Re: [WSG] SEO, fact or fiction

2008-03-04 Thread Keith Steinacher
I think that they are useful, but I am biased because I am a SEO
Consultant.  However, we are not all created equal.  I wrote a very short
article on this that you can read here:
http://www.mustainconsulting.com/docs/prs2007novdec.pdf

Basically, you need to research a SEO professional, just like you would for
a marketing firm your company planned to use.  Do they have experience? Who
are some of their other clients?  Do their services seem gimmicky?

I wouldn't pay much attention to anyone that says they can solve all of your
site's problems for 1 set fee.  Each site, depending on size and
competition, may take more or less work to optimize.  While meta data and
content are important, there are other factors that are involved.  You can
take care of a number of your site's problems on your own.  The real talent
of a SEO professional is letting them do the complex analysis of your site,
the competitors you have in your market and what other things you could be
doing to boost your site's "relevance" with search engines.

I hope this helps you in making your decision, but remember, choose wisely.
Even asking for a free basic analysis, where they tell you what the problem
are, not necessarily how to fix them.  Then, if you are satisfied with the
analysis, you can pay them to put together a report of the "remedies".

Keith

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 9:01 PM, Dannielle Chun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>
> Hi Weberati,
>
> First, apologies to the list if this discussion has been had before, I'm
> newish here.
>
> I'm interested in how you all feel about SEO experts?
>
> Me, I'm old fashion and tend to rely on meta tags to content ratios and
> link exchange. Am I being naive? Or are the following types of promises more
> valid than free tools like this one:- *
> http://www.submitexpress.com/analyzer/
> *
> "... let me undertake an SEO health check of your site. Just a quick look
> at your site tells me immediately that it is not presently optimized for
> search engine performance. A professional SEO report will ensure you change
> the right things in the right way.
>
> The report will identify the best phrases to use to improve your organic
> ranking and get maximum free traffic. Using specialist Search Engine
> Optimisation tools I will identify the optimum keywords for your business. I
> will document where your site currently ranks in the top 100 results for
> each keyword and allocate a percentage difficulty to each of them and advise
> you (objectively) on which words to integrate into your copy.
>
> I will ascertain your current link strength/popularity and advise how you
> might improve that and provide detailed recommendations on HTML title
> elements, meta tags, navigation structure, use of Flash, correct code
> validation and much more. It is the best investment you can make before
> changing anything on your website."
>
>
> Thanks!
> Dannielle
>
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-- 
Keith Steinacher
Chief Bottle-Washer


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[WSG] SEO, fact or fiction

2008-03-04 Thread Dannielle Chun

Hi Weberati,

First, apologies to the list if this discussion has been had before, I'm
newish here.

I'm interested in how you all feel about SEO experts?

Me, I'm old fashion and tend to rely on meta tags to content ratios and link
exchange. Am I being naive? Or are the following types of promises more
valid than free tools like this one:- http://www.submitexpress.com/analyzer/

"... let me undertake an SEO health check of your site. Just a quick look at
your site tells me immediately that it is not presently optimized for search
engine performance. A professional SEO report will ensure you change the
right things in the right way.
 
The report will identify the best phrases to use to improve your organic
ranking and get maximum free traffic. Using specialist Search Engine
Optimisation tools I will identify the optimum keywords for your business. I
will document where your site currently ranks in the top 100 results for
each keyword and allocate a percentage difficulty to each of them and advise
you (objectively) on which words to integrate into your copy.
 
I will ascertain your current link strength/popularity and advise how you
might improve that and provide detailed recommendations on HTML title
elements, meta tags, navigation structure, use of Flash, correct code
validation and much more. It is the best investment you can make before
changing anything on your website."


Thanks!
Dannielle



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[WSG] London Web Standards meetup for March

2008-03-04 Thread Joe Ortenzi

Hello Standaristas!
Particularly the London-based ones.

Your humble servant here organises a regular monthly meetup for folks  
to discuss web-standards issues in general in the London central  
area. This month meets in a Farringdon pub (cheap beer, free WiFi)  
and promises to be an interesting one as I have quite a good  
selection of interested parties.


You get to set the agenda and you get to shape the next meeting.  
Wehad a bit of an issue about comfortable and connected venues but  
the Print Works seems to hit the right note. Hope you'll agree.


Full details are at:

http://webstandards.meetup.com/130/

RSVP on the meetup page if you're interested. Thanks.

Joe Ortenzi
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.joiz.com




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Re: [WSG] Site review - alachua co library

2008-03-04 Thread Andrew Maben
Just a quick thank you to everyone who replied, it's been a *huge*  
help. I'm carefully going over the site with your comments in mind  
and making many changes based upon them.


I'm still very busy, but as soon as things slow down I'll try to  
respond in detail - meanwhile I'll just say that if there were no  
glaring errors, that is in large part due to the invaluable tips and  
hints I've picked up from careful daily reading of this list.


Thanks!

Andrew


On 2008/02/25 10:31 (GMT-0500) Andrew Maben apparently typed:



I'm almost done with a site redesign, and the time is right to ask
for your opinions: http://beta.www.aclib.us
for comparison, the current site is: http://www.aclib.us








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Re: [WSG] ie8 & flash scripts

2008-03-04 Thread kevin mcmonagle

Patrick Lauke wrote:


There's not even a downloadable beta of ie8 out yet...so I think there won't be 
much of an answer beyond speculation?

  

suppose your right early days yet.




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Re: [WSG] IE8 news

2008-03-04 Thread Brad Pollard




That is fantastic. Well done to all the people that
engaged in this issue. And. thank you microsoft.

Looking forward now to running the IE8 beta.

Brad



Thomas Thomassen wrote:
True.
IE is more than just a browser. It's a development platform. Intranet
systems, HTA applications etc. Some of them might be used in mission
critial systems where it's less than ideal to update the HTML and CSS
every time IE updates it rendering engine so locking them self to a
spesific version is very handy for them.
  
There are still systems using DOS software for their operation because
porting it to a new system would cause a great risk of bugs.
  
  
  
- Original Message - From: "John Hancock"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  
To: 
  
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 5:34 AM
  
Subject: Re: [WSG] IE8 news
  
  
  




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RE: [WSG] ie8 & flash scripts

2008-03-04 Thread Patrick Lauke
>  kevin mcmonagle

> hi,
> anyone know how ie8 will work with ufo flash detection js and and the 
> standard dreamweaver flv embedding scripts?
> thanks in advance
> kevin

There's not even a downloadable beta of ie8 out yet...so I think there won't be 
much of an answer beyond speculation?

P

Patrick H. Lauke
Web Editor
Enterprise & Development
University of Salford
Room 113, Faraday House
Salford, Greater Manchester
M5 4WT
UK

T +44 (0) 161 295 4779
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

www.salford.ac.uk

A GREATER MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY  


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Re: [WSG] ie8 & flash scripts

2008-03-04 Thread Tom Roper

I'm not 100%,

but here is the link to the development blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/01/21/compatibility-and-ie8.aspx

Should be something there if anywhere!

Tom


On 4 Mar 2008, at 10:37, kevin mcmonagle wrote:


hi,
anyone know how ie8 will work with ufo flash detection js and and  
the standard dreamweaver flv embedding scripts?

thanks in advance
kevin



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[WSG] ie8 & flash scripts

2008-03-04 Thread kevin mcmonagle

hi,
anyone know how ie8 will work with ufo flash detection js and and the 
standard dreamweaver flv embedding scripts?

thanks in advance
kevin



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Re: [WSG] Browser Text Resizing and the Ill Effects It May Cause

2008-03-04 Thread Designer

Mike at Green-Beast.com wrote:

Hi Jason,

yes I do.. You can do the same thing with pictures it's really a cool 
effect, and helps maintain the ratio of the entire page pretty well..


I have a demo up (Currently using php to process the size of the  
image) if anyone wants to look: HTTP://www.raoset.com/dev/global7/


I don't mean to pick, but is it really a good tradeoff to have download 
an 895kb image just so it can be enlarged with the text. It seems like 
everyone (including your bandwidth resources) will take a big hit just 
so the image can grow.


Respectfully,
Mike Cherim



The opening page of my site [1] has an image which expands with text 
resizing. Its size is defined in em and, yes, it does pixelate when you 
enarge a lot. However a .gif (which it is) seems to be better than a 
.jpg.  I've only done it on the opening page so far, as I'm still 
investigating options . . .


[1] www.gwelanmor-internet.co.uk

Bob



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