So what do we mean by “non-essential”? The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who are the body responsible for upholding the EU Privacy Directive say “all cookies that do not facilitate the transmission of communication, or are not strictly necessary for a service requested by a user need to be consented to or removed”.

The UK government has given website owners until May 26, 2012 to make the necessary changes to comply.

What is a “Cookie”?

A cookie is a small file, typically of letters and numbers, downloaded on to a device when the user accesses certain websites. Cookies are then sent back to originating website on each subsequent visit. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device.

For more information see: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

Research into consumers’ understanding of the internet and cookies demonstrates that current levels of awareness of the way cookies are used and the options available to manage them is limited. An online survey[1] of over 1000 individuals in February 2011 illustrates that significant percentages of  ‘internet savvy’ consumers have limited understanding of cookies and how to manage them:

• 41% of those surveyed were unaware of any of the different types of cookies (first party, third-party, Flash / Local Storage). Only 50% were aware of first party cookies.
• Only 13% of respondents indicated that they fully understood how cookies work, 37% had heard of internet cookies but did not understand how they work and 2% of people had not heard of internet cookies before participating in the survey.
• 37% said they did not know how to manage cookies on their computer.
• The survey tested respondents’ knowledge of cookies, asking them to confirm if a number of statements about cookies were correct or not. Out of the sixteen statements only one was answered correctly by the majority of respondents.

Can’t People Just Turn Off Cookies in Their Browser?

Unfortunately this is not enough.

Although all modern browsers allow users to change their cookie settings to block websites from storing cookies on their computers the new Cookie Law says consent must be explicit.

ICO have said:

At present, most browser settings are not sophisticated enough to allow you to assume that the user has given their consent to allow your website to set a cookie. Also, not everyone who visits your site will do so using a browser. They may, for example, have used an application on their mobile device. So, for now we are advising organisations which use cookies or other means of storing information on a user’s equipment that they have to gain consent some other way.

This means for now it’s up to the owner of the website to ask for the user’s consent when they visit their website.

What Are The Penalties?

Penalties of up to £500,000 can be served to organisations that seriously breach the law. Details are still being defined and are likely to be tested in court.

What Should I Do Next?

There are only two real options for website owners:

• Stop using cookies.
• Start asking for permission for those cookies not deemed essential.

Steps To Take

• Check what type of cookies and similar technologies you use and how you use them.
  • Cookie Name – The name used in implementation (e.g. UID).
  • Cookie Friendly Name (e.g. Username).
  • Description – The description should provide as much detail about the purpose of the cookie as possible.
• Assess how intrusive your use of cookies is.
  • Potential Intrusiveness to User – Each cookie should be rated for its intrusiveness.
  • Expiry – The number of days it takes for the cookie to expire.
• Where you need consent. Decide the best solution to obtain consent, otherwise remove non-essential cookies.
• Update your Privacy Policy. Make sure that your privacy policy has a clear section on cookies and how your site uses them. Be 100% transparent. See https://www.gov.uk/help/cookies as an example.

“Necessary” or “Non-Essential” Cookies (Seek Advice)

Some cookie’s are required for a site to work e.g. if a user adds an item to their shopping basket, that would be considered necessary – a cookie is technically required to remember that user and retain their shopping cart contents. Similarly, a cookie may be necessary to log into a website.

However a cookie which was set to welcome a user back to a website, or to record what pages they view would not be strictly necessary. In particular, this means you can’t use traditional analytics without permission.

• Analytics (prohibited).
• Behavioural ads (prohibited).
• Conversion tracking cookies for marketing e.g. affiliate links (open to question).
• Social media plugins e.g. Facebook Like button (prohibited).
• Welcome back “name” message (prohibited).
• User Preferences e.g. to allow larger text for visually impaired users (open to question – depends on circumstances).
• Add to basket (allowed).
• Login (remember me tick boxes) (allowed?)
• Remembering whether cookies are allowed (noting whether a user has said yes or no to allowing a cookie on your site) (allowed?)

More Information

• Guidance on the rules on use of cookies and similar technologies: guidance_on_the_new_cookies_regulations.pdf.
• ICC UK Cookie Guide April 2012: icc_uk_cookie_guide.pdf.
• Guide to privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations: gds-cookies-implementer-guide.pdf.

Contact Us

If you are concerned about whether you have cookies on your site and whether they comply with the new law contact us for advice.

[1] The Department for Culture, Media and Sport | PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC)

Pinterest is the latest social media platform to take the web by storm.

Development of Pinterest started in 2009, launched as a closed beta in March 2010 and is now operating as invitation-only.

On August 16, 2011, Time magazine listed Pinterest in its “50 Best Websites of 2011” article. In January 2012 comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest allows users to create online image collages, then quickly and easily share those collages — called “pinboards” or mood boards — with other Pinterest users. Part of Pinterest’s appeal is that it’s image-based. As the adage goes “A picture is worth a thousand words“.

Can Your Business Benefit From Pinterest?

Almost everyone has now heard of Pinterest, but does Pinterest offer opportunities for businesses?

Pinterest is fast becoming a heavy hitting marketing tool for brands and businesses. In January 2012, Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus and Youtube — combined. An impressive statistic and one that should be of interest to businesses worldwide.

 Setting Up Your Pinterest Account

1. Request an invitation to Pinterest and sign up once you receive your invite.
2. Setup your Business name as your profile name and username.
3. Add a paragraph about who you are and what you’re interested in to the “About” section on your Pinterest profile.
4. Connect your account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
5. Add your website URL in your profile.

Now Your Account Is Setup What’s Next?

1. Setup board names but be creative, make them interesting and keep them short.
2. “Pin” content on a regular basis.
3. Pin from different sources (not just your own) so that your pins are varied.
4. Add a description when you pin an image. If the image is your own use your business name in the description.
5. After you pin a new image use the Pinterest browser bookmarklet to share your pin on Twitter and Facebook.
6. Pin videos, including YouTube videos! There are fewer videos than images on Pinterest, so this is one way to make yourself stand out.
7. Pin your own blog posts, but don’t over-promote them.
8. “Like” other people’s pins when you want to recognise great content.
9. You can also “re-pin” someone else’s pin, to your followers (just like a retweet on Twitter) if you think it will be of value to your followers.
10. Make sure you’ve got a Pin It! button at the footer of each of your blog posts so your readers can quickly and easily share your content on Pinterest. Add a Pinterest button to your website to advertise that you’re on Pinterest!

Things To Keep In Mind

• Consider your audience e.g. reports show that Pinterest has a predominantly female audience, reported to be anything between 80% – 97%. If you want to advertise your product or services to a male audience consider Gentlemint.com — a Pinterest-inspired site for “manly men.”
• As Pinterest is a virtual pinboard you have to market your business visually it’s important that any images you use are good quality images.
• The vast majority of the Pinterest community are not there to buy, hence the hard sell approach will not work.
• Interaction is key. All social media marketing requires interaction of some description, so ensure you make time on a regular basis to interact with the Pinterest community.
• Think about when your potential audience are most likely to be online and time your pins accordingly. Consider lunchtime, towards the end of the working day and later in the evening.
• Take a look at your competitors’ Pinterest presence and see what is working for them.
• Look at what is creating the biggest stir, the biggest interest and see if you can apply it to your content / pins.
• Be persistent. Building trust takes time.

For more information and help with Pinterest visit the Pinterest Help page.

Pinterest has become a proven source of traffic for blogs and websites, quickly surpassing current favorites like LinkedIn and YouTube.

Think seriously about including Pinterest as part of your 2012 content marketing plan … and start making your social media strategy more beautiful, one pin at a time.

Contact us for more information.

Google places a great deal of emphasis on unique, well written content. In fact as far back as February 2011 Google rolled out an update called Panda 1.0 which targeted low quality pages and pushed them out of the search engine results pages.

Google has been rolling out updates to the Panda algorithm changes every 4 to 8 weeks since its February launch. All of these changes to the search algorithm centre around punishing low quality content websites and rewarding those websites which contain high quality content.

It’s important to make sure that when you go to write your next blog post or article that you ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is your content/blog post original/unique?
   Whatever you write about on your site MUST be original. Content can’t be copied, scrapped or stolen from other sites! Google will either penalise you or simply ignore duplicate content.
2. Did you correct any spelling or grammatical errors?
   Google does not penalise you for spelling and grammar errors i.e. it is not used as one of the 200 ranking factors in deciding where your website appears in the ranking however Matt Cutts has reported that the ability to spell does appear to correlate with those sites which rank better! Site visitors are also likely to pick up on sites that have spelling errors and are more likely to assume that if the site is poorly written then it’s less credible. It makes sense to apply a spell-check and to spend some time checking the grammar in your content.
3. Have you checked the reading age of your site?
   In order for content to be easily understood, the writing style should be clear and simple. The structure of the document should be logical, unambiguous, and avoid redundant words. Readability tests like Gunning Fog and Flesch-Kincaid can be helpful in determining how readable your content is. You can also determine the reading level of your site by using the advanced search function in Google. Reading level algorithms only provide a rough guide, however they can give a useful indication as to whether you’ve pitched your content at the right level for your intended audience.
4. Would YOU bookmark your article?
   Readers will bookmark an article if they find it useful and you’ve provided them with information they want to reference for future use.

Tips for Writing SEO blog posts

• Carry out keyword research.
• Include search terms in your post’s meta title tag, content title/heading h1, subheadings h2, h3 and main content. BUT don’t overdo it!
• Write naturally, don’t force keywords to fit.
• Ideally your article or blog post should be at least 250 words or more.
• Add images where appropriate and give them “alt” text.
• Link keywords to earlier blog posts or to pages within your main site.
• Check your post for spelling, grammar and reading age.
• Apply categories and tags.
• Publish.

For more information read Update and Refresh – A Tale of SEO.

Web Dandy provide a SEO copywriting service. Contact us for more information.

A Reminder – The Importance of Title Tags

Web browsers display the website’s page title in the tab at the top of the browser window by retrieving the contents of the title tag.

Page titles also form the first line of each search result and are the links searchers click to reach your website.  Titles play an important role in helping a person decide which search result to click on.

In the example below searching for “cookery classes Kent” in Google, Yahoo and Bing finds Catering 4 Kent’s Cookery Classes page.

The title used on this page is unique, relevant and search engine optimised for this page on the Catering 4 Kent website.

In order for the search engines to rank your site it’s extremely important to use UNIQUE, high quality, well written titles for each of your web pages. Do this and your chance of being found in the search engines increases. Obviously this is only one small step in SEO but it’s an important one!

Title Tag DOs

• Unique: Make each of your page title tags unique. Don’t be tempted to simply copy the last page title. Think about what each website page is for, consider the subject matter which should fall naturally into using your keyword phrases.
• Keywords vs. Keyword Phrases: Use keyword phrases not keywords. If your page title contains a phrase instead of a keyword, the competition for the phrase is likely to be less than that for the keyword alone. As a consequence you are more likely to attain a higher ranking in search engines for specific user searches over a shorter period of time.
• Using Your keyword Phrases: Having carried out your keyword research it’s important to have your keyword phrases in the title tag of the relevant page.
• Keyword Phrases At The Beginning: Search engines assign more importance to the words at the beginning of the title tag. From a usability perspective it’s been shown that users typically see about 2 words for most list items. Therefore it’s important to make the most out of these characters by placing the most important content at the beginning of the tag.
• Breaking Up Keyword Phrases: Use piping | to break up words. This makes it easier to scan the content of your title tag.
• Length: Limit your title tags to the following number of characters. Google allows up to 69 characters (including spaces), Yahoo allows 72 characters (including spaces) and Bing allows 69 characters (including spaces). If you go over this your title will be truncated.
• Using Modifiers: People tend to include modifiers like “best”, “cheapest” and “offers” when searching so include these if relevant.
• Relevant: Only use relevant keyword phrases. If someone comes to your site and finds that the page isn’t relevant to their search they will just as quickly click away.
• Compelling: Think about how you can make your title tag compelling.
• Company Name: Use your company name if you believe people will be actively searching for it.

Title Tag DON’Ts

• Wasting SEO Potential: Avoid having “Home”, “Welcome” or worse still an empty or missing title tag. This is a waste of SEO potential!
  
• Keyword Stuffing: Don’t fill your title tag with keyword phrases or repeat them. Not only will the search engines not look on this favourably but your site visitor will most likely be put off too.
• Length: Don’t go over the number of characters allowed by the search engines (see above).
• Stop Words: Stop words like “by”, “it”, “and”, “as” are ignored by the search engines so it’s a waste of characters in your title tag. However it’s important to use your judgement and include stop words if by taking them out your title tag no longer makes sense.
• ASCII Characters and HTML Code: ASCII characters and HTML code will very often display incorrectly within the title tag so they are best avoided e.g. <strong>, <em>.

Contact Us

If you require help with your site’s title tag or any aspect of SEO contact us.

If the answer is no, or you’re not sure of the answer read on…

Accessibility

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the “ability to access” and benefit from some system or entity. Accessibility is often used to focus on people with disabilities or special needs and their right of access to entities, often through use of assistive technology.

[Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility]

Web Standards

It’s surprising that even today a large majority of web sites still fail to meet W3C web design standards for accessibility, page content, coding and structure. Web standards can mean different things to different people. For some, it’s ‘table-free sites‘, for others it’s ‘using valid code‘. However, web standards are much broader than that.

Guidelines For Accessible Web Design

Below are a few basic guidelines that if followed will ensure your site is more accessible. It’s also worth reading our website standards checklist, which although not a definitive standards checklist will give you some additional information on accessible web design and development.

1. Use valid code. Make sure HTML code is validated against W3C standards. Not only does valid code make it easier for assistive technologies such as screen readers to ‘understand’ your web pages, but browsers and browsing technologies tend to prefer it too!
2. Use high contrast colours for text. Use dark text on light backgrounds. For most people, this increases site readability. Also, consider that 10% of men are colour blind so red/green or blue/yellow combinations can potentially cause a problem.
3. Page organisation. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible. Use structural semantic markup to aid navigation rather than for presentation effect this will help visitors with specialised software to understand the organisation of the page and to navigate through it. Reduce information overload by simplifying text and by ensuring a simplified, consistent design throughout the site.
4. Write meaningful ALT text. Label ALL images with ALT (alternative) tags; without ALT tags a website might be virtually unusable for a blind visitor. This also applies to all multimedia including audio, videos, applets, etc where captioning and transcripts should be provided.
5. Make text scalable. Partially-sighted people need to be able to resize text. Internet Explorer doesn’t allow the resizing of text if font-size is set in pixels (px) or (pt) instead use relative length units such as percent or (em) or use absolute size ([ xx-small | x-small | small | medium | large | x-large | xx-large ]) or relative size ([ larger | smaller ]) when defining the font size for a particular element within your web pages.
6. Ensure links make sense out of context. Blind people often skip through the links on a web page. This makes it vital that links make sense out of context. ‘Click here for more information on our latest holiday offers’ is a lot more useful to a blind web user than ‘Click here’ or ‘Find out more’.
7. Provide an option to skip navigation on all pages. This will save screen reader users from having to repetitiously listen to the same navigation, and keyboard users from having to repetitiously tab through every item. Use hierarchical headers to provide the same benefit and to enable navigation through copy.

Why Bother With Accessibility?

Apart from being the right thing to do, by making sure your website is coded to be accessible you will give yourself many advantages over your competitors and help ensure your site will reach as many people as possible!

It will:

1. Help to improve your search engine ranking.
2. Improve your page download speed.
3. Simplify your site maintenance.
4. Future proof your site, making it compatible with new technologies and across browsers and browser versions.
5. Open up your web pages to people with disabilities.

For more information read: accessible web design or contact us to discuss an accessibility review.

The continuing rise in mobile web surfers means making a mobile version of your site should be a priority.

There are various mobile phone emulators that can be used to ‘test’ your mobile site (if you don’t have access to a range of mobile phones e.g. Android, iPhone, Blackberry etc).

Now Google have launched a tool, called GetMo which allows you to see how your current site looks on a smartphone. Visit the GetMoMeter page and enter your website’s URL, then click ‘Test Your Site’ .

Once testing is complete you are shown a graphic depicting the mobile version of your website. GetMoMeter also generates a report using a “mobile-friendliness scale” and where required provides personalised recommendations on how to improve your mobile website to provide a more mobile-friendly experience.

The report covers:

• Loading Speed: Does your site load in less than the recommended loading time of 5 seconds?
• Images: Are your site’s images appearing properly?
• Text: Is your site text is visible without pinching or zooming?
• Navigation: Are your links and buttons are thumb friendly?

Your site is then scored out of 5. The Web Dandy mobile was tested and the results can be seen below:

Web Dandy Mobile Site

Visit our mobile site at www.webdandy.co.uk/mobile/.

Mobile Website Design

If you are looking to design and develop your mobile site visit our mobile website design page for more information or contact us to discuss your design requirements.

A number of recent surveys have shown that mobile phone users are increasingly using their mobile phones to access the web and email.

According to the Office for National Statistics almost half of all UK internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections. 45% of people surveyed said they made use of the net while out and about, compared with 31% in 2010.  The most rapid growth was among young people, where 71% of internet-connected 16 to 24-year-olds used mobiles.

In a survey conducted by the Keynote Systems (pdf) (commissioned by the Adobe), which surveyed 1,200 US consumers, over 75% of the mobile phone users use their mobile web browser to browse the internet.

The survey found that:

• 81% of the mobile users search product and price information from the browser.
• 75% users read the blogs from their mobile browsers.
• 78% read the product reviews from the browser, and the remaining from an app.
• 63% of the users read news from their web browsers while 37% from the apps.
• 58% watch the internet videos from the browser.
• 46% of use their browsers for social networking.

A survey by CNET Direct showed 47% of respondents indicated that they use their mobile device to view and respond to emails.

The continuing rise in mobile web surfers means making a mobile version of your site should be a priority. Investing in a mobile website makes good business sense.

So what’s the difference between a PC friendly website and a mobile friendly website?

Differences in Design

When designing a mobile website the goal is two-fold — make the site aesthetically pleasing but at the same time simple enough that it loads quickly on a mobile phone.

An important part of the design process is to prioritise the content that is required on the mobile website. It’s a good idea to make a list of the essential information that will be required e.g. what your business is all about and contact information. Navigation should be simply and intuitive.

iPhones don’t support Flash animation so it’s best avoided. If flash or video are an absolute requirement consider alternatives e.g. HTML5 video. Older browsers don’t support HTML5, so including a Flash backup is a good idea.

For information on the best practices for delivering web content to mobile devices see W3C mobile web best practices. Once designed and coded check the validity of your coding using the W3C MobileOK checker.

You should also generate and submit a Mobile Sitemap through Google webmaster tools.

Benefits of Mobile Web Design

1. The Mobile Market: In the twenty years from 1990 to 2010, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions have grown from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion and continue to grow. That’s a huge market.
2. Mobile Search Engine Optimisation: SEO is as important to mobile website design and coding as it is to desktop design and coding. Google has a dedicated mobile search index for the mobile internet. Google has two crawlers: Googlebot and Googlebot-Mobile. Googlebot crawls desktop-browser type of webpages and content embedded in them and Googlebot-Mobile crawls mobile content. When searched from a mobile, mobile websites with a mobile compliant design and sitemap is more likely to come top of the results. For more information visit Google Webmaster Central Blog and view the Google Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide (pdf) which contains information on mobile website design.
3. User experience: By having a website specifically designed for mobiles you can improve and enhance the user’s web experience by ensuring your mobile site is fast loading, easy to use and specifically designed for the mobile’s smaller screen size. Your visitor no longer has to “pinch and zoom” on their smart phone when viewing your website as it’s fully optimised to view and use within the dimensions of their mobile web browser and screen.
4. Contact: Phone numbers can be clickable allowing the phone user to call you directly from your site on their phone.
5. QR code marketing:  A mobile website allows businesses to take advantage of QR code marketing, which is becoming more and more popular.

Unlock Your Website

Web Dandy provides affordable mobile website design services, with design and development specifically built for the small screen.

The mobile websites we design can be accessed on mobile phone browsers including the smart phones like iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Nokia etc.

Contact us for a customised quote or to discuss your mobile web design needs.

QR codes (abbreviated from Quick Response codes) are a type of two-dimensional bar code which usually consist of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background (QR codes can be coloured and customised). The information encoded can be made up of any kind of data (e.g., binary, alphanumeric, or Kanji symbols).

Created by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, QR codes have become popular due to their fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity.

How Do You Read QR Codes?

Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code which is then translated into text, contact information, or connects the user to a wireless network, or opens a web page in the telephone’s browser.

Marketing And More….

QR codes can be used for a wide variety of purposes including supplying information and as a marketing tool. Below are just a few examples of where companies have employed QR codes.

Hacker Group

Direct/digital marketing agency Hacker Group have embraced QR Codes with a new sign on their downtown Seattle building. The QR Code resolves to a mobile site where users can learn more about the agency, request an appointment or submit a résumé.

Château Brown

Château Brown has become the latest Bordeaux estate to introduce a Quick Response code to its labels which offer customers quick access to information about its history.

Google’s WebGL Bookcase

Lets you browse a 3D version of any of thousands of books. Once you decide what book you want to buy, you scan a QR code to view the selected books on your mobile phone.

The Rocket Science Group

Using MailChimp, a popular email marketing platform, small business owners can use the service called Pyow! as a marketing tool to email QR codes/coupons to their customers for free.

Radisson Edwardian

Employed QR codes on their restaurant menus that show the user videos of how their dishes were prepared, as well as a new Foursquare campaign offering late checkouts.

Trace and Trust

A network of fishermen, distributors, processors and restaurants, has organized a system that uses QR codes to track individual fish from the ocean to your plate. Trace and Trust tells customers exactly who caught their seafood, as well as when, where, and how it was caught.

Starbucks

Launched a QR code program designed to let consumers learn more about its coffee. Starbucks is a strong advocate of using QR codes and has used them a number of times before, including a mobile payment app and a scavenger hunt which tied into a partnership with Lady Gaga.

J C Penney

J.C. Penney shoppers will receive QR code gift tags, or Santa Tags, with each purchase this holiday season. The tags will contain individualised QR codes that can be scanned to record a personalised voice message. Gift recipients can, in turn, scan the codes to hear the recorded voice message when they open their gifts.

Marvel Studios

Used a QR code in the advertising of the Iron Man 2 movie. The QR code resolved to a mobile site with photos, trailers and information about the film.

Fox

Is using QR codes to promote a variety of television shows including Fringe. The code for the show reveals a Fringe mobile website.

Generating a QR Code

There are websites which allow you to generate QR codes based on a URL, text or phone number e.g. QRStuff. Choose your data type, content, foreground colour and download your QR code image.

Risks?

QR codes are becoming more popular, however users should be aware that there are a number of reports about malicious QR codes by AVG and Kaspersky which claim QR codes can include links to dangerous websites with browser exploits or even contain malicious JavaScript files, trojans or a viruses.

QRWorld says the reported issues have nothing to do with the QR code itself.

Clearly QR codes like any other internet technology should be used from trusted sources and users should safeguard their mobile phones by utilising appropriate anti-virus and anti-malware software.

Contact Us

Contact us for more information if you’re interested in using QR codes as a marketing tool.

1. Your keywords aren’t included in the coding or your copy.
   Very often when a site is redesigned previous keyword research is overlooked or forgotten and appropriate keywords are not used in the coding or the site’s copy. This can be forgiven if new keyword research shows a shift in the search terms that people are looking for however more often than not coding and content are simply carried out without any SEO review. It’s vital that keyword research plays a starring role in any site redesign. The top essential SEO elements to review are title tags, meta-descriptions, and on-page content like headings, subheadings, bolded text and anchor text for links.
2. High ranking pages and content are removed.
   When you are going through the process of redesign you may identify pages and content that you feel are no longer current or add anything to your site. In these cases the inclination may be to delete the page(s). This is not a good idea. Pages should never be deleted. Older pages are often the ones that have domain authority and page authority for organic search traffic. By removing them you can harm your site’s SEO. Instead leave the page as it is or use a 301 permanent redirect to a newer page with similar content.
3. No room for content.
   Many clients want designs that are minimal in terms of content. Unfortunately content plays an integral part in SEO. Without content (and keywords) your site will NEVER be found. Add to this Google’s latest announcement with regards to a page layout algorithm improvement means having your content near the top of the page of your design is vital if you want to avoid your site being ‘downgraded’ by Google. Google now looks at the layout of your page and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a search result. Sites that don’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold may not rank as highly going forward.
4. Keeping your page size small.
   The time it takes to load your page plays an important role in SEO. Introducing Flash, large images, large downloadable files, and ‘bloated’ code can slow down page load times and end up irritating site visitors who will invariably go elsewhere. Although site speed is now part of Google’s algorithm, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page but it should still be considered in any redesign process.
5. Changing URLs and clean URLs.
   It’s important to remember to use the same URLs as your previous site. If you are moving to a new or different content management system or if you are changing programming languages you need to be aware that these may affect the URLs of your site. Changes should be handled using 301 permanent redirects from the old URL to the new URL. Clean URLs are also important. A ‘clean’ SEO friendly URL like http://www.site.co.uk/products/pc-software is easier for the search engines to understand, whereas its dynamic form, http://www.site.co.uk/products.php/item1?=27781 can potentially cause SEO problems and prevent you from getting good rankings.

Making sure you include search engine optimisation during the redesign process is essential and should be part of any redesign process.

Need help in planning your redesign? Contact Web Dandy for advice.

Size in px and kB

Compressing your image (and that’s all you are doing) means you are reducing the dimensions (in px) but the size (in kB) remains the same. So in effect you are using up more space (and bandwidth) than you actually need to.

Resizing

There are a number of facilities which allow you to resize images. Below are a few examples:

Online

• Scale Your Image: http://scaleyourimage.com/. Simple to use. Browse to find your image, set the size of your image then resize.
• Pic Resize: http://www.picresize.com/. Resize single or multiple images, special effects and quick resize mode.
• Resizr: http://www.resizr.com/. Resize, crop, rotate, or edit your image.

Downloadable Software

• IrfanView: http://www.irfanview.com/. Graphic viewer for Windows which allows you to resize, crop, edit and apply effects to your images.
• PIXresizer: http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm. Create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file size
• FastStone Image Viewer: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm. Image browser, converter and editor.

We have not trialed the online or downloadable software with the exception of IrfanView so cannot make any recommendations as to which is the best.

1. Minimise HTTP Requests

By combining all scripts into a single script, and by combining all CSS into a single stylesheet, you can minimize the number of HTTP requests required to render your page. Each unique HTTP request requires a round trip to a server, introducing delays. The more HTTP requests that your pages require, the slower and less consistent their response time will be.

2. Avoid Redirects

Redirects are accomplished using the 301 and 302 status codes. Here’s an example of the HTTP headers in a 301 response:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently Location: http://example.com/newuri Content-Type: text/html

Redirects slow down the user experience. Inserting a redirect between the user and the HTML document delays everything in the page since nothing in the page can be rendered and no components can start being downloaded until the HTML document has arrived.

3. Remove Duplicate Scripts

Duplicate scripts hurt performance by creating unnecessary HTTP requests and wasted JavaScript execution.

4. Compress Your Images Even Further

Tools like Photoshop can compress images but compression can be taken even further without sacrificing quality.

The Yahoo Developer Network site Smush.It uses further optimisation techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a “lossless” tool, which means it optimises images without changing their look or visual quality.

5. Don’t Scale Images in HTML

When coding don’t use a bigger image than you need just because you can set the width and height in HTML.

It’s best to actually resize your image to the size you want it to appear on your site e.g. if you need <img width="100" height="100" src="myimage.jpg" alt="My Image" /> then your image (myimage.jpg) should be 100x100px rather than a scaled down 500x500px image.

6. Stylesheets At the Top, Scripts At the Bottom

Putting stylesheets in the <head> allows the page to render progressively.

Placing scripts at the bottom of the page, next to the closing <body> tag can speed up your website. Most current browsers can download a maximum of two components in parallel. However, when downloading a script, no other downloads can occur. That download must finish before moving forward. So, when it’s feasible, it makes sense to move JS files to the bottom of your document in order to allow the other components (images, CSS, etc) to load first.

7. Choose <link> Over @import

CSS should be at the top in order to allow for progressive rendering. In IE @import behaves the same as using <link> at the bottom of the page, so it’s best not to use it.

8. Make CSS and JS External and Compress Files

All of your CSS and Javascript should be removed from the page and placed in their own external files. Minify your CSS and Javascript files  (remove unnecessary characters from the code).

There are a number of CSS Compression Services e.g. CSS Optimiser and CSS Compressor.

Javascript Compression Services is also available at JS Compresso and Javascript Compressor.

9. Link to Google’s Content Distribution Network (CDN)

Google hosts popular scripts such as jQuery. If you’re using such a library, you should link to Google’s CDN rather than using your own script.

10. Keep All Components Under 25K Where Possible

This restriction is related to the fact that iPhone won’t cache components bigger than 25K.

Need Help With Optimisation?

Contact us if you’d like us to carry out a website review to assess your website’s speed.

You don’t have to look to far to find information on the Google Webmaster Central Blog which supports this.

Page titles are an important part of our search results: they’re the first line of each result and they’re the actual links our searchers click to reach websites. Our advice to webmasters has always been to write unique, descriptive page titles (and meta descriptions for the snippets) to describe to searchers what the page is about.

In fact advice with regards to title and description tags (or “snippets”) has changed little over a number of years.

Google, Bing and Yahoo! Advice for Webmasters

Google want to ensure that they serve the ‘best’ search results and go as far as to provide helpful information on how to write better quality page titles and meta descriptions. Google also notify webmasters when they discover titles that can be improved through the “HTML suggestions” feature in the Diagnostics section of the menu on the left hand side of Webmaster Tools.

Bing Webmaster Center provides information on SEO and How-to guides. Yahoo also offers advice on improving your website’s position within the Yahoo! Search results including advice on page titles and use of the “Description” meta-tag. The organic search listings on Yahoo! Search are powered by Bing.

Character Limits for Title and Meta Description tags

In a previous post we mentioned how to correctly set-up your website’s Title and Meta Description tags: Ensure your Title and Meta Description tag contain researched keywords and phrases and are limited to the following number of characters (Google: 69 characters (including spaces) for Title; 156 Characters (including spaces) for Meta Description), (Yahoo: 72 characters (including spaces) for a Title. (PDF’s up to 75 characters); 161 characters (including spaces) for Meta Description) and (Bing: 69 characters (including spaces) for a Title Tag; 185 characters (including spaces) for Meta Description).

That’s all fine and well but what’s the best advice with regards to writing page titles and meta descriptions?

Creating SEO Page Titles

Your page <title> tag is very often the first piece of information that a searcher sees in the search results and has an important role in helping that person decide which search result to click on, so it’s extremely important to use high quality, well written titles for each of your web pages.

• Write a UNIQUE page title for each page on your site. If you are using a CMS ensure it is capable of writing individual page title tags and doesn’t use one ‘site title’ across all pages on your site.
• Write ‘descriptive’ titles which accurately describe the page.
• Use your researched keywords but don’t overdo it (avoid keyword stuffing).
• Keep your title concise and within the character limits defined above. Any longer and the search engine will simply truncate the title.
• Use branding if you know people are searching for your company name/brand.

Creating Quality Meta Descriptions

The description <meta> tag is a good way to provide a clear and concise summary of each of your site’s page content. The search engines will use your meta description of a page in the search results. If your description is missing then the search engines will substitute in what they feel is an appropriate description from your site’s on-page content. As with your title tag, the description tag can play an important role in helping a searcher to decide whether your site is the most relevant to their requirements and persuade them to click-through.

• Make sure your site has INDIVIDUAL meta description tags for all pages.
• Write descriptions that accurately reflect what each page is about.
• Use your keywords but again don’t overdo it.
• Keep within the character limit.
• Use the meta description tag to include structured data about the page. For example, news or blog postings can list the author, date of publication, or byline information.

Additional Information (Rich Snippets)

Additional information can be added to your site coding to show up in the search results. This additional markup is designed for sites, such as review sites or business listings.

schema.org lets you mark up a wider range of item types on your pages, using a vocabulary that Google, Bing, and Yahoo! can all understand. Find out more.

Google currently supports the following information types: reviews, people profiles, products, business listings, recipes, and events. More information on the use of Rich Snippets.

Contact us for help with your SEO.

If you find it difficult to think of ideas for content and have problems writing the content then a ‘swipe file’ may be the answer.

What’s a Swipe File?

A swipe file can be used in copywriting as a repository for copy, images and ideas, and can prove extremely helpful when looking for inspiration when it comes time to writing your next blog article.

Applications

There are a number of applications and tools available to help you to put together your swipe file including Windows ‘OneNote‘, Apple MACs ‘Circus Ponies Notebook‘ and ‘Zoho Notebook‘ and ‘Stixy‘ (online tools).

An alternative is Evernote. As a swipe file tool we would highly recommend it.

Ideas for New Content

Writing new content for your website is important for SEO. It should form part of your on-going SEO process.

Many people find it hard to put together new content for their site each and very month. If this is you, Evernote won’t write the content for you, but it does allow you to capture and save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see in one place. You can even search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images.

You can upload photos, text, spreadsheets, lists, and even “clip” things you come across online. Case studies, articles, landing pages, graphics…they all can be stored in Evernote and organized into folders. It’s like writing down idea bursts (or the things you know you’ll forget) without the scrap paper.

Free and Paid For Versions

Evernote comes as a  free version which can be used anywhere (your computer, phone and mobile device) so it makes it easy to jot down a note even when you’re on the go. It’s available for Windows, MAC, Android, iPhone/iPad Touch etc.

Evernote also comes as a paid for version. Evernote Premium gives you bigger upload capacity, offers greater sharing options, gives you access to note history, and more. Plus, you get PDF searching, faster image recognition, and no ads. The cost is $5.00 per month or $45.00 per year.

Below is our checklist of those things you should review and act upon where necessary.

Website Coding

Is your website still using table based format? If so its way past time to change to HTML/CSS (HTML5 and CSS3 are the latest standards). Use this opportunity to make sure you do some keyword research and incorporate those keywords (where appropriate) into your website’s code.

Once the site is coded check the code is valid by passing it through an HTML/CSS validator like XHTML-CSS Validator. Learn more about web standards.

Title and Meta Description Tags

Use unique and relevant title and description tags for each page on your site utilising your keywords.

Internal Linking

Having to click on endless links one after another to get to the specific page you seek on a website is tiring and can be irritating. Internet users expect to use websites without feeling they are in a maze. They will click off your site in search of a ‘friendlier’, less complicated one, if link navigation isn’t easy.

Ask yourself — do the links on your site make sense? Is your content easy to find? Do your links incorporate SEO?

Review The Content On Your Site

How old is the content on your site? When was it last refreshed? When did you last add new search engine optimised copy to your site?

Carry out keyword research and make sure you rewrite or replace any old content to attract site visitors and the search engines. Search engine optimised copy is an investment.

Clean URLs

If you are using a Content Management System (CMS)  make sure you setup the web address for each of the pages on your site with ‘clean URLs’ i.e. they don’t contain a query string (index.php?page=) and are fairly short in length.

Poor URL example: http://example.co.uk/index.php?page=consulting/marketing
Clean UL example: http://example.co.uk/consulting/marketing

Look At Speeding Up Your Website

Minimise the size of your files. By keeping your file sizes as small as possible your site will load faster.

Things to consider:

• minimise HTTP Requests by combining all scripts into a single script, and by combining all CSS into a single stylesheet;
• put stylesheets at the top of the page and scripts at the bottom;
• make CSS and Javascript external and minify them (remove unnecessary characters from the code);
• avoid redirects;
• remove duplicate scripts;
• choose <link> over @import;
• optimise images;
• don’t scale images in HTML (don’t use a bigger image than you need just because you can set the width and height in HTML). If you need <img width="100" height="100" src="myimage.jpg" alt="My Image" /> then your image (myimage.jpg) should be 100x100px rather than a scaled down 500x500px image;
• and keep all components under 25K where possible.

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Mobile use is continuing to grow. By 2013/2014 more people will access the internet from a mobile device than a desktop or laptop.

The continuing rise in mobile web surfers means making a mobile version of your site should be a priority.

And finally!

Consider Your Social Media Strategy

Take some time to ensure you are effectively utilising social media. Consider tools like Raven Tools and Hootsuite to help you with your social media interaction.

Once your site is launched the process of getting your site ranked in the search engines is just beginning. Now you need to start putting your website SEO strategy into place.

This should include:

• Monitoring your placement in the search engines for your chosen keyword phrases.
  Monitoring your SEO is vital. Search engine results change from week to week. You should check your website ranking in two ways:
• Using a stats package e.g. Google Analytics to show you the amount of traffic coming into the website, where users found your site, what pages are the most popular and least popular and which keywords users are searching for.
• Searching for your keyword phrases to find out how your site is doing and how well your competitors sites are doing. There are a number of free automated tools which allow you to check your site’s rank e.g. Rank Checker (a rank checking tool for Firefox) or online using sites like SEO SERP.
• Adding new pages and quality content (ensuring your copy is search engine and site visitor optimised).
  Update your site frequently with new search engine optimised content. This can either be done by adding new pages to your site or by blogging and adding new articles which are relevant to your site and which provide the search engines and your site visitors with quality, informative content.  Find out more.
• Building links into your site.
  Link building should form a very important part of your site’s SEO. In simple terms each link you build into your site is a “vote” for your site. Unfortunately link building is time-consuming. You should consider the types of links you want to get for your site e.g. one way links are preferable, links from sites which are relevant to your site, links from good neighbourhoods. Find out more.
  

SEO An On-going Process

Search engine optimisation is an ongoing process that should be closely monitored month by month.

Make sure you put enough time aside each month to add new content or establish new links into your site.

As we’ve said before it can take time but you will reap the rewards in the end.

Need Help?

Too busy to carry out your own SEO? Contact us to find out about our SEO packages.