Internet Business

User & Search Engine Friendly Web Development

Since search engines are the most important source of traffic on the Internet, this section is pretty much focused on search engine optimization (SEO). Most developers and designers lack knowledge about SEO. They deliver a perfectly coded Web site, then a SEO expert tweaks and maintains it, because perfect code is rarely search engine friendly.
Optimizing this outdated business process can save a lot of time and money. Web delevopers and designers understanding the basics of SEO will develop search engine friendly Web sites. Our articles provide the basic SEO knowledge for Web designers and developers. Additionally we offer remote support and on-site coaching.

Browse by topic

Content Index

Google Sitemaps Information Center

The Google Sitemaps Info Center provides you with a full blown roundup of Google's Sitemap program from a site owner's perspective. Your Webmasters get everything they need to make your Google Sitemaps implementation a great success: free tools, tutorials and guides, source code examples, search engine optimization (SEO) tips and search engine (SE) knowledge.

Don't miss out on the Google Sitemaps Team Interview! Googlers from the Sitemaps team and Matt Cutts hand out great technical advice, that's a must-read for Webmasters!

Anatomy and Deployment of Links

This tutorial explains hyperlinks to Web developers. After defining the class Link and its implementations natural link and artificial link, the anatomy of a link gets expressed with various syntax examples. The primary focus is a description of the power of links, and how to get the most out of natural linking. Clever and prominent linking makes the user friendliness of a Web site. High sophisticated linkage extends the value of natural links with regard to search engine placements. Many aspects of internal and outgoing linkage are covered, including the amplification of internal linking by external inbound links, and tips on building an authority status with outbound links.

How to Make Use of Google SiteMaps

In June 2005, Google® has launched a service called Google® SiteMaps to optimize Googlebot's web site crawling. It allows webmasters to submit new/modified URLs to Google's spider Googlebot. Google SiteMap submissions have no impact on rankings on Google's SERPs nor will they influence PageRank™ calculations, but most probably they will help webmasters to get their new stuff crawled by Googlebot faster than before. Although we can't predict how or how much this new service, which is still in BETA state, will help site owners, we tell you how to make use of Google SiteMaps. [Update July 2005: It works like a charm. It even works better than expected. It improves search engine visibility to a great degree, as long as webmasters care what they submit to Google.]

Ten Steps to Your Successful Web Site

This 10-steps checklist is a compressive guide for everyone who considers a first step into the Internet business. Following this tutorial, the future Web site owner should be able to establish an authoritative place on the Internet, which attracts a fair amount of highly targeted and 'converting' search engine traffic.

Search Engine Friendly Cloaking

Search engines appreciate helpful cloaking, notwithstanding their 'Do no cloak' policies. This article discusses what kind of cloaking is tolerated by the engines, and provides a tiny guide to white hat cloaking for spider-friendliness.

Steering and Supporting Search Engine Crawling

Since Google launched the sitemap protocol in June 2005, webmasters and search engine optimizers have to rethink their dealing with search engine crawlers. Assuming Google will remove the sitemap protocol's 'beta' label faster than from it's search engine, this article tries to give web site owners an idea where to place Google sitemaps in their toolset. To define the playground, this article starts as a tutorial on supporting and steering search engine crawlers.

About RSS-Feeds and Search Engine Optimizing (SEO)

As making use of RSS feeds becomes more and more popular, most webmasters are clueless about the role of RSS feeds in their search engine marketing strategy. This article discusses two use cases of RSS feeds: publishing syndicated content in the context of search engines filtering duplicate content, and a creative, but labour intensive way to build a stable and targeted stream of traffic using RSS feeds.

Web Log Archive

Selected blog posts on search engine friendly Web development and other topics, some of them scraped from Sebastian's Pamphlets. Subscribe to the feed to get alerted on new posts:
http://www.smart-it-consulting.com/article-feed.rss?node=148

SEO is dead - Long live SEO!

Webmasters and search engine optimizers tend to discuss Google updates to death, trying to extrapolate supposed changes in Google's ranking algorithm from selfish rants of disappointed site owners. Every major update results in thousands of posts. 99.99% of them are totally pointless. GoogleGuy fills the 0.01% trying to set the records straight, usually vainly. Savvy oldtimers ignore this waste of time and space, but -unexplainably and surely not driven by common sense- zillions of webmasters do make changes based on assumptions in these soap operas. After Google's bourbon update (May/June 2005) Liane wrote this great call for rationality.

Entscheidungshilfen zur Strukturierung der Internetpräsenz

Dieser kurze Leitfaden fasst die ersten Schritte in ein komplexes Internet-Projekt für Entscheider zusammen. Strategische Internetprojekte sind kostenintensiv, und der potentielle Nutzen ist oft nur sehr vage schätzbar. Als Checkliste verwendet, sollte die Abarbeitung der Planungsschritte zu einer realistischen Entscheidungsvorlage führen.

Search Engine Watch

Search Engine Watch alerts you to any major story posted on Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Watch home page. These are primarily articles that have run in SearchDay.

World Wide Web Consortium News

Frequently updated links leading to W3C announcements.

Ezine Articles on Search Engine Optimization

Links to articles on search engine optimization (SEO) recently published by EzineArticles.com.

ZDNet News on Web Technology

Daily ZDNet Web Technology News.

Internet Development Bookmarks

A short list of web development tools and resources.

Webmaster Resources

A short list of Webmaster resources.

OffSite Links

How to be Number ONE In Your Niche

Priya Shah wrote this great on-line book on natural search engine optimization, explaining even pretty complex SEO stuff understandable to web site owners. A webmaster or site owner learns step by step how to design and advertise a niched web site in a way to attract a valuable amount of hightly targeted search engine traffic. There will still be enough work left for a professional SEO, but this book can save a lot of SEO fees. Search engine experts like David Leonhardt and Jim Edwards recommend Priya's eBook, and so do we. Click here to download Number ONE In Your Niche.

Aaron Wall's SEO-Book

Aaron Wall's only current SEO Book on the planet is an up to date 120 page ebook available for your immediate download for only $79. Aaron updates his ebook frequently, subscribers get all updates free of charge, also he offers a 90 day 100% money back guarantee. So far the commercial call for action.
Here is our recommendation: Aaron's SEO Book is well worth $79 and more, the updates alone are priceless. He wrote a comprehensive guide on search engine optimization, packed with a bunch of search engine specific information, examples, and easy to understand explanations. Even experienced search engine experts will find a lot of great stuff to study with interest.

Why Cool URL s Don't Change

When it comes to content reachability, this is the philosophy of many webmasters and even more web designers: "... I really don't give a dead rats ass if you find my stuff or not. I didn't make my web pages with you bookmarkers and search engine users in mind. I prefer ugly 20 feet URLs hidden in onWhatever() JavaScript events, containing at least a dozen PHP session IDs. I rotate my navigation script each hour to increase my site's freshness ...".
Overstated? Nope. Even experienced webmasters and web designers do act thoughtlessly when changing web site structures. The W3C article 'Cool URIs Don't Change' points out why a URL -once used- has to be set in stone. Summary:
What makes a cool URI?
A cool URI is one which does not change.
What sorts of URI change?
URIs don't change: silly people change them.
Claus Schmidt on the other hand says that changing URIs is cool, as long as you redirect properly.

What's the best Search Blog out there?

Besides Danny Sullivan, Threadwatch, and this site --at least sometimes-- the one and only reputable source of search engine news is Chris' and Gurtie's Gray Hat Search Engine News (GHN). GHN tracks search seriously, that is they omit all fun one may have with Web search. For example when a major search engine fails to meet the basic criteria of what you and me think is common sense in Web search, they will post an analysis which reads dull as dust. GHN hates rumors, speculations, and humor. They post the sheer facts and only the facts. So, if you'd like to get search tracked for you in a serious manner, with no efforts involved (like bothering you with links instead of quotes), subscribe to the best search blog out there: GHN.