Archive for July, 2010

Not Number One with the Search Engines?

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

If you are a website owner, you probably have received spam emails that say they can get you to number one with the search engines. Beware of these: they are scams.

My website ChristopherMerrill.com IS number one with some keyword phrases, and has strong rankings with others (I work regularly on my site to maintain my search engine rankings), and I still get these spam emails.

No one can guarantee a number one ranking with the search engines, and any one who claims they can do so is taking you for a ride.

Whatever decision you make regarding search engine optimization, be sure to choose carefully. See cautionary news article about SEO scams. Some so-called experts will get you high rankings for a few months, but then your site will drop down the list and eventually disappear, unless you maintain your website with legitimate search engine optimization techniques.

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Making it Bigger Doesn’t Make it Clearer!

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

When choosing original images for use on your website, be sure to select the largest file size possible (1-3 megabytes). Having large original files will allow you to crop the image and reduce the file size for quick downloading (known as image optimization).

The image at right shows an optimized image, first at 118×136 (pixels), and then shows the same optimized image expanded to 207×243 (pixels). As you can see, the clarity of the second image has suffered because of the expansion. This is because the original small image has been optimized for quick download. Expanding makes it worse, not better.

The solution is to make sure that you have large-size originals so that you will not need to expand the images in size in order to increase their visual impact on the screen.

Most email programs limit the size of attachments to a total of 7-10 megs, which means you will either need to send your images to your web designer separately one-by-one (one image per email), or you will need to put the files on a disk and send them by mail to your web designer (or perhaps use FTP or a file transfer program like YouSendIt).

Failure to use quality images for websites is one of the most common errors new website owners make — be sure to take the time to select your images carefully and make sure they are of the highest quality possible.

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Posted in General Web Design Tips | No Comments »

Boost Your Rankings with the Title Attribute

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

Boost Your Rankings with the Title AttributeIf you hover your mouse over a link that includes a title, the title will display in a small box next to the mouse.

Here is an example of a title attribute:

<a href=”attorneys.htm” title=”Our Attorneys”>Our Attorneys</a>

Adding the title attribute will generate a “tool tip” in major browsers, giving the user more specific information on what is contained in the link.

The title tag is also beneficial for handicapped users. See more about creating handicapped-accessible web sites.

Title attributes are a completely valid way to get additional content onto your pages that will attract the search engines to your keywords and phrases, allowing you to adjust the keyword saturation of your web pages.

Remember that users will see your titles tags in major browsers when they hover the mouse over the element, so be sure to choose the text for your title tags carefully.

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Posted in Do-it-yourself SEO, Marketing Your Website | No Comments »