I just finished doing some SEO work for a new client, Zapco. Zapco is a manufacturer of high quality die-cut paper products. Zapco specializes in Door Hangers, Printable Raffle Tickets, Security Paper, Mailers, Post Cards, Rotary File Cards, Table Tents, Tags, Business Cards, Club Cards, Name Cards, Buttons, Easels and other die-cut products. Zapco's blog is located at doorhanger.blogspot.com.
Not sure
A blog created by Austex Websites, an Austin web design firm, to test the relationship
between blogs and website search engine ranking.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Door Hangers, Printable Raffle Tickets and Security Paper
I just finished doing some SEO work for a new client, Zapco. Zapco is a manufacturer of high quality die-cut paper products. Zapco specializes in Door Hangers, Printable Raffle Tickets, Security Paper, Mailers, Post Cards, Rotary File Cards, Table Tents, Tags, Business Cards, Club Cards, Name Cards, Buttons, Easels and other die-cut products. Zapco's blog is located at doorhanger.blogspot.com.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
SimpleViewer - Website SlideShow
I highly recommend SimpleViewer. If you know some basic HTML you should have no problem deciphering the XML gallery page where your picture list is loaded. There are demos at the SimpleViewer site and I just put one on my website for clients to see:
View SimpleViewer slideshow demo
Friday, October 26, 2007
Google search results and secondary web page listings.
Here's the question:
When I type "Gina Henry" in Google, our website is the top hit, but the linked page is a secondary page and not the main page I want visitors to first go to? What do I do?
This is actually a pretty common occurence - you can read my answer at "ask the webmaster".
Friday, October 12, 2007
Online Articles and Information from Austin, Texas Businesses
As a web designer part of my job is performing SEO (search engine optimization) on my clients' websites, and one of the ways to improve search engine rankings is to have a lot of links to your website from other websites (inbound links). The problem is finding other websites that will link to yours, ideally without a reciprocal link.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Texas Hill Country Land, Property and Real Estate for Sale
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Utilities, Excavation and Sitework Contractors in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, Texas
Monday, September 24, 2007
SEO Experiment

Above is a graphic image of the article I just posted to my other blog at
I didn't mention the name or URL of the other blog because I don't want to taint the experiment. For more information about this experiment, read the post just prior to this one. Stay tuned for results.
UPDATE: THIS POST CAME UP #1 ON GOOGLE FOR THE SEARCH PHRASE "parley baer web design" WITHIN 24 HOURS OF POSTING. SO MUCH FOR MY BLOGGER FAVORITISM THEORY. STILL AMAZED BY THE RAPID INDEXING OF BLOGS.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Who is Howard McNear and What is His Relevance to Web Design in Austin, Texas?
If you're a fan of the Andy Griffith Show, you are sure to remember the town barber, Floyd Lawson, who was portrayed by veteran character actor, Howard McNear.

Howard McNear as Floyd Lawson
Howard McNear has absolutely nothing to do with web design in Austin, Texas; my experiment is to see how fast Google will index this blog post.
It is now 10:03 p.m. Central Standard Time. I'll be searching on the phrase "Howard McNear Web Design" to find out if and when Google has indexed this article. Stay tuned for results.

Steve Cook - Published Author
A common SEO technique is to write and publish articles on the internet. Of course these articles will contain your tier-one keywords, as well as links back to your website.
Until this week, I'd never gotten around to posting anything. I Googled "publish web articles" and came across EzineArticles.com. I registered as a member and posted my first article, a re-hashing of an earlier post on this blog ("Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results in the Eyes of the Consumer "). The article was accepted and published (huge surprise).
Furthermore, I received an email from the publisher notifying me that I had earned "Expert Author" status. Boy, will my folks be proud!
Anyway, I tagged the links back to my site so I'll be able to track any hits that might come from my articles.
UPDATE - Sunday, Sept. 23:
I posted this article on Thursday and as of today Google has already indexed it and it's appearing on page one of the results for the search phrase "Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results".
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Widening the Search Engine Spotlight

Sunday, September 02, 2007
My Hero
Well now the unthinkable has happened! I came across an article that is so compelling that I have finally strayed from my SEO (search engine optimization) mission and posted something non-web-related. At the risk of becoming another inane blogger, I hereby submit to you, dear reader, this post:
As a kid growing up in Austin, Texas I quickly realized that normal athletic endeavors led to perspiration and exhaustion. As I matured into my teen years and my intellect began to evolve, I discovered indoor sports - pool, bowling, shuffleboard, darts, pinball, etc. What a revelation! Not only could I now pursue these worthwhile athletic avenues, I could do it in the comfort of air conditioning! By that time I had a pretty serious smoking habit, so the proximity to ash trays was helpful. I also discovered the performance enhancing effects of alcohol.
When John Daly exploded on to the PGA tour by winning the 1991 PGA Championship, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. Over the years he has never let me down and it was with great satisfaction that I read of Fox Sports decision to name Daly the worst-conditioned athlete in all of sports.

The ever inspirational John Daly
Over the past several years I have gradually relinquished most of my bad habits. I no longer smoke. I've lost 60 pounds over the last 3 years. I exercise regularly and drink less.
I sure do miss my vices. Thank goodness I can still live vicariously through my hero. Keep fighting the good fight John.
Read the article: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7128994?MSNHPHCP>1=10437
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Google Austin Texas
A long time ago I programmed my website to send me an email anytime it received a hit from anyone who had been referred by a search engine. The email gives me the date of the search, the searcher's IP address, the search engine used, and the search phrase used.Being able to identify what keywords are being used to find a website is very helpful in my SEO efforts. Today I got a hit that resulted from the search prhase "Google Austin Texas". I checked my Google ranking for that phrase and my web page titled "SEO - Search Engine Optimization in Austin, Texas" appears on page one of the Google listings.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
SEO - Search Engine Optimization in Austin, Texas

I have a pat answer for that question: Type "SEO Austin Texas" into the Google search bar. In my opinion any SEO firm that comes up on page one of that search probably knows what they are doing.
When I returned to my office I decided to try my own suggestion and was very pleasantly surprised when my website page titled "SEO - Search Engine Optimization in Austin" appeared on PAGE ONE! I still don't profess to be an SEO expert but I'm getting some excellent results.
As of today Austex Websites, specializing in web design in Austin, comes up on Google page one for the following queries:
adwords example
austin design firm
austin texas website design
austin tx web design
austin tx website design
design firm austin
page one SEO austin
SEO austin texas
web design firm austin
website design austin texas
website design firm austin
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website designers austin texas
website development firm austin texas
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Basket Weaving Classes in Austin, Texas
Whenever my website gets a hit generated from a search engine, I can view the actual words the user used that generated the listing. Imagine my surprise when I had a visitor last week who used the search phrase "basket weaving class austin texas".
Just for grins, I performed a Google search using "basket weaving class austin texas" and my website was the number 1 listing! I doubt that being the number 1 listing for "basket weaving class austin texas" is going to help my business any, but it's still fun to be number 1!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Ms. Dewey and Web Design in Austin, Texas
Ms. Dewey is a sassy lass who handles your search phrase, then displays results after a short quip or two.
Ms. Dewey is powered by MSN Search, where Austex Websites performs well on a number of search phrases. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Austex is the number one result (at least for today) for the search phrases "website design austin texas" and "web design austin texas".
Web Design and MySpace

www.myspace.com/austexwebsites
Another free opportunity to create inbound links to my website. I was pleasantly surprised to see that myspace.com allows HTML code, so it was easy to create links to Austex Websites - a web design firm in Austin, Texas.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
3D Animation
An important aspect of web design is the ability to create compelling graphics. Adding sound and a third dimension puts icing on the cake!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
And Baby Makes Three
One of my favorite lines from Barney Fife. Barney explains why the crime rate in Mayberry, North Carolina is so low. This is in the "fun" area of Austex Websites. Another attempt to drive traffic of any kind to my web design firm.Saturday, May 26, 2007
SEO - Search Engine Optimization, Global Warming and Amazon.com

I recently did a Google search on my name using the search phrase "steve cook austin texas". The number one result was a link to an Amazon.com review I had written on Michael Crichton's "State of Fear".
Well, this looked like a perfect opportunity to try some SEO tactics, so I altered my review to include web design keywords. I also wrote a review on the Tiger Woods 2005 PC golf game. I then created a new account with Amazon titled "Web Design Austin Texas" and I plan to start writing reviews galore under that name. You have to buy something under the new name before Amazon will let you write a review, so I won't be posting anything until the next time I need something from Amazon.
The second Google result for "steve cook austin texas" was a link to this blog!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Web Design Austin Texas NUMBER ONE!

Sunday, May 13, 2007
Update on My Hollywood Friends

Jorel says "My little Kal-el".
I'm constantly amazed at what Google deems important enough to put on page 1 of their search results. Back in February, I created some web pages that were tied to URLs of TV and movie characters (see 5 posts down this page).
As of today, here are their rankings on Google:
* not recorded if result was lower than Google page 2
UPDATE: AUGUST 18, 2007
I've decided to see if I can sell any of these - they are now parked at a domain-for-sale website. I've included links back to Austex Websites.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
State of the Search Engine Optimization Report

I just ran a check on some of the most common search phrases that resulted in hits to my Web Design website, Austex Websites (web design is a search phrase that I'm trying to promote).
Austex Websites appeared on PAGE ONE of Google results for the following seach phrases:
austin design firms
austin texas design firm
austin texas website design
austin tx design firm
austin tx website designer
web designer austin texas
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web site designer austin tx
web site designers in austin texas
website design austin texas
website design austin tx
website designer austin texas
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web developers austin texas
web developers austin tx
P.S. Kudos to says-it.com, a really neat website where I created the curved text on the S.E.O. seal above.
UPDATE: As of Sunday, May 06, 2007 the search phrase "web design austin texas" is on PAGE 1 of GOOGLE!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sling Blade Sounds
and other Website Fun
I used to have a page on my personal website devoted to the "Sounds of Sling Blade". This page contained .wav files of my favorite short quips from the film's central character Karl Childers, played by Billy Bob Thornton.The Sling Blade Sounds page used to get lots of hits from web searches on Sling Blade related keywords, and was very popular. I've decided to post it on my business website - again, my theory is that any traffic driven to my web design website is welcome. The link to the Sling Blade sounds page is located on a "Fun" page of Austex Websites, and will be joined by other goodies.
One of the basic principles of good web design is to provide useful content - things of value - to your visitors. Although most, if not all, of the Fun page postings will have nothing to do with website development, they will be entertaining.
SUNDAY APRIL 22 - UPDATE: I just ran some web searches to see where the Sling Blade page was showing and it's already showing on page 1 of MSN search (search phrase: sling blade sounds) and page 2 of Google (search phrase: slingblade sounds). That's just 3 days from the original post date! I'm amazed at how fast Google indexed this. Does Google crawl blogs at a higher rate than other sites?
THURSDAY MAY 3 - UPDATE: Both Austex Websites and this blog (websitedesignaustintexas.blogspot.com) are now showing on page 1 of Google for the search phrase "sling blade wav files".
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Web Site vs. Website
I use the word "website" in most of my SEO, but the popularity of "web site" is pretty compelling. I've actually changed the spelling on my home page and my site map to include both versions. I also added a "Web Site Design Austin Texas" keyword line above the heading, since search engines seem to place more importance on words that appear earlier in the page.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Google Search Distance Anomoly

As of today, Austex Websites comes up on page 1, 7th listing, when searching for "website design austin texas" on Google ... if you're in the right place!
My office is in 78759. Recently I was at a client's office in 78758. At my office in 78759 I get the above Google results. When I'm at my client's office in 78758, Austex Websites is nowhere to be found in the first 5 pages of results!
I have no clue what's up with this but I've tested it for a couple of weeks now and keep getting the same results.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Some help from my Hollywood friends.
John Marley as Hollywood producer Jack Woltz in "The Godfather"
Besides the fact that they are all fictional characters from TV and film, each one is also a domain name owned by Austex Websites!
In my never-endinq SEO quest to have this website show up prominently on search engines, I've taken to experimenting with different methods of accomplishing that feat. I also like the idea of owning domain names of fictional characters.Each of these characters has his/her own page on austexwebsites.com, and my goal is to lure unwitting searchers, then expose them to as much website design propaganda as possible!
Who knows? Maybe some bigshot Hollywood writer/director/producer/creator might want to buy one someday!
ellymayclampett.com
peteclemenza.com
vitocorleone.com
louisejefferson.com
lucymancini.com
fredgsanford.com
lamontsanford.com
virgilsollozzo.com
gloriastivic.com
michaelstivic.com
saltessio.com
salvatoretessio.com
gradywilson.com
jackwoltz.com
UPDATE: AUGUST 18, 2007
I've decided to see if I can sell any of these - they are now parked at a domain-for-sale website. I've included links back to Austex Websites.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Flash Animation and Website Design
As a website designer in Austin, Texas I don't normally like a lot of Flash animation on a website. My biggest problems with Flash are that search engines can't read Flash objects for keywords, and most Flash controls seem to have to be clicked twice to get them to work.
That said, a sprinkling of tasteful animation in a website can definitely add to it's appeal. I built the above animation using photos I took of the 360 Bridge over Lake Austin in Austin, Texas, as well as mine (Steve Cook Austin Texas) and my significant other's cars. I then merged the bridge photo with a graph paper background. Finally I layered in the cars, adding motion paths and size changes to create the illusion of 3 dimensions. I had to resist the temptation of adding boats, airplanes, helicopters, etc. - that would no longer constitute a "sprinkling" of animation.
Friday, October 27, 2006
The Google Keyword Tool
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results in the Eyes of the Consumer
That reminded me of an article I read in WebPro News several years ago. The magazine had done a poll of Google search engine users to find out what results were most frequently selected by the users. The results of the poll showed that most consumers clicked on the very first Google result, which is almost always a paid advertisement. Further, most users only clicked on listings that were displayed on the top 50% of the page, including the PPC listings in the right column.
When asked if they could tell an organic result from a PPC result, over 90% of the search engine users said they did not know the difference.
The V.P. I was visiting with was responsible for the marketing department of the financial institution and had some knowledge of search engine promotion. Why he refused to click on PPC results is a mystery to me, but it's clear that the general public couldn't care less.
From a website design perspective, I believe it's vital to be listed on the top half of the first page of Google search results for your primary keyword phrase, and if you have to pay to be there, so be it.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Images and Alternate Tags
When you run the mouse over the picture above, you should see the words "Website Design Austin Texas - Austex Websites" appear. This is an example of alternate text tagging of an image, and it is supposed to help with search engine optimization. As a further step, I've named the image itself "website_design_austin_texas.jpg".
Will this help my site ranking? I'll have to wait and see.
Site Ranking vs. Page Ranking
I still am not sure what the real relationship between page ranking and site rankings is, so I decided to experiment using them (the text link ad company) as a subject. First, I went to their website and found they had a page ranking of 5. Then I searched Google, Yahoo and MSN using the keywords found in their home page title. Out of three keywords (a total of 9 searches) they only came up on page one of the results 2 times - a ratio of 22%. My site, Austex Websites, has a ratio of 66% and my home page is 2 points lower than theirs.
Their competitor, who came up as the number one search result for one of their keywords on Google had a page ranking of 3! Go figure. I do think that page ranking is important, but it is clearly not the only factor in high site rankings.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Austex Websites Client Search Engine Rankings
Google is generally the hardest search engine to achieve high rankings in, but there are exceptions - see Auto Headliners of Texas and Paul's Motor Werks - both have very high Google rankings, but do not even appear on the first five pages of MSN search!
I think that one of the biggest factors influencing search position is how long the site has been on the internet. If the site was designed properly, time will tell. The fact that these sites are listed and linked here may help their search engine rankings - we'll keep an eye on that.
| Search Position | |||||||
| Date | Name | Keyword Phrase | Google page rank | Yahoo | MSN | Site launch date | |
| 10/22/06 | Agape Pregnancy Resource Center | pregnancy round rock | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3/05 |
| 10/22/06 | Auto Headliners of Texas | headliner repair austin texas | 2 | 1 | 1 | n/l* | 7/04 |
| 10/22/06 | Discount Business Brokers USA | discount business brokers | 0 | n/l* | n/l* | 1 | 8/06 |
| 10/22/06 | Executrain of Austin | computer software training austin texas | 4 | 7 | 25 | 2 | 7/04 |
| 10/22/06 | National Data Services (NDSI) | mailing services dallas texas | 2 | n/l* | 3 | 1 | 10/05 |
| 10/22/06 | Paul's Motor Werks | bmw repair austin texas | 2 | 2 | 1 | n/l* | 1/04 |
| 10/22/06 | PrintMailPro.com | mailing austin texas | 2 | n/l* | 10^ | 40 | 6/06 |
| 10/22/06 | Reverse Mortgage Solutions of Texas | reverse mortgage texas | 0 | n/l* | n/l* | n/l* | 10/06 |
* not listed on the first five pages of search results
^ search result for npsiaustin.com - former name and website - company changed name to PrintMailPro.com in June of 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Where is Austex Websites listed on the 3 major search engines now?
Google: 22 (3rd page, 2nd listing)
note: for "website design austin" Austex Websites is 16 (second page, 6th listing)
MSN: Austex Websites is on page 1, 1st listing!!!!
Yahoo: Austex websites is on page 1, 2nd listing!!!
Google is the tough one. More on that later. The current Google page rank for the Austex Websites home page is 3.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Blog author's note to viewers:
Austex Websites in Austin, Texas.
Most of the readers of this site are robots and spiders sent out by search engines to catalog content on the web. They supposedly give more weight to BOLD words, and words in large heading fonts (like "Austex Websites in Austin, Texas" above). They also like to follow links, so most of the links contained in this blog will be selfishly directed towards my Austin Texas Website Design Firm.Wishing you great website designing,
Steve Cook, Austin, Texas Web Site Designer and Website Developer




