search engine listings

nothing strikes a cord in a website owners mindset like the realisation that "oh my gosh!!!! my site doesn't show up on the first page of google!!!!!!! it's the end of the world as we know it!!!!!!". It absolutely amazes me that people think their site should magically appear where they expect it to. So here goes - my guide to simple stuff that everyone can do to improve listings.

1. Get as many other sites to link to you as possible. The higher the traffic and more popular the sites are that are linking to you, the better chance you have. Scenario: If Amazon and YouTube had permanent links to your site on their front page, you would be in a very good position. (be realistic though… you’ll never get a link from Amazon unless you pay lots and lots of money for an advert). Blogs are a great way to get other sites linking to you. Start up your own! Comment on other like minded peoples blogs (but don’t spam them) – you might be able to strike up a relationship with them so you can swap links.
2. Change the textual content of your site often, while keeping the relevance of the information. Google keeps a copy of your site on its own servers (the copy is called Google’s “cache”), and compares this cache with your actual site on a regular basis. If you have changed the content often, in the eyes of Google you are being seen as proactive in keeping information up to date. You have to ask yourself, is your site static brochure ware? Or is your site a selling tool for your business? Selling tools such as websites need constant refinement to keep information relevant and interesting for your users – otherwise, why would they come back?
3. Major keywords need to be in “heading” format (This is HTML jargon). If you want to be found by the keyword “widget”, it needs to be in a Heading 1 format on the front page of your site. You must target your major keywords and concentrate on these throughout your site.
4. Make sure your HTML page titles display appropriate text. Don’t just give a page the title “Home”, this doesn’t mean anything to someone choosing your site over another one in a search engine listing. Give the page title your business name, followed by what the page is about. E.G. “Widgets Incorporated – About Us”. Even better is to have one of your major keywords in the title.
5. Paid advertising – Pay per click campaigns such as Google Adwords do really work. You need to make the decision of whether it's right for you.

Like I said, simple stuff. There's alot more that can be done.... but I dont feel like getting into that right now. It's actually hard work to keep a site at the top - and pretty dry work at that too. I might do a post later on for the more advanced stuff if I'm in the mood.

wiki critical mass

I get the sense that wikis are starting to gain momentum now as a business tool. Doing a bit of research - it looks like wikis have actually been around since 1995 (the original wikiwikiweb... 12 years ago!!! phwoar), but it's taken some big, well publicised examples like wikipedia to throw it in the limelight.

I think the reason for the lag in adoption was because it used to be such a radical concept to let just anybody edit information on a webpage like they were writing in a word document. I mean - geez! everybody can see it!

But now attitudes have matured. The fact that intranets are a common occurrence in the workplace, blogs are everywhere, and businesses are outgrowing their first and second generation intranets, people are looking for an easier, cheaper, more efficient way to collaborate. Especially over a geographically dispersed area - and they're easily obtainable by small business.

SMH has a great article about wikis in business - working the wiki way. check it.

de-personalise

I had my monthly management mentoring meeting today - and I took away an excellent piece of advice: de-personalise.

One of my major problems at work is that I get too emotionally involved in a project. Because I've played a big part in building up most of the products and systems at work, if someone has an issue with something I tend to take it personally. Even if the problem stems from a third party plug in shortcoming like freetextbox. The problems that arise can be any number of things - mainly user initiated, but instead of trying to train users properly or trying to learn how the product works ([sarcasm]my gosh, that would take some effort on their behalf! what a concept that I could even suggest such a thing!!![/sarcasm]), people try to shift blame, ultimately ending back in my side of the court.

So I had a talk to my mentor today about this. I didn't realise this till my mentor said today - all you need to do is de-personalise yourself from it all, don't get so emotionally involved. In the end, it's just a job. By all means though, stay passionate about the job.

Go back to the system, make people use it, keep on doing what your doing.

Hearing this little piece of advice - I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, like I had one of those "moments of clarity", like I had been enlightened.

Such a trivial little thing... you might be reading this and think "big whoopdi doo". But for me - I think I just got the right piece of advice at the right time and I feel much better for everything now. It's nice to get a detached perspective - sometimes I cant see the forest for the trees, and simple advice when your bogged down can just make everything seem so much clearer.