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
Google has a keyword tool that allows me to find the most popular search phrases related to keyword phrases. The following table represents the results for "website design", ranked by index, for the calendar year ending in September 2006. WARNING: This post is intended for search engine spiders/robots only - boring reading!
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
Pay Per Click vs. Organic Search Results in the Eyes of the Consumer
I was in the office of a V.P. of an Austin, Texas financial institution yesterday and the subject of Google searches came up. He claimed that he would never click on a PPC result - only organic results.
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.
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 received an email from a text link advertising company who wanted to sell me text advertising for my website. As part of their pitch, they commented that my home page (keywords: website design austin texas) had a relatively low Google page ranking of 3.
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.
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
The following sites were designed and coded with search engines in mind. Other than that, no search engine optimization has been done on any of them (with the exception of Austex Websites, which is the topic of this blog).
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.
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?
That all depends on what keywords you use for your search. The keyword phrase that I want to have high listings for is "website design austin texas". As of today, October 20, 2006, here's how I rank on that phrase in the 3 major search engines.
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.
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:
As stated in the header of this page, this blog is an attempt to increase the search engine ranking of
Wishing you great website designing,
Steve Cook, Austin, Texas Web Site Designer and Website Developer
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
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