Top tips

1. Is your brand ready for social media? Has the impact on communications, media and the everyday running of the business been considered ?
2. Has thorough research been done to ascertain whether your audiences and sector are ready for social media? Do you know how to promote your social media efforts via your channels and social media search engines and the like?
3. Remember the global culture and implications of social media. They are published  online and as accessible as webpages are, with the potential to reach wider audiences more quickly.
4. Be prepared to keep your social media content interesting, up to date and vibrant. No one visits and interacts with boring social media, so make sure they are well looked after.
5. Be aware of the effort required to maintain social media and address the points above. If you are note creating the content, how are you moderating it?
6. Interact  and engage with the target audience, and do not preach to them or in any way control natural and free flowing behavior.
7. Internet users have been savvy for a while-do not patronize them. Be creative in stirring and maintaining debate, including them.
8. Be aware of both the technical implications and advances of social media software. Is what you are proposing flexible and expandable enough to converge with other media?  Will your plans and technology be redundant in six months time?
9. Treat social media as a communications conduit to your audience and very important extension of the overall business; do not keep up with the Jones’ because that is not a scalable endeavour.
10. Enjoy and be enthusiastic about what social media you have included ( if deemed relevant), be clear why they have been created, and focus on and adhere to their aims.

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time

Domain names are also a great place to include keywords that can help users find you. When choosing a domain name, it doesn’t matter which  extension you choose: .com , .net ,.biz and all other extensions start on equal footing and will not in any way impact search engine rankings. Of course, .com domains tend to be more memorable to users because of their popularity, and therefore may be more desirable for word of mouth referrals.

Just as keywords in file names can help boost search engine listings, keywords in domain names are important as well. Keywords in a domain name separated by hyphens are individually readable, and are more desirable for search engine indexing , but can be title trickier for users to remember. It may be a good idea to register  your domain name with hyphens for search engines, and without for the memorability and easy verbal referral by users. You can park both domain names on the same server, pointing them to the same site. List the hyphen-delimited domain with search engines and include the domain without the hyphens on print collateral and advertisements.

An added benefit of including your target keywords in your domain name is that it will help encourage all inbound link links to your site to contain the same keywords, making your site more relevant to search queries.

The age of a domain name can play a significant role in the assigning of a Google PageRank (a mathematical formula that defines the reputation of a site specific to Google). Young domains are generally ranked low, since many disreputable link farm sites created by spammers pop up temporarily to make money from link referrals then quickly disappear before search engines blacklist them. Consequently , older domains are always preferable. However, if you buy a recently expired domain name that has a high PageRank because of its age and accumulated reputation, the PageRank does not transfer to the new owner. Search engines can usually see when domain names change ownership ,and will reset their rankings in such situations. You’ll just have to buy a domain name that is relevant to your audience, and wait for it to age like a fine wine.

Domain Names for Dummies

(www.buzztoolbox.com/google/yellowsearch.shtml).

Extended Googling

Google offers several services that give you a head start in focusing your search. Google Groups

(http://groups.google.com)

Indexes literally millions of messages from decades of discussion on Usenet. Google even helps you with your shopping via two tools: Froogle

CODE

(http://froogle.google.com),

Which indexes products from online stores, and Google Catalogs

CODE

(http://catalogs.google.com),

Which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index. And this only scratches the surface. You can get a complete list of Google’s tools and services at

www.google.com/options/index.html

You’re probably used to using Google in your browser. But have you ever thought of using Google outside your browser?

Google Alert

(www.googlealert.com)

Monitors your search terms and e-mails you information about new additions to Google’s Web index. (Google Alert is not affiliated with Google; it uses Google’s Web services API to perform its searches.) If you’re more interested in news stories than general Web content, check out the beta version of Google News Alerts

(www.google.com/newsalerts).

This service (which is affiliated with Google) will monitor up to 50 news queries per e-mail address and send you information about news stories that match your query. (Hint: Use the intitle: and source: syntax elements with Google News to limit the number of alerts you get.)

Google on the telephone? Yup. This service is brought to you by the folks at Google Labs

(http://labs.google.com),

A place for experimental Google ideas and features (which may come and go, so what’s there at this writing might not be there when you decide to check it out). With Google Voice Search

(http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html),

You dial the Voice Search phone number, speak your keywords, and then click on the indicated link. Every time you say a new search term, the results page will refresh with your new query (you must have JavaScript enabled for this to work). Remember, this service is still in an experimental phase, so don’t expect 100 percent success.

In 2002, Google released the Google API (application programming interface), a way for programmers to access Google’s search engine results without violating the Google Terms of Service. A lot of people have created useful (and occasionally not-so-useful but interesting) applications not available from Google itself, such as Google Alert. For many applications, you’ll need an API key, which is available free from

CODE

www.google.com/apis

. See the figures for two more examples, and visit

www.pcmag.com/solutions

for more.

Thanks to its many different search properties, Google goes far beyond a regular search engine. Give the tricks in this article a try. You’ll be amazed at how many different ways Google can improve your Internet searching.

What Would Google Do?

Google is clearly the best general-purpose search engine on the Web

But most people don’t use it to its best advantage. Do you just plug in a keyword or two and hope for the best? That may be the quickest way to search, but with more than 3 billion pages in Google’s index, it’s still a struggle to pare results to a manageable number.

But Google is an remarkably powerful tool that can ease and enhance your Internet exploration. Google’s search options go beyond simple keywords, the Web, and even its own programmers. Let’s look at some of Google’s lesser-known options.

Syntax Search Tricks

Using a special syntax is a way to tell Google that you want to restrict your searches to certain elements or characteristics of Web pages. Google has a fairly complete list of its syntax elements at

www.google.com/help/operators.html

. Here are some advanced operators that can help narrow down your search results.

Intitle: at the beginning of a query word or phrase (intitle:”Three Blind Mice”) restricts your search results to just the titles of Web pages.

Intext: does the opposite of intitle:, searching only the body text, ignoring titles, links, and so forth. Intext: is perfect when what you’re searching for might commonly appear in URLs. If you’re looking for the term HTML, for example, and you don’t want to get results such as

artfantasy.revivalx.com

, you can enter intext:html.

Link: lets you see which pages are linking to your Web page or to another page you’re interested in. For example, try typing in

link:http://www.revivalx.com

Try using site: (which restricts results to top-level domains) with intitle: to find certain types of pages. For example, get scholarly pages about Mark Twain by searching for intitle:”Mark Twain”site:edu. Experiment with mixing various elements; you’ll develop several strategies for finding the stuff you want more effectively. The site: command is very helpful as an alternative to the mediocre search engines built into many sites.

Swiss Army Google

Google has a number of services that can help you accomplish tasks you may never have thought to use Google for. For example, the new calculator feature

(www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator)

lets you do both math and a variety of conversions from the search box. For extra fun, try the query “Answer to life the universe and everything.”

Let Google help you figure out whether you’ve got the right spelling—and the right word—for your search. Enter a misspelled word or phrase into the query box (try “thre blund mise”) and Google may suggest a proper spelling. This doesn’t always succeed; it works best when the word you’re searching for can be found in a dictionary. Once you search for a properly spelled word, look at the results page, which repeats your query. (If you’re searching for “three blind mice,” underneath the search window will appear a statement such as Searched the web for “three blind mice.”) You’ll discover that you can click on each word in your search phrase and get a definition from a dictionary.

What Would Google Do?

Yahoo! Is one of the largest publishers of microformat content, delivering hCalendar and hCard on Upcoming.org over 15 million hCards in Yahoo! Local and hCard, XFN (includes friendships) and the geo (indicates location) microformats on Flickr . Google recently introduced hCard into Google Maps search results (http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/ 2007/06/microformats-in–google-maps.html ), making the storage of addresses you’ve found much easier . Publication of content in microformats on a massive scale is great for findability, but more progress is needed still, especially from the major search engines.

Google( http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29508) and Yahoo! (http://search.yahoo.com/cc ) currently do offer search services that look for content released under Creative Commons licensing using the rel-license microformat, which identities content that can be reused under more open terms and conditions. It’s still just a small step in the grand scheme of things, though. Imagine the power search engines could provide users if they indexed content with an informed algorithm that could tell the difference between an event, contact information , a recipe , a book review , and random text on a page. With microformats search has the potential to return much more precise and meaningful results to users.

As more and more content is published using microformats, search engines will be hard pressed to pass up the opportunity to provide the unprecedented content indexing and search segmentation that microformats can facilitate. Currently, because the major search engines do not integrate microformats provide is not via SEO , but rather in the flexibility offered to users who could move your content to a location where they are sure to find and use it later. When the major search engines do start to introduce microformat searching , which will hopefully be the near future, your content will already be a step ahead of the competition.

Though the big three are currently somewhat passive on the implantation of microformat recognition algorithms into their systems. Technorati is blazing the trail, already introducing a microformat search engine ( http://kitchen.technorati.com/search ) that allows users to find events , contact information, and reviews across the Web that are marked up with microformats. If your content is marked up correctly , you can wait for Technorati’s search spiders to index your content or, better yet, be proactive and submit it yourself at http://pingerati.net . Pingerati.net notifies a number of microformat friendly services like Alexa, Evenful, and the rest of technorati’s services of your content, so a wider audience can index it.

]]> http://artfantasy.revivalx.com/2009/11/27/do-search-engines-recognize-microformat-content/feed/ 0 http://artfantasy.revivalx.com/2009/10/01/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-use-tables/ http://artfantasy.revivalx.com/2009/10/01/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-use-tables/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:39:12 +0000 admin http://artfantasy.revivalx.com/?p=252 Table-based layouts, as you may already be aware, cause significant accessibility issues for  users with disabilities. The best we can do is speculate as to why this is, but there are two likely reasons: Perhaps the increased ratio of code to content leads search engines to downgrade the ranking, or maybe the sheer complexity of the nested table structure is more difficult or time consuming for the spiders crawl. Whatever the reason, a table-based layout is not worth the risk of a downgraded ranking. Stick to CSS-based layout systems for better results.

Just because table-based layouts are a bad idea does not mean tables are obsolete relics of the past. When you need to present tabular data, there’s no better tool than a well-built table. If written correctly, tables can also offer great opportunities to include more search engine friendly content that can help build the keyword density of a page. Let’s take a look at a simple example of an accessible table used to display tabular data:

<table summary=”Top-selling espresso machines”>

<caption> Expresso Impresso’s  top-selling commercial espresso machines</caption>

<thead>

<tr>

<th id=”model”>Model</th>

<th id=”price”>Price</th>

<th id=”num-solid”>Number Sold</th>

</tr>

</thead>

<tbody>

<tr>

<td headers=”model”>AZ-500</td>

<td headers=”price”>$500.00</td>

<td headers=”num-solid”>200</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td headers=”model”>AX-1200</td>

<td headers=”price”>$1000.00>/td>

<td header=”num-sold”>100</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

Notice the summary attribute in the< table> tag, and the <caption> tag present two valuable opportunities to tell search engines and users alike what the content within table is communicating. The <th> tag also communicates an elevated information hierarchy to search engines, and can be a good place to position keywords where relevant. By building the table following accessibility standards, we’ve naturally increased the keyword density of the page which can boost is ranking in searches for these terms.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS

Clearing the Roadblocks Caused by Image Maps

Image maps used infrequently these days, but when they are they can pose significant problems to the indexing of a site. If you have to use an image map, be sure to create a text link navigation system equivalent to ensure search engines can navigate and index all pages.

<img src=”i/Malaysia-map.gif” alt=”Map of Uitm Melaka locations in the Melaka” longdesc=”mapnavigation” usemap=”#map”/>

<map name=”map” id=”map”>

<area shape=”poly” cords=”322,126,311,130,305,134,305,137,297” href=”university-locater.html#lendu/>

<area shape =”poly” cords=”283,163,273,163,263,168”

href=”university-locater.html#alor gajah”/>

…

</map>

<ul id=”map-navgation”>

<il><a href=”university-locater.html#lendu”>Lendu</a></il>

<il><a href=”university-locater.html#alor gajah”>Lendu</a></il>

</ul>

Using the same longdesc technique we saw earlier , we can link the image map to an unordered list containing a text link navigation alternative.

There are nice alternatives to old –school image maps that provide users with more features, and deliver content in a way that is naturally search engine friendly.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

• Frames
• Deprecated elements
• Pop-up windows

Frames

Hindered findability is just one of the many reasons why frames should be officially laid to rest. The individual pages that make up framesets divide content, adversely affecting keyword density when viewed by search engines. Each page of the frameset runs the risk of being discovered by itself via a search engine query, resulting in the awkward display of content without branding/ site identity , navigation, or other important information as originally intended. For users, the result is a dead end. Individual pages are cumbersome to bookmark making return visits less likely.

Deprecated elements

Formatting tags and other deprecated elements such as <font> ,<b> and <i>to name just a few , should be eliminated from all code in favor of contemporary Web standards. Formatting tags redundantly mark up the design of a page with out communicating a meaningful hierarchy of the information. Search engines look for semantic mark up wit a high ratio of content to code. The <font> tag alone can create an exponentially negative effect to this ratio.

Standards-compliant sites use external CSS files to handle their formatting. Moving the formatting to an external file greatly improves the content-to-code ratio of a page while making the site easier to maintain. It also speeds up the load time of your pages for users and search engines because the CSS formatting code will download once and then be stored in the browser’s temporary memory for all subsequent page requests.

Pop-up windows

Pop –up windows can be problematic for some of the same reasons as frames . Often pop up window documents have no site identity or navigation, so when they are indexed and viewed individually the user is provided no clue to their location or how to navigate. The Java Script often used to spawn pop-up windows is not executable by search engine spiders, creating a roadblock to indexing.

CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions

The W3C XHTML specs states that tool tip text should only be generated by the title attribute, not alt. Search engine actively index alt text for both image and text searches , factoring in this text when evaluating the density of keywords in a page.

Keep your alt text short (less than 100 characters), and descriptive, avoiding text like “photo of…” or “image of…” as they unnecessarily clutter keyword density, and are redundant since the user / search engine will already be aware that the element is an image.

If you find yourself unsure of what text description to place in the alt attribute because the image is not informative, but it is simple decorative, then you should consider if the image is necessary or could be presented in another way that would not affect accessibility. Meaningless images like pixel shims (an outdated technique where 1 pixel square, transparent GIFs are used to position elements on a page) should be avoided at all costs as superior layout control can be achieved with CSS without garbling up the page with meaningless image tags. Decorative images that have that have no information can instead be presented as background images in a <div> tag or other block level tag using CSS.

Imagine you want to show a decorative flourish nest to a page heading with an image tag like the following:

<h2><img src=”i/flourish.gif” alt=”decorative flourish “ />About Us</h2>

The image should be applied with a CSS background image and some padding to push the text out of the way of the decorative element:

XHTML

<h2>About Us</h2>

CSS

h2

{padding-left:25px; background:url(…/i/flourish.gif)no-repeat left;}

The rule of thumb is if the visual content is not informational, all imagery should be presented via CSS.

When alt is not enough to accurately describe the content within an image, use the longdesc attribute as well to create a link  to a more complete description. Traditionally , longdesc has been used to link to an external HTML file that contains the detailed description:

<img src=”client-logos.gif” alt=”Logos of our top clients” longdesc=”long-description.html”/>

This approach has a number of shortcomings:

• Requires the user to navigate away from the page they are on, which can be annoying
• Move important, keyword-rich content to another page that could be individually indexed by a search engine, rather than keeping it with the rest of the page with which is associated
• Creates yet another file to manage in the site, which can be cumbersome when many images require longdesc content

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

• Frames
• Deprecated elements
• Pop-up windows

Frames

Hindered findability  is just one of the many reasons why frames should be officially laid to rest. The individual pages that make up framesets divide content, adversely affecting keyword density when viewed by search engines. Each page of the frameset runs the risk of being discovered by itself via a search engine query, resulting in the awkward display of content without branding/ site identity , navigaton, or other important information as originally intended. For users, the result is a dead end. Individual pages are cumbersome to bookmark making return visits less likely.

Deprecated elements

Formatting tags and other deprecated elements such as <font> ,<b> and <i>to name just a few , should be eliminated from all code in favor of contemporary Web standards. Formatting tags redundantly mark up the design of a page with out communicating a meaningful hierarchy of the information. Search engines look for semantic mark up wit a high ratio of content to code. The <font> tag alone can create an exponentially negative effect to this ratio.

Standards-compliant sites use external CSS files to handle their formatting. Moving the formatting to an external file greatly improves the content-to-code ratio of a page while making the site easier to maintain. It also speeds up the load time of your pages for users and search engines because the CSS formatting code will download once and then be stored in the browser’s temporary memory for all subsequent page requests.

Pop-up windows

Pop –up windows can be problematic for some of the same reasons as frames . Often pop up window documents have no site identity or navigation, so when they are indexed and viewed individually the user is provided no clue to their location or how to navigate. The Java Script often used to spawn pop-up windows is not executable by search engine spiders, creating a roadblock to indexing.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…