Hot Topics

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Easy access is necessary in order for Google, Yahoo!, and MSN search engine spiders to rank a site. When planning a website or overhauling an existing one there are a number of elements to consider to allow for spidering and site optimization:

Flash vs HTML — having an all-Flash site can render it unspiderable

Content — building a content-rich site is an important aspect in site optimization

Using clean code — a site containing extraneous code can be a problem for search engine spiders causing them to skip pages or exit the site

Tables vs CSS — using CSS instead of tables for controlling HTML layout adheres to current W3C standards; benefits include lower page weight, faster load times, cleaner code and greater accessibility for people with disabilities

Programming — consider advantages of site building methods – from hand-coding to using graphical web development tools such as Dreamweaver

Research competitor keywords — choice of keywords can be crucial re SERP’s (search engine results pages)

Keep links up to date — ensure reciprocal links and internal site links are up to date

Stay out of ‘bad neigborhoods’ — ‘link farms’ and links to sites banned by search engines are considered bad neighborhoods and can result in a bad ranking by association

Adhering to conventions — adhere to the accepted conventions of web page structure and hierarchy of tags, ranging from header 1’s, to alt and title tags

Create clean and readable url’s — dynamically generated database content creates dynamic url’s containing characters such as ‘?’ and ‘&’. These url's should be converted into readable static versions, so that search engines don't bypass the pages

Verify that search engines know you exist — check to see that the site has been crawled extensively by the top search engines. Using Google as an example, in the search field type site:www.yourcompanyname.com and the results will show which pages have been indexed. If there are pages missing submit a sitemap

Avoid tricks such as hidden text or doorway pages — certain tactics can result in being penalized or de-listed by search engines, yet some seo's (known as ‘black hats’) still employ these tricks. Check that your site is gimmick-free

Verify that your website is well built — use Google Webmaster tools to help you in the building of your website. Once it is near completion ensure that the site validates to W3C validation standards

Sitemap — create a comprehensive sitemap

The Google Webmaster Help section suggests increasing the number of high-quality sites linking to your pages as being the best way to improve a ranking. If a site is relevant and well-built this should not be difficult as other sites will benefit from linking to yours.

As the user is ultimately the important link in the search equation it is to the benefit of search engines to provide good quality results. Algorithms determine the rank of importance of site content and compare it to what the web user is searching for. If this is kept in mind when building the site the tendency will be towards optimization. If a company has a good product and the website has good content, is properly structured, well maintained and adheres to accepted web standards, then the result should be a high rank by virtue of the content contained in the site itself.

 

2. How to beat spammers

Spammers use many methods to harvest email addresses, eg; usenet posts, staff directories, blogs and WHOIS systems. Apart from being an annoyance, it is also taxing to internet service providers (ISP’s) and a host of other associated resources. Each of us ends up paying more money for using these same resources and it comes at an added cost of reduced efficiency to the system.

Even though most email users are savvy enough to not take the bait, spam still exists because spammers make money not on ‘sell-through’ but on delivering to a pre-specified number of known email addresses. When the recipient clicks on the spam ‘opt-out’ hyper link it has just been verified to be a real email. This is one way lists of addresses are built for delivery to a guaranteed number of verifiable addresses. These lists are then also sold to other spammers.

There is a new spamming tactic that although looks innocent enough, is setting up the user to receive even more malicious spam. Emails containing large blocks of text, sometimes excerpted from classic literature to appear less like traditional spam, are getting through filters and are in effect being used to un-train the filters.

Most of us know not to open email or attachments from unknown addresses, and firewalls will also stop a good percentage of spam as will anti-spam software, but as technology becomes more sophisticated, so do spammer tactics. Some tips that will prove to be helpful; a user can easily determine whether their email address is posted on the net by doing an online search. If you see your address online, an autonomous ‘botnet’ used for harvesting names, can also see it, and will add it to spammer lists. The first step in reducing spam, is ensuring that your email is not posted online.

If a company wants to include email addresses on their site there are a number of safe ways of doing so. One option is to upload a graphic instead of an email link:

The downside is lack of convenience as the user has to manually type the address.

Another method is to post an online form like the one on our Contact Us page and eliminate the email address altogether. Alternatives include setting up a combination of a form with the graphic of the address so that the user knows that the form he is submitting is legitimate. Our preference is to use a mail-in form in combination with a 'No Spam JavaScript' function that creates an email link only when the web page is viewed.

Another method is to post an email address indicating that the ‘@’ sign needs to be typed manually e.g. john(at)anycompany.com. The user should be intuitively aware that this is required so no explanation is necessary.

Re-formatting addresses also works but requires the user to alter the text i.e. john @ any company.com. (The spaces cause the automated harvesting scripts to bypass the address.)

There is no simple solution as spammers find ways to beat even the most clever ploys, however staying on top of current anti-spam techniques will help until regulators figure out how to put a stop to it altogether.