I noticed whilst linking in to previous posts in my earlier post that there has been a page rank update overnight. So far the only changes I've noticed are that sites and pages published on or before the 15 February are now appearing with Page Rank 0.
All but one site that I've checked have remained the same - only my Mortgage Rates Site seems to have changed page rank, and that's recovered 1 page rank, back up to Page Rank 3.
Right direction, still to slow and still on pages 5 - 7 of the results! Will examine this more and feedback over the next few days...
Friday 29 February 2008
Steal Some Content
Here's one that I had discovered had happened only last night - although it's not the first time it's happened.
Similar to stealing images from other websites is stealing text from sites. The problem is with this one, you only discover it when the customer complains they aren't listed at the top of Google.
Now why would that be? Well it's because copied text is duplicate content, which search engines will typically ignore.
The site in question is only a 1 page site. Would it really have been that hard to generate text of their own? Maybe, it's a problem that customers don't realise exists, but does that mean we are supposed to check every block of text against being duplicated elsewhere? Should we as webdesigners have a list of do's & don'ts that we give to every customer? Seems like telling some customers their own business at times. Not really what we want to be doing, but how can we get the message across?
Similar to stealing images from other websites is stealing text from sites. The problem is with this one, you only discover it when the customer complains they aren't listed at the top of Google.
Now why would that be? Well it's because copied text is duplicate content, which search engines will typically ignore.
The site in question is only a 1 page site. Would it really have been that hard to generate text of their own? Maybe, it's a problem that customers don't realise exists, but does that mean we are supposed to check every block of text against being duplicated elsewhere? Should we as webdesigners have a list of do's & don'ts that we give to every customer? Seems like telling some customers their own business at times. Not really what we want to be doing, but how can we get the message across?
Thursday 28 February 2008
The Site Is Rubbish!
One of the easiest ways to upset us must be to tell us you don't like our work - right?
Wrong!
Every piece of work is aimed at the customer and the customer's customers. Drafts are sometimes built to test what the customer likes and more importantly dislikes. So telling us our work isn't to your taste doesn't hurt, but telling us it's cheap, your nephew could have done better for £50 etc can hurt. But here's what actually hurts.
Customer - "I don't like the site."
Webdesigner - "Why, is there anything you do like, what don't you like about it."
Customer - "I just don't like the site."
Webdesigner - "Is it the colours, the graphics, the fonts, the text size, the layout."
Customer - "I just don't like the site."
Webdesigner - "Do you like the pictures I've used?"
Customer - "I just don't like the site."
You get the idea. It's fine that you don't like it. To be honest, I've built sites that I don't like, but the customer absolutely loves. They've started off as sites I like, but ended up as sites I don't want on the portfolio - they are embarassing! Was tempted to link to one, but I won't!
But at least these customers have taken the draft and told us how they wanted it changed to get it to a site they like. If you just say 'I don't like it.', then we have no idea where to go from there.
If you don't like the draft, that's not a problem. If you didn't like an architect's draft, would you just say 'I don't like it' or would you tell him you want an extra bathroom; you want the ensuite with a window etc? Tell us what you are thinking. Tell us what you like and we'll all be happier!
Wrong!
Every piece of work is aimed at the customer and the customer's customers. Drafts are sometimes built to test what the customer likes and more importantly dislikes. So telling us our work isn't to your taste doesn't hurt, but telling us it's cheap, your nephew could have done better for £50 etc can hurt. But here's what actually hurts.
Customer - "I don't like the site."
Webdesigner - "Why, is there anything you do like, what don't you like about it."
Customer - "I just don't like the site."
Webdesigner - "Is it the colours, the graphics, the fonts, the text size, the layout."
Customer - "I just don't like the site."
Webdesigner - "Do you like the pictures I've used?"
Customer - "I just don't like the site."
You get the idea. It's fine that you don't like it. To be honest, I've built sites that I don't like, but the customer absolutely loves. They've started off as sites I like, but ended up as sites I don't want on the portfolio - they are embarassing! Was tempted to link to one, but I won't!
But at least these customers have taken the draft and told us how they wanted it changed to get it to a site they like. If you just say 'I don't like it.', then we have no idea where to go from there.
If you don't like the draft, that's not a problem. If you didn't like an architect's draft, would you just say 'I don't like it' or would you tell him you want an extra bathroom; you want the ensuite with a window etc? Tell us what you are thinking. Tell us what you like and we'll all be happier!
Wednesday 27 February 2008
Squash The Picture
What I forgot to mention when I talked about resizing images was the complete and utter confusion that is caused in the shape of pictures.
I though it was quite easy. If the picture space is shaped like a letterbox, you need a picture that is longer than it's heght.
If the picture looks like a lamppost, then you need a picture that is taller than it is wide.
Simple - right?
Wrong!
I don't get it - how difficult this actually is. For one guy he wanted a banner across the top of every page on the site - lots of different banners. The space we came down to was eventually around 700 pixels across, 150 pixels deep. Very obviously landscape format - and stretched at that! So he spent the next few weeks sending me portrait pictures to use. Amazing realy - he was actually sending pictures of landscapes in portrait format.
Another customer wanted the screen filling with a backdrop picture. Again, a screen is landscape format but he also kept sending portrait pictures and complaining that the tops / bottoms were missed. His solution was for me to squeeze the picture into the right shape:
"Can't you just squash the picture a little - you are a web designer!"
"Yes - here's the result."
"Why do they look so short and fat?!" - not good for a fashion site.
The big problem here is that if I have to allow a couple of days to keep bouncing pictures about on a small site, that would otherwise take me less than a day to put together, then the price is going up vastly more than necessary.
So look at the space available, see how wide and tall it is, and look at the picture you are providing.
I though it was quite easy. If the picture space is shaped like a letterbox, you need a picture that is longer than it's heght.
If the picture looks like a lamppost, then you need a picture that is taller than it is wide.
Simple - right?
Wrong!
I don't get it - how difficult this actually is. For one guy he wanted a banner across the top of every page on the site - lots of different banners. The space we came down to was eventually around 700 pixels across, 150 pixels deep. Very obviously landscape format - and stretched at that! So he spent the next few weeks sending me portrait pictures to use. Amazing realy - he was actually sending pictures of landscapes in portrait format.
Another customer wanted the screen filling with a backdrop picture. Again, a screen is landscape format but he also kept sending portrait pictures and complaining that the tops / bottoms were missed. His solution was for me to squeeze the picture into the right shape:
"Can't you just squash the picture a little - you are a web designer!"
"Yes - here's the result."
"Why do they look so short and fat?!" - not good for a fashion site.
The big problem here is that if I have to allow a couple of days to keep bouncing pictures about on a small site, that would otherwise take me less than a day to put together, then the price is going up vastly more than necessary.
So look at the space available, see how wide and tall it is, and look at the picture you are providing.
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Build My Site For Free - It's Good For You
Going along with people wanting the site on a profit share basis, there's also the people that are hoping for a cheap site in return for a good name, or thier contacts.
"You're name will be associated with my site and that's good advertising" - is a popular one. But as I said yesterday, most people asking for a site on the cheap are also not expecting to invest in marketing.
So if you aren't marketing the site, then people aren't seeing it, and your promise is worth, well as much as you are wanting to pay for the site... But then you are expecting loads of visitors because my skills are so great you'll be number 1 for every keyword on the planet?
Fine, but when it's a new idea, people aren't searching for it, so there's no point being number one. If you are a mortgage site then yes, there will be lots of suitable traffic. But if you have invented a new widget, then how do people know to look at you?
Then there's the people promising lots of contacts will have sites after them - lots of people who also want them on the cheap? One of my very first potential customers offered this but was good enough to admit that his friends would also want cheap sites. But he was also dealig with adult sites - so nothing came of the site.
On the whole, those who promise loads of referrals in return for a low budget site bring next to nothing. Those that just get on with the site, have a good marketing plan and are successful are those that bring the referals back in.
If a customer thinks they can bring plenty of referals them I'm always happy to talk about commission rates, but that's based on what they have done, not what they might do.
"You're name will be associated with my site and that's good advertising" - is a popular one. But as I said yesterday, most people asking for a site on the cheap are also not expecting to invest in marketing.
So if you aren't marketing the site, then people aren't seeing it, and your promise is worth, well as much as you are wanting to pay for the site... But then you are expecting loads of visitors because my skills are so great you'll be number 1 for every keyword on the planet?
Fine, but when it's a new idea, people aren't searching for it, so there's no point being number one. If you are a mortgage site then yes, there will be lots of suitable traffic. But if you have invented a new widget, then how do people know to look at you?
Then there's the people promising lots of contacts will have sites after them - lots of people who also want them on the cheap? One of my very first potential customers offered this but was good enough to admit that his friends would also want cheap sites. But he was also dealig with adult sites - so nothing came of the site.
On the whole, those who promise loads of referrals in return for a low budget site bring next to nothing. Those that just get on with the site, have a good marketing plan and are successful are those that bring the referals back in.
If a customer thinks they can bring plenty of referals them I'm always happy to talk about commission rates, but that's based on what they have done, not what they might do.
Monday 25 February 2008
I Build Sites For Free - Not!
After people wanting Ebay for £50 and stealing images from other websites, there's the wonderful nephew's who can build a website for £50 and those that expect to be top of Google within a week. What's next?
Well put it all together, and you've got the people who arrive with massive ideas and no money at all, expecting you to take a share of the income from the website. I've never advertised as a budding money lender wanting to invest in people's ideas, so why assume I'll start now?
Yes, I have built sites without a fee and in return for a share in the profit, sites such as CompareMortgageRates and Holiday Cottages. But what is different about these is that I've decided to build them, then I've gone out, found someone who can pay for the business generated and I am in full control of the site. If I decide to send the leads elsewhere, then that's my decision and their loss. They have no say in the matter.
People asking for me to partner them on a profit basis don't have any cash to put into the website and aren't giving me the reassurance they have a good idea and know what they are doing. If they had the right marketing ideas, they would be able to put together a business plan and sell the idea to a reputable bank. They would then be able to arrange some decent business finance, possibly coming to me before they seek finance so that they can show a draft of the website to their future lender.
The problem is with a lot of these ideas, the entire risk of the venture is being shoved over to the web designer. The website owner gets the site built, registered in their name and then complains that their great idea isn't working because of the lack of skill on the part of the webdesigner.
But any great idea has to be accompanied by an equally great way of marketing that idea. Friends Reunited, Ebay, UTube, Facebook and the likes all started off as that great idea, but with an even greater marketing idea behind them. They have quickly got known in the real world as a website that's fun to use and people talk about the sites.
Come to me with your great website ideas by all means. But make sure that you have the cash to pay for it and a great marketing idea to back it up. Speculative sites built in the hope of a small income in future years if the customer bothers to market the website harm us more than they do us good. They may be fine for webdesigners starting out without a portfolio, but when you can barely handle the work on your books, there's no point in them.
If you aren't willing to invest any of your own cash in the idea, but expect me to produce a site for you, it shows a lack of ownership of the idea. Put some thought into the site then come back.
Well put it all together, and you've got the people who arrive with massive ideas and no money at all, expecting you to take a share of the income from the website. I've never advertised as a budding money lender wanting to invest in people's ideas, so why assume I'll start now?
Yes, I have built sites without a fee and in return for a share in the profit, sites such as CompareMortgageRates and Holiday Cottages. But what is different about these is that I've decided to build them, then I've gone out, found someone who can pay for the business generated and I am in full control of the site. If I decide to send the leads elsewhere, then that's my decision and their loss. They have no say in the matter.
People asking for me to partner them on a profit basis don't have any cash to put into the website and aren't giving me the reassurance they have a good idea and know what they are doing. If they had the right marketing ideas, they would be able to put together a business plan and sell the idea to a reputable bank. They would then be able to arrange some decent business finance, possibly coming to me before they seek finance so that they can show a draft of the website to their future lender.
The problem is with a lot of these ideas, the entire risk of the venture is being shoved over to the web designer. The website owner gets the site built, registered in their name and then complains that their great idea isn't working because of the lack of skill on the part of the webdesigner.
But any great idea has to be accompanied by an equally great way of marketing that idea. Friends Reunited, Ebay, UTube, Facebook and the likes all started off as that great idea, but with an even greater marketing idea behind them. They have quickly got known in the real world as a website that's fun to use and people talk about the sites.
Come to me with your great website ideas by all means. But make sure that you have the cash to pay for it and a great marketing idea to back it up. Speculative sites built in the hope of a small income in future years if the customer bothers to market the website harm us more than they do us good. They may be fine for webdesigners starting out without a portfolio, but when you can barely handle the work on your books, there's no point in them.
If you aren't willing to invest any of your own cash in the idea, but expect me to produce a site for you, it shows a lack of ownership of the idea. Put some thought into the site then come back.
Sunday 24 February 2008
Mix 'N Match
It's interesting to see what businesses some customers run together. Quite often they are complimentary, or there's a clear progression from first to second business. Other times, you just wonder how they have stubmled upon the businesses.
Take Jon, he extended his golf to include logo golf balls and other printed golf equipment. That then extended to a full catalogue of printed promotional gifts. So golf gear and printed pens might at first glance not appear connected, but it's easy to see how they went from one to another.
Likewise, I've previously Traceys's dog walking and dog breeding sites. Very clear how they can be connected.
But this is the one that puzzles me. A customer that was starting 2 new businesses at the same time. The first, a print and design business, the second a bouncy castle business. How do you manage to start up 2 such different businesses at the same time? It's an interesting combination, I suppose it really is not keeping your eggs in one basket! Good luck to them, and all our other customers!
Take Jon, he extended his golf to include logo golf balls and other printed golf equipment. That then extended to a full catalogue of printed promotional gifts. So golf gear and printed pens might at first glance not appear connected, but it's easy to see how they went from one to another.
Likewise, I've previously Traceys's dog walking and dog breeding sites. Very clear how they can be connected.
But this is the one that puzzles me. A customer that was starting 2 new businesses at the same time. The first, a print and design business, the second a bouncy castle business. How do you manage to start up 2 such different businesses at the same time? It's an interesting combination, I suppose it really is not keeping your eggs in one basket! Good luck to them, and all our other customers!
Saturday 23 February 2008
Seo Experiment - February
Time to take a break from what was supposed to be a light hearted look at customers - back to the ongoing SEO experiment to document what's happened there since January.
Site 1 (31 posts) - 17 pages cached: home page 36 days. January archive not listed, but others all cached 22 days ago. The posts were cached 20, 6 X 21, 22, 38, 39 and 40 days ago. Quite interesting that it's not been cached at all recently. Average over 25.5 days.
Site 2 (32 posts) - 33 pages cached: home page 12 days ago. All archives are cached: 2 X 6, 16, 18 and 22 days ago. Posts (this gets harder every time... 4, 7 X 6, 5 X 8, 9, 10, 11, 2 X 12, 13, 15, 17, 21, 22 and 2 X 24. Avergage under 11.5 days.
Site 3 (32 posts) - 30 pages cached: home page 9 days ago. All archive pages cached: 11, 15 and 3 X 22 days ago. Posts: 2 X 3, 5, 6, 8, 2 X 9, 2 X 11, 12, 4 X 15, 2 X 16, 20, 2 X 21, 2 X 22 and 24 days. Average under 14.5 days.
I also put Google adsense in this month, and the traffic volumes can be seen from that. Site 1 has had hardly any clicks - probably just be viewing the positons of the adds. Site 2 has hard marginly more than site 3. This could be as much about the randomly selected content as the popularity. But with the large increase in posts this month, this random distribution of articles should be evened out.
Looking at how the sites are archived and the slightly higher traffic rate to site 2 and the distribution of page ranks across the 3 sites, site 2 is still winning on all 3 counts.
Also looking at the duplicate content filter. I've just searched on a string from an article that was published to all 3 blogs at the same time, earlier this month. You only need to look at the results above to know it's not going to be in site 1's cache, but the duplicate article is in the other 2 sites' caches. Neither comes up in main results, but do appear in the supplementary results. Interestingly, the article was new and then distributed to an article directory. It's the article directory that does appear in the listings - probably I listed it too quickly there.
Site 1 (31 posts) - 17 pages cached: home page 36 days. January archive not listed, but others all cached 22 days ago. The posts were cached 20, 6 X 21, 22, 38, 39 and 40 days ago. Quite interesting that it's not been cached at all recently. Average over 25.5 days.
Site 2 (32 posts) - 33 pages cached: home page 12 days ago. All archives are cached: 2 X 6, 16, 18 and 22 days ago. Posts (this gets harder every time... 4, 7 X 6, 5 X 8, 9, 10, 11, 2 X 12, 13, 15, 17, 21, 22 and 2 X 24. Avergage under 11.5 days.
Site 3 (32 posts) - 30 pages cached: home page 9 days ago. All archive pages cached: 11, 15 and 3 X 22 days ago. Posts: 2 X 3, 5, 6, 8, 2 X 9, 2 X 11, 12, 4 X 15, 2 X 16, 20, 2 X 21, 2 X 22 and 24 days. Average under 14.5 days.
I also put Google adsense in this month, and the traffic volumes can be seen from that. Site 1 has had hardly any clicks - probably just be viewing the positons of the adds. Site 2 has hard marginly more than site 3. This could be as much about the randomly selected content as the popularity. But with the large increase in posts this month, this random distribution of articles should be evened out.
Looking at how the sites are archived and the slightly higher traffic rate to site 2 and the distribution of page ranks across the 3 sites, site 2 is still winning on all 3 counts.
Also looking at the duplicate content filter. I've just searched on a string from an article that was published to all 3 blogs at the same time, earlier this month. You only need to look at the results above to know it's not going to be in site 1's cache, but the duplicate article is in the other 2 sites' caches. Neither comes up in main results, but do appear in the supplementary results. Interestingly, the article was new and then distributed to an article directory. It's the article directory that does appear in the listings - probably I listed it too quickly there.
Friday 22 February 2008
Can I Have A Copy Of Ebay, For £50?
This is a favourite one and one that I mention to many customers to focus them on their website marketing. I also mentioned it in one of my early posts.
Quite simply, a customer gets in contact and wants 'a copy of Ebay for £50, please'. I don't know whether these people think copying a website is like copying a CD - done in seconds, quite easily, but creating a website that is a copy of Ebay would take either buying a template of such an auction site, or creating it from scratch.
And why always for £50? These are obviously people desperate to throw a small amount of cash into a venture and turn out a huge profit. But, as I said recently, if making huge sums of cash from such small, easy to publish, websites was possible, wouldn't webdesigners be doing that themsleves, rather than working for customers?
These small ideas are great, and many will work. Think of ideas like Friends Reunited, Facebook etc. All easy to do, all simple ideas. But there one big thing missing in quite a lot of cases. The marketing. I could put together a site like Facebook quite easily, but the problem is always spending the time and effort getting the site known. That's the big point. And it's likely that if you are cloning a major site for a pittance that you haven't got the cash to market it properly. And if that sort of person contacts me, I prefer to try to persuade them to think of a more suitable idea rather than take their cash for something I doubt will work.
There are many copies of Ebay out there, but there's only 1 Ebay. Think of a new idea, contact a web designer and get your thinking hat on to make sure that plenty of people hear about your site!
Quite simply, a customer gets in contact and wants 'a copy of Ebay for £50, please'. I don't know whether these people think copying a website is like copying a CD - done in seconds, quite easily, but creating a website that is a copy of Ebay would take either buying a template of such an auction site, or creating it from scratch.
And why always for £50? These are obviously people desperate to throw a small amount of cash into a venture and turn out a huge profit. But, as I said recently, if making huge sums of cash from such small, easy to publish, websites was possible, wouldn't webdesigners be doing that themsleves, rather than working for customers?
These small ideas are great, and many will work. Think of ideas like Friends Reunited, Facebook etc. All easy to do, all simple ideas. But there one big thing missing in quite a lot of cases. The marketing. I could put together a site like Facebook quite easily, but the problem is always spending the time and effort getting the site known. That's the big point. And it's likely that if you are cloning a major site for a pittance that you haven't got the cash to market it properly. And if that sort of person contacts me, I prefer to try to persuade them to think of a more suitable idea rather than take their cash for something I doubt will work.
There are many copies of Ebay out there, but there's only 1 Ebay. Think of a new idea, contact a web designer and get your thinking hat on to make sure that plenty of people hear about your site!
Thursday 21 February 2008
Stealing Images
The next one, that follows on from yesterday's expanding thumbnail images, is trawling through Google images and the likes and providing these images.
I did mention about 2 weeks ago the steps a customer is taking to prevent people copying his images, and it's well worth including these steps. Since writing that I've read about people that block the google images bot from their websites, or block all bots from their images folder.
What most customers don't seem to understand (some are harder to get through to than others) is that it simply is not allowed for them to provide a few images taken from other people's sites (one person did have the honesty to pass me the google images link!). If someone has gone to the effort of producing artwork or taking pictures, then they want to use it for themselves and don't want every other competing site copying their images and using them for free.
It's called copyright law! I wouldn't like my hard work being stolen by someone (although it is flattering). If you see an image on a website that you want to use, ask the owner. A bit of flattery and an offer to link back to their site and they might just say yes.
The only step worse is when the designer doesn't even bother to copy the file for themselves and "sponges" from the site the picture is on. I found someone doing that with a small file on one of my sites. It was only 200 pixels across, but they had linked directly to the file. I was alerted to this my someone else who had suffered the same - the offender was a serial offender...
Rather than write to the guilty party I had a bit of fun. I changed the file name on my site and used that in the code instead. Then I created a huge 1000 pixel wide by the same tall image announcing that anyone reading this image was seeing a stolen image and that the site was attempting to steal my bandwith.
Not surprisingly, later that day the person had got a copy of the image for themselves - hopefully having learnt their lesson.
I did mention about 2 weeks ago the steps a customer is taking to prevent people copying his images, and it's well worth including these steps. Since writing that I've read about people that block the google images bot from their websites, or block all bots from their images folder.
What most customers don't seem to understand (some are harder to get through to than others) is that it simply is not allowed for them to provide a few images taken from other people's sites (one person did have the honesty to pass me the google images link!). If someone has gone to the effort of producing artwork or taking pictures, then they want to use it for themselves and don't want every other competing site copying their images and using them for free.
It's called copyright law! I wouldn't like my hard work being stolen by someone (although it is flattering). If you see an image on a website that you want to use, ask the owner. A bit of flattery and an offer to link back to their site and they might just say yes.
The only step worse is when the designer doesn't even bother to copy the file for themselves and "sponges" from the site the picture is on. I found someone doing that with a small file on one of my sites. It was only 200 pixels across, but they had linked directly to the file. I was alerted to this my someone else who had suffered the same - the offender was a serial offender...
Rather than write to the guilty party I had a bit of fun. I changed the file name on my site and used that in the code instead. Then I created a huge 1000 pixel wide by the same tall image announcing that anyone reading this image was seeing a stolen image and that the site was attempting to steal my bandwith.
Not surprisingly, later that day the person had got a copy of the image for themselves - hopefully having learnt their lesson.
Wednesday 20 February 2008
Tiny Images
Continuing my look at the trials and tribulations we as web designers all experience - on a weekly basis!
After Nephew's building sites for £50 and Sites not appearing on Google instantly, the next one to look at must be images. This will probably continue over to tomorrow!
The next thing that's often done is providing usuitable images. I don't mean adult (!!!) - just not suitable for their purpose. Recently I was passed an image, about 150 by 100 pixels, and asked to use it to fill the entire screen - as seen by my customer on his wide screen monitor. Now that's never going to work and when you tell the customer the reply is 'Well you're a web designer, can't you just improve the photograph?'.
If it's a photo they have rights to (more about that tomorrow...) then it should easily be possible to provide more than a tiny thumbnail. But the thing is, when a replacement comes, it's the same size and again I'm asked to improve it. But how can I take a tiny photograph and make it look good 1000 pixels or more across? Maybe if I had a team of fantastic graphic designers behind me and was charging a suitable amount, but when I'm getting an average of a few hundred per site, ther just isn't the time and money to invest in fancy software to sort these pictures out - if it exists.
I blame the TV. How often do you watch these spy programs and they take a tiny image with an unrecognisable blob of a face and blow it up to a massive size and make it clearly recognisable? People assume this technology is genuinely there and available for everyone? But if there's only 150 pixels across in the photograph you provide for me, then I'm not going to be able to do much with the resolution.
These were intended to be light hearted - thinkl they are turning into a moaning session! Will have to watch out.
After Nephew's building sites for £50 and Sites not appearing on Google instantly, the next one to look at must be images. This will probably continue over to tomorrow!
The next thing that's often done is providing usuitable images. I don't mean adult (!!!) - just not suitable for their purpose. Recently I was passed an image, about 150 by 100 pixels, and asked to use it to fill the entire screen - as seen by my customer on his wide screen monitor. Now that's never going to work and when you tell the customer the reply is 'Well you're a web designer, can't you just improve the photograph?'.
If it's a photo they have rights to (more about that tomorrow...) then it should easily be possible to provide more than a tiny thumbnail. But the thing is, when a replacement comes, it's the same size and again I'm asked to improve it. But how can I take a tiny photograph and make it look good 1000 pixels or more across? Maybe if I had a team of fantastic graphic designers behind me and was charging a suitable amount, but when I'm getting an average of a few hundred per site, ther just isn't the time and money to invest in fancy software to sort these pictures out - if it exists.
I blame the TV. How often do you watch these spy programs and they take a tiny image with an unrecognisable blob of a face and blow it up to a massive size and make it clearly recognisable? People assume this technology is genuinely there and available for everyone? But if there's only 150 pixels across in the photograph you provide for me, then I'm not going to be able to do much with the resolution.
These were intended to be light hearted - thinkl they are turning into a moaning session! Will have to watch out.
Tuesday 19 February 2008
Why Am I Not Top Of Google?
After "My Nephew can do it for £50", the next one must be "I'm not appearing on the first page of Google for video services Liverpool" etc.
With the customer in question (it happens all the time, I'm just picking on the most recent...) they had only had the site live for a week, so appearing first (which they were doing) for one of their terms was an achievement.
So why not "video services Livepool". Well, all my customers that come directly to me I ask what their ideas are for searches and will work the site around them. In this case, the customer hadn't come directly. But they had provided text to load up, and there wasn't room to change it. And although I have produced a really beautiful site for them - loads of stock photos - the text does not once mention the word 'Liverpool'. There was never any inclination that they wanted to be found for searches involving 'Liverpool' and therefore, it's very unlikely to happen.
What's the answer - be flexible with your text and tell us from the outset what searches you want to be found on. If you want to be found in a wider area than your local area, tell us, but allow your web designer to play with the text a little to sort this out.
With the customer in question (it happens all the time, I'm just picking on the most recent...) they had only had the site live for a week, so appearing first (which they were doing) for one of their terms was an achievement.
So why not "video services Livepool". Well, all my customers that come directly to me I ask what their ideas are for searches and will work the site around them. In this case, the customer hadn't come directly. But they had provided text to load up, and there wasn't room to change it. And although I have produced a really beautiful site for them - loads of stock photos - the text does not once mention the word 'Liverpool'. There was never any inclination that they wanted to be found for searches involving 'Liverpool' and therefore, it's very unlikely to happen.
What's the answer - be flexible with your text and tell us from the outset what searches you want to be found on. If you want to be found in a wider area than your local area, tell us, but allow your web designer to play with the text a little to sort this out.
Monday 18 February 2008
My Nephew Can Do It For £50
Web design is far too serious at time - this blog certainly is! So a light hearted break (I've just been on holiday, this refreshed mood might have gone within the hour...) with a look at what I and other web designers have to put up with.
First 'My nephew says he can do the website for £50'. Why is it always a nephew, and why always £50? This is the wrong attitude, but one often taken - and later regretted.
Your nephew could probably take you to the airport and back for cheaper than a local taxi, but when the trips become more frequent and waiting in the car park at 2:00am on a Saturday night means he's missing his evenings out, is he still going to be as keen?
He could probably also do your accounts for you for £50 - would you trust him to get them right?
Yes, friends and family might know the basics, but do they understand optimisation and how to get listed in Google by this time next week (not 6 - 8 weeks as most will say). When there are endless changes are they going to be happy sorting them? As you grow your business will they support your site? Will they be able to give you full CMS and a database of products when you need it?
A basic database can be £25+ VAT with £10 for a domain name. Add on very basic hosting and that's the £50 gone, so your nephew won't want to be spending hours building and maintaining the site.
Yes, he can do it for less, but it doesn't mean we are going to match his price (we're here to make a living). And ultimiately, you get what you pay for.
First 'My nephew says he can do the website for £50'. Why is it always a nephew, and why always £50? This is the wrong attitude, but one often taken - and later regretted.
Your nephew could probably take you to the airport and back for cheaper than a local taxi, but when the trips become more frequent and waiting in the car park at 2:00am on a Saturday night means he's missing his evenings out, is he still going to be as keen?
He could probably also do your accounts for you for £50 - would you trust him to get them right?
Yes, friends and family might know the basics, but do they understand optimisation and how to get listed in Google by this time next week (not 6 - 8 weeks as most will say). When there are endless changes are they going to be happy sorting them? As you grow your business will they support your site? Will they be able to give you full CMS and a database of products when you need it?
A basic database can be £25+ VAT with £10 for a domain name. Add on very basic hosting and that's the £50 gone, so your nephew won't want to be spending hours building and maintaining the site.
Yes, he can do it for less, but it doesn't mean we are going to match his price (we're here to make a living). And ultimiately, you get what you pay for.
Sunday 17 February 2008
ia_archiver Not Wanted!
My first dabble into an e-commerce site for a customer was a couple of years ago, but the site is still up and running and a lot of the code is the basis for the new e-commerce sites I put in now. I've recently given the guy a much improved shopping basket and moved him over to a new database and then whilst I was on holiday, his site content vanished.
Luckily, having moved him to the new database I'd also left the copy on the old database so was able to restore most of the site - just a few days' changes for him to rerun. But I've been investigating why everything has been deleted.
Looking through his server archives, ia_archiver somehow managed to get into his admin system. Not sure how it found the admin system (presumably because one of the machines I've tested the admin changes on has the Alexa Toolbar installed) and no idea how it got through the password protection. But it fopund it's way to the category and item delete pages and called all of them.
Each of these is protected by checking the cookie at the top of the page and redirecting to the home page if not set. But either ia_archiver has managed to get hold of the password and set it's cookie, or the PHP redirect has been blocked and the code allowed to continue.
Fixes are needed! Late into the night last night I was changing every e-commerce site to add the admin pages to the blocked pages within the robots.txt file. And I'll have to review how the admin systems handle the cooke check (e.g. only sign onto database if cookie check is OK...). This site is also unlucky in that the items are listed with links next to them - on most of the e-commerce admin systems it's a dropdown box, which should also halt the search engines.
Lot's of work needed for me. What a lovelly job to get back to after my holiday!
Luckily, having moved him to the new database I'd also left the copy on the old database so was able to restore most of the site - just a few days' changes for him to rerun. But I've been investigating why everything has been deleted.
Looking through his server archives, ia_archiver somehow managed to get into his admin system. Not sure how it found the admin system (presumably because one of the machines I've tested the admin changes on has the Alexa Toolbar installed) and no idea how it got through the password protection. But it fopund it's way to the category and item delete pages and called all of them.
Each of these is protected by checking the cookie at the top of the page and redirecting to the home page if not set. But either ia_archiver has managed to get hold of the password and set it's cookie, or the PHP redirect has been blocked and the code allowed to continue.
Fixes are needed! Late into the night last night I was changing every e-commerce site to add the admin pages to the blocked pages within the robots.txt file. And I'll have to review how the admin systems handle the cooke check (e.g. only sign onto database if cookie check is OK...). This site is also unlucky in that the items are listed with links next to them - on most of the e-commerce admin systems it's a dropdown box, which should also halt the search engines.
Lot's of work needed for me. What a lovelly job to get back to after my holiday!
Saturday 16 February 2008
Make Sure You Do It Well...
Many people build their own websites and many do it well. But having just got back from a holiday, and having tried to find websites for local businesses before we went away, it was spelt out to me just how important it is to do the job properly.
And I'm not talking just about the look. A friendly site that doesn't look like it's cost a fortune is fine, but make sure that people can find it. We saw loads of places to rent whilst we were away and many advertised their website addresses. This is excellent marketing. Even better still would have been us being able to find their websites before we went, so that we could have booked with them.
It doesn't take much effort, but if you don't know what you are doing, get someone to do it for you. It can be well worth the investment.
And I'm not talking just about the look. A friendly site that doesn't look like it's cost a fortune is fine, but make sure that people can find it. We saw loads of places to rent whilst we were away and many advertised their website addresses. This is excellent marketing. Even better still would have been us being able to find their websites before we went, so that we could have booked with them.
It doesn't take much effort, but if you don't know what you are doing, get someone to do it for you. It can be well worth the investment.
Monday 11 February 2008
What Business Can Be Without A Website???
What business can afford to be without a website? My family were trying to find somewhere to learn horse ridding when on holiday. We searched the internet and nowhere was to be found. Only by a chance word of mouth did we find a really nice school.
No if anywhere had had a half decent website, we'd have booked them. The cost of the lessons so far would easily have paid for a 1 page website, even a full 5 page website would have been covered by the amount we've spent with them.
And we are only 1 customer!
Imagine that 52 weeks of the year.
Now go and get a decent website!
No if anywhere had had a half decent website, we'd have booked them. The cost of the lessons so far would easily have paid for a 1 page website, even a full 5 page website would have been covered by the amount we've spent with them.
And we are only 1 customer!
Imagine that 52 weeks of the year.
Now go and get a decent website!
Saturday 9 February 2008
Trust No-One???
One of my new customers, who's next site is almost ready to go live, obviously trusts no-one. And in my experience, he's right.
Maybe that's a bit of an exageration. But every image we create for the site has his logo somewhere on it. I'm not talking graphics that create the layout, I mean the pictures of products; pictures that form part of instructions; pictures to expand on the text. Every one of them has the logo - and a reminder when (as I often do) I forget.
But he's right. We're putting in time & effort taking pictures, cleaning them up and presenting them - and they look great. There are plenty of people out there who think that it's fine to trawl Google Images and copy every image they come across for their own sites.
What these people forget is that copyright does exist. You can't just copy images off someone's site - you need to ask permission. But the number of customers who pass images over and it turns out that's where they are from is amazing.
I suppose Google should create a new metatag that can be placed either in images or on the page that tells it not to index these images in Google images. Professional photographers and artists creating work to sell do find their work used on other sites, without thanks or payment.
I'm not blaming Google, but they have created a tool that makes people think that any image is fair game to copy. Maybe an option in return to opt out would be advisable.
Maybe that's a bit of an exageration. But every image we create for the site has his logo somewhere on it. I'm not talking graphics that create the layout, I mean the pictures of products; pictures that form part of instructions; pictures to expand on the text. Every one of them has the logo - and a reminder when (as I often do) I forget.
But he's right. We're putting in time & effort taking pictures, cleaning them up and presenting them - and they look great. There are plenty of people out there who think that it's fine to trawl Google Images and copy every image they come across for their own sites.
What these people forget is that copyright does exist. You can't just copy images off someone's site - you need to ask permission. But the number of customers who pass images over and it turns out that's where they are from is amazing.
I suppose Google should create a new metatag that can be placed either in images or on the page that tells it not to index these images in Google images. Professional photographers and artists creating work to sell do find their work used on other sites, without thanks or payment.
I'm not blaming Google, but they have created a tool that makes people think that any image is fair game to copy. Maybe an option in return to opt out would be advisable.
Friday 8 February 2008
Trying The Duplicate Content Filter
I worry a lot that somewhere along the line someone has pinched my text on the Mortgage Rates Site and that's why it's suddenly dropped. So I'm adding a little something to my SEO Experiment.
Teo days ago I posted the same article to all three experimental blogs. I've posted a further article to each since then. I'm wondering which, if any of the three, will appear in the Google cache when I search on parts of the text.
I've just tried "What a lovely laid back tourist spot, fishing boats" and that returned the second site. The one with a PR3 home page. Now that could be the only one Google has so far cached, so I'll need to leave it a few days to make sure both of the other sites have been cached. But it's something else to watch.
Teo days ago I posted the same article to all three experimental blogs. I've posted a further article to each since then. I'm wondering which, if any of the three, will appear in the Google cache when I search on parts of the text.
I've just tried "What a lovely laid back tourist spot, fishing boats" and that returned the second site. The one with a PR3 home page. Now that could be the only one Google has so far cached, so I'll need to leave it a few days to make sure both of the other sites have been cached. But it's something else to watch.
Thursday 7 February 2008
Google Duplicate Content Filter
I made an interesting observation yesterday about the Google Duplicate Content Filter with a set of new sites. It's a long story - hold in there!
A new customer came to me to develop his suite of sites. He already had the URLs and had published the corporate site (GFS) and all of the other sites had holding pages. He wanted some layout and text changes to GFS so we got them in first and published them. But he wasn't happy with the suite of holding pages. These showed the sites would be ready months ago and were linked to from the GFS site and mentioned in literature. Rather than give a poor impression, the corporate site was copied to all of the other URLs.
So we've got several versions of the same site on different URLs. All of the URLs had already been cached and had Google Page Rank 0. So what would happen?
Step forward a few weeks to Monday and I published the first of the ecommerce sites (MPL Direct). Fine, that's now not duplicated.
For some strange reason, one that I can't remember, I was looking at the search results of the sites late yesterday. And I noticed that only 1 version of the corporate site is now published, even though there are loads about. Quite interestingly, it's the copy on the MPL Direct site. So even though a lot of the text didn't change or changed only a little on the GFS site, that site has been removed as duplicated in favour of the site that's only just had the content published. None of the other sites are cached.
The other twist in the tail is that by luck, it's the first site that we've gone live with. So as soon as Google visits that site, it will now no longer count that sie as duplicate to the rest of the suite. Will that mean that one of the others suddenly takes the role of lead site according to Google?
No idea why this one was chosen as the favourite. GFS had the text, or nearly the same text, for months before. GFS was registered long before MPL, which was registered in a batch of sites. Both have PR0, but GFS has 6 pages PR0, MPL Direct just the 1 page.
The strange think is, another URL is appearing as favourite today - one that I haven't yet been given control of, but one with a copy of the original GFS site.
Something to watch for anyway.But the moral of the story is that if you think buying multiple URLs to increase your traffic, make sure they do all have unique content.
A new customer came to me to develop his suite of sites. He already had the URLs and had published the corporate site (GFS) and all of the other sites had holding pages. He wanted some layout and text changes to GFS so we got them in first and published them. But he wasn't happy with the suite of holding pages. These showed the sites would be ready months ago and were linked to from the GFS site and mentioned in literature. Rather than give a poor impression, the corporate site was copied to all of the other URLs.
So we've got several versions of the same site on different URLs. All of the URLs had already been cached and had Google Page Rank 0. So what would happen?
Step forward a few weeks to Monday and I published the first of the ecommerce sites (MPL Direct). Fine, that's now not duplicated.
For some strange reason, one that I can't remember, I was looking at the search results of the sites late yesterday. And I noticed that only 1 version of the corporate site is now published, even though there are loads about. Quite interestingly, it's the copy on the MPL Direct site. So even though a lot of the text didn't change or changed only a little on the GFS site, that site has been removed as duplicated in favour of the site that's only just had the content published. None of the other sites are cached.
The other twist in the tail is that by luck, it's the first site that we've gone live with. So as soon as Google visits that site, it will now no longer count that sie as duplicate to the rest of the suite. Will that mean that one of the others suddenly takes the role of lead site according to Google?
No idea why this one was chosen as the favourite. GFS had the text, or nearly the same text, for months before. GFS was registered long before MPL, which was registered in a batch of sites. Both have PR0, but GFS has 6 pages PR0, MPL Direct just the 1 page.
The strange think is, another URL is appearing as favourite today - one that I haven't yet been given control of, but one with a copy of the original GFS site.
Something to watch for anyway.But the moral of the story is that if you think buying multiple URLs to increase your traffic, make sure they do all have unique content.
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Give A Freebie or Two...
We all like receiving free gifts, services and the likes, but do we like giving them? I've talked no end about promotional gifts over on that blog, but do such gifts always have to be tangible items?
Recently a customer has been struggling with his shopping site. Most items have a standard postage rate and PayPal was able to handle these perfectly. But some are heavy and bulky and cost almost 10 times the price to post. He couldn't code this into PayPal so asked for help.
The only solution was to write a customised shopping basket, in which he could also tie in the associated costs for particular items. Now this involved a few hours' work to get it going then odd hours to test and implement it. Maybe a day's work in total?
But he'd made it clear that his business couldn't afford a huge payout for any changes. That didn't matter. I could see that the custom basket could be used for other customers as well. With only slight modifications each time, everyone can have their own basket which links into whatever payment provider (or providers) they want.
I saw this as a potential opportunity. So I told him there would be no charge for the days' work - totally free.
Now he's delighted with me - first orders came through almost straight after the basket went live and it all runs smoothly. His business is running better and if he needs a new site or anyone asks him for a recommendation, hopefully I've just made sure I'm his first port of call!
But I've also taken something away with me with the shopping basket. I've developed a useful tool that I can quickly put into other sites (and in fact have done so). It wouldn't have been fiar therefore to charge him the development costs.
So we're both pleased. Hopefully it will help his business strengthen, and in a year or so he'll be back for a bigger & better site!
Recently a customer has been struggling with his shopping site. Most items have a standard postage rate and PayPal was able to handle these perfectly. But some are heavy and bulky and cost almost 10 times the price to post. He couldn't code this into PayPal so asked for help.
The only solution was to write a customised shopping basket, in which he could also tie in the associated costs for particular items. Now this involved a few hours' work to get it going then odd hours to test and implement it. Maybe a day's work in total?
But he'd made it clear that his business couldn't afford a huge payout for any changes. That didn't matter. I could see that the custom basket could be used for other customers as well. With only slight modifications each time, everyone can have their own basket which links into whatever payment provider (or providers) they want.
I saw this as a potential opportunity. So I told him there would be no charge for the days' work - totally free.
Now he's delighted with me - first orders came through almost straight after the basket went live and it all runs smoothly. His business is running better and if he needs a new site or anyone asks him for a recommendation, hopefully I've just made sure I'm his first port of call!
But I've also taken something away with me with the shopping basket. I've developed a useful tool that I can quickly put into other sites (and in fact have done so). It wouldn't have been fiar therefore to charge him the development costs.
So we're both pleased. Hopefully it will help his business strengthen, and in a year or so he'll be back for a bigger & better site!
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Editing Videos
I'm currently struggling with a few short video clips. Whatever I try, they go wrong. The customer is getting really annoyed having 'paid a small fortune' for the website and with advertising going live in a couple of days. Actually, £275 for a website, with bought in photography and 3 video clips to edit, is a really good price!
The problem is that the videos are 1 hour long DVDs and I'm having to extract a 60 second clip from each, then convert them to wmv from mpeg so that they are downloaded in a reasonable time (the £70 per year for media streaming being too much).
Each mpeg is about 12 - 14 mb - imaging trying to download that over a slow connection! So I'm converting the mpegs to wmv files using a tool I've used a few times before, but for some unexplained reason, the conversion process keeps dropping the sound.
So I separated the sound track from the video track and dropped that in on it's own. Tested first video - wonderful. Did the other 2, quick listen to make sure sound is there and loaded them to the website.
But on the second to conversions the original sound track had carried over! So because I was a fraction of a second out from where I had dropped in the sound track, the entire track echoed!
This time (and each attempt is taking a while) I've removed the sound from the original whilst dropping the separated track into the audio stream.
The things I do to make customers happy - and earn a little bit of cash! He's definitely had good value for money out of my time on this project.
The problem is that the videos are 1 hour long DVDs and I'm having to extract a 60 second clip from each, then convert them to wmv from mpeg so that they are downloaded in a reasonable time (the £70 per year for media streaming being too much).
Each mpeg is about 12 - 14 mb - imaging trying to download that over a slow connection! So I'm converting the mpegs to wmv files using a tool I've used a few times before, but for some unexplained reason, the conversion process keeps dropping the sound.
So I separated the sound track from the video track and dropped that in on it's own. Tested first video - wonderful. Did the other 2, quick listen to make sure sound is there and loaded them to the website.
But on the second to conversions the original sound track had carried over! So because I was a fraction of a second out from where I had dropped in the sound track, the entire track echoed!
This time (and each attempt is taking a while) I've removed the sound from the original whilst dropping the separated track into the audio stream.
The things I do to make customers happy - and earn a little bit of cash! He's definitely had good value for money out of my time on this project.
Monday 4 February 2008
Earning Online
I'm sometimes approached by people wanting to earn extra cash online. Some arrive with the view that if they pay me £300 for a single website, then they will be able to retire and just watch it's earnings arriving every month. Maybe, if they have a really special idea and are willing to put work into it, but I've had people approach me like this with 'I want a mobile phone site' or 'I want a travel site' as their idea and no intention of putting any work into it.
Yes, both of these ideas work - with suitable input. I was able to give them ideas for how to make the sites work, but these fell on deaf ideas. A site won't just make you a constant line of income, no matter how well search engine optimised it is.
Any idea takes some input from the owner to allow it to sit there, tick over and earn an income. Whether it's blogging, article writing or just links building, some effort is always required.
If that wasn't the case - would I be building the sites and selling them for £300? No, I'd build half a dozen and sit back myself and watch the cash roll in! I do have a couple of sites that work for me like that and need time and effort - the Compare Mortgage Rates and Holiday Cottages sites being the main two.
But to earn online doesn't just involve websites. Some use affiliate selling, other people use surveys (I've done this one, but just don't have the time at the moment). There are so many of these ideas that I've decided to document them separately - so keep an eye on my Earn Cash Online Blog to see what's going on there.
Yes, both of these ideas work - with suitable input. I was able to give them ideas for how to make the sites work, but these fell on deaf ideas. A site won't just make you a constant line of income, no matter how well search engine optimised it is.
Any idea takes some input from the owner to allow it to sit there, tick over and earn an income. Whether it's blogging, article writing or just links building, some effort is always required.
If that wasn't the case - would I be building the sites and selling them for £300? No, I'd build half a dozen and sit back myself and watch the cash roll in! I do have a couple of sites that work for me like that and need time and effort - the Compare Mortgage Rates and Holiday Cottages sites being the main two.
But to earn online doesn't just involve websites. Some use affiliate selling, other people use surveys (I've done this one, but just don't have the time at the moment). There are so many of these ideas that I've decided to document them separately - so keep an eye on my Earn Cash Online Blog to see what's going on there.
Sunday 3 February 2008
Take Every Opportunity
18 months ago I was contacted by a potential client asking if I could do a simple, 1 page site for her. I gave her my standard quote and she was a little disappointed - I'm not exactly expensive, but it was still double her budget.
My workload wasn't prohibitive, but wasn't quiet and she sounded easy to please, and I guessed that I could get the majority of the site done that day, using a template. So we struck a deal for my lowest priced site (ever).
She was easy to please and the site does look good. After registering a URL there wasn't a great deal of money in the build, not even enough to buy a case of cheap wine. But do I regret it?
Well the day in question I was waiting on other customers getting back to me, so I had the time to work on her site. I was able to fit her site in without affecting other work, so a few quid profit was just that - a small profit.
But since then, she's been back for another small site (at a similar price) and then a bigger site (at more realistic price) and she's preparing the text for a 4th site. A good customer! What's more, she referred another customer to me, who I would never have been introduced to without her, who had a site at full price. And then she came back with a second site.
The original customer has now referred a second friend to me, for another small site. Not sure how big yet, but if it comes off that's another success.
So was it worth doing a very knocked down price in the first place? Well with this network of friends passing me further work then definitely. Maybe if I'd been very busy or she'd been a fussy customer then I might have felt different, but my always accepting every offer of work has paid off here.
My workload wasn't prohibitive, but wasn't quiet and she sounded easy to please, and I guessed that I could get the majority of the site done that day, using a template. So we struck a deal for my lowest priced site (ever).
She was easy to please and the site does look good. After registering a URL there wasn't a great deal of money in the build, not even enough to buy a case of cheap wine. But do I regret it?
Well the day in question I was waiting on other customers getting back to me, so I had the time to work on her site. I was able to fit her site in without affecting other work, so a few quid profit was just that - a small profit.
But since then, she's been back for another small site (at a similar price) and then a bigger site (at more realistic price) and she's preparing the text for a 4th site. A good customer! What's more, she referred another customer to me, who I would never have been introduced to without her, who had a site at full price. And then she came back with a second site.
The original customer has now referred a second friend to me, for another small site. Not sure how big yet, but if it comes off that's another success.
So was it worth doing a very knocked down price in the first place? Well with this network of friends passing me further work then definitely. Maybe if I'd been very busy or she'd been a fussy customer then I might have felt different, but my always accepting every offer of work has paid off here.
Saturday 2 February 2008
Monthly Submitting To Search Engines
I was with a new customer yesterday, who's site is about to go live. He's had bad experiences with 3 web designers before me, who have basically taken him for a ride whilst costing a lot of money and leaving him nothing. He'd all but given up on web designers when he contacted me, that bad was his experience. In fact, had I asked for a deposit he would have walked away, but I've never done that!
But he was asking me questions based on what the other guys have talked to him about and he asked me how did I submit sites to search engines each month. Each month??? I never submit a site to a search engine even once. My record from registering a URL to it being found by genuine new customers is about 4 days - it was registered & published Monday afternoon and when I checked the server logs the next day, Google had visited. I checked Google on Thursday and it was listed and over the weekend the customer emailed me to say how many people had contacted her after finding the site.
Yet I have never once submitted that site to any search engine. The new customer also said yesterday that he'd been told it would be at least 6 months before the site was listed on Google. I wondered what sort of people he had been dealing with - they have charged him more than I am going to, and I've produced the sites for him...
If your web designer can't get sites listed in Google in a couple of weeks and says it will take 6 months to get a site listed, then they don't know their business.
But he was asking me questions based on what the other guys have talked to him about and he asked me how did I submit sites to search engines each month. Each month??? I never submit a site to a search engine even once. My record from registering a URL to it being found by genuine new customers is about 4 days - it was registered & published Monday afternoon and when I checked the server logs the next day, Google had visited. I checked Google on Thursday and it was listed and over the weekend the customer emailed me to say how many people had contacted her after finding the site.
Yet I have never once submitted that site to any search engine. The new customer also said yesterday that he'd been told it would be at least 6 months before the site was listed on Google. I wondered what sort of people he had been dealing with - they have charged him more than I am going to, and I've produced the sites for him...
If your web designer can't get sites listed in Google in a couple of weeks and says it will take 6 months to get a site listed, then they don't know their business.
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