Kieran Chapman Design » SEO http://kieranchapmandesign.com Web and user experience design by Kieran Chapman Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:31:35 +0000 en hourly 1 Search3.com: SEO Search Tool http://kieranchapmandesign.com/2010/01/search3-com-seo-search-tool/ http://kieranchapmandesign.com/2010/01/search3-com-seo-search-tool/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:16:19 +0000 admin http://kieranchapmandesign.com/?p=391 One thing I’m going to try to focus on for the new year is search engine optimization (SEO) tips. Yes, SEO is sometimes looked at as the smarmy, ugly work of spammers, but that’s not what I’ll be talking about. SEO is really just common sense web development with proper page titles and descriptions. The sites I build allow you to keep this information up-to-date, so how your site appears in search results is under your control.

Sample search at search3.com

Sample search at search3.com

So, how does your site appear in the major search engines? Search3.com is a tool that lets you easily see three sets of search results at the same time. This makes it simple to compare how your site appears on Google, Yahoo and Bing (you can also choose Twitter and eBay) and see where you’re ranked in each.

What if your site isn’t showing up in search results? Or you don’t like the text that Google is displaying to describe your site? I’ll be covering these topics in future blog posts; if your needs are more pressing, please feel free to contact me today.

]]> http://kieranchapmandesign.com/2010/01/search3-com-seo-search-tool/feed/ 0 SEO: Common Sense for Web Developers http://kieranchapmandesign.com/2009/10/seo-common-sense-for-web-developers/ http://kieranchapmandesign.com/2009/10/seo-common-sense-for-web-developers/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:46:57 +0000 admin http://kieranchapmandesign.com/?p=333 Recently there was a bit of an uproar in the web developer community because of a blog post by Derek Powazek titled Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists. In it he tears apart SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by saying, among other things, “Search Engine Optimization is not a legitimate form of marketing.” I mostly agreed with what he wrote, but only because I understood what he meant: good web development includes good SEO practices, plain and simple. A well-developed web site is easily found and read by search engine spiders. Shifty “SEO” companies that say they can guarantee top placement in search engines are probably using unethical linking tactics that aren’t SEO but instead are flat-out spamming — these are the “evildoers” who are ruining the web.

I think part of Derek’s problem was that he assumed everybody knows good common-sense web development practices. But as Danny Sullivan pointed out in An Open Letter To Derek Powazek On The Value Of SEO “the stuff that you think isn’t rocket science — that anyone knows — is indeed a mystery to others.” I’m still surprised when I see sites coded poorly — bad page titles, using images instead of plain text, misuse of (or not using) header tags — but it reminds me that what Derek (and I) consider common sense web development just isn’t to many people. This is where legitimate SEO professionals come in to help clean up a sloppy or unknowing developer’s work.

Sullivan correctly notes that “sometimes [people] can’t find that web developer who also understands SEO issues. In the same way, you sometimes don’t find web developers who are also designers.” Sites I build are SEO-friendly without calling it that, simply because it’s the right way to build websites. Of course, once the site is up it’s up to you to add the most important part of any site: compelling content that brings people back to your site.

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