Okay, I’ll preface this article by letting you know that I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here, I have myself, like I’m sure many Apple users have in the past, trawled the internet in search of the best Mac software available that doesn’t require us to load up our copy of Parallels. So I’m not going to go over ground already trodden by reviewing obvious software like the aforementioned Parallels or the Firefox web browser, although should you wish to use the latter I would recommend the Web Developer toolbar and Firebug as must have plug-ins.
Instead I’m simply going to speak from the heart and write about the small collection of programs that I use on a day-to-day basis and feel are the most useful to me. I am a web developer / SEO / social media user so I’m hoping that there will been something here for most reading this.

I hope you’ve found at least one or two of the items on my list helpful, if so let me know your thoughts on them, if you believe you have found better alternatives or just have different views on what you feel are some of the top software for Mac OS X around then leave a comment below.

This is not going to be a very long post on the grounds that it has such a simple resolution, I’m mainly writing it just to spread the knowledge of how easy it is to track external links through using Google Analytics. This is especially important should you have *cough* agreements with other companies that rely on you supplying them with the number of click throughs on a monthly basis.

Google Analytics is not able to automatically track external links as the pages that you are linking to will not have the same tracking code installed as your site does, speaking of tracking code the first thing that you need to do is ensure that you have the newest version of the Analytics Javascript code installed for your website, it should look something like this;

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxx-x");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

Next identify the link in your HTML that you would like to track on your website, I assume you know what a link looks like in HTML but just in case here’s an example;

<a href="http://www.external-link.com/">External Link</a>

If you’ve ever tracked flash files on Google Analytics then this next part will look familiar to you as we’re going to use the pageTracker._trackPageview function. It’s a good idea to keep external links in a folder to make them easier to find when later checking google analytics. In the example below I’ve used /external/ but you can use whatever you think will be easy to remember. Replace the code above in your HTML with the code below.

<a href="http://www.example.com" onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview("/external/external-link.com")">External Link</a>

Using this code will now allow you to check numbers and form reports for external links in Google Analytics.

If you regularly leave or read comments on blogs then you will be aware of the concept of an avatar, if not then here’s Wikipedia’s basic definition “An avatar is a computer user’s representation of himself/herself or alter ego”. Put basically, it’s the image that appears next to your entry in a forum or comment on an article. Avatars can vary in size but most are between 50×50 to 100×100 (pixels) most are square shaped although this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.

Recently Gravatar has given the ability to have a consistent avatar throughout the vast majority of the web by connecting it to your email address.

• Navigate to Gravatar.com
• Select the ‘sign up’ link, either from the top of the page or from within the copy
• Enter your email address to receive the following message



• Upon receiving your email you’ll be asked to click on a link which will take you to the following screen



• Once completed simply upload your desired picture and that is it! Gravatar even allows you to add more than one email address should you have more and assign a different image to each.

Changing the Size of Avatars on Wordpress

Avatars are automatically added on wordpress blogs but if you wish to increase or decrease the size of the avatars that show up in your comments sections then simple navigated to the edit themes section of wordpress, select your comments.php file and add the following code wp_list_comments('avatar_size=60'); within php tags, into the ordered list identified with the class ‘commonlist’ substituting 60 for whatever size in pixels that you would like your avatars to appear as. It’s that easy.

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]]> http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/07/09/using-avatars-and-changing-their-sizes-in-wordpress/feed/ 2 http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/26/a-brief-introduction-to-barolo-brunello-amarone/ http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/26/a-brief-introduction-to-barolo-brunello-amarone/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:20:38 +0000 Gareth Jones http://www.iliadwebdev.com/?p=462



Barolo, a wine generally pale ruby red in colour, hailing from Piedmont region in Northwest Italy, is often referred to as the ‘King of Wines’. These wines are characterized by their powerful, full bodies, the aromas of tar, violets and roses (amongst many others) and by their often rough, tannic structure. Barolo must be made 100% from the Nebbiolo grape, and achieved the Italian quality assurance rating of DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) in 1980. Barolo cannot be classified as Barolo until it has aged for three years at the winery, or for five years if it is called Riserva. In recent years producers of Barolo have had to implement many changes in the production of their wines which have enabled them to become more accessible to the general public who’s tastes were changing towards younger, fruitier wines that were ready to drink the day of purchase. They began this transformation by allowing the wine to mature in smaller, French oak barrels rather than leaving them in very large, old, Slovenian wooden casks called botti for many years, this was thought to minimize the risk of oxygenation and also offset the harsh tannins typical of Nebbiolo with the flavour of vanilla from the oak. The introduction of temperature controlled fermentation in the 1980’s made the wines a lot more fruit driven, in addition it became commonplace for producers to take the juice and pump it over the grape skins in order to maximize the deep colour and yet reduce the level of harsh tannins, this was in contrast to the previous method, in which the wines were fermented while still in contact with the skins.

Slightly further south, in the region of Tuscany, lies the small town of Montalcino, home of the area’s most expensive wines. Brunello di Montalcino is another 1980 DOCG this time made exclusively from Sangiovese Grosso, they must be aged slightly longer than Barolos, for a minimum of four years (five for Riserva) and two of those years must be in oak. Again they are generally pale ruby in colour and taste of black fruits, chocolate and leather, often with some vanilla. Much like traditional Barolos the idea is that the wines should be so thick with harsh tannins that they must be left for at least 20 years. If they are ripe skin tannins and there is enough fruit, then the result will often be some breathtaking wines. Again similar to Barolo wines, traditional producers of Brunello will opt to use large Slovenian cask whilst the new aged producers will generally use smaller French barriques. In March ’08 scandal hit the area with the news that several leading producers had been found guilty of illegally growing and harvesting Merlot and Cabinet Sauvignon to complement the Sangiovese.

Across to the east of the country, the Veneto plays home to it’s own expensive and luxurious wine Amarone della Valpolicella, or simply Amarone. Amarone, like ordinary Valpolicella, is made from Corvina with the possible addition of Rossignola, Negrara, Trentina, Barbera, and Sangiovese. Where it differs from Valpolicella however, is in the preparation for fermentation. The traditional, and still often used, process called radinate would be put into action several months before fermentation is due to take place the ripe grapes, which have been meticulously selected in the first weeks of October, are left on straw mats to allow them to dry out and become shrived, this acts as a way of concentrating their sugar and flavours. Generally speaking this process produces wines that are rich, intense, high in alcohol (sometimes as much as 16%) and long lasting. Nowadays however the use of special drying chambers allowing for controlled temperatures and conditions has been adopted by many of the major producers, this achieves the same results in the wines but is a lot more efficient and easier to monitor.
After this process is complete the wine will then be left to mature, much like its Piedmontese and Tuscan neighbours, in either French or Slovenian barriques. While the length of time that an Amarone is aged can vary, most producers, such as Tomassi, opt for at least three years in oak before being placed in bottles for a further period of at least anther year. A good Amarone should be full bodied and have a raison-like taste to it, also expect cherries and a hint of vanilla.

]]> http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/26/a-brief-introduction-to-barolo-brunello-amarone/feed/ 0 http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/04/haye-vs-klitscho-postposed/ http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/04/haye-vs-klitscho-postposed/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:11:28 +0000 Gareth Jones http://www.iliadwebdev.com/?p=103



I’m disappointed because the David Haye vs Wlad Klitchko fight has been cancelled or postponed due to Haye having an ongoing back problem. Haye is due to fly back to London on Friday to have physiotherapy and is hopeful of being ready to fight around 3 weeks after the current June 20th bout is set. Klitschko’s team however seem reluctant to postpone and have hinted that Ruslan Chagaev may be available as a replacement.

Update: It was announced today that Chagaev will indeed be the next challenger to Wlad Klitschko’s belt.
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]]> http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/04/haye-vs-klitscho-postposed/feed/ 0 http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/03/6-quick-link-building-tips/ http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/03/6-quick-link-building-tips/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:52:26 +0000 Gareth Jones http://www.iliadwebdev.com/?p=170





A colleague emailed me earlier this morning asking me to send him 5 or 6 quick ways of gaining links, as my response grew ever longer and started to take on the characteristics of a blog entry I had the idea of well… turning it into a blog entry.

• Link building (old school) – This requires conducting searches for some of the keyword phrases that you are looking to rank for, take the top 50-100 results of each and systematically run though the sites requesting reciprocal links. Yes it’s time consuming and yes it often goes unrewarded, but yes it’s still a very important part of link building.
• PR releases – Have either yourself or a copywriter on staff to document any new goings on at your company, try to infuse them with as much importance as possible, maybe include an image too, and send them off to any one of the major websites which handle press releases, such as prweb.com. Often you’ll find that smaller websites will take and redistribute your press release getting you priceless exposure.
• Articles – Again, either you or a copywriter on staff can write an article about your industry and submit it for free at websites such as ezinearticles.com, to ensure best results try to write about something that you are knowledgeable in and others will find helpful and make sure to either include a link within the article to your website, as inconspicuously as possible, or to include a link in the author notes at the bottom.
• Guest Blogging – Same idea as above only search out websites in your industry that contain blogs that perhaps could do with some help. Everyone gains in this case, you get yourself a nice link or two and they get new, unique, relevant content to be indexed.
• Directories (paid or otherwise) - I’m not a particular fan of most directories, but I admit they can be useful for link building (note: if you get added to the wrong directory they can also be a hindrance) To find directories that are relevant to your website try simply conducting a google search for “ + directories” more likely than not you’ll come across a few that you can add yourself, or at the very least, exchange links with.
• Social Media – Most social media sites now come equipped with “nofollow” links, however if you look it is still possible to find the odd one or two that aren’t. Add your website url to your signature at forums that you participate in or beneather your name when you are leaving comments responding to other peoples blogs. Yeah I know, this is a type of spam and not something that I really agree with but it is a bonefide tactic used by many reputable SEO’s.

Anyway there’s six quick tips which should help you get started building links for your site, I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few important ones and if I have then feel free to leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to add them.

]]> http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/06/03/6-quick-link-building-tips/feed/ 2 http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/27/comparing-bordeaux-burgundy/ http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/27/comparing-bordeaux-burgundy/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 23:28:43 +0000 Gareth Jones http://www.iliadwebdev.com/?p=166





With over 280,000 acres (120,000 hectares) of vines producing a staggering 71 million cases (6.4 million hectolitres) Bordeaux is the largest wine producing region in the world. Situated in the South West of France the wines became the aforemost mentioned in the world thanks to the healthy trade they enjoyed with the claret-loving, one time rulers of Bordeaux, the British. What made the region particularly famous and popular across the world as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, at a time when other French wines were largely unheard of outside of their own borders, was the ease at which it could be shipped by ocean across to Britain and by extension, to it’s colonies throughout the world.

In contrast Burgundy, at around 70,500 acres (28,530 hectares) and producing just under 31 million case (2.8 million hectolitres) a year is but a fraction of the size of the Bordeaux region. The history of Burgundian wine will be forever connected with the Roman Catholic Church and in particular The Benedictines and Cistercians who lands came from donations from French royalty hoping to stay in the graces of God as early as the sixth century. The church gradually lost control of the vineyards over the following millenium and any last grip they had was relinquished after the French revolution of 1789 saw the lands broken up and sold off. Due to its inland location Burgundian wines were unable to create the global presence of it’s Bordelais counterparts, however in the fourteenth century, upon the arrival of the Papacy in Avignon, which was readily accessable from Burgundy, wines from Côte d’Or built up a reputation as being some of the finest in the land.

Bordeaux enjoys a maritime climate, aided by the Gulf Stream which adds further warmth via the ocean and rivers in the area. To the south west lies the very important pine forest, le Landes, which acts as a shield from the harsh winds, rain and cold snaps that would otherwise plague the Bordelais vines. Burgundy’s climate, as befits it’s more northernly location. is a cooler, more continental climate with a wide annual temperature difference. This has been both a gift and a curse to Burgundian wines, its true that the cooler weather can help produce some of the most breathtaking, thought provoking wines in the world, but it can also lead to the grapes not being able to fully ripen and thus falling well short in terms of their quality and flavour profile.
more continental climate with a wide annual temperature difference. This has been both a gift and a curse to Burgundian wines, its true that the cooler weather can help produce some of the most breathtaking, thought provoking wines in the world, but it can also lead to the grapes not being able to fully ripen and thus falling well short in terms of their quality and flavour profile.

Much of the soil in Bordeaux’s most esteemed appellations is gravel and stone, this is largely the result of the tide thrown up by the river Gironde, which runs out into the Atlantic Ocean and is fed by the smaller Dordogne and Garonne. Soil rich in gravel is good for allowing the water to drain effectively, is poor in nutrients as well as being excellent at retaining the sun’s warmth. The warmth is important for helping the grapes ripen whilst the lack of nutrients in the gravel topsoil forces the vine roots to dig deeper into the rich subsoil. This is however, not the case throughout the region as clay can be found predominantly on the right bank of Bordeaux, most notably in Pomerol and St- Émillion, the Merlot grape in particular thrives off of the cooler, damp, often iron-rich soil that the clay provides, while further south in Graves and Sauternes a variety of grapes benefit from the limestone and chalk available to them.

Burgundy’s soil is largely dominated by limestone, which gives its wines some of the minerality that is often mentioned when describing wines from this region. While it is likely to be pure limestone found in areas such as Côte de Beaune that produce predominately white wines, the combination of marl and limestone found in such appellations as the Côte de Nuits seems to accommodate the red wines very well. There are exceptions to the rule however as with the Portlandian soil that can be found in parts of the Chablis region and generally creates fruiter wines, or the soil rich with sandstone that can be found in the south of Beaujolais.

With over 80% of wine made within its borders being red, Bordeaux is overwhelmingly a red wine region. Red wines from Bordeaux are almost always a blend, local law decrees that all reds from the region must contain at least one of the following grapes, Merlot, Cabinet Sauvignon, Cabinet Franc, Petit Verdot or Malbec. Merlot is the most planted and most often used, it’s said to give the wine a more rounded, softer attribute. Cabinet Sauvignon is the other major grape used, adding the structure to the wines through the use of its high levels of tannins. Rounding out the five red grapes are Cabinet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, each bring their own individual aspects to the wines although are generally used in much smaller proportions.

Although world famous for its red wines in recent years some of the Bordeaux whites are beginning to gather momentum amongst the wine critics. Bordeaux white wines will be made using one or more of the following four grapes; Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle and Ugni Blanc. Perhaps the most famous of these, and the ones held in the greatest esteem are the sweet wines from Sauternes-Barsac, these luscious, rich wines are made in the
unusual manner of allowing Botrytis cinerea, a form of fungus more commonly known as noble rot, to infect the grapes and remove the moisture, leaving only shriveled sweet grapes. Even without noble rot, the Sémillon grape, when blended with small amounts of Sauvignon Blanc, is capable of producing intoxicating, honey scented wines, none more so than those from the Graves area of the region.

In contrast to the nine main grapes of Bordeaux, Burgundy uses just two, and two are all it needs as the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from this region have remained among the most respected in the world. While Chardonnay has gone on to be grown with varying degrees of success throughout most countries of the wine growing world, Pinot Noir, a notoriously fickle grape at the best of times has never been able to find another country or region that can quite compliment it’s complexity. In the south, Beaujolais, technically part of Burgundy but very different in almost every way, use the light, fruity and non-tannic Gamay as their red grape of choice.

The largest and most famous Bordeaux region of them all is the Médoc, home to four of the five Premier Cru, The top appellations being Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac and St.-Estéphe, the Médoc region is situated from the north-west of the city of Bordeaux all the way along the banks of the Gironde almost until it reaches the ocean. Many still see the area as the heart of the red wine world. St-Émilion is located across on the right side of the bank, famous for its Merlot based softer wines than those primarily made from the harsher, more tannic, Cabinet Sauvignon from the left bank’s Médoc. The tiny Pomerol, just north of St-Émilion offers plumier, more rounded Merlot based wines than its southern counterpart. Graves, situated to the south east of the city of Bordeaux was once famous for producing the wines that the English called claret, nowadays although still dominated by the five major red grapes (see section 1.4) it also produces excellent whites made from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc, usually blended.

Chablis is Burgundy’s northern-most point, to truly be a wine from Chablis, or even for a wine to call itself a Chablis, it must be made within this tiny district and contain only the grape Chardonnay. However many wine makers, notably in the new world, will often call their wines Chablis in order to boost their sales, despite not meeting either requirement. True Chablis should be fresh, bright and have a good level of minerality. Moving south we enter the Côte d’Or, home to some of the world’s greatest Pinot Noirs, within this region Côte de Nuit in particular aided by steep slopes and grape yields kept incredibly low, can provide reds that will make you never want to drink a wine made from another variety in your life. Also within the Côte d’Or is Côte de Beaune, an area that again produces great Pinot Noir but is perhaps more famous for its Chardonnay which many proclaim as amongst the world’s greatest white wines. South of Côte d’Or is Mâconnais, once more an area well known from producing white wines made from Chardonnay, in particular the appellations of Saint-Véran, Pouilly-Fuissé and Mâcon-Villages. Finally at the very south of Burgundy as previously mentioned is Beaujolais, unlike any other red grape orientated area in Burgundy, Beaujolais uses the grape Gamay.

The main difference between Bordeaux and Burgundy with regards to growing mentality and procedures is the implementation of advanced technologies which Bordeaux seem to have embraced whilst Burgundy remain some what static. Despite being steeped in heritage and claiming the concept of terroir as the all important aspect of winemaking, Bordeaux winemakers are surprisingly quick to switch from traditional methods to using state-or-the-art equipment. Lots of research has been conducted into methods that have ensured advances in flavours and body textures for both white and red wines over the years, in addition recent years have seen the Bordelais begin to pick based on the concept of tannin ripeness over the traditional method of sugar ripeness and introducing the method of ‘reverse osmosis’ – a controversial method for altering the water levels to create denser bodied wines.

In Burgundy there are no such general assessments available, methods can change from vineyard to vineyard, from one area of a vineyard to another. Some winemakers insist on using new oak barrels, although others will refuse to, some will increase alcohol levels through the use of chaptalization while others will never entertain the notion. These decisions are very much up to the individual grower in Burgundy and due to this, the sorts of technological advancements seen in Bordeaux are still some way off.

The most prominent classification of Bordeaux wines that exists today is the 1855 classification of the Médoc, which was commissioned by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce in time for the Exposition Universelle in Paris later that year. Red wines from hundreds of châteaux were ranked in order of perceived quality ranging from Premier Cru (First Growth) down to Cinquième Cru (First Growth) with originally only four (now five) Châteaux named in the group with the highest quality, those were; Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux, Mouton-Rothschild, Latour and Haut-Brion (an exception actually from Graves). In addition, within the Médoc there are also the Cru Bourgeois, the collective name for around 200 châteaux that remain unclassified.
Graves then identified ten white and thirteen reds from châteaux from within its borders that it gave its own Cru Classé (classic growth) classification to, unique from that of the Médoc. More recently, across the river in St-Émilion a more systematic approach was constructed to deal with the wines, with a three-tier structure required to be reviewed every ten years, the tiers are named Premier Grand Cru Classé Group A, Premier Grand Cru Classé Group B and Premier Grand Cru Classé.

Burgundy at first appears less complicated with just Premier Cru and Grand Cru (Grand Cru being the superior of the two) however where this differs from the Bordelais mindset is that these classifications are given to the area of land that contains the vineyard. Unlike in Bordeaux, where each vineyard will belong to one château and it is the château that has been classified, Burgundy classifies only the land. So a vineyard area may have its own classification yet also have a number of different winemakers each creating their own wine within it to varying levels of success. What this means is that the consumer can buy two Grand Cru of the same vintage from the same vineyards operating under the same name and yet still end up with two totally different wines.

Of course the system in Bordeaux is far from perfect either, for should a château that is classified as a Deuxième Cru buy a vineyard from a château classified as Quantrième Cru then that vineyard will automatically take on the classification of the château that is purchasing it, despite the fact that the wine created in that vineyard is not of the standard of the wine created in the vineyard classified as Deuxième Cru quality.

Each method, whether in Bordeaux or Burgundy, has its merits but unfortunately each also contains fatal flaws that are unlikely to be dealt with anytime soon.

In Burgundy there are many growers often tending to tiny, scattered patches of vineyards throughout the region, many of these growers will either simply not have the yields nor money to bottle and distribute the wines made from their grapes themselves or perhaps for whatever reason they just don’t want to do it. In step the négociants. Négociants make their living from buying the wine from small growers, blending many together in quantities large enough to sell to the mass market and then do just that. In the past this has held back the quality level of many Burgundian wines but in recent years a combination of a decrease in these négociants and an increase in the passion and knowledge of those who survived recessions to still be standing have resulted in an improvement of quality and consistency particularly amongst the Burgundian Pinot Noir.

Bordeaux was also once rife with négociants, unlike Burgundy however these négociants were generally from other countries, namely the British Isles, this is because historically wine from Bordeaux has attracted more attention from foreign investors than from those within the French borders. The négociants would act as middlemen for the Bordeaux winemakers, taking on barrels of young wine and maturing them in their own cellars prior to shipping them to their final destinations. Over the years the rise of the châteaux system saw the négociants’ power diminish and with it their profits, most are now out of business or have mutated into a new breed of seller.

Images supplied by Mara Winston, taken during our trips to Bordeaux & Beaujolais, June – August ‘08

]]> http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/27/comparing-bordeaux-burgundy/feed/ 3 http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/23/setting-a-realistic-ppc-budget/ http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/23/setting-a-realistic-ppc-budget/#comments Sat, 23 May 2009 21:24:30 +0000 Gareth Jones http://www.iliadwebdev.com/?p=162





Every company is different, from employee size, to financial weight as a result there’s no right amount to be spent on PPC. The best way, in my view is to create what you interpret as a good business model for PPC, personally I tend to believe that this model includes multiple landing pages, set a budget that you can afford and then track and analyse everything, from clicks to specific conversions. Identifying your conversions beforehand and attaching a perceived value to them is very important as it’s from these conversions that you can identify whether you need to adjust your budget and if so, by how much. Ian Lurie, an Internet marketer from Seattle, outlines the following equation as a decent way of calculating how much you should be spending per click.

cost per click is less than:
conversion rate * total clicks * profit per conversion

In other words, the amount you spend per click should always be less than the total profit earned per click.

It’s not always likely that you will be able to tell exactly what your budget should be until you begin the testing phase, you may find that once you’ve implemented your new PPC strategy conversions soar and PPC spending must rise to further ensure that you further capitalize on this area. Alternatively, it may well transpire that despite all of the assessing and consequential tweaking of budgets and landing pages possible, you are not able to justify a particularly high level of financial budget. Either way however your company stands to benefit, either you spend more on PPC and see an increases in ROI or you spend less and see no detrimental activity with regards to your profits.

As I’ve just touched on it’s also extremely important to note that you would not only be tweaking the spending amounts but tweaking the landing pages continuously also, little things such as the right words used in headlines or in the first sentence can dramatically improve or decrease your conversion rates. So you must be prepared to analyse every minor detail on these landing pages, make regular changes aimed at improving their conversion rates, and then document what has worked and what hasn’t. Then go through the whole process again, in a never-ending search for perfection.

]]> http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/23/setting-a-realistic-ppc-budget/feed/ 2 http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/18/top-10-seo-tips/ http://www.iliadwebdev.com/2009/05/18/top-10-seo-tips/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 18:14:37 +0000 Gareth Jones http://www.iliadwebdev.com/?p=156





Here is a list of 10 of the most important aspects of search engine optimization

• 1. Competitor Analysis – what are your online competitors doing right online, what are they doing wrong? Can you see elements that you may wish to include on your site?
• 2. Create a simple structure – Well designed websites are not only beneficial to your visitors, they’re beneficial to the search engines too, the easier the site is to navigate around, the easier the search engine bots can index it in search of new content or links. Make sure when you are wire framing the site that you include contingency plans for new pages that may be added further down the line.
• 3. Keyword Analysis – This cannot be overstated enough, before starting work on the content of your site it’s worth spending some serious time researching what keyword phrases your perspective visitors are using when searching for your product. You may think you know how people are searching but it’s worth using some of the free tools that the internet has to offer to ensure that both you and your visitors are on the same wavelength. My favourite is the free Keyword Suggestion tool from SEOBook, not only will it show you how many people search for any particular keyword phrase on all the major search engines each day but it’ll also suggest other similar search terms that you may wish to target.
• 4. Keyword Density – You now got to take that keyword research and implement it throughout your site, in days gone by there was almost a stone cold equation for how often you should use the same keyword phrases throughout a site with overdoing it and being labeled spam, alas those days have passed. Now we must rely more on common sense. Most will agree that using a chosen keyword phrase more than 3 times in body copy of around 250 words is entering a dangerous area.
  You must always try to remember however, that whatever you do and whatever you write must make sense to human beings.
• 5. Header tags from h1 to h6 these are the code used for creating headers on your page, I wont go into detail about them but I will say this, they serve two excellent purposes, 1. Search engines view the copy as higher importance than normal text and 2. They’re people friendly, so include your keywords in your headers, that way they’ll rank better and people scanning for information on your pages will be able to find it fast and efficiently.
• 6. Page title – similar to the reasons above, your page title is the line of copy that appears at the top of your browser’s window, search engines treat it as very important and so should you, it acts as a great indicator for what is on your page so use it wisely. Another factor is that search engines will use it as the title for your page in its results, if it’s not people friendly, then its not getting as many clicks as it could be.
• 7. Meta Keywords, Description & Image Alt tags – The meta description can be found in the page head, search engines often use it as the description of your page under the page title in their results, so much like the page title it should make for easy reading for humans. To balance that you should also wish to try to include a keyword phrase or two within the 120 odd characters as the search engines will deem your description as a good indicator of how relevant you are to your chosen keywords.
  Meta keywords certainly don’t hold as much clout as they used to in the past, as a result many SEO’s no longer use them, I don however, mainly due to a ‘what harm can it do?’ philosophy. If you wish to include a set of keywords in the meta tags of your page head, try to ensure that each page’s lists are unique.
  Search Engines can’t see your images so its up you to tell them what those images are, including alt tags with every image does not just make SEO sense but is also just plain valid coding.
• 8. Links – Links are, contrary to many people’s opinions, still very relevant in today’s search world, think of each incoming link as a vote, if you have 500 incoming links from relevant sites all with anchor text saying “beautiful bunny rabbits’ or something similar, then the search engines will understandably decide that your peers have made it clear that your site is both important and relevant to those keywords and as a results you should start to see your rankings climbing. Be careful when collecting links, try to make sure that they are relevant to your industry and that they are above board websites, being affiliated with a website that is seen in the search engines eyes as unsavoury can have damaging affects on your site.
• 9. Analytics – In this day of google giving us everything for free there is no longer any reason why everyone shouldn’t be tracking their statistics. Analytics can tell you which pages are more successful with your visitors than others, they can give you insights into how your visitor’s brain is working and how they are navigating through your site. If you can get inside the mind of your visitors then you may be able to see issues and make corrections that you would never have thought about otherwise.
• 10. You must understand that SEO isn’t a job that just finishes after 6 months and you can sit back and put your feet up. An SEO’s job is never done, there are always improvements to be made, statistics to be analysed, tweaks here, there and everywhere. People evolve, visitors trends change and as they do you must be prepared to change with them, or your competition will.
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