went to see Kung Fu Panda last night with my 4 year old daughter Georgia. The core message of the movie was that there is no “secret ingredient” to life (and the noodle soup), it’s all in you to begin with. Somehow this nice little morale got me thinking about SEO, specifically how there is no “secret” to SEO, just good practices. But there are some tricks which some companies use to game Google so this post is about some of those tricks and why they often backfire.

I know, I’m pathetic, can’t even watch a movie with my kid without thinking about SEO!

There are still many companies running around telling you that they can guarantee you a #1 ranking on Google via some SEO magic. There are also very legitimate companies offering SEO tricks via blogs that duplicate the same content across multiple pages on your company’s website. So I thought I would spend some time exploring these issues and hopefully clear up the world of SEO for those interested in using search engines to grow their businesses. It can be intimidating but really there are only three things you need to know-

In the world of SEO there are three “hats”- White Hat, Grey Hat and Black Hat.

As you might expect White Hat SEO does everything above board, following best practices by creating a search engine friendly website with lots of fresh content (this is what a CMS does) augmented by quality external links. Naturally there is a lot more detail we could go into but that is basically the core of White Hat SEO- do everything right and don’t try to game the system. Small Box is a White Hat company.

Grey Hat is also, as you might expect, a little grey. Mostly Grey Hat SEO companies are doing best practices but they are also open to exploiting some openings in Google’s (and other search engine’s) search algorithm- this is the crazy, complicated program search engines use to determine page ranking for search terms. A current opening is Google’s fondness for fresh blog content. As it stands Google gives overwhelming preference to new blog posts often pushing a new post by a popular blog to the top of the listings for relevant searches within an hour or so of the blog post going live. Businesses have noticed this and want their companies to benefit from the blog bump. Essentially we are living in the era of the “blog bubble”. So, naturally, other companies are coming forward with blogging solutions for businesses to exploit this opening. This isn’t a bad thing except when some of these blogs are essentially duplicating content over and over under different keyword configurations in an attempt to game Google’s search results for their industry keywords. This is a loophole in Google’s current algorithm and it is only a matter of time before it gets closed and these blogs are seen as spam by Google and possibly relegated to Google Hell, a place you don’t want to be!

As you can probably guess Black Hat SEO is practiced by those that are often at the highest level of wizardry in the world of SEO and know how to navigate all the cracks and openings in Google’s algorithm. These practitioners of the black arts often execute shady SEO campaigns that involve paying for links, creating fake websites that link back to the target site and many many other nefarious tricks that can land your website in Google Hell once Google figures out what is going on and tweaks its algorithm to shake the loophole. Unless you are willing to risk your company’s online reputation I would recommend staying away from anyone who promises you these amazing results, it will invariably come back to bite you long after the Black Hat companies have cashed your checks.

Hopefully this has helped outline the world of SEO a little. I know this stuff is confusing but just like building a house the best way to go is to do everything right and cut no corners. This isn’t always the fastest way to get things done but it is the only way to have real search engine dominance for your industry. And as we’ve seen, the web isn’t going anywhere so it’s worth the investment to build your house with the best materials.

Wikipedia entry on SEO
Blog on Grey Hat SEO

The Beginning of the End of IE 6?

Posted by lydia
Jul
18
2008

2
Comments

Filed Under: Development

Ask any developer you know what’s the one thing they don’t like about their job and I guarantee 4 out of 5 times the answer would be “developing for IE 6.” We’ve spent many a day creating smoothly functional and well-designed web sites only to have that design and functionality get smashed into tiny little pieces against the brick wall that is IE 6. IE 6 doesn’t support many basic things other modern browsers do: PNGs, basic CSS functionality, AJAX… PC World even named it #8 on their list of Worst Tech Products of All Time.

It seems some folks have decided not to take it anymore. Facebook encourages users to upgrade their IE browser to IE 7, Apple’s MobileMe doesn’t support it at all, and now 37signals will cease offering IE 6 support on August 15, 2008.

37signals makes some great points about their decision:

“IE 6 is a last-generation browser. This means that IE 6 can’t provide the same web experience that modern browsers can. Continued support of IE 6 means that we can’t optimize our interfaces or provide an enhanced customer experience in our apps. Supporting IE 6 means slower progress, less progress, and, in some places, no progress. We want to make sure the experience is the best it can be for the vast majority of our customers, and continuing to support IE 6 holds us back.”

So what does this mean? Is this the start of a world wide web snowball? And how do we get everyone on board? I have some ideas:

  • Find the sites with the highest percentage of IE 6 users, block those sites from IE 6 users until they upgrade.

  • On e-commerce sites, charge a 5% usage fee for buying a product while using IE 6.

  • Convince Google to modify their logo (also known as a Google Doodle) to include a “Just Say No to IE 6″ badge in one of the Os.

  • Install the savethedevelopers.org script on every site we develop.

  • Tell everyone to write a letter to their Congressperson.

  • Start a petition to ban IE 6.

So maybe not all these ideas are helpful, but I bet some of them would get the job done right quick. I mean, IE 6 is still a fairly widely used browser, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. I’d love to hear some other ideas.

Input Does not = Decision

Posted by PJ
Jul
17
2008

0
Comments

Filed Under: Everything Else

I recently attended Web Content 2008 in Chicago. The goal of this conference is to connect web content management specialists to discuss the latest trends in web development and content management. It always surprises me how there is a blur of insight into specific topics. I attended forums with such titles as “All Content is Social”, “Best Practices in Selecting, Implementing, and Managing Content Management System”, “Web Operations Management”, and “Driving Traffic with Effective Keywords”. One detail went by nearly unnoticed, but stuck with me.

Input Does Not Equal Decision

Now I knew you can’t design by committee and that too many cooks spoil the broth and that the unexamined life is not worth living. But it is true. Having a good idea and making a decision are two completely different things.

For one thing there is a very natural human tendency to want to affect others. If we’re in a group we want to believe that there is a reason we are there, and when the time comes to make a decision, we want to be a part of it. I’m going to go way out on a limb and speak for all Project Managers on behalf of every project that is nearly complete and then receives input from a member of the team who has been all but absent throughout every important decision that has been made.

That is out of scope. We’ll address it in phase 2.

Okay how about a nice way of saying it.

“You are a bright and creative person. I really wish we could have gotten everybody’s ideas on the table like you did here today and included this one in the plan. I can really see that you have thought about it. Well, life is long and the platform we have built for you can be extended in a number of different ways, let’s just focus on what we need to get done and you can work on laying the groundwork for that.”

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