carricdesign.com

A lot of the work that has been flowing through CarricDesign lately revolves around improving ranking results in ‘search engines’ (by which clients usually mean ‘Google’).

So when an article comes across my desk about an algorithm update, I sit up and took notice. The article du jour is from Website Magazine and talks about Google’s so-called ‘Farm Update’.

Google is finally ready to penalize content farms. (Official Google blog post – they call the sites ‘low-quality’)

For those who are building websites using web standards practices, good (…unique…useful…) content and all the good stuff that comes with thinking about SEO, things are looking up. No longer will you have to compete against spammy content farms who reproduce content or generate fluffy stuff that doesn’t really help anyone, just to rank well for keywords and produce link juice for other sites.

Google (and all other search engines) change their algorithm all the time. A tweak of this, a pinch of that – helping to serve up the ‘best results’ possible. Think about it like this: search engines make money by being the search engine of choice for as many users as possible. Their claim to marketshare correlates to what they can charge for advertising. In order to be the search engine of choice, they have to consistently serve up the results that people are looking for (i.e. what they REALLY want versus what their search query is…you might be surprised how different those two things can be!). The better the search engine is at getting the user where they want to go, the more likely the user will return…and the search engine claims more marketshare.

My sympathies are for the small business owner who is trying to run their business (which they are hopefully good at), keep up with the book-keeping (get an accountant!) and create content for their website. The temptation to copy from another site – say, a manufacturer’s site – is high. But this algorithm update will ferret out that behaviour and penalize for it. There is now more incentive to create useful, thoughtful content for your website.

It will be important to look at your website’s analytics and know where pages are at in the search engine results page and watch what happens. If you see dramatic downward trends for pages that you feel contain the meat and potatoes of your business, evaluate the content with your ‘low quality’ radar on – sooner, rather than later.

Other useful strategies for small businesses: engage with your customers on Facebook and/or Twitter; ask trusted employees to post to your Facebook page about products they like in your store; re-evaluate current content – now is the perfect time to freshen things up; consider other forms of content, like videos; start a blog.

I have been working alongside some very dedicated volunteers over the past few months on the Kingston WritersFest website. Everything is geared towards the five-day festival that runs in September.

One of the challenges has been in getting changes up on the website when more than one person has access to the files.

Even in my careful moments, I need a system to make sure that I am not overwriting the changes that my colleague has just made. Right now, the system consists of a big sticky note on my file folder, reminding me to download a fresh copy of the file…before I start working on it.

Despite the fact that we have both made errors, having only two people working on the files is fairly safe. If more were involved, it would definitely be time to head towards a project management system that would allow users to check out the files and require them to be checked back in before another user could modify them.

On another note, I want to recognize the hard work of Susan Olding, who has, with a few notes from me, schooled herself in tech-speak and has been doing a fabulous job of making updates to the site. My hat is off to her!

Instead of re-hashing something, I’m giving you  a link to an interesting  article on Mashable with great tips about managing social media. (p.s. that was the link)

The truth of it is that many people who run a small or medium-sized business know that they should be engaged with social media (gotta have a Facebook page!), but aren’t sure what to do with it after that. Social media outlets can be an effective way to engage with your audience and allow them to talk back to you.

From a local business standpoint, it can be a great way to let faithful customers know about a recent product arrival, a special sale or something happening on a personal note that makes them feel that they are a part of the family.

So enjoy the article and consider your social media-ing ways. Do you need to re-think, re-do or re-get-off-your-butt-and-just-do-it anything?

I love launching new websites and today was a great day for that!

For the past month, I’ve been working with an intern on loan from Loyalist College in Belleville. It has been different having someone else around to talk to and bounce ideas off of, and I’m going to miss Emma!

Emma’s job was to take a website project from start to finish in a little under one month.

I should really get her to write this post, but as she is no longer under my evil spell working for me, my power to influence her to do my work is significantly reduced.

Suffice to say, the website pleases the eye, pleases the client and gets the job done!

Be sure to check it out at www.showandsellkingston.ca.

I was at my workout class this afternoon and had a little epiphany about linking text and how valuable it is to give clear instructions and use it wisely.

Did I mention I was at a workout class?  It was one of those where you are lifting weights to the beat of the music, which takes your mind off the hideous torture that it is to lift weights (but I digress…).

Every time we had to change what we were doing, the instructor would call out instructions.  Sometimes she would say something like ‘here we go!’ and sometimes she would say ‘Let’s take that up for a clean and press’.  Now – which do you think was easier to follow?

Let’s assume that I was on this website at this workout for the first time. Would I know what to do with ‘here we go’? Not necessarily.  It is non-specific, non-directional and non…well, anything, except I knew I was suppose to do something.

But when the instructor calls out ‘Dead row – let’s do 4!’, I know exactly what my next step should be.

And that’s what good linking text does for your website user. Good linking text says ‘find out more about what our clients are saying’, instead of ‘click here’.

How about this – if they haven’t read the paragraph of text in front of the linking text, would a user still know where it was going to take them?  Linking text should be a call to action.  ‘Click here’ makes me want to say ‘Oh yeah? Make me’.

What does your linking text say to your users?

(BTW – if you are in the Kingston area and want to know what kind of exercise class made me think about this, check out Omega Fit Club – Group Power.  Love it!)