The Web Authority

Hey, it’s a national holiday and I am taking the day off!

Have a great day and kick back and enjoy life in the United States.

I started out on Twitter a month of two ago and initially loved the interface, the interaction, and reading mundane information posted by others. Now I am looking at Twitter with a different perspective after having used it for a while.

I think if you have a community of close associates Twitter would be great like instant messaging on the fly, but if you don’t, Twitter is now all about marketing, self-promotion, and advertising. If you look at any mature Twitter site, it is chock full of links to eBooks, to people’s blogs, or how to buy their new T-Shirt. In fact it has gotten so bad now, that mainly I use Twitter to post my blog feed and occasionally monitor it for information.

Twitter is mutating as people figure out how to use it and integrate it into their lives. I do still feel that it’s a fine tool for a network of colleagues or close friends, but for me I am seeing it as a marketing vehicle and I’m not sure I want to read other people’s advertising messages in the rare free time that I have.

I’m sure that the makers of Twitter did not intend for the application to become an ad vehicle, but take a look at my Twitter friends posts and that’s all you see. http://twitter.com/mccordweb

Are you one or are you pretending to be one? Don’t monkey around when it comes to your website and search engine optimization. If the person who you are interviewing to help you with your website cannot answer these questions or share with you their approach and process then you may be working with the wrong firm.

Here are the top questions you should ask:

1. How long have you been doing SEO?
2. Where is your own business website in the results page for your keyword phrases you are targeting?
3. What client results can you share with me?
4. Why do I need to pay a monthly maintenance fee and what exactly will I be getting for that?
5. What is the process you will be using?
6. What is your thought on Google’s devaluation of links as part of their algorithm?
7. What will you be doing to the code of my website?
8. Do you believe in using doorway pages and hidden content?
9. Will you be creating special pages just for search engines?
10. Can you share with me the statistical data on searches and competition of the terms you will be using to optimize my website?

If the firm you are speaking with is wanting you to pay a monthly fee as in number four, find out EXACTLY what you are paying for. When we do optimization, we do not need to go back and lay hands on the site pages each month. This may be a ploy to build a sale or pad a project.

If they do not have a good answer for number 6 and 7, you really should not use the firm. If they will be using tactics as in 8 and 9 you really should run away as these tactics may actually get you dropped from the Google index.

Don’t monkey around with search engine optimization get real professional help!

Just two years ago Internet Explorer owned the Web, now Firefox owns nearly 20% of the market. If you haven’t looked at your older website with Firefox, you really need to take a peak.

If you are not testing your website in Firefox you really must be. In fact here is my list of browsers that I routinely test on:

Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 6 - actually more people have 6 than 7 so make sure your site looks good in both

Firefox

Opera - but marginally here I still look, but don’t majorly stress out over incompatibilities as Opera is a nice browser but still used minimally in the marketplace.

The big difference between each browser is how they interpret the box model. In layman’s terms this translates into crazy spacing and padding and margins around important design elements. Sometimes the difference is so big, that you simply have to choose the least terrible approach. You will simply never get your site to look identical in all browser types and versions.

Typically I will identify what the client is using and make sure that it looks good in their flavor and version and them make sure it looks good in IE 7 and Firefox and not terrible in IE 6 and Opera.

Here are my top five web design myths and answers to each one.

1. Search engine spiders can index Flash so I’m okay if my website has been built in Flash.
2. How long it takes to load a website page doesn’t matter - everyone has DSL anyway.
3. I like an entry page for my website that is all graphics it’s pretty and sets the tone.
4. I was promised by this firm top placement on Google if they overhauled my home page and website.
5. I want my website to have a lot of video why are viewers complaining to me that they can’t see my video.

1.  Search engine spiders can index Flash so I’m okay if my website has been built in Flash.

Wrong, sorry, even Google states that they aren’t good yet on indexing Flash even though for nearly a year they have said they can index Flash. I can tell you that I get more calls for pay per click promotion and search engine optimization from websites done in all Flash. It is far better to use Flash judiciously say a hybrid html site with a Flash banner. What’s the purpose of having a website if no one can find you on search engines and if they can’t even bookmark a content page on your website?

2.  How long it takes to load a website page doesn’t matter - everyone has DSL anyway.

Wrong, sorry, even Google AdWords is now counting how long it takes for a page to load. The industry standard is a load time under 10 seconds. The faster your load time the better.

3.  like an entry page for my website that is all graphics it’s pretty and sets the tone.

Whoops, so sorry this one is wrong too. Splash pages are old news. Now search engines want content and they want it fast. Readers don’t want to watch a movie about your business. It is the Burger King Syndrome - my way right away!

4. I was promised by this firm top placement on Google if they overhauled my home page and website.

Hmm, the home page IS really important, but no one and no firm can guarantee top placement on Google. Google very closely guards the secrets of placement to prevent others from spamming the system. If they are not on the Google payroll, they simply cannot know how to guarantee top placement.

5. I want my website to have a lot of video why are viewers complaining to me that they can’t see my video.

Video is great, but the home page should be about spiderable content. When you do provide video make sure you provide options. I have found that videos turned into Flash are the quickest loading on the Web, then comes Windows Media Player files, and last of all QuickTime. If you are going to have video use only one on your home page and make it a Flash video. Try a preloader option in your body tag for other important videos and provide viewing options.