WebSanity Internet Marketing & SEO Blog

How many pages are indexed from your website?

2010-02-27T18:45:00.000Z

When making a quick evaluation of a website from an SEO point of view, one of the first things I like to do is see how well the site is indexed. Type into your search engine search box

site: your site name

e.g. :

site:www.websanity.co.uk

This is trying to see if the site has been noticed by Google, Yahoo & Bing and how well it has been indexed (how many of the actual pages on the website does Google know about?) Having too few or too many pages indexed are indications of problems with the pages (yes too many can be a problem, but that is more of an advanced Search Engine Optimisation issue).

In fact just this week this simple test on a website revealed a wealth of content that was not being indexed because it was inaccessible to the search engines, and a very simple change to the website has made tens of extra keyword rich pages indexable - providing a big boost to Search Engine rankings at minimal cost.

So, although it's a very simple test, it is always worth running to make sure everything is OK with your site indexing and to highlight any potential issues.

(Advanced note: it is possible to use Google Analytics to provide data on how MANY of those indexed pages are actually receiving traffic - a very interesting piece of information and probably a better metric for people trying to set up Key Performance Indicators for their websites).

Help and advice on Seach Engine Optimisation in Cambridge, Huntingdon or Peterborough from WebSanity Internet Marketing.

Spell checking on the internet

2010-02-22T15:52:00.000Z

It is always important that the content on your website (or blog) is up to scratch. Spelling mistakes and typos diminish the impact of all the hard work that you put into Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation. Try using a third party add-on like IE Spell to spell check forms that you fill in online: including content for Blog entries and Content Management Systems.

Of course that won't help if you mistype a word for which there is an equivalent spelling, in which case you have to fall back on the carpenter's adage "Measure twice and cut once" or "always proof before publishing".

(no prizes for spotting the typo in the previous blog entry - now corrected - that inspired this blog entry!)

Optimise your hosting for SEO

2010-02-21T11:54:00.006Z

If you have a website that is served from a .com domain name then it very important to look at the Search Engine Optimisation implications of where your website is physically hosted. Google, and other search engines, deliver results that are tailored on a location basis. So, if you search for the same thing on google.co.uk and google.fr you will see very different results - tailored to the google domain you are using and the country you are connecting to the internet from, as well as various Google preference settings.

Google uses the country extension of your website to determine where it is hosted, eg. .co.uk, and preferentially serves it within that country. However, a .com extension is non-geographically based, and therefore the search engines use the physical location of where your website is hosted to determine where the site should be preferentially shown. If you host in the UK with a .com domain extension this should cause no problems, however, one example we have seen in the past involved a case where a UK national was hosted in the Netherlands using a .com name address - causing their website to rank better in the google.nl results compared to the google.co.uk results - which is their target audience; a real Search Engine Optimisation concern.

To find out where your website is hosted go to the site www.netcraft.com. In the 'What's that site running?' box type in your full website address, e.g. www.websanity.co.uk.

Within the results you will see the Country:

If this doesn't match with your target audience then you have an SEO issue that you need to address.

So, what can you do about this?
1. You could change your primary domain name and redirect the .com domain name to a .co.uk variant - a fairly quick yet technical process.
2. You could change your hosting to a UK based company. We would recommend this solution in the long run because it will have additional benefits such as shorter page display times.
3. As a bare minimum - if your website is registered with Google webmaster tools - you can tell Google your preferred country and it will deal with your website accordingly.

So, what appears to be a small issue can in fact have a large impact in Search Engine Optimisation terms, and remember that even if you host with a UK company they may host your website on servers outside this country without you knowing.

If you need any other help with Search Engine Optimisation of your website on an international basis, such as how to deal with targeting multiple countries through one website, then get in touch.

Keyword rich inbound links

2010-02-07T21:48:00.001Z

When talking to clients about Internet Marketing we often discuss what constitutes a quality 'inbound link' to a website. There are a large number of factors at work, but one of the most important is the text that forms the link itself. Remember a link (in most cases) is seen as a vote in favour of a page by Google (and the other search engines) - and these links build to form 'trust' in your website.

A link consists of two parts: the linking text that is displayed on the web page and the web page that is displayed when you click on that link. In terms of the linking text - from a Search Engine Optimisation AND customer viewpoint - it is very important that this is 'keyword rich' - i.e. that it contains keywords that match phrases that your customers are searching for. If you can build more keyword rich links to a given page then your site (and that page in particular) will rise up the rankings for searches including those keywords.

Want to see an example of this? Search for "click here" in Google and you will find the Adobe Reader download page ranked number one - that's the free software that allows you to read PDFs. So why does this small page without a single mention of the phrase "click here" seem to defy SEO logic and rank number one for it? Because so many people's websites which include PDFs say something along the lines of "This file requires Adobe Reader. To download it click here" where 'click here' links to this page.

So, the Search Engine Optimisation lesson to be learnt is simple: wherever possible - try to build links which are keyword rich. This isn't easy - hence why it will always be an important measure used by Google in determining page rankings for different pages for a given keyword search, and always an important factor in effective Search Engine Optimisation for a website.

Google microformats - making your content more accessible

2010-01-30T18:02:00.003Z

Google are always experimenting with the search results snippets they show in their search results. These are the little boxes that appear for each result for a given search. We've seen site links, breadcrumb trails and up to 3 sub-results appearing, and now Google are playing with 'rich snippets'. These incorporate further information about each result, such as a review or video or, just announced, events.

Here's an example (courtesy of Google) of how a single entry in the search results may appear:

As you can see that's a lot more comprehensive than the usual heading and two lines of text.

To do this they have introduced the concept of microformats. A microformat is just a predefined way of 'marking up' the data on a page to add some intelligence which Google can then interpret and feed into its incredible search databases to show in a result like that above - if it deems it appropriate.

So, using the example of a page displaying a course (or a series of courses), this may appear on a web page as follows:
Finance for Non-Financial Managers
London
1 day
1/2/2010

Technically this may be implemented (excuse the HTML code) as follows:
< h2 >Finance for Non-Financial Managers< /h2 >
< p >London< br/ >
1/2/2010< br/ >
1 day< /p >

However, with microformats we add intelligence to this information:

< h2 >< span class="description">Finance for Non-Financial Managers< /h2 >
< p >< span class="location" >London< /span >< br/ >
< span class="dtstart" >1/2/2010< /span >< br/ >
< span class="duration" >1 day< /span >< /p >

Now this will look the same to the user BUT it gives Google information so they MIGHT then display this in a rich snippet in the search results.

Apologies for the technical diversion but I wanted to show how microformats work - because they are going to be of ever increasing importance: its one of the few ways that a search engine like Google can wring more information and intelligence out of the web. We'd recommend that people start asking their web developers to consider applying this to any of their data for which there is an appropriate microformat (video, reviews, events at the moment). We shall certainly be keeping a very keen eye on new microformats as they are announced by Google - I think this could well grow to be one of the most important developments on the web we've seen for a long time.

Google Merchant Center

2010-01-23T15:42:00.001Z

Every month we measure the ranking of key pages against certain keyword searches on behalf of some of our national clients. This gives us a good overview of how search engine results are evolving and, over the course of time, we've seen Google putting more and more 'Shopping results' snippets within these search results. Google - driven by relevancy as always - does this when it guesses that the intent of your search might be to buy a product. So, if I was looking to buy an iPig iPod docking station (just for the record - I wasn't) then you might see the following block appear in the search results:

Appearing in this block offers another way to get into the search engine results which, even if you are ranking well organically, is an opportunity not to be missed!

These results are generated from entries in the Google Merchant Center which is a free service offered by Google. Once you have an account you just need to create a spreadsheet of your products (a good eCommerce system will generate this for you) and then remember to upload it every month - that's it. The appearance of shopping results can seem a bit random - but is becoming ever more common - so we'd highly recommend that ALL customers selling products online took the time out to get, and then keep, their products listed.

How to sign up for Google Merchant Center
You will need a Google account (if you haven't you can sign up for one here: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount) and then you will need to join the Merchant Center programme (http://www.google.com/merchants/adbd). We have a special Merchant Center account that lets us manage listings on behalf of our clients - so if you need help with this aspect of online marketing then get in touch.

Search Engine Optimisation & Internet Explorer 6

2009-12-24T20:57:00.000Z

The internet is a strange place. In some respects it is constantly evolving and nothing ever seems to stand still... but in other respects it is incredibly conservative. Take the example of browsers. A large percentage of people (because they just aren't IT literate enough - or because they simply don't care) are still using Internet Explorer 6. IE 6 was first released almost 9 years ago, and is two versions behind the current browser offering from Microsoft, Internet Explorer 8.

Internet Explorer 6 is an appalling browser. It was unfortunately rushed out as the web standards of its day were being finalised, and as a result it is laden with bugs and mis-interpretations of the HTML and CSS standards that a web designer uses to develop websites. It caused a lot of frustration for developers and a huge amount of extra work to ensure websites displayed correctly within it. And yet, almost 9 years on, people are still using it.

If you don't believe me look at some of the stats from a typical site (gathered by Google Analytics):

These figures, and bear in mind that they do vary according to your customer base (look at your web analytics and see what they tell you), show 24% of visitors still use a 9 year old browser to access this site. So, if you've got the latest cutting edge browser, and you think you website looks great, then you'd better check it in Internet Explorer 6, because up to a quarter of your customers might be disappointed with the way it looks or - worse - simply not be able to see things like drop down menus.

So how do you do that? Well, you could find an old machine running Windows XP and IE6 or, far more technical, use something like Windows 7 professional running multiple virtual machines with installs of IE6 and IE7 in them, and run IE8 'natively' in Windows 7. That's quite technical, so it might be something you want to ask for some technical help with.

At WebSanity, when conducting a website Search Engine Optimisation audit (and during development of our in-house developed SEO friendly websites), we always check how well a site works in a broad spread of browsers (including IE 6) - although it isn't strictly part of SEO, it diminishes the impact of SEO if a quarter of the new traffic generated by the optimisation process can't even use the target website!

How to write Search Engine Optimised title tags

2009-12-13T08:21:00.005Z

One of the most important aspects of starting Search Engine Optimisation for your website is to get the title tags right. The title tag is the bit of text that appears in the top of the internet browser program bar for each page of your website:

and, most importantly, the piece of text that appears as the first line of the 'snippet' shown in the Google results:

Google and the other search engines place a large degree of relevancy on the contents of the title tag.

Here are some hints & tips on how to write a good title tag:

Keep it short: 65-75 letters (use our free 'SEO count characters tool' to help you get that right);
Ensure it contains keywords for the page being viewed;
Ensure the most important keywords come first;
Except on your 'About Us' page, put your brand at the end - not the beginning;
Use '&' instead of 'and' - it lets you squeeze more content in;
Make it read well - remember this is the first line people might ever read about you in the Search Engine Results - if it is gibberish they won't click on it;
Don't 'stuff' keywords in it by repeating keywords or just listing keywords.

And finally, make sure that you don't have any duplicate title tags across the website. Many web developers get sloppy with title tags when rushing to get a site live and either use the same tag across the entire site, or just write non-optimised tags - this will harm your site from the outset.

Writing carefully optimised title tags is only one small part of Search Engine Optimisation for your website, but it is a very important one. If you need advice on Search Engine Optimisation in Cambridge, Peterborough or further afield then get in touch and we'd be happy to help.

Why does blogging boost SEO?

2009-12-05T19:13:00.003Z

Some people love to broadcast their thoughts to world, and so blogging comes naturally to them. But many people I've met (probably the majority) don't like the idea at all! If you're in the latter category then I'm afraid that if you want to get good search engine ranking, then you're going to have to grit your teeth and dive in: you simply can't ignore the power of the blog when it comes to SEO.

But why you might ask? Google, and the other search engines, have extremely complicated (and secret!) algorithms that are used to decide the ranking of sites for any given search term. Some of the points that make blogging such a powerful tool in the SEO toolbox include:

Blogging adds content to the site. Adding content - particularly when you are a small site - adds more initial 'PageRank' to the site.
The content you add is varied, natural and keyword rich. Well it is if you blog 'on subject'!
Blogging encourages linking. If you produce useful or interesting content then people will link to you, and links build trust in the eyes of the search engine.
Search engines love fresh content - they actively promote frequently updated sites above static sites, as they see this as a sign of authority in a subject.
Blogs are distributed through RSS and atom feeds, which means that search engines pick up on new content far quicker than 'normal' website content (sometimes in a matter of hours)...

So, if you're serious about your Search Engine Optimisation then bite the bullet and start a blog. If want further advice on how to get the most out of blogging in Cambridge, Peterborough or Huntingdon then why not get in touch?

Want to sell just a couple of products online?

2009-11-29T18:06:00.004Z

A lot of small businesses want to make their website work harder for them by selling a handful of products. However, putting together a solution based on a sophisticated shopping cart system is often not economically viable. Whatsmore, trying to retrofit and integrate such a system into an existing website can be very problematic.

PayPal have had a shopping cart system for some time which is better than simply adding 'buy now' buttons to a site; however, unless you have a taste for HTML and have full access to your website, then this solution is one that has to be hardcoded into the site. (Admittedly we've hooked up such systems in the past to admin systems based on WebSanity's own database administration technology, but that isn't a small job).

Google has recently made a huge step forward by providing a shopping cart store gadget (basically some technology that can be plugged into a website easily) to provide not only a shopping cart and payment system, but one that can be administered through its own Google Docs technology. By editing an online spreadsheet it is possible for the customer to easily add, edit and delete products on their website. It is in no way a replacement for the power of a sophisticated eCommerce system, however, if you just want to sell a couple of products online, then it's a simple, flexible and cheap solution you ought to consider. It's even possible, after a little adaptation, to add simple categorisation to the system: see my prototype simple shopping cart system.

If you're interested in a simple, low cost solution to selling products online - or even a fully bespoke eCommerce solution - then feel free to get in touch with us about online eCommerce.

EEDA takeITon - SEO keyword targeting on page

2009-11-16T22:20:00.003Z

For those who came along to any of the EEDA takeITon masterclasses (and if you didn't I hope you find it useful anyway), here is the image I promised you of where you need to place your SEO keyword terms (found through keyword research) to form a highly relevant 'landing page'.

Google number one ranking

2009-11-07T07:11:00.007Z

A lot of people obsess about being ranked number one in the Google results. There is no denying that the higher up the screen you are, the more likely you are to be read and clicked on (well unless you're at the very bottom where you will in fact fair slightly better than in the middle - it's all to do with the way that humans scan content).

A lot of research is given out by SEO companies that reinforces this. Typical click through rates (the proportion of people who read the results page and who then click on that link in that position) are often quoted as something like:

Position 1:	40%
Position 2:	12%
Position 3:	8%
Position 4:	6%
Position 5:	5%

So there is no denying that number one slot looks the place to be - and it is certainly something you should aspire to (and something SEO companies want to charge you money to try to attain).

However, a lot of this research that I have read seems fundamentally flawed. Think of how you use search. What are the most frequent things you use it for? This will probably be a balance of looking for new sites and just looking up an existing site. A lot of people visit a website they know already by typing in the business name into Google - saving time having to get all the www. and co uk (or was it com?) bits right in the address bar. Most businesses, as long as they have some very basic Search Engine Optimisation in place, will rank number one for their own business name (if you don't then you seriously need to up the game on your Search Engine Optimisation). So where will a lot of people end up clicking after a web search? position 1.

Filtering those people out of the equation, you might decide not to focus purely on being "ranked number one" but consider these hugely important factors as well:

Matching your targeted search terms against what people are actually searching for - keyword research
Examining what the search terms are that you are ranking for - you might not score well against bigger competitors on the generic terms but there could be plenty of opportunity on more specific 'long tail' searches - focus on content targeting
The way you appear in the search results - focus on your title and meta description tags
The experience people get when they visit your site - don't forget to consider Conversion Rate Optimisation (the percentage of people who become customers having visited your site)

If you want pragmatic, down to earth advice on Search Engine Optimisation in Cambridge, Huntingdon or Peterborough from a company whose focus is Making the Internet make Sense™, then why not get in touch?

Improve your Search Engine Position with more content

2009-11-01T08:52:00.002Z

I speak to a lot of small businesses throughout the East of England region about Search Engine Optimisation; and one of the SEO issues that frequently comes up is the amount of content - or lack of it - on their websites.

I like to think of good search engine results as being based on a number of key pillars: relevancy, authority and (to a lesser degree) locality.

Relevancy is all about targeting content very closely at the searches that people are making on the web. Having too little content probably means you're probably not targeting that carefully enough. For example; on www.websanity.co.uk we have subsidiary pages for web design huntingdon, web design peterborough and web design cambridge (one of these days we'll get around to adding the more relevant pages: SEO huntingdon, SEO peterborough and SEO cambridge!): this additional content helps boosts relevancy.

Authority is mainly about establishing trust through link building, but Google certainly uses the number of pages on your site to determine the initial PageRank or trust that it gives it (in a highly non-linar fashion - doubling the pages on your site will NOT double your PageRank!). If you're a small site then increasing the number of pagse could well give you a boost here over your competition. After all, it's fairly obvious that a 20 page site about Search Engine Optimisation is better than a 2 page site - and Google agrees.

So if you want to boost your Search Engine Rankings then consider adding content to your site - but make sure it is relevant: get in touch if you'd like some advice.

takeITon - SEO masterclasses

2009-10-24T15:55:00.008+01:00

On Thursday I taught a session - Making the Most of Free SEO tools - at a masterclass organised by the East of England Development Agency at the Moller Centre in Cambridge. The other speakers covered sessions on Google AdWords and Video & Streaming Media. It was difficult trying to pack in so much information aimed at such a broad spread of businesses in such a small time, but the feedback I heard for the masterclass was first rate. The other speakers showed a fantastic depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for their subject that was inspiring!

The next events are in Norwich on the 5th of November and Cambridge again on the 16th of November. Highly recommended if you can get a place; find out more here.

Try Some AdWords PPC for Christmas

2009-10-17T06:20:00.005+01:00

Being a Google AdWords qualified individual means that I've had to study for - and pass - an exam set by Google to ensure that I know how to use the Google AdWords system. Google also require that you have managed a certain Pay Per Click advertising spend with them to make sure that you have good experience of using the system.

This qualification assures our customers that we are well qualified to setup, manage or optimise AdWords campaigns on their behalf - or teach them how to do so themselves. As nothing stands still in the world of Search Engine Optimisation, Google are updating their systems (for the best) and as a result have given AdWords qualified individuals a set of free AdWords vouchers to give out to new customers.

To receive one of these free £50 AdWords vouchers you need to create a new Google AdWords account (activation fee £5) and link it to our management account before the end of December. If you want to setup an AdWords campaign in time for Christmas, then now is the time to start thinking about it!

If you are interested in trying AdWords advertising in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Peterborough or environs, then why not get in touch?

Boost your SEO by reviewing image ALT tags

2009-10-10T20:53:00.004+01:00

An image Alt tag is a short piece of text associated with an image. It's intended use is to describe an image to people with visual disabilities: if you can't make out the image your browser software will either display the text or even read it out to you (it is also shown in a little yellow box when you hover your mouse over an image).

A lot of people - including developers - are lazy with ALT tags and either leave them blank or just type in the first thing that comes into their heads. But in fact this is short sighted because Google places quite a lot of standing on what those ALT tags contain. Picking the right Alt text for an image is certainly an acquired skill, but one worth picking up if you want to boost the Search Engine Optimisation of your site.

You should be able to set your ALT tags through your CMS if you have one: if not then print out a copy of your website, write down new ALT tags and ask your developer to update them for you.

So, if you sell tungsten grinders for sharpening welding electrodes (for the record this is a made up example), then you might have:

"" i.e. nothing - bad, what a wasted opportunity (and you're falling foul of the Disability Discrimination Act by the way!);
"TM3762" - That doesn't help anybody;
"Grinder" - well, it's a start and at least it has a keyword in it;
"Photo of a grinder" - No better because you don't need 'Photo of' that's a given (and it just make it slower for people with visual disabilities using 'screen readers');
"Tungsten Electrode Grinder being used to resharpen Welding Electrodes" - now we're talking: we've been descriptive whilst at the same time getting some relevant keywords into the phrase in a perfectly natural manner;
"Tungsten grinder, welding grinder, electrode grinder, TM3762, re-sharpen electrodes ..." - some people take things too far by giving something that isn't a description of the image at all but just a list of keywords; something we call keyword stuffing. Google can spot this kind of thing and, along with other bad practices clearly trying to manipulate the search engine results, doesn't look kindly on it: just don't do it!

So the important thing is to pick ALT tags that are natural and naturally rich in keywords. This can be difficult for more 'conceptual' images, but there are tricks you might try like "visual representation of..." etc. Get creative!

Huntingdon - home of WebSanity Internet Marketing

And if you get really stuck then maybe you're just using the wrong image?!

Making the most out of free SEO tools

2009-09-29T17:42:00.004+01:00

One of the things I like most about Search Engine Optimisation is that - armed with suitable knowledge - anybody can improve the results that their website delivers at little cost other than their time. This is the reason that people who are passionate about their business can often outrank far larger companies with far larger SEO budgets. Of course the crux of the matter is getting hold of that knowledge in the first place.

Now there's a helping hand - courtesy of the takeITon programme run by the East of England Development Agency - from their takeITon masterclass 'Improving your website through the use of search engine optimisation techniques and technologies'. Included in this is a free session looking at 'Making the most out of free SEO tools' delivered by... me! Places are booking fast (the first Cambridge event is already full), so if you're interested - and you qualify - I recommend you get in touch with EEDA quickly.

See http://www.takeiton.org.uk/free-IT-masterclass.asp.

It's official... META KEYWORDS are useless... almost...

2009-09-22T21:10:00.004+01:00

If you keep up with the latest trends in SEO you'll know that the META KEYWORDS tag is of little or no importance in improving your search engine rankings. Now Matt Cutts (Google Engineer and prolific blogger), has made it totally official: "Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in web search". You can read his official post here.

Why? Because you could put anything in your keywords that visitors never see, it was always too open to abuse plus Search Engines have got much much better at interpreting 'on-page' content anyway.

So what should you do? We'd recommend keep on doing what you should already be doing: populate the keywords tag with a sensible set of keywords. Don't spend too much time on this BUT do remember that other Search Engines might still use them to some extent, and some believe that Google AdWords puts some very minor weighting on them.

And one final thing: DON'T stop doing keyword research - keywords are different from META keywords - and keyword research is still very much the bedrock of Search Engine Optimisation!

SEO tool - Count characters, letters, words and phrases

2009-09-08T03:22:00.005+01:00

Whenever you're conducting any Search Engine Optimisation work on a website you end up having to count things like letters, characters, words, phrases or keywords: whether you're adjusting your title tags or doing some link building, you have to work within limits.

We put together a simple tool to help us count letters, characters, words, phrases or keywords when we're doing SEO work and now it is publicly available here:
http://www.websanity.co.uk/tools/count-letters-keywords.php.

Some things you might find it useful for might include:

Site Optimisation

Make sure you title tags aren't too long or too short (and whilst you're at it make sure your keywords are in there and ideally loaded towards the front of the title)
Make sure your description meta tags aren't too long or too short (these may well appear in the search results so also make sure they are keyword rich and compelling)
Make sure you have a reasonable number of keywords (although when considering JUST the top search engines there is hardly any point listing these any more)
Ensure you have enough words in your content. If you don't have enough content on a page how can you expect Google to take you seriously (remember it's all about showing the Search Engines that your page is the most relevant for a given group of keywords)

Google AdWords

OK, the Google AdWords ad tool is better than it used to be, but it is still sometimes useful to work things up 'off-line' before creating or optimising your ad text in a live campaign.

Link Building

Whilst submitting your site to various directories you will have all sorts of different criteria for number of characters, letters, words, keywords, phrases etc. So this character and keyword counting tool comes in handy for ensuring you make the most of them!

We hope the tool is of use to you, but if you need any professional Search Engine Optimisation advice in Cambridge, Huntingdon, Peterborough or environs then get in touch and we'll be happy to help.

Note for the inquisitive: If you look at the letter and keyword counting tool, you might well notice that we have dropped some of our usual navigation from the drop down menus and from the footer. This is deliberate, and justifiable because this is a special page! We are hoping that this page will gain visibility within the Search Engines, and will therefore be assigned a degree of trust, link juice, page rank or whatever you like to call it. By restricting the links out from the page within our own site this will hopefully allow this to be passed on to only our most important pages - in turn helping to raise their visibility. The technique is called page rank sculpting.

Search Engine Optimisation - too good to be true

2009-09-06T08:42:00.003+01:00

Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation can seem like hard work at times, so when an offer like this arrives in your email box:

"Do you wish you could increase your new business? Getting a GUARANTEED 1ST PAGE GOOGLE RANKING is more cost-effective than you might think. We have helped hundreds of businesses attract new customers in this market and we can help you! Our results are 100% guaranteed. Simply hit reply and I’ll share with you the cost and the benefits. See you at the top! In order for us to respond to your request for information, please include your company’s website address (mandatory) and or phone number."

you think you'd jump at it?

Of course not - there are no guarantees in life apart from death and taxes - and there are certainly no guarantees as far as Search Engine Optimisation is concerned! But we increasingly come across people who have paid both one off AND ongoing fees in response to charlatan email offers like that shown above. Don't be tempted to fall for such offers - if they do any work at all it is even possible that bad SEO practice will end up harming your Search Engine results when Google idendifies them.

We recommend that you use Search Engine Optimisation best practice to optimise your site technical implementation together with its structure and content; then work to build a genuine network of links from the online community. It isn't easy and it takes time, but we guarantee that's the best way to improve your search engine results!

Book review: "Get into Bed with Google"

2009-08-24T18:16:00.007+01:00

Get into Bed with Google: Top Ranking Search Optimisation Techniques

This is a small book (not in terms thickness but in terms of physical size) intended for a non-technical audience. It won't take you more than a couple of hours to read through.

It has been written by somebody who comes across as somebody who had a successful website who then wandered into SEO. In some respects this is refreshing, but in other respects it comes across as very unprofessional. Comments such as 'how do you go about maxmimising your online presence and performance without having to employ some precocious adolescent web designer for more than the GDP of several developing nations?' is one case in point (easy answer, employ a professional who has years of experience and can help guide you on the course to better SEO!).

That said, this book is fairly unique in that it does try to 'work' for non-web developers, and covers off interesting topics that if you follow through with should definitely help your website's rankings. So I'd say if you're a non-techy without much time on your hands then its worth a quick read (trust me it won't take long). There is nothing in here that can't be found by a simple search on the web, the material is organised in a haphazard fashion, it doesn't set the scene of SEO within the field of internet marketing generally, I don't like some of the tools it introduces (forget these so called link analysis sites, just head over to Yahoo site explorer for you, and your competitors, link information) - BUT if you just want to get some simple ideas for some simple things to try as a first step along your route to better search engine rankings, then this is definitely a good starting point.

My favourite Search Engine Optimisation book for clients is still:

Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing

It is logical, comprehensive (I would have called it Internet Marketing not Search Engine Optimization myself) and yet simple to follow, and you can easily skip any areas that you find too technical to cope with at the outset.

Scan website files for embedded iframe virus

2009-08-23T12:55:00.010+01:00

There are definitely a lot of embedded IFRAME attacks going on at the moment! If you've been caught out and got this code onto your website(s) (see my previous post outlining Filezilla ftp connection user name and password vulnerabilities) then it might be difficult for you to find every last file infected by this malware on your website.

Of course the first thing to do after removing the malware from your PC, changing your ftp passwords and swapping to a different ftp client (?!) is to re-upload all your files to your website. But uploading a whole backup copy of your website is always nerve-wracking: there is always the uncertainty that you HAVE made some minor update that you forgot to back up.

Instead you can scan the website for files containing iframes and intelligently delete those iframes or re-upload just those files affected. By scanning your website for embedded iframe virus affected files after you've completed the cleanup you can also assure yourself that you have now got a clean site!

So here's a script we adapted from some previous work that should help you scan your website for embedded iframe virus affected files. Its written in PHP and you'll possibly need to edit it to set it up just the way you want it, but it should be self explanatory - I hope.

Unzip it and then copy it to your website document root.
Visit the address you uploaded it to, e.g. www.websanity.co.uk/detect-signature.php.

It will then show all the files it has checked and highlight any files in which it has found the signature 'iframe' within. Note that this might find spurious files as you might have a blog that mentions iframes. You could change the detection signature to <iframe but what if the malware has injected < iframe or < iframe - hence why we just check for iframe: better safe than sorry!

To eliminate spurious files the script will ignore files over a certain size and of certain types (both can be updated in the header of the file). It will also ignore files before a certain date, so if you know the website caught the iframe injection attack on 10/8/2009 then you can set it to ignore files before 1/8/2009, thus when you scan your website for injected iframes it'll false trigger less.

There are a couple of url parameters that you might find useful; you can use the following forms:

detect-signature.php?detect_errors_only
This will look for any iframes and just display an OK or not OK result.

detect-signature.php?detect_errors_only
This will look for any iframes and display every file it finds one in.

We hpoe that's of use to you, if it is then do link to this article - it helps our SEO a little and it might help other people!

UPDATE: Latest news seems to say that there is a huge increase in attacks from FaceBook apps in the first 6 months of this year - take care out there!

Secure your FTP by using SFTP

2009-08-20T13:24:00.003+01:00

Whilst we're talking about accessing your web site via FTP (see previous post re FileZilla) it is worth considering using SFTP to connect to your website instead of FTP. FTP transmits not only the data you send to the website in an unencrypted form, but it connects to the website by sending your user name and password in plain text over the internet! Secure ftp, or SFTP, encrypts everything so no packet sniffers or malware have a chance to see what data you are transferring NOR will they get the chance to see your ftp user name and password and wreak havoc on your website in the future.

You will need a good FTP program (again smartFTP professional handles this perfectly) and a good webhost who allows you connect via SFTP. Obviously at WebSanity we use SFTP and the hosting that we offer our web design clients includes SFTP capability right out of the box.

Don't use Filezilla for ftp

2009-08-18T21:39:00.002+01:00

A small number of our Internet Consultancy clients access their own websites using an ftp program (ftp = File Transfer Protocol). This is a seemingly simply program that allows you to copy files backwards and forwards to your website from your PC or Mac. For smaller businesses there is a great attraction to use a free product, such as Filezilla or CuteFTP (at WebSanity we use an excellent commercial program called SmartFTP - which we would recommend in preference every time).

Part of the way these programs work is to store a user name and password to access your web site(s). Of course you would NEVER store unencrypted passwords on your computer but unfortunately we found out recently that Filezilla does exactly that (other more professional ftp programs encryt such data).

This vulnerability is seemingly well known by virus writers and we have just encountered a case of a client who unfortunately had 'caught' some malware (a virus designed to harvest information from a machine, not to destroy it) - in theory not possible because they claimed to be running anti-virus software! This malware knew that Filezilla didn't encrypt its passwords and so harvested them and then used them to inject hidden malware code into all their websites.

The client had to delete Filezilla, change all their ftp passwords and reformat the machine to remove the malware - removing these isn't just a case of deleting a single file! We have then had to write a custom script on their behalf, installed onto each of their websites, to scan every website for any instances of the "iframe code injection" that the malware had created: otherwise it would have meant checking hundreds, if not thouands, of files by hand.

Lessons to be learnt:

Make sure you have up to date anti-virus software;
Run a full virus scan once a week;
Get some malware checking software if your virus software doesn't check for this;
Keep a backup of ALL your files;
Use a quality firewall and READ the alerts it gives you;
Don't use Filezilla - it is insecure!

WebSanity now offering web hosting

2009-08-12T12:44:00.002+01:00

Our advice - when offering consultancy - was always to host your website independently of your web developer. The reason for this was that some developers hosted websites on a box in the corner of their office, whilst others became obstructive to people wishing to change developer (on one occassion even I heard of the developer simply turning off the website hosting when they realised they hadn't got the job of doing the next version - leaving the customer with no website!)

Independent hosting companies have recently been pushing virtual servers. These allow developers, or resellers, to rent what is effectively their own professionally maintained and connected hosting server for a fraction of the cost of having a dedicated server. (The difference is that a single machine dedicated to one customer is a dedicated server, whereas with a virtual server several customers can share one such machine.)

At WebSainty we have recently rented our own virtual server. This allows us to sell our customers high quality hosting at a good price; whilst also giving us far greater control over the hosting system. Having greater control was of particular importance to us, as tens of customers on independent hosting accounts was becoming difficult to manage!

The advice we give to consultancy customers has also changed to say it is OK to host with your developer as long as they are offering virtual server hosting from an independent professional hosting company. However, our advice that the 'working relationship' is one of the key aspects of picking your web developer remains the same!