Google Simple, Apple Elegant

That Guy — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:06:17 +0000

When designing a website or print work I can’t stress enough to K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid). When somebody comes to your home page it should be clear what you want the visitor to be informed with. A good way of doing this is to give a brief description of each item (max 4-5) making your newest/best item the most prominent, and giving the visitor a CLEAR CALL TO ACTION on how they can reach this information. I’m sure you have heard people say “Where do I click?” or “Where do I go?” take out the guess work, people like things easy. An entrepreneur friend of mine lives by the motto “Google Simple, Apple Elegant” and Apple is a perfect example of the clear call to action. Visit their home page and you will notice there is no confusion on what Apple wants to share with you or how to get to that information.

Revisit your website with a fresh set of eyes and see if your website is overwhelming with content, offering 100 different paths to take or if it’s clear where to go with the important stuff.

When designing for the consumer just remember you can get your design lookin’ darn sexy while keeping the users experience easy by keeping it Google Simple, Apple Elegant.

10 SEO Tips [that work]

That Guy — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:04:28 +0000

Here is a list of SEO methods I find help crack the magical SEO challenge of getting your website higher up in the rankings.

Title Tags:

Your title should contain important keywords.
Use a different title on every page.

Links need titles too:

Add a title tag to every tag and give a short description (5 words) what the link is about.

Tip: Be honest and don’t just cram random keywords into this section.

EX: <a href=“about.html” title=“Come find out more about us”>About Usa>

Image Alt:

Add the Alt attribute to all of your images.
EX:

Be standard:

Validate all of your work.

Search engines / Spiders like websites that are created properly.

Validate your site via w3c – Validate Now

Use common tags:

Be sure to use the
,
,
and other common tags.

Link around:

Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible.

SiteMap:

Google + SiteMap = Love
Create a sitemap via XML-Sitemaps
Link to your sitemap here via Google Webmaster Tools

Submit your site:

Submit your site to Google and Yahoo
You only need to do it once this is just to be safe.

Local business center:

If you type in “restaurants 92106″ into google maps it will give you a listing of local restaurants around the area code 92106.
To get your site to do this, add it to Googles Local Business Center Click here to add your site

Helpful tips:

Get the word out by adding your URL to any account you have online (facebook, myspace, youtube account…)
Help people out on forums (people wit questions) and have your URL in your signature, Don’t spam. Help and they will come.

Chris Goodwin :: Speak on it! the Blog » google